Church Music Association Rehearsal

“C. M. A. rehearsal tonight with Ellie. Satisfactory. Evening was devoted to Kyrie of Beethoven in D, & Gloria, down to the Quoniam. These movements were worked at very hard & in detail—many passages were repeated four or five times, & single parts (bassi, etc.) drilled separately. Then we tried part of the refreshing Lorelei. These movements of the Mass begin to glimmer out into form & comeliness as one knows them better. I agree with Ellie that this work is to be described by adjectives which it would require thought & study accurately to select. ‘Grand’—‘splendid’—‘profound’—‘magnificent,’ etc., do not fit. It seems unlike any music I know, except some of the Beethoven symphonies & overtures, and it resembles them with a certain undefinable but most manifest difference. It is not melodic. I cannot recall three consecutive notes of melody from what I heard tonight. Perhaps it may be in some degree ‘dramatic.’ But it would not surprise me to find it, on better acquaintance, among the most wonderful of extant works, & worthy all Lady Eastlake wrote about it in her Quarterly Review article (1848). The ‘Et in terra pax’ & the ‘Gratias,’ etc., dawned on me pretty clearly tonight.”