Cardinal Newman as a Musician

14

Mozley, Corr. ii. p. 22.

15

Ibid. i. p. 146.

16

She writes in July, 1843: "Now I do so wish, John, you would pay us a visit. I will practise hard to get up some Beethoven." (Mozley, Corr. ii. 415.)

17

With this difference, however, Philomel had not to learn her regrets: she knew them already.

18

Reminiscences, i. pp. 247, 248, Second Edition, 1882. Of statements in this work the Cardinal humorously observed: "When a thing won't stand on three legs, Tom supplies a fourth." The Father played the viola a good deal, which is larger than the violin; hence Mr. Mozley's "different instruments," &c.

19

One of the boys was once lent this aged green baize bag, and losing it, never heard the end of it. Whenever there was question of lending him anything else, the Father would say very quietly: "I think I lent you a green baize bag." Nor would he allow that it was lost: "You mean mislaid."

20

A friend remembers Father Whitty, S.J., bringing to Maryvale Mr. McCarthy and Mr. M'Quoin, young converts and subsequently priests (the former is still living in Jersey). Both played the violin, so an instrumental quartet was essayed (a rare event in the community), the executants being the two named, and Fathers Newman and Bowles (violoncello).

21

Father Lockhart, in the Paternoster Review for September, 1890.

22

Loss and Gain, p. 284, Sixth Edition, 1874.

23

The Dream of Gerontius.

24

Essays, i. 7, Fifth Edit.

25

Mozley, Corr. ii. 67.

26

Mozley, Corr. i. 19.

27

The late Canon Mozley said that Chopin was "certainly a Manichean; he did not believe in God; he believed in some spirit, not in God;" while "the moral grandeur of Beethoven's genius was always present to him, as, with less force, was also Mendelssohn's: 'They believed in God – their music showed it.'" (Letters, p. 353, Edit. 1885.)

28

Idea, dis. iv. 80, 81. In a Bull of 1749, Pope Benedict the Fourteenth lays great stress on the words being heard and understood, "Curandum est ut verba quæ cantantur plane perfecteque intelligantur," and this is best secured in the unaccompanied chant. In an interesting article of the Dublin Review (New Series, vol. ii. January-April, 1864), the effect of official pronouncements on the questions affecting the plain chant and concerted music is thus succinctly summed up: "1. That music, properly so called, may be admitted as well as plain chant. 2. That the music of the church is to possess a certain gravity and to minister to devotion. 3. That instrumental music may be allowed, under certain restrictions."

29

Discussions and Arguments, p. 343, Fourth Edit. 1882.

30

We have it, however, on good authority that a Jesuit Father told a Mr. Okely that "one of our Fathers received him (Mendelssohn) into the Church shortly before his death." Our informant thinks the occurrence took place in Switzerland. If so, the fact ought to be better known than it is. Moreover, he adds, that the late Father W. Maher, S.J., on one occasion, previous to Mendelssohn's Lauda Sion being done at Farm Street, addressed the congregation: "Perhaps you would like to know that the author of the music we are about to hear died a Catholic."

31

Oxford University Sermons, p. 346.

32

She subsequently resumed talk, trying to draw him out about Ireland and Gounod, but all in vain. It was nearly 3 p.m. ere this morning concert came to an end, when a second lady, introduced by a noble lord, appeared on the scene, and detained him upon questions relative to the state of the soul after death, what St. Thomas had said, &c. Meanwhile sweepers, uninterested in this ill-timed discussion, were pursuing their avocation in the emptying hall, and stewards were set wondering as to when His Eminence would be released.

33

Mozley, Corr. i. 380. We do not think that Corelli ever was Papal choirmaster. For some years, however, he led the orchestra of the Roman Opera, and was a great friend of Cardinal Ottoboni. How different the Tenebræ music at St. Peter's can be from that at the Sixtine chapel, is seen by the three Misereres at the former being by Basili, Guglielmi, and Zingarelli, all composers of light opera.

34

Mozley, Corr. i. 83.

35

Ibid. i. 19.

36

Mozley, Corr. i. 19.

37

Ibid. p. 61.

38

Mrs. J. Mozley to J.H.N., December 1, 1842: "I suppose you are able to make use of your violin now you are at Littlemore. I have been practising hard lately, and wish you could come, that I might turn my practice to good account." (Mozley, Corr. ii. 405.) Father Lockhart, too, refers to Newman's playing at Littlemore "exquisite sonatas of Beethoven." (Paternoster Review, Sept. 1890.) Father Coffin, afterwards Bishop of Southwark, assisted at the musical performances.