directed by a religious strength like that of Bach. Even the portions
where the dramatic feeling is strongest are really little symphonies,
such as the music that describes the miracle in _The Transfiguration_,
and the illness of Lazarus. In the latter great depth of suffering is
expressed; indeed, sadness could not have been carried farther even by
Bach, and the same serenity of mind runs through its despair.

But what joy there is when these deeds of faith have been
performed--when Jesus has cured the possessed man, or when Lazarus has
opened his eyes to the light. The heart of the multitude overflows
perhaps in rather childish thanksgiving; and at first it seemed to me
expressed in a commonplace way. But did not the joy of all great artists
so express itself?--the joy of Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach, who, when
once they had thrown their cares aside, knew how to amuse themselves
like the rest of the populace. And the simple phrase at the beginning
soon assumes fuller proportions, the harmonies gain in richness, a
glowing ardour fills the music, and a chorale blends with the dances in
triumphant majesty.

All these works are radiant with a happy ease of expression. _The
Passion_ was finished in September, 1897, _The Transfiguration_ in
February, 1898. _Lazarus_ in June, 1898, and _The Resurrection of
Christ_ in November, 1898. Such an output of work takes us back to
eighteenth-century musicians.

But this is not the only resemblance between the young musician and his
predecessors. Much of their soul has passed into his. His style is made
up of all styles, and ranges from the Gregorian chant to the most modern
modulations. All available materials are used in this work. This is an
Italian characteristic. Gabriel d'Annunzio threw into his melting-pot
the Renaissance, the Italian painters, music, the writers of the North,
Tolstoy, Dostoievsky, Maeterlinck, and our French writers, and out of it
he drew his wonderful poems. So Don Perosi, in his compositions, welds
together the Gregorian chant, the musical style of the contrapuntists of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Palestrina, Roland, Gabrieli,
Carissimi, Schuetz, Bach, Haendel, Gounod, Wagner--I was going to say
Cesar Franck, but Don Perosi told me that he hardly knew this composer
at all, though his style bears some resemblance to Franck's.

Time does not exist for Don Perosi. When he courteously wished to praise
French musicians, the first name he chose--as if