Cardinal Newman as a Musician

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 - 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.] 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 - 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.)] 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.

[Listen]

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 - 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 - 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.)] 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 - Ibid. 99.] 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?

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 - 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:Hæc Regina,Nos divinâ,Illustravit gratiâShe 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 - Pope, Capecelatro, ii. 82.] 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 mediæval 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 - 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 - "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.] 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 façade 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 - 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 - Loss and Gain, p. 277.]

The foregoing would probably open out, in the eyes, say, of the accomplished author of the Vesper Psalter,[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.)] 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 Romanâ, sive in Galliarum, sive in quâlibet ecclesiâ, aliquid invenisti quod plus omnipotenti Deo possit placere, sollicite eligas.[62 - S. Greg. Epist. xxxi. lib. xii. De expos. divers. rerum.] 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 - Thus M. Tonnellé, pupil of Father Gratry, of the Oratory: "Haydn et Mozart, c'est la foi Catholique, c'est la soumission naïve et spontanée, c'est la devotion tendre et vive," which can, of course, be truly said without implying that they are always perfection.] 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.

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 - There was nothing, however, so really "magnificent," he said once (speaking of the wind instruments of brass and wood), as a military band.] and we gave him the version of the "Lead" by Pinsuti, and West,[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.] as also Hurrell Froude's "Tyre"[66 - From the Lyra Apostolica, and a striking little poem, as indeed are all the few signed β, the music by a pupil of the Cardinal.] and his own "Watchman" and the "Two Worlds,"[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."] 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 - 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.] 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."

So, when evening had set in, a harmonium was put in the passage between his two rooms, a Father knelt at his side reciting each verse, while two others played and sang the "Eternal Years."

[Listen]

Beethoven

How shalt thou bear the cross that now so dread a weight appears,
Keep quietly to God, and think upon th'eternal years.

"Some people," he then said, "have liked my 'Lead, kindly Light,' and it is the voice of one in darkness asking for help from our Lord. But this (the 'Eternal Years') is quite different; this is one with full light, rejoicing in suffering with our Lord, so that mine compares unfavourably with it. This is what those who like 'Lead, kindly Light' have got to come to – they have to learn it." Then they played and sang it over again. And he said at the end, "I thank you with all my heart. God bless you. I pray that when you go to Heaven, you may hear the angels singing with the genius that God has endowed them with. God bless you."

To quote as we began, and once again from Cardinal Capecelatro and Father Pope, and we have done. What His Eminence says of the first founder of any Oratorian Congregation may more or less apply to the great Oratorian whom we have mourned: "The sweet enticement of music is quite in harmony with the spirit of St. Philip, and imparts to piety an ineffable gladness and gentleness and grace. Take away from our Saint his delight in music, and you leave his image in our hearts mutilated, despoiled of much of its winning beauty."[69 - Pope, Capecelatro, ii. 106.]

notes

1

Cardinal Capecelatro's Life of St. Philip Neri, translated by the Rev. Thomas Alder Pope, of the Oratory, vol. ii. p. 83.

2

Discourses to Mixed Congregations, p. 297, Fourth Edit. 1871.

3

Idea of a University, dis. iv. p. 80, Sixth Edit. 1886.

4

Oxford University Sermons, p. 346, Edit. 1884.

5

Idea, dis. ix. 230. Dr. Chalmers writes to Blanco White: "You speak in your letter of the relief you have found in music… I am no musician and want a good ear, and yet I am conscious of a power in music which I want words to describe. It touches chords, reaches depths in the soul which lie beyond all other influences… Nothing in my experience is more mysterious, more inexplicable." (Blanco White's Life and Correspondence, edited by Thom, 1845, vol. iii. p. 195.)

6

Oxford University Sermons, pp. 346, 347. Writing to her brother about the passage on music, partly cited above, beginning: "There are seven notes in the scale, make them fourteen; yet what a slender outfit for so vast an enterprise! What science brings so much out of so little! Out of what poor element does some great master in it create his new world!" Mrs. J. Mozley says, "We are pleased at your tribute to music, but what do you mean by fourteen notes? Do you mean the twelve semitones, as some suggest? I am indignant at the idea. I think you knew what you were saying. Please tell me when you write." (Mozley, Corr. ii. p. 411.) He replies: "I had already been both amused and provoked to find my gross blunder about the 'fourteen.' But do not, pray, suppose I doubled the notes for semitones, though it looks very like it. The truth is, I had a most stupid idea in my head there were fifteen semi tones, and I took off one for the octave. On reading it over when published, I saw the absurdity. I have a great dislike to publishing hot bread, and this is one proof of the inconvenience." (Ibid.) The Second Edition has "thirteen notes," which is correct, if the octave be included, but later editions go back to "fourteen."

7

Pope, Capecelatro, ii. 82.

8

Idea, dis. vi. p. 144.

9

Ibid.

10

Mozley, Correspondence, i. p. 52.

11

Ibid.

12

Mozley, Corr. i. p. 71. On one occasion (between 1860-70) two Oratory boys went up to his room to make a complaint, and hearing only "fiddling" the other side of the door, made bold to enter, but their visit was ill-timed. "Every Englishman's house is his castle," said the Father, and he "went on fiddling." This term, "Father," is what every one in the house called Dr. Newman, and correctly, as being Father Superior of the Oratory. It is the name (it need scarcely be added) that he liked to be called by.

13

Ibid. i. p. 104: Provost Hawkins, at this time a Fellow, and ultimately succeeding Copleston, had no love for music, and rather despised such a thing as being "a sign of an effeminate (or frivolous) mind." He used one or other of these terms, or both.