Enrique Alberto Arias has a Ph.D. in musicology from Northwestern University. He is currently associate professor at DePaul University, School for New Learning, and is president of Ars Musica Chicago. The present article results from his study of the relationships between the Vincentian community and French sacred composers of the later 19th century. For information on obtaining the scores discussed in this article, contact
Vincentian priests are known as missionaries and educators, but not as composers. Franciscans and Jesuits, on the other hand, employed music as part of their agendas and occasionally produced gifted composers and theorists. Padre Martini, the celebrated teacher of Mozart as well as an impressive theorist and composer, was a Franciscan. Athanasius Kircher, a Jesuit scientist and theorist, wrote the Musurgia Universalis (1650), one of the most imposing musical treatises of the Baroque. However, some Vincentian priests of the late 19th century, as this article will show, were talented composers who wrote cantatas for important Vincentian occasions.
During a trip to France in the summer of 2001, I visited the motherhouse of the Vincentians in Paris, which includes an archive. In addition to a rich series of materials regarding the history and work of the community (the preferred term to order), I found a significant number of musical compositions written by Vincentians to celebrate the founder of the community, St. Vincent de Paul, and other Vincentian saints. In addition, I found a connection between Jules Massenet and the Vincentians that will be discussed later in the article.
The Vincentian Community
St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) grew up in a simple farming home and was ordained in 1600. The Vincentian community was founded by St. Vincent de Paul in 1625 and was confirmed by Pope Urban VIII in 1632. Also known as Lazaristes (after their ancient motherhouse St. Lazare), the Vincentians or the Congregation of the Missions quickly became known for their charitable efforts. Although a humble parish priest, Vincent soon attracted the attention of the nobility. Vincent de Paul became chaplain and tutor to the household of Philip Emanuel de Gondi; and it was through this connection that he gained influence at the court of Louis XIII. Indeed, Vincent de Paul heard Louis XIII’s deathbed confession. Vincent de Paul was canonized in 1737, with his feast celebrated on September 27.
As chaplains to the royalty, the Vincentians quickly gained influence. The Vincentian community and the Daughters of Charity, co-founded in 1633 by Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, ministered to the poor and performed all types of charity work. The community flourished throughout the 18th century; but with the French Revolution of 1789, all Vincentian houses were closed and the property confiscated. The Concordat signed between Napoleon and the Catholic Church in 1801 reestablished the community. Little is known about the composers whose works are found in the Vincentian motherhouse, for only brief biographies of the priests in the community were maintained. These records include essential information: birth and death dates, date of ordination, and where the priest did his work. Nothing is stated about where these priests studied music or which other works, in addition to those found in the archives, the priests may have composed. However, from the circumstances of their compositions and other secondary data, it is possible to state that these priest-composers were active at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. They worked in Paris or in smaller cities in France and were probably parish musicians who never aspired to important musical careers.
The Vincentians in the 19th century
With the suppression of the Jesuits in 1767, the Vincentians became active in the Far Eastern missions. Nicolas Raux (1754-1801) led the Vincentians to the Orient, but it was the martyrdoms of François Clet (1748-1820) and Jean-Gabriel Perboyre (1802-40) that focused attention on the Vincentians’ missionary zeal and service to the French. Jean-Gabriel Perboyre went to China in 1835 as a missionary, inspired by the example of François Clet. In 1840 he was arrested, tortured, and crucified. Beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1889, Perboyre was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1996 and now is considered a major Vincentian saint.
Jean-Baptiste Étienne (1801-1874) reformed the Vincentians during his generalate (1843-1874). Through his single-minded emphasis on a return to the original values of the community, the Vincentians achieved, by the end of the 19th century, a unity lacking after the French Revolution. Edward R. Udovic, C.M. writes:
The figure of Jean-Baptiste Étienne (1801-74) dominates the postrevolutionary, pre-Vatican II, history of the Congregation of the Mission and the Company of the Daughters of Charity. Excepting their founder, Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), no other person determinatively shaped such a significant portion of the community’s history. Thus, Étienne’s traditional, if controversial, title as their ‘second founder’ seems to be fitting.1
The Perboyre beatification was strongly supported by Étienne, who saw it as an important part of his agenda of restoring the prestige of the Vincentian community.
But during the term of office of the superior general Antoine Fiat (1878-1914), the Vincentians again faced hardships because of the anticlericalism following the Franco-Prussian War; thus the beatification of Perboyre in 1889 and the attendant ceremonies highlighted the community’s importance to France at a time of flagging national spirit. As will be discussed later, a number of cantatas by Vincentians celebrate Perboyre’s beatification.
Church and state in late 19th-century France
Throughout the 19th century, the Vincentians played a powerful role in French religion and politics. Thus to understand their importance requires an understanding of the complex interconnections between church and state during this fascinating period. The history of Catholicism in France during the 19th century was influenced by the changing status of the Church. With the French Revolution of 1789 and the ensuing Reign of Terror of the 1790s, religious institutions were closed, organs destroyed, and Catholic church music no longer composed.
Many of the major writers of this period, such as the now little-read Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821), insisted on the power of the church to restore order. Furthermore, Maistre held the Enlightenment to have been a dangerous social movement that destroyed Catholicism. French Romantic authors, particularly François René Chateaubriand and Victor Hugo, were equally conservative and supported the royalist cause. Mankind was naturally sinful and only through the intervention of the Church could humanity progress. As Isaiah Berlin notes, “It is the powerful reaffirmation of this Pauline and Augustinian doctrine that is the sharpest single weapon on the root-and-branch attack on the entire Enlightenment by the French counter-revolutionary Maistre, Bonald, and Chateaubriand at the turn of the century.”2
François-René de Chateaubriand’s La génie du Christianisme (1802) emphasized orthodoxy. Up to about 1824 Chateaubriand was a Royalist who espoused the connection between conservative Catholicism and a stable monarchy. Similarly, Joseph de Maistre’s Du Pape (1817) argued for the infallibility of the pope and the need for a return to an orthodox and unquestioning Catholicism. Alphonse de Lamartine (known to musicians because of Liszt’s evocative piano compositions based on the Méditations poétiques [1820]) wrote a defense of political moderation entitled Histoire de Girondins (1847).
Major developments occurred for the Vincentians as well during this tumultuous period. Antoine-Frédéric Ozanam (1813-53) was an imposing intellectual figure in France during his lifetime. Suave and personable, Ozanam studied and later critiqued the socialist writings of the Comte de Saint Simon and was during his Paris years (up to 1836) in the orbit of Chateaubriand; thus he was influenced by the kind of conservative Romanticism alluded to previously. Ozanam, however, believed in Christian democracy, and, after the 1848 Revolutions, increasingly turned to social causes. In 1833, he founded the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in order, as he himself stated, “to insure my faith by works of charity.” This society’s benevolent program of social reform, still active to this day, had wide influence. Ozanam, although not a Vincentian priest himself, was devoted to Vincentian ideals. La civilisation chretienne chez les Francs (1849), Ozanam’s most characteristic work, reveals a fine grasp of French history. Ozanam was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1997.
Throughout the 19th century, however, the Vincentians were beset by internal troubles because of the tension between the French community and those living in other parts of Europe, particularly Italy and Spain. Gallicanism, or the concept going back to the 14th century of a French church free from most papal intervention, was rife. Because of the Vincentian connection to the Bourbon regime and consequently conservative, royalist politics, the changing political situation from the end of the French Revolution of 1798 to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 also impacted the community. By the mid-19th century, the community was threatened by deep rifts, and it was only thanks to the administration of one of the Vincentians’ most brilliant leaders that these problems were solved.
Church music in France during the 19th century
With the restoration of the monarchy in 1819, church music was again composed in France. Luigi Cherubini, who spent his later career in France and was a favorite composer of Napoleon and admired by Beethoven, wrote many Masses and Requiems. Alexandre-Étienne Choron (1771-1834), an influential teacher, promoted Gregorian chant. The Méthode de plain-chant (1815), for all its shortcomings, introduced a series of writings whose purpose was the dissemination of Gregorian chant in French parishes. Abraham Louis Niedermeyer (1802-1861) followed with the Méthode d’accompagnement du plain chant (1855), which, as the title implies, addressed the practical need to provide accompaniments to chants. Choron and Niedermeyer were furthermore involved in the creation and development of one of the most important musical educational institutions in France.
In 1817, Choron founded the Institute Royale de Musique classique et religieuse. After a period of economic difficulty during the reign of Charles X, the institution was opened again in 1853 under the direction of Niedermeyer and was called the École Niedermeyer. Niedermeyer, who had studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles, continued Choron’s love of early music and his passion for Gregorian chant. This institution affirmed the value of church music, and Vincentian composers perhaps studied here to learn the rudiments of liturgical composition. The École soon produced famous students, most notably Gabriel Fauré, whose Requiem (1877) perhaps reflects his studies at this institution.
In 1892, Charles Bordes, the great musicologist, created the Chanteurs de St-Gervais for the performance of early music, with a particular emphasis on such masters as Palestrina and Victoria. This establishing of institutions devoted to liturgical music culminated in 1894 with the foundation of the Schola Cantorum under the direction of Vincent d’Indy, Alexandre Guilmant, and Charles Bordes. Composers of the period, above all Claude Debussy, came to the Schola to hear chant and earlier church music, including medieval polyphony (which indeed was a rarity at the time).
Equally influential, the Benedictine abbey of St. Pierre at Solesmes in France, founded in the early 11th century, was reopened in 1833. Solesmes became the center for a renewed study of the original sources of Gregorian chant. The publication of the Paléographie musicale in 1889 under the direction of Dom Mocquereau began the systematic study of Gregorian chant’s origins and development, but it also placed France at the forefront of research into medieval sacred monody.
Earlier in the century, François-Joseph Fétis (1784-1871) began his landmark series of writings on the history of music. For all their flaws and historical misconceptions, these books, particularly the Biographie universelle des musiciens (1835-44), inspired an awareness of the great tradition of Catholic church music. This valuable source often provides unique information on the French performers and composers of this period, including some who intersected with the Vincentians.
Where did these Vincentians study music and what kinds of careers did they have? French priests of the later 19th century received basic instruction in the singing of chant and music reading skills. A few more talented priests were allowed to go on to more advanced musical studies, but the nature of their priestly work would not have allowed them to seek personal fame and glory. Musical Vincentians perhaps studied at the Paris Conservatory, but some possibly studied at the École Niedermeyer, which had a tradition of teaching Gregorian chant and emphasizing religious music.3 This institution’s emphasis on the practical use of Gregorian chant with accompaniment would have attracted the attention of the Vincentians.
The development of the organ in France parallels the interest in historical studies. Although many organs in France were destroyed during the Revolutionary period, by the end of the 19th century France was the center of organ construction, and Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-99) its central figure. In 1833, Cavaillé-Coll went to Paris, where he constructed the organs for St. Denis and the Madeleine. His organs were notable for their wide range of color and symphonic sonorities. It is partly because of the development of the Cavaillé-Coll organ that composers such as César Franck, Charles-Marie Widor, and Louis Vierne wrote impressive organ symphonies that called on the full resources of this type of organ.
A composer-organist who worked at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Paris offers a glimpse into the careers of church musicians of this time. Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897) was educated at the École Niedermeyer and studied with Eugène Gigout (1844-1925), who had himself studied at the École Niedermeyer with Camille Saint-Saëns. Gigout and Boëllmann were related by marriage, and the two families later shared the same household. In 1877, Boëllmann succeeded Henri Fissot (1843-1896) as organist at St. Vincent de Paul church in Paris, where there was a large Cavaillé-Coll organ. During his years at this church (run by diocesan priests, not Vincentians) Boëllmann composed his still-popular organ works, such as the Suite gothique (1895).
Jules Massenet, Clément Vidal, and Perboyre cantatas
While doing the research in the Vincentian archives mentioned at the outset, I was particularly struck by a series of compositions for the 1889 beatification of Jean-Gabriel Perboyre. Perboyre, it will be remembered, was martyred in China and known for his sanctity. Because of his beatification, the Vincentians came into contact with Jules Massenet, now famous because of his operas, but who also composed many sacred works.
Partly in response to Perboyre’s beatification and for reasons to be discussed later, Jules Massenet composed a Cantate en l’honneur du Bienheureux Jean Gabriel Perboyre Missionaire Lazariste. Massenet’s Perboyre cantata was published by Georges Hartmann, Massenet’s chief publisher and tireless promoter. No date of publication is given, though it is dedicated to the superior-general of the Vincentian community, Antoine Fiat. This interesting and unknown work was probably composed shortly after the beatification in 1889, or about 1890 since the title and the text of this cantata refer to Perboyre as “bienheureux” or “blessed.” The text’s author is unnamed, but it was most likely a Daughter of Charity, for, as we will see, a number of works by Vincentian composers used texts written by Daughters of Charity.
Although little information exists on this now-forgotten work by Massenet, documents in the archives of the Vincentian motherhouse in Paris shed some light on its origins. It seems a Vincentian composer named M. Clément Vidal composed a cantata on the same text as Massenet’s, as is explained in anonymous annotation to a brief biography of Massenet held by the archive:
Massenet is the one who composed the Cantata au Bienheureux Perboyre. Someone asked him to review a cantata that had already been written. After reading the work, he preferred to compose another of his own. Massenet’s Memoirs are now being published (1912). The beatification of Perboyre took place in 1889.
P.S: It was Mr. Clément Vidal, member of the Vincentian community, who composed the first cantata. One had to be certain that his work was good; Mr. Bettembourg who knew Mr. Massenet personally, gave the cantata to him. Massenet made some corrections but Mr. Vidal got upset about it. Then, Massenet, who found the subject interesting, decided to compose a cantata himself. He would even have been willing to come to the motherhouse to conduct it; but, due to the discontent of Mr. Vidal, it did not seem a good idea to invite Massenet to come. This story was reported to me by Mr. Bettembourg.4
This annotation makes clear that Vidal took umbrage at Massenet’s criticism and blocked the performance of Massenet’s Perboyre cantata.
A brief biography for Vidal exists in the registry at the motherhouse.5 Clément François Vidal was born in Soulié, which was part of the diocese of Montpellier in southern France. He entered the Vincentian order in 1883 and took his vows as a priest in 1889. He died in Montpellier in 1935. Accordingly, Vidal was 25 when he wrote his Perboyre cantata, or the same year that he was ordained as a priest. No information is given as to when or where he studied music and what kind of professional career he may have had. But if one assumes that he completed his basic studies for the priesthood about the same time as he concluded his musical education, he probably studied composition in the early 1880s.
Other Perboyre works
In addition to Massenet’s Perboyre cantata, other composers, all members of the Vincentian community, likewise composed cantatas inspired by Perboyre’s beatification.
There are five Perboyre compositions by Vincentians that I have located in the archives.
1. Hymne au Bienheureux, Poésie et Musique de Ch.M. (It is unclear who Ch.M. was since there were many Vincentian names with these initials. The composer wrote the hymn he set himself.)
2. Cantate au Bienheureux J.B. Perboyre. A 4 Voix égales, sans Accompagnement by Clément François Vidal. (This is a simple four-part setting of the same text used by Massenet and perhaps the work he criticized.)
3. Cantate en l’honneur du Bienheureux Jean-Gabriel Perboyre. By C.V. (meaning Vidal) P.D.L.M (Prêtre de la Mission). (This is also on the same text as that used by Massenet and found in the previous cantata, but this is longer than the previous cantata. Perhaps the work written in response to Massenet’s critique, this cantata is far more elaborate in texture and more demanding than No. 3 and similar in many regards to Massenet’s cantata.)
4. Cantate en l’honneur du Bienheureux par un Prêtre de la Mission. By F. (Ferdinand or François) Dellerba. (This is a quite interesting setting for soprano, alto, two tenors, bass, and piano. In harmony and texture this is the most complex of all the “Perboyre” works. Although the text begins the same as that for Nos. 2 and 3, it varies thereafter.)
5. Chant de Triomphe en l’Honneur du Bienheureux Jean Gabriel Perboyre. Musique de Mr. C.V. (Clément Vidal), Paroles de Sr. J., Fille de la Charité. (This is for organ and three higher voices in equal range, suggesting it was sung by the Daughters of Charity. This is a small-scale strophic work with a refrain.)
6. Hymne à Martyre!!! [sic] (This is a setting for three high voices without accompaniment of Cantique No. 3. [See the listing of these later in the article.] This work is printed but the publisher is not given. The frontispiece is from the stained-glass window at St. Stephan Church at Sapiac, Montauban, where Perboyre studied as a seminary student.)
Of these six works, three are cantatas in several contrasting sections, while the other three works are on a smaller scale. The emphasis on male voices for some of these works implies the participation of Vincentian seminarians, while the inclusion of female voices and texts by the Daughters of Charity suggests their occasional participation. The level of difficulty of the longer works requires professionally trained musicians, while the shorter works could have been performed by a regular church choir.
All these works, including the Massenet cantata, reflect the conservative liturgical style found in many French sacred works of the period. The harmonic spectrum is somewhat limited, with chromaticism playing a purely coloristic role. Simple accompaniments for piano or organ support undemanding voice parts. That these works were printed and published, with the exception of Vidal’s simpler setting for four voices, suggests a greater permanency than usual for the many ephemeral church compositions of the day. Given the importance of the occasion, the Vincentians may have paid for the publication costs themselves.
The Cantiques en l’Honneur du Bienheureux Jean-Gabriel Perboyre are especially interesting. The frontispiece of this collection of pious poetry provides useful background information. We read that a triduum was conducted on 24, 25, 26 October 1890 in celebration of Perboyre’s beatification for which these cantiques were written. This triduum was preached by Jourdan de la Passadière, Bishop of Rosea, and it was presided over by Archbishop Thomas of Rouen. This event was held at Le Havre, the port from which Perboyre embarked for China on 21 March 1835. The texts for the cantiques were written by the Daughters of Charity.
A triduum is, as the Latin name implies, a religious observance that lasts three days and is devoted to some particular religious theme, in this case Perboyre’s beatification. Often a triduum prepared for a saint’s feast and offered its participants a renewed sense of the sacraments of penance and holy communion. Sermons and prayers devoted to a particular theme emphasized spiritual ardor. Given the special celebratory nature of the Perboyre triduum, music probably played a significant role. The beatification of Perboyre in 1889 was the perfect occasion for such a triduum, which both celebrated Perboyre and the missionary role of the Vincentians.
Massenet’s and Vidal’s Perboyre cantatasp>
But let us return to Massenet’s and Vidal’s Perboyre cantatas. Striking parallels exist between Massenet’s and one of Vidal’s two cantatas for the beatification of Perboyre in 1889. Both set the same text, and both are scored for men’s voices with ad. lib. organ or piano. This allowed the cantata to be performed by the Vincentians themselves in their rather small chapel at the motherhouse. The inclusion of a dramatic narrative in the text occasioned solos in both cantatas, resulting in striking similarities of structure and texture.
The text narrates Jean-Gabriel Perboyre’s martyrdom:6
O Choir of the Blessed, O divine choruses
Favor us with your celestial voices and songs.
Celebrate with us the praises of Perboyre,
Join in our joyous celebrations.
Let us sing, Let us sing to the Blessed Martyr,
Let us sing of Christ’s courageous athlete,
Who on this beautiful day has earned a royal conquest:
A heavenly and immortal crown.
For his entire life his heart was ineffably
Attracted to the virtue of holy humility.
O Gabriel, tell us the marvelous secrets
Of your noble career.
While he lived among us
He passed his days quietly and unobtrusively.
But the One who from heaven knows what is deep within us
Called his disciple to the greatest of destinies.
He turned his gaze to infidel China,
He desired above all to carry the cross of God the Savior there.
He wanted, he wanted with all the ardor of his soul
To live and die at this post of honor.
To this apostolic man’s sublime desire
Heaven responded: “Depart!”
Intoxicated by a holy zeal
He left. This soldier of the gospel left.
He is eager to sacrifice his life and death.
A holy tenderness filled his beautiful soul;
He tried to comfort his cherished brothers in their misfortune,
He was always happiest when he could serve others
With a heavenly love.
It was in vain, it was in vain, proud mandarin that
In your blind rage you attacked this apostle of Christ.
The threat of tortures only strengthened his courage.
For Jesus remained Gabriel’s source of strength.
In their inhuman fury these tyrants said to him:
“Trample under foot this cursed cross,
Renounce its errors, and your vain belief,
and embrace the laws of our gods.”
“What! Renounce my God, my treasure and life!
Renounce my God and fall at your feet!
Never! Never! Death but not apostasy.
My Savior has done nothing but good for me.”
“My God! My God! In this extreme peril
I place myself in your hands like a timid child.
Do not abandon me at this my supreme hour!
God, sustain me in these my last struggles!”
The tyrant was filled with fury at his words
His innocent neck received the cruel attack.
The fatal knot is tightened, it is done. He dies.
Gabriel gains his eternal reward.
O you, whom we call our Father,
From heaven remember us.
Give us a share of your ardor for the divine battle.
In our struggles watch over us, our Father, watch over us.
This text, created from conventional phrases and images, falls into three sections. The first introduces the theme: the divine choirs are asked to participate in Perboyre’s victory. Perboyre is Christ’s athlete and hero. The second part narrates Perboyre’s trip to China and his martyrdom at the hands of cruel and faithless Chinese. The climax occurs when Perboyre is asked to abjure the cross of Christ, but he refuses, preferring death to renouncing his savior. The Vincentians are depicted at the end of the hymn as brothers who participate in Perboyre’s divine battle and victory.
A closer reading reveals several implications typical of France during this colonial period. Christians are fighting a war and the Chinese, naturally cruel, are the enemy. The poem calls for all French Christians to join in this holy war. A Vincentian victory is also a French victory over the Chinese; thus Perboyre serves as a symbol for all European Christians.
As suggested previously, Massenet’s cantata was probably not performed during the Perboyre celebrations nor perhaps even during the composer’s lifetime. But it is a masterly work, fully worthy of the great Massenet. It begins in D major in a march-like style. The chorus of the blessed are asked to participate in praising Perboyre, who has won the crown of martyrdom. (Example 1)
At R4 the tonality changes to G major, in a section that is more legato and cantabile. Thereafter the mode quickly and dramatically shifts to G minor at the narration of his trip to China and Perboyre’s wish to die as a martyr. (Example 2) At R8 the tonality again changes to C major and the style returns to a vigorous Allegro molto brillante. (Example 3) Parlando phrases are tossed from the two upper to the two lower voices.
At R10 an Allegro feroce appears in A minor, which details Perboyre’s refusal to trample the cross of Christ. (Example 4) This reaches a climax at R12, where the role of the men’s voices changes from that of the Vincentian brothers to the Chinese.
At R13 a baritone solo appears. Here Perboyre answers the Chinese, followed by a dialogue between the Chinese and Perboyre. At the end of this section Perboyre asks God to sustain him during his torture. At R18 the narration of Perboyre’s death resumes. (Example 5) At R20 the opening idea returns on a text that calls on Perboyre to guide and protect. (Example 6) The men’s voices again have the role of the Vincentians, who ask Perboyre to grant them the ardor to continue their divine war. The work reaches an impressive conclusion as the Vincentians request Perboyre to watch over them in battle.
This cantata, about ten minutes long in performance, falls into three sections, defined by the changes of text and underlined by the tonal organization. Massenet’s cantata brings the “Vincentian” message alive through deft contrasts of texture and the introduction of the baritone solo. The return of the opening musical material defines the structure but also affirms the essential message of the work: to ask Perboyre to strengthen his Vincentian brothers in their missionary toil.
Two cantatas were written by Vidal for the Perboyre beatification: one that is short and simple and other that is strikingly like Massenet’s. The first, scored for two tenors, baritone, and bass without accompaniment, emphasizes a homophonic style throughout and employs a restricted harmonic vocabulary. (Example 7) One of the most effective moments of the score is the point where Perboyre answers his Chinese captors. A tenor solo appears over the rest of the chorus humming. (Example 8) As might be expected from the general limitations of the work, the text is treated in a narrative rather than dramatic fashion. On the other hand, despite its obvious limitations, this charming cantata, about five minutes long in performance, would have been appropriate for the triduum for which it was conceived.
The other setting by Vidal of the Perboyre text is more elaborate, falling into several sections and musically highlighting the changes of text. Like Massenet’s setting, this is scored for men’s voices alone, in this case for two tenors, baritone, and bass; however, the accompaniment is independent, providing a brief introduction and contrasting figuration at key points of the score. (Example 9) Although this work begins with the same harmonic progression as Vidal’s simpler setting, the general harmonic range is broader, moving to B major and G-sharp minor in the central parts of the cantata.
The order of composition of these cantatas is problematic. Given that one Vidal cantata for Perboyre’s beatification is quite simple, while the other is more complex, I suggest the following scenario. Vidal submitted the simpler setting to Massenet, who criticized it, with specific corrections in the score. Then Massenet, attracted by the poem and even more by its narrative, set the text himself. Vidal, in turn and despite the anger he felt because of the criticism, composed a work that perhaps incorporated Massenet’s corrections, causing the similarities to Massenet’s cantata.
The general layout and articulation of the text is similar to Massenet’s cantata, suggesting that Vidal benefited from advice on how to realize the text. At several points of the score, solo voices are called forth. Most importantly, a solo recitative for the tenor is heard at the dramatic climax. (Example 10) Not only is this similar to Massenet’s handling of this section of the hymn, but the response “Il dit . . .” is treated as a unison in both cantatas. At this point the text differs slightly because of the phrase “Des enfants de Vincent.” In contrast to Massenet’s setting, this work ends quietly, with the accompaniment playing an effective role. (Example 11)
In conclusion, the Cantate en l’honneur du Bienheureux Jean-Gabriel Perboyre Missionaire Lazariste connects Massenet to the Vincentians at a time of changing fortunes for the community. The participation of the Daughters of Charity as poets and performers sheds further light on the artistic activities of the Vincentians. Ultimately, the Massenet-Vincentian relationship inspired Massenet to write a fine cantata, but this strange incident connected to Blessed Perboyre’s beatification of 1889 also provides a glimpse into the musical accomplishment of a forgotten Vincentian composer. n
