AS ADDRESS, CVl OF Pfi/iy^ 82 1932 DELIVERED BEFORE THE HASTINGS AND MASO» sffV£S€«fiA ^ss^smss^ser, At Pittsfield, December 25, 1§37. BY r EDWARD W. HOOKER, ?iSIOR OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN BENNINGTON, YE&2(OXf. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. PITTSFIELD : FEINTED BY PHINEHAS ALLEN AND SQ.V. APRIL* i*$& FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON. D. D. BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY ADDRESS f f he friends of Sacred Music have occasion for gratitude to God and encouragement to effort, in many things which indicate the advancement of this important part of divine worship. And of music generally, both sacred and secular, there is far more to hope than in many former years. Among these indications are the following. Associations for the promotion of sacred music, like this on whose performances we attend this evening, are becoming organized, making attain- ments, and exerting influence. Smaller Societies and Choirs are promoting the object, in smaller fields. Teachers are more nu- merous ; and generally, better qualified, than formerly, both as to knowledge of their profession, and moral and religious charac- ter. Improvements have been made in the art of teaching music. Collections of sacred music are much improved in their charac- ter ; and those which deluged our congregations and vitiated the taste of our choirs, formerly, with hasty, crude, quick-step Amer- ican compositions, have nearly passed away, and given place to books whose editors have drawn judiciously and richly upon the writings of scientific musicians of past ages and the present. So far as American compositions now occupy a place in our collec- tions, they exhibit American talent and taste to much better ad- vantage and far more to our credit, than formerly. The popu- larity of such tunes as New Jerusalem, New Durham, Florida, Stafford, Northfield, and many others, in which one part or an- other gives chase in an undignified and jingling fugue, we think is on the wane. The science of music is becoming a subject of study, more than in past years ; and American composers are less prolific and more modest, and dip their pens more carefully, fot qptDposition. The practice of holding concerts, a.i^d of improv- ing such occasions for discussing musical subjects, is believed to be accomplishing something, for raising the standard of taste and promoting correct views of the design of sacred music. The sentiment has been advanced, ar.d is gaining ground, somewhat, that music deserves a place in our arrangements for the education of the young. We may also congratulate ourselves on the es- tablishment, in one of our New-England cities, of an Academy for the education of teachers of music, and to promote the edu- cation of children and youth in this art. American ingenuity, enterprize and taste are becoming more extensively employed in the construction of instruments, especially those of the larger and permanent kind. So that the city is not now the only place where can be found the organ-builder and piano-maker, and manufac- turer of smaller instruments ; but also, here and there, is the country village to which resort may be had, by Churches, Socie- ties and Choirs in their vicinity, for instruments With this we should notice the greater frequency with which, now, in our coun- try places of worship, as well as in our cities, the ear is greeted, and the soul in which is music, is elevated, by " the organ's sol- emn peal ;" and that religious assemblies are learning to prize this noble and consecrated instrument, as an aid to religious wor- ship. It is also pleasant to find the piano-forte or the organ more frequently in the family residence than in former years. With all these favorable circumstances, however, we should not be wise in concluding that all has been done, or is doing, which is necessary to make our sacred music what it should be. The circumstances mentioned are evidences of a reformation com- menced, and of improvement in progress. But we are a long distance from perfection, in our music, yet. Much remains to be done, to make a truly and generally prosperous state of the art ; and to place American music in advantageous comparison with that of other countries. Let not the speaker be judged captious, and difficult to be sat- isfied, for the remarks just made. Look at another set of fact? ; and let it be done with this consideration in view, — that mindful- ness of our defects is always an indispensable requisite to im- jtrovement* Good sacred music, in the strict meaning of the language, i! still wanting in a great proportion of our congregations ; and in some considerable districts of Churches, good music is far more frequently heard from the professional vocalists and instrumental performers at the theatre ; and from the band accompanying the travelling circus or the caravan of wild animals; than in many places of worship. Music is made to contribute its higher at* tractions to the scenes of amusement and circles of fashion and dissipation. And the Christian, who " has music in his soul," as he passes within hearing of their songs of soft, though unsanc- tified harmony, almost stops to listen, perhaps quite ; and goes his way, sick at heart, that many a Church is so far outdone by the men of the world, in their regards for an art so justly termed heavenly. And on the next Sabbath, perhaps, in some place of religious worship, he hears that offered in sacrifice to God, as sacred music, which, from its discordancies, or other faults, would be hissed in the theatre, and jeered and laughed at in the social party. Our best musical associations are still small ; and, if they be regarded as a fair index of the number of enterprizing and deeply interested cultivators of the art, they shew that they com- pose a mere fraction of the whole community. Even in this good County of Berkshire, with the name of which is associated, in many minds, ideas of New-England thoroughness, liberality, ef- ficiency, and sound and enlightened views on most subjects ; even here, the musical Association assembled, which bears its name, and stands as the principal representative of the state of sacred music and the number of its friends, counts on its catalogue of members less than one hundred and fifty. The Choirs of most of our Churches and Congregations are composed of very small numbers, compared with the number attending our places of wor- ship : and these Choirs, much of the time, are in a low state, and their performances limited to a small number of tunes. Too fre- quently Churches and Congregations, as such, do nothing for the support and improvement of sacred music ; leaving it a burden and expense, both as to time and money, on the hands of their Choirs and a few publick spirited individuals : and rather than pay a reasonable annual stipend to keep their sacred music good, jput up with " confusion worse confounded," performed as sing* ing t every Sabbath. Look also at the frequent fact, that for the revival of the sacred music of a Church and Congregation, and for the instruction of a Choir and placing their performances on a good basis, dependence is too commonly placed upon having a singing school " got up" once in five years or more, and a teach- er employed two evenings per week for three or six months, to teach thirty or forty young men and women to half sing, and that mechanically, some fifty tunes, — three quarters of which tunes arc left out of use, forgotten, or cannot be sung, within three months after the teacher has taken his departure. A system of instruc- tion, this, — if system it can be called, — which, if applied to teach the art of reading language, would not, once in five years, carry a common school of children half through the Spelling Book. Look also at this, that probably not one professed singer out of a hundred, if indeed one in five hundred, in the generality of our Choirs, ever reads through, attentively, one of our ordinary col- lections of music Also, among those who are called singers, and many of whom can perform, respectably, tunes with which they have become familiar by considerable practice; probably not one in a hundred, if one in five hundred, can read music " at sight." Let a Hastings or Mason, a Handel or Haydn, pass a- round in one of our Choirs and open to each person somewhere in one of our books of Anthems, or in the Oratorios of Messiah or Creation ; and try who could read any music laid before him " at sight," as he reads his own language ; and such a movement would probably be not only a matter of curiosity, but of lively and spirit-stirring solicitude, to many a one who calls himself a singer : and, " I beg to be excused," would not improbably be the plea of the heaviest proportion. A like test in the case of ma- ny a gentleman, of his powers upon the flute or other instrument, and of many a lady upon her piano-forte, would probably be shrunk from in like manner. My meaning is this, that with all our love for music, and our taste for it ; and with all the skill ac- quired in performing certain pieces of music ; still not many a- mong us are readers of music, — if we take reading, in relation to music, to mean what it does in relation to language. The singer or instrumental performer, who can execute, at sight, any music, is likely to be regarded as a prodigy in skill and attainments ; I ^ud as though there were some necromancy by which he can move on, page after page, through a seeming chaos of crotchets, qua- vers, semi-quavers, demi-semi-quavers, rests, fugues, chusing uotes, rests, and flats and sharps single and double, and out of all (read or play a delightful, melting, soul-thrilling piece of music. If it be thought that we are making unreasonable and extrav- agant demands of qualifications for being estimated a good read- er or executant of music, we shall be vindicated from the charge, it is believed, when we shall have examined for a few moments the subject of Musical Education ; a subject appropriate to this occasion, and worthy the attention of the friends of sacred music here assembled. We may properly call music a species of language. It has most of the attributes of language ; at least as an instrument for producing effect on the finer feelings of the soul. It is a language, too, which almost every one speaks, in some form. For even the person who has never ventured to sing a regular Psalm tune, will be sometimes heard singing, in his own way, some air which he has heard from the fife or the military band ; or some old song he has heard. Very few there are who will not at least claim that they can " do their own singing," — albeit they may not please the taste of other people. The boy who rolls his ball or his hoop, in the street ; the mechanic who beats his anvil or his 3ap-stone ; the labourer in the field ; the hired domestic, at her kitchen labours, or over the loom or the spinning jenny in the factory ; are as often heard singing, in some sort, — (and it may be no contemptible sort either) — as the gentleman merchant, law- yer, or physician, or as the fashionable and elegant lady at her piano-forte in the drawing room. Every body makes music, in some sort, as much as they talk, almost. The elements or sym- bols of music, moreover, are presented to the eye by certain signs tfchich are understood and read all over the civilized world, as fa* miliarly as the alphabet. Moreover, the natural medium of the communication of music to the ear, is by the voice, like language, To a certain extent it communicates ideas to the mind. Its pow- ers to move men's feelings are proved, by facts, to be, many times, hardly surpassed by words. It is capable of cultivation, like el- oquence, to sfich an extent, that like eloquence* it. shall ceove asd -elevate and energize all the powers of the soul. We need nof extend our comparison farther. If, then, it be admitted that music is a species of language ; has most of the attributes of language ; and is adapted to produce effect on the human mind and feelings like language ; then we are prepared for the position tiiat there must be such a thing as edu- cation in the use or practice of this language: an application of the mind to the study of it, and of the voice to speaking it ; and these pursued to the acquirement of a skill, and the exhibition of correctness, facility and taste, like what are attained in proper and eloquent speaking of our own English. And this education is to be sought by much the same means, and in pursuing much the samej)rocess y with education in good and proper reading of our own mother tongue. A good English reader is made by a well conducted course of practical education in the art, on the basis of a knowledge of the elements of our language and of grammar and composition. And a good performer of music, whether with the voice or an instrument, can also be made by a course of prac- tical education in this art, based upon knowledge of the elements of music, and of musical grammar and composition. How, then, does a teacher of the art of reading the English language, — for example, — set himself about educating a reader? He generally prefers to take a child on which to make his exper- iment, rather than a person twenty or thirty years of age,whonev- er has read a word; for a good reader is not easily made of one who has come to adult years in ignorance of written language. He will begin with this child as soon as he can fix his attention and use his mind to learn any thing. He will commence with carefully teaching him the names, forms and sounds of the letters of the alphabet. Then to combine letters into syllables ; sylla- bles into words; words into sentences ; sentences into paragraphs : then, to consider the meaning of what he reads, and to bring out that meaning impressively, in the use of accent, emphasis, inflec- tion, &ic. he. To this he will join a course of instruction in grammar, as laying the foundation for a proper acquaintance with composition. Moreover, as he begins early, so he expects his undertaking will require time, patience, careful practice iu tbe use of various kinds of composition, didactic, dramatic or r a choir to sing correctly ; and tiiey ar& far better able to make the exercise truly a religious one. They are at all the liberty necessary to enter into the spirit of the Psalm, Hymn, or passages of Scripture to be sung And if there be any feelings of common reverence, as engaged in a solemn act of worship to God ; and if there be in their hearts true devotion ; they cannot well help singing expressively. Another advantage of such a system of musical education, will be, its aid to the impressions of the ministry of the Gospel. Let any one, of good musical taste, united with correct chris- tian judgment, search for the actual benefits of much that is called sacred music, to this end ; and let him point out to us a- ny benefits which would not have been as well secured, — and perhaps better, — by a psalm or hymn being well read, and then followed by five minutes of silence in the congregation, to be oc- cupied in meditation on what has been read. Yes, and better too, than to have the violence done to the auditory nerves of an assembly, which is frequent. An interval of perfect silence would be far preferable to much of the singing which is applied to sa- cred poetry. The effects of bad music on a preacher are un- happy, both for himself and his congregation. *lt is related of the venerable Dr. Bellamy, of Connecticut, that on one Sab- bath, after the choir had sung a psalm very badly, he arose and read them another, saying, " You must try again, for it is im- possible to preach, after such singing." There is not a little of what is called sacred music, which ought to be named sanctimo- nious discordancy ; and is much better adapted to make a hear- er angry, than to promote his devotional feelings. On the other hand, make this part of divine service what it ought to be, to answer its design ; let it be the raising of a sa- cred song, which', from its proper performance, shall have a- waked right feeling, and promoted devotion ; and preaching is a different exercise, both with minister and congregation. In- stead of having to recover from the discomposure of feelings produced by a disagreeable and irritating strain of discords, — costing the time of half a sermon to recover from, — they can enter upon this part of divine service under positive and impor- tant advantage. Such music is sometimes to be heard, — when. : it be always ? — which carries forth the heart in the spirit of true prayer; and is adapted to he, to the heart and the lips of a preacher, like " a live coal from off the altar." The remarks which have been made respecting the education of vocalists, apply also to instrumental performers. And here we would speak of another requisite to good sacred music, a ivell conducted instrumental accompaniment. The Providence of God, who has given man faculties for the art of music, has also led man's ingeuuity to the invention of instru- ments, by which the powers of the voice may be aided, and the impressiveness of this part of divine service augmented. While this is true of various kinds of instruments, there is one which seems to have been designed by the God of the sanctuary, more especially than any other, for the publick services of religion ; I mean the organ. The Providence of God in causing an in- strument to be invented, so perfectly adapted to sacred music, is as noticeable as in leading Watts and other christian poets to the version of the Psalms and other portions of Scripture which we use. The powers of that noble instrument are beyond those of any other one yet invented. Under the hands of one who understands and can bring out its fine powers, its effect for giv- ing dignity, solemnity, and 1 will say sublimity, too, to the songs of the sanctuary, is altogether peculiar. Nothing cau surpass the full, sweet, harmonious and solemn tones of a good organ to give depth, strength and effect to the music of a choir ; and to assist the worshipper to feel that he is in " the house of God" — " the gate of heaven," and to send up, with fervency, the pious aspirations of his heart to the throne of " the High and Lofty One who inhabiteth eternity." This no- ble instrument is to be regarded as a gift, of peculiar value, from Him who designed every thing about his Zion and her or- dinances to be desirable and beautiful ; to impress sentiments of veneration and love upon those who " walk about her," and mark her spiritual excellence, and the means of its promotion » Not that we advocate, in religious services, that which shall stnke the senses and regale the taste, irrespective of the great objects of christian worship ; but we are to remember, that in this imperfect and sinful state, the heart is to be reached and in>* flucnced through the instrumentality of such means, associated with more strictly spiritual ones. What is true of the art of el- oquence, as necessary to enforce divine trulh, is equally true of the art of music, as to aid the devotions associated with the min- istry of the word. One more requisite, — this part of divine service should be regarded more distinctly than it has been, as being, itself, wor- ship of God. There is far more instruction in the scriptures, to the duty and manner of singing the praises of God, and to the use of instru- ments in aid of this exercise, than seems to be considered by one christian in a thousand. Far away be banished the idea of its being a kind of interlude, for the entertainment of a congre- gation, and the relief of the preacher from continual exercises. Look into your Psalm and Hymn books, and consider the spirit which breathes through their pages. It is the spirit of adoration to God, and of praise, humility, supplication ; and of grati- tude, faith, love, hope and joy. It is the spirit which should breathe in every note of music : and to this end, the music should be made such that it shall be a suitable vehicle for such, sentiments. Insincerity should be dreaded, as sin, in this exer- cise, as much as in prayer. The hearts and voices which join in it, here, should have the feelings which swell the anthems of the redeemed and of the angels of God around the eternal throne. This, therefore, obviously renders personal piety an important qualification, in those who conduct this part of religious wor- ship. They need to know what it is to melt in tender penitence for sin ; to adore and love the holiness of God ; to live by faith in Christ Jesus the Lord, and in the spirit of prayer. — With none else can this be an act of worship acceptable to a ho- ly God. With such requisites as these, it is to be seen what the sacred music of any church and congregation may be made. Gather a choir, thus educated and aided, in the place of worship ; their hearts burning with the spirit of true devotion, and with theirs the hearts of their fellow-worshippers. Let their sougs, exhibiting all hich is sweet, inspiring and sublime in harmony, be rendered expressive and lively, by all which is tender, sol- its ■earn, and devout, in the aspirations of the soul to God. And, though on earth, the worshippers may, in spirit, enter into the high praises of heaven. Though in an earthly temple, they may, in the holy fervours of the soul, go up before " the throne of God and the Lamb." And the Sabbaths thus employed will be seasons of happy preparation for the Sabbath which is eter- nal. And the services thus rendered and enjoyed, will richly and rapidly 7 advance the preparation of the true child of God, to strike his golden harp, and raise his enraptured voice, in the an- thems of eternity, to the praise of " Him who hath loved us, und hath washed us from our sins in his own blood." Gaylord Bros. Makers Syracuse, IM. Y. PAT. JAN. 21. 1908