name of the daughter of Sion, he bewails the desolation of that Jerusalem over which Jesus Christ wept.
The first lamentations, usually performed on Wednesday and Friday evenings, were harmonized by Palestrina, and that of Thursday by Allegri. Little or no attempt is made to render the varied expression of each passage, but they take their tone from the character of the entire piece, and produce an unmingled feeling of devotion. The other musical features of this office are the "Miserere" and the "Benedictus" The grandest of these compositions are performed at the services on Good Friday, when the "Benedictus" from the Sixtine Chapel collection and the "Miserere" by Allegri are generally performed. We append Cardinal Wiseman's magnificent description of Baini Allegri's Miserere.
"Every verse is varied, and betrays art. At the words et exultabunt ossa humitiata, there is air or rather time, upon the first part of the verse, in a rising joyful movement, succeeded by a low, deep and sepulchral expression in the rest of the phrase. The verse Incerta et occulta sapientiae tuae manifestasti mihi, begins with a soft, stealthy expression, to convey the idea of concealment and uncertainty; then at the manifestasti, "Thou hast declared," part succeeds to part, till a grand burst of full declaration is made. Every verse proceeds upon the same principle, and the mind is thus kept undecided between different feelings, watching the art and skill of the composer,—now held in suspense, and heaving upwards on a majestic swell, then falling suddenly, by its breaking, as a wave, on an abrupt and shortened cadence; and you arrive at the conclusion with a variety of images and feelings,—the mind, like a shivered mirror, retaining only fragments of sentiments and emotions. How different is the effect of Allegri's, upon the soul of one, who, kneeling in that silent twilight, and shutting up every sense, save that of hearing, allows himself to be borne
