wrote for the Opera-Comique _La Fille du Regiment_, a military and
patriotic work, and its dashing and glorious _Salut a la France_ has
resounded through the whole world. Foreigners do not take so much pains
in our day, and France applauds _Die Meistersinger_ which ends with a
hymn to German art. Such is progress!

Something must be said of a little known score, _Struensee_, which was
written for a drama which was so weak that it prevented the music
gaining the success it deserved. The composer showed himself in this
more artistic than in anything else he did. It should have been heard at
the Odeon with another piece written by Jules Barbier on the same
subject. The overture used to appear in the concerts as did the
polonnaise, but like the overture to _Guillaume Tell_, they have
disappeared. These overtures are not negligible. The overture to
_Guillaume Tell_ is notable for the unusual invention of the five
violoncellos and its storm with its original beginning, to say nothing
of its pretty pastoral. The fine depth of tone in the exordium of
_Struensee_ and the fugue development in the main theme are also not to
be despised. But all that, we are told, is lacking in elevation and
depth. Possibly; but it is not always necessary to descend to Hell and
go up to Heaven. There is certainly more music in these overtures than
in Grieg's _Peer Gynt_ which has been dinned into our ears so much.

But enough of this. I must stop with the operas, for to consider the
rest of his music would necessitate a study of its own and that would
take us too far afield. My hope is that these lines may repair an
unnecessary injustice and redirect the fastidious who may read them to a
great musician whom the general public has never ceased to listen to and
applaud.

CHAPTER XXI

JACQUES OFFENBACH

It is dangerous to prophesy. Not long ago I was speaking of Offenbach,
trying to do justice to his marvellous natural gifts and deploring his
squandering them. And I was imprudent enough to say that posterity would
never know him. Now posterity is proving that I was wrong, for Offenbach
is coming back into fashion. Our contemporaneous composers forget that
Mozart, Beethoven and Sebastian Bach knew how to laugh at times. They
distrust all gaiety and declare it unesthetic. As the good public cannot
resign itself to getting along without gaiety, it goes to operetta and
turns naturally to Offenbach who created it and furnished an
inexhausti