Music: Rediscovered Mass

Giacomo Puccini, whose operas probably earned him more money than any other serious composer ever made,* began by writing church music, including a Mass at the age of 21. Italian experts who heard his Mass performed in 1880 liked it pretty well. True, they felt it suffered a bit from "overabundance," and, at a time when the trend was to disembodied church music, they raised their eyebrows because some parts did not seem musically "chaste" enough. But they praised its "spontaneous melodies," predicted a fine future for its composer. Thereupon, the Mass fell into obscurity. It was not until last week,...

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