Deum verum!
Plebem voco!
Congrego clerum!"

Again with increasing power Lucifer shouts his command:--

"Lower! Lower!
Hover downward!
Seize the loud, vociferous bells, and
Clashing, clanging to the pavement,
Hurl them from their windy tower!"

As before, the chorus responds in a sweet harmonious strain ("All thy
Thunders here are harmless"), again followed by the slow and sonorous
chant of the bells:--

"Defunctos ploro!
Pestem fugo!
Festa decoro!"

Lucifer reiterates his command with constantly increasing energy:--

"Shake the casements
Break the painted
Panes that flame with gold and crimson;
Scatter them like leaves of autumn,
Swept away before the blast."

In its response this time the chorus is full of energy and impetuosity as
it shouts with great power, "O, we cannot! the Archangel Michael flames
from every window." The chant of the bells is now taken by the basses
alone:--

"Funera plango!
Fulgura frango!
Sabbato pango!"

Lucifer makes his last appeal with all the strength that voice and
orchestra can reach:--

"Aim your lightnings
At the oaken
Massive, iron-studded portals!
Sack the house of God, and scatter
Wide the ashes of the dead."

In the choral response ("The Apostles and the Martyrs wrapped in
Mantles") the sopranos and altos are in unison, making with the first and
second tenors a splendid effect. For the last time the first and second
basses sing the chant of the bells:--

"Excito lentos!
Dissipo ventos!
Paco cruentos!"

With no abatement of vigor the baffled Lucifer sounds his signal for
retreat, and the voices reply, sopranos and altos in unison:--

"Onward! onward!
With the night-wind,
Over field and farm and forest,
Lonely homestead, darksome hamlet,
Blighting all we breathe upon."

As the voices die away, choir, organ, and orchestra join with majestic
effect in the intonation of the Gregorian chant:--

"Nocte surgentes
Vigilemus omnes!
Laudemus Deum verum."

The cantata shows Liszt's talent rather than his genius. It is a
wonderful mosaic-work of fancies, rather than an original, studied
composition with definite purpose. Its motives, while not inspired, are
finely conceived, and are presented not only gracefully, but in keeping
with the spirituality of the subj