Good Counsel College - Vestigia Yearbook (White Plains, NY)

Page 19 text:

fi. X I g k ki .. ilf' so Fl ., I.. .ff if if 9 N i . .i ,, E- ,3 K 1. ar ,ig 335, 1 ,. and in his hands, greater beauty was forthcoming. He captured the remote quality and pressed it into living melodies which glorify the pious intent. Handel, too, with his genius for the organ and its resonant music, lent himself to enrich the Gregorian repertoire. The result is apparent from the great numbers of his works which the Church uses in her services. Thus these immortals do unceasing honor to God. Sacred music is so strictly undeviating in its path and so clear is its purpose that compositions though they be excellent in musical tradition and the Work of the greatest masters-if they be not strictly liturgical-are unworthy of the temple of God. Into this category fall the mighty masses of Haydn and Beethoven, the glori- ous Requiem of Verdi, Rossini's exalted Stabat Mater. These are golden Works of the highest musical merit-and yet they are banned from the rites of the Church -for they are not liturgical. The solemnity of the strictly liturgical functions of the Church forbids even the extra-liturgical music which may be used in less important functions. For the former only the solemnity of the Chant is permissible, the blend of voice and organ in which the great virtue of humility plays the leading role, for here, the vaunting of solo voice is eliminated. The accompaniment of our worship must be of such finesse of note and motif as to transcend petty Vanities and form a bridge from the human to the Divine. The Chant is the lamp Whose beams illumine the paths of prayer. It is the voice which speaks and sobs and sings of life and death and eternal happiness. Its very inaccessibility makes it the more precious. The Chant, as St. Bernard says, is Full of gravity, neither worldly nor too rude and poor-sweet yet Without levity, it alleviates sadness, and calms the angry spirit, and whilst it pleases the ear, it moves also the heart. 15 -fw X-r , Nils f ex 5' 1 lg 2 sg. i mv... sam.. 5 gg, ' ,U rd V M N . 1. .ff W' ' . 4. ' ffjf29y.Tfi':4,c lg . fin. 1., ,. .. 34 F1 ,ek . .iff ii- I zlwpgakilv f f M M f. nfwadg 4 g .. 4, '- N ' Ax T 'TANK ,...'I2' v

Page 21 text:

Thou art the faireft lily The thornleff mystic rom No flower in all our garden: With half thy beauty blowsf y