Thank you for this tribute, David.

At moments like this I always think of Thomas Hardy's The Choirmaster's Burial.

He often would ask us
That, when he died,
After playing so many
To their last rest,
If out of us any
Should here abide,
And it would not task us,
We would with our lutes
Play over him
By his grave-brim
The psalm he liked best—
The one whose sense suits
“Mount Ephraim”—
And perhaps we should seem
To him, in Death’s dream,
Like the seraphim1.

As soon as I knew
That his spirit was gone
I thought this his due,
And spoke, thereupon.
“I think,” said the vicar,
“A read service quicker
Than viols out-of-doors
In these frosts and hoars.
That old-fashioned way
Requires a fine day,
And it seems to me
It had better not be.”

Hence, that afternoon,
Though never knew he
That his wish could not be,
To get through it faster
They buried the master
Without any tune.

But ’twas said that, when
At the dead of next night
The vicar looked out,
There struck on his ken
Thronged roundabout,
Where the frost was graying
The headstoned grass,
A band all in white
Like the saints in church-glass,
Singing and playing
The ancient stave
By the choirmaster’s grave.

Such the tenor man told
When he had grown old.

All I know of his music is a very nice setting of Crux Fidelis. I'd like to know more, but most of his work was published in volumes in Italy, and nobody much has it in the States.

Very many moving moments, solemn and dignified.

The organist played the tiniest hat tip to the Dies irae. I sincerely pray that can be restored to the requiem.

I have not listened enough to Pope Francis, so I'm wondering: does he always struggle to breath a bit, like he was at the commendation? As a lifelong asthma struggler, it was very noticeable to me. I'm not saying he has asthma, but I certainly heard shallow breathing, incl some sounds of struggle. Perhaps he's been ill, but it sounded chronic and made me want to pray more for our dear pope.

Jeffrey, last year I was searching for one of Cardinal Bartolucci's compositions, and one of the forum users (The Catholic Choirbook) had posted the link to the Bartolucci Foundation. I contacted them, and the music was immediately sent to me online, at no charge. Unfortunately, it appears that that particular link is no longer operating.

I did see a setting of his "O Sacrum Convivium" online:
http://ebookbrowsee.net/o-sacrum-convivium-4v-pdf-d529648610

We have at least 25 volumes of Cardinal Bartolucci's oevre in our choral library. Mostly Masses and motets though there are some organ works and large choir/orchestra oratorios.

May he rest in peace.

Does anyone here know why red vestments were used? Traditionally the pope mourns in red, but I thought that under the last pontificate, when Benedict XVI restored the former practice of having the Roman cardinals' funerals celebrated by the Cardinal Dean and reserving the commendatio et valedictio to himself, violet was used by the cardinal celebrant and concelebrants and only the pope wore the red mantum.