Note 91 — Chapter XII · FRANCE AND ITALY.

Wolf-Ferrari (1876) is probably the youngest living composer to whom already more than fleeting recognition has been accorded. It is not an easy matter to decide under what classification he should be placed. With a German father, his mother an Italian, and married to an American, his instincts are Italian, though he owes the stability of his musical training to Rheinberger at Munich. His melodic form is conspicuously Italian, while his harmonic substructure is more or less Teutonic. His orchestration is eclectic; on the other hand, its cardinal characteristic consists of a happy appropriation of Mozart's naïve touch. In a word, one might go yet farther and say that it is precisely this naïveté, not alone in orchestration but in musical substance as well, that makes Wolf-Ferrari's music so refreshing. He owes the opening up of his career to the opera "Die neugierigen Frauen," which has enjoyed a notable and wide-spread popularity in Germany, whereas he has already demonstrated his ability to handle large vocal and orchestral forces for concert performance by his setting of Dante's "La vita nuova," which has also excited favorable comment in Germany and has just been performed in New York with success.