- Don Lorenzo Perosi
Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi (
21 December 1872 -12 October 1956 ) was an Italiancomposer ofsacred music and the only member of theGiovane Scuola who did not write opera. In the late 1890s, while he was still only in his 20s, Perosi was an internationally celebrated composer of sacred music, especially large-scaleoratorio s.Nobel Prize winnerRomain Rolland wrote: "It’s not easy to give you an exact idea of how popular Lorenzo Perosi is in his native country." ["Le Journal des Débats" (21 November 1899)] Perosi's fame was not restricted to Europe. A 19 March 1899 "New York Times" article entitled “The Genius of Don Perosi” began: "The great and ever-increasing success which has greeted the four new oratorios of Don Lorenzo Perosi has placed this young priest-composer on a pedestal of fame which can only be compared with that which has been accorded of late years to the idolizedPietro Mascagni by his fellow-countrymen."Gianandrea Gavazzeni made the same comparison: "The sudden clamors of applause, at the end of the [19th] century, were just like those a decade earlier for Mascagni." [Massimo Bruni, "Lorenzo Perosi" (Tortona, 1972), p. 9.] Perosi worked for fivePope s, includingPope St. Pius X who greatly fostered his rise.Biography
Early Years and Education
of the Milan Conservatory. Even when he was not enrolled at the Conservatory, Perosi kept up a correspondence course with Saladino.
In 1890, 18 years old and still a student, Perosi obtained his first professional post: organist and “teacher of the piano novices” at the
Abbey of Montecassino . He received his diploma from the Milan Conservatory in 1892, following which he spent an influential year of study withFranz Xaver Haberl inRegensburg , at the Kirchenmusikschule that Haberl had founded in 1874. A noted musician and musicologist, Haberl was the pioneering editor of the complete works ofPalestrina andLassus . Perosi’s development was such that Haberl offered him a "cattedra" (“chair,” or permanent teaching position) in the Kirchenmusikschule. The homesick Perosi politely declined, in favour of a post as teacher and director of sacred music atImola . As Perosi himself explained, he “desired and prayed at length to the Lord to be able to do something for the music of God in Italy.” [Letter from Perosi to Mons. Domenico Baruzzi, secretary to Bishop Tesorieri of Imola (13 September 1893). Riproduced in Onofri, pp. 39-40.] Perosi served in Imola from November 1892, to August 1894.In 1894 Perosi went to
Solesmes Abbey to study with the Gregorianists Dom André Mocquereau and Dom Joseph Pothier. The Renaissance polyphony he learned from Haberl, and theGregorian chant he studied in Solesmes were the two pillars upon which the entire ɶuvre of Perosi rested.Years in Venice
From Imola, Perosi obtained a more important post, that of Maestro of the
Cappella Marciana at San Marco's Basilica inVenice . This Venetian appointment resulted from the deep friendship between Perosi and Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto, then Patriarca di Venezia (Patriarch of Venice) but soon to bePope Pius X (and still later Pope Saint Pius X). Sarto was a profound music-lover who was disturbed by the roughly hundred years (c.1800-1900) that Gregorian Chant was absent from the Church. A more operatic, entertaining style of music prevailed. Thus, Perosi found in Sarto not only a friend and kindred spirit, but also a staunch sponsor.Perosi’s Venetian appointment (1894) unleashed a torrent of music that lasted at least until 1907. He continued to compose prolifically until his death, but this 13-year period produced some of his most substantial work.
In 1895, Perosi became a priest, having been ordained by his good friend Cardinal Patriarch Sarto (the later
Saint Pius X ) himself. It should also be mentioned thatSt. Luigi Orione was, like Perosi, born in Tortona in 1872. The three men — Orione, Perosi, and Sarto — were all dear friends and mutual inspirers.Don Perosi was inspired by the later Pope Pius X also to infuse priestly sanctity into the music, and Perosi daily offered Mass and spent many hours in prayer.
Vatican Appointment
. Pius was against the practice of human castration and decreed that only “whole men” would be allowed to be priests or singers in the Church.)
Perosi remained Maestro Perpetuo till his death over 50 years later, in spite of interruptions in his directorship. After 1907, Perosi began to suffer more intensely from psychological and neurological problems, caused by his problematic (probably breach) birth. [Rinaldi, "Lorenzo Perosi", p. 20.] These afflictions reached their apex in 1922; many declared him “incurable.” The composer did spend many months in comparative seclusion; some sources suggest he was briefly institutionalized [Waterhouse, John C.G. "Lorenzo Perosi." Grove music online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 20 December 2006). www.grovemusic.com.] , although recent scholarship suggests that this was not the case, and that he did not change residence in 1922. [A lengthy discussion of Perosi's psychological health can be found in Ciampa, "Don Lorenzo Perosi"] In fact, the very next year, 1923, Perosi had fully resumed his administrative and compositional activity; in the last decade of his life, he also maintained a busy conducting schedule. [Rinaldi, "Lorenzo Perosi", pp. 374 ff.]
Compositions
According to biographer Graziella Merlatti, Perosi was the most prolific composer of sacred music of the 20th century. [Merlatti, Graziella (2006). "Lorenzo Perosi, una vita tra genio e follia", Chapter 1.] According to musicologist
Arturo Sacchetti 's estimate, Perosi composed 3,000-4,000 works. [Merlatti, Graziella (2006). "Lorenzo Perosi, una vita tra genio e follia", Preface.] All of the sources mentioned in the bibliography agree that Perosi was the most influential composer of theCecilian Movement .Despite the relative obscurity of his name today, Perosi was a prominent member of the
Giovane Scuola , of which the most importantVerismo composers orVeristi (Puccini, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Giordano, and Cilea) were all considered members. An entire chapter is dedicated to Perosi in Romain Rolland’s "Musiciens d’Aujourd’hui" (1899). Perosi was deeply admired not only by Rolland and by the above-named Veristi, but also by Boito, Toscanini, and many others. Caruso sang his music, as did Sammarco, Tagliabue, Gigli, and other great singers from that era, and also quite a few in modern times, such asFiorenza Cossotto ,Mirella Freni ,Renato Capecchi , and fellow TortoneseGiuseppe Campora . His French admirers included Debussy, Massenet, Guilmant, and d’Indy, all of whom were impressed by the 1899 French Première of "La Risurrezione di Cristo". [See Bassi. A chapter is devoted to quotations by the above-listed French composers pertinent to this premiere.] Unlike the other members of the Giovane Scuola, Perosi was significantly influenced by pre-Classical repertoire. Romain Rolland reports that Perosi said: "Great artists formerly were more eclectic than ourselves, and less fettered by their nationalities.... We must do as they did. We must try to recreate an art in which the arts of all countries and all times are blended." [cite book |first=Romain |last=Rolland |others=trans. Mary Blaiklock |title=Musicians of Today |publisher=Books For Libraries Press |place=Freeport, NY |year=1969 |isbn=0836911881 |origyear=1908 |pages=204-205 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=48teN57l76EC&pg=PA204&vq=perosi&dq=%22lorenzo+perosi%22&sig=AGWo3YK5vxF_-prM3lLyfWCQpx0]In his day, Perosi was best known for his oratorios, large-scale works for chorus, soloists, and orchestra based on Latin texts. While the works can seem slow-paced today, at the time they were quite novel not only for their fusion of Renaissance polyphony, Gregorian chant, and lush, Verismo melodies and orchestrations, but also for Perosi’s deep-seated faith in the words that he had set. The
oratorio as a genre had been in decline in the preceding centuries, and Perosi's contributions to the canon brought him brief but significant international acclaim. [Waterhouse, John C.G. "Lorenzo Perosi." Grove music online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 20 December 2006). www.grovemusic.com.]In addition to the oratorios and masses for which he is best known, Perosi also wrote secular music — symphonic poems, chamber music, concertos, etc. In his youth, he also wrote pieces for organ. According to Perosi scholar
Arturo Sacchetti , Perosi wrote a total of three or four "thousand" compositions. [Quoted in Ciampa and Merlatti.] A great many still await publication; some have not yet been located.Giacomo Puccini is quoted as saying that "There's more music in Perosi's head than in mine andMascagni 's put together." [Bassi, Adriano, "Don Lorenzo Perosi: L'uomo, il compositore e il religioso" (Fasano di Brindisi, 1994), p. 226]List of major works
Oratorios
* "La Passione di Cristo" (1897)
* "La Trasfigurazione di Cristo" (1898)
* "La Risurrezione di Lazzaro" (1898)
* "La Risurrezione di Cristo" (1898)
* "Il Natale del Redentore" (1899)
* "La Strage degli Innocenti" (1900)
* "Il Giudizio Universale" (1904)
* "Transitus Animae" (1907)Masses and mottetti
* "Missa In Honorem Ss. Gervasii et Protasii" (1895)
* "Missa "Te Deum Laudamus" (1897)
* "Missa Eucharistica" (1897)
* "Missa [Prima] Pontificalis" (1897)
* "Messa da Requiem" (1897)
* "Missa "Benedicamus Domino" (1899)
* "Missa Cerviana"
* "Missa Secunda Pontificalis" (1906)
* Numerous mottetti ("melodie sacre")Perosi's Successor
*Perosi was succeeded as director of the Sistine Choir and Papal musician by his assistant,
monsignor Domenico Bartolucci (*Borgo San Lorenzo ,May 7 ,1917 ) in 1956, who remained at this post until 1997. Bartolucci, who was rehabilitated in 2006 underpope Benedict XVI , has been harshly critical of Perosi, whom he has blamed for the deterioration of Church music. [Magister, Sandro, [http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/72901?eng=y "I Had a Dream: The Music of Palestrina and Gregory the Great Had Come Back"] ]References
Biographies
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