grin and yodle while delivering a funeral oration.

A question might be raised as to how far the great Italian composers
are responsible for this degradation of the vocal art to the level of
the circus. The public, it might be argued, wanted the florid style
of song; and if Rossini and Donizetti had refused to write in the
style admired by them, they would have been neglected in favor of
other and less gifted composers. I do not agree with this reasoning.
Rossini and Donizetti have revealed enough genius in some of their
sparkling melodies to make it probable that, if they had not so often
stooped to the level of a taste corrupted by the sopranists, they
might have raised the public to a higher standard of musical taste.
Rossini, in fact, _did_ introduce many reforms in Italian opera. He
enriched the orchestral accompaniments, removed some of the
superfluous arias, and for the first time wrote leading solo parts for
the bass--an innovation for which he was violently attacked, on the
ludicrous conservative ground that the bass could only be properly
used as a basis of harmonies. But Rossini's greatest merit lies in
this, that he refused to write for the sopranists, and would not even
let them sing in those of his operas which were brought out under his
own supervision. Furthermore, to prevent the singers from spoiling his
melodies with their florid additions, "he supplied his own
decorations, and made them so elaborate that the most skilled adorner
would have found it difficult to add to them" (Edwards). For thus
emancipating the composers from the tyranny of the singers Rossini
deserves great credit, and still greater honor is due him for having
shown, in his "William Tell," which he wrote for Paris, and in which
he discarded the florid style, that when he _did_ have a public which
appreciated simplicity of style and dramatic propriety in music, his
genius was equal to the occasion. It is a great pity that he did not