Maria and the Bellasis Family 22

 

Chapter 22

As soon as I got back to my room, I took up my pen and wrote a letter to Mother Francis’ brother Edward Bellasis.  I  explained my project to him, and said that his sister had suggested that he might have some material for me.  I told him that I was interested in the hymns themselves, but also in the reason behind them having been written.

It was several weeks before I heard back from him, but it was worth waiting for.  

Here is his letter:

Dear Miss Bowring,

Thank you for your letter and I will try to help with your request. My time is very much taken up with my work, so I shall probably have to send the information in segments. 

 Cardinal Newman’s eloquence as a preacher and as a writer is well known; less well known is his gift for and appreciation of music. Throughout his long life, he has approached music as a performing musician (violinist and chamber music), composer, and writer on music.

We all call the Cardinal  Father John, which is what he wants us to do. 

Father John’s love for music was probably encouraged by his father. He  began to study the violin at ten years of age. His sister  Jemima became an accomplished pianist and his two brothers used to accompany him in trios, Frank playing the bass.

At Oxford (we were there at the same time)  Father John was very active as a violinist in chamber music. Tom Mozley, husband of Father John’s  oldest sister, Harriett, describes his skill by saying that he had “attained such a proficiency on the violin that had he not become a Doctor of the Church, he would have been a Paganini”.

Composers of the Classical and early Romantic eras — Haydn, Mozart, Cherubini — are among Father John’s favourites, but the first place is accorded to Ludwig van Beethoven, whom he had christened “The Dutchman”, to annoy his music teacher. 

I  remember how Father John introduced the boys of The Oratory School to the music of Beethoven. They might start with Corelli, and go on to Romberg, Haydn, and Mozart: their ultimate goal was Beethoven, and round would come Father John with ancient copies of the quintet version of the celebrated septet, and arrangements from the symphonies; nor were the first ten quartets, the instrumental trios, the violin sonatas, and the overtures forgotten.

As for composing, he wrote to his mother when he was 20,  “I am glad to be able to inform you that Signor Giovanni Enrico Neandrini  has finished his first composition. The melody is light and airy, and is well supported by the harmony”. Actually, it was not his first composition, as he had already composed by age fourteen both the music and libretto for a comic opera.  

I know you are particularly interested in his hymns, so I shall go onto those now.  When he was in his 30’s he and a friend, Richard Harwell Fronde and his father were travelling in the Mediterraneum.  During this trip Father John wrote many poems, including “The Pillar of the Cloud”, better known by its first line, “Lead, Kindly Light”.

  In this poem we can begin to see how Father John  says that even in the midst of difficulty, he trusted in the mysterious nature of God’s providence. For example, in the opening lines, he asked God to illuminate the path through the uncertain times, even if he didn’t comprehend the full nature of the journey: Throughout the poem, he poetically explained that the journey is sometimes scary, dark, and “garish”, but that the Kindly Light still leads and accompanies one through the pain, fear, and sorrow. Much like when he asked the Kindly Light to enlighten his path through the murky waters of life, in this passage, Father John understood God to be especially present during our times of weakness.

 

Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,

Lead Thou me on;

The night is dark, and I am far from home,

Lead Thou me on.

Keep Thou my feet;

I do not ask to see the distant scene;

one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that

Thou shouldst lead me on;

I loved to choose and see my path; but now

Lead Thou me on.

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, pride ruled my will;

remember not past years.

So long Thy power hath blessed me, sure it still

Will lead me on.

O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till

The night is gone;

And with the morn those angel faces smile,

Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

 

In 1833, his friends went back to England, and Father John went to Sicily where he caught typhoid fever. And thought he was dying. He was  homesick and desperately wished to return to England. Unfortunately, his ship was becalmed on his way home, and he became stranded in the Straits of Bonifacio. It was here, while he  felt most depressed, that he wrote the poem Lead, Kindly Light.

The hymn was first set to music and turned into a hymn in 1845  after Father John  converted to Catholicism.

During the time he and his friends were in Rome, he met with the Abbé Fortunato Santini, the Vatican’s music librarian, in an effort to learn what he could about Gregorian chant. Back in England, a revival of Gregorian chant was under way, both in Anglican and in Catholic circles. Father John’s taste in church music, despite his interest in Gregorian chant, is eclectic, and often as not reflects the contemporary penchant for the orchestrally accompanied Mass settings of Haydn, Mozart, and others. He also believes in the utility of popular hymns in evangelising and catechizing people of many walks of life. His musical views are sensible ones, even if open, theoretically, to some differences of opinion.  He has, of course, no sympathy with extravagances. His is a cultured, at any rate a refined taste.  All was well if it was done for the glory of God. 

Before I close I must make a start on your request. This hymn was written in 1849 with the children audience particularly in mind. He has a very strong devlotion to our Lady.

 

The Pilgrim Queen  

There sat a Lady

             all on the ground,

Rays of the morning

             circled her round,

Save thee, and hail to thee,

             Gracious and Fair,

In the chill twilight

             what wouldst thou there?

 

“Here I sit desolate,”

             sweetly said she,

“Though I’m a queen,

             and my name is Marie:

Robbers have rifled

             my garden and store,

Foes they have stolen

             my heir from my bower.

 

“They said they could keep Him

             far better than I,

In a palace all His,

             planted deep and raised high.

‘Twas a palace of ice,

             hard and cold as were they,

And when summer came,

             it all melted away.

 

“Next would they barter Him,

             Him the Supreme,

For the spice of the desert,

             and gold of the stream;

And me they bid wander

             in weeds and alone,

In this green merry land

             which once was my own.”

 

I look’d on that Lady,

             and out from her eyes

Came the deep glowing blue

             of Italy’s skies;

And she raised up her head

             and she smiled, as a Queen

On the day of her crowning,

             so bland and serene.

 

“A moment,” she said,

             “and the dead shall revive;

The giants are failing,

             the Saints are alive;

I am coming to rescue

             my home and my reign,

And Peter and Philip

             are close in my train.” (The Oratory.1849.)

 

I will write again soon when I have a moment with other hymns. Please send my love to my sister. 

Yours sincerely,

Edward Bellasis