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 CHESTER

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CHESTER

When the Conservatoire was organized in 1795, Cheru- bim was appointed one of the inspectors. This was about the only distinction conferred upon him during all the years he laboured in Paris. His high ideals, his independent disposition, but above all the pure, lofty character of his music, were responsible for his failure to become popular with his eontemporaries, and especially with Xapolron I. In 1805 Cherubini n ceived an invitation from Vienna to write an opera and to direct it in person. " l'aniska" was produced the following year and received the enthusiastic ap- probation of the musical world in general, and in par- ticular, of Haydn and Beethoven. The latter espe- cially admired Cherubini, considering him to be the test dramatic composer of his time. Napoleon, holding his court at SehSnbrunn during Cherubini's visit to Vienna, pressed him into service and com- manded him to take charge of his court concerts. In spite of this, Cherubini could not win the approval of the emperor. The latter preferred the lighter Italian style of Paisiello and Zingarelli, who wrote music to winch, in the words of Cherubini, Napoleon might listen without ceasing to think about affairs of slate. It was hoped thai the opera "Pygmalion", which he brought out after lie returned to Paris, would secure for the composer the favour and protection of the head of the State, but in vain.

Disappointed and discouraged by lack of recog- nition, Cherubini produced scarcely anything in the two years which followed. He was broken-hearted and in ill health. He accepted an invitation from the Prince de Chimay to visit him and recuperate, and then devoted most of his time to drawing and the study of botany, Thi dedication of a church in the village of Chimay was the circumstance which changed his career. He was requested to write a mass for this occasion, and the great Mass in F was the result. For thirty years he had written for the

and hail failed to find popular favour. His art was too lofty for general appreciation. Although he did not now entirely forsake the dramatic form (five more operas cam.- from his hand after the Mass in F) he was more and more drawn again toward the field of church music, which he had not cultivated for eighteen years. Cherubini's great inventiveness and powers of expression were now at their height. His previous activity and experience had developed and matured him both morally and artistically, fitting him for the creation of works he has left us. In a material sense also there was soon to be a change for the better. In 1815 the London Philharmonic Society commissioned him to write a symphony, an overture, and a composition for chorus and orchestra, the performance of which he went especially to Lon- don to conduct. Tliis increased his fame abroad. After the accession of Louis XVIII to the throne, Cherubini's fortunes rose rapidly. He was succes- sively appointed Royal Superintendent of Music and Director of the Conservatoire. He was now at the head of music in prance. Lor the first time in his career he enjoyed tie- favour and approval of those in power and the recognition of the people in general. His greatest works were written during this period, the head of the ( Sonservatoire he influenced the growing generation of musicians, and was an effective barrier against the incipient school of impressionism headed by young Berlioz. Cherubini remained active until 1841, when he resigned his various official posi- tions. Remarkable for organic unity of style, eleva- tion of form, truth of expression and ingenious orches- tration as are Cherubini's dramatic works, he became truly himself in his creations for liturgical texts. The sublimity of conception, vividness, and sustained 1 lower displayed in his Mass in F, in the Mass in A writ- ten for the coronation of Charles X. his two requiems

ially the one in I) minor for three men's voices and orchestra, which he wrote for his own funeral).

place these works among the greatest in all musical literature. Pathetic tenderness alternates with epical grandeur and brilliancy. They are master-works of religious music but are not, available for liturgical purposes. The immoderate length of most of them and their violently dramatic character at times ex- clude them from use during Divine service. .More- over, he takes liberties with the sacred text. Cheru- bini's masses, like Beethoven's " Missa Solemnis ", are frequently performed in Germany and elsewhere on festival occasions when large vocal and instrumental bodies unite for the interpretation of the loftiest musical productions of the human mind. Cherubini left some 450 works, about 100 of which have ap- peared in print. Among them are 1 1 masses, 2 re- quiems, motets, litanies, cantatas, and 25 operas.

Chowest, Cherubini, A Monograph (London, 1890); Bel- lasis, Memorials of Cherufnni i,I.uii<lnii, lS7lil; Uriel, Vie de Cherubini (Paris, 1842).

Joseph Otten.

Chester, Ancient Diocese of (Cestrensis), in England. Though the See of Chester, schismatically created by Henry VIII in 1541, was recognized by the Holy See only for the short space of Queen Mary's reign, the city had in earlier times possessed a bishop and a cathedral, though only intermittently. Even before the Norman Conquest the title "Bishop of Chester" is found in documents applied to prelates who would be more correctly described as Bishops of Mercia or even of Lichfield. After the Council of London in 1075 had decreed the transfer of all epis- copal chairs to cities, Peter. Bishop of Lichfield, re- moved his seat from Lichfield to Chester, and became known as Bishop of Chester. There he chose the collegiate Church of St. John the Baptist as his cathe- dral The next bishop, however, transferred the see to Coventry on account of the rich monastery there, though he retained the episcopal palace at Chester. The Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield was of enor- mous extent, and it was probably found convenient to have something analogous to a cathedral at Ches- ter, even though the cathedra itself were elsewhere; accordingly we find that the church of St. John ranked as acathedral for a considerable time, and had its own dean and chapter of secular canons down to the time of the Reformation. But the chief ecclesias- tical foundation in Chester was the Benedictine monastery of St. Werburgh, the great church of which finally became the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The site had been oc- cupied even during the Christian period of the Roman occupation by a church dedicated to Sts. Petei nil Paul, and rededicated to St. Werburgh and Si. Oswald during the Saxon period. This church was Served by a small chapter of secular canons until 1093, when Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, converted it into a great Benedictine monastery, in which foun- dation he had the co-operation of St. Anselm, then Prior of Bee, who sent Richard, one of his monks, to be the first abbot. A new .Norman church was built by him and his successors. The monastery, though suffering loss of property both by t he depredations oi the Welsh and the inroads of the sea. prospered, and in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the monks transformed their Norman church into a Gothic building which, though not to be reckoned among the greatest cathedrals of England, yet is not unworthy of its rank, and affords a valuable study in I he evolution of Gothic architecture. It has been said of it that "at every turn it is satisfying in small particulars and disappointing in great feature-". The last of the abbots was John, or Thomas, Clark, who resigned his abbey, valued at £1,0011 5s. lid. per annum, to the king.

In 1541 Henry VIII, having thrown off all obedi- ence to the pope, created six new bishoprics, one of which was Chester. The archdeaconry of Chester,