Page:Selected letters of Mendelssohn 1894.djvu/54

40 Gimel, etc., and that the beautiful opening which one would think the very echo of heaven, falls on the words, “Incipit Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae Lectio I.” This is bound to stir up some hostile feeling in a Protestant, and would make almost an insuperable objection to introducing these compositions into our churches; when some one sings the words, “first chapter,” one cannot feel reverential however exquisite the music may be. My little volume says, indeed, “Having sung with deep anguish the prophecy of the crucifixion, we yet sing very mournfully ‘Aleph,’ and other such words, which are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, since they are customarily received in every chant in place of sorrowful exclamations. Each letter contains in itself the sentiment of the following verse as though it were its argument and epitome.” But that does not mend matters. After the “Lamentatio” they sang the 71st, 72nd, and 73rd psalms, in the same manner as the preceding, with antiphons. The latter were divided among the different voices quite arbitrarily, so that, in one instance, the sopranos begin, “In Monte Oliveti,” then the basses come in forte, “Oravit ad Patrem; Pater,” etc. Then follow extracts from the writings of St. Augustine on the Psalms. The peculiar manner in which these are sung impressed me indescribably on Palm Sunday, when I first heard them without knowing what they were.

A single voice takes up the chant in recitative on one note, not, however, as in the psalms, but slowly, and with emphasis, and giving the note its full value.