Trinity Church Christmas Service

Event Information

Venue(s):
Trinity Church

Conductor(s):
A. H. Messiter

Event Type:
Choral

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
1 November 2025

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

25 Dec 1874, 10:00 AM

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
LIST OF PERFORMER(S)/ORGANIZATION(S)
Participants:  Orchestra, unidentified;  Trinity Church Choir
2)
Mass, D. 950, E-flat major, selections
Composer(s): Schubert
3)
Mass, H. XXII, 3, G major. Kyrie
Composer(s): Haydn

Citations

1)
: Strong, George Templeton. New-York Historical Society. The Diaries of George Templeton Strong, 1863-1869: Musical Excerpts from the MSs, transcribed by Mary Simonson. ed. by Christopher Bruhn., 25 December 1874.

“Morning service [Trinity Church] at 10, communion at 11…The Schubert music was beautiful & well rendered. Haydn’s ‘Gloria Tibi’ (i.e., Kyrie) most Xmatesque, joyous & lovely. The Bach offertory was botched & bad. Why will the greatly daring Messiter attempt such things? Were this crabbed, fugue-y music perfectly rendered, it would still be a wearisome, dull puzzle to 9/10 of the congregation. Unless rendered with perfect crispness & precision, it is torture to the other 1/10. But it cannot be even decently rendered while orchestra & choir are so far apart. Hence these fugue ornaments were mere chaos. Orchestra & choir ran to & fro & up & down—in wandering mazes lost—like two kittens chasing their respective tails—& did their rapid scales or exercises with a noble independence of each other. The result was a charivari. Morgan Dix’s sermon was short & good.”