Lorenzo Perosi

Don Perosi, with its Sistine Chapel , ca. 1905

Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi (born December 21,   1872 in Tortona , Piedmont , † October 12, 1956 in Rome ) was a Catholic priest and one of the most celebrated and productive composers of sacred music in Italy. He was the only member of the Giovane Scuola , the “young school” that did not write operas. It had its greatest international success between 1890 and 1910. It was praised by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Romain Rolland , and several Popes, including Pope Saint Pius X, were friends with him. From the pontificate of Leo XIII. until almost the end of the pontificate of Pius XII. he was Kapellmeister of the papal music band and thus chief responsible for the music in the papal liturgy .

Life

From his youth to his great fame

Young genius Don Lorenzo Perosi, photo postcard from the 1890s

In June 1888, at the age of fifteen, he made his first trip to Rome with his father . On this occasion he offered Pope Leo XIII. some of his compositions. After studying at the Conservatories of Rome and Milan , his father sent him to Montecassino Abbey at the end of 1890 , where he earned his living as an organist, singing master and piano teacher and busily studied chorale. This was exactly the time when Regensburg and the Benedictine Abbey of Solesmes were debating the authentic interpretation of Gregorian chant .

In 1891 and 1892 Perosi studied harmony and counterpoint again at the Milan Conservatory, together with the famous professor and composer Michele Saladino . In January 1893 he studied at the world-famous church music school in Regensburg with Franz Xaver Haberl . He also continued his correspondence studies with Professor Saladino. Haberl was so enthusiastic about him that he offered him a double position as a church music school professor and Regensburg cathedral organist. However, the precocious and homesick boy politely declined.

Perosi returned to his old apprenticeship home in Vigévano (Lombardy) and received the important post of Kapellmeister and seminar director in Ímola. In 1894 he met Monsignor Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto (1835-1914), Bishop of Mantua and later Pope Pius X , who offered him the position of Kapellmeister of San Marco as the future Patriarch of Venice . This meeting on May 25, 1894 was to have far-reaching consequences for Perosi himself, but also for the Musica sacra in general.

Perosi and Arturo Toscanini , in Milan at the world premiere of Mosè ( 1901 )

After Perosi had visited the abbeys of Seckau , Beuron and Solesmes, he was ordained a deacon on September 22, 1894. At Christmas 1894 he directed the Cappella Marciana of Venice for the first time. Perosi was ordained a priest on May 25, 1895.

The certificate of appointment as Kapellmeister of the Roman Cappella Sistina , dated November 15, 1898, was taken by Perosi in a private audience on December 15, 1898 from the hands of Pope Leo XIII. (1878–1903). He was now Maestro Perpetuo della Cappella Musicale Pontificia - Kapellmeister of the papal band for life.

When Perosi took up these important posts in Ímola, Venice and finally Rome, his most productive creative period began. All of Perosi's great works, from small motets to great oratorios, were written during these years. As musical advisor to Pope Pius X , he was named as co-author of the Motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini (On Church Music).

The last few years

From 1907 physical and mental problems increased with him. Rumors circulated that he was "crazy". In 1922 he was even declared insane. But just a year later, Perosi was busier than ever.

Perosi's final years were marked by many triumphs. The new departure soon began with the international congresses for church music. During this time Perosi was supported in the management of the Cappella Sistina by Don Antonio Rella (1869-1951) until finally in 1952 Don Domenico Bartolucci , who later became a cardinal, became his official assistant and was to succeed him after his death. In 1953 Perosi received an Antonio Feltrinelli Prize . On March 12, 1955, on the sixteenth anniversary of the coronation celebrations of Pope Pius XII. , Perosi conducted the Cappella Sistina for the last time.

A few hours before his death he said this prayer of thanks: “ Ti ringrazio Signore, di avermi fatto cristiano, di avermi fatto sacerdote, di avermi fatto scrivere quello che il mondo canta e canterà in tua lode. Amen. “-“ I thank you, Lord, that you have brought me into the world as a Christian, that you have called me to be a priest, that you have let me write what the world sings and will sing to your praise. Amen."

Works (selection)

Oratorios

• La Passione di Cristo secondo S. Marco (1897)
• La Trasfigurazione di Cristo (1898)
• La Risurrezione di Lazzaro (1898)
• La Risurrezione di Cristo (1898)
• Il Natale del Redentore (1899)
• La Strage degli Innocenti (1900)
• Il Giudizio Universale (1904)
• Transitus Animae (1907)

measure up

• Missa In Honorem Ss. Gervasii et Protasii (1895)
• Mass “Te Deum Laudamus” (1897)
• Missa Eucharistica (1897)
• Missa (Prima) Pontificalis (1897)
• Messa da Requiem (1897)
• Missa “Benedicamus Domino” (1899)
• Missa Cerviana
• Missa Secunda Pontificalis (1906)

Instrumental

• 14 string quartets
• Piano quartets
• Violin concerts
• Clarinet Concerto

Symphonic poems

• Mosè (1900)

literature

German

• Helmut Hesse: Lorenzo Perosi. His life and his music . In Musica Sacra , vol. 101, 1981, No. 5, pp. 343-349.
• Romain Rolland : Musicians of Today . Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1972

English

• Leonardo Ciampa : Don Lorenzo Perosi . Bloomington 2006, ISBN 1-4259-3440-4

Italian

• Andrea Amadori: Lorenzo Perosi. Documenti e inediti . Lucca 1999, ISBN 88-7096-233-4
• Adriano Bassi: Don Lorenzo Perosi. L'uomo, il compositore e il religioso . Fasano 1994, ISBN 88-7514-708-6
• Adelmo Damerini: Lorenzo Perosi . Rome 1924.
• Ferdinand Haberl : Lorenzo Perosi 1872-1956 . In Musica Sacra , Vol. 92, 1972, No. 5, pp. 247-249.
• Graziella Merlatti, Lorenzo Perosi, una vita tra genio e follia . Genova, 2006, ISBN 88-514-0330-9
• Z. Musmeci: Don Lorenzo Perosi e le sue opere . Acireale 1932.
• Teodoro Onofri: Lorenzo Perosi nei Giorni Imolesi . Imola 1977.
• Sergio Pagano: L'epistolario "vaticano" di Lorenzo Perosi . Genova 1996, ISBN 88-211-9120-6
• Mario Rinaldi: Lorenzo Perosi . Rome 1967.
• Marino Sanarica: Lorenzo Perosi . Rimini 1999. ISBN 88-804-9161-X

swell

1. ↑ The Grove Dictionary says December 20th. However, all of Rinaldi’s sources onwards give the 21st (Rinaldi’s page 17 of this gives a detailed argument).
2. ↑ According to Perosi specialist Arturo Sacchetti , Perosi put together between 3,000 and 4,000 works. This number is confirmed in the biography by Merlatti and that by Ciampa (v. "Literature").