Note 141 — Chapter IV · WE ALL MEET TO PART. (continued 2)

It may not be unworthy of remark that the composers of modern church music have uniformly thought a different style of composition becoming, whenever occasion required the introduction of a sham prayer into their operas; as may be seen in Mozart’s chorus of Egyptian priests in the Zauberflöte, and many other similar instances. To real prayer, and to the true adorable sacrifice, it is the operatic effects that are exclusively dedicated, as in Mozart’s No. XII. and Haydn’s No. II.