Page:Selected letters of Mendelssohn 1894.djvu/69

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Points like the commencement of this, where all the voices unite in one grace-note, occur very often, and one becomes accustomed to them. The whole, however, is really noble. I wish you could hear the tenor of the first choir take the high A on Theos. The way in which they bring out the tone is so penetrating and yet so gentle, that the effect is most touching. This passage they repeated till all in the chapel had knelt before the crucifix, and as it happened that there was no great crowd, I unluckily did not hear it so often as I would have wished. But I can well understand why the Improperia made the greatest impression on Goethe; it is really the most complete of rituals, music and ceremonial meeting there in their fullest measure. There follows now a procession of the host which on the evening before had been placed in another chapel of the Quirinal and adored there by the light of many hundred tapers. After that the office for the mornimg came to an end about half-past one with a hymn in plain song. At half-past four the first “nocturnum,” commenced with psalms, lections, etc., and I took notes of several things. I heard Baini’s Miserere, and about seven we took our way behind the cardinals through the lighted vestibule homewards. And thus it all came to an end. I wished to give you an exact description of the Holy Week, dear professor, for to me those were beautiful days, and every hour brought something I had long waited for, and made it mine. I was especially pleased that in spite of the strain and all the comments from this side or that, praising or