Music and manners; personal reminiscences and sketches of character

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text excerpt

I was particularly struck with some startling contrasts of this kind [organ voluntaries] afforded by a splendid performance given in honour of the Bambino — an effigy of the Infant Saviour usually kept in the church of Ara Coeli — at which I was fortunate enough to be present on New Year's Eve, 1869, during a brief interval between two important sessions of the (Ecumenical Council. To this function, celebrated in the Gesù, one of the most gorgeous fanes in Christendom, all the Royal personages then in Rome had been specially invited. Pius IX. himself sang mass, and pronounced the benediction. It was an occasion of extraordinary solemnity and splendour ; but to me, I confess, its most interesting feature was the music. Then — strange as it may appear, for the first time, though I had already spent several months in Rome — did I hear really good singing and admirable, soul-enthralling organ playing. 

excerpt from 'Music and manners; personal reminiscences and sketches of character' pp. 103 (153 words)

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