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[ It must be kept in mind that German operatic poets confined themselves to imitating Italian opera libretti, which were all cast in the same mould. Krause's pamphlet, highly esteemed by contemporaries, Von der musikalischen Poesie (Berlin, 1752) takes this for granted; Hiller (Ueber Metastasio, 1786, p.6) refers the German librettists to Metastatio; even Goethe, although in another way, endeavoured to form German vaudeville after an Italian type. Views of the subject, similar to those of Mozart and Reichardt, are carried out in detail in Cramer's Magazin der Musik, II., p. 1061.]
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[ Gluck's intentions were unquestionably the same. He warred against the mechanical formalism of musicians, and strove to free the composer from the fetters of form and make him a poet. But he was in some danger of going too far, and making the musician merely the interpreter of the poet.]
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[ Cf. Hanslick, Vom Musikalisch-Schönen, p. 27.]
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[ The same difficulty has led composers of the present day to write their own libretti. But it is not in nature that the highest aims can thus be attained. Burney quotes Metastatio's utterances on this point (Reise, II., p. 222). Cf. O. Jahn, Ges. Aufs. üb. Musik, p. 70.]
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[ Cf. Hanslik Vom Musikalisch-Schönen, p. 78.]