Rcely tell the difference between them. One is performed on the
Thursday and the other on Good Friday. The voices are certainly very
surprising; there is no instrument to support them, but they have the
art of continuing
their notes so long and equally that the effect is as if an organ were
playing, or rather an organ of violin strings, for the notes are
clearer, more subtle and piercing, and more impassioned (so to say)
than those of an organ. The music itself is doubtless very fine, as
everyone says, but I found myself unable to understand all parts of it.
Here and there it was extremely
fine, but it is impossible to understand such
a composition on once or twice hearing. In its style it is more
like Corelli's music than any other I know (though very different too).
And this is not wonderful, as Corelli was
Master of the Pope's Chapel, and so educated in the school of Allegri,
Palestrina, and the rest. These are the only
services we have been to during
the week."[33] [Footnote 33: Mozley, _Corr._ i. 380. We do not think
that Corelli ever was Papal choirmaster. For some years, however,
he led the orchestra of the Roman Opera, and was a great friend
of Cardinal Ottoboni. How different the _Tenebrae_ music at St. Peter's
can be from that at the Sixtine chapel, is seen by the three
_Misereres_ at the former being by Basili, Guglielmi,
and Zingarelli, all composers of light opera.] For good
operatic music Cardinal Newman had, we believe, more of a liking than
for the more modern oratorio. Rossini, as a religious composer, w
