Rossini was now bringing his operas to a brilliant termination, and beginning to emphasize the alto and mezzo voice. It was only toward the end of his Italian career in "Matilda di Shubrun" that he assigned the leading part to a soprano. We find now that there are no leading parts written for contralto and whether this is due the fact that the soprano has bean forced into activity to suit new tastes, or because contraltos are rare, we can not say. Of course Meyerbeer's "L'Africaine" and Donnizetti's "La Favorita" are exceptions. The orchestration of "La Gazza Ladrone" is more brilliant and sonorous than that of its predecessors and introduces new instruments, new combinations, a new distribution of voice parts, and of orchestral melodies with declamatory phrases for the singers instead of the endless recitative accompanied only by chords for the cellos or piano. He introduced cornets and ophicleides in the overture to "William Tell", as the nearest approach to the actual instruments used by the cowherders of Switzerland. In "Semiramide" he brought an entire band onto the stage and wrote beautifully harmonized music which suggests the chase. He began the overture to "La Gazza Ladrona" with a duet for the drums, and did away with the extemporaneous attempts at orchestration by solo instrumentalists in the accompaniment, who were every bit as disagreeable and authoritative os the vocal soloists. Berlioz charged that Rossini's music was heartless, unemotional and written entirely for the singer, utterly disregarding the vocal effect. His particular attention to orchestral and choral effects may be traced to the Parisian influence of his fine experience in hearing their choruses and orchestras. His music changed from the soft voluptuous melodies of "Semiramide" to simple emotional dramatic ones in "William Tell". Rossini, as mentioned before, was the first Italian to accompany recitative with a full band, assign leading parts to the bass, make each dramatic scene one continuous piece of music, and bring to perfection the highly varied, amply developed, concerted finales.