for him at the Conservatory. Fate, however, had
not done with her persecutions, for fate in France
took the shape of Napoleon, whose hostility, easily
aroused, was implacable; who aspired to rule the arts
and letters as he did armies and state policy; who
spared neither Cherubini nor Madame de Stael.
Cherubini was neglected and insulted by authority,
while honors were showered on Mehul, Gretry, Spontini,
and Lesueur. He sank into a state of profound
depression, and it was even reported in Vienna that
he was dead. He forsook music and devoted himself
to drawing and botany. Had he not been a great
musician, it is probable he would have excelled in
pictorial art. One day the great painter David
entered the room where he was working in crayon on
a landscape of the Salvator Rosa style. So pleased
was the painter that he cried, “Truly admirable!
Courage!” In 1808 Cherubini found complete rest
in a visit to the country-seat of the Prince de Chimay
in Belgium, whither he was accompanied by his friend
and pupil Auber.
With this period Cherubini closed his career practically
as an operatic composer, though several dramatic works
were produced subsequently, and entered on his no
less great sphere of ecclesiastical composition.
At Chimay for a while no one dared to mention music
in his presence. Drawing and painting flowers
seemed to be his sole pleasure. At last the president
of the little music society at Chimay ventured to ask
him to write a mass for St. Cecilia’s feast
day. He curtly refused, but his hostess noticed
that he was agitated by the incident,’as if his
slumbering instincts had started again into life.
One day the Princess placed music paper on his table,
and Cherubini on returning from his walk instantly
began to compose, as if he had never ceased it.
It is recorded that he traced out in full score the
“Kyrie” of his great mass in F during
the intermission of a single game of billiards.
Only a portion of the mass was completed in time for
the festival, but, on Cherubini’s return to
Paris in 1809, it was publicly given by an admirable
orchestra, and hailed with a great enthusiasm, that
soon swept through Europe. It was perceived that
Cherubini had struck out for himself a new path in
church music. Fetis, the musical historian, records
its reception as follows: “All expressed
an unreserved admiration for this composition of a
new order, whereby Cherubini has placed himself above
all musicians who have as yet written in the concerted
style of church music. Superior to the masses
of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and the masters of
the Neapolitan school, that of Cherubini is as remarkable
for originality of idea as for perfection in art.”
Picchiante, a distinguished critic, sums up the impressions
made by this great work in the following eloquent
and vigorous passage: “All the musical
science of the good age of religious music, the sixteenth
century of the Christian era, was summed up in Palestrina,
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