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After the offertory of the mass Palestrina's motet Fratres ego enim is sung; of which Baini says that he "does not hesitate to affirm that it resembles as closely as possible the music of heaven". Two hosts are consecrated, one of which is received by the celebrant, and the other destined for the following day is put into a chalice, which the deacon covers with a paten and palla or linen cloth, as the dead body of Christ was wrapped in "fine linen" . Mark XV, 46.
The unseen organist played a sublime voluntary of Palestrina's, and the round harmonious notes came falling gently on one another like drops from a fountain trickling on flowers.
When the solemn moment of the Crucifixion is reached on Good Friday, when the officiating priests advance in turn to adoration while the Cross itself lifts its voice in "Reproaches" to the multitude with Palestrina's music, who does not feel the dramatic directness of the representation? Popule meus, quid feci tibi? aut in quo contristavi te? responde mihi.
Brendel having sent him some of Palestrina's music, he writes that "it really sounds sometimes like music of the spheres and what art at the same time! I am convinced he is the greatest musical genius Italy has produced." Of the ardor with which they play, you can form no more conception than of their slovenliness and lack of elegance and precision."
These small squares, or octagons, most often with a square embrasure for the altar, seem ample habitations for the greatest things; one would wish to use them for Palestrina's music, or Bach's, or Handel's; and then one recognises that their actual dimensions in yards would not accommodate the band and singers and the organ!
Ancient ceremonies at Rome Service in the Sixtine chapel Passio Sermon and indulgence Prayers for all mankind exposition of the cross; ancient crucifixes and crosses adoration of the cross; its antiquity Palestrina's improperii, Trisagion chant of the hymn Pange lingua gloriosi lauream etc, Procession of the B. Sacrament Mass of the Presanctified, Vespers Tenebræ Veneration of the principal relics at S Peter's Grounds of belief in the genuineness of relics 1.
They wrote pure polyphony because they understood it and loved it, and hence their work lives, as neither the progressive work of their own day nor the reactionary work of their imitators could live. The 12-part Stabat Mater in the seventh volume of Palestrina's complete works has been by some authorities ascribed to Felice Anerio.
However Palestrina's successors have aimed to imitate his effects, they have, with the exception of Cherubini, failed for the most part; for every peculiar genus of art is the result of innate genuine inspiration, and the spontaneous growth of the age which produces it.
But much good music is quite beyond the reach of the public Palestrina's best motetts, airs by Alessandro Stradella, the famous hymn of Raimondi, in short a great musical library, an 'archivio' as the Romans call such a collection, all of which is practically lost to the world. It is wonderful that under such circumstances the choir of Saint Peter's should obtain even such creditable results.
The handsomely abused Perosi, for instance, writes many a page, which, if held at arm's length, you would swear was one of Palestrina's. Some of Mr. Whiting's music has a decidedly Brahmsic picture effect. This feeling is emphasized when one remembers the enthusiasm shown for Brahms in Whiting's concerts, where the works of the Ursus Minor of Vienna hold the place of honor.
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