Liszt enters the lower orders.

Liszt received the tonsure on 25 April 1865, with Monsignor Gustav Hohenlohe officiating. For the rest of his life he would be known as ‘Abbé Liszt’. He moved into Hohenlohe’s private apartments in the Vatican, pursuing theological studies to prepare himself for the next step. That took place on 31 July when he entered the four minor orders – Doorkeeper, Lector, Acolyte and Exorcist – again with Hohenlohe participating. Doubt has been cast on Liszt’s sincerity. For many years it was a standard fixture in the literature that his motive was to escape the yoke of matrimony. Such a view is unsustainable since the lower orders impose no vows of celibacy and Liszt remained free to marry. Liszt himself expressed it well when he said that his action ‘harmonized with all the antecedents of my youth’, that he had no desire to become a monk ‘in the severe sense of the word’ (he never became a priest), and that it was enough for him ‘to belong to the hierarchy of the church to such a degree as the minor orders allow me to do’ (Briefe, C1893–1905, ii, 81). Nevertheless, his son-in-law Emile Ollivier called it ‘a spiritual suicide’; like others within Liszt’s inner circle, Ollivier was aware of the psychological upheavals from which Liszt had recently emerged, and on which the cassock had a calming effect. Liszt’s ties with the clergy were further strengthened when on 14 August 1879 he was made an honorary Canon of Albano.

Liszt lived in the Vatican for about 14 months, until Hohenlohe was made a cardinal and gave up his apartments there. On 22 November 1866, St Cecilia’s Day, Liszt moved into the S Francesca Romana – with its unsurpassed views of the Forum and the Colosseum – which remained his principal Roman residence until the building was secularized in 1871. Not long after his arrival, the Boston firm of Jonas Chickering presented Liszt with its prize-winning grand piano, specially sent from Paris after being awarded a gold medal at the Great Exhibition of 1867. Liszt held masterclasses on this instrument every Wednesday afternoon, and gathered around him some interesting Italian pupils, including Giovanni Sgambati. Many visitors descended on Liszt, most famously the young Edvard Grieg who brought along some of his compositions for Liszt’s approval, including the recently composed piano concerto which Liszt read at sight.

Between 18 September 1693 (the date of his tonsure) and 23 March 1703 (the date of his ordination) Vivaldi was trained for the priesthood at the local churches of S Geminiano and S Giovanni in Oleo while continuing to live with his family in the parish of S Martino. He probably learnt the violin from his father, for whom he is said to have occasionally deputized at S Marco; his participation as a ‘supernumerary’ violinist in Christmas services at the basilica in 1696 is his earliest known public appearance. A few years after his ordination (probably in late 1706) he ceased for good to say Mass, thereby sacrificing a useful income as a house priest (mansionario) at the Pietà. In 1737, while under censure for conduct unbecoming a priest, he blamed this failure on his ailment, but it is not hard also to suspect an opportunist motive in view of his immersion in musical activities. Perhaps his defence is slightly strengthened by a fanciful early 19th-century report of his temporary retirement to the sacristy during celebration of Mass (if one chooses to discount the explanation that his purpose was to write down a fugue). Outwardly Vivaldi remained pious, and even traded on his status as a priest. The religious motto ‘Laus Deo’ (abbreviated as L.D.) and an expanded version ‘LDBMDA’, usually found in monogram form and possibly standing for ‘Laus Deo Beataeque Mariae Deiparae Amen’, occur with great frequency at the head of his scores – strange to say, particularly those of operas. From Goldoni's account of a meeting with Vivaldi in 1735 we glimpse the composer taking refuge from a rather unwelcome confrontation in mechanical recitation from his breviary.