81 has been irreverently referred to as being "just like an old
sailor's song," the same critic has extolled its effect, and told us
how he loved to sing its long note at eventide. No. 61, "Conversion,"
is Father Faber's hymn, "I was wandering and weary" (No. 66 in the
London Oratory Hymn Book[49]), but the original air in both Oratory
books is the same, and the composition of Cardinal Newman.
[Footnote 49: _Oratory Hymn Tunes._ Arranged by W. Pitts. London:
Novello.]
[Music:
I was wandering and weary,
When my Saviour came unto me,
For the ways of sin grew dreary,
And the world had ceas'd to woo me;
And I thought I heard Him say,
As He came along His way, &c.]
Its peculiar merits grow upon familiar acquaintance, and a devoted
lover of plain chant, rather to our surprise, once expressed his
affection for it. It has been termed "briny," like No. 81. Its
expressiveness and "go" are unquestionable,[50] and it is becoming
popular without the public in general knowing who the composer is. The
study of the application of music to words was interesting enough, as
the Cardinal remarked in April, 1886. Sometimes the music could not
quite fit in with the words,[51] and one or other had to give way, and
on our referring to this music to Father Faber's hymn "Conversion," he
said he had an idea that the words had been somewhat altered to suit
his tune. The reverse would appear to be the case. At least the
refrain, "O silly souls," &c., is not identical in the Birmingham and
London books.
[Footnote 50: Father Lockhart's solitary original tune, harmonized by
Mr. A.H. Prendergast, and set to Father Faber's Hymn to St. Joseph,
"There are many saints above," is another example of tender sentiment
by an amateur that outweighs any technical defect as to settled
rhythm.]
[Footnote 51: In 1834, when Keble wrote an Ode on the Duke of
Wellington's installation as Chancellor at Oxford, Dr. Crotch was
employed to write the music, and Mr. Newman wrote to his friend: "I
hope Dr. Crotch will do your ode justice." And on difficulties arising
with the composer, he wrote again to Keble: "I like your ode
uncommonly. I would not budge one step for Dr. Crotch. His letter is
most amusing, and your counter-suggestions are amusing too.... I would
go so far for Dr. C. as to offer him your _frigate_, which certainly
does better for music than the long ode." Later on he inquires: "How
do you and Dr. Crotch get on?" and Keble replies: "Crotch has
swallowed the _frigate_ whole." (Mozley, _Corr._ ii. 29.)]
[Music: _Birmingham._
O silly souls come near me,
My sheep should never fear me,
I am the Shepherd true,
I am the Shepherd true.
_London._
O silly souls come near me,
My sheep should never fear me,
I am the Shepherd true,
I am the Shepherd true.]
Mr. W. Pitts, the compiler of the latter, sends us word that "the
melody _only_ came into my hands, and it stands in the London book
exactly as I received it. I think it was sent by one of the Birmingham
Fathers, or by Mr. Edward Plater." This is satisfactory, and points to
a smoother and far more effective version of the refrain by the
composer himself.[52]
[Footnote 52: Mr. Pitts' chords are generally good, but might be
considerably improved (more especially at the words "I am the Shepherd
true"), by some contrary motion in the harmony.]
Altogether we have ever felt that there is an indescribable
brightness, a radiant cheerfulness, which might have pleased St.
Philip, about the Birmingham selection of hymns and tunes, with
Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Pleyell, Crookall, Webbe, Moorat, and
others laid under contribution. In the Saint's time, we know, "there
were sung at the Oratory many _Laudi_, motets, madrigals, and sacred
songs in the vulgar tongue, and these gave scope for composers to
essay a simpler, and more popular and stirring style of music."[53]
Take up then the Father's book, hear the people at the May devotions
sing such winning songs as the "Pilgrim Queen" (No. 38, _Regina
Apostolorum_), and the "Month of Mary" (No. 32, _Rosa Mystica_), or
listen during St. Philip's Novena, to "St. Philip in his School" (No.
49), "in his Mission" (No. 50), "in Himself" (No. 51, "Regulars and
St. Philip"), and "in his Disciples" (No. 54, "Philip and the Poor"),
and we conclude that, as with the Saint, so with his distinguished
son, it has been his "aim to make sacred music popular;"[54] and may
we not further say that the Cardinal, without any parade whatever, but
in the simplest fashion, has somehow succeeded at Birmingham in his
aim?
[Footnote 53: Pope, _Capecelatro_, ii. 88. Father Gigli to Tarugi at
Naples, about the Roman Oratory, 1587: "Our feast passed off most
joyously, and with admirable music.... We had three choirs--two in the
galleries, besides one in its accustomed place." (_Ibid._ ii. 103.)]
[Footnote 54: _Ibid._ 99.]
The Birmingham Oratory Book, with the tunes, only privately printed
for local use, came, nevertheless, as a surprise to Messrs. Burns and
Westlake, who made merry over the occasional simplicity, not to say
meagreness of the harmonies. A quick movement, too, from a Beethoven
Rasoumousky quartet, is rather awkward, albeit taken slow, for No. 74,
"Death," and Leporello's song for Nos. 22 and 23, is possibly not over
suitable, however intrinsically appropriate, looking to the
associations it might arouse, not so much, however, among the poor,
who cannot afford to patronize opera, as among the rich. "Just look at
the harmony," says one of No. 51; and of the famous No. 61, "there is
a strange want of unity, the first part has no second harmony." A
noble lord, too, disapproved of No. 51, the notes being, said he, all
over the key-board, but such are the strains of some of the best music
in the world, and the notice to this anonymous collection is almost an
answer to particular criticism, as Burns felt at once, _i.e._:
"Neither the following tunes themselves, nor the hymns to which they
belong, have been brought together on any one principle of selection,
or to fulfil any ideal of what such composition ought to be. Many of
them have grown into use insensibly, without any one being directly
responsible for them; the rest have been adapted as the most
appropriate, under circumstances, to complete the set, and to answer
the needs of our people."[55]
[Footnote 55: An examination of the book of words published by
Pickering, and which originally numbered eighty-two hymns, since
increased from time to time up to one hundred and forty-nine (1888),
shows forty-one hymns (original or translated) by Father Caswall, Nos.
5, 8-11, 13, 15-17, 19, 21-28, 33-36, 40, 42, 43, 47, 48, 62, 64, 79,
80, 116, 118, 121, 134, 143-145, 147, 148, 149; thirty by Father
Faber, 1, 3, 4, 12, 14, 29, 30, 37, 44, 45, 52, 53, 55, 57, 61, 65,
73, 85, 115, 119, 120, 124, 125, 127-129, 133, 137, 138, 141; thirteen
by Father Newman, 31, 32, 38, 41, 49, 50, 51, 54, 63, 67, 76, 78, 81;
two by Father Stanfield, 123, 126; one by Father Bittleston, 39 (the
familiar "Daily, daily," from St. Anselm, _Sancti Anselmi Mariale_, p.
15, _Omni die_, &c., the second part, No. 40, by Father Caswall); one
by Father Christie, S.J., 122 ("To Jesus' Heart all burning"); one by
Father Vaughan, C.SS.R., 130 ("God of mercy and compassion"); one by
Bishop Chadwick, 131 ("Jesus, my God, behold at length the time"); one
by Dr. Lingard, 20 ("Hail, Queen of Heaven"). Bishop Heber also
contributes, but the remaining Nos. 2, 6, 7, 18, 41, 46, 56, 58, 59,
60, 66, 68, 69, 70, 72, 74, 75, 77, 78, 82, 84, 86, 117, 129, 135,
136, 139, 140, 142, 146, have not yet been identified by the present
writer. (See _Lyra Catholica_, 1849, by Father Caswall, &c.) How
beautifully, by the by, has not the late Father Bittleston rendered
St. Anselm's hymn. For example:
_Haec Regina,
Nos divina,
Illustravit gratia._
She the Queen who decks her subjects,
With the light of God's own grace.]
Like St. Philip, too, "he took the word music in its widest sense, and
made use of both vocal and instrumental music, and of their blended
harmony."[56] While we believe that he would have been the first to
admit the beauty of large portions of the old chant, its incomparable
hymns in the liturgy, the familiar _accentus_ dear to every Catholic
ear, for the Preface, the _Pater noster_, &c., the modes for Holy
week, the tones for the Psalms of the Divine Office, &c., we question
whether he could have made much of a mass of antiphons that seem to
illustrate the sacred text, "All we like sheep have gone astray." "In
Gregorian music," said a writer in 1890, speaking more positively than
we are able to do, "Newman could see no beauty whatever--none, at any
rate, in the usual antiphons and 'tones.' An exception must be made in
favour of those familiar chants occurring in the Mass.... I recollect
his telling me, after we had heard one of Cherubini's Masses admirably
performed at a Birmingham Festival, that the music, though so
beautiful, needed the interspersing of those quaint old chants to make
it really devotional," but "I believe," writes a friend, "it is very
difficult for one who has heard only Mozart and Beethoven, &c., in all
his early years ever to get a liking for Gregorian tones. It used to
drive Canon Oakeley wild when he heard his nephew, the present Sir H.
Oakeley, play a fugue of Bach's even on the organ. The Cardinal,
however, liked the _modus peregrinus_ to the _In exitu Israel_ (that
was only natural), and I remember once he seemed quite put out because
once we followed the Rubrics in Easter week (when the _In exitu_ is
used) by having all the Psalms to one tone. For a moment it seemed as
if he would contradict himself in his strict rule of going by
authority against what he liked, and would change the tones so as to
have the _peregrinus_." He somewhere, however, calls Gregorian an
"inchoate science." Could mediaeval work, largely out of touch with the
times, claim for itself a monopoly of existence to the exclusion of
the modern? So loyal a son of Holy Church as Dr. Ward had let fall
that a plain chant _Gloria_ reminded him of "original sin." "And, if
sometimes," writes a friend of old Oratory days, "we were so
unfortunate as to have on some week-day festival of our Lady, only the
Gregorian Mass, Father Darnell used to say we were 'burying our Lady,'
and though he would make no remark, I have little doubt the Father
thought so too." Perhaps, then, Cardinal Newman's love for vocal and
instrumental ecclesiastical music in combination (especially at
Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost) was a true instinct recognizing the
undoubted needs of another day, and is best labelled for a motto with
some verses of the 149th and 150th Psalms, which we recommend to the
attention of a few purists in case they may have forgotten them? Thus,
acknowledging in January, 1859, the Gothic to be "the most beautiful
of architectural styles," he "cannot approve of the intolerance of
some of its admirers," and he would "claim the liberty of preferring,
for the purposes of worship and devotion, a description of building
which, though not so beautiful in outline, is more in accordance with
the ritual of the present day, which is more cheerful in its exterior,
and which admits more naturally of rich materials, of large pictures
or mosaics, and of mural decorations."[57]
[Footnote 56: Pope, _Capecelatro_, ii. 82.]
[Footnote 57: _Merry England_, No. 30, p. 380. Mon Reale, in Sicily,
we think, was his ideal in the Italian style of architecture.]
"My quarrel with Gothic and Gregorian when coupled together," says
Campbell, in _Loss and Gain_, "is that they are two ideas not one.
Have figured music in Gothic churches, keep your Gregorian for
Basilicas." Bateman: "... You seem oblivious that Gregorian chants and
hymns have always accompanied Gothic aisles, Gothic copes, Gothic
mitres, and Gothic chalices." Campbell: "Our ancestors did what they
could, they were great in architecture, small in music. They could not
use what was not yet invented. They sang Gregorian because they had
not Palestrina." Bateman: "A paradox, a paradox." Campbell: "Surely
there is a close connection between the rise and nature of the
Basilica and of Gregorian unison. Both existed before Christianity,
both are of Pagan origin; both were afterwards consecrated to the
service of the Church." Bateman: "Pardon me, Gregorians were Jewish,
not Pagan." Campbell: "Be it so, for argument sake, still, at least,
they were not of Christian origin.[58] Next, both the old music and
the old architecture were inartificial and limited, as methods of
exhibiting their respective arts. You can't have a large Grecian
temple, you can't have a long Gregorian _Gloria_." Bateman: "Not a
long one, why there's poor Willis used to complain how tedious the old
Gregorian compositions were abroad." Campbell: "... Of course you may
produce them to any length, but merely by addition, not by carrying on
the melody. You can put two together, and then have one twice as long
as either. But I speak of a musical piece, which must, of course, be
the natural development of certain ideas, with one part depending on
another. In like manner, you might make an Ionic temple twice as long
or twice as wide as the Parthenon; but you would lose the beauty of
proportion by doing so. This, then, is what I meant to say of the
primitive architecture and the primitive music, that they soon come to
their limit; they soon are exhausted, and can do nothing more. If you
attempt more, it's like taxing a musical instrument beyond its
powers."... Campbell: "This is literally true as regards Gregorian
music, instruments did not exist in primitive times which could
execute any other."... Reding: "... Modern music did not come into
existence till after the powers of the violin became known. Corelli
himself, who wrote not two hundred years ago, hardly ventures on the
shift. The piano, again, I have heard, has almost given birth to
Beethoven." Campbell: "Modern music, then, could not be in ancient
times for want of modern instruments, and, in like manner, Gothic
architecture could not exist until vaulting was brought to perfection.
Great mechanical inventions have taken place both in architecture and
in music, since the age of Basilicas and Gregorians; and each science
has gained by it." Reding: "... When people who are not musicians have
accused Handel and Beethoven of not being _simple_ I have always said,
'is Gothic architecture _simple_?' A Cathedral expresses one idea, but
is indefinitely varied and elaborated in its parts; so is a symphony
or quartet of Beethoven." Campbell: "Certainly, Bateman, you must
tolerate Pagan architecture, or you must in consistency exclude Pagan
or Jewish Gregorians, you must tolerate figured music, or reprobate
tracery windows." Bateman: "And which are you for, Gothic with Handel,
or Roman with Gregorian?" Campbell: "For both in their place. I
exceedingly prefer Gothic architecture to classical. I think it is the
one true child and development of Christianity; but I won't for that
reason discard the Pagan style which has been sanctified by eighteen
centuries, by the exclusive love of many Christian countries, and by
the sanction of a host of saints. I am for toleration. Give Gothic an
ascendancy; be respectful towards classical."... Reding: "Much as I
like modern music, I can't quite go the length to which your doctrine
would lead me. I cannot, indeed, help liking Mozart; but surely his
music is not religious?" Campbell: "I have not been speaking in
defence of particular composers, figured music may be right, yet
Mozart or Beethoven inadmissible. In like manner you don't suppose,
because I tolerate Roman architecture, that therefore I like naked
cupids to stand for cherubs, and sprawling women for the cardinal
virtues.... Besides, as you were saying yourself just now, we must
consult the genius of our country, and the religious associations of
our people." Bateman: "Well, I think the perfection of sacred music is
Gregorian set to harmonies; there you have the glorious old chants,
and just a little modern richness." Campbell: "And I think it just the
worst of all, it is a mixture of two things, each good in itself, and
incongruous together. It's a mixture of the first and second courses
at table. It's like the architecture of the _facade_ at Milan,
half-Gothic, half-Grecian." Reding: "It's what is always used, I
believe." Campbell: "Oh, yes, we must not go against the age, it would
be absurd to do so. I only spoke of what was right and wrong on
abstract principles; and to tell the truth, I can't help liking the
mixture myself, though I can't defend it."[59]
[Footnote 58: "I think with you that what is called Gregorian is but a
_style_ of music: viz., before the fixing of the diatonic scale, and
the various keys as rising out of it. The Pagan and Jewish tunes are
_necessarily_ in this style. And in this sense certainly the Gregorian
comes from the Pagan _and_ the Jewish. The names 'Lydian,' 'Phrygian,'
&c., look like Pagan. One should think, however, some _must_ be
Jewish. I can't answer your question about the genuineness of the
professed specimen of Pagan, as in Rousseau's Dictionary. Will
Rousseau answer your question? All true art comes from revelation, to
speak generally, I do think, but not necessarily through the Jewish
Dispensation," &c. (Dec. 1850, J.H.N.) Mozley, _Corr._ ii. 479.]
[Footnote 59: _Loss and Gain_, pp. 282-286.]
The irrepressible Bateman has Gothic and Gregorian on the brain: and
in another place goes "on boldly to declare that, if he had his will
there should be no architecture in the English churches but Gothic,
and no music but Gregorian. This ... gave scope for a very pretty
quarrel, Reding said that all these adjuncts of worship, whether music
or architecture, were national; they were the mode in which religious
feeling showed itself in particular times and places. He did not mean
to say that the outward expression of religion in a country might not
be guided, but it could not be forced; that it was as preposterous to
make people worship in one's own way, as to be merry in one's own
way.'... Bateman: 'But surely ... you don't mean to say that there is
no natural connection between internal feeling and outward expression,
so that one form is no better than another?' Reding: 'Far from it,
but let those who confine their music to Gregorians, put up crucifixes
in the highways. Each is the representative of a particular locality
or time.'... Campbell: 'You can't be more Catholic than Rome, I
suppose, yet there's no Gothic there.' Bateman: '... Rome has
corrupted the pure Apostolic doctrine, can we wonder that it should
have a corrupt architecture?' Reding: 'Why, then, go to Rome for
Gregorians?'"[60]
[Footnote 60: _Loss and Gain_, p. 277.]
The foregoing would probably open out, in the eyes, say, of the
accomplished author of the _Vesper Psalter_,[61] a wide field for
further discussion, but so much may be fairly gathered, viz., that the
Cardinal's musical views were sensible ones, even if open,
theoretically, to some differences of opinion. _Omnia probate_, he
seems to say, _quod bonum est tenete_. He had, of course, no sympathy
with extravagances. His was a cultured, at any rate a refined taste,
_sui similis_, and when it was said in April, 1886, that Niedermeyer's
B minor Mass was "elaborate," he observed: "Well, I like a medium in
music, although I may be wrong in that." All was well, we suppose,
provided the best gifts of Catholic masters in their art were in good
faith proffered to Almighty God. In the words herein of St. Gregory
the Great: _Mihi placet ut, sive in Romana, sive in Galliarum, sive in
qualibet ecclesia, aliquid invenisti quod plus omnipotenti Deo possit
placere, sollicite eligas._[62] All was well, too, if singers and
players were animated with the Catholic spirit that breathed in a
Haydn and a Mozart, to say nothing of later giants.[63] Under such
conditions, and with due observance of the unaccompanied chant in
Advent and Lent, the male choirs of both Oratories in England have
probably done a good work, and if so, one worthy of St. Philip's
blessing.
[Footnote 61: By the late Sir John Lambert, K.C.B., and published by
Burns in 1849. Its Preface is well worthy of attention, and we note
with pleasure his remark, "that while pleading for the restoration of
the Ritual Song as the Church system and the music of the people, and
as the basis of all that is really grand and ecclesiastical, the
writer would not wish to be understood to object to the superadding of
the most elaborate music where it can be properly executed, if it does
not supersede the Church Song, and is of a character to harmonize with
it. Doubtless," he adds, "as the Church employs all the resources of
art, as far as in accordance with her own spirit, the most perfect
celebration of the Divine Office would be where both could be
combined. All would then be impressed and edified, each person
according to his peculiar sense, and God would be worshipped with all
the magnificence which art can be made to minister." (p. xiii.)]
[Footnote 62: S. Greg. Epist. xxxi. lib. xii. _De expos. divers.
rerum._]
[Footnote 63: Thus M. Tonnelle, pupil of Father Gratry, of the
Oratory: "Haydn et Mozart, c'est la foi Catholique, c'est la
soumission naive et spontanee, c'est la devotion tendre et vive,"
which can, of course, be truly said without implying that they are
always perfection.]
It was in April, 1886, that two of the Fathers, along with the writer,
played over to Cardinal Newman, Dykes' well-known setting to "Lead,
kindly Light," which (he said) he had never heard before, and he
seemed rather surprised at its very quiet, hymn-like quality. No
piano, he added, could equal the strings, nor any organ,[64] and we
gave him the version of the "Lead" by Pinsuti, and West,[65] as also
Hurrell Froude's "Tyre"[66] and his own "Watchman" and the "Two
Worlds,"[67] all with violoncello _obbligato_. In 1889 he had been
very ill, and when recovering, said to a Father: "Father Faber wrote
the hymn 'Eternal Years.'[68] I have always had the greatest affection
for it--quite a passionate affection for it--in connection with Father
Faber, and I always used to think that when I came to die, I should
like to have it sung to me; and I want you to play it for me." Would a
harmonium do? "Yes, a harmonium would be just the thing; perhaps one
could be spared me."
[Footnote 64: There was nothing, however, so really "magnificent," he
said once (speaking of the wind instruments of brass and wood), as a
military band.]
[Footnote 65: The following have set "Lead, kindly Light" to music:
Canon J. Ballantine-Dykes, Rev. H. Earle Bulwer, Dr. G.A. Macfarren,
Dr. S.S. Wesley, Dr. A.R. Gaul, Dr. C.J.B. Meacham, Sir A. Sullivan,
J. Barnby, F. Tozer, C. Pinsuti, W. Hamilton, W. Hume, M.A. Wood (Mrs.
Harvey), Katharine Rowley, C.T. Gatty, T.W. Barth, A. Allen, F.G.
Pincott, H.C. Layton, J. Tilleard, J. Otter, W.H. Walter, J.A.
Gardiner, W. Nicholson, J.W.R., and three anonymous composers. We may
add that Mr. Rowton has musically essayed the _Dream of Gerontius_;
"J.W.R.," "Warnings" from the _Lyra Apostolica_; Dr. Macfarren a duet,
"O God, Who canst not change" (breviary translation); "R.S.," "All is
divine which the Highest has made;" E.W., "Softly and gently, dearly
ransomed soul;" the Rev. C.E. Butler, "Praise to the Holiest;" Maria
Tiddeman, the same; Mr. Bellasis, the "Haven," "Consolation," "Waiting
for the Morning," "The Two Worlds," "The Watchman," and "Heathen
Greece;" and an anonymous composer, "The Pilgrim Queen," "There sat a
Lady," &c.]
[Footnote 66: From the _Lyra Apostolica_, and a striking little poem,
as indeed are all the few signed [Greek: b], the music by a pupil of
the Cardinal.]
[Footnote 67: _Verses on Various Occasions_, pp. 80, 319; the latter
written in 1862, the music by a pupil, and according to the Father
"better than my words." The words also appear in the Birmingham book
as a hymn (No. 67), entitled "Sacrifice."]
[Footnote 68: Father Faber's _Poems_, No. 135, pp. 379-381, new edit.
1861. This is not in the London Oratory Hymn Book, but under the
heading "Eternity" six of the quatrains (Nos. 1, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16)
appear in the Birmingham book as No. 73, and are set to a tune in the
minor from Beethoven's sixth trio (for flute, viola, and violoncello),
taken _andante_.]