Meantime, during the composer's absence from Paris, the war between France and Austria had broken out, but was speedily terminated by Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz on the 2d of December, 1805. After this event, the conqueror took up his residence at Schönbrunn, near Vienna, and, learning that Cherubini was at that time living in the capital, commanded him to direct his musical soirées, twelve in number, paid him a considerable sum of money for his services, and manifested unusual friendliness in every way. On one occasion, however, the conversation unfortunately fell upon "Faniska," which Napoleon had not yet heard. "It would not please you, sire," said Cherubini, remembering his former discussions with the Emperor. "Why not?" the latter inquired. "The orchestral accompaniment is too overladen," was Cherubini's curt reply. It will be seen that if Napoleon forgot nothing, Cherubini was not behind him in this respect. But the power was in the hands of the Emperor, and this the master was made to realize afresh after his return to Paris on the first of April. A recurrence of his old feelings of discontent, and an affection of the nervous system which often excited the gravest apprehensions of his family and friends, now ensued. The number of compositions belonging to the next few years is very small. In 1806 he finished the Credo for eight voices which he began in Bologna, while under Sarti's instruction. An unproductive season followed, continuing till the autumn of 1808, during which nothing of importance came from his pen. Other stars rose in the firmament, and he lost the place he had occupied for fifteen years as the greatest living operatic composer. In Spontini, whose "Vestale" appeared in 1807, was seen a composer who understood better than Cherubini the art of reflecting the splendors of imperialism in musical strains. The latter now seemed ready to abandon composition altogether, and devoted himself more zealously than ever to his botanical studies or beguiled the time with the singular occupation of making all sorts of strange drawings by combining in various way the figures found upon playing cards. Ferdinand Hiller, who saw these drawings, describes them as fantastic groups or scenes,—dancers with red jerkins, wrestlers in scarlet caps, buildings, and miniature landscapes with all sorts of wonderful foliage. The cards were laid lengthwise or sidewise, used separately or united, and larger or smaller portions of the spots were erased, the whole thing being a remarkable mixture of invention and calculation. These pictures the artist had framed and hung upon the walls of his room.
In Paris, at this period, there lived a Monsieur de Caraman, Prince of Chimay, a great lover of music and very friendly to Cherubini, whom he invited to spend the summer of 1808 on his estate in Belgium, hoping that the quiet of rural life might restore the musician's failing strength. Cherubini accepted the invitation, and Auber, at that time his pupil, accompanied him to Chimay. The inhabitants of the place, having heard of the celebrated composer's arrival at the castle, sent a deputation to entreat him to compose them an ode to be sung on St. Cecilia's day. Cherubini, with harsh abruptness, refused to comply with the request. But soon afterwards the occupants of the castle saw him going about in a meditative mood, and then to set himself quietly and industriously to work. After another brief interval he called Auber to the piano, and showed him a recently completed Kyrie. When this had been sung through in the presence of his astonished and delighted friends, Cherubini wrote the Gloria, and presented both compositions to the highly elated townspeople, who gave them as satisfactory a public performance as possible, considering the very limited amount of talent at their command. This was the beginning of the celebrated F major mass for three-part chorus and orchestra. On his return to Paris, Cherubini completed the work, and in March, 1809, it was performed for the first time in the Prince's salon by a select chorus and orchestra, before an audience of invited guests. In thus returning, a mature artist, to the field of his youthful endeavors, the composer was destined to exhibit his genius in its finest and most permanent qualities. The F major mass inaugurated a new order of church music, just as a new operatic style was created by "Lodoiska"; and if other opera composers came after him who followed different ideals and obscured his fame, it is an undeniable fact that the Catholic Church music of the nineteenth century can show us nothing worthy to stand by the side of Cherubini's works. He has here remained the unequalled master.
In running over the list of his compositions it is easy to see that from this time on he produced less and less of the dramatic order. In the year 1809 appeared the charming one-act Italian opera, "Pimmalione," which was performed at the Tuileries in the presence of Napoleon and the art-loving Empress Josephine. The name of the composer had not been communicated to the Emperor, who was profoundly stirred by the music; but when he learned that it was written by Cherubini, he manifested more astonishment than pleasure. Notwithstanding this, he sent the musician a handsome sum of money, and commissioned him to compose a festal ode on the occasion of his marriage to the Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. Another one-act opera, with a French text, "Le Crescendo," was brought out in the Feydeau Theatre on the 1st of September, 1810. In 1813 there followed a work for the Grand Opera, where Cherubini had first presented his "Démophon" and "Anacréon" twenty-five years before. The new opera, however, was not well received, and a period of twenty years now elapsed before the production of another. In 1833 a remodelling of the old "Koukourgi," under the title of "Ali Baba," was given to the public. It deserves our admiration as the work of a septuagenarian, but is wholly ineffective from an artistic point of view.
The last period in the long life of the master is that of his great sacred compositions, and begins in the year 1808. No less than eight masses, two requiems, and a very large number of minor pieces make up the rich array. The great D minor mass appeared in 1811, the C major in 1816, the coronation masses in G major and A major in 1819 and 1825. The celebrated C minor requiem was composed in 1816, and rendered for the first time in the Church of St. Denis on the anniversary of the death of Louis XVI. The second requiem attracts special attention for the following reasons: It is written in D minor, for male voices only. Cherubini wrote it in 1836, being then seventy-six years old. On the occasion of the funeral of Boieldieu in 1834, the C minor requiem had been sung; but as female voices were here called into requisition, the Archbishop of Paris requested that the work should not be used again for a similar purpose, the singing of women being prohibited by the church. It was Cherubini's wish that no controversy on this point should arise at the time of his own decease, and he therefore wrote a work in which alto and soprano voices were entirely omitted. In this connection another composition should be mentioned, which does not strictly belong to the sacred music, but is more nearly related to the eleven secular cantatas in Italian style produced by Cherubini. It was, however, employed for a funeral service, and is the well-known "Chant pour la mort de Joseph Haydn," written for three solo voices and orchestra. This work is full of deep feeling and of wonderful beauties of tone. One of its leading ideas accords with a melody from the "Creation," and the whole work is certainly to be regarded as a heartfelt tribute of admiration offered by Cherubini to the great German master. The work was performed at the Paris Conservatoire in the winter of 1810, the death of Haydn having occurred in the preceding year. Cherubini, however, inscribed it in the list of his works under the date 1805, and it is not yet known whether it was composed in consequence of a false report of Haydn's death or was originally a song of praise dedicated to the Viennese composer in the year when the two musicians first met, and subsequently converted into a lament.
While Cherubini had shown in his youth a certain interest in the composition of church music, and in mature years had turned his attention for a long time in other directions, he had not thus far occupied himself with German chamber music and the symphony. But in his last creative period he entered upon this domain. In 1814 he composed his first, and, for a considerable interval, only string quartet. In the following year he wrote for the Philharmonic Society in London a concert overture in G major and a symphony in D major, the latter being the sole work of its class he ever gave to the world. In 1829 he finished a second string quartet in C major, for which he made a rearrangement of his symphony, including a new adagio. The third quartet in D minor, a very spirited production, was completed on the 31st of July, 1834, and three more works of the same kind followed it before the autumn of 1837, as also another string quintet.
The musician's financial affairs now began to take a more favorable turn. After the restoration of the Bourbons the Conservatoire was temporarily closed but reopened somewhat later, under the title "École royale de chant et de déclamation," when Cherubini resumed his old place as teacher of counterpoint. Moreover, in 1816 the king made him director of the royal band, an office which he magnanimously shared with Lesueur. It was for this organization, to which were attached the most distinguished singers and instrumentalists, whose performances were extolled as unsurpassed, that Cherubini wrote the most of his greater and lesser sacred compositions. The brevity of the service at which the chapel choir was required to assist is seen in the character of the compositions themselves. The music, like the service, being necessarily short, masses such as those in F major and D minor were not available. Cherubini was obliged to condense his ideas as much as possible, but the external pressure at this time, far from injuring his style, served only to increase its effectiveness. It was often the case, moreover, that only a single portion of the mass was celebrated in musical form, which accounts for the great number of Kyrie and other fragmentary compositions found among his works.
MONUMENT TO CHERUBINI.
From a photograph of monument by Fantacchiotti in San Croce Church, Florence, Italy.