But while their works
were often hardly more than strings of detached scenes from which the
airs might often be dissociated without much loss of effect, his operas
were constructed upon a principle of dramatic unity which forbade one
link to be taken from the chain without injuring the continuity of the
whole. In purely technical matters, too, his reforms were far-reaching
and important. He was first to make the overture in some sort a
reflection of the drama which it preceded, and he used orchestral
effects as a means of expressing the passion of his characters in a way
that had not been dreamed of before. He dismissed the harpsichord from
the orchestra, and strengthened his band with clarinets, an instrument
unknown to Handel. His banishment of _recitativo secco_, and his
restoration of the chorus to its proper place in the drama, were
innovations of vast importance to the history of opera, but the chief
strength of the influence which he exerted upon subsequent music lay in
his power of suffusing each of his operas in an atmosphere special to
itself.
CHAPTER III
OPERA BUFFA, OPERA COMIQUE, AND SINGSPIEL
PERGOLESI--ROUSSEAU--MONSIGNY--GRETRY--
CIMAROSA--HILLER
While Gluck was altering the course of musical history in Vienna,
another revolution, less grand in scope and more gradually accomplished,
but scarcely less important in its results, was being effected in Italy.
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