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Show ST. MARY'S CHOIR AND MUSIC. The music at the dedication of our cathedral w;is superb: It was unlike for it outclassed anything- of the kind ever before heard in our city, and deepened, if that were possible, our admiration for the great and historic church which has ennobled the world by her encouragement of art. All good music is an inspiration and has a tendency to elevate I the soul and draw it nearer to God. The composition of it is the greatest act of creation which a man can perform the bringing into existence that which was not before. It is one of the most obvious marks of the Divine image in which man is made. Hence, in the Book of Ec-cliecticus, Ec-cliecticus, amongst those persons who are to be especially honored with praise are ''those who by their skill discovered musical tunes." The Catholic church has ever been the friend and patron of the arts of painting, architecture and music. Her affinities are with whatever is best, whether in eloquence, poetry, or sculpture. Without her encouragement the arts could never have reached their present plane of perfection, and without her cherishing care much that we now re-'tain re-'tain as glorious treasures of early art would have been destroyed or lost. This is especially true of .music. In the early ages music was a crude art, the art of putting together sounds so as to form a melody; the only scientific treatment being in the 'Proper divisions, of the strings of musical instruments, instru-ments, so as to produce the several notes of the bcaie wui correct intonations, and other such like matters. But early in the Ages of Faith, improperly improp-erly called the "Dark Apes," the important discovery dis-covery of harmony was made, and then music acquired the dignity of a science, and now they are but synonymous and convertible terms. The highest and grandest contributions to music presented to us by the genius of man have been inspired by the church, and are the productions of her spiritual sons. In the music that was rendered in St. Mary's cathedral last Sunday were compositions 800 years old. coming down to us from the Ages of Faith. The Gregorian "Preface," sung by the celebrant I of the mass, the Bight Beverend, the Bishop of Salt Lake, gets its name from Pope Gregory, the Great, who was himself a musician and, before his elevation eleva-tion to the Chair of St. Peter, taught music at the Latem Palace. So that the Gregorian chant comes down to us from the evening of the sixth century. Many of the versicles, responses, musical psalms, hymns and spiritual songs for use in Catholic worship wor-ship are also of great antiquity, and are of intrinsic excellence and practicability. The grandest musical musi-cal achievements of the past century are associated with the music of the church, and the names of Beethoven, Meyerbeer, Iladyn, Mosart, Mendelssohn and, in our own day, Rossini and Gounod whose imass was sung last Sunday are immortalized in the music of the imperishable Church of God. One of the most sublime and beautiful of our "Ave Marias" was the production of Gounod, who died not many years ago. Mercadante is famous for his splendid and devotional masses. ' ' The musical masses most popular in Europe are those of Mercadante, Palestina, Tirziana and de Pietro, a Jesuit priest. Rossini's "Stabat Mater" is always a favorite in Borne. Of Palcstrina's music j it Miouici ne understood it was never committed to II writing, but taught by him, and is therefore tra- ditional. Xo less a person than the illustrious j Charlegmagne, king of the Francs and conqueror of Europe, is the reputed author of the "Veni Creator," sung by the male chorus at the dedication. Charlegmagne died at Aix-la-Chapelle January 2S, SU, so that the hymn to the Holy Ghost is now 1,095 years old. The great conqueror expired upon ' his throne, wearing his iron crown. The "O Salu- taris Hostia," intoned when the Blessed Sacrament J was exposed at the benediction, immediately after the door of the Tabernacle was opened, was writ- ten probably in the thirteenth or fourteenth cen- tUrV fr th introdu,tl'on of Ibis beautiful hymn I at lho konodiction is. at least, as old as the fifteenth ! COnt"ry: Tho r1 ve been set to music by I nearly all the great masters of harmony of past centuries. ' King Robert IT of France,, who succeeded 997, is credited with the authorship of the "Veni Sanctus Spiritus," a hymn which is considered to be "the loveliest of all the hymns in the entire circle of Latin sacred poetry." The king was saint, poet and musician, and his ability to compose this beautiful beau-tiful hymn is not questioned. The "Stabat Mater" is a lenten, and especially a Good Friday hymn. Its author, Jacobus de Benedictine, Bene-dictine, was born at Toddi of the noble Italian family of Benedette, and rose to distinction as a jurist. About 1208, he lost his wife, and, brokenhearted, broken-hearted, he renounced the world to join the order of St.- Francis. There are several English translations trans-lations of this mournful chant. Catholic and Protestant scholars have vied in their admiration of this composition, and some among them have tried tlw?ir pens at rendering it into English and French. We give the opening stanza of the immortal im-mortal composition, translated by the late General John A. Dix, when he lived in Paris as minister plenipotentiary from the United States: "Xear the cross the Savior bearing, Stood the mother lone despairing, Bitter tears down falling fast. Wearied' was her heart with grieving, W orn her breast with sorrow heaving; Through her soul the sword had passed." The "Magnificat," the Canticle of the Blessed Virgin," has been sung from time immemorial. The text of the "Magnificat" has been grandly illustrated illus-trated by Mendelssohn, Bach and other composers of the' modern oratorio tyle, with full orchestral accompaniments. In Sebastian Bach's hands, music, unassociated with words, assumed the additional status of a language of itself, capable of communicating com-municating ideas impossible by words, and communicable com-municable by no other means than by music. The cathedral choir last Sunday gave us Mozart's magnificent composition of the "Mag nificat," and the rendition was superb. The choir is doing much to form and educate public taste to an appreciation of good music. The music. at the dedication, morning and evening, was essentially essen-tially Catholic, and, considering the limitation of population, was most excellently rendered. The phrasing was faultless, the music was warm, hearty, rich in color and dignified in "go," and, best of all, the vocalization was a special feature, for the words were clean-cut and distinctly enunciated. |