Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

;'
EOSSINI ROSSINI 151
side, and had a fair reputation as accompanist.
At this time he acquired a valuable friend in
the Cheyalier Ginsti, commanding engineer at
Bologna, who took a great affection for the lad,
read and explained the Italian poets to him, and
opened his fresh and intelligent mind to the
comprehension of the ideal ; and it was to the
efforts of this distinguished man that he owed
thestartof his genius, andsuohgeneralknowledge
as he afterwards possessed. After three years
with Tesei he put himself under a veteran tenor
named Babbini to improve his singing. Shortly
after this his voice broke, at the end of the
autumn of 1806, during a toumee in which he
accompanied his father as chorus-master and
maestro al cembalo, an engagement in which the
daUy income of the two amounted to 11 pauls,
about equal to 4 shillings. The loss of his voice
cost him his engagements in chiu:ch ; but it
gave him the opportunity of entering the Conservatorio,
or Liceo communale, of Bologna. On
March 20, 1807, he was admitted to the counterpoint
class of Padre Mattel, and soon after to
that of Cavedagni for the violoncello. He little
anticipated when he took his first lesson that
his name would one day be inscribed over the
entrance to the liceo.
His progress was rapid, and he was soon able
to take his part in Haydn's quartets ; but his
counterpoint lessons were a trouble to him from
the first. Before he entered Mattel's class he had
composed a variety of things—little pieces for
two horns, songs for Zambini, and even an opera,
called ' Demetrio,' for his friends the Mombellis.
Unfortunately Mattel was a pedant, who could
see no reason for modifying his usual slow
mechanical system to suit the convenience of a
scholar, however able or advanced. His one
answer to his pupil's inquiry as to the reason
of a change or a progression was, ' It is the
rule.' The result was that after a few months
of discouraging labour Gioacchino began to look
to instinct and practice for the philosophy, or
at least the rhetoric of this art. The actual
parting is the subject of an anecdote which is
not improbably true. Mattel was explaining
that the amount of counterpoint which his pupil
had already acquired was sufiBcient for a composer
in the ' free style '
; but that for churchmusic
much severer studies were required.
'What,' cried the boy, 'do you mean that I
know enough to write operas ? '
' Certainly, ' was
'
the reply. Then I want nothing more, for
operas are all that I desire to write.' There
was in this something of the practical wisdom
which distinguished the Kossini of later life.
Meantime it was necessary that he and his
parents should live, and he therefore dropped
counterpoint and returned to his old trade of
accompanist, gave lessons, and conducted performances
of chamber- music. He was even
bold enough to lead an orchestra, and took the
direction of the Accademia ' dei Ooncordi '
of
Bologna. There ' is no reason to doubt that it
W£is ihore by scoring the quartets and symphonies
of Haydn and Mozart than by any lessons of
Padre Mattel's that Rossini learned the secrets
and the magic of the orchestra. His fame at
the Liceo increased day by day, and at the end
of his first year his cantata ' II Pianto d'armonia
per la morte d'Orfeo' was not only i^arded
with the prize, but was performed in public,
August 8, 1808. He was then in his seventeenth
year. The cantata was followed, not by a
symphony, as is sometimes said, but by an
overture in the fugued style, in imitation of that
to ' Die Zauberflote,' but so weak, that after
hearing it played he lost no time in destroying
it. The same fate probably attended some
pieces for double bass and strings, and a mass,
both written at the instance of an amateur of
the double bass. Rossini had hitherto been
known at Bologna as '11 Tedeschino'— 'the
little German '—for his devotion to Mozart
but such serious efforts as composing a mass,
and conducting a work like Haydn's ' Seasons
were probably intended as hints that he wished
to be looked upon no longer as a scholar, but
as a master waiting his opportunity for the
It may be easier to enter on a career in Italy
than elsewhere, but even there it is not without
its difficulties. Rossini by his wit and gaiety
had, in one of his tours, made a friend of the
Marquis CavaUi, who had promised him his
interest whenever it should be wanted. The
time was now come to claim the fulfilment of the
promise, and Rossini's delight may be imagined
when he received an invitation to compose an
opera, from the manager of the San Mask theatre
at Venice. He hastened to prepare the piece,
and La Cambiale ' di Matrimonio ' or the ' Matrimonial
Market ' was produced there in the
autumn of 1810. The piece was an opera buffa
in one act ; it was supported by Morandi, Ricci,
De Grecis, and Raffanelli, and had a most encouraging
reception. After this feat he returned
to Bologna, and there composed for Esther MombelU's
benefit a cantata called Didone ' abbandonata.'
In 1811 he wrote for the Teatro del
Corso of Bologna an opera buffa in two acts,
'L' Equivoeo stravagante, ' which closed the season
with success, and in which both he and Marcolini
the contralto were highly applauded.
'
Demetrio e Polibio was brought ' out at the
Teatro Valle, by his old friends the Mombellis,
in 1 8 1 1 . Early in 1 8 1 2 he produced, at the San
Mos^ theatre, Venice, two buffa operas —
' L' Inganno felice,' and ' L' Occasione fa il Ladro,
ossia il Cambio della valigia. ' The first of these,
a Farsa, a trifle in one act, was well sung and
much applauded, especially an air of Galli's,
'Una voce,' a duet for the two basses, and a
trio full of force and original melody. After
the Carnival he went to Ferrara, and there composed
an oratorio, 'Giro in Babilonia,' which