human
De Profundis so chanted was incomparably beautiful. That sublime prayer ending in sobs, at the moment when the soul of the voices was about to overpass human limits, gave a wrench to Durtal's nerves, and made his heart beat. Then he wished to abstract himself, and cling especially to the meaning of that sorrowful plaint, in which the fallen being calls upon its God with groans and lamentations. Those cries of the third verse came back to him, wherein calling on his Saviour in despair from the bottom of the abyss, man, now that he knows he is heard, hesitates ashamed, knowing not what to say. The excuses he has prepared appear to him vain, the arguments he has arranged seem to him of no effect, and he stammers forth;
gpt
If Thou, O Lord, shalt observe iniquities, Lord, who shall endure it?
human
It is a pity, said Durtal to himself,
gpt
he went on,
human
De Profundis had ceased; after a silence, the choir intoned a motet of the eighteenth century, but Durtal was only moderately interested in human music in churches. What seemed to him superior to the most vaunted works of theatrical or worldly music, was the old plain chant, that even and naked melody, at once ethereal and of the tomb, the solemn cry of sadness and lofty shout of joy, those grandiose hymns of human faith, which seem to well up in the cathedrals, like irresistible geysers, at the very foot of the Romanesque columns. What music, however ample, sorrowful or tender, is worth the
gpt
De Profundis chanted in unison, the solemnity of the
human
Magnificat, the splendid warmth of the
gpt
Lauda Sion, the enthusiasm of the
human
Salve Regina, the sorrow of the
gpt
Miserere, and the
human
Stabat Mater, the majestic omnipotence of the
gpt
Te Deum