Each of the oratorios is really a descriptive mass, which from beginning
to end traces out one dominating thought. Don Perosi said to me: "The
mistake of artists to-day is that they attach themselves too much to
details and neglect the whole. They begin by carving ornaments, and
forget that the most important thing is the unity of their work, its
plan and general outline. The outline must first of all be beautiful."
In his own musical architecture one finds well-marked airs, numerous
recitatives, Gregorian or Palestrinian choruses, chorales with
developments and variations in the old style, and intervening symphonies
of some importance.
The whole work is to be preceded by a grand prelude, very carefully
worked out, to which Don Perosi attaches particular worth. He wishes, he
says, that his building shall have a beautiful door elaborately carved
after the fashion of the artists of the Renaissance and Gothic times.
And so he means to compose the prelude after the rest of the oratorio is
finished, when he is able to think about it in undisturbed peace. He
wishes to concentrate a moral atmosphere in it, the very essence of the
soul and passions of his sacred drama.
Pages:
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270