Bonaparte family, his prosperity fell with theirs. He had been crowned
with honors by all the musical societies of the world, but his pensions
and emoluments ceased with the fall of Joachim Murat from the Neapolitan
throne. He died June 5,1816, and the court, which neglected him living,
gave him a magnificent funeral.

"Paisiello," says the Chevalier Le Sueur, "was not only a great
musician, but possessed a large fund of general information. He was
well versed in the dead languages, acquainted with all branches of
literature, and on terms of friendship with the most distinguished
persons of the age. His mind was noble and above all mean passions; he
neither knew envy nor the feeling of rivalry.... He composed," says the
same writer, "seventy-eight operas, of which twenty-seven were serious,
and fifty-one comic, eight _intermezzi_, and an immense number of
cantatas, oratorios, masses, etc.; seven symphonies for King Joseph of
Spain, and many miscellaneous pieces for the court of Russia."

Paisiello's style, according to Fétis, was characterized by great
simplicity and apparent facility. His few and unadorned notes, full of
grace, were yet deep and varied in their expression. In his simplicity
was the proof of his abundance. It was not necessary for him to have
recourse to musical artifice and complication to conceal poverty of
invention. His accompaniments were similar in character, clear and
picturesque, without pretense of elaboration. The latter not only
relieved and sustained the voice, but were full of original effects,
novel to his time. He was the author, too, of important improvements in
instrumental composition. He introduced the viola, clarinet, and bassoon
into the orchestra of the Italian opera. Though, voluminous both in
serious and comic opera, it was in the latter that he won his chief
laurels. His "Pazza per Amore" was one of the great Pasta's favorites,