voice.

This sally was the upshot of a long preliminary discussion, in which,
for more than a quarter of an hour, Andrea had divagated in the upper
sphere of metaphysics, with the ease of a somnambulist walking over
the roofs.

Gambara, keenly interested in all this transcendentalism, had not lost
a word; he took up his parable as soon as Andrea seemed to have ended,
and a little stir of revived attention was evident among the guests,
of whom several had been about to leave.

"You attack the Italian school with much vigor," said Gambara,
somewhat warmed to his work by the champagne, "and, for my part, you
are very welcome. I, thank God, stand outside this more or less
melodic frippery. Still, as a man of the world, you are too ungrateful
to the classic land whence Germany and France derived their first
teaching. While the compositions of Carissimi, Cavalli, Scarlatti, and
Rossi were being played throughout Italy, the violin players of the
Paris opera house enjoyed the singular privilege of being allowed to
play in gloves. Lulli, who extended the realm of harmony, and was the
first to classify discords, on arriving in France found but two men
--a cook and a mason--whose voice and intelligence were equal to
performing his music; he made a tenor of the former, and transformed
the latter into a bass. At that time Germany had no musician excepting
Sebastian Bach.--But you, monsieur, though you are so young," Gambara
added, in the humble tone of a man who expects to find his remarks
received with scorn or ill-nature, "must have given much time to the
study of these high matters of art; you could not otherwise explain
them so clearly."