ROMAN CATHOLIC, EPISCOPAL, AND JEWISH MUSIC. J.H. DOHRMANN. THE
BIANCHI'S
During my ten years' engagement at St. Patrick's Church, on Mission
street, San Francisco, we gave many masses and also arranged concerts
which would prove of great value to the singers of today who have
aspirations for better music than the frivolous songs and bad style of
singing which is in vogue. The masses that we sang were written by the
best masters. Our organist and director was educated in Europe and
received the best musical education and understood the standard which
should be upheld. We were familiar with all of Mozart's masses,
requiems and vespers. The Twelfth was the most frequently sung if
grand, joyful music was required. The Requiem Brevis, a gem of church
music, was given on the most solemn service. All Saints' Day generally
claimed that number. The Fifth Mass was the one chosen when we
dedicated the magnificent $10,000 organ, June 20, 1869, which was
bought with the money received from the grand concerts which were
given from time to time by the regular choir and chorus of thirty
voices with orchestra and visiting soloists of high repute, if they
happened to be in the city at the time of giving.
I am more than grateful that I can place within these pages a fine
photograph of this magnificent organ, a reminder of the once beautiful
and grand instrument which was destroyed and burned until there was
not a souvenir left to tell the story of the great and grand music
that it pealed forth so many years, and of the work of the beautiful
voices that once sang the praises and the power of the grandest music
ever written by a galaxy of writers who are no longer with us. Of
Haydn's sixteen masses we usually sang from one to eight, these being
the most used, and No. 16 B Flat mass was often chosen. His Vespers
No. 1 was sung many times. We generally used Weber's masses--one
written in E flat and one in the key of G. They were the most familiar
of his masses. One of the most difficult masses we sang was written by
I.J. Paine of Boston. It was the first mass and required artists to
give the proper importance to this magnificent mass. Rossini's
Solenelle was given on the solemn occasion of the death of Pius IX. It
was rendered for the first time in California October 31st, by sixteen
solo voices, thirty-five in the chorus and the regular choir, full
orchestra and organ. The following was the programme for the requiem
mass Solenelle sung by the soloists and assisted by the chorus and
orchestra and organ; Introit, Dies Iræ, Lacrimosa, Benedictus, Agnus
Dei, Lux Aeterna were all from Cherubini's compositions; offertory,
Dominus from Verdi, Libera from Palestrina:
Mrs. Brandel, _soprano_
Signora Bianchi, _mezzo-soprano_
Mrs. M.R. Blake, _mezzo-contralto_
Signor Bianchi, _tenor_
Signor Meize, _tenor_
Mr. Stockmyer, _bass_
Mr. Yarndley, _bass_
J.H. Dohrmann, _organist_
Orchestra 30 pieces.
[Illustration: J.H. DOHRMANN, ORGANIST AND DIRECTOR