"Gioacchino Rossini.

"P.S.--In a month's time I will forward you the alterations of the drama
'Moïse,' in order that you may judge if they are conformable to the
operatic style. Should they not be so, you will have the kindness to
suggest any others better adapted to the purpose."


IV.

Viotti, though in many respects proud, resolute, and haughty in
temperament, was simple-hearted and enthusiastic, and a passionate lover
of nature. M. Eymar, one of his intimate friends, said of him, "Never
did a man attach so much value to the simplest gifts of nature, and
never did a child enjoy them more passionately." A modest flower growing
in the grass of the meadow, a charming bit of landscape, a rustic
_fête_, in short, all the sights and sounds of the country, filled him
with delight. All nature spoke to his heart, and his finest compositions
were suggested and inspired by this sympathy. He has left the world a
charming musical picture of the feelings experienced in the mountains
of Switzerland. It was there he heard, under peculiar circumstances,
and probably for the first time, the plaintive sound of a mountain-horn,
breathing forth the few notes of a kind of "Ranz des Vaches."

"The 'Ranz des Vaches' which I send you," he says in one of his letters,
"is neither that with which our friend Jean Jacques has presented us,
nor that of which M. De la Bord speaks in his work on music. I can
not say whether it is known or not; all I know is, that I heard it
in Switzerland, and, once heard, I have never forgotten it. I was
sauntering along, toward the decline of day, in one of those sequestered