his striking
silhouette, his slow and awkward gestures in expressive passages, and
his naive movements of passion at dramatic moments, bring to mind one of
Fra Angelico's monks.

For the last eighteen months Don Perosi has been working at a cycle of
twelve oratorios descriptive of the life of Christ. In this short time
he has finished four: _The Passion_, _The Transfiguration_, _The
Resurrection of Lazarus_, _The Resurrection of Christ_. Now he is at
work on the fifth--_The Nativity_.

These compositions alone place him in the front rank of contemporary
musicians. They abound in faults; but their qualities are so rare, and
his soul shines so clearly through them, and such fine sincerity
breathes in them, that I have not the courage to dwell on their
weaknesses. So I shall content myself with remarking, in passing, that
the orchestration is inadequate and awkward, and that the young musician
should strive to make it fuller and more delicate; and though he shows
great ease in composition, he is often too impetuous, and should resist
this tendency; and that, lastly, there are sometimes traces of bad taste
in the music and reminiscences of the classics--all of which are the
sins of youth, which age will certainly cure.

Each of the oratorios is really a descriptive mass, which from beginning
to end traces out one dominating thought. Don Perosi said to me: "The
mistake of artists to-day is that they attach themselves too much to
details and neglect the whole. They begin by carving ornaments, and
forget that the most important thing is the unity of their work, its
plan and general outline. The outline must first of all be beautiful."

In his own musical architecture one finds well-marked airs, numerous
recitatives, Gregorian or Palestrinian choruses, chorales with
developments and variations in the old style, and intervening symphonies
of some importance.

The whole work is to be preceded by a grand prelude, very carefully
worked out, to which Don Perosi attaches particular worth. He wishes, he
says, that his building shall have a beautiful door elaborately carved
after the fashion of the artists of the Renaissance and Gothic times.
And so he means to compose the prelude after the rest of the oratorio is
finished, when he is able to think about it in undisturbed peace. He
wishes to concentrate a moral atmosphere in it, the very essence of the
soul and passions of his sacred drama. He also confided to me that of
all he