Next follows: Circa nullitatem matrimonii ratione, raptus.
Next follows: Juris funerandi et restitutionis emolumentorum seu causa orta, occasione publici coemeterii noviter erecti.
Next comes an appendix, quod jus funerandi (pag. 24).
We shall have frequent occasion for the future to recur to this valuable collection.
II.
Grammar of Gregorian and Modern Music. Originally compiled by the Very Rev. L. F. Renehan, D.D., late President of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth. New and enlarged edition, containing numerous exercises, the Gregorian Chants for High Mass and the Divine Office; Litanies of the Blessed Virgin, instructions regarding the use of the organ, etc. By the Rev. Richard Hackett, Professor, Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Dublin: James Duffy. 1865, xxiv.—297. 12mo
This useful book is divided into five parts. The first part (p. 1-68) is a reprint of the Choir Manual published by the late Dr. Renehan for the use of the students of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and republished with additions in 1858 by the accomplished editor, or rather author, of the work under notice. This part contains a complete explanation of the theory and notation of Gregorian music, with some elementary instructions in modern Italian music. The remaining four parts and appendix (p. 69-297) we owe to the Rev. R. Hackett himself. The purpose of his labour has been to supply ecclesiastical students in this country with a complete manual of the principal chants which are sung at High Mass, Solemn Vespers, Benediction, Mass and Office for the Dead, etc. With this view he has collected into the second part an abundant supply of exercises on the intervals ordinarily in use in Gregorian music, together with a selection of easy chants in which these intervals occur. Part the third contains the principal chants of the office for the dead, of the Mass for the dead, and instructions on the method of chanting prayers. It is greatly to be regretted that there should exist a difference between the Roman method of chanting prayers and that in use in some dioceses in Ireland. We hope that, as far as Ireland is concerned, by help of the judicious selection of
Roman chants given in this work, we may soon be able to say with Guidetti (quoted by our author at page 134), though in another sense, semper et ubique sic cantatur. The present want of uniformity, appears still more unseemly when we learn (p. 158) that the epistle and gospel of the Mass for the dead are often chanted according to the Roman method in many dioceses in which the Irish intonation is used on other occasions. Part the fourth contains chants for High Mass. Part the fifth sets forth the chants for vespers, chants for Holy Week, including those used at the blessing of the oils on Holy Thursday, and miscellaneous chants. A great deal of most useful information is condensed in the five short appendixes which complete the work, respectively headed: directions for the choir and organist at High Mass—use of the organ at solemn vespers—playing of the organ at Mass and the Divine Office, when prohibited—directions for chanting the Divine Office—Office for the Dead—Gregorian and modern music—character of sacred music—instrumental accompaniments and symphonies—vernacular chants. In drawing up these instructions, the author has had recourse to the safest guides. His counsels are in exact accordance with the Caeremoniale Episcoporum, the Constitution Annus qui nunc of Benedict XIV., the decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and the teaching of approved writers. The Grammar has one other merit to which we wish to draw attention. Scattered here and there throughout the work, wherever the subject requires or permits, we find passages from the Milanese Councils of St. Charles Borromeo, or from the works of Cardinal Wiseman, or from other sources, which serve to inspire youthful ecclesiastics with a true estimate of the majesty of the Liturgy, and to draw their attention to those treasures of tender grace which it contains. It is pious and wise thus to remind ecclesiastics that it is the Vox Sponsae which speaks from their lips in the Divine Office.
Footnotes
[1] See Ex., iii. 22:—“But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment; and you shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters, and you shall spoil Egypt”.