Quote about the Sung Preface

[NoPlaceLikeRome]

I remember reading that Mozart or another very famous composer said that he would rather have composed the tone in which the Preface of the Mass is sung than all of his other works.

Has anyone heard this or remember if it was Mozart or someone else?

 

[ruslan]

There’s a reference to that here. (I hope this is what you were looking for!)

newadvent.org/cathen/10648a.htm

latin-mass-society.org/pmg/pmg2.htm

:harp:

 

[NoPlaceLikeRome]

Mozart’s statement, “that he would gladly exchange all his music for the fame of having composed the Gregorian Preface”, sounds almost hyperbolic.

–Cath. Enc.

Ideally it should always be sung to the distinctive plainsong tone, which Mozart is reputed to have said he would rather have composed than all his works put together. For it is surely not through science or philosophy, but through the music and poetry of the Sacred Liturgy, that the ordinary man can best approach the mystery of the Blessed Trinity.

–from the LMS article. I think that’s where I read it.

Thanks!