| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
|
|||
|
MUSIC IN EUROPE. |
311 |
||
|
|
|||
|
show how high partizan feeling ran in musical matters at this era. It is as follows,—
" The most pious King Charles having returned to celebrate Easter at Rome with the apostolic Lord, a great quarrel ensued during the festival, between the Roman and Gallic singers. The French pretended to sing better and more agreeable than the Italians; the Italians, on the contrary, regarding themselves as more learned in Ecclesiastical music, in which they had been instructed by St. Gregory, accused their competitors of corrupting, disfiguring, and spoiling the new chant. The dispute being brought before our sovereign 'ord the king, the French, thinking themselves sure of his countenance and support, insulted the Roman singers; who, on their part, emboldened by superior knowledge, and comparing the musical abilities of their great master, St. Gregory, with the ignorance and rusticity of their rivals, treated them as fools and barbarians."
"As their altercation was not likely to come to a speedy issue, the most pious King Charles asked his chanters which they thought to be the purest and best water, that which was drawn from the source at the fountain-head, or that which after being mixed with turbid and muddy rivulets, was found at a great distance from the original spring?"
" They exclaimed unanimously, that all water must be most pure at its source; upon which our ord the King, said, ' mount ye then up to the pure fountain of St. Gregory, whose chant ye have manifestly corrupted.' After this our lord the king, applied to Pope Adrian (the first) for |
|||
|
|
|||