Music and Friends: Or, Pleasant Recollections of a Dilettante

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

332-338

text excerpt

I have been present at the best performances in this country for many years ; but that at Bonn so surpassed all I had ever heard, that my senses were taken by surprise, and I was so completely captivated and thrown into a state of such agitation as to be obliged to leave the hall, without hearing the choral symphony, which immediately followed [...] The service opened with Beethoven's divine Mass in C. The grand orchestra was placed behind the high altar, at the sides of which were beautiful trees growing in boxes of native soil, towering to the roof. The spaces were so filled with the richest flowers and plants, that the performers were completely hidden from view. The Minster was crowded in every niche and corner, leaving a vast crowd of visitors without. When the music commenced, softly flowing with delicious melody, we scarcely knew from whence it came, and the hundred and fifty female voices pouring forth the lowest tones, produced a harmony deeply religious, and of unspeakable grandeur. Those parts of the mass which are only chanted, were upon this occasion performed at the western end of the church, by the usual choir, accompanied by the [...] stupendous organ there. The responses from the distant part were sublime, which, with the dresses and genuflexions of the priests, the swinging of the burning censers, formed a dramatic scene that was splendid and imposing.

excerpt from 'Music and Friends: Or, Pleasant Recollections of a Dilettante' pp. 332-338 (233 words)

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1433366995118