Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/53

Rh Madam Fodor could regale herself at will with the lacteal extract.  

All priests are not musical, and, queer as it may seem, all musicians are not religious! The writer once interviewed a priest as to the musical characters in the antiphonal and breviary and found him entirely ignorant as to the note values, pitch indications, and musical characters generally. On showing him a breviary dated 1692 we found the notation virtually the same as in the service book of to-day. The C clef appeared somewhat like a double square note or two notes joined together. But the good father, oblivious to the mission or use of a clef sign, said it did bother him to see how they could expect a man to sing two notes at once!

Another kind of priest was Antonio Vivaldi. He was a good violinist and, in his way, quite a composer. Once, when officiating at Mass, a musical idea occurred to him, and not wishing to lose it, he left the altar and, going to the vestry, jotted it down for future use, and then returned to his place in the church and resumed the service.

This was so out of the usual order of things that his superiors forbade his continuance in the priestly service. However, the bishop in charge of the diocese, evidently having a weak spot in his heart for the musical art and its followers, although put to it to find an excuse for the breach of duty, restored Vivaldi to his post, on the ground that, "being a musician, he could not have been in his right mind," a conclusion more flattering to the good bishop's kindness of heart than to musicians generally. But of such one-sided material are the clergy occasionally made.