Chapter VIII

During the development of Beethoven's mighty conquests, Paris continued to attract aspirants to fame in operatic lines, whereas modern church music found a worthy representative in Cherubini; his orchestration is sonorous, flexible, varied and vivid. Two native composers of opera in serious vein, Méhul and Lesueur, contributed essentially to the development of French instrumentation. That of Méhul was still somewhat heavy, but embodied sonority, novel combinations, and at times a certain melancholy coloring. Lesueur was one of the pioneers in the use of grand and majestic combinations. The most prominent followers of Grétry in the lyric _genre_ were Boieldieu, whose instrumentation is conspicuous for its daintiness, variety and contrast; Auber, master of clear yet effervescent scoring; Hérold, whose orchestra is compact and well balanced; finally, Halévy, an exponent of both varied and massed effects. Italian instrumentation was advanced especially by Spontini and to a certain extent by Rossini; the former inaugurated the practice of doubling and redoubling the harmonies in massed combination. French opera was also greatly influenced by Meyerbeer, who imparted to the orchestra massed effects, novel and rich detail, characteristic individuality.

Credit for the development and perfection of symphonic form and orchestration is due to the great German classicists alone; but the evolution of the genuinely dramatic resources of the orchestra rests largely in the hands of the French composers preceding the ascendency of the Romantic Movement.