pa. iV1SEMAN ' S Ls:cal:Res ON TI1E CEREMONIES OF 110LY WEEK.
WROF.VER hus attended the service of the Romish Church with one of its Prayer-books, will doubtless have perceived in many of the passages a strong dramatic spirit, although the capacity of the perfimners may not have succeeded in distinctly bringing it out, or even in inching it, perceptible at all to a person not following the words. It may be said, indeed, that as pubXe worship was the origin of the drame, so it must of necessity partake somewhat of the dra- matic character, the ministers peribrming one part and the congre- gation another : but this lifeless, bald, and inartifieial personation, 13 not the drama we mean. Iii the Anglican Church tbr example, the service, as generally performed, is only a mom:logite on the part of the parson, with a responsive chorus on that of the people ; whilst in our Cathedrals an addition is merely made to the number of the actors, but no essential change is effected in the nature of their parts, ziey more than harmonizing a song can alter the spirit of its poetry. But in the Romish service, especially tbr Easter week, the selections in the ritual form a species of drama: the events at Jerusalem are brought befbre the mind's eye ; and, we doubt not, with a competent chorus and with ministers thoroughly understanding the capability of their subject, that. the varying passions and sentiinents of the actors in that awful period may be fully peremitiesl. In the Rural sit service there are else per- formed a var:ety of ceremonies designed to embody the hietorical facts, or to typiiy mene rays s. ries of religion : but. to an imiMtieted Protestant the major part of them seem like Ii1U111111Cry whilst those who are cognisant of their hidden me:111MR, can sec little but fluailached and mystical allegories, occasionally open to ludi- crous accidents.* At Rome, however, both the dramatic spirit and the pantomimic forms are to be witnessed in their last per- fection during Easter week ; not merely as regards the surpassing excellence of the choir, the number of the ministrants, and the splendour of the accessories, but because certain ancient cere- monies, now fallen into general disuse, are there retained, so that . the ceases and the taste are regaled with a more splendid spectacle, while the curiosity is gratified by an eshibition of a few quaint memorials of a very antique age. These things, however, like the ritual of the service, alluded to at the connuselcement of this notice, require some previous expo- sition to understand, much more to enter into, whether in their artisikal, typical, or religious sense. To further this purpose, Dr. WiSr,IAN, the head of the English College at Rome, gave a series " Lectures on the Offices and Ceremonies or Holy Week,"— hot merely, we should divine, to the students of his college but to any countrymen whom devotion or curiosity had led to die city ; Mid he has been persuaded to publish them as delivered, lest they should lose their " lighter character," rather than follow his own opisien wad recompose them.
The lectures thus delivered were four in number ; each treating of some particular topic, connected, in Dr. Wisnsi AN'S 011I111011,
With the Catholic service. The two first relate to the eftUets of that church upon art, and the uses to which it was turned by the power which flintiest and elevated, perhaps created it. Of these lectures the first discusses the relation of tbe ceremonies to the " externals," or as it may more properly be exprJseed, the material part (d'art, in the architecture and paintings of the Sistine Chapel, &C. The sesond lecture treats of the more spiritual or intellee- tu.al bemehes of art ; as the poetry displayed in the composition of
• cage .1 hymns, the dramatic skill in the arrangement of the pas-
sages from the Scripture, and in the history and character of the musk. The third handles the archamlogy of the service ; point- ing out the offices which were eutbreed by the necessities of the persecuted primitive Christians, or the opinions and customs of later tummies; the engrafting of Pagan rites upon the prac- tices of the Church being dexterously passed over, and the use of Pagan buildnigs decently defended. The last lecture treats of the uses of the eeremonies,—though less in a spiritual than in a formal,. and as it were customary or almost legal sense. We hear little of their power to touch the sinner or induce grace ; but how Easter Operated upon ignorance in the darker ages, to maity the hearts of princes and to suspend the barbarity and robbery of nobles, rendering certain days holy, when feudal skirmishes ceased * On Easter Thursday, a triangular condlestiek, intended to represent the Triffity, is illuminated with a certain number of candles, which, all but the one .ffinning the apex, are successively extinguished at certain periods of the service. The crowning candle is not Put out, but put under the altar, to typify the burial by its obscurity, and the resurrection by its being kept alight : but we once saw this type of the eternity of the Church puffed out by a gust of wind. and the highways might be travelled in safety ; and how the noblemen and ladies of modern Rome go through devotional Eas- ter exercises. We are far from wishing to undervalue the uses of stated forms, which certainly remind, and may possibly stimulate the religionist ; still further from denying the utility of the Romish Church during the dark ages, and its continual and often effectual struggles for the advancement of the common people. At the same time, the morals of modern Rome, the long existence of Easter without the beneficial effects adduced by Dr. WisEmAri, and the partial operation of some customs when established, seem Cc; show that it is as much to the character of the age, and of indivi- duals using a religious festival for a purpose required by the thnes, which produced the good, as the mere ceremonies and offices of the Church.
Of course, the clerical spirit which animates the Lectures is Rotnan ; but, except an occasional rub at the Church of England, with several indirect though downright hits at the bareness of sec- tarian worship, there is nothing but what is moderate, rational, and almost philosophical in the views. The literary characteristics are, considerable knowledge of the subject, both in its principals and accessories, especially music and the arts, with a considerable de- gree of scholastic finish : but the mind of the author is rather learned than naturally penetrating, and his expressions are sometimes cha- racterized by an unction approaching to professional cant. Of, the valuable historical sketches of art and artists, scattered throughout the Lectures, we will choose as a sample this richly antiquarian account of
TIIE ORIGIN 01' ITALIAN ART.
Ent methinks it were an injustice to these sterol functions, to connect them v.-ith Christian art by SO slender a thread. For no one that has turneil his mind to it, will, I believe, gainsay that these sacred offices have been the very school of art, or rather the very food on which it was noarished. I remember some years. ago, when one of our most celebrated artists was in Rome, how he was conversing with a late most respected friend of mine during the lavanda, or ceremony of washing the feet, which used then to be perfermed in the San Duo& Tapestry- was, as usual, hung upon the wall behind the thirteen priests engaged for the functions, and a lattace-window looking into the room, had been seized upon by a curious party, so, that through a separation between two arrases, a small group of picturesque heads, chiefly children, peepsd out open the cereimmy. This little incident, which a painter of the old school would have ham:bleed or even invented, CORM 1101 escape the notice of OUT artist, anal he remarked to my friend, how completely the picturesque seemed inherent in the character of the people. " Their costumes," said he, " their heads, their attitudes, are all studies; three of them cannot stand toge- ther, without forming a group fit to be sketched." lie then remarked, how pictorial every ceremony which he had witnessed had appeared, and what lessons of art were to be learned from studying them. Ent any attention to the works of the older masters will conipletely prove that their models were drawn and their groups formed, upon what they were accustomed to see in these sacred function.,. Why are their angels, instead of being, as in later works, well-f41 inffints playing and tuuffilina, in the clouds, clothed in white tunics, girded round, and kneeling in attitudes of solemn adoration ? but because such was the dress and posthre of the more youthful assistants in ecclesiastical cere- monies. hence are drawn the costumes of their saints, who stand beside the throne on which the mother of God is seated, with their precious embroidery and Hold fo1,1,, that give such play to tlme. rich colouring of their school? Whel,e; wer,: their positions about that throne, their modest looks, their un- affi...ted attitudes taken, but from the venerable ministers at these holy and spiondid offices ? A sweet solemn feeling overspreads their entire composition, which, certainly, there is nothing- else in nature to have inspired, except what we sec performed in the church service ; indeed, their most beautiful paintings b...ar an analogy with these, in disposition and senthnent, which it is impossible to n.istake.
EARLY HISTORY OP PAPAL MUSIC.
We have no clear testimonies main this subject beffire pace was restored to the Church: when bius.bius tell, us that di!rerent places were as,igned to the you mg anal old who sung psalms. St. Aogustine attributes the introduction of alternate chanting in the \Vest, to St. Ambrose, who, during his residence in the East, had learned it. There is a well known passage in his Clmfeguons, where he describes the influence the music of the Milanese Church exercised on his vonversion, by moving him to tears of tenderness when he heard it. The system introduced by St. Ambrose is not known ; there is no doubt- hut it wag founded upon the ancient Greek system; and as what is now called the Gee. gorian chant is based upon it too, we cannot (Mutat but it bore a great resem- idance to this, amid was in fact either superadded or absorbed by the reform which Pop:: Gregory the Great introduced into church music. i am far from wishing to enter into technical details, but it may be interesting to many to know, in whlt the scale or keys of the Greg.?rian, or plain chant, differ tram those in ()valiantly music, and therefore, 1 will briefly speak of them. St. Gre- gory gave to the octave scale the mimes which it, notes now bear, A 13 C, &c. Aceording to his and the present systems of to isle, any of these notes may he the key-note; but then we now introduce its many flats and sharps 11.1. are ne- cery to make the tones and semitones fall at the same intervals in every major and minor key respectively. Hence a meb,dy written liar one key can be sung upon :mother, without any change resulting, except as to pitch. In the Gregorian chant likewise, any note may be the key-note; but no sharps or flats are allowed excepting 13 that in the key of V. Ilms in every key the po- sition of the semitones vomit's; anal a piece of inu,'e co p1 on one key or tome, is completely altered, and becomes insufferalole if transivused into another. Within a Inc ceuturies, sad corruptions had crept into the ecclesiastical music • and great disputes arose as to how many keys or tones there were in it. Those were nays of loyalty ; and the nice point was referred to Charlemagne. He studied the question deeply, took root oil, and issued his imperial decree, " that eight keys or mode, appeared quite sonic:amt. Remonstrances seem to have been made, especially by the Greeks; and a second mandate pronounced "there mire twelve modes."
ANCIENT AND MODERN ART.
have observed that the lamentations are not, perhaps, so expressive as some of Palestrina's other compositions. By that I mean, that little or no attempt is made to render the varied expression of each passage. Thais I consider an essential characteristic of this style of music, and conducive to its perfect effect. When we look upon an old sacred picture, every part is intended to produce a single impression. Whether our eye turn to the calm sky or the smiling land- scape, or the saints that stand in simple attitude on either side, or on the coun- tenance of them that are in the middle enthroned, there is a aunty of tone and sentiment, and an unmingled feeling of devotion is consequently excited.. The old masters generally excluded from their crucifixions the ruffianly soldiers and crowd ; and only allowed the compassionating friends of Jesus to be seen about his cross. Modern artists think they gain by contrast, as they certainly do in pictorial effect, exactly just as much as they lose in moral power ; and there- fore introduce groups of executioners and barbarous foes, who alloy the purer feelings of the scene with earthly passion. Such seems to Inc the precise dif- ference between the older and the later musical performers even of the Papal chapel. Those of old took their tone from the character of the entire piece, not from particular words. They would, in a varied hymn, like the" Gloria," pass from the major to the minor mode to express the feeling of each part ; but there was no attempt to catch at words : "lie descended into hell " and "he ascended into heaven," were not expressed, as in modern music, by runs from the top to the bottom of the gamut, and vice versa. They overlooked minor details, which would have broken into the general design, and checked the plan of swelling emotion which a course of music, in uniform style of ex- pression, must produce.
There is a certain class of persons, whose numbers are not few, which cannot draw Christ's own distinction between God and Ciesar, but seems to think that all knowledge of the history or doctrine of a rival creed, is as great a sin as a Brahmin's contact with the countless things which his superstition deems an impurity. To such persons recommendation of a Roman Catholic work is useless : those who are not restrained by such scruples, will find Dr. WISEMAN'S Lec- tures an able and rather elegant exposition of a curious subject; while it may serve the intended visitor to Rome as a general religious guide-book for Easter, and, in its commentaries on some neglected specimens of art, for any other time.
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