Музыканты прошлых дней

Behind the brief definition of "French writer, public figure, musicologist", which is given by encyclopedic articles about R. Rolland, there is a truly unique brilliant combination. In the middle of the 18th century, Jacques-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot created in France a tradition of active creative attention of outstanding writers to the art of music, continued in the first half of the next century by Henri Beyl-Stendhal. Inherited "in a straight line", this tradition at the same time appeared in Rolland in a new special quality. Like his predecessors, he was distinguished by the breadth and versatility of his artistic and aesthetic interests. He was tirelessly attracted by the problems of history and theory, not only of literature, but also of theater and painting. And love for music dominated everything. The words that she "was his passion, and the deepest, most constant of his passions," said by Rolland about Stendhal, can be fully attributed to him.