rose

Charles Burney

The Present State of Music in France and Italy (2nd, corrected edition)

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

Milan


prev [ 107 ] next

TOC

I denied myself the rest of the perfor-
mance.

Sunday, July 22. This morning, af-
ter hearing the Ambrosian service in all
its perfection, at the Duomo, I went to
the Convent of Santa Maria Maddalena;
I heard several motets performed by the
nuns; it was their feast-day. The com-
position was by Signor B. S. Martini,
who is Maesiro di Capella, and teaches to
sing at this convent. He made me ample
amends for the want of slow movements
in his mass on Friday, by an adagio in
the motet of to-day, which was truly di-
vine, and divinely sung by one of the
sisters, accompanied, on the organ only,
by another. It was by far the best sing-
ing, in every respect, that I had heard
since my arrival in Italy; where there is
so much, that one soon grows fastidious.
At my first coming I both hungered and
thirsted after music, but I now had had
almost my fill; and we are more severe

critics