2900 CIN Fr Schmid
austraLasia #2900
Father Wihelm Schmid SDB:"made life singable and
lovable"
by Cyril J. Law, Jr
HONG KONG: 6 August 2011 -- Last year marked the
birth centenary of a celebrated Austrian priest-musician who
dedicated a great part of his life to Macau , Fr. Wilhelm
Schmid, SDB (司馬榮) (1910 – 2010).
The mayor of the Austrian city of
Hornstein has already invited a local choral group from
Macau , the Perosi Choir, to perform Fr. Schmid’s works in
his hometown as part of an extended centenary celebration
this summer. The group will depart for Austria on 8 August,
starting their 10-day tour to Hornstein and Eisenstadt.
Fr. Schmid served as choir master and
teacher in the Seminário de São
José and in Colégio Salesiano during
his years of dedicated service in Macau from 1939-1966.He
was also the director of the Macau Police Force Band as well
as of the Salesian Woodwind Band. For major festive
performances like drama and concert, seminarians would make
up the violinists section while Fr. Schmid’s other students
and associates would take up the remaining strings and
woodwinds of the orchestra. He was known to be quite a tough
coach. Many alumni today still remember that signature knock
on the head whenever one sang out of tune.
Fr. Schmid was a missionary belonging to
the Salesians of Don Bosco (not to be confused with the
other well-known intellectual German priest, Fr. Wilhelm
Schmidt SVD, the “Father of Ethnology”). Our Fr. Schmid
taught vocal lessons, harmony, counterpoint, fugue &
composition. He composed numerous Marian and Eucharistic
hymns with Latin, Portuguese and Chinese lyrics that many
Chinese Salesian pupils of (g)olden days would still know.
According to his former colleagues, Fr. Schmid confessed
that he had a particular devotion to Mary. And whenever
inspiration for a melody comes, he always prayed a Hail Mary
before setting out to put pen to paper.
In 2009, a forty-page manuscript of a
Mass setting composed by Fr. Schmid was providentially found
on sale in a downtown flea market. Similar items of such
irreplaceable cultural value pop up from limbo once in a
while.
The current Bishop of Hong Kong , John
Tong and Mr. Domingo Lam Ngok-pui, the esteemed Honorary
President of the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild, were both
taught by Fr. Schmid. Not to mention Maestro Monsignor
Antonio Lau of Fujen Catholic University in Taiwan, as well
as our late Bishop Domingos Lam of Macau. The list of
distinguished students can go on. But one hallmark
characterizes them all – an unfeigned religiosity evident in
the seamless union of plain Chinese lyrics and fervent
melody in their compositions. I cannot do justice to their
due value here with mere verbal description. You have to
have eaten the pudding yourself!
Salesian music is joyful and exuberant
yet not frivolous or inane. It features a Piedmontese
harmony and pious serenity. Actually I should also mention
the names of other Salesian musicians like Fr Cesare Brianza
(d. 1986) of fond memory, who founded the Little Singers of
the Wooden Cross in Macau, and Fr Vincenzo Cimatti (d. 1965)
of Japan . They were inspirers who made life singable and
lovable, to whom I tip my hat very, very profoundly.
