Journal of a Tour in Italy, and also in part of France and Switzerland

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

53-54

text excerpt

[25th December 1828]  We went last night (Christmas Eve) to the church called Chiesa de' Cavalieri, to witness the Catholic midnight mass, the Vigil of the Nativity, a ceremony observed in all Catholic churches. This church has been called de' Cavalieri, after the Knights of St. Stephen, the bones of which saint are said to be here deposited. There were a great many people at the mass. A great deal of good music; and the organ, they say, is the finest in Europe. Some of this music, however, the music we hear in the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic church, is very surprising to Protestant ears. It is any thing but consistent with our notion of sacred music. The gayest airs seem to be adopted in the church service; and the Catholic often worships God of a Sunday morning with the same tune that he has been dancing a quadrille to perhaps only the night before. How different this from our English psalm-singing! It requires some time for us to reconcile, at all, the solemn accents of devotion with such a lively kind of accompaniment. We Protestants are apt to think, with [Alexander] POPE, that

Light quirks of music, broken and uneven,
Make the soul dance upon a jig to heaven.

excerpt from 'Journal of a Tour in Italy, and also in part of France and Switzerland' pp. 53-54 (210 words)

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1518082376527