Obituary - Find The Arise

He was truly supported in this difficult period only by faith. List again and again returned to the plans of spiritual works, to plans for reforming church music. The fact is that since the second half of the XVIII century there have been obvious "romanticization" and symphonization of church genres. The Gregorian chorale was practically no longer used by composers, the original liturgical function of church music was lost, that is, many spiritual works “went beyond the Church” and began to be perceived as independent concert compositions. Liszt sought to restore sacredness to church music. In his understanding, a composer addressing church genres should be primarily a preacher; his music must have powerful power, in his own words, "uniting the theater and the temple." Do not take church music from the pulpit to the stage,but if possible make the stage like a pulpit! It is characteristic that, steadily following this path, Liszt ended up in his later spiritual writings to revive the traditions of the Gregorian choral and polyphony of the Giovanni da Palestrina era (da Palestrina; 1525 or 1526–1594).