DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

240 GENTRY GEETEY
our admiration are, his perfect understanding
of the right proportions to be given both to the
ensemble and to each separate part of an opera,
ami his power of connecting and evolving the
scenes, faithfully interpreting the words, and
tracing the lineaments, so to speak, of his charac-
ters by means of this fidelity of expression in the
music. While thus taking declamation as his
guide, and believing that ' the most skilful
musician was he who could best metamorphose
declamation into melody, ' Gretry little thought
that the day would come when Mehul woald
say of him that ' what he wrote was very clever,
'
but it was not music
non de la musique ').
( ' il faisait de I'esprit et
No doubt he carried his
system too far ;
he did not see that by trying to
follow the words too literally a composer may
deprive his phrases of ease and charm, and
sacrifice the general effect forthe sakeof obtaining
many trifling ones—a most serious fault. But
in spite of his weakness for details—the defect
of many a painter—Gretry is a model one never
wearies of studying. He e.xcelled in the simple
pastoral style, in the touching and pathetic, and
in comic opera at once comic and not trivial.
By means of his rich imagination, thorough
acquaintance with stage business, and love for
dramatic truth, he created a "whole world of
characters drawn to the life ; and by his great
intelligence, and the essentially French bent of
his genius, he almost deserves to be called the
* Moliere of music,' a title as overw'helming as
it is honourable, but one which his passionate
admirers have not hesitated to bestow on him.
[Besides his operas, he wrote a number of sacred
compositions, enumerated in Brenet's memoir
(1884), but without details; an 'Antifona,' a
5, dated 1765, is in the Academy of Bologna, and
quartets, si.\ symphonies, trios, sonatas, etc., are
also mentioned.]
A witty and brilliant talker, and a friend of
influential literary men, Gretry possessed many
powerful patrons at the French court, and was
the recipient of pensions and distinctions of
all kinds. In 1785 the municipality of Paris
named one of the streets near the Comedie
Italienne after him, and in the previous j'ear
the Prince-Bishop of Liege had made him one
of his privy-councillors. On the foundation of
the Conservatoire he was appointed an inspector,
a post which he resigned in a year. When the
Institut was formed at the same time (1795)
he was chosen to fill one of the three places
reserved for musical composers. Napoleon made
him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, on
the institution of the order in 1802, and also
granted him a pension to compensate for his losses
by the Revolution.
A career so successful was likely to intoxicate,
and it is not to be wondered at that Gretry had
a firm belief in his own merits, and thought
himself almost infallible. He has left us several
records of his vanity both artistic and intel-
lectual. The first is his iUinoires ou Essais
siir la musique, published in one vol. in 1789,
and reprinted in 1797 with two additional vols.,
said to have been edited by his friend Legrand,
a professor of rhetoric. The first part only is
interesting, and as has been aptly said, it should
be called 'Essais sur »«i musique. ' In 1802 he
brought out Mithode simple 2'Our apprendre a
preluder en pea de temps avec toiUes les resources
de riiarmonie, a pamphlet of ninety-iive pages
with lithograjih portrait, in which he exhibits
both the insufficiency of his studies and his want
of natural talent for harmony. His three vols.
De la Vinti ; ce que nous fUnwa, ce que nous
sommes, ce que nous devrions etre (1803) are
simply a pretentious statement of his jiolitical
and social opinions, with remarks on the feelings,
and the best means of exciting
them by music.
and expressing
' Gretry had bought I'Eriimitage,' near Montmorency,
formerly the residence of Rousseau, and
it was there he died, Sept. 24, 181.3. Three
days afterwards (27th) Paris honoured his remains
with a splendid funeral ; touching and
eloquent eulogiums were pronounced over his
grave by Bouilly on behalf of the dramatic
authors, and Jlehul in the name of the musicians.
A year later, at a special meeting on Oct. 1,
1814, Joachim de Breton, permanent secretary
of the Academic des Beaux-Arts, read a ' Notice
sur la vie et les ouvrages d'Andre Ernest Gretry.'
Since then many biographies and critiques have
been published ; the most important are
G-retry en famille (Paris, 1815, 12mo) by
A. J. Gretry, his nephew ; Recueil de lettres
icrites d Gritry, ou a son sujet, by the Comte
de LivTy (Paris, 1809, 8vo) ; Ussai sur
Gretry (Liege, 1821, 8vo), by M. de Gerlache ;
L. de Saegher's 7Yoi?c^ biographique sur A, Gretry,
1809 ; E. Gregoir's Gretry, 1883 ; and M. Brenet's
Grary, 1884. [See Feamert.]
There are mauy portraits of Gretry—one of
the best ' drawn and engraved by his friend
Moreau the younger. Another engraving is by
Cathelin (1785), from the portrait by Madame
Lebruu, with the Hues :
Par des plaisirs reels et de fausses alarmes
Ce puissant Enchanteur caliue ou trouble nos sens ;
Slais de son araitie peut-on godter les charmes
Sans egaler au nioins son cceur a sea talents.
Besides these there are Isabey's portrait engraved
by P. Simon ; that taken by the ' phy-
sionotrace' and engraved by Quenedey in 1808 ;
those of Forget and P. Adam ; and finally
Maurin's lithograph from the portrait by Robert
Lefevre. In his youth he is said to have resembled
Pergolesi both in face and figure. Comte
Livry had a statue made of him in marble, and
placed it at the entrance of the old Theatre
Feydeau : it is not known what has become of it.
The foyer of the present Opera Comique contains
only a bust of him. In 1842 a statue by Geefs
was inaugurated at Liege ; being colossal it is