And, nevertheless, the Parisian public actually worshipped him.
This public--I am speaking now of the musical public or what is called that--was divided into two hostile camps.

There were the lovers of melody who were in the large majority and included the musical critics; and, on the other side, the subscribers to the Conservatoire and the Maurin, Alard and Amingaud quartets.

They were devotees of learned music; "poseurs," others said, who pretended to admire works they did not understand at all.
There was no melody in Beethoven; some even denied that there was any in Mozart.

Melody was found, we were told, only in the works of the Italian school, of which Rossini was the leader, and in the school of Herold and Auber, which was descended from the Italian.
The Melodists considered Rossini their standard bearer, a symbol to rally around, even though they had just obtained good prices for his works at the second-hand shops and now permitted them to fall into oblivion.
From some words he let fall during our intimacy I can state that this neglect was painful to him.

But it was a just--perhaps too just--retribution for the fatality with which Rossini, doubtless in spite of himself, served as a weapon against Beethoven.