CHERUBINI and CONSTABLE...Finding the Fantastical through the Natural
Liugi Cherubini was a a greatly feted composer in his day,(1760-1842).In fact he was Beethoven's favorite composer.Posterity is arbitrary,largely because it is based on the whim and biases of the ensuing generations.Perhaps Luigi should most be remembered for his sacred music,but many other of his achievements are outstanding and worthy of an new reevaluation.On this page movements from Luigi's 6 quartets are featured as performed by Hausmusik of London.These quartets are not singular for their harmonic,contrapuntal,and or their boldly innovative character.Rather they have some far better than any of those or any combination of those could recommend...that of rhetorical genius.Indeed it is this salient quality which is 1st,2nd,and 3rd place in importance over any other qualities in any composition.In the technique of rhetoric the composer must invent an endless variey of interesting motifs and connect them in a way that make them compelling and engrossing Episodes.Luigi has this quality equal or beyond Beethoven and Schubert...and vastly beyond Haydn or Mozart in the chamber medium.What can make Luigi difficult for this generation...and indeed the last 4 or 5...is that we are fundamentally happy and bored with our happiness.Therefore in our music we look for freakishness and melancholy.Whether it is the overly Contrapuntalized boredoms of J.S.Bach or the endless melancholy of Chopin or Tchaikovsky or the endlessy burdensome raising of the fists to the sky of Beethoven we look to these composers to lift us out of our bourgeois doldrums and intrique us by their supernatural worlds.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Luigi Cherubini lived in an era that had regular death and tragedy on personal levels that fortunately none of us will likely ever know.And while they certainly enjoyed their melancholy in their poetic arts,there was a much greater degree of interest in music that could only be descibed as natural,whimsical,charming,graceful,elegant,jocose,lugubrious,and conversational...all qualities in which our society is not greatly interested.These are Luigi's greatest strengths...None of these quartet movements will hit you with a force,for that is not their nature.Rather they shall invite you gently in and intrigue you(that is... if you could be intrigued by the conversation of birds and butterflies.) For that reason I have teamed Luigi's music with his Contemporary John Constable...whose paintings seem to speak of this same quiet vanished Arcadia as a state of mind and as an aesthetic paradigm.I have never heard a composer so inventive in Rhetoric as Luigi,The phrase architecture and episodic sequence is tremendously rich in free-flowing intrinsic organicity.And it is Luigi's use of the lead violin to represent the Hero and the remaining 3 instruments to represent the terrain and circumstances that also set this apart as normally we hear quartets of the Germanic models which do not like this arrangement.
Luigi Cherubini (Firenze, 14 settembre 1760 – Parigi, 15 marzo 1842) è stato un compositore italiano di fama internazionale.
Compiuti gli studi a Bologna e a Milano, iniziò ancora molto giovane a comporre musica sacra. Fu autore di numerose opere liriche prima di stabilirsi a Parigi nel 1788, dove entrò a far parte del nuovo Conservatorio, che diresse poi dal 1821 al 1841.
Le sue composizioni, in stile classico, mostrano una grande padronanza del contrappunto. Nel 1808 compose la sua maggiore opera per musica da chiesa, la Messa Solenne in fa maggiore in tre parti. Altre composizioni di musica sacra comprendono il Credo a 8 voci e organo del 1808, la Messa in do maggiore (1816) e i Requiem in do minore (1816) e in re minore (1836).
Tra le numerose altre composizioni di Cherubini - che tra il 1773 e il 1835 scrisse la musica per oltre trenta opere teatrali - si ricordano le opere liriche Lodoïska (1791), Medea e Les deux journées (1800), oltre a mottetti, cantate e quartetti per archi.
Il suo trattato "Cours de contrepoint et de la fugue" (1835), venne pubblicato a cura del compositore francese Jacques Halévy.
Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Maria Cherubini (* 14. September 1760 in Florenz; † 15. März 1842 in Paris) war ein italienischer Komponist.
Obwohl seine Musik heutzutage nicht sehr bekannt ist, wurde Cherubini von seinen Zeitgenossen sehr bewundert. Beethoven betrachtete ihn als einen der größten dramatischen Komponisten seiner Zeit
Seine Musikerziehung begann im Alter von sechs Jahren durch seinen Vater, der selbst Musiker war. Im Alter von 13 Jahren hatte Luigi Cherubini mehrere geistliche Werke komponiert. Er studierte an der Universität Bologna und von 1778 bis 1782 an der Universität Mailand bei Giuseppe Sarti. 1788 zog er nach Paris um.
In den Jahren in Paris arbeitete er zeitweise erfolgreich als Opernkomponist. Sein erster größerer Erfolg war die Oper Lodoïska (1791), für deren realistischen Heroismus er bewundert wurde. Es folgte die auf revolutionären Prinzipien fußende Schreckensoper Médée (1797), Cherubinis bekanntestes Werk, und Les deux journées ou Le porteur d'eau (1800, Der Wasserträger). Seine Werke wurden im kleinen Theatre de la Foire Saint-Germain aufgeführt, da ihm das größere Opernhaus verschlossen war. Sein Idealismus, seine künstlerische Unabhängigkeit, vor allem aber die Strenge und der vornehme Charakter seiner Musik bewahrten ihn davor, bei seinen Zeitgenossen populär zu werden. Als er 1795 Inspektor am Pariser Konservatorium wurde, war seine finanzielle Situation erträglich.
1805 erhielt Cherubini eine Einladung aus Wien, eine Oper zu schreiben und sie auch selbst aufzuführen. Faniska wurde im folgenden Jahr auf die Bühne gebracht und enthusiastisch gefeiert, vor allem von Haydn und Beethoven. 1810 schlug Nikolaus II. Fürst Esterházy Cherubini in Paris vor, sein persönlicher Kapellmeister und damit Nachfolger des im Vorjahr verstorbenen Haydn zu werden. Nach der Abreise des Fürsten komponierte Cherubini die monumentale Messe solenelle per il Principe Esterházy d-Moll, die er am 7. Oktober 1811 vollendete. Vermutlich aufgrund finanzieller Probleme zog der Fürst sein Angebot später jedoch zurück.
Enttäuscht vom mangelnden Erfolg am Theater wandte sich Cherubini in zunehmendem Maße der Kirchenmusik zu. Er schrieb sieben Messen, zwei Requiems und viele kürzere Werke. In der restaurierten französischen Monarchie wurde er 1816 zum Professor für Komposition und Surintendant de la musique du Roi ernannt. 1815 bestellte die London Philharmonic Society bei ihm eine Sinfonie, eine Ouverture und eine Komposition für Chor und Orchester, sowie die dazu gehörenden Aufführungen in London, was seinem internationalen Ruhm zugute kam.
Eine Sonderstellung in Cherubinis Schaffen nimmt die Kammermusik ein, der er sich ohne erkennbaren äußeren Anlass zuwandte. 1814, in der Phase der Neuorientierung des Meisters von der Opernbühne weg, entstand sein erstes Streichquartett, das vor allem durch sein fandangoartiges Scherzo bekannt geworden ist und von Robert Schumann in dessen Neuer Zeitschrift für Musik wohlwollend besprochen wurde; 1829 ein zweites, in den Jahren 1834-37 schrieb er schließlich in kurzer Folge die restlichen vier Streichquartette und ein Streichquintett, dem nach Cherubinis Plan noch fünf weitere hätten folgen sollen. Alle diese Werke zeichnen sich durch ein Höchstmaß an Originalität und satztechnischer Finesse aus und bilden ein interessantes Gegengewicht zum Standard-Quartettrepertoire etwa der Wiener Klassik, vor allem Beethovens, dessen späten Quartetten sie an persönlicher Färbung des Ausdrucks und Experimentierfreude durchaus ebenbürtig sind.
Cherubinis Requiem c-Moll (1816), das an den Jahrestag der Hinrichtung Ludwigs XVI. erinnert, war ein großer Erfolg. Das Werk wurde von Beethoven, Schumann und Brahms sehr bewundert. 1822 wurde Cherubini Direktor des Konservatoriums, was er bis an sein Lebensende blieb. 1835 vollendete er sein Lehrbuch Cours de contrepoint et de fugue (Theorie des Kontrapunktes und der Fuge). Er starb in Paris im Alter von 81 Jahren.
Mit der Ankunft der brillanten und überschäumenden Opern von Rossini mit ihrer vokalen "Pyrotechnik" in Paris kam die streng klassische Oper Cherubinis, wie die von Gluck und Spontini, aus der Mode. Dennoch wird Médée gelegentlich aufgeführt, sofern eine Sängerin vorhanden ist, die die Rolle meistern kann. Die wohl berühmteste Wiederaufnahme im 20. Jahrhundert war 1953 in Florenz mit Maria Callas in der Titelrolle und Vittorio Gui am Pult. Eine weitere Cherubini-Oper, Les Abencérages, wurde 1957 auf Italienisch beim Maggio Musicale in Florenz unter dem Dirigat von Carlo Maria Giulini aufgeführt.
Cherubinis Requiem c-Moll wird ebenfalls gelegentlich gespielt. Am bekanntesten ist die Aufnahme mit dem NBC Symphony Orchestra unter Arturo Toscanini vom Februar 1950.Werke
6 Klaviersonaten
11 Messen
38 Motetten
Credo für zwei gemischte Chöre und B.C. (1806)
15 italienische Opern
eine der bekanntesten Médée
1788 Turin, Ifigenia in Aulide - Text: Ferdinando Moretti
14 französische Opern
1788 Paris, Démophoon - Text nach Pietro Metastasio v. Jean François Marmontel
1791 Paris, Lodoïska - Text: Claude François Filette-Louraux
1797 Paris, Médée - Text: François Benoît Hoffmann
1798 Paris, L'hôtelliere portugaise - Text: Étienne Aignan
1800 Paris, Les deux journées (Der Wasserträger) - Text: Jean Nicolas Bouilly
1803 Paris, Anacréon ou l'amour fugitif - Text: C. R. Mendouze
1806 Wien, deutsche Oper, Faniska - Text nach René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt von Joseph Sonnleithner
1813 Paris, Les Abencérages (Das Feldlager in Granada) - Text: Victor Joseph Étienne de Jouy
1833 Paris, Ali-Baba ou Les quarante voleurs - Text: Eugène Scribe und Anne Honoré Joseph Duveyrier, genannt Mélesville
2 Requiems
Requiem in c-Moll für gemischten Chor und Orchester
Requiem in d-Moll für Männerchor und Orchester
6 Streichquartette
1 Streichquintett
1 Sinfonie
9 Werke für Bläserbesetzungen
1794 Hymne à la Fraternité - Text: Theodore Désorgues
1795 Chant républicain du 10 août - Text: Charles Le Brun
1796 Ode sur le 18 fructidor - Text: François Guillaume Andrieux
1797 Hymne Funebre sur la mort du General Hoche - Text: Marie Josef Chénier
1798 La Salpêtre républicain
1799 Hymne pour la fête de la Jeunesse, 10 germinal - Text: Evariste de Parny
Hymne pour la Fête de la Reconnaissance - Text: Maherault
L'Hymne du Panthéon - Text: Marie Josef Chénier
Hymne à victoire - Text: Flins
Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini, plus connu sous le nom de Luigi Cherubini, est un compositeur italien, né le 14 septembre 1760 à Florence, mort le 15 mars 1842 à Paris.
Fils d'un célèbre claveciniste, il étudie à Bologne en 1778, puis à Milan, de 1778 à 1782, sous la direction de Giuseppe Sarti. C'est pendant cette période qu'il fait la connaissance du compositeur bohêmien Václav Pichl, maître de chapelle auprès de l'archiduc Ferdinand d'Este, gouverneur autrichien de la Lombardie.
En 1785, on donne deux de ses œuvres à Londres. En automne 1787, il est à Londres et est engagé par le roi. Il compose quelques morceaux pour le souverain, dont le King's Theatre.
Il s'installe en 1787 à Paris et il est nommé, en 1789, codirecteur du Théâtre de Monsieur, fonctions qu'il quitte en 1792.
En 1796, il est nommé inspecteur de l'enseignement au tout nouveau Conservatoire.
En 1816, il devient surintendant de la Chapelle de Louis XVIII.
Il retrouve le Conservatoire, où il exerce comme professeur de composition, avant d'en être nommé directeur en 1822. Il conserve cette fonction pendant vingt ans et ne l'abandonne que quelques semaines avant sa mort. Il a beaucoup contribué à réhausser la qualité de l'ensemble de la formation. Il a été actif dans l'organisation de manifestations publiques d'élèves, comme les exercices de musique et d'art dramatiques. Il a aussi permis la naissance de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. Il a également été franc-maçon, membre de la loge Saint-Jean de Palestine du Grand Orient de France.
Son décès donna lieu à des funérailles nationales, durant lesquelles fut joué son Requiem en ré mineur. Cherubini repose au cimetière du Père-Lachaise (division 11, section VII). Son tombeau a été conçu par l'architecte Achille Leclère et inclut notamment un buste du compositeur, surmonté d'un groupe sculpté d'Augustin Dumont représentant la Musique.
Luigi Carlo Zanobi Salvadore Maria Cherubini (Florence, 14 september 1760 — Parijs, 15 maart 1842) was een Italiaans componist en muziekpedagoog.
Als zoon van een theatermusicus — zijn vader bespeelde het klavecimbel in het Teatro della Pergola in Florence — kreeg hij zijn eerste muzieklessen van zijn vader. De talentvolle Cherubini kreeg zijn verdere opleiding bij Bartelomeo Felici, die ook zijn allereerste belangrijke werk, een mis, regisseerde en dirigeerde. De groothertog van Florence, de latere keizer Leopold II, stimuleerde het jonge talent, die zijn werkterrein in die periode in hoofdzaak beperkte tot religieuze werken. Later kreeg hij les van Giuseppe Sarti in Venetië, die hem bekend maakte met de polyfonie.
In 1778 verlegde hij zijn werkterrein naar de opera, zijn eerste werk Il Quinto Fabio (1780), werd de basis voor zijn succesvolle carrière als operacomponist. In 1784 ging Cherubini naar Londen, waar hij voor twee jaar aangesteld was als koninklijk hofcomponist. Daarna besloot hij zijn geluk in Parijs te beproeven en werd 1786 dirigent aan het kleine theater van koningin Marie Antoinette en werd getuige van grote politieke en maatschappelijke veranderingen, de Franse Revolutie. Dit drukte een stempel op zijn levensgevoel, alsmede op zijn muziek, en op de thema's en de vormgeving van zijn opera's. Door de Franse Revolutie was de traditie met de Italiaanse opera verbroken, waardoor de Franse opera zich, mede door Cherubini, zelfstandig verder ontwikkelde.
Hij genoot van het succes dat zijn opera's Médée (1797) en Les Deux Journées (1800) hadden en was tezamen met Gaspare Spontini het gezicht van de Franse theaterwereld. Ludwig van Beethoven was een groot bewonderaar van zijn composities, die zich onderscheidden door buitengewone orkestratie en verfijnde detaillering. Franz Schubert verklaarde Médée tot zijn favoriete opera en Johannes Brahms verklaarde zijn werk tot het absolute hoogtepunt van de klassieke muziek.
In 1795 nam hij het initiatief voor de oprichting van het Parijse conservatorium. Opdrachten van Europese operahuizen leidden hem weer naar het buitenland, totdat hij in 1816 een professoraat voor compositie aan het Parijse conservatorium kreeg en tevens daar van 1821-1842 de directie voerde. In de nadagen van zijn carrière verlegde hij zijn werkterrein weer tot de religieuze muziek en componeerde missen, motetten, beurtzangen etc.
Cherubini liet zich in 1842 door de Franse schilder Ingres portretteren. Het doek bevindt zich in de collectie van het Louvre in Parijs.
Мария Луиджи Карло Зенобио Сальваторе Керубини (итал. Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini; 14 сентября 1760, Флоренция — 15 марта 1842, Париж) — итальянский композитор и музыкальный теоретик.
Учился в Болонье у Джузеппе Сарти, сочинял с детства и к двадцати с небольшим годам успел не только написать довольно много церковной музыки, но и овладеть мастерством оперного композитора: его первая опера «Квинт Фабий» была поставлена уже в 1778 г. Вскоре после этого Керубини покинул Италию и надолго уже никогда в нее не возвращался. В 1784—1786 гг. он жил в Лондоне и был придворным композитором Георга III, а в 1788 г. окончательно обосновался в Париже. В 1795 г., с основанием Парижской консерватории, Керубини стал ее преподавателем, в 1816 г. профессором, в 1822 г. директором. Учениками Керубини по композиции были Даниэль Франсуа Обер, Фроманталь Галеви, он благословил совсем юного Феликса Мендельсона и предрёк ему большое будущее.
Среди опер Керубини наиболее успешными и до сих пор востребованными являются, прежде всего, «Медея» (фр. «Médée», 1797), «Два дня» (фр. «Les deux journées», 1800, в России под названием «Водовоз»), «Анакреон, или Мимолётная любовь» (фр. «Anacreon, ou L'Amour fugitif», 1803). Зрелые оперы Керубини далеко уходят от традиции лёгкой итальянской оперы в сторону музыкального драматизма Глюка. Среди духовной музыки Керубини особое место занимают два Реквиема, из которых первый (до минор, 1816, памяти Людовика XVI) был, по мнению Бетховена, лучшим сочинением этого жанра.
Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini (Florencia, 14 de septiembre de 1760 - París, 15 de marzo de 1842), más conocido como Luigi Cherubini, fue un compositor italiano
Su instrucción en la música comenzó a la edad de 6 años con su padre, clavecinista en el teatro de la Pergola de Florencia, y posteriormente con A. Felici. A la edad de 13 años, ya había escrito algunas obras religiosas. En 1778 estudia música en Bolonia y de 1778 a 1782 continua sus estudios en Milán bajo la dirección de Giuseppe Sarti.
En 1779 estrenó en Alessandria su primer melodrama, Quinto Fabio, y durante los años siguientes compuso para los teatros de Toscana, Roma, Venecia y Mantua. En 1789 se estableció en París, donde compuso varias óperas con escaso éxito, este le llegó en 1791 con Lodoïska, seguido de su trabajo más conocido mundialmente, Medea (1797) y de Les deux journées (1800).
En 1805, Cherubini recibió la invitación de Viena para escribir y dirigir una ópera, Fanista, que fue recibida con entusiasmo, en particular por Haydn y Beethoven. A su regreso de Austria, deprimido por su situación financiera, dejó la música para dedicarse a la pintura y a la botánica. En 1808 volvió a escribir, principalmente música religiosa, pero también compuso la ópera Les Abéncerages (1813) y empezó la serie de sus cuartetos para cuerda. En 1815 la Sociedad Filarmónica de Londres le encargó una sinfonía, una obertura y una composición para coro y orquesta, por lo que se desplazó a la capital inglesa, esto incrementó su fama internacional.
De regreso a París, la caída de Napoleón y la Restauración favorecieron su carrera, fue nombrado Superintendente de la Música del rey y director del Conservatorio (1822). Compuso una misa en 1825 para la coronación de Carlos X. Después de 1837 se dedicó casi exclusivamente a la enseñanza y entre sus alumnos tuvo a Auber y Halévy.
Murió en París a los 81 años y fue enterrado en el cementerio Père Lachaise (división 11, sección VII). Su tumba esta ideada por el arquitecto Achille Leclère e incluye un grupo escultórico titulado La música, presidido por un busto del compositor.
Su idealismo, su temperamento independiente y sobre todo el carácter austero y elevado de su música le impidieron alcanzar popularidad entre sus contemporáneos.
A mediados del siglo XX se revivieron algunas de sus obras, especialmente Médée (Medea), que fue reestrenada e interpretada por María Callas en 1953.
Luigi Cherubini (September 8 or September 14, 1760 – March 15, 1842) was an Italian born composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries
Cherubini was born Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini in Florence. There is uncertainty about his exact date of birth. Although September 14 is sometimes stated, evidence from baptismal records and Cherubini himself suggests the 8th is correct. Perhaps the strongest evidence is his first name, Maria, which is traditional for a child born on September 8th, feast-day of the Nativity of the Virgin. His Italian name appears most often in modern journals and on recordings. However, after 1790, he adopted the French version of his name, Marie-Louis-Charles-Zénobi-Salvador Cherubini, which appears in all extant documents that show his full name after that date.
His instruction in music began at the age of six with his father, Bartolomeo, maestro al cembalo ("Master of the harpsichord"). Considered a child prodigy, Cherubini studied counterpoint and dramatic style at an early age. By the time he was thirteen, he had composed several religious works. In 1780, he was awarded a scholarship by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to study music in Bologna and Milan.
Cherubini's early opera serias used libretti by Apostolo Zeno, Metastasio (Pietro Trapassi), and others that adhered closely to standard dramatic conventions. His music was strongly influenced by Niccolò Jommelli, Tommaso Traetta, and Antonio Sacchini who were the leading composers of the day. His only comic work, Lo sposo di tre e marito di nessuna, premiered at a Venetian theater in November 1783.
Feeling constrained by Italian traditions and eager to experiment, Cherubini traveled to London in 1785 where he produced two opera serias and an opera buffa for the King's Theater. In the same year, he made an excursion to Paris with his friend Gianbattista Viotti, who presented him to Marie Antoinette and Parisian society. He received an important commission to write Démophon to a French libretto by Jean-François Marmontel that would be his first tragédie en musique. Except for a brief return trip to London and to Turin for an opera seria commissioned by King of the House of Savoy, Cherubini spent the rest of his life in France.
Performances of Démophon were favorably received at the Grand Opéra in 1788. With Viotti's help, the Théâtre de Monsieur in the Tuileries appointed Cherubini as its director in 1789, and three years later, he advanced to the Théâtre Feydeau. This gave him the opportunity to read countless librettos and choose one that best suited his temperament. Cherubini's music began to show more originality and daring. His first major success here was Lodoïska (1791) which was admired for its realistic heroism. This was followed by Elisa (1794), set in the Swiss Alps, and Médée (1797), which is Cherubini's best known work. Les deux journées (1800), in which Cherubini simplified his style, was a popular success. These and other operas were premièred at the Théâtre Feydeau or the Opéra-Comique. Feeling financially secure, he married Anne Cécile Tourette in 1794 and began a family of three children.
The fallout from the French Revolution had a major affect on Cherubini to the end of his life. Politics forced him to hide his connections with the former aristocracy and seek governmental appointments. Napoléon found him too complex for his tastes, however, Cherubini wrote at least one patriotic work per year for more than a decade. He was appointed Napoléon's director of music in Vienna for part of 1805 and 1806, whereupon he conducted several of his works in that city.
After Les deux journées, Parisian audiences began to favor younger composers such as Boieldieu. Cherubini's opera-ballet Anacréon was an outright failure and most stage works after it did not achieve success. Faniska, produced in 1806, was an exception, receiving an enthusiastic response, in particular, by Haydn and Beethoven. Les Abencérages (1813), an heroic drama set in Spain during the last days of the Moorish kingdom of Granada, was Cherubini's attempt to compete with Spontini's La Vestale. It brought the composer critical praise but few performances.
Disappointed with his lack of acclaim in the theater, Cherubini turned increasingly to church music, writing seven masses, two requiems and many shorter pieces. During this period, he was also appointed surintendant de la musique du roi under the restored monarchy. (It was a position he held until the fall of the Bourbon Dynasty in the July Revolution of 1830.) The London Philharmonic Society commissioned him to write a symphony, an overture, and a composition for chorus and orchestra in 1815, the performances of which he went especially to London to conduct, increasing his international fame.
Cherubini's Requiem in C-minor (1816), commemorating the anniversary of the execution of King Louis XVI of France, was a huge success. The work was greatly admired by Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms. In 1836, Cherubini wrote a Requiem in D Minor to be performed at his own funeral. It is for male choir only, as the religious authorities had criticised his use of female voices in the earlier work.
Although chamber music does not make up a large portion of his output, what he did write was important. Wilhelm Altmann, writing in his Handbuch für Streichquartettspielers (Handbook for String Quartet Players) about Cherubini's six string quartets,states that they are first rate and regarded Nos. 1 and 3 as masterworks. His String Quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos is also considered a first rate work.
In 1822, Cherubini became director of the Conservatoire and completed his textbook, Cours de contrepoint et de fugue, in 1835. His role at the Conservatoire would bring him into conflict with the young Hector Berlioz, who went on to portray the old composer as a crotchety pedant in his memoirs. Some critics, such as Basil Deane, maintain that Berlioz's depiction has distorted Cherubini's image with posterity. There are many allusions to Cherubini's personal irritability among his contemporaries; Adolphe Adam wrote, "some maintain his temper was very even, because he was always angry". Nevertheless, Cherubini had many friends, including Rossini, Chopin and, above all, the artist Ingres. The two had mutual interests: Cherubini was a keen amateur painter and Ingres enjoyed practising the violin. In 1841, Ingres produced the most celebrated portrait of the old composer.
During his life, Cherubini received France's highest and most prestigious honors. These include Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (1814) and Membre de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts (1815). In 1841, he was made Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur, the first musician to receive that title.Cherubini died in Paris at age 81 and is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery. His tomb was designed by the architect Achille Leclère and includes a figure representing "Music" crowning a bust of the composer with a wreath by sculptor Augustin Dumont.
Auf Kieseln im Bache da lieg ich, wie helle!
Verbreite die Arme der kommenden Welle,
Und buhlerisch drückt sie die sehnende Brust;
Dann führt sie der Leichtsinn im Strome danieder,
Da naht sich die zweite, sie streichelt mich wieder;
So fühl ich die Freuden der wechselnden Lust.
Und doch, und so traurig, verschleifst du vergebens
Die köstlichen Stunden des eilenden Lebens,
Weil dich das geliebteste Mädchen vergißt!
O ruf sie zurücke, die vorigen Zeiten!
Es küßt sich so süße die Lippe der Zweiten,
Als kaum sich die Lippe der Ersten geküßt.
The stones in the streamlet I make my bright pillow,
And open my arms to the swift-rolling billow,
That lovingly hastens to fall on my breast.
Then fickleness soon bids it onwards be flowing;
A second draws nigh, its caresses bestowing,--
And so by a twofold enjoyment I'm blest.
And yet thou art trailing in sorrow and sadness
The moments that life, as it flies, gave for gladness,
Because by thy love thou'rt remember'd no more!
Oh, call back to mind former days and their blisses!
The lips of the second will give as sweet kisses
As any the lips of the first gave before!
O voi che per la via d'Amor passate,
attendete e guardate
s'elli è dolore alcun, quanto 'l mio, grave;
e prego sol ch'audir mi sofferiate,
e poi imaginate
s'io son d'ogni tormento ostale e chiave.
Amor, non già per mia poca bontate,
ma per sua nobiltate,
mi pose in vita sì dolce e soave,
ch'io mi sentia dir dietro spesse fiate:
« Deo, per qual dignitate
così leggiadro questi lo core have? »
Or ho perduta tutta mia baldanza,
che si movea d'amoroso tesoro;
ond'io pover dimoro,
in guisa che di dir mi ven dottanza.
Sì che volendo far come coloro
che per vergogna celan lor mancanza,
di fuor mostro allegranza,
e dentro da lo core struggo e ploro.
O ye who turn your steps along Love’s way,
Consider, and then say,
If there be any grief than mine more great;
That ye to hear me deign, I only pray;
Then fancy, as ye may,
If I am every torment’s inn and gate.
’T was not my little goodness to repay,
But bounty to display,
Love gave me such a sweet and pleasant fate,
That many times I heard behind me say,
“Ah, through what merit, pray,
Hath this man’s heart become so light of late?”
But now is wholly lost my hardihead,
Which came from out a treasure of Love’s own,
And I stay poor alone,
So that of speech there cometh to me dread.
Thus wishing now to do like unto one
Who, out of shame, concealeth his disgrace,
I wear a joyful face,
While in my heart I waste away and groan.
.
There's a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.
Heavenly hurt it gives us;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings are.
None may teach it anything,
'Tis the seal, despair,-
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air.
When it comes, the landscape listens,
Shadows hold their breath;
When it goes, 't is like the distance
On the look of death.
.
C'e' una certa inclinazione di luce, i pomeriggi d'inverno che opprime,come il peso di musiche di cattedrale Una ferita celeste,ci apporta non ne troviamo cicatrice, ma una interna differenza, dove stanno i significati Nessuno puo' insegnarla altrui è il sigillo la disperazione un'imperiale afflizione inviataci dall'aria Quando viene,il paesaggio ascolta le ombre trattengono il fiato quando va, è come la distanza nell'aspetto della morte
Une chambre qui ressemble à une rêverie, une chambre véritablement spirituelle, où l'atmosphère stagnante est légèrement teintée de rose et de bleu. L'âme y prend un bain de paresse, aromatisé par le regret et le désir. -- C'est quelque chose de crépusculaire, de bleuâtre et de rosâtre; un rêve de volupté pendant une éclipse.
Les meubles ont des formes allongées, prostrées, alanguies. Les meubles ont l'air de rêver; on les dirait doués d'une vie somnambulique, comme le végétal et le minéral. Les étoffes parlent une langue muette, comme les fleurs, comme les ciels, comme les soleils couchants.
Sur les murs nulle abomination artistique. Relativement au rêve pur, à l'impression non analysée, l'art défini, l'art positif est un blasphème. Ici, tout a la suffisante clarté et la délicieuse obscurité de l'harmonie.
Une senteur infinitésimale du choix le plus exquis, à laquelle se mêle une très-légère humidité, nage dans cette atmosphère, où l'esprit sommeillant est bercé par des sensations de serre-chaude.
La mousseline pleut abondamment devant les fenêtres et devant le lit; elle s'épanche en cascades neigeuses. Sur ce lit est couchée l'Idole, la souveraine des rêves. Mais comment est-elle ici? Qui l'a amenée? quel pouvoir magique l'a installée sur ce trône de rêverie et de volupté? Qu'importe? la voilà! je la reconnais.
Voilà bien ces yeux dont la flamme traverse le crépuscule; ces subtiles et terribles mirettes, que je reconnais à leur effrayante malice! Elles attirent, elles subjuguent, elles dévorent le regard de l'imprudent qui les contemple. Je les ai souvent étudiées, ces étoiles noires qui commandent la curiosité et l'admiration.
A quel démon bienveillant dois-je d'être ainsi entouré de mystère, de silence, de paix et de parfums? O Béatitude! ce que nous nommons généralement la vie, même dans son expansion la plus heureuse, n'a rien de commun avec cette vie suprême dont j'ai maintenant connaissance et que je savoure minute par minute, seconde par seconde!
Non! il n'est plus de minutes, il n'est plus de secondes! Le temps a disparu; c'est l'Éternité qui règne, une éternité de délices!
Mais un coup terrible, lourd, a retenti à la porte, et, comme dans les rêves infernaux, il m'a semblé que je recevais un coup de pioche dans l'estomac.
Et puis un Spectre est entré. C'est un huissier qui vient me torturer au nom de la loi; une infâme concubine qui vient crier misère et ajouter les trivialités de sa vie aux douleurs de la mienne; ou bien le saute-ruisseau d'un directeur de journal qui réclame la suite d'un manuscrit.
La chambre paradisiaque, l'idole, la souveraine des rêves, la Sylphide, comme disait le grand René, toute cette magie a disparu au coup brutal frappé par le Spectre.
Horreur! je me souviens! je me souviens! Oui! ce taudis, ce séjour de l'éternel ennui, est bien le mien. Voici les meubles sots, poudreux, écornés; la cheminée sans flamme et sans braise, souillée de crachats; les tristes fenêtres où la pluie a tracé des sillons dans la poussière; les manuscrits, raturés ou incomplets; l'almanach où le crayon a marqué les dates sinistres!
Et ce parfum d'un autre monde, dont je m'enivrais avec une sensibilité perfectionnée, hélas! il est remplacé par une fétide odeur de tabac mêlée à je ne sais quelle nauséabonde moisissure. On respire ici maintenant le ranci de la désolation.
Dans ce monde étroit, mais si plein de dégoût, un seul objet connu me sourit: la fiole de laudanum; une vieille et terrible amie; comme toutes les amies, hélas! féconde en caresses et en traîtrises.
Oh! oui! le Temps a reparu; le Temps règne en souverain maintenant; et avec le hideux vieillard est revenu tout son démoniaque cortège de Souvenirs, de Regrets, de Spasmes, de Peurs, d'Angoisses, de Cauchemars, de Colères et de Névroses.
Je vous assure que les secondes maintenant sont fortement et solennellement accentuées, et chacune, en jaillissant de la pendule, dit: «Je suis la Vie, l'insupportable, l'implacable Vie!»
Il n'y a qu'une Seconde dans la vie humaine qui ait mission d'annoncer une bonne nouvelle, la bonne nouvelle qui cause à chacun une inexplicable peur.
Oui! le Temps règne; il a repris sa brutale dictature. Et il me pousse avec son double aiguillon. -- «Et hue donc! bourrique! Sue donc, esclave! Vis donc, damné!»
A room that resembles a reverie, a truly spiritual room, in which the motionless atmosphere is lightly tinted with pink and blue.
There the soul takes a bath in laziness, scented with regret and desire. --- It is something like twilight, bluish and pinkish; a dream of sensual delight during an eclipse.
The shape of the furniture is elongated, prostrate, languid. The furniture appears to be dreaming; it seems to be endowed with a somnambulate life, like vegetables or minerals. The fabrics speak a mute language, like flowers, like skies, like setting suns.
On the walls, no artistic abomination. Relative to the pure dream, to unanalyzed impression, definite art, positive art is a blasphemy. Here, everything has the sufficient clarity and the delicious obscurity of harmony.
An infinitesimal fragrance of the most exquisite selection, to which is blended a very-light humidity, swims in this atmosphere, where the slumbering spirit is rocked by hot-house sensations.
Muslin rains abundantly before the windows and the bed; it overflows in snowy cascades. On the bed the Idol is sleeping, the queen of dreams. But how has she come here? Who brought her? What magical power installed her on this throne of reverie and of sensual delight? What does it matter? There she is! I recognize her.
There indeed are those eyes in which flame cuts through twilight; those subtle and terrible lamps that I recognize by their frightening malice! They draw, they subjugate, they devour the gaze of he who is imprudent enough to contemplate them. I have often studied them, those black stars that command both curiosity and admiration.
To what benevolent demon do I owe being thus surrounded by mystery, silence, peace, and perfumes? Oh Beatitude! That which we generally name life, even in its happiest expanses, has nothing in common with this supreme life which I now know and which I savor minute by minute, second by second!
No! There are no more minutes, no more seconds! Time has disappeared; it is Eternity that reigns, an eternity of delights!
But a terrible, heavy knock resounded at the door, and, as in infernal dreams, it seemed to me that I had been struck in the stomach by a pickaxe.
And then the Specter entered. He is a bailiff who has come to torture me in the name of the law; an infamous concubine who has come to cry poverty and to add the trivialities of her life to the pains of my own; or else the messenger boy of a magazine editor, come to demand the next installment of a manuscript.
The paradisiacal room, the idol, the queen of dreams, the Sylph, as the great René would say, all of that magic has disappeared at the brutal knock struck by the Specter.
Horror! I remember myself! I remember myself! Yes! This hovel, this abode of eternal boredom, is indeed my own. Here is the stupid, dirty, worn furniture; the stove with neither flame nor ember, soiled with spit; the sad windows upon which the rain has traced trails in the dust; the manuscripts, covered with corrections, incomplete; the almanac upon which a pencil has made note of sinister dates!
And that perfume of another world, upon which I intoxicated myself with a perfected sensibility, alas! It has been replaced by the fetid odor of tobacco mixed with an unidentifiably nauseating odor of mildew. What one breathes here now is rancidity and desolation.
In this world so narrow, but so filled with disgust, a single familiar object smiles at me: the laudanum vial; an old and terrible friend; like all friends, alas!, fecund in caresses and in betrayals.
Yes! Yes! Time has returned; Time rules as sovereign now; and with the hideous old man has returned all of his demoniacal train of Memories, Regrets, Spasms, Fears, Anguishes, Nightmares, Angers, and Neuroses.
I assure you that now the seconds are forcefully and solemnly accented, and each one, bursting from the clock, says: "I am Life, insupportable, implacable Life!"
There is only one Second in human life whose mission it is to announce good news, good news that causes everyone an inexplicable fear.
Yes! Time rules; it has reestablished its brutal dictatorship. And it prods me with its double goad. -- "Gee-up now, you ass! Get to work, slave! Get on with your life, damned one!"
В тот год осенняя погода
Стояла долго на дворе,
Зимы ждала, ждала природа.
Снег выпал толкьо в январе
На третье в ночь. Проснувшись рано,
В окно увидела Татьяна
Поутру побелевший двор,
Куртины, кровли и забор,
На стёклах лёгкие узоры,
Деревья в зимнем серебре,
Сорок весёлых на дворе
И мягко устланные горы
Зимы блистательным ковром.
Всё ярко, всё бело кругом.
Зима! ... Крестьянин, торжествуя,
На дровнях обновляет путь;
Его лошадка, снег почуя,
Плетётся рысью как-нибудь;
Бразды пушистые взрывая,
Летит кибитка удалая;
Ямщик сидит на облучке
В тулупе, в красном кушаке.
Вот бегает дворовый мальчик,
В салазки жучку посадив,
Себя в коня преобразив;
Шалун уж заморозил пальчик;
Ему и больно и смешно,
А мать грозит ему в окно...
Но, может быть, такого рода
Картины вас не привлекут:
Всё это низкая природа;
Изящного не много тут.
Согретый вдохновенья богом,
Другой поэт роскошным слогом
Живописал нам первый снег
И все оттенки зимных нег:
Он вас пленит, я в том уверен,
Рисуя в пламенных стихах
Прогулки тайные в санях;
Но я бороться не намерен
Ни с ним покамест, ни с тобой,
Певец Финляндки молодой!
That year the autumn weather lingered
Around the yards, over the field,
Winter held back, Nature was lost,
Snow fell only in January,
On the third, at night. And waking early
Tatyana saw through the window clearly
The yard all covered with morning whiteness,
The flower beds, roofs, and all the fences;
On the window glass the leaves of frost,
The trees in their winter silveriness,
And cheerful magpies in the snow.
The hills all covered with the soft glow
Of winter's carpet glistening bright,
Around all was shining, all was white.
But perhaps recollection of winter's scenes
Does not arouse you, gentle reader:
It is all base, lowly, and vulgar Nature,
But not much here of refinement breathes.
Warmed by the inspiration of the Muse,
Another poet, in luxuriant gloss,
Has painted for us the first fallen snow,
And all the shades of winter's sloth.
I am sure that he more than ever enchants you,
Depicting in his flamboyant verse
The charm of a secret rendezvous,
On a sledge; yet to fight I am somewhat averse,
With him, or with that other minstrel
Of the Finnish maiden, as bright as tinsel.
Winter ! The peasant breathes a sigh,
Renews his sledge, and makes his way.
His horse, snorting in the fresh snow
With a finicky trot gets along somehow.
And now the dashing kibitka flies,
In the powdery snow cutting feathery furrows.
The coachman sits huddled upon his box,
In a sheepskin coat and a scarlet sash.
A yard boy runs out, and on his sledge
His favourite 'Dasher' is the driver,
While he himself is the willing puller;
The rascal struggles with frozen hands;
What fun it is, but so painful too,
While his mother scolds him above at the window.
Hab oft einen dumpfen , düstern Sinn
Ein gar schweres Blut !
Wenn ich bei meiner Christel bin ,
Ist alles weider gut.
Ich seh sie dort , ich seh sie hier
Und weiß nicht auf der Welt
Und wie und wo und wann sie mir,
Warum sie mir gefällt.
Das schwarze Schelmenaug dadrein,
Die schwarze Braue drauf,
Seh ich ein einzigmal hinein,
Die Seele geht mir auf.
Ist eine , die so lieben Mund,
Liebrunde Wäglein hat ?
Ach , und es ist noch etwas rund,
Da sieht kein Aug sich satt !
Und wenn ich sie denn fassen darf
Im luftgen deutschen Tanz,
Das geht herum, das geht so scharf,
Da fühl ich mich so ganz !
Und wenns ihr taumlig wird und warm,
Da wenig ich sie sogleich
An meiner Brust, in meinem Arm ;
`s ist mir ein Königreich !
Und wenn sie liebend nach mir blickt
Und alles rund vergißt,
Und dann an meine Brust gedrückt
Und weidlich eins geküßt,
Das läuft mir durch das Rückenmark
Bis in die große Zeh!
Ich bin so schwach, ich bin so stark,
Mir ist so wohl, so weh!
Da möcht ich mehr und immer mehr,
Der Tag wird mir nicht lang;
Wenn ich die Nacht auch bei ihr wär,
Davor wär mir nicht bang.
Ich denk , ich halte sie einmal
Und büße meine Lust;
Und endigt sich nicht meine Qual,
Sterb ich an ihrer Brust!
Порой уныло я брожу,
Измученный тоской,
А вот на Кристель погляжу --
Все снимет как рукой.
И отчего, я не пойму.
Сильней день ото дня,
За что, зачем и почему
Она влечет меня?
Дуга бровей. Лукавство глаз.
Свежа и хороша.
Лишь стоит посмотреть — тотчас
Заходится душа.
А губы ярких роз алей,
Нежнее, чем цветок.
Есть кое-что и покруглей
Ее румяных щек.
Я в танце смог ее обнять,
Прижать к себе плотней.
Летит земля, и не унять
Мне радости своей.
Она, от пляски во хмелю,
Ко мне прильнет сама.
И я подобен королю
И счастлив без ума!
Я нежный взгляд ее пойму --
А в нем любовь и страсть.
Ее покрепче обниму,
С ней нацелуюсь всласть.
И вспыхнет жар в моей крови --
Так я в нее влюблен.
И я бессилен от любви
И от любви силен.
Все ненасытней с каждым днем
Я к ней одной стремлюсь.
За то чтоб ночь с ней быть вдвоем --
Всем в мире поступлюсь.
Откажет мне она и впредь,
Тогда, того гляди,
Не прочь я даже умереть,
...Но на ее груди.
My senses ofttimes are oppress'd,
Oft stagnant is my blood;
But when by Christel's sight I'm blest,
I feel my strength renew'd.
I see her here, I see her there,
And really cannot tell
The manner how, the when, the where,
The why I love her well.
If with the merest glance I view
Her black and roguish eyes,
And gaze on her black eyebrows too,
My spirit upward flies.
Has any one a mouth so sweet,
Such love-round cheeks as she?
Ah, when the eye her beauties meet,
It ne'er content can be.
And when in airy German dance
I clasp her form divine,
So quick we whirl, so quick advance,
What rapture then like mine!
And when she's giddy, and feels warm,
I cradle her, poor thing,
Upon my breast, and in mine arm,-
I'm then a very king!
And when she looks with love on me,
Forgetting all but this,
When press'd against my bosom, she
Exchanges kiss for kiss,
All through my marrow runs a thrill,
Runs e'en my foot along!
I feel so well, I feel so ill,
I feel so weak, so strong!
Would that such moments ne'er would end!
The day ne'er long I find;
Could I the night too with her spend,
E'en that I should not mind.
If she were in mine arms but held,
To quench love's thirst I'd try;
And could my torments not be quell'd,
Upon her breast would die.
Spesse fiate vegnonmi a la mente
le oscure qualità ch'Amor mi dona,
e venmene pietà, sì che sovente
io dico: « Lasso!, avviene elli a persona? »;
ch'Amor m'assale subitanamente,
sì che la vita quasi m'abbandona:
campami un spirto vivo solamente,
e que' riman perché di voi ragiona.
Poscia mi sforzo, ché mi voglio atare;
e così smorto, d'onne valor voto,
vegno a vedervi, credendo guerire:
e se io levo li occhi per guardare,
nel cor mi si comincia uno tremoto,
che fa de' polsi l'anima partire.