The Greatest of Mediæval Hymns [pp. 28-40]

1882.] THE GREATEST OF MEDJ~vAL HYMKS. 33
Allegri, author of the matchless "Miserere." The "Improperia"
of Palestrina, which was first rendered on Good Friday, 1560, in
the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, of which he was chapelmas.
ter, was published in England by Dr. Charles Burney, the historian
of music, and his "Stabat Mater" by the French musician, Alexandre Etienne Choron. With those whose tastes have been cultivated after the elaborate style of Rossini the "Stabat Mater" of
Palestrina can never prove a favorite. It is free from whimsical
intricacies of counterpoint and all kinds of chromatic ostentation.
Its music is chaste and subdued, yet lacking neither warmth of
expression nor breadth of scope. Its skilful modulations carry
aloft toward heaven the appeal of a sustained hope rather
than the wild notes of an anguish bordering on despair. Palestrina's harmonies are full of noble simplicity combined~with
unaffected dignity. His art is peculiarly adapted t(y~~e language of the Catholic ritual, and a return to its earnestness
will displace the sensuous passion and florid drnament with
which the school of Rossini has surchar~ed the music of the
last half-century.
Events in the lives of Astorga and Pergolesi, two composers
who followed Palestrina, turned their thoughts to the " Stabat
Mater." In fact, the shadows of death in each case awakened the
deep and sombre music which characterizes their compositions.
If they were unlike as to the age in which they lived they were
alike in this: that a kindred sorrow moved both to find a respite
in the musical interpretation of that sublime hymn. The ardent
soul of the Sicilian, who had witnessed the execution of his father through the treachery of his own soldiers, and the death of
his mother from a grief that was inconsolable, had early drained
the bitter chalice to its dregs. No innocent memories of youth,
softening all the pains of subsequent years, had sweetened the
early days of Astorga, and in the darkness of this tragedy his
reason became for a time eclipsed. When at length the cloud
was lifted he found himself forced by the decree of a stern destiny to take up the burden of a solitary life whose earthly bright.
ness was for ever departed. Such experiences, when mind and
heart are plastic, either deaden or deepen faith. Under the dominion of divine truth the vision is radiant with the promises of
supernatural gifts, but, perverted by the will of man, the bow of
peace. recedes from view:
"In la sua volontade e' nostra pace." *
"In His will is our peace " (Dante, Paradiso, iii. 85).
VOL. XXXVI.-3