These have their advantages and their peculiar effects, but they
lack that mellowed richness of tone which seems an art belonging to the
builders of the past.
Presently the Doctor ceased, and producing a roll of music told me it
was a Service he was accustomed to have each Easter, and asked me to
listen and say what I thought of it.
It would be impossible for me to express in words the admiration I felt
on hearing it. It was a most masterly composition, and was moreover
entirely original and unlike the writing of any known composer. It
possessed an individuality which distinguished it from every other work
of a like nature. All one could say with certainty about it was that it
was not modern music. There was a simplicity and a severity about it
which stamped it unmistakably as belonging to an age anterior even to
Bach or Handel: modern writers employ more ornamentation and are not so
restricted in their harmonies; modern art sanctions a greater liberty, a
less simplicity of method, and a less rigid conformity to rule.
The movement which most impressed me was the Credo.
There was a certainty of conviction in its opening phrases pointing to
a real earnestness of purpose. It was as if the composer's faith had
successfully withstood all the doubts, anxieties, and conflicts of life.
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