SOME GREAT CATHOLIC COMPOSERS

New Zealand Tablet, 16 January 1913, Page 26

SOME GREAT CATHOLIC COMPOSERS

At a meeting of the Columbian Assembly, of New York, on November 21, Professor .William F. Hirschmann delivered an interesting lecture on ‘ Catholic Composers? In a few graphic sentences he gave the necessary outlines of the life of each composer he was to illustrate, and, in some instances, made an illuminating bit of criticism concerning the selection to be chosen. Comparatively few are aware of the truth that most of the greatest composers were Catholics. The object of this lecture was to drive home the fact. In his introductory remarks the lecturer said:

‘ The object of the lecture is to show that Catholics can claim that most of the great composers have been Catholics and that the greatest musical achievements and discoveries have been made by Catholics. Some time ago I attended a dinner given by a musical club. After the dinner a speaker took occasion to comment upon the apparent lack of musical education in the Catholic schools and colleges, particularly among the Jesuits. He alluded to the scarcity of Catholic composers, and said that until the so-called Reformation took place in the sixteenth century music had amounted to nothing. He left the inference by that remark that Protestantism had been instrumental in developing music and that the musical art had practically been an unknown quantity until the so-called Reformation. He was exhibiting a woeful lack of musical historical knowledge, for investigation will show that from the earliest history of the Church music had been her chosen art. I can trace an unbroken line of Catholic composers from the fourth century to the present day. Furthermore, this list could be compiled, if necessary, solely from ecclesiastics, ranging from the humble priest or monk to the highest dignitaries such as Popes and Saints. To mention but a few, there are St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music; St. Ambrose, the father of Christian hymnology; Pope Gelasius, Pope Gregory the Great, after whom the Gregorian chant is named St. Isidore, Archbishop of Seville, who wrote the first document on harmony; Hucbald, who first used the staff lines of the scale; St. Odo of Cluny, who was the first.to use the minor scale Guido of Arozzo, who developed Hucbaid’s staff and also invented the art of sblraization, that Is, of sight-singing by syllables, do, re, mi, etc. ; Elias Salomonis, who wrote the oldest book on counterpoint; St. Thomas Aquinas; Franko of Cologne, the first writer on measured music; Canon Johann Tinctoris, who wrote the first dictionary of music; St. Philip Neri, who was responsible for the creation of the first oratorio; Josefo Zarlino, the Franciscan monk, who first laid down the laws of modern harmony, and so on until the present day, when we can point to the brilliant young priest, Dom Lorenzo Perosi, who so late as last winter achieved a great success with his latest oratorio. His works are sung all over the civilised world.

Among the laymen from the time of the sixteenth century to the present day we can name Orlando Lassus, Palestrina, Pergolesi, Scarlatti, Haydn, Schubert, Beet, hoven, Lully, Rameau, Spontini, Verdi, Rossini,

Gounod, and others until the enumeration of names would become ■ monotonous. To the ill-informed or prejudiced wiiter or speaker who asserts there is a scarcity of Catholic composers, one may, with pardonable pride, recite such a list of names as these, and then ask someone to match them. The lecturer sketched the lives of eight Catholic composers beginning with Giulio Caccini, 1546-1615, one of the composers of Daphne, the first opera known to history and composer of the first opera produced in a public theatre. Prior to Caccini’s time opera had been given in the palaces of royalty or nobility only. The tragic story of Alessandro Stradella (1645-1681) was graphically told. Giovanni Pergolesi (1710-1736), dead at the age of twenty-six, one of the first to employ harmonically accompanied melody, had a brief but useful life. The works of Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809), creator of the string quartette and symphony, composer of the great oratorio. The Creation, was touched upon. Beethoven (1770-1827), the greatest musical genius, who is to music what Shakespeare is to literature and drama, was illustrated by tv/o selections. The career of Franz Schubert, the king of song writers (1797-1828), was sketched. The lecturer next- dealt with the works of Giacomo A. Rossini (1792-1868) composer of William Tell and the famous Stabat Mater. Charles Francois Gounod, whose purity of form and preciseness of construction show the master, was the composer of Faust and also the Mass of St: Cecilia.. The ‘ Sanctus ’ of the latter is probably the most widely sung piece of sacred music.