Boïeldieu and Auber

Meyerbeer

Gounod and Thomas

Berlioz




THE GREAT ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS.




PALESTRINA.


I.

The Netherlands share other glories than that of having nursed the most
indomitable spirit of liberty known to mediteval Europe. The fine
as well as the industrial arts found among this remarkable people,
distinguished by Erasmus as possessed of the _patientia laboris_,
an eager and passionate culture. The early contributions of the Low
Countries to the growth of the pictorial art are well known to all. But
to most it will be a revelation that the Belgian school of music was the
great fructifying influence of the fifteenth century, to which Italy and
Germany owe a debt not easily measured. The art of interweaving parts