Among the Great Masters of Music | Page 5

throughout with the warm and radiant light of life. She
is listening to the music of heaven, and, as I imagine, has just ceased to
sing, for the four figures that surround her evidently point, by their
attitudes, toward her; particularly St. John, who, with a tender yet
impassioned gesture, bends his countenance toward her, languid with
the depth of his emotion. At her feet lie various instruments of music,
broken and unstrung. Of the colouring I do not speak; it eclipses nature,
yet has all her truth and softness."

Dryden's "Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687," set to music by Draghi, an
Italian composer, ends with this verse, apposite to our picture:
"Orpheus could lead the savage race, And trees uprooted left their place,
Sequacious of the lyre: But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher;
When to her organ vocal breath was given, An angel heard, and straight
appeared,-- Mistaking earth for heaven!"
Ten years later he wrote his noble ode, "Alexander's Feast," in honour
of St. Cecilia's festival, at the close of which he again refers to the
saint's wondrous powers:
"Thus long ago, Ere heaving bellows learn'd to blow, While organs yet
were mute, Timotheus to his breathing flute And sounding lyre, Could
swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire. At last divine Cecilia came,
Inventress of the vocal frame; The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred
store, Enlarged the former narrow bounds, And added length to solemn
sounds, With Nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before. Let old
Timotheus yield the prize, Or both divide the crown; He raised a mortal
to the skies, She drew an angel down."
Handel, in 1736, produced his oratorio of "Alexander's Feast." Pope's
"Ode on St. Cecilia's Day," was written in 1708, and performed at
Cambridge, in 1730, with music by Maurice Greene. In this
composition the poet uses a similar image to Dryden. He sings:
"Music the fiercest grief can charm, And fate's severest rage disarm;
Music can soften pain to ease, And make despair and madness please;
Our joys below it can improve, And antedate the bliss above. This the
divine Cecilia found, And to her Maker's praise confin'd the sound.
When the full organ joins the tuneful quire, Th' immortal pow'rs incline
their ear; Borne on the swelling notes our souls aspire, While solemn
airs improve the sacred fire; And angels lean from Heav'n to hear. Of
Orpheus now no more let poets tell, To bright Cecilia greater pow'r is
given; His numbers rais'd a shade from Hell, Hers lift the soul to
Heav'n."

PALESTRINA.
Some twenty miles from Rome, the insignificant but picturesquely
situated town of Palestrina, lies on the hillside. The Praeneste of
antiquity, it was once an important colony of Rome, many of whose
wealthy ones resorted thither in summer, for the sake of its bracing
atmosphere, which Horace extolled. Excavations here have yielded a
rich harvest, and the Eternal City holds among its ancient treasures few
of more interest or value than those recovered from the soil of
Palestrina.
[Illustration: Palestrina. From painting by Ferdinand Heilbruth.]
Here, probably in 1524, was born Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who
received his last name from that of his native town. His parents were of
humble station in life, but, beyond this fact, we know little that is
reliable about his youth or early education. In 1540 he went to Rome,
and became a pupil at the music school of Claudio Goudimel, a French
composer, who turned Protestant, and perished in the massacre of St.
Bartholomew's Day. Palestrina appears to have returned to his
birthplace when he was about twenty years old, and to have been made
organist and director of music in the cathedral. He married in 1546, and
had several sons, but in 1551 was again in Rome, where he held the
position of teacher of the boy singers in the Capella Giulia, in the
Vatican. While holding this office, he composed a set of masses, which
he dedicated to Julius III., and which were issued in 1554. Before that
time, Flemish composers had supplied all the music of the Church, and
these masses are the first important work by an Italian musician. The
Pope recognised their value by appointing Palestrina one of the singers
of the papal choir, which was against the rules of the Church, married
singers being debarred. Nor was the composer's voice such as entitled
him to a place in this splendid body of singers, and he conscientiously
hesitated before accepting the position. He did not, however, hold it
long, for Julius III. died within a few months, and his successor,
Marcellus II., lived but twenty-three days after becoming Pope. Paul
IV., who succeeded Marcellus, was a reformer, and dismissed
Palestrina from the choir, which was a severe blow to the poor

composer. But