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TOC
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At length I reached the church, where
I was likewise a conformist; though here
I walked about frequently, as I saw others
do, round the choir and in the great aisle.
I made my remarks on the organ, orga-
nist, plain-chant, and motets. Though
this was so great a festival, the organ ac-
companied the choir but little. The
chief use made of it, was to play over the
chant before it was sung, all through the
Psalms. Upon enquiring of a young
abbŽ, whom I took with me as a nomen-
clator, what this was called? C'est proser,
'Tis prosing, he said. And it should
seem as if our word prosing came from
this dull and heavy manner of recital.
The organ is a good one, but when
played full, the echo and reverberation
were so strong, that it was all confusion;
however, on the choir organ and echo
stops I could hear every passage distinctly,
The organist has a neat and judicious
way of touching the instrument; but
his passages were very old fashioned.
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