Although the Germans are a more robust nation than the Italians, with
more powerful muscles and voices, their climate is against them,
leading to frequent throat troubles which endanger the beauty of the
voice. Hence, the gift of mellow, supple song does not come to them so
spontaneously as to the Italians. About a thousand years ago, an
Italian compared the singing of some German monks to the noise made by
a cart rattling down a frozen street; and even Luther compared the
singing in cathedrals and monasteries at his time to the "braying of
asses." At a more recent period, Frederick the Great, on hearing of
the proposed engagement of a German singer, exclaimed: "What! hear a
German singer! I should as soon expect to derive pleasure from the
neighing of my horse!" Beethoven knew that the chief reason why he
could not compete with Rossini on the stage was the lack of good
German singers. He often lamented the inferiority of the German to the
Italian singers, and one day exclaimed to the organist Freudenberg:
"We Germans have no sufficiently cultivated singers for the part of
_Leonora_; they are too cold and feelingless.
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