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Lakewood, N. J., Dec. 15, 1911.
Whitney Warner Company,
131 West Forty-first Street,
New York.
Gentlemen — I am sending you with this the last of the five teaching pieces
that I promised to write this year. I have named it "Mission Bells."
The theme, and in fact the whole composition, came to me as an inspiration
while traveling through California for my health two years ago. I traveled
most of the time in stage coaches, of which there are still many left between
San Diego and San Francisco. I saw the ruins of many of the old missions,
which one hundred years ago were a refuge and a home for the worn
traveler, who could stay as long as he wished and pay what he could afford
and when he went away took the blessings of the Monks, those men of God
who sacrificed their lives for mankind in a country which was inhabited
mostly by lawless Spaniards and Mexicans. While almost all of these
buildings are in a ruined state now, I was very much impressed with the
bells, which in four or five missions still remained. These bells were
formerly rung at night to guide lost travelers.
One day while making a trip on horseback to the foot of a range of
mountains with my companion and a guide we lost our way. It was late in
the afternoon when we discovered this fact. While wondering what to do,
we heard the chiming of sweet bells — three in number, we judged from the
sound — and following this, to us most welcome sound, we came upon an
Ursuline convent, situated in a most beautiful natural park in the foothills
of a long range of mountains. As we came close we could hear the soft
tones of an organ and the singing of the nuns. It was vesper time, and I
was so deeply impressed with the beautiful scene that I forgot the
predicament we were in. We reined up our horses and stopped until the
chanting was over, and the whole scene made such an impression upon me
that I resolved to embody it, just as it then impressed me, in a musical
composition.
This I have since done, and I am submitting the manuscript to you under
these conditions, that it be named "Mission Bells," and that a short
description of this event in my life be inscribed upon every copy. Kindly
send contracts and any other communications to my home in Philadelphia.
Yours sincerely,
MARIE LOUKA.
Lewis J. Thomas Jr.'s analysis of this letter
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