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Of his masses and Church music generally it is difficult to speak
critically without seeming unfair. We have seen how he explained
what must be called the almost secular style of these works. But
while it is true that Haydn's masses have kept their place in the
Catholic churches of Germany and elsewhere, it is impossible, to
Englishmen, at any rate, not to feel a certain incongruity, a
lack of that dignity and solemnity, that religious "sense," which
makes our own Church music so impressive. We must not blame him
for this. He escaped the influences which made Bach and Handel
great in religious music--the influences of Protestantism, not to
say Puritanism. The Church to which he belonged was no longer
guided in its music by the principles of Palestrina. On the
contrary; it was tainted by secular and operatic influences; and
although Haydn felt himself to be thoroughly in earnest it was
rather the ornamental and decorate side of religion that he
expressed in his lively music. He might, perhaps, have written in
a more serious, lofty strain had he been brought under the noble
traditions which glorified the sacred choral works of the earlier
masters just named. In any case, his Church music has nothing of
the historical value of his instrumental music. It is marked by
many sterling and admirable qualities, but the progress of the
art would not have been materially affected if it had never come
into existence.
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