Church Music Association Public Rehearsal

“C. M. A. rehearsal—Steinway, 3 ½ p.m.—was largely patronized, in spite of bad weather. Sat mostly with Miss Rosalie [Ruggles] & Miss Lucy [Derby, his niece], the sunshiny. Few damsels of twenty emit luminous & activic rays so copiously. Each is sympathetic & charming. But I was dull & perhaps dyspeptic (up too late last night, possibly) & though in such congenial company, I could not feel the music as I knew I ought to feel it. The Raff overture is not a first-rate work—hardly a first-rate second-rate work. The subject of its chorale (‘Ein feste Burg’ u.s.w.) seems to me harsh angular & repulsive. The Mass (Haydn no. 2) & Preciosa marched well.”