Before All Else
It Requires The Utmost Certainty In Intonation, Which Can Only Be
Attained By Practicing The Parts Singly (Especially The Middle
Parts, Second Tenor And First Bass) - And Then, Above All,
Religious Absorption, Meditation, Expansion, Ecstasy, Shadow,
Light, Soaring - In A Word, Catholic Devotion And Inspiration.
The
"Credo," as if built on a rock, should sound as steadfast as the
dogma itself; a mystic and
Ecstatic joy should pervade the
"Sanctus;" the "Agnus Dei" (as well as the "Miserere" in the
"Gloria") should be accentuated, in a tender and deeply elegiac
manner, by the most fervent sympathy with the Passion of Christ;
and the "Dona nobis pacem," expressive of reconciliation and full
of faith, should float away like sweet-smelling incense. The
Church composer is both preacher and priest, and what the word
fails to bring to our powers of perception the tone makes winged
and clear.
You know all this at least as well as I do, and I must apologize
for repeating it to you. If the extent of the chorus allows of
it, it might perhaps be desirable to add a few more wind
instruments (clarinets, bassoon, horns, indeed even a couple of
trombones) to support the voices more. If you think so too,
please send me a line to say so, and I will at once send you a
small score of the wind instruments. [Herbeck himself undertook,
at Liszt's desire (which, as he wrote, filled him with joy and
pride), to write the instrumental accompaniment to the Mass.] You
shall have the vocal parts from Jena immediately.
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