hip V'ES THE BENSON LIBRARY OF HYMNOLOGY Endowed by the Reverend Louis Fitzgerald Benson, d.d. t LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY <3C ^'3^&~SU#^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/studiescOOcurw '7: ir STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. (FIRST SERIES.) TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER I INSCRIBE THESE PAPERS. \ "■Il.lf M — -** THE SAD FORTUNES OF THE REV. AMOS BARTON CHAPTER I. Shepperton Church was a very different-looking building five-and-twenty years ago. To be sure, its substantial stone tower looks at you through its intelligent eye. the clock, wiih the friendly expression of former days; but in everything else what changes ! Now there is a wide span of slated roof flanking the old steeple ; the windows, are tall and symmet- rical ; the outer doors are resplendent with oak-grained, the inner doors reverentially noiseless with a garment of red baize ; and the walls, you are convinced, no lichen will ever again effect a settlement on — they are smooth and innutrient as the summit of the Rev. Amos Barton's head, after ten years of baldness and supererogatory soap. Pass through the baize doors, and you will see the nave filled with well-shaped benches, understood to be free seats ; while in certain eligible corners, less directly under the fire of the clergyman's eye, there are pews reserved for the Shepperton gentility. Ample galleries are supported on iron pillars, and in one of them stands the crowing glory, the very clasp or aigrette of Shepper- ton church-adornment — namely, an organ, not very much out of repair, on which a collector of small rents, differentiated by the force of circumstances into an organist, will accompany the alacrity of your departure after the blessing, by a sacred minuet or an easy " Gloria. " Immense improvement ! says the well-regulated mind, which unintermittingly rejoices in the New Police, the Tithe Commutation Act, the penny-post, and all guaranties of human advancement, and has no moments when conservative-reform- 4 SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE. ing intellect takes a nap, while imagination does a little Tory- ism by the sly, revelling in regret that dear, old, brown crumb- ling, picturesque inefficiency is everywhere giving place to spick-and-span new-painted, new varnished efficiency, which will yield endless diagrams, plans, elevations, and sections, but alas : no picture. Mine, I fear, is not a well-regulated mind : it has an occasional tenderness for all abuses; it lin- gers with a certain fondness over the days of nasal clerks and top-booted parsons, and has a sigh for the departed shades of vulgar errors. So it is not surprising that I recall with a fond sadness Shepperton Church as it was in the old days, with its outer coat of rough stucco, its red-tiled roof, its heterogeneous windows patched with desultory bits of painted glass, and its little flight of steps with their wooden rail running up tht outer wall, and leading to the school-children's gallery. Then inside, what dear old quaintnesses ! which I began to look at with delight even when I was so crude a member of the congregation that my nurse found it necessary to provide for the re-enforcement of my devotional patience by smuggling bread-and-butter into the sacred edifice. There was the chan- cel, guarded by two little cherubim looking uncomfortably squeezed between arch and wall, and adorned with the escut- cheons of the Oldinport family, which showed me inexhaust- ible possibilities of meaning in their blood-red hands, their death's-heads and cross-bones, their leopards' paws, and Mal- tese crosses. There were inscriptions on the panels of the singing-gallery, telling of benefactions to the poor of Shepper- ton, with an involuted elegance of capitals and final flour- ishes, which my alphabetic erudition traced with ever-new de- light. No benches in those days ; but huge roomy pews, round whiph devout church-goers sat during " lessons,'* try- ing to look anywhere else than into each other's eyes. No low partitions allowing you, with a dreary absense of contrast and mystery, to see everything at all moments ; but tall dark panels, under whose shadow I sank with a sense of retirement through the Litany, only to feel with more intensity my burst into the xconspicuousness of public life when I was made to stand up on the seat during the psalms or the singing. And the singing was no mechanical affair of official rou- tine ; it had a drama. As the moment of psalmody approached, by some process to me as mysterious and untraceable as the opening of the flowers or the breaking-out of the stars, a slate appeared in front of the gallery, advertising in bold charact the psalm about to be sung, lest the sonorous announcement AMOS BARTOX. 5 of the clerk should still leave the bucolic mind in doubt on that head. Then followed the migration of the clerk to the gallery, where, in company with a bassoon, two key-bugles, a carpenter understood to have an amazing power of singing u counter," and two lesser musical stars, he formed a comple- ment of a choir regarded in Shepperton as one of distin- guished attraction, occasionally known to draw hearers from the next parish. The innovation of hymn-books was as yet undreamed of ; even the New Version was regarded with a sort of melancholy tolerance, as part of the common degen- eracy in a time when prices had dwindled, and a cotton gown was no longer stout enough to last a lifetime \ for the lyrical taste of the best heads in Shepperton had been formed on Sternhold and Hopkins. But the greatest triumphs of the Shepperton choir were reserved for the Sundays when the slate announced an Anthem, with a dignified abstinence from particularization, both words and music lying far beyond the reach of the most ambitious amateur in the congregation : — an anthem in which the key-bugles always ran at a great pace, while the bassoon every now and then boomed a flying shot after them. As for the clergyman, Mr. Gilfil, an excellent old gentle- man, who smoked very long pipes, and preached very short sermons, I must not speak of him, or I might be tempted to tell the story of his life, which had its little romance, as most lives have between the ages of teetotum and tobacco. And at present I am concerned with quite another sort of clergyman — the Rev. Amos Barton, who did not come to Shepperton until long after Mr. Gilfil had departed this life — ■ until after an interval in which Evangelicalism and the Catholic Question had begun to agitate the rustic mind with controversial debates. A Popish blacksmith had produced a strong Protestant reaction by declaring that, as soon as the Emancipation Bill was passed, he should do a great stroke of business in gridirons ; and the disinclination of the Shepper- ton parishioners generally to dim the unique glory of St. Law- rence, rendered the Church and Constitution an affair of their business and bosoms. A zealous Evangelical preacher had made the old sounding-board vibrate with quite a different sort of elocution from Mr. Giifil's ; the hymn-book had almost superseded the Old and New Versions ; and the great square pews were crowded with new faces from distant corners of the parish — perhaps from Dissenting chapels. You are not imagining, I hope, that Amos Barton was the 6 SCEjVES of clerical life. incumbent of Shepperton. He was no such thing. Those were days when a man could hold three small livings, starve a curate apiece on two of them, and live badly himself on the third. It was so with the Vicar of Shepperton ; a vicar given to bricks and mortar, and thereby running into debt far away in a northern county — who executed his vicarial functions towards Shepperton by pocketing the sum of thirty-five pounds ten per annum, the net surplus remaining to him from the proceeds of that living, after the disbursement of eighty pounds as the annual stipend of his curate. And now, pray, can you solve me the following problem? Given a man with a wife and six children : let him be obliged always to exhibit himself when outside his own door in a suit of black broad- cloth, such as will not undermine the foundations of the Establishment by a paltry plebeian glossiness or an unseemly whiteness at the edges ; in a snowy cravat, which is a serious investment of labor in the hemming, starching, and ironing departments ; and in a hat which shows no symptom of taking to the hideous doctrine of expediency, and shaping itself according to circumstances ; let him have a parish large enough to create an external necessity for abundant shoe- leather, and an internal necessity for abundant beef and mut- ton, as well as poor enough to require frequent priestly con- solation in the shape of shillings and sixpences ; and, lastly, let him be compelled, by his own pride and other people's, to dress his wife and children with gentility from bonnet-strings to shoe-strings. By what process of division can the sum of eighty pounds per annum be made to yield a quotient which will cover that man's weekly expenses ? This was the pro- blem presented by the position of the Rev. Amos Barton, as curate of Shepperton, rather more than twenty years ago. What was thought of this problem, and of the man who had to work it out, by some of the well-to-do inhabitants of Shepperton, two years or more after Mr. Barton's arrival among them, you shall hear, if you will accompany me to Cross Farm, and to the fireside of Mrs. Patten, a childless old lady, who had got rich chiefly by the negative process of spending nothing. Mrs. Patten's passive accumulation of wealth, through all sorts of "bad times," on the farm of which she had been sole tenant since her husband's death, her epigrammatic neighbor, Mrs. Hackit, sarcastically accounted for by supposing that " sixpences grew on the bents of Cross Farm ; " while Mr. Hackit, expressing his views more literally, reminded his wife that " money breeds money." Mr. and I JOHN CURWEN 15. Nov. 11. L816, Beckmondwike, STorks, Eng.; d. Maj 26, i ounder of Tonic Sol- Fa method of teaching sin<,r- tng. Author of many books on miis. subjects. STUDIES WOESHIP MUSIC (FIRST SERIES) CHIEFLY AS REGARDS CONGREGATIONAL SINGING. CI J. SPENCER CURWEX. Member of the "Royal Academy of Music. Cert ich Harmony by tin samey Associate of the Philharmonic Society, Member of the Musical Association, and President of tht Tonic Sol-fa College, Second Edition : Enlarged and Revised. ILon&on : J. CURWEN & SONS, 8 & 9 WARWICK LANE, E.C. Price $k i tn SMMngt me} flfay na . -L REDUCED PRICE, d - " In der That, es ist sonderbar, wie wir so leicht unser Gutes ver- gessen. und gerade nach dem Verkehrten greifen. Wir haben namlieh zu einer wiirdigen kirchlichen Steigerung das Einfachste und Griisste in der Kirche selbst : die ganze Gemeinde. Lasst einmal von der Orgel, oder dem Altar sub durch einen Sanger-Chor Halleluja Amen singen, und dann die ganze Gemeinde mit einem einfacherhabenen Halleluja Amen nachfolgen. so werdet ihr euch in den Himmel versetst glauben, und euch daneben auch vorstellen konnen. dass Gott in Himmel selbst auf eben diese Art angebetet wird." — Thibaut ; Ueber Rtinh.eit der Tonkunst. '• It is indeed remarkable that we are so prone to overlook the good we possess, and to run after that which is perverse. For we have within the Church itself the simplest and grandest materials for a climax worthy of divine worship, — namely, the whole congre- gation. Let but the choir sing • Hallelujah. Amen.' from the organ loft or the chancel, and then let the whole congregation respond with a sublimely simple ' Hallelujah. Amen.' and one may imagine one- self transported to heaven ; and further, one may realize that this is the manner in which God Himself is worshipped in heaven." — Thibaut ;. On Purity in Musical Art. PREFACE. The Author presents his acknowledgments for verbal communications, letters, loan of books and MSS., to the following ministers and gentlemen: Revs. X. Livingstone, Stair, N.B. ; A. Henderson, Paisley ; J. Thomson, Leith ; Messrs. W. S. Eoddie, Inverness ; W. Carnie, Aberdeen ; J. Sneddon, Edinburgh ; Colin Brown, Glasgow ; E. B. Underhill, LL.D. ; the authorities of Maze Pond and Devonshire Square Baptist Chapels ; Mr. F. G. Edwards, organist of Christ Church, Westminster Road ; Mr. J. A. Eorster (of Messrs. Eorster and Andrews, Hull) ; Mr. W. Litster, Aberdeen ; Mr. J. Belcher, London ; and many others whose help is referred to in the text. Without the active co-operation of many organists, choirmasters, and precentors the Descriptive part of this little book could not have been written. In almost all cases the information asked has been freely given. The papers on the work of the late Mr. Henry Smart, Mr. C. E. "Willing, Mr. W. H. Monk, Mr. E. J. Hopkins, Mr. E. H. Turpin, and Dr. Allon, have had the additional advantage of being revised in MS. by these gentlemen. In the paper on the Jewish service the Author lias been helped by Rev. Minus Haines, reader of the West London Synagogue ; by Mr. Davies, choirmaster of the same Synagogue ; by vi l * i : i : I v< E. llcv. Raphael Benjamin, M.A., of the Melbourne Syna- gogue; and by Mr. Hartoch, choirmaster of the Glasgow Synagogue. The Author has generally endeavoured in the Descriptive part of the book to sink his own opinions, and to represent those of the persons whose work he is describing. Portions of the work are reprinted, with additions and modifications, from various Reviews, Magazines, and Newspapers, and the Author presents his best thanks to the various publishers for allowing him to make use of this matter. Plaistow, Essex, Sejytcmlcr, 1880. I PKEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Ix this edition I have embodied the results of reading during eight years which have elapsed since the first was published. The amplification is chiefly in Part I, the Historical portion of the work. Xot only have I come upon many existing references which had previously escaped my notice, but during the last few years several works on Church History have appeared which have proved of great help ; among these I may mention Abbey and Overton's " English Church in the 17th Century," and Edgar's " Old Church Life in Scotland." Altogether I have made nearly one hundred short insertions in the text ; these consist chiefly of quotations from contem- porary writers. The chapter in Part II, on " The Rhythm and Xotation of the Hymn-Tune " is also enlarged. I have embodied in it the main part of a paper on the subject read at the Musical Association. The bibliography of works relating to worship music which is given at the end of this edition has been compiled with all possible care. Of course it does not pretend to be faultless or exhaustive, but I hope it will be of use to others working in the same held. Certainly, had such a list been available when I began work on this subject twenty years ago, I should have hern saved much time and trouble. The list contains nearly 700 entries. I have to thank the following correspondents for looking over a proof, and suggesting additions: — Rev. -I. P. Metcalfe, Pilborough ; Rev. Francis L. Cohem Vlll PREFACE. West London Synagogue; Rev. H. Parr, Yoxford ; Rev. W. Garrett Horder, "Wood Green ; Dr. H. A. Kostlin, Friedberg ; Dr. F. Haupt, Giessen ; Mr. Joseph Seymour, editor of Lyra Ecehsiastica ; Mr. J. M. Hutcheson, Greenock ; Mr. Waldo S. Pratt, Hartford, Conn. ; Mr. F. Marling, Xew York ; and Mr. F. G. Edwards, Hampstead. Mr. John Dobson, of Richmond, whose interest in the subject is so well-known, acknowledged the receipt of the proofs, and died before he could examine them. In conclusion, let me say how gratifying have been the kind expressions of appreciation which have reached me from time to time, since this book first appeared, from the most unexpected and distant sources. In a recent visit to America it was especially pleasant to find how much the work had been read there. I cannot deny that these pages represent an amount of time and labour spent in investigation, reading, travelling, and interviewing, which, if it could be estimated, might seem almost more than the importance of the subject warranted. But I am more than repaid for my trouble by the proofs that have reached me that the book has been of service to many who, in various ways, and in various communions, are endeavouring to make music subserve more fully and deeply the purposes of devotion. J. S. C. March^ 1888. P.S. — The old singing trumpet referred to on p. 27 has now been restored to East Leake Church by Mr. Angrave. Its dimensions are 7ft. 6in. long, and 1ft. 9in. across the mouth. It has one slide like a telescope. CONTENTS. Part I.— HISTOEICAL. PA ok The Old Parochial Psalmody 1 Methodist Psalmody 49 The Psalmody of the Independents and Separatists ... 79 The Psalmody of the Baptists 93 New England Psalmody 108 Scottish Presbyterian Psalmody 127 Part II.-PEACTICAL. The Organ in Divine Service 179 The Harmonium and American Organ 220 Chanting 227 The Style of Harmony Proper for Congregational Music 255 The Ehythm and Notation of Hymn-tunes 287 The Old Fugal Tunes 306 The Training of Boys' Voices 312 How to Train a Congregation 320 The Argument for Congregational Singing 328 Part III.— DESCEIPTIYE. The Temple Church 347 Mr. Henry Smart on Psalmody 354 Union Chapel, Islington 365 St. Anne's, Soho 376 The London Oratory 384 Jewish Synagogue Service 390 Catholic Apostolic Church, Gordon Square 397 Mr. W. H. Monk on Church Music 403 The Foundling Chapel 410 Eegent Square Presbyterian Church 416 Kensington Chapel 422 Metropolitan Tabernacle 426 Foresters' Hall, Wilderness Eow 431 The City Temple 437 Surrey Chapel 442 The Weigh-House Chapel 448 Christ Church, Westminster Eoad 454 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. (Second Series.) Price 3s. PART I— HISTORICAL. STUDIES IN AVORSIIIP MUSIC. jfirst Scries. THE OLD PAEOCHIAL PSALMODY. At the Reformation the English Church at first continued the Roman Catholic usage of music in divine service, except that everything sung was translated into the verna- cular. But the most zealous of the English Reformers, driven by Mary's persecution into Switzerland, learned there the habit of singing metrical psalms, which, origi- nating in France, had spread with swiftness among all the newly-awakened countries. When Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, the refugees returned, and brought with them this practice of psalmody, which the English Church was not slow to adopt. " After sermon done," says Strype in his annals, " they all sung in common a psalm in metre, as it seems now was frequently done, the custom having been brought in from abroad by the exiles." The date referred to is March loth, 1559, when Mr. Veron, a Frenchman, preached at Paul's Cross before the mayor and aldermen of London. The following extracts from Strype are additional evidence : — " 1559, September. The new Morning Prayer at St. Antholius, London; the bell beginning to ring at five, when a psalm was sung after the Geneva fashion; all the congregation, men, women, and boys, singing together." B 2 STUDIES IX WORSHIP 2IUSIC. . " 1559-60, March 3rd. Grindal, the new Bishop of London, preached at Paul's Cross, and after sermon, ' a psalm was sung (which was the common practice of the Reformed churches abroad) wherein the people also joined their voices.' " " As soon as they commenced singing in London, immediately not only the churches in the neighbourhood, hut even the towns far distant began to vie with each other in the practice. You may now sometimes see at Paul's Cross, after the service, six thousand persons, young and old, of all sexes, singing together; this sadly annoys the mass priests, for they perceive that by this means the sacred discourse sinks more deeply into the minds of men." In Queen Elizabeth's injunctions to her clergy, 1559, after directing that " there be a modest and distinct song used in all parts of the common prayer of the church," it is added, " Yet, nevertheless, for the comforting as much as delight in music, it may be permitted, that in the beginning or at the end of common prayer, either at morning or evening, there may be sung a hymn, or such- like song, to the praise of Almighty God, in the best melody or music that may be devised, having respect that the sentence of the hymn may be understood and perceived." The custom thus quickly established became firmly fixed in the national religious life. The version of the Psalms known as Sternhold and Hopkins' was authorised a few years later (15 62), and was everywhere adopted. "Psalms," says Bishop Burnet, "were much sung by all who loved the Reformation ; and it was a sign by which men's affec- tions to that work were measured, whether they used to sing them or not." "Psalm singer" was indeed but another name for a Protestant. The tunes used were few, and as they were always associated with the same psalm, words Mid music were soon known by heart to the con- gregations. The custom of reading out each line before it was sung, however depressing its subsequent influence upon psalmody, was instituted by the Reformers with the best intentions. At this time few in the congregation had books, and few could read. Such is a picture of the REFORMATION PSALTERS. Reformation psalmody in England, which continned with- out further development for many years. Very briefly we must notice its literature. The first edition of Sternhold's Psalms was issued in 1549, hut without music. The entire Psalter appeared in 1562, under the editorship of Day, with the melody of some forty tunes. This is the first English Psalter with notes. In 1579 AV. Damon edited the first edition of the Psalter which gave the tunes in four parts. Este's Psalter appeared in 1592, Douland's Psalter appeared in 1594, and John Mundy's in the same year. Allison issued a folio Psalter in 1599, the single parts so arranged on the page that persons sitting at opposite sides of the table could sing from one copy. In 1 607 a Psalter was published with an introduction on the art of sol-faing. The impor- tant Psalter of Bavenscroft appeared in 1621 and 1633. That of Dr. "William Slater appeared in 1652. Playford's Psalter was published complete in 1677. Hitherto, in the harmonised Psalters the melody had always been in the tenor part, but Playford soon after published in 8vo a Psalter in which the modern arrangement of parts is fore- shadowed. The Church Tune is given to the Cantus, or highest part ; the Medius, or next part, does not rise above it ; and the Bassus lies under both. He also places the upper parts in the G clef. The Rev. J. Powell Metcalfe {Musical Ti?nes, December 1865), who is, however, rather unfavourable to metrical psalmody as a " puritan abuse, " says : — " There can be no doubt that the primary mission of the metrical psalm was simply social. It was purposed as the godly antagonist of the profane and ribald ballads which, to the sorrow of the wise and good of our land, filled the mouths and defiled the minds of the people in the days of the Reformation. By its aid it was desired that Englishmen should comply with St. Paul's injunction, even by their firesides : — ' If any be merry, let him sing psalms.' Hence was the well-known ballad measure, the measure of ' Chevy Chase,' at 4 STUDIES m WORSHIP MUSIC. first exclusively adopted ; hence did the tune embrace as many of the well-known ballad tunes' characteristics, as accorded with its change of service from human to divine." In the above he speaks of English psalmody, not of German or Swiss. The first note of discontent with congregational singing from the musician's point of view that we have found, is struck by Charles Butler, in his Principles of Music (1636):— M For some," he says, " that have good minds have not good voices, and some that have voices cannot read ; some that can read cannot sing, and some can neither read nor sing. All which are the greatest part of most congregations. And why should it be more required that all the assembly should join with the choir in the artificial singing of their hymns and anthems, than with the priests in plain reading or saying of the lessons, prayers, and other parts of the liturgy, or the prayer of the preacher before and after the sermon ? " He argues that in order to join intelligently in the psalms, the congregation must either learn them by heart or have a book at hand. " And indeed, without such help, neither can our plain metre psalms be understood when they are sung in the church, the multitude of voices so confounding the words, that a good ear listening atten- tively can seldom apprehend them." This is a good incidental testimony — if any were needed — to the existence of truly congregational singing at this time. The music was altogether vocal. Organs were only to be found in the cathedrals, and in a few large churches. Indeed, a motion to prohibit them was made in the Convocation of 1562, and lost only by one vote. A majority of eight of those present was against them, but the proxies turned the scale. We have a vivid picture of Church Psalmody in the year 1644, from the pen of Thomas Mace, clerk of Trinity College, Cambridge. It is during the siege of York, when the Cathedral was " cramming or squeezing full" of MACE'S "MUSICICS MONUMENT." 5 lords, knights and gentlemen, besides citizens and soldiers. The enemy had planted their guns so near that side of the city where the church was, " that the great guns made their hellish disturbance constantly in prayer time," and " cannon bullets " came in at the window. 11 Now here," he writes, " you must take notice that they had then a custom in that church (which I heard not of in any other cathedral, which was), that always before the sermon the whole congregation sang a psalm, together with the choir and the organ, and you must also know that there was then a most excellent-large-plum p-lusty- fullspeaking- organ, which cost (as 1 am credibly informed) a thousand pounds. This organ, I say (when the Psalm was set before the sermon), being let out into all its fulness of stops, together with the choir began the Psalm. But when that vast concording unity of the whole congregational chorus came (as I may say) thundering in, even so as it made the very ground shake under us (0, the unutterable ravishing soul's delight !). In the which I was so transported and wrapt up into high contemplation, that there was no room left in my whole man, viz , body, soul and spirit, for anything below divine and heavenly raptures ; nor could there possibly be anything in earth to which that tvery singing might truly be compared, except the right apprehensions or conceivings of that glorious and miraculous choir recorded in the Scriptures at the dedication of the Temple, of which you may read in the 2 Chron. ch. 5 to the end. But yet beyond this, I can truly say it was useful to me in a much higher manner, viz., even as a most lively similitude or representation of the beati- fical, celestial or angelical quires above, which continually rejoice before God, adoring and singing praises to Him and of Him in all eternity." This is an extract from " Musick's Monument," pub- lished in 1676, in which Mace gives some suggestions for the improvement of psalmody in parish churches. He shows how hard it is for the human voice to sing in tune and keep the pitch, and maintains that the help of an organ is necessary. " Methinks I hear them saying, what, an organ in our poor parish church, and an organist too ?" Then he tells us that the matter of 30, 40, 50, or 60 pounds will procure a very good instrument, fit for most little churches. As to the organist, " any musick master, virginal player, or organ maker will teach a Parish Clerk 6 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. how to pulse or strike most of our common psalm-tunes usually sung in our churches for a trifle viz., 20. o< and so well that he need never be-' cost to perform that duty sufficiently during his I has learned, the children and young people of the village will be all ambitious to learn too, this they can do "in a week or a fortnight's time very well. And thus, little by lit:" rish will swarm with organists. It is one of the most easy pieces of performance in all instrumental music^ to pulse one of our psalm-tunes truly and well, after a veiy little showing upon an organ." The playing or pulsing referred to was probably in two parts only, air and bass. We cannot understand how anything more than this can have been t in "a week or a fortnight.'3 During the eighteenth century the spiritual force of the vmation waned. Tate, writing in 1710. attributes the dc »y f ] salmody to the obsolete character of the old n of the Psalms : to the fact that half a dozen psalm tunes, or fewer in s is, are all that are in us- the neglec: : | salmody in schools and families; and to the unskilful clerks, "for as the clerk sings, so gen-.: gs the parish. n The following references to the condition of church music in the early part of the eighteenth century, have been collected by ^Ir. Overton : — t; Having got their organs and other instruments back again into .we been inclined to run riot with their newly-; _ treasure. Th S] I tor' complains that the solemn thoughts suggested by the sermon were driven out head I ::y jig notes which followed on the organ: and ifl probably alluding to similar exhibitions when he says. • Church Music must have no voluntary Maggots, no mi Tattoos, no light and galliardizing notes. Religious harmony must be moving, but noble withal ; grave, solemn and seraphic ; lit tor a martyr to play, and an angel to hear.' Perhaps it is hypercritical to find fault with a voluntary before the first lesson, which the ' Spec- tator' thinks a laudable custom, but it was surely utilising psalmody BEDFORD'S "GREAT ABUSE." 7 for purposes for which it was never intended, when, according to - . • before sermon a long psalm was set which lasted an hour, while the sexton gathered his year's contribution thro' the whole church;' and though Pepys thought it a 'jest' to hear * the clerk begin the 2oth Psalm which hath a proper tune to it, and then the 116th which cannot be sung to that tune, and mighty sport to hear our clerke sing out of tune, though his master ntfl by him, that begins and keeps the time aloud for the parish,' yet one does not go to church to find jests or enjoy mighty sport. Such contretemps were, perhaps, natural on the revival of an unfamiliar practice ; but one may sympathise more with the satisfaction with which the other diarist. Thoresby. records on October 3rd. 1706, that ' a new order of singing was begun this day in pariah church [Leeds], to sing a >tave betwixt the daily Morning and Communion Service, as has long been done at London.' Bishop Bull writes to the same effect in the same year." Durel, in his " Government and AVorship of God in the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas " (1G- J a - :— •• It is a custom generally used in most if not all parish churches of this kingdom (England), as well among Presbyterians as others, that the clerk alone reads out every verse, one after another, of the psalm that is sung before and after sermon, and that all the people sing it after him." The Rev. Arthur Bedford, M.A., Chaplain to the Duke of Bedford, a good contrapuntist and musician, published in 1711 "The Great Abuse of Mine/1 which reveals the abuses which had growu up. £*-** VYjo\>*jL* oJL C •• But now," he says, u the notes [of the organ] are played with such a rattle and hurry instead of method, with such difference in the length of equal notes, to spoil the time, and displease a musician, and so many whimseys instead of graces, to confound the ignorant, that the design is lost, and the congregation takes their time, not from the organ, since they do not understand it. but from the Parish Clerk, or from one another, which they could better have done if there was no organ at all. This makes many say that the organs, as they are now managed, do spoil parochial singing. And it is wry able, that in most places, instead of reaping any advantage from the organ, there are usually the fewest tunes and the wor- formed by the whole congregation. . . The notes of a tune, at the first naming of a psalm, are often played with thai variety and division, that none in a common congregation can tell what is meant. 8 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. In this case, one in the congregation guesses it to be one tune, and another guesses it to be another. Thus there are many tunes sung at once, as the people know, and the organ, which was designed to be a help, is only an instrument to put all into confusion, and at last to spoil the singing. " It would be very convenient in parochial churches that the organist did not play so loud while the congregation is singing. Tie full organ is generally too loud for a congregation, and drowns the voices that they are not heard. . . It is the opinion of all judges of music that the softest is the best, and I am sure it will be the greatest help to the singing. Art was only intended to help nature, and not to overbear it. And instruments were designed to direct our voices, not to drown them." Mr. Bedford speaks favourably of the simple country psalmody : — 11 The good effects of divine music are evident from many places in the country where the inhabitants learn to sing psalms in consort, though from a mean artist. Common experience tells us that such sing- ing of psalms in many country places hath wonderfully increased the congregations. . . Though fine music is expected at a fine con- sort, yet in country places it is very grateful to hear the meanest voices setting forth the glory of God in such psalms and hymns as are truly though not finely performed, and the harmony of many voices drowns that harshness which is very perceivable in one." In recommendation of the practice of psalm-singing, Bedford quotes Dr. Bray, who says that through the fond- ness of the people for psalm-singing, many have recovered their reading, which they had almost forgotten, and many have learned to read for the sake of singing psalms. He tells us too of Dr. Woodward, who reformed his parish by teaching youths psalm-singing, and forming them into a religious society. These parochial societies of singers seem to have been common at this period. Bishop Gibson, in his directions to his clergy in 1724, gives a "course of singing psalms," lasting for six months, to avoid repetition and provide due variety of topics. He makes reference to the travelling village teachers of psalmody, with whom we shall often meet in our survey. He says : — LINING OUT. 9 " But when I recommend the bringing your people, whether old or young, to a decent and orderly way of singing, I do by no means recommend to you or them the inviting or encouraging those idle instructors who of late years have gone about the several countries to teach tunes uncommon and out of the way (which very often are as ridiculous as they are new, and the consequence of which is that the greater part of the congregation, being unaccustomed to them, are silenced, and do not join in this exercise at all), but my meaning is that you should endeavour to bring your whole congregation, men and women, old and young, or at least as many as you can, to sing five or six of the plainest and best known tunes in a decent, regular, and uniform manner, so as to be able to bear their part in them at the public service of the Church." The Bishop is certainly not over ambitious, but his desire is that all shall participate in the Psalms. Yet- further to compel them to sing, he recommends the prac- tice of " lining out.'' Six years later, in 1730, we find James Leman, in " a new method of learning Psalm tunes," drawing the follow- ing sad picture of the condition of psalmody : — " Though we have several very good and easy tunes, yet not above five or six are commonly made use of, and scarce one private person in a thousand is able to sing them right ; nay, even among the clarks themselves there are very few who understand so much of music as to be able to sing many of them either." Leman differs from Bishop Gibson as to " lining out ; " indeed, he thinks that it is a chief cause of the lifeless condition into which psalmody had fallen. He says : — 11 1 have sometimes thought the old common custom of the clark's reading the lines of the Psalms to the people to be a hindrance to their remembering the tunes, because they having sung the line out, their thoughts are so intent upon what he is going next to deliveri that they in a great measure forget the preceding part of the tune, and doing thus one line after another may be one reason why the whole tune is remembered but in a very imperfect manner. If this old method could once be laid aside, I am persuaded the people would not only soon learn to sing their tunes much better, but might also sing the Psalms with more understanding and devotion than is commonly done ; for by receiving the words of the Psalms from the dark in so interrupted a manner, the sense is thereby so commonly 10 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. ■ broken, that oftentimes there can be but little understood. And therefore I think this consideration only should be sufficient to lay- it aside. Neither would this be altogether new or strange, there being some churches that have made it their practice for many years, and I have had the pleasure to observe that in such places this duty is performed with more regularity than in other places. Be- sides, this method of singing the Psalms throughout, without reading each line, is what the French, Dutch, and other foreign Protestants have always made use of, and it is very well known how agreeably they perform that part of their public worship. Even in those churches of our own where they make use of organs, if they were to play the plain tune only, line after line, and leave out the little inter- ludes that are made between, or at the end of each line, it would, in my opinion, be more agreeable, because it would much better suit the place and occasion." The Be v. Arthur Bedford, whom we have already quoted, in a sermon preached in 1733, makes further reference to the state of parish psalmody : — 11 There is indeed," he says, " an abuse which cannot be concealed, and which hath given great offence in parochial congregations, which is when a few select singers meet together in one part of the church, and engross the whole singing to themselves. Singing of Psalms is certainly a Christian's right, and we ought no more to be debarred from that than from joining in prayers, in receiving the Lord's Supper, and in hearing the Word of God. Such people have no authority to exclude others, and what they do at such a time springs from conceitedness, and an affectation of vain glory, which, as it is bad in all times and places, so it is worse in the house of God, and when we meet together for His immediate worship. And therefore it is much* to be wished that the abuse was regulated, and the good use hereof improved. And this I think may be effectually done after this manner. Let those persons who have learned to sing in any parochial church, disperse themselves on a Sunday into their respective seats, and by singing all together in a single part, they may soQn teach the congregation any of the plain tunes which they afterwards design to sing in consort. In such a method, it hath been known by experience, that where there is a sermon twice every Sunday, and any tune is constantly sung twice every day, there the said congregation will learn in six weeks' time to sing any single tune, or even double tunes, after they have been sometime used to such a method ; and so they may introduce as great a variety of grave tunes as shall be thought expedient. And the shewing of such DISPERSED SINGERS. 11 persons the notes who never learned in a regular manner, will be of great use on such an occasion. When a whole congregation has thus learned, the singers may withdraw to a place where they can he together, and sing the first line of any tune in a single part, that the congregation may know the tune, and take the exact pitch, and then they may afterwards let the clerk read the lines, and the singers may join in with the rest, in as full a consort as they can make. This they will as easily join with as with an organ, and if the congregation can be prevailed with not to sing too loud, so as to drown the voices of the singers, it will soon be as pleasant as an organ, and much more grave and serious than such, as they are generally managed. If the singers could be prevailed to yield to this, they might, after evening service is over, have the liberty to tarry in the church, and sing whatever psalms, hymns, or anthems they pleased, and for as long a time as they thought fit, at which no one could be offended, because everyone might take his own choice, either to tarry or withdraw. And if such a society of singers did agree to have a short anthem on every Sunday, both morning and afternoon, before the beginning of divine service, it would not only be an obligation to them to be there betimes, but be an inducement to others to do the same, and especially such who loiter at the tombs in the churchyards until the liturgy is half ended." Not only is this passage interesting as a picture of parochial psalmody in the middle of the last century, but the suggestions it contains are of present value. No better plan can be devised for inciting the congregation to raise their voices, than that of dispersing trained singers among them. It is a plan now adopted to a large extent in Scotland, with the best results. Mr. Bedford concludes by advocating family and fireside psalmody as a help to that of the Church, " and thus, like the primitive Chris- tians, there would be a church in every house." A letter in Hooker's Weekly Miscellany, February 14th, 1741, signed " Rusticus," re-echoes Bedford's complaint of the " singers." It is alleged that they meet once a week in the church to practise psalm-tunes and anthems, which they sing on Sunday, the congregation listening. They do not line out the psalms, which prevents people understanding what the words are. And they choose 12 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. passages at random, which sometimes begin or end in the middle of a sentence. The following is scarcely credible : u Some parish clerks, when party disputes run high, are proud to pick out a malignant psalm, one which they imagine suits with the state of public affairs, or with some transactions in their own parishes, and casts a reflection upon them, whereby a part of the con- gregation is greviously scandalised, while the other is unseasonably diverted." William Riley, " principal Teacher of Psalmody to the Charity Schools in London, Westminster, and the parts adjacent," published in 17b2 a considerable work, entitled " Parochial [Music Corrected." At this time the Methodist movement had begun to stir within the Church. Riley quotes Dr. Cave's "Primitive Christianity" in reference to psalm-singing : — "In this duty the whole congregation bore a part, joining all together in a common celebration of the praises of God." He complains of the fuguing tunes in use, and of " The Methodists' profane manner of singing." He recommends the use of a pitch-pipe to set the tunes (organs were still confined to a few large churches), instead of the haphazard of pitching from memory. Lining out he condemns, as it makes the clerk lose the pitch, and sometimes the tune, spoils the sense of the words, protracts the service, and renders the people's hymn-books useless. The slow and tedious rate of singing- is deprecated, and we are told that it is the custom of most churches to sing no more than four verses of their longest psalm. The custom of singing psalms in public worship is not so frequent as formerly. 11 There is now no singing, either before Morning or Evening prayer,>por any after the sermon, in most churches. And in the afternoon, the Gloria Patri is often thought sufficient to be sung after sermon. At the same time, the length of the voluntaries and interludes is not considered, but the organist is permitted to play sometimes more than a quarter of an hour before the first lesson, and the giving out, with the interludes of two psalms, often takes up ten minutes more, so that near half an hour is too often spent in amusing our ears, which ought rather to be employed in psalmody, as being PARISH CLERKS: 13 recommended to us in the Holy Scripture as one special means of edification. The use of it is much neglected at daily prayers, and between the services on Saints' Days. Psalmody is now performed with as little devotion as judgment, and even treated with the greatest contempt by many who affect politeness, and who think it beneath the dignity of a person of fashion to join in this heavenly exercise. Others there are who irreverently sit." Riley's remarks on Parish Clerks reveal a curious con- dition of things. He says that ministers are in the habit of choosing their curates to the office, for the sake, pre- sumably, of receiving the fees. The curates choose deputies from the menial servants of the church. He complains that decayed inhabitants are in some parishes chosen for the office, and protests that poverty is not a sufficient recommendation. u Would you take into your house a servant who did not know his work ? " If, how- ever, they will appoint an incompetent man, let him have a paid assistant to start the psalm for him after he has named it. This is done in several parishes. The dis- senters much excel us, because they choose competent clerks. Riley has known " York " tune sung fifteen times in a week at one church, and in another the Gloria Patri sung to the melancholy strains of " Windsor." Riley adds some interesting particulars as to the history of the Parish Clerks of London. They have been a com- pany for about fixe, hundred years. They were first incorporated by Henry the .Third, who called them " the brotherhood of St. Nicholas." Their charter was renewed by Charles the First. It describes them as " The Master, "Wardens, and Fellowship of Parish Church Clerks in the City and Suburbs of London and the liberties thereof, the City of Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, and the fifteen out-parishes adjacent." The charter lays down the rule that " Every person who is chosen Clerk of a Parish shall first give sufficient proof of his abilities to sing at least the tunes which are used in parish churches." But Riley tells us that this obviously useful test is no 14 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. longer required. He speaks of the clerks holding weekly meetings at their Hall, " where they sing psalms, accom- panied by an organ, for about an hour." This is a useful notion. The bringing together of these psalmody leaders must have been a valuable discipline for their taste and style, correcting personal faults, and kind- ling their enthusiasm for a higher ideal. Such a gather- ing might well be held now in all large towns. Fielding's "Joseph Andrews" says, in a letter to his sister : — " Unless it be true that you are going to be married to Parson Williams, as folks talk, and then I should be very willing to be his clerk — for which, you know, 1 am qualified, being able to read and to set a psalm." Parson Adams says : — " There was a competition between three young fellows for tho position of clerk, which 1 disposed of, to the best of my abilities, according to merit ; that is, I gave it to him who had the happiest merit of setting a psalm." Riley's chapter on " The utility of teaching charity children psalmody " shows how our notions of musical education have changed since his time. Instead of trying to show that learning to sing will do these children good, he spends himself in proving that it cannot possibly do them any harm. The objection that such knowledge will make them proud and above their condition, songsters and fond of company, he answers by pleading that " they are not taught to sing by the rules of music, as that would be a superflous qualification for those who are intended for laborious trades and services.,, His second argument is that, 4° what we will, we cannot prevent the quick-eared children from singing, and they had better sing hymns than profane songs. His third argument is best of all. Some of the finest treble voices in the cathedrals, he tells us, notwithstanding the advantages of a musical education, have, when broken, turned out extremely bad. What then can be expected in Charity Schools, where they are THE OLD SINGING PSALMS. 15 not taught any rules to regulate their voices by ? There need be little fear of the children turning out good singers. Out of five hundred children, Riley solemnly declares he has not found five with remarkably good voices. If they turn out songsters, therefore, it won't be owing to their instruction. Turning to the organists, Riley complains of the tedious variations in every line, of the ill-timed flourishes, which put the congregation out, of the full organ being too loud, for the voices, and of the shake at the end of every line, which is given even when it causes a break in the sense. He quotes this verse — The Lord's commands are righteous and [shake) Rejoice the heart likewise ; His precepts are most pure and do (shake) Give light unto the eyes, to show the absurdity and irreverence which, the shake sometimes induces. He notices that organists often play interludes in common time to psalm-tunes in triple time ; he complains of the levity of style in voluntaries, and mentions incidentally that some recommend the use of five or six tunes only. Here we may notice the controversies to which the issue of new metrical versions of the Psalms gave rise. The old version of Sternhold and Hopkins was not the first that was made in England, but it was the first which received legal sanction, and was " allowed to be sung in churches." ITarx, the German musical theorist, speaking of the Chorale of his country, says: — " Many of these melodies have edified, comforted, and strengthened us from the clays of our childhood, and for centuries they have done the same for our fathers. They were the voice of the people when they declared for the gospel ; they stimulated their spiritual life. They were the strong armour of the Church in its work of purification and renovation, and they will descend with all these associa- tions, and with all this power to posterity." This his- 16 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. . torical union of words and music was a feature of early- English psalmody no less than it still is of the psalmody of the Lutheran Church. Each Psalm had its " Proper Tune." The metrical psalms were Protestant in their origin, and in their use they exemplified the Protestant principle of allowing every worshipper to understand and participate in the service. As the years went on, the rude numbers of Sternhold and Hopkins passed into the language of spiritual experience in a degree only less than the authorised version of the Bible. They were a liturgy to those who rejected liturgies. In the language of George Eliot, their yearning and their exultation gathered uttermost force from the sense of communion in a form which had expressed them both for long generations of struggling fellow-men. The following passage on this point occurs in Abbey and Overton's " The English Church in the Eighteenth Century ":— " In country places, more especially where few could read, it was no light matter to set aside words which, wedded to their own tunes, had been known by rote for what — going back as it did to the earlier years of the Reformation — must have seemed like time immemorial. For a long time, therefore, yet to come, a great number, perhaps the bulk of rustic congregations, continued well-satisfied with the psalmody they had learnt from their fathers ; and of many a pious village home it might be said, in Shenstone's words : — Here oft the dame, on Sabbath's decent eve, Hymned such psalms as Sternhold forth did mete; If winter t'were, she to her hearth did cleave, But in her garden found a summer seat. Sweet melody ! to hear her then repeat How Israel's sons, beneath a foreign king, >> While taunting foemen did a song entreat, All, for the nonce, untuning every string, Up hang their useless lyres — small heart had they to sing." The preference of so many learned and unlearned for the Old Version is not wholly to be explained away as prejudice and conservatism. Bishop Beveridge, in his " Defence of the Old Singing Psalms" (1710), displays THE OLD VERSION. 17 something of both these qualities when he tells us that " first it is a great prejudice to the new version that it is new, wholly new. For whatsoever is new in religion is, at the best, unnecessary. People having been religious before may still be so, if they will, without it." But his contention is, in the main, for the dignity and purity of worship. It must be borne in mind that there was at this time a stubborn prejudice against what were called " human composures." The Metrical Psalms were the inspired Scriptures shaped into verse for the convenience of singing. We now employ the word " hymn " loosely for all short pieces intended for use in worship, whether founded on the Psalms or not, and speak of men and women as the authors. But in the last century, although hymns existed for private reading, they were not used to any extent in worship. The modern feeling may be compared with the olden by reminding ourselves that what we now speak of as Addison's hymn," The Lord my pasture shall prepare," was known at the time of its composition as " Mr. Addison's words to the 23rd Psalm." The objections of Bishop Beveridge may now be understood. The Old Version kept near to the text, its style was "plain and low and heavy, while the other (Tate and Brady's) is brisk and lively, and flourished here and there with wit and fancy." " For religion is too severe a thing to be played with." The Rev. J. H. Overton, in his " Life in the Church of England," 1660-1714, says :— " Samuel Wesley evidently considered the new infinitely superior to the old as a composition, but tells his curate at Epworth that i they must be content with their grandsire, Sternhold.' He agrees with Beveridge that the common people would understand it better, 4 for,' he adds caustically, ' they have a strange genius at under- standing nonsense.' Tom Brown, who maybe supposed to represent a certain type of lay opinion, has some doggerel verses on the two versions, which begin with apostrophising Sternhold and Hopkins, with more force than politeness, as 18 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. . ' Ye scoundrel old bards, and a brace of dull knaves ; ' and end, 1 I'm not such a coxcomb, 'stead of new Psalms to learn old, Or to quit Tate and Brady, for Hopkins and Sternhold.' The idea of any tertium quid seems to have entered into no man's thoughts. With the exception of Jeremy Taylor and Dean Hickes, no writer suggests the use of hymns, and it is doubtful whether even Taylor meant them to be used in the public service ; at any rate, his own' spiritual songs are not all adapted for that purpose, though he did write ' eucharistical hymns.' Anthems, of course, were used in the Cathedrals and the Chapels Royal, but in the parish churches the choice lay simply between the old and new versions, and the balance of opinion was decidedly in favour of the old. The attachment of Churchmen to Sternhold and Hopkins is curious, considering that the version was the offspring of Puritanism ; but it was quickly deserted by its parent, and adopted by his foe." Thus the objections to Tate and Brady's version did not depend on the quality of their verse. It was the very attempt at smoothness and elegance that shocked the devout mind. Many stories are told of the invincible pre- judice of the common people in favour of the old version. Tate, in his tract on the subject already quoted, tells us 'that the late Eishop of Ely, upon first using his brother Dr. Patrick's new version in his family devotion, observed that a servant maid of a musical voice was silent for several days together. He asked her the reason; whether she were not well, or had a cold, adding that he was much delighted to hear her, because she sang sweetly, and kept the rest in tune. " I am well enough in health," answered she, " and I have no cold ; hut if you must needs know the plain truth of the matter, as long as you sung Jesus Christ's Psalms, I sung along with ye ; hut now you sing Psalms of your own invention you may sing hy yourselves." Here is another story of the same sort. A poor man was asked by his minister why he did not join in the singing of the Psalms, as well as the repetition of his prayers, especially as he understood that he sang hymns with his family in his Sunday evening devotions. The man BISHOP DECKER'S CHARGE. 19 replied, " David speaks so plain, that we cannot mistake his meaning, but as for Mr. Tate and Brady, they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Hiin." The judgment in favour of the new version never became unanimous. So recently as 1843, Dr. Jebb, in his work on the Cathedral Service, declares his opinion that the version of Sternhold and Hopkins possesses more intrinsic excellence than that of Tate and Brady. The following extracts from Eishop Seeker's second Oxford charge, 1741, throw light on the condition of psalmody at the time ; — " You will always endeavour that your parish clerks be persons of discretion, as well as skill and seriousness. But, however, you will be much surer of no impropriety happening in this part of the worship, if you either direct them every Sunday to suitable Psalms, or assign them a course of such to go orderly through. And unless the generality of your parishioners are provided with books, and able to make use of them, ordering each line to be read will both secure a greater number of singers, and be very instructive to many who can- not sing. All persons, indeed, who are by nature qualified, ought to learn, and constantly join to glorify Him that made them, in Psalms and spiritual songs. This was the practice of the early Christians ; it was restored, very justly, at the Reformation ; and hath declined of late, within most of our memories, very unhappily. For the improvements made by a few in church music, were they real improvements, will seldom equal the harmony of a general chorus in which any lesser dissonances are quite lost. " But then, where any knowledge of the old common tunes remains, you should endeavour principally that your learners may perfect them- selves in these, that so they may lead and assist the rest of the congre- gation, who should always join with them; or, if you must admit a mixture of new and uncommon tunes, it should be no greater than you find yourselves in prudence absolutely obliged to. Else the conse- quence will be, what I fear many of you have experienced, that either one part of your people will resent being unjustly silenced, and this by the introduction of tunes often not so good as their former ones, and so your parish will be divided and uneasy : or if they agree to the change ever so generally, and like it ever so well, yet your select singers will either be weary in a while of what only novelty recom- mended to them, or grow conceited and ungovernable, or die off, or 20 STUDIES IN WORSHIP IfUSIC. be dispersed, and the congregation will be left unable to sing in any manner at all. Where, indeed, the newer tunes have quite blotted out the memory of the old ones, all you can do is to make use of what you find in use, to get some of the easiest of them learnt as generally as you can, and keep to these. And if, in order to instruct your people in either way of singing, meetings to practise out of church time be requisite, you will keep a strict watch over them, that they be managed with all possible decency, and never continued till candle-light, if they consist of both sexes. You will likewise dis- countenance, at least, all frequent meetings between the singers of different parishes, and making appointments to sing alternately at one another's churches ; for this wandering from their own, which by law they ought to keep to, usually leads them into excesses and follies." In 1765, A. Williams published his "Universal Psalmodist." The author is described as a teacher of psalmody in London. He speaks of " The shameful neglect of singing in our churches, insomuch that if it was not for a few young people associated together, there would in many of our churches be very little, and in some (I am inclined to believe) no singing at all. Some exclaim much against a regular method of singing in time of Divine Service/but nevertheless I think those little country societies, the design of which is to promote it, are very justifiable, for the reason just mentioned." Williams recommends the teaching of notes in schools, the giving of books to those of the congregation who can- not buy them, and the choice of proper clerks to lead the worship. " It might also/' he says, " save our churches much expense in buying organs, which are now very convenient to drown the hideous cries of the people.' ' John Arnold, in his " Compleat Psalmist," the sixth edition of which was published in 1769, gives us a curious insight into the state of organ manufacture. He says : — " That most noble instrument, the organ, having now made its most magnificent appearance in cathedrals and churches in London, and other of our cities, but also in the churches of many of our market towns throughout this nation ; which is now brought to such a great perfection that I have seen some advertisements in the news- papers of church organs of the machinery kind, which are so SINGING OF PSALMS. 21 contrived as to play (having barrels fitted to them for that purpose) > a set of voluntaries, also most of our ancient psalm-tunes, with their givings out and interludes, which are very commodious for churches in remote country places, where an organist is not easy to be had or maintained, and may also be played by a person (unskilled in music), who is only to turn a winch round, which causes the barrels to play the tunes they are set to ; which organs also generally have, or should have, a set of keys to them, that a person might play on them at pleasure, notwithstanding the barrels." The B,ev. Dr. Dodd, Chaplain - in - Ordinary to His Majesty, in a sermon, "Cautions against Methodism " (1769) says:— " It is obvious to every bystander how much the harmony of their music hath saved the cause of our modern Separatists ; and it is law- ful even to learn from an enemy. It is undeniable that the psalmody in the Church of England is not under the best regulations that might be ; and it is much to be wished that the very loud and drawling manner of our singing was more agreeably altered." Richard Burn, LL.D., Chancellor of the Diocese of York, published a sermon on psalmody in 1774, in which he clearly shows that the power of congregational singing springs from our very nature. " Every person approves that work which himself is employed in. There is a self-satisfaction which God hath implanted in everyone, that he may not be beholden for his happiness to things without him, and to bear up his mind in the perverseness of human affairs. . . . Hence in the singing of Psalms, the satisfaction doth not always arise from the excellency of the composition, but from the person himself being concerned in the execution. And upon the introduction of any new method of singing, they who bear no share in the performance are aot to conclude in favour of the former way ; not because it is less uncouth and disagreeable, but because it is their own. . . The thing itself is certain, that every man will take delight in that service in which he himself is a performer." The author further distinguishes between Praise and Prayer : — " To praise the Benefactor for kindnesses received is the voice of nature. We cannot return to God any equivalent for what He hath done for us, and therefore our hearts dilate themselves in songs of adoration. Prayer implies want and imperfection, and therefore is unsuitable for the voice of song ; but thanksgiving implies the satis- 22 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. ■ faction of those wants, and consequently exults in the praises of the Benefactor. It elevates our souls, and transports them to the regions of bliss." Dr. Burn warns people not to vociferate with a strong voice, and spoil the harmony ; nor, on the other hand, to sing with a spruce affectation, and an effeminate delicacy unnatural to the English nation. He objects to " un- natural decorations" and "meretricious ornaments" given by organists between the lines of the Psalm, and says that " sixteen impertinent preludes and interludes, in singing two staves of David's Psalms, is too much for any purposes of devotion." Lastly, he reminds us that sing- ing is but an appendage to devotion. " I will have mercy and not sacrifice." A good life is the best handmaid to devotion. " That we may sing well, we must live well." Everyone knows the fine old tune, " St. Stephen's." The composer, Rev. W- Jones, Vicar of JSayland, was a man of many-sided culture. In 1787 he preached a sermon on " The nature and excellence of music," in which he says : — 11 The psalmody of our country churches is universally complained of, as very much out of order, and wanting regulation in most parts of the kingdom. A company of persons who appoint themselves under the name of ■ the singers ' assume an exclusive right, which belongs not to them, but to the congregation at large ; and they often make a Very indiscreet use of their liberty ; neglecting the best old psalmody till the people forget it, and introducing new tunes which the people cannot learn ; some of them without science, without simplicity, without solemnity ; causing the serious to frown, and the inconsiderate to laugh. I have frequently heard such wild airs as were not fit to be brought into< the church, through the ignorance of the composers, who were not of skill to distinguish what kind of melody is proper for the church, and what for the theatre, and what for neither. If any anthems are admitted during the time of divine service, country choristers should confine themselves to choral harmony, in which they may do very well, and our church abounds with full anthems by the best masters. No solos should ever be introduced without an instrument to support them." COUNTRY CHOIRS. 23 And again, in his treatise on the Art of Music, 1784, Jones says : — " How often has my patience been tried, and my nerves put upon the rack, by the impertinent quaverings m some country choirs ; while at the same time I have observed the congregation either laughing or frowning, and all serious people uneasy at seeing every good end defeated tor which music was brought into the Church." At this time organs were seldom to be met with in country .churches. Drs. Arnold and Callcott, in their edition of the Psalms, 1791, say : — " The country parochial choirs make psalmody their principal study, which consisting generally of simple counterpoint, is in every respect the easiest for them. The various collections of anthems, which have done so much honour to the learning and genius of this nation, are too difficult for those places, where generally no other bass than a violoncello or a bassoon is used, especially as in their intermediate symphonies the accompaniment of an organ is almost absolutely necessary." Sir John Hawkins, reviewing the condition of psalmody in his History of Music (1776), traces the decadence of the part-singing of Playford's time, to the introduction of organs. He says : — " Notwithstanding Playford's labours, it does not appear that the practice [of Psalmody] has much improved since his time, one cause whereof may possibly be the use of the organ in parish churches, which within this last century has increased to so great a degree, that in most of the cities and great towns of the kingdom it is a sign of great poverty in a parish for a church to be without one. The con- sequence whereof is that the conduct of this part of the service devolves to the organist ; he plays the thorough bass, or in other words, the whole harmony of the tune, while the clerk and the congregation sing the tenor, which they remember and sing by ear only, in which kind of performance not the least skill in music is necessary. In country parishes, where the people have not the aid of an instrument to guide them, such young men and women as nature has endowed with an ear and a tolerable voice, are induced to learn to sing by book as they call it ; and in this they are generally assisted by some ignorant man, whom the pouring over Ravenscroft and Play ford has taught to believe that he is as able a proficient in psalmody as either of these authors." 24 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. . Dr. Burney, in his History of Music (1789), seems to think an apology necessary for any reference to " the dull subject of unisonous or metrical psalmody/' and confesses with apparent reluctance that " the history of psalmody during these [Reformation] times, is not only the history of music, but of the Reformation." He is out of sympathy with the subject, and thinks that the Psalms would be better understood if read by the clergyman or the clerk than " bawled out" by the congregation. He says : — " Lovers of psalmody might receive great pleasure from metrical psalmody, in parts, devoid as it is of musical measure and syllabic- quantity, if it were well performed ; but that so seldom happens that the greatest blessing to lovers of music in a parish church is to have an organ in it sufficiently powerful to render the voices of the clerk and of those who join in his outcry wholly inaudible. Indeed, all reverence for the Psalms seems to be lost by the wretched manner in which they are usually sung ; for, instead of promoting piety and education, they only excite contempt and ridicule in the principal part of the congregation, who disdain to join, though they are obliged to hear this indecorous jargon. There can be no objection to sober and well-disposed villagers meeting, at their leisure hours, to practise psalmody together, in private, for their recreation ; but it seems as if their public performance might be dispensed with during Divine Service, unless they had acquired a degree of excellence far superior to what is usually met with in parish churches, either in town or country, where there is no organ." Dr. Burney also notices the conservatism of the people in favour of the old tunes. He says : — "Since that time [i.e., 1671] the parochial tunes have been so generally and firmly established, that it would be difficult to prevail on the whole nation to agree in admitting any new melodies of this kind, by whomsoever composed. Diligent and zealous organists sometimes compose and prevail on their own particular congregation to learn new tunes to the old or new version ; but their celebrity and use seldom extend even to the neighbouring parish of the same town. The only two tunes that have been so honoured as to be adopted and used throughout the kingdom within the last hundred years [he is writing in 1789], are perhaps those of the 104th Psalm [Hanover] and the Easter Hymn." CHARITY CHILDREN. 25 The Methodist revival, which was now at its height, causes a large increase in the number of Psalm books, and more frequent criticism of the prevailing habits. In a. dialogue between a Churchman and a Methodist (1802), the Churchman admits that it would be well if all the congregation " would unite in singing the hymns with a well-regulated decency in the church. " Henry Heron, organist of St. Magnus, London Bridge, published a work in 1790, which bears the same title as that of Riley, " Parochial Music Corrected. " The chief notion of parochial music at this period seems to have been the singing of charity children. Hence Heron's work is 11 intended for the use of the several Charity Schools in London, Westminster, &c.,Baswell as for all congregations, being plain and distinct rules for the more pleasing and correct performance of psalmody by the children in their respective churches." Heron says that he has written his book because of the unsatisfactory performance of psalmody in parish churches. He recommends that every "Ward or Charity School should have weekly lessons from a singing master. Every Monday morning he would have the clerk send to the school the Psalms and tunes he intends to sing on the Sunday following. "Where there is an organ, the organist should choose the melody ; where there is none, the clerk must choose both. There should be a half-hour's rehearsal before the Sunday morning service. In every parish he would have a weekly meeting, at which a singing master should attend, to instruct all such persons living in the parish as are desirous of instruc- tion in psalmody. The organ playing he would reform as follows : — 11 Instead of a shake at the end of each line, which has been the custom, a discretionary pause is recommended to be made, being more certain to keep them together." " Dickens's " Sketches by Boz," published much later, (1836), refer to psalmody as if it were a concern of the children. In this work, Captain Purday 26 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. ■ " Finds fault with the sermon every Sunday ; says that the organist ought to be ashamed of himself; offers to back himself for any amount to sing the psalms better than all the children put together, male or female." We have already noticed the itinerant teachers of psalmody in village churches. Addison tells us in the Spectator that his friend Sir Roger, the model of a good squire, engaged an itinerant music master, who went about the country for the purpose, to teach his village folk the tunes of the Psalms. Southey, in his Common- place Book, mentions a teacher of the same kind, who visited Keswick every six years to renew the congrega- tional singing. These music masters seem, however, to have been often incompetent. The Rev. Dr. Yincent, Rector of All Hallows, in his " Considerations on Parochial Music" (1787), recommends the practising of the congre- gation under an instructor. " But," he says, " for this office those persons are not meant who go about the country as professed teachers of psalmody, as from them and their method the very evil complained of originates.' ' The evil referred to is the select band of gallery singers, who monopolise the singing. Dr. Yincent recommends the dismissal of these bands ; he would have a congrega- tional practice after the service ; he complains of the screaming and shouting of the charity children in towns. 11 It might likewise," he says, " be requested kof the organist to play the tune once over, quite plain, without variations, immediately previous to the commencement of the Psalm." This is certainly a modest request. Here is a picture of the lbwest depths to which psalmody at that time had fallen^— " In those congregations of the Metropolis where there are neither children nor organ, it must be confessed that the case is almost hope- less. The clerk commences his stave, and goes through it almost wholly unaccompanied, or perhaps joined towards the close by the feeble efforts of a single voice or two, in a manner sufficiently indicating the feelings of timidity." SINGIXG TRUMPETS. 27 One of the must curious paraphernalia of the old psalmody were the " singing trumpets," which appear to have been in use in Notts and the neighbouring counties up to a generation ago. At the Music and Inventions Exhibition at South Kensington in 1885, Mr. Charles Angrave exhibited one of these trumpets, which he had rescued from destruction. It belonged to the parish church of East Leake, near Loughborough. The vicar of East Leake, the Rev. C. L. V. Baker, writing to me November 10th, 1885, says: — " I have been told by more than one old inhabitant of the village, that they remember the singing trumpet being used in the services of the church. It seems to have been used by a bass singer only? and of course had the effect of giving depth and power to the voice. The large end was generally rested on the front of the gallery, while the other end was held in the hand. I am told that in some churches a kind of stand was used, which, resting upon the ground, brought the trumpet on a level with the gallery. After it was ousted from the church in this parish, it was used for many years by the waits at Christmas. Mr. C. Angrave tells me that he intends to restore the trumpet to the church." In the Guardian of April 5th, 1871, the Rev. C. S. Millard, of Costock Rectory, Loughborough, inserted a query, asking if any trumpet similar to that at East Leake was in existence elsewhere. This query brought a number of affirmative replies. The Rev. C. Neville, of Eledborough Eectory, Newark, mentioned one formerly at Thorney, Notts, lost, he fears, when the church was rebuilt twenty years ago. " Tradition," he says, "did not associate it with the singing. The old clerk's statement was, that it was used to call people to church, before bells were invented /" Mrs. Nicholson, of Willoughton Grange, Kirton Lindsey, Lincolnshire, describes a trumpet in her possession with two slides, measuring, when at full length, 6 feet, and lft. 5in. across the mouth. It is made of tin, and painted a dull red. No one living in the parish can remember seeing it in the church, but the tradition is that it was used in giving out the hymns. Mr. F. H. Sutton, of STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. Theddingworth Bectory, Rugby, mentions two trumpets, one at Harrington, the other at Braybrooke, neighbouring villages in Xorthants. The Harrington one is in bad order, but the Braybrooke one is in good condition, with a stand about oft. high to rest it on. He says : — 11 1 have heard the voice through it. and it is rendered very power- ful in singing. They say in the village that it was used for leading the singing within memory. 1 fancy from the look of the trumpets and stand that they are 17th century things, but may be older. The effect is rather like that o\ the opheeleides one hears abroad, and they suit Gregorians capitally."' The Bev. J. W. Field, rector of Braybrooke. gives the dimensions of this trumpet as oft. 3in. in length, with a bell mouth 2ft. lin. in diameter. It has not a slide like a telescope. It has not been used for singing in the service within the memory of any one living. Mr. J. T. Fowler, F.S.A.. writes : — •• I suspect that the bass singer did not articulate the chords, but only hummed the notes, which was sometimes done without the trumpet, and was, I think, called - vamping ' the bass."' The custom of standing during singing was by no means general at this time. Dr. Vincent says he is in favour of it. but adds that diffidence prevents women from standing. Bomaine ^1775) also argues in favour of standing, but speaks of sitting as '-'the posture generally used among as." So far back as 1681, Dean Sherlock refers with evident regret to the " universal practice of sitting when we sing {he Psalms." Archbishop Seeker, writing about the middle of the eighteenth century, says : — •• In the singing of Psalms, different persons use different postures. The prose Psalms are and ever have been repeated by all persons everywhere, standing. In the verse Psalms we all stand at the doxolog\\" He goes on to urge that we should stand throughout the verse Psalms. •• But still, as very many in most congregations either have by long habit been prejudiced in favour of sitting, or though they dis- approve of the custom, feel a difficulty in quitting it unless everyone did. they should not be censured for a practice in which they mean SITTING WHILE SINGING. 29 nothing amiss, but kindly encouraged to an alteration in tnis point, which we may thus hope will gradually become universal." A correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1798, says : — ••It has been almost uniformly the custom of our congregations to remain seated during the time that this part of our sen-ice u performing." The Christian Knowledge Society about this time issued a pastoral admonition, " In order to reform the custom which has prevailed of sitting while Psalms are sung in the public worship of God," and showing that standing is the ancient and proper practice of the church. I have not found the exact date of the issue of this leaflet, but it appears to have been distributed at Brompton Chapel on April 10th, 1791. Dr. Bippon prints it in his Baptist Register for 1801, and says that it was "lately read by the Eev. ITr. John Newton to his congregation at St. Alary Woolnoth's, Lombard Street.'' It is also printed in the Eev. T. H. Home's [Manual of Parochial Psalmody so late as 1833. The reform of standing must have been but gradually introduced. Dr. Edward Barry, in a sermon published in 1S06, and reviewed in the British Critic of the same year, treats of the irreverent practice, "lately become so common," of sitting during the singing of Psalms. On the other hand, a correspondent of the Gentleman'' s Jfagazine, June, 1810, says : — " The congregations now very generally rise from their seats and stand during the singing, which mark of attention and respect was little thought of a few years since." Yet " a Layman," in the same magazine for April, IS 11, complains of a congregation in Duke Street, "Westminster, where all sat but the clergyman and the clerk during the singing of the Psalms and hymns. Each witness speaks from his own limited circle of observation, and we must conclude that it was manv years before the conservatism of habit was conquered, and the congregations universally stood at the singing. 30 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. . An abuse in psalmody is occasionally mentioned in these olden days which now is by no means common. Romaine (1775) says : — " There are many in our congregations who seem to think that they sing best when they sing loudest. You may see them often strain themselves with shouting till their faces are as red as scarlet." And so long ago as the year 1615, a case was tried in the Essex Court of Archdeaconry, in which the charge brought against the defendant was : — 11 For that he .^ingeth the Psalms in the church with such a jesticu- lous tone and allitonant voice, viz., squeaking like a pig, which doth not only interrupt the other voices, but is altogether dissonant and disagreeable unto any musical harmony, and he hath been requested by the minister to leave it, but he doth obstinately persist and continue therein." A glimpse of the fashionable church choir of the period (about 1770), is given by Mrs. Papendiek, in her " Court and Private Life in the time of Queen Charlotte." She is describing the chapel in Charlotte Street, Pimlico, where the fashionable divine, Dr. Dodd (afterwards executed for forgery), preached: — " The organ was a fine one, built for the chapel, and one of the first that had the swell or crescendo stop added. The children were taught to sing the hymns so prettily, with curtains drawn before the organ gallery, and the whole service was conducted with so much piety and sublimity." Several correspondents of the Gentleman *s Magazine at this period give us interesting glimpses of the condition of psalmody. A letter signed " T. ^Wollston," December, 1796, says:— " In .some churches one may see the Parish Clerk, after giving out a couple of staves from Stern hold and Hopkins, with two or three other poor wights, drawling them out in the most lamentable strains, with such grimace, and in such discordant notes, as must shock every serious person, and afford mirth to the undevout. In other places, a few persons assembled in a gallery or pew take upon themselves the appellation of the choir, and these in another error are as disgustful as the former. Furnished with a number of instruments more fit for a military band than a church, they appear to sing to the praise and ORGAN VOLUNTARIES. 31 glory of themselves ; for I am fearful that, in their singing, God is not in all their thoughts. These sort of performers give us little else but 'high-flown anthems and fuguing psalm tunes, the different parts hunting one another in so many quavers and demisemiquavers, that it is almost impossible to understand what they are singing." In October, 1800, "a lover of psalmody, and a sincere friend of the Church of England/ ' compares Noncon- formist psalmody with that of the Church. He says : — 11 It is a notorious fact that psalmody, as performed in the various meeting hduses of this kingdom, where all who can sing unite to the praise and glory of God, has a much more lively effect on the heart than it has as we generally perform it in the Church of England, where a few only are collected together in the church or in the gallery. . . It is likewise equally notorious that many who are not sufficiently grounded in the doctrines of the Church of England — which it is much to be wished that all were — -desert the mother church, and join other places of public worship, merely on account of their superiority in singing." He urges members of the Church of England to vie with sectaries in making psalmody a pleasing service, and a work of the heart. He advises congregations to join together for week-evening practice under a master, and when a sufficient number are taught to sing, he would have them dispersed in different parts of the church. The whole congregation should also be desired to stand up as they do when the Psalms are read. A correspondent in June, 1810, says that the organ voluntary before the first lesson has in many places been discontinued. Still he would not have organists " to run on, as some do, a kind of jig for three or four minutes " between the verses of the Psalms (!). He adds that " at some village churches at a distance from the metropolis, the singing is wholly omitted." Another correspondent, 1816, writes : — " How can these pleasing sensations take place, when only a few of the congregation join, and these frequently selected and paid for their services V They have, it is true, fine voices and skill in music, but the ma«s of the congregation, instead of lifting their voices and 32 STUDIES IN WORSHIP 3IUSIC. . hearts to their Creator, are listening to and admiring the abilities of the creature." The Rev. R. Munkhouse, D.D., vicar of St. John's, Wakefield, preached a sermon at his church on Oct. 15th, 1797, for the benefit of the choir. He advocates the excellent plan, which writers of this period often refer to, of having a dispersed choir in all parts of the church : — " The more general the service is, the more impressive will t>3 the general effect ; the more rational our devotion. For these reasons it is in contemplation, when the enlarged state of the choir shall admit of the experiment, to separate a certain portion from the main body, and to dispose of them in different parts of the church. In doing so we calculate upon a two-fold advantage. We hope by this means more readily to instruct others, and more effectually to inspire those who may be desirous to join with confidence ; in any case to augment the air of devotion, by an appearance of a more general interest and participation in the service." He refers also to the question of standing : — 11 Lastly, if I may be allowed without offence to suggest a farther improvement in this branch of public worship, I would, with a direct reference to the practice of patriarchal times, submit to your judg- ment the propriety of the whole congregation standing up during this solemn act of homag° and religious adoration." Dr. Munkhouse refers with pride to his choir, in which 120 have been enrolled, and nearly half still remain. He speaks of having had " In the service of the choir for three months, a country singing master, who had been occupied in teaching psalmody upwards of thirty years, and who perhaps possesses as much information and merit as any of his competitors. This person informed me, not- withstanding his prejudices in favour of Mr. Cheetham's method (according to which he had so long and so successfully taught), that it Required a pretty close application of seven years to make any material progress in the science of music upon this system, and that he could not recollect more than three or four of his pupils that had ever attained to any tolerable proficiency." It must have been for this reason that the St. John's choir adopted a system of their own, the particulars of which are related by the organist in an appendix to the DR. MUNKHOUSE'S SUGGESTIONS. 33 sermon. He first tried their voices, and if good he made them sing the scale. The idea of distance was then given by singing graduated leaps from note to note. They next learned the characters of time, and how to count it. The four Sol-fa syllables were used, but absolutely, thus : — C D E F G A B fa sol la fa sol la mi This was " In order to avoid the difficulty that necessarily arises from intricate modulation, and inseparably attaches to the old practice, which proceeded upon the method of changing the names of the notes as often as the key changed." The organist attributes to this method the rapid progress of the choir : — " In the space of a few months they attained to such a degree of proficiency, as to be able to sing (nearly at sight, and with a tolerable degree of firmness), all the less difficult tunes that were given them." This progress would hardly be called rapid now, but we realise how slow it must have been when we come to the details of the process of learning a tune. First they taught the air, " Obliging the children, in ascending or descending passages, to sing the notes up or down from the preceding note, withholding all assistance of the instrument. This method (as may be imagined) was at first rather tedious ; but we soon found that the confidence and accuracy acquired thereby was a sufficient recompense for any trouble it occasioned. Being thus in possession of the air, we pro- ceeded to the second part, adopting the same method till it was per- fected. Care was then taken that the two parts sang well in tune. And as soon as the basses were prepared, the whole three parts were brought together." This practice, which was usually held in the school, lasted four months, two hours at a time, on two or three evenings in the week. Afterwards, the choir attempted more difficult tunes. The voices were usually accompanied by two violins and a 'cello in the school practice, but the choir was not brought into the church until it was able to sing with exactness without an instrument. 34 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. Edward Miller, Mus.Doc, Cantab., of Doncaster, in the preface to his Psalms of David, 1790, deals with the con- dition of the service of praise. He speaks of the present custom of leaving the choice of the words to the clerk, who generally also chooses the tunes, and sends them to the organist, but very seldom sends with them either the psalm or the verses to be sung. " How then," he asks, " can the organist do justice in the accompaniment, when he . does not know what words the congregation are singing?" As to organ-playing, Dr. Miller recommends that there should be a short shake between each line of the old melodies, and a little silent pause between each line of the new, where these do not break off the connection of the words. Dr. Miller would have the organist teach the charity and Sunday school children, and urges all church- wardens, where there is no organist, to allow a qualified person a small sum for teaching by the ear the plain psalm-tunes to such young persons and others of the parish as will attend one evening in the week for this purpose only. " In villages," he says, " where there are no organs, the singing masters may do a great deal ; but they have much to forget, and much to learn. Fondly attached to compositions in many parts, and those chiefly composed by unskiltul men, abounding in ill -constructed fugues and false harmony, they are apt to treat with contempt the simple but elegant melodies used in parish churches. It is not here meant to discourage country singers in their practice of anthems, but to intreat them to be the instructors and leaders of the congregation in parochial psalmody. The minister would then, at their request, sometimes indulge them with singing an anthem, in the part of the service appointed for it, or after the sermon." The following year (1791) Dr. Miller published " Thoughts on the present performance of Psalmody in the Established Church of England, addressed to the Clergy." He says : — " If any one would step into the Parish Church while the Psalm is singing, would he not find the greater part of the congregation THE CHARITY CHILDREN. totally inattentive? Irreverently sitting, talking to each other, taking snuff, winding up their watches, or adjusting their apparel? " He also compares the Church singing unfavourably with that of the Methodists, and hopes much from the newly- formed Sunday Schools. He quotes a passage from Wharton's Essay on Psalmody : — " A singing master of sense and judgment selected ten persons -with good tenor voices, and having instructed these in a certain number of plain melodies till they sang in time and tune, he placed them in different parts of the church. He next proceeded in the same manner with basses and countertenors. By degrees the whole congregation came to join with them, so as to approach as near as possible to perfection." The following also is curious : — 11 In St. Peter's, Cornhill, there is or was a concert pitch pipe in the clerk's desk, which sounds by the wind it receives from a small bellows, both of which are out of sight." The Hew "W. D. Tattersall, in his Improved Psalmody, 1794, gives a melancholy description of the state of Psalmody in London. Even allowing a margin for the zeal with which every reformer attacks the existing order of things, his account bears the impress of truth : — " The performance of the psalmody in London is open to many objections. Whatever be the subject of the Psalm, the tunes that are chosen are very solemn, and in most of the parish churches they are rendered still more solemn by the slow manner in which they are usually played. The clerk and the charity children are almost the only performers, and although a person is employed to instruct the young people, nevertheless there seems to be no management in the regulation of their voices. The children most commonly rise beyond the natural pitch of their voices, and it becomes rather a unisonous Bcream than either concord or harmony." The following is another reference to the itinerant teachers of Psalmody : — 11 In country parishes there are men who travel and style them- selves professors and instructors in psalmody. They are furnished with books of their own selections, which are seldom correct, and these are disposed of in every place where they go." William Mason, precentor of York, published some 36 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. well-considered Essays on Church Music in 1795, in which he says : — "Psalmody is become not only despicable to persons of a refined musical taste, but is now hardly tolerable to our village practitioners,, if they either can, or what does as well, fancy they can sing at sight. For these, since the rage of oratorios has spread from the capital to every market town in the kingdom, can by no means be satisfied unless they introduce chants, sen-ices, and anthems into their parish churches, and accompany them with what an old author calls scolding fiddles, squalling hautboys, false- stopped violoncellos, buzzing bas- soons, all ill-tuned and worse played upon, in place of an organ, which, if they had one, they would probably wish to improve by such instru- mental assistance." Mason says that he prefers the cylindrical or barrel' organ to one played by hand, as more likely to keep time. He thinks that the false taste which leads organists to use absurd graces in their playing, might be prevented by a Rector or a Vicar who had authority enough to confine the organist to a slightly ornamented refraine or ritornello, at the end of each stave or stanza. What a mechanical thing the organ playing of this time was, we may learn from the instructions given to players. Thus, William Gawler, in his " Harmonica Sacra," 1781, writes: — " When two verses are to be sung, they should both be played pretty full ; when three, the first and last loud, the other soft ;. when four, the first and last loud, the intermediate two on the swell or choir organ, and the interlude immediately before the last verse,, which makes a pleasing variety." Thus, the expression was not to depend on the words, but merely on the order of the verses. Even Dr. Crotch,, writing more than fifty years later (1836), says : — " Lastly, a hint to the organist. The first and last verses may be played on the full organ, with the exception ot the trumpet stop. The intermediate verses softer, as on the two diapasons of the full organ, or with the addition of the principal, but not so soft as to form an absurd contrast." Dr. Crotch adds this remarkable instruction : " If the tune is given out (or played without voices on the organ )r DR. CROTCH'S VIEWS. 37 the harmony should be omitted, and only the treble and bass played." He also says : " Where there is no organ, the trebles and basses only should be sung, the trebles and tenors singing the same part in octaves to each other." It is interesting to gather from Dr. Crotch's words what were his canons of taste in psalmody. He condemns " the •style adopted by gallery singers who have no organ," and does not like " the instrumental effect of the same note used three times in succession," or " subjects and answers in fugue, which they denominate the anthem style." He •gives first a list of tunes which are " very fine, and should be kept in constant use ; " these are the standard tunes of English psalmody. He next mentions others which he regards as "the most favourable specimens of a bad •style;" among them it is curious to find " Hanover." These tunes, he says, have slurs, passing-notes and appo- giaturas, and are generally in triple time, with two or three notes to each syllable. He has rejected the Magdalene and Foundling hymns in general, and all adaptations from Handel and other masters. The abun- dant use of slurs, he considers, constitutes the worst style of psalmody. He notices, too, that drawling is the fashionable error. The Rev. T. Haweis, in his preface to " Carmina €hristo," 1808, says :— " Even in our public worship, the voice of joy and gladness is too •commonly silent, unless in that shameful mode of psalmody now almost confined to the wretched solo of a parish clerk, or to a few persons huddled together in one corner of the church, who sing to -the praise and glory of themselves, for the entertainment, or oftener for the weariness of the rest of the congregation ; an absurdity too .glaring to be overlooked, and too shocking to be ridiculous." The Bishop of Chichester, quoted by Mr. Walter Parratt in his article on " Music in the Reign of Queen Victoria," says of this period : — " My memory goes back to the first decade of this century. The -singing was limited to the performance of the new version of the 38 STUDIED IX WORSHIP MUSIC. Psalms two portions of which were commonly sung at each service. The musicians were some four or five of the notables of the parish, the village clerk acting as precentor, and the singers (about the same number and the same class), all were ranged in front of the western gallery. The instruments chiefly in request were bassoons, haut- boys, flutes, clarionets, and sometimes a violoncello or double bass. Psalms and Canticles were read alternately by minister and people, the people bearing their part far better than is now usual. In towns, owing to the existence of schools, the singing was often done by young girls in their charity school dresses, to the accompaniment of a barrel organ. As schools were established in villages, the old choirs, with their varied accompaniments, made way for the shrill voices of the female children. The change was not popular, for the singers, with all their faults, were liked, and the musicians were no less admired." La Trobe, in his " Music of the Church," 1831, com- plains similarly of the slowness of the singing. Speaking of the " Old Hundredth," he says :— " Instead of being presented to the people one regular and flowing melody, it is generally sung with such deliberation, that the breath is more than expended upon each word, and instead of a mutual con- nection and dependence, the notes stand apart and disunited, rather like beads upon a string than the links of a chain." Rev. Eann Kennedy, in a " Church of England Psalm Book," 1821, says:— " Unfortunately there has been and is too much ground for a com- plaint which has long been made, that while separatists from our communion have cultivated this popular psalmody with great success and effect,»it is a part of our service which has done least credit to the National Church." He advocates the use of the Psalms in monthly rotation,. as the tunes are in consequence better learned and remem- bered by the congregations. The question of the use of unauthorised psalms and hymns in the Church service has been always open to debate. The first metrical psalms were only ''allowed" to be sung in churches, and were never formally made a part of the Liturgy. Eight versions have altogether been authorised, viz., UNAUTHORISED VERSIONS. 39 Sternhold and Hopkins - - L562 James I - 1(>.">L Francie Rouse - 1641 William Barton - L654 Archbishop Parker - 166J Brady and Tate - 1696 Sir R. Blackmore - - - - 1721 The rise of hyinuody in the early part of the present cen- tury brought many unauthorised metrical compositions into use.* In 1820 there were some proceedings in the Consistory Court at York, which, were caused by this innovation. The Rev. T. Cotterill had published in 1818 a collection of Psalms and hymns for use in his own church, and for this he was prosecuted. The case, Holy and Ward v. Cotterill came, on July 6th, before the Chancellor of the Archbishop's Court, who found the question so difficult that he refused to give judgment or costs, and only offered an opinion. This was in favour of the use of metrical psalms, but with the qualification that the authority of the head of the Church was necessary for all additions to the liturgy. The parties, unable to settle their dispute before the judge, referred it to the amicable decision of the Archbishop. His grace acted the peacemaker ; undertook to compile a new selection of hymns for Mr. Cotterill' s Church, and in consideration of the expense and loss which Mr. Cotterill had been put to, his grace further took upon himself the charges of printing the new selection. The litigation settled nothing, but it produced an interesting little book, published in York in 1821, and entitled "An enquiry into historical facts relative to Parochial Psalmody, in reference to the remarks of the 1 light Rev. Herbert, Lord Bishop of Peterborough." His lordship, it seems, had maintained, in an appendix to his charge, that "the old and new versions are the only collections of Psalms and hymns which we can legally sing in the public service of the Church." The writer 40 STUDIES IN irOU SHIP MUSIC. reviews the origin and early custom of metrical Psalm- singing, and tries to prove the right in common or unwritten law. The frontispiece to the present edition consists of an engraving of the well-known painting by the late Thomas Webster, K.A., entitled "The Village Choir," now in the South Kensington Museum. The picture was painted in 1846. Mrs. Webster, in writing to convey her hus- band^ permission for the engraving of the picture, says : — ■ 1 ' It did not represent any particular choir, but was a representation of what Mr. W. had very often seen in many country churches at that time." Mr. Hullah, in the preface to his Psalter, dated 1843, makes the following reference to the condition of Psalmody : — 11 Congregations generally do not sing at all, and when they do sing for the most part • Cambridge New ' and « Devizes.' ... To the shame of the upper and middle classes of society be it spoken, congregations do not sing. The voice which has held entranced admiring crowds on the Saturday night, is on the Sunday morning tuneless. The amusement of a crowd is an object worth years of study, and often of painful effort in the conquest of timidity, but the praise of God is left to the charity children — it is not genteel to sing in church." Dr. Steggall, also, in the preface to his " Church Psalmody/' 1848, stirs, with a trumpet blast, the apathy and formalism of congregations : — 11 What inconsistency is apparent in the congregations of these enlightened days! Two thousand souls and more are sometimes assembled in God's house, and on His holy day, for the professed purpose of publicly offering Him their sacrifice of prayer and thanks- giving. The impressive liturgy is concluded, all rise from their knees as if to \)bey the short but emphatic exhortation which now proceeds from the pastor's lips.* What follows ? Surely the very foundations of the Temple are about to shake with the voice of praise and thanks- giving among such as keep holy day. Delusive expectation ! All stand up, thus making a pretence of doing something, but in place of * Dr. Steggall evidently refers to the good old formula, "Let us sing to the praise and glory of God,'5 which has rather gone out of fashion of late. INJUDICIOUS USE OF ORGANS. 41 the ' uncontrolled exuberance of sound,' all that is heard is the screaming of a few ill-trained children, while the rest of the ' great multitude' are content to have the praises of the Most High sung for them. Must it not be deemed an insult to Almighty God thus to slight one of the highest privileges He has granted us, and thus publicly to refuse Him that offering of praise which the very least of all His mercies would demand ? Yet of this thousands of otherwise -consistent Christians are habitually guilty." Writing in the same year (1848), Mr. Robert Druitt, in his Popular Tract on " Church Music," traces the deteriora- tion of congregational song to the introduction of organs, .and their inj udicious use : — " As things stand, we have no hesitation in saying that the organ has contributed as much as anything to the decay of congregational singing ; for, in the first place, after the organ has been set up, and the organist appointed with a salary, the parish authorities imagine that all has been done that there is any need for, and never think of engaging a choir, either for love or money ; and in the next place, fifteen or twenty stops of the full organ render it a matter of perfect indifference as to how people sing, or whether, in fact, they sing at all. Often and often has the writer been in a church where, with an overpowering organ, not three persons in the whole church opened their mouths. But the surest method of all to extinguish anything like song, is to set up a grinding organ. Truly, if a foreigner entered some of our churches he might imagine that, as a great manufacturing community, we employed machinery in the service of God, as well 3,s in other things. They who really love our old English virtues and customs must have frequent occasion to lament the gradual progress of degeneracy in the substitution of these odious machines for the ancient village choir with their simple instruments. Badly enough, perhaps, they sing ; time and tune may suffer rude en- counters, and shocking may the old blacksmith's bassoon sound in the ears of the squire's daughters, on their return from a London visit, filled with fine ideas of 4 pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the musical glasses.' But surely these men are made of the right stuff; their hearts are in the work ; their occupation gave them a tie to the church which it were unwise to sever ; and with patience and encouragement and instruction, they might be made the nucleus of a true congregational choir." A clever picture of this old-time village choir is given 42 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. by George Eliot in " Scenes of Clerical Life." It is evidently drawn from the life : — •• And the singing was no mechanical affair of official routine ; it had a drama. As the moment of psalmody approached, by some process to me as mysterious and untraceable as the opening of the dower?, or the breaking out of the stars, a slate appeared in the front of the gallery, advertising in bold characters the psalm about to be sung, lest the sonorous announcement of the clerk should still leave the bucolic mind in doubt on that head. Then followed the migra- tion of the clerk to the gallery, where, in company with a bassoon, two key-bugles, a carpenter understood to have an amazing power of singing ' counter,' and two lesser musical stars, he formed the com- plement of a choir regarded in Shepperton as one of distinguished attraction, occasionally known to draw hearers from the next parish. The innovation of hymn books was as yet undreamt of ; even the new version was regarded with a sort of melancholy tolerance, as part of the common degeneracy in a time when prices had dwindled, and a cotton gown was no longer stout enough to last a lifetime ; for the lyrical taste of the best heads in Shepperton had been formed on Sternhold and Hopkins. But the greatest triumphs of the Shepper- ton choir were reserved for the Sundays when the slate announced an Anthem, with a dignified abstinence from particularisation, both words and music lying far beyond the reach ot the most ambitious amateur in the congregation — an anthem in which the key-bugles always ran away at a great pace, while the bassoon every now and then boomed a flying shot after them." This extract from an article in FraseSs Magazine, September, 1860, is also very droll : — ;t The particular choir in our own church we recollect well to this day, and some of their most striking tunes. We used to listen with mingled awe and admiration to the performance of the 18th Psalm in particular. Take two lines as an illustration of their style : — 1 And snatched me from the furious rage Of threatening waves that proudly swelled.' The words, ' And snatched me from ' were repeated severally by the trebles, the altos, the tenors, and the bass voices ; then all together !-ang the words two or three times over ; in like manner did they toss and tumble over ' the furious rage,' apparently enjoying the whirligig scurrying of their fugues, like so many kittens chasing their own tails ; till at length, after they had torn and worried that single line even to the exhaustion of the most powerful lungs— after a very red -faced bass, who kept the village inn, had become perceptibly THE SINGERS. 48 apoplectic about tin* eyes, and the bassoon was evidently Mown, and a tall, thin man, with a long nose, which was hifl principal vocal organ, and which sang tenor, was getting out of wind — they all* clarionet, bassoon, violoncello, the red-faced man, the tall tenor, and the rest, rushed pell-mell into ' the threatening waves that proudly 8 welled.' We have not forgotten the importance with which they used to walk up the church path in a body with their instruments, after this effort ; and our childish fancy revelled in the imp] that, after the clergyman, and the Duke of Wellington, who had won the battle of Waterloo a few years before, these singers wt re the most notable public characters in being." In BlackwoocVs Magazine for April, 1837, is a letter from a curate to his friend on " Church lEusic unci other Parochials," which says: — '; In our rural parishes, what can possibly be worse than the music, and what more difficult to remedy, and yet preserve harmony f Singers were ever notorious for loving to have things their own way. Ask them to perform anything, they are dumb ; there is no end to it when they begin of their own accord. Omnibus hoc vitium est can- toribus. But religious singers are of all the most given to sudden discords. They imagine the whole congregation but assembled to hear them; one of them told me with pride, that it was the only part of the service during which no one was asleep. Warming upon the subject, he added that he had authority for saying, the singers in the Jewish church had precedence of all other officials, and performed the most essential part of the service, as was clear from the Psalms : — • The singers go before, and the minstrels [which he took to mean ministers] follow after.' Now the conceit of country musicians is intolerable. What I chiefly complain of is their anthems. Every bumpkin has his favourite solo, and oh ! the murder, the profanation I If there be ears devout in the congregation, how must they ache These anthems should positively be forbidden by authority. A half- dozen ignorant, conceited fellows stand up; with a falsehood to begin with, they profess to sing to ' the honour and glory of God, but it is manifestly to the honour and glory of John Jones, Peter Hussey, Philip White, John Stokes, Timothy Prim, and John Pride. Then, when they are unanimous, their unanimity La wonderful, as all may know who remember a full choir, clarionet, bass, and base assisting. ' Some put their trust in charrots. and some in but we will remember,' &e. In our gallery there was a tenor voice that was particularly disagreeable; it hail a perpetual -yob yob' about it, a howl as if it went round a corner; he had a very odd 44 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. . way, of which certainly he did not ' keep the ?ioiscless tenor.' Then, not only everyone sings as loud as he can bawl, but cheeks and ■elbows are at their utmost efforts, the bassoon vieing with the clarionet, the goosestop of the clarionet with the bassoon, &c. — it is Babel with the addition of the beasts. By-the-by, it was a good hit of Coleridge's, it was the ' loud bassoon ' that suspended, and almost broke the charm that bound the wedding guest to the Ancient Planner's tale. . . Did you ever attend a parish club? I assure you, if you are once a curate, and aim at decent popularity that you may do good, you must not refuse the invitation. . . On these occasions there is a junction of parish bands; and when, after dinner, to do honour to yourself as a guest, and the club, they are all packed into one room — not a large one — with scarcely space to exercise their elbows, which makes them more strenuous at the blowing ; and when they set to work with a twenty musicians' power of lungs and instru- ments, all striving for the mastery ; when you hear, you will be convinced that it was a peculiar tyranny in the King of Babylon to make all peoples and nations fall down and worship him at the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music." The Eev. William Pitt Scargill, a writer of fiction and essayist, who lived in the last generation, has very cleverly hit off the old-time "Village Choristers " in a chapter bearing that title, which is printed in "The English Sketch Book," of which the last edition was published in 1856. The picture of the " Snatcham Choir " is drawn with sarcasm and humour, and there is no doubt a fair foundation for the scene at the rectory, where ;the singers heard the parson in his den, and insist upon singing Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" on -Good Friday. This sketch has. been lately republished in America, under the title of " The Snatcham Choir." The following from Washington Irving' s " Sketch Book" is a similar portrait. The time is Christmas morning : — " The orchestra was in a small gallery, and presented a most whimsical grouping of faces, piled one above the other, among which 1 particularly noticed that of the village tailor, a pale fellow with a retreating forehead and chin, who played on the clarionet, and seemed to have blown his face to a point ; and there was another, a short* PITCH PIPES. 45 pursy man, labouring at a bass viol, so as to show nothing but the top of a round bald head, like the egg of an ostrich. There were two or three pretty faces among the female singers, to which the keen air of a frosty morning had given a bright rosy tint ; but the gentlemen choristers had evidently been chosen, like old Cremona riddles, more for tone than looks ; and as several had to sing from the same book, there were clusterings of odd physiognomies, not unlike those groups of cherubs we sometimes see on country tombstones. The usual services of the choir were managed tolerably well ; the vocal parts generally lagging a little behind the instrumental, and some loitering fiddler now and then making up for lost time by travelling over a passage with prodigious celerity, and clearing more bars than the keenest fox-hunter to be in at the death. But the great trial was an anthem that had been prepared and arranged by Master Simon, and upon which he had founded great expectation. Unluckily there was a blunder at the outset ; the musicians became flurried ; Master Simon was in a fever ; everything went on lamely and irregularly until they came to a chorus beginning, " Now let us sing with one accord" which seemed to be a signal for parting company ; all became discord and confusion ; each shifted for himself, and got to the end as well, or rather as soon as he could, excepting one old chorister in a pair of horn spectacles, bestriding and pinching a long and sonorous nose, who happened to be standing a little apart, and being wrapt up in his own melody, kept on a quavering course, wriggling his head, ogling his book, and winding all up by a nasal solo of at least three bars in duration." The large wooden pitch-pipes, employed in every choir before the introduction of organs and harmoniums, are a characteristic feature of the old psalmody. Many of them are still preserved as curiosities. It is not generally remembered that the improvement of psalmody and chanting were two of the objects con- templated in the formation of the Sacred Harmonic Society. Surnian, the society's first conductor, published in 1852 a " London Psalmist,'' dedicated to the Bishop of London, in which he plainly tells us that this was the case : — " It appearing evident to those who had experience, that it can only be from the members of our choral societies that we can expect to find persons fully qualified to conduct this delightful portion of divine worship in our churches and chapels." 46 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. The psalm-tunes which the book contains are rehearsed at Exeter Hall, so Surman tells us, with violins, flutes, and oboes playing treble ; violins alto ; 'cellos or bassoons tenor ; and cellos, double basses, or any bass instrument the bass part. Mr. John C. Ward, organist of Eaton Chapel, in his " Congregational Songs of the Reformed Churches " (1858) mentions the following bad practices in singing which congregations should avoid : — ■ " The introduction of turns or passing notes; the habit of sliding the voice from note to note ; commencing each note softly, and then swelling it out; singing each note after the organ or leader has sounded it instead of with them ; attempting to extemporise a k part ' which is not the melody." Isaac Disraeli, in the rather cynical paper on Congrega- tional Psalmody in the " Curiosities of Literature" (1791), says that "An universal suffrage, where every man was to have a voice, must necessarily end in clatter and chaos." Dr. Jebb, in his well-known work on " The Choral Service of the Church of England" (1843), seems to be of the same opinion. He argues that on the establishment of the Choral Service by the early Chuich, congregational singing ceased, as incompatible with it. His remarks on the subject are worth quoting at length, on account of the standing of the writer : — " Much has been said of congregational chanting. If by this be intended the undersong of such of the congregation as really under- stand how to chant, the regular choir forming the nucleus, and the choral harmony being audibly predominant, there can be no objection to the practice. But if it be meant that the congregation is to form the choir ; that everyone, how unskilled or ill-endowed by nature soever, ought, as a matter of duty, audibly to join, and that the choral chant is to be^ confused buzz or crash, and all expression, discrimination, and proportion of harmony (the proper attribute of choral chanting), are to be sacrificed in order to support a supposed Christian principle or privilege, in order to give an audible testimony to their faith, then I can only say that our musicians ought to give themselves no further trouble about harmony ; that it ought to be suppressed altogether 5 that the melody may as well be abandoned too ; in short, that it GRACE TO LISTEN WELL. 1; would be as well to drop all pretence to choral musi I, the •congregational chant can be nothing but a pretence. I musician knows that, in order to give the proper effect to harmony, the parts must be nicely balanced, that the due proportion of voices must be seientifieally mixed. And if this is necessary in all music, it is especially so in the chant. Besides, to those who have had any experience in the matter it is notorious (and the conviction increases with more intimate knowledge), that while nothing is so easy as to chant badly, no part of choral music is so difficult to do, I will not say well, but even tolerably. It is unlike the parochial metrical psalm-tune, where every syllable is determinately fixed, and where ordinarily no more expression or variation of tone is required from the congregation than from a barrel-organ." 11 The wisdom of the Church must be acknowledged, in having during the early, but not the most primitive ages, recurred to the •elder pattern of the Jews, in establishing a choir regularly trained and disciplined for this holy duty ; a duty which does not supersede the intelligent and mental consent of the congregation, and even their actual assent with their lips. There are many to whom the Choral Service has been a matter, not only of excitement, but the best auxiliary of a tranquil devotion, who feel and fully believe that they are really joining in the service of the Church, when contribut- ing only in a whisper to the voices of the choir. They believe that the best of everything ought to be given to God. They give the best they can, the internal worship of their hearts, the outward homage of their bodies, but believing their audible voices would but mar that harmony which has its place in His service, as being a system of His own ordaining, they are content, not indeed to be silent (to Him they are not silent), but to be still." Samuel Sebastian "Wesley, in a tract on Cathedral Music, published in 1849, argues in the same strain against the congregation taking a prominent part in the ceremonial of religion : — " Considering that persons wTho take part in and perform a public ceremony can never be so thoroughly imbued with its spirit as those wTho preserve a silent attention." Dr. Jebb is of the same opinion, and he quotes the well- known stanza of Keble in his own support : — '• We, the while, of meaner birth, Who in that divinest Bpell Dare not hope to join on earth. Give US grace to listen well." 48 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. The arguments of these writers are instructive. It is natural that musicians should preach the silence of the congregation for purposes of musical effect, hut to hear it enjoined from the devotional standpoint is less usual. We are reminded by Dr. Jebb's argument how indefensible is- congregational singing from the art point of view ; nay how incompatible it is with the design of finished per- formance. Directly artistic beauty and refinement are proposed as an end, the absurdity of inviting a miscel- laneous crowd, trained and untrained, capable and in- capable, careless and careful, to lift up their voices to- gether, is apparent. It is impossible to seek at the same time the audible participation of the greatest number, and a balanced and perfect choral effect. Let there be in every service, if you will, one or more pieces sung by the choir alone, but when the congregation are invited to join, let everything be done to help and encourage them, and let simplicity and broad outline be sought instead of refine- ment and art. The Church of England has provided for both uses of music in her service. The two are not antagonistic ; but they must always be distinct. Dr. Jebb's work finds the Oxford movement begun, and with the commencement of that movement the era of the old parochial psalmody may be said to close.''' II* Mr. Walter Parratt, in his article "Music" in "The Reign of Queen Victoria," thus briefly summarises the growth of music in the parochial service : — " The manner in which music gradually overspread the church ser- vice is a little curious, and characteristic of the "English people. First, the hymns only were sung ; then the Te Deum and Canticles were added ; then the versicles and responses ; afterwards the Psalms, but even now, in deference to the prejudice of old-fashioned people, the Psalms are read at morning service in many churches, and chanted only in the evening. The highest act of worship", the celebration of the Holy Communion, was the last to receive musical expression, and there are .yet many Church people to whom such, treatment is distasteful." 49 This is the advice of the Methodist Harmonist (1822): "A word to si; Open your mouth freely and let your voice proceed from your stomach. Be careful to avoid singing through your nose." METHODIST PSALMODY. The tide of religious song, which was at once the expres- sion and, among human agencies, the inspiration of the Methodist Revival, has never spent its force. The Methodists have suffered, like all religious bodies, as they have become wealthy and respectable, and as the white heat of their early vigour has given place to the tempered enthusiasm of middle age. But they are still a singing people; still from Cornish villages and Yorkshire towns, from the negroes of Yirginia, and the bushmen of Australia, rises in a stream the people's song: rough and tuneless often, but bearing week by week the sorrows and aspirations and worship of tens of thousands. In a few town churches the simplicity of Wesley's service has been departed from, and choir music, with elaborate organ playing, has taken the 'place of popular hymn singing. But these cases are exceptional, old Methodists look at them askance, and say that they do not represent Methodist psalmody. It is, on the whole, remarkable that so little change has taken place in the character of the psalmody, when we reflect on the enormous advance of the body in culture and position during the last century, and on the revolution which has taken place in Church of England psalmody during the same period. The conservatism of the Methodists has enabled them to retain in their worship-music the main principles for which Wesley contended — that everyone should sing, that the singing should never be delegated to a choir, but that it should be both "lusty" and sincere. Alas, 50 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. however, the faults of Wesley's time as well as the excellences have been too often preserved. The slowness, the dragging, occasionally the bawling, against which he so persistently fought, are still met with, especially in remote villages ; while, as a doubtful counterpoise, the hymns may be heard in some of the town churches sung at a pace which renders devotion impossible. In order to appreciate the place and importance of singing in the early days of the Methodist movement, we must call to mind that hymns, heartily sung by a whole congregation, were an unknown element in public worship at the time when Wesley and "Whiten1 eld's work began. We are so accustomed to regard congregational singing as an essential of public devotion, that it requires an effort to realise this fact. At the time we speak of, there were very few hymns to sing. Watts's were written, but the Dissenters had received them coldly, and were very slow to adopt them. What the Dissenters ignored, the Church people did not know at all. In describing the ordinary service of the parish church, Wesley speaks of " the formal drawl of a parish clerk," "the screaming of boys, who bawl out what they neither feel nor understand," and " the scandalous doggrel of Hopkins and Sternhold." He pictures the parish clerk as u a poor humdrum wretch, who can scarce read what he drones out with such an air of importance ; " he refers to a custom of taking " two staves" of a Psalm, without regard to the appropriateness of the words or their completion of the sense ; and he describes " a handful of unawakened striplings" as sing- ing, while the congregation are " lolling at ease, or in the indecent posture of sitting, drawling out one word after another." Wesley had far too strong an affection for the Church to caricature her services, and we may therefore accept his strictures as evidence of the existing state of things. Upon this sleep of formalism, the Methodists, with METHODIST HYMXs. 51 their liyiims and their singing, burst like heralds of a new life. Crowds were drawn to the services simply by the irresistible charm of the music. To sing hymns was to be a Methodist. It was noted among the signs of Dr. Coke's Methodism that he introduced hymns into his church at South Petherton ; and in Cornwall the Methodists were nick-named the " Canorum " for the same reason. The hymn-singing was, however, far more than a sensuous pleasure. The most ignorant and wretched discovered a new delight, and a new sens responsibility and dignity, in " standing before God and praising Him lustily and with a good courage." The small "societies" which soon began to gather in towns and villages, to nourish by companionship that higher life which the teaching of John AVesley had quickened, were poor in learning, culture, and station. Their worship and the songs they sang were the outcry of simple hearts, rude and ungarnished as the singers themselves ; but warm from the heart, ardent as youth, and throbbing with the energy of conviction and faith. These men and women had something to sing about, and they sang, there- fore, not half-heartedly, and self-consciously, but with thoughts and affections making for the object of their song ; with that self-oblivion and passion which is not only the condition of devout praise, but the mark of every great singer that from time to time touches the hearts of men. It is instructive to notice that, in the process of religious awakening, hymn-singing came before preaching, or even the reading of the Word. It was the hymns that were used to break new soil. A letter from Berridsre, one of Wesley's preachers, addressed to his leader, July 16th, 1759, gives us an insight into the evangelising process. Speaking generally of his work, he says : — • As soon as three or tour receive convictions in a village, they are doired to meet together two or three nights in a week, which they 52 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. readily comply with. At first they only sing ; afterwards they join reading and prayer to singing:, and the presence of the Lord is greatly with them. Let me mention two instances. At Orwell, ten people were broken down in one night, and only by hearing a few people sing hymns. At Grandchester, a mile from Cambridge r seventeen people were seized with strong convictions last week, only by hearing hymns sung. When societies get a little strength and courage they begin to read and pray, and then the Lord magnifies His power as well as love among them, by releasing their souls out of bondage." Whitefield made the same use of psalmody as Wesley.. The incidents of his wonderful life are not so carefully recorded, but the mention of hymn-singing is constant. "We read of him with William Seward, on their first visit to Wales, making the New Passage, and singing hymns until the pilot, hindered by the sound from hearing the voice of the " look-out," obliged them to give over. We read of him again, on the journey from Evesham to Tewkesbury, escorted by a hundred horsemen and six thousand people, on a fine evening in summer, the welkin ringing with the sound of Psalms and spiritual songs. Such irregular proceedings, of course, did not please the- Mrs. Grundyism of the period. An association of ministers, convened at Weymouth, January 15th, 1745, " condemned Whitefield' s practice of singing hymns in the public roads when riding from town to town." But such resolutions did not stop the singing. Whitefield mentions a curious circumstance in his own life, when he was a young man of twenty-two : — »« Finding there were many young men belonging to the (religious) societies that attended my administrations, I entered into one of their singing societies, hoping to have greater opportunity of doihg them good. It answered my design. Our Lord gave me to spiritualise their singing. After they had taught me the gamuts they would gladly hear me teach them some of the mysteries of the new birth. Many sweet nights we spent together in this way, and many of these youths afterwards, to all appearances, walked with God." Cennick, who for [a season succeeded Whitefield in the- WESLEY S FIRST TUNE HOOK. 53 Tabernacle, Moorfields, introduced into some of the societies " choirs" or classes for singing psalms and •hymns and spiritual songs, after the manner of the Moravians; but these " praise meetings " do not seem to have been common. A correspondent of Cennick's writes from Plymouth : " We have removed our singing meeting to the Eaptist Chapel. There are about fifty who meet to learn the tunes." John Wesley's first tune book, issued in 1742, was reprinted in facsimile, under the editorship of the Rev. Dr. Osborn in 1882, and published at the Conference Office. The hymn book of 1737 is also included in the same cover. Speaking of the tune book, Dr. Osborn says :— '■ Wesley's characteristic love of the poor, and desire for their improvement, are seen in providing them with more than forty tunes for sixpence. That all might learn to sing, he printed only the melody, leaving the harmony to be supplied by the more skilful ; and as he determined that neither ignorance nor poverty should stand in the way of improvement, he afterwards published, at the price of a penny, an " Introduction to Vocal Music," adapted to general use. How useful these several publications were in building up the united societies in the joy of the faith, we must not stop to consider ; but we may not omit to notice the high character of many of the compositions which he thus circulated, and which have retained their hold on the public taste to this day ; and the sober and devout style of singing which he sought to encourage. What was boisterous and rude received no countenance either from the teaching or the example of the founder of Methodism." A good deal of the history of Wesleyan Methodist psalmody may be traced in the Minutes of the Conference. The scattered references to Church music in this record have a peculiar significance, because the Conference did not discuss ideal schemes, but spent its time in settling the practical difficulties that arose in the conduct of the movement. The customs and errors of the time are therefore reflected in the Minutes ; whatever was for- 54 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. ' "bidden we may be sure had been practised ; whatever was enjoined had been neglected. We find the Conference of 1746 recommending a careful choice of hymns proper to the congregation, and the use of hymns of praise and prayer, rather than those descriptive of particular states — a piece of advice that might well be given to all denominations to-day. We are reminded of the length of the hymns of that day by the caution not to sing too much, " seldom a whole hymn at once, seldom more than five or six verses at a time." The next piece of advice is to suit the tunes to the hymns. The last counsel is evidently Wesley's own. He tells the preachers to stop the congregation while a hymn is being sung, and ask them, " Xow do you know what you said last ? Did it suit your case ? Did you sing it as to God, with the spirit and the understanding also?" Such an interruption would startle the me- chanical order of our modern services, but it is often not unneeded. In the Minutes of 1763 the question is asked, "What can be done to make the people sing true?" This is abruptly answered as follows: 1. Learn to sing* true yourselves. 2. Recommend the tunes (i.e., the tunes in Wesley's book) everywhere. 3. If a preacher cannot sing himself, let him choose two or three persons in every place to pitch the tunes for him." The Minutes of 1765 are brief and pointed : — " Teach them [the congregation] to sing by note, and to sing our tunes first [Wesley had published his first hymn and tune-book m 1761] ; take care they do not sing too slow. Exhort all that can in every congregation to sing. Set them right that sing wrong. Be patient herein." Wesley's own taste in music was rather severe. The tune-book which he published contained tunes of a sober cast, and nearly one-third of them were in the minor mode. The direction in which the taste of his people went is shown by the Minutes of 1768 : — FAULTS IN SINGING. "Beware of formality in singing, or it will creep upon us unawares. 'Is it not creeping in already/ said they, 'by these complex tunes, which it is scarcely possible to sing with devotion? ' Sucli is ' Praise the Lord, ye blessed ones ; ' such the long quavering hallelujah annexed to the morning song tune, which 1 defy any man living to sing devoutly. The repeating the same word so often, as it shocks all common sense, so it necessarily brings in dead formality, and has no more religion in it than a Lancashire hornpipe. Besides that, it is a flat contradiction to our Lord's command, ' Use not vain repetitions.' For what is vain repetition, if this is not ? What end of devotion does it serve? Again, do not suffer the people to sing too slow. This naturally tends to formality, and is brought in by those who have very strong or very weak voices. Is it not possible that all the Methodists in the nation should sing equally quick? " In 1815 we read : — " Let no singing be allowed in any of our chapels after the public service has been regularly closed by the officiating preacher, as we think that singing at such times tends to extinguish the spirit ot devotion, and to destroy those serious impressions which may have been made on the congregation by the previous ministry of God's Word." The minutes of 1786 say : — " See that the women sing their parts." And again, in 1796, we read: — " Let the women constantly sing their parts alone. Let no man sing with them unless he understands the notes, and sings the bass as it is pricked down in the book." What do these directions mean ? Mr. John Dobson, of Richmond, the compiler of a popular Methodist tune- book, explains them to me as follows : — " When a tune requires the repetition of a portion of the words, such words are to be sung first by the women only, and repeated by the men and women together. Those men who could sing the bass (as printed in Wesley's ' Sacred Harmony ') were permitted to sing with the women in their part, so called. The music in the first liymn and tune-book (1761) consists of the melody only. The ' Sacred Harmony,' which followed some years after, con- tains the treble and bass, but no inner parts." We can 56 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. ■ quite understand how the men in their eagerness would not wait their turn, but joined in with the women. There are frequent injunctions in the Minutes to stand during singing, and we must suppose from this that the custom of standing was by no means generally established ; indeed, the Minutes of 1802 say as much. Yery early in the movement " the singers/' as the leaders of the music in each chapel were called, seem to have caused trouble They were too fond of displaying their powers. In 1787, during Wesley's lifetime, the Minutes say : — " Let no anthems be introduced into our chapels or preaching-houses for the time to come, because they cannot properly be called joint worship." The Conference of 1796 (after Wesley's death) curiously relates this Minute: — " Let no anthems be introduced into our chapels unless on extraordinary occasions, and with the consent of the superintendent, because they cannot properly be called joint worship." If anthems are not 11 joint worship," it is hard to see why they should be admitted into service, even on extraordinary occasions, and with the consent of the superintendent. On this point the feeling of the Conference was no doubt better than its logic. The Minutes of 1796 say : — " If a preacher be present, let no singer give out the words." In the Minutes of 1800, we find a reference which shows a further advance on the part of " the singers " : — " Let none in our connection preach charity sermons where bands of music and theatrical singers are introduced into our chapels- And let the stewards, trustees, and leaders be informed that such a practice is offensive to the Conference, who believe it has been hurtful 4» the minds of many pious people." 1802. " We beg that our people will keep close to the excellent rules drawn up by our venerable father in the gospel, Mr. Wesley, in respect to singing. The celebrating of the praises of the Most High God is an important part of divine worship, and a part in which the whole congregation should endeavour vocally to join. It is, therefore, very indecorous not to stand up on so solemn an occasion." INSUBORDINATE SINGERS. 57 Again, in 1805, we read : — •' Let no pieces, as they are called, in which recitatives by single men, foIos by single women (fuging, or different words sung by different voices at the same time), are introduced, be sung in our chapels. Let the original, simple, grave, and devotional style be •carefully preserved, which, instead of drawing the attention to singing and the singers, is so admirably calculated to draw off the attention from both, and to raise the soul to God only." Then follows another reference to musical perfor- mances : — 11 In which the genuine dignity of spiritual worship is grossly abused, under the pretence of getting money for charitable purposes, which we have sufficient proof has been procured as amply where nothing of the kind has been introduced, but the charity recom- mended to the people in the name of God." The following reference, in the same year, hints at the -conflict between the singers and the preachers : — 11 Let no preacher suffer his right to conduct every part of the worship of Almighty God to be infringed on, either by singers or others ; but let him sacredly preserve and calmly maintain his -authority, as he who sacrifices this sacrifices not only Methodism, but the spirit and designs of Christianity." This insubordination of the singers constantly re- appeared in different places, and at different times. At Stockport, for example, about the year 1803, the choir of the New Connexion Chapel requested the minister to preach a short sermon, that they might have time for a "piece," and this incident was the beginning of a considerable local disturbance. An anonymous pamphlet was published on " Singing Men and Women," in which the whole order were roundly attacked for their self- importance. The authorship was afterwards acknowledged by Rev. Richard Watson, the minister of the place. The question of instruments in chapel also gave trouble. Wesley, as Mr. G. J. Stevenson, the industrious historian of City Road Chapel assures me, never had a thought of an organ being erected in any Methodist chapel. In his day there was so much difficulty in providing the salaries of the preachers, and the cost of 58 studies iy WORSHIP MUSIC. the chapels, that it never occurred to him that the Methodists would be rich enough to meet the cost of a chapel organ. The Minutes of 1790 (after his death) say : — u Let no organ be placed anywhere until proposed by the Conference.'' The Minutes of 1808 say: — " Where organs have been introduced, the Conference requires that they shall be used so as not to over-power or supersede, but only to assist our congregational singing; and that they shall be considered as under the control of the superintendent, or of the officiating preacher for the time being." The Minutes of the same year (1808) • judge it " expedient to refuse, after this present year, the sanction or consent to the erection of any organ in our chapels." The Minutes of 1820 say : — " The Conference judges that in some of the larger chapels, where some instrumental music may be deemed expedient in order to guide the congregational singing, organs may be allowed by special consent of the Conference." Without this consent an organ was, however, erected in Brunswick Chapel, Leeds, in 1828. It was a magnificent instrument for the times, and the trustees forced it upon the congregation against their will. A serious disturbance ensued, which spread to London. South w ark took an active part in the controversy. A large portion of the time of the Conference of this year (1828), and nearly the whole of the annual address was occupied with the Leeds organ question. The result was a serious division in the body ; a thousand members and three times as many attendants seceded, forming a society of Protestant Methodists — protesting, that is, against organs — which continued an independent existence for many years, until it was absorbed in the United Methodist Free Churches. The Conference of the following year had to report an increase less by 5,000 than that of the previous year — a dear price to pay for an instrument. No other organ experiment was tried for many years afterwards. THE LEEDS ORGAN CONTROVERSY. 59 Daniel Isaac was one who took a foremost part in the organ controversy of this time. In his tl Letters to the Protestant Methodists," lie says he has written against both organs and liturgies — the two points on which they seceded — but that he has not gone out with them because he feels the evil of dividing on non-essential points. He mentions that there was an organ at Burley for twelve years before that at Leeds was put up, and the local preachers made no objection to it. And lie charges the '; Protestants " with having allowed the liturgy and an organ in one of their churches soon after the secession ! In 1827, when the Leeds organ controversy was hottest, Isaac published a little work entitled "Vocal Melody, or Singing the only Music sanctioned by Divine authority in the Public Worship of the Churches." He says : — * " The arguments employed in this little tract are directed against instruments of all kinds. Organs are undoubtedly the worst, because they make most noise, nearly drown the voice of those who sing, and render the words quite inaudible. Bass instruments are the least objectionable, because they do not interfere with the air of the tune, nor prevent the words which are sung being pretty distinctly heard." Isaac mentions that he has an instrument in his own house, and does not object to them per se ; only when introduced into public worship. He argues that, whereas under the old dispensation the practice of instrumental music was limited to the priests, so with the priesthood it was abolished. In the Xew Testament we read only of singing, not of playing. ^lusic, to be of any use in worship, must do two tilings — first, rouse the feelings ; second, direct them to God. Instruments, at most, can only do the first, but singing with the spirit and the understanding will accomplish both. He considers that for devotional purposes, instruments are worse than useless : — 11 The religious tendency given to excited feelings is effected by the words which accompany the tune. The noise of instruments, 60 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. however, tends to drown the words, and to draw the attention from the hymn or psalm to mere sounds, in which the spirit of devotion is lost. . . . When the animal gratification arising from the charms of music exceeds the spiritual enjoyment expected from communion with God, the soul will rest satisfied with the pleasures of sense, and make no efforts to turn the attention from the orchestra to the throne of grace. ... A traveller needs rest on the road, to enable him to perform his journey, but if he be entertained in the way with a paradise of delights, he will be tempted to stop short, and to make that his permanent abode which was only intended for a temporary accommodation. ... A man may be more excited by instrumental than vocal music, and yet prefer the latter in a place of "worship, because he may be of opinion that the human voice is the better adapted to the great end of worship, which is to please the Lord rather than himself." Isaac objects to the use of music in worship as a fine art appealing to the senses, and shows that if it is thus admitted, pictures, sculptures, and incense ought to follow. He continues : — " It is said that ' music is the means of drawing a person to a place of worship ; when there he is awakened and converted ; thus the blessing of God crowns the means, and gives them the stamp of His approbation.' Aye, but -what means? Did God awaken or ■convert him while listening to a fiddle or an organ ? I trow not, or the man would have stood as good a chance of being converted in the play-house as in the house of the Lord. The Divine blessing accompanied prayer and preaching, which are both of Divine appointment, and the sinner was changed, not by the music, but in spite of it. Men often use a variety of means in order to a spiritual end, some of which are good, and some bad. If the end be effected, they take it for granted that God has blessed them all ; when in truth He has brought good out of the bad means, and given His blessing only to the good ones." Although organs had not at this time found their way into Methodist chapels, other instruments were in use. In the Minutes of 1805 we read : — •• Let no instrument of music be introduced into the singers' seat, except a bass viol should the principal singer require it." Notwithstanding this prohibition, the clarionet, bassoon, and other instruments were common in Methodist chapels, as they were in parish churches, and among the other OCCASIONAL HYMNS. 61 Nonconformist bodies. These instruments were played almost exclusively by amateurs — carpenters and trades- men of all sorts — and marked a domestic cultivation of orchestral instruments among the working classes which is now, except in Yorkshire and Lancashire, almost extinct. The directions which the Conference gives as to hymns are interesting. Tn 1780 we read, " Sing no hymn of your own composing" (this to the preachers). And in 1782, " Let those who will not promise this be excluded at the next Conference." Evidently strong measures were needed to repress the struggling muse of "Wesley's helpers. In 1815 the preachers are directed " to examine the hymns which are to be sung in our chapels when charity sermons are to be preached, or on other particular occasions, and let them reject all those which are not decidedly unobjectionable in point of sentiment and of poetry." There was in early Methodist times an interesting custom of composing " occasional " hymns. This practice also obtained among the Church people and Nonconformists. At the baptism of "Whitefield's child a hymn was sung, more remarkable for good feeling than good poetry, which had been composed for the occasion by a worthy widow. Both at Whitefield's Tabernacle and at City-road Chapel it was the custom to read letters from preachers describing progress in various parts of the country, after which a new hymn was sung. Charles Wesley wrote some of his finest hymns for these occasions. The original plan laid down by AVesley for singing hymns was that two lines of a verse should be given out at a time, but innovations took place, and the Conference of 1844 came to the following resolution : — 11 Complaints having been made that in some of onr chapels the novel practice has been introduced of reading and singing a whole verse of the hymn at once, instead of our usual and regular plan of 62 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. giving out e portions of verses, the Conference hereby records its serious disapproval of this innovation, as being incon- venient and injurious, especially to the poorer classes of our fellow - worshippers, and not generally conducive to edification." So recently as 1860 a resolution, remarkable for its conservatism, was passed on the same point : — " The Conference hears with regret of increasingly numerous cases of departure from our long established custom of giving out the verse in successive portions ; not only because that practice appears to be more conducive than any other to the ends of devotion, especially on the part of the poor, but also because any interference -with our ordinary modes of worship is on many accounts undesirable. And, while unwilling to urge the discontinuance of the later practice where it has long existed, the Conference instructs the ministers of the body to discourage, by all prudent means, its introduction in other places." It is instructive to read the testimonies to the power of the early Methodist singing which are borne, often unwillingly, by contemporary writers belonging to the Church of England. Eev. Dr. Vincent, Rector of All Hallows, in his " Considerations on Parochial Music" (1 787) bays:— " That the people are alive to attractions of this kind no other proof is wanting than the attraction they ail experience in the psalmody of the Methodists. It is not rashness to assert that for one who has been drawn away from the Established Church by preaching, ten have been induced by music. . . We have no right to complain of this system of the Methodists — they fight with lawful weapons, for they are the same as the Reformers employed against the* Church of Rome. And if we are sensible of the efficacy of them, why should not we proportion our mode of defence to the nature of the attack ? That the harmony arising from the voices of a well-regulated Methodist congregation is delightful, no one who has heard it can deny. Let us not envy them the enjoyment of it, but draw our own instruction from it, and this we may readily do by examining in what points their excellence consists. . . It will be generally acknowledged that the effect is produced first by the union of every voice in the assembly (no one being negligent, inattentive, or remiss), secondly by practice, and thirdly by moderating the voice to the most harmonious pitch. For that it does not consist in better musical composition is evident. Their 1IYMX 8INGIN6 AT ROME. 63 superiority is as manifest in the performance of a common psalm as in any modern composition adapted to their own hymns. That it does not consist in better v< illy plain, because when the effect is most striking, no particular voice is heard. That it d« arise from greater previous skill is easily proved, for they have no skill but practice, and pretend in general to no knowledge of the science but what they have acquired by the ear." But the strongest and most amusing tribute to the early Methodist hymn singing which I have met with is contained in '• A letter to a country gentleman on the subject of Methodism, confined chiefly to its causes, progress, and consequences in its own neighbourhood. From the clergyman of his parish. Ipswich, 1805." The reader will be surprised to learn that among the evil practices which Methodism has introduced, hymn-singing must be included. The writer, who is a strong anti-Methodist, says :— " A consequence attends the very devotions of this Beet, so injurious to the domestic economy of the poor, that it may be almost considered a political evil. I allude to the almost daily practice of singing their divine hymns. The labourer of this class returns from his day's work as others do, nearly exhausted by it; but instead of taking the rest so much wanted in his chimney corner, he imme- diately takes his wife and family from the wheel, and other useful employments in the house, to hear or join him in this religions exercise ; which is not unfrequently kept up at the expense of fire and candle to an unseasonable hour. 1 have often heard this singing in some of our poorest cottages at bo late an hour as nine, and sometimes later of a winter's evening." A friendly critic is found in J. Nightingale, who in 1807 published "A Portraiture of Methodism." Among other things he mentions the habit at prayer-meet:: stopping to exhort between the verses of a hymn. S and field singing, he tells us, are not common among the Methodists, except at funerals. But a party of young people returning from a country love-feast in a bo ly may be heard all singing, someone at the head giving out the lines of the hymns. " I have often heard them pass my windows at very late hours." 64 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. Mr. J. W. Gabriel, one of the trustees of City Road Chapel, the first head-quarters of Methodism, has in his possession the old cash-book used by the stewards of this chapel in the time of the Wesleys. He allowed me to examine it lately, in the hope of finding some entries relating to the psalmody. But after searching for some time in vain the question occurred to us, " In what way could they have spent money upon the music ?" The hay for Mr. Charles "Wesley's horse, and all the petty expenses of maintenance were recorded, but there was no word about the music, and the reason of this was clear ; it cost them nothing. "If you cannot sing yourself," say the Minutes of 1796, " choose a person or two in each place to pitch the tune for you;" and this was all the machinery needed to set the Methodists singing. The sound came from vocal organs that it was no part of the society's duty to blow or keep in tune, and the leaders and the choir were well paid by the enjoyment they had in their work. City Road Chapel was the home of the Wesleys, so far as their itinerancy allowed ; indeed, Charles was the settled minister of the place for some years. It is a century old, and the history of its psalmody presents an unbroken tradition of Methodist custom. There is no- organ in the place, and the singing is now led by Mr. Sporne, the fourth precentor since Wesley's death.* The very air of the chapel is laden with memories of the Wesleys, and the leading worthies of the movement. Indeed, it was only in 1876 that the last human link between John Wesley and the City Road Chapel was severed by the death of an old woman who had received " tickets" from his own hands. Mr. Sporne has led the psalmody for twenty-five years. He tells me that up to the year 1850 the singing of the congregation was supported by a bass viol, double bass, flute, and clarinet. These instruments were never formally abolished, but the • This article was written ten years ago. Changes have taken place since then, and I believe there is now an organ.— J. S. C. OLD METHODIST TUNES. 65 players happened to secede when a split occurred in the body. When Mr. Sporne first took duty, the old tunes like "Calcutta" and "Foundling" were all in vogue. It was the invariable custom to repeat the last two lines of the List verse of a hymn, and to give out two lines at a time. Thus in an eight-line metre there would be three pauses in each verse, and the task of keeping the pitch in mind was no easy one, especially if the minister gave out the hymn in a sing-song voice. In a hymn of four verses of this metre, there would be fifteen pauses, and the result was a great deal of flattening. Sometimes the congregation would fall a major third. This custom of lining out was given up as recently as seven years ago. Syllabic tunes have been introduced of late years, and Mr. Sporne's experience is that in them the congregation is not disposed to flatten or to drawl. He says there is no exaggeration in asserting that they now sing eight verses in the time they formerly occupied in singing three, so that on devotional grounds, if on no other, the syllabic tunes are the best, because they allow the people to sing more words. Mr. Sporne has, however, a tender regard for the feelings of aged Christians, who have associated a certain tune with a certain hymn all their lifetime. He said to me: "I know what an outlet singing is to my own heart, and I go in for not crippling God's people in the expression of their feelings. If I see two or three old people in the congregation when a hymn is given out to which some old tune belongs, I let them have the old tune even though I think it vulgar and antiquated. I know it is like heaven on earth to them to join in these words and inusic." Once a year, he opens the old " Wesleyan Companion" for the tune " Derby," which nothing short of a surgical operation could separate from the Xew Year's hymn, "Come, let us anew our journey pursue." The preface to the new Methodist Hymn-Tune Book (1877), speaking of some of the old tunes, says that 66 STUDIES IN WORSHIP Mr SIC. " their exclusion would in certain localities have heen deemed almost an affront to sacred associations." This considerateness in what is not a matter of right and wrong, but merely of esthetics, is quite right. Mr. Sporne says that in the old times the people liked the tunes pitched high ; the women especially enjoyed screaming out high G. It made the psalmody more brilliant and far- sounding. Even now, when the chapel is crowded, he generally raises the pitch a semitone. Singing, in the last century, was a string of grace-notes, turns, and other embellishments. Mr. John Dobson, of Richmond, has shown me an interesting publication by Matthew Camidge, organist of York Minster, bearing the date 1789. Camidge discovered in a library some psalm- tunes composed by Henry Lawes, a musician of the time of Charles I. He came to the conclusion that these tunes, if amended in accordance with modern feeling, might be revived for church uses. What did he mean by this amendment ? Simply the addition of passing notes in the melody, trills, and such like devices. In order to show the reader how greatly he has improved Henry Lawes, Camidge prints the original and amended versions side by side throughout the book, and the result is ludicrous. The taste of to-day has returned to that of Lawes' time, but the old-fashioned tricks of vocalisation may still be heard fr,om old people in remote country places. Mr.^ Dobson says that in his early days, when the melody leaped a third, the women invariably added the inter- vening note ; and if it leaped more than a third they glided up or down, portamento, giving the next note in anticipation. Mr. Sporne says that appoggiaturas and gliding were general twenty years ago. Both these gentlemen also testify to old habits which are interesting, as they are no doubt survivals of the early practice of giving the melody to the tenor part, and adding counter and treble above it. Mr. Sporne says there are still one EXTEMPORE PARTS. 67 or two men in the City lload congregation who Bing the air through the tune until they get to the end, and then, if the melody ends low, they will scale up in falsetto to ■ the higher octave, and thus make harmony at the cadence. Mr. Dobson made the acquaintance some years ago of two old ladies in the Xorth of England, who were noted among their friends for their power of improvising a high part above the melody of the tune. This custom had been common, and it was always considered a sign of musician- ship to be able to sing this part. There is other evidence of the lingering use of this old custom. In the preface to the " Psalmist" C 1 838) occurs the following curious passage : " It is a common mistake of female singers in some parts of the country to sing the tenor part, leaving the air to male voices, for which it is not intended, and thereby causing an inversion of the harmony highly displeasing to the taste of a musician." It is of course well known that the custom of assigning the melody to the tenor part was practised in the psalters of Day, Este, Eavenscroft, Playford, &c., but it is interesting to find how long it continued in use. The eleventh edition of Cheethani's Psalmody (1787) has the tunes arranged in this way. In answer to my enquiry whether the singing at the City Eoad Chapel is as hearty as in the old times, Mr. Sporne doubts if it is. The chapel has suffered, as all City churches have, from the migration to the suburbs, which is a feature of the last twenty years. The congre- gations are smaller, and there are more strangers ; hence the difficulties in the way of good psalmody have increased. Mr. Sporne has himself a catechumen's class of about 140 young people, and he avails himself of this to introduce new tunes to the chapel. His young people learn them first, and they carry them through until the congregation have learnt them. He thinks that the slow and heavy singing which is such an evil in Methodist psalmody is 08 STUDIES IS WORSHIP MUSIC. encouraged by the class-meetings, where a few people assemble without any practised leader of singing, and form habits of drawling which cling to them in chapel. Mr. Stevenson, in his li Memorials of City Road Chapel," refers to a performance of the " Messiah" at seven o'clock in the morning, every Christmas Day, in the Morning Chapel (adjoining), which was for many years an insti- tution in the London society. He tells us, too, that when His. Royal Highness the Duke of Kent attended City lload Chapel on one occasion (not a Sunday), Mr. Wilde, the precentor, sang the National Anthem as a solo, the congregation joining in the chorus. The Sunday-school anniversaries were, and are still, the occasion on which the full musical strength of the place was put forth. Mr. Gabriel has seen eighteen of the Coldstream Guards' band in the chapel gallery at a Sunday morning festival of this kind. John Wesley is generally spoken of as a man of strong musical feeling and taste. Probably, like most men of culture? he knew what he liked and disliked in tunes and in performances generally, but as he had never formally studied the art, a good deal of caprice, no doubt, mingled with his judgment. There is an interesting essay by Wesley in the Armenian Magazine for 1781, entitled " Thoughts on the Power of Music," which shows that if he was no musician he was able to think clearly on the subject. The article is dated Inverness, June 9th, 1779, and Wesley begins by describing the power of music over the passions in ancient times. "How is it," he asks, " that there is no Timotheus of modern days to excite us to fury or tears, or calm us to sleep by his art ? " — " The grand reason seems to be that the whole nature and design of music is altered. The ancient composers studied melody alone, the due arrangement of single notes, and it was by melody alone that they wrought such wonderful effects. But the modern com- posers study harmony, which, in the present sense of the word, is quite another thing — namely, a contrast of various notes, opposite to, I I N WESLEY ON MUSIC. 69 and yet blended with each other, wherein they 1 Now high, now low, pursue the resonant fugue.' Dr. Gregory says this harmony ban been known in the world little more than 200 years. Be that as it may, ever since counterpoint has been invented it lias altered the grand design of music, so it has well-nigh destroyed ita effects." Dr. Pepusch showed Wesley several folios of Greek .)l music, all melody. The Doctor was convinced that the i a ancients were not acquainted with harmony. " And as the nature of music is thus changed, so is likewise the design of it. Our composers do not aim at moving the passions, but at quite another tiling : at varying and contrasting the notes a thousand different ways. What has counterpoint to do with the passions? It is applied to quite a different faculty of the mind; not to our joy, or hope, or fear, but merely to the ear, to the imagination, or internal sense. And the pleasure it gives is not upon this principle, not by raising any passion whatever. It no more affects the passions than the judgment, both the one and the other lie quite out of its province. Need we any other, and can we have any stronger proof of this than those modern overtures, voluntaries, or concertos, which consist altogether of artificial sounds without any words at all ? What have any of the passions to do with them? What has judgment, reason, common sense? Just nothing at all. All these are utterly excluded by delicate, unmeaning sound." Wesley then proceeds to state his objections to hearing different words sung by different persons at the same I time, as is done in anthems and choruses. " What can be more shocking to a man of understanding than this ? " he asks. "Pray which of those sentences am I to attend to ? . . . To complete the matter, this astonishing jargon has found a place even in the worship of God! Let any unprejudiced person say whether there can be a direct mockery of God. Had Timotheus ' pursued the resonant fugue ' his music would have been quite harmless. It would have affected Alexander no more than Bucephalus." Wesley frequently harps upon this point. It was a hobby with him, but his objection is one which few will share. The effect of several parts Sce-.Tkc rUsit'l Tasks d^ria UosUy T airily i ca f^c/Mk ocJisi Kev/icw i*V Noy^ .jag c. | 9<3 70 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. repeating a phrase, breaking in upon one another, chasing each other in combined yet independent melodies, is generally grand and inspiring, from the verbal point of view as well as the musical. "Without this separate utterance of the parts, polyphonic music would be impossible. "Wesley then goes on to prove his case against modern harmony. He says : — " It is true the modern music has been sometimes observed to have as powerful effect as the ancient, so that frequently single persons, and sometimes numerous assemblies, have been seen in a flood of tears. But when was this ? Generally, if not always, when a fine solo was sung, when the ' sound has been an echo to the sense,' when the music has been extremely simple and inartificial, the composer having attended to melody, not harmony. Then, and then only, the natural power of music to move the passions has appeared. This music was calculated for that end, and effectually answered it. Upon this ground it is that so many persons are so much affected by Scotch and Irish airs. They are composed, not according to art but nature ; they are simple in the highest degree. There is not harmony, according to the present sense of the word, therein, but there is much melody. And this is not only heard but felt by all those who retain their native taste, whose taste is not biassed (I might say corrupted) by attending to counterpoint and complicated music. It is this — it is counterpoint, it is harmony (so-called), which destroys the power of our music. And if ever this should be banished from our compositions, if ever we should return to the simplicity and melody of the ancients, then the effects of our music will be as* surprising as any that were wrought by theirs; yea, perhaps they will be as much greater as modern instruments are more excellent than those of the ancients." These remarks are interesting, and they are at least worth reading at a period when the tendency is to neglect melody for harmony. To adopt Wesley's proposal would be to sacrifice all that we understand by the expression u modern music," and though we all decline to do that, his paper may serve to remind us that harmony should be the combination of melodies, and not the mere progression of chords. WESLEY ON MUSIC. 71 From the beginning of his career Wesley was a hymn- singer. As a young man in Georgia, he excited the prejudice of the people, by introducing unauthorised compositions of psalms and hymns. He was always anxious that Methodist singing should be good. In a tract published in 1758, while arguing against a separa- tion from the Church of England, he includes among the disadvantages of Dissent, the slow and drawling singing. The published lives of "Wesley, as well as his journals, are full of references to psalmody. Here is an example from his journal : — "Nov. 11th, 1738. Spent the evening with a little company at Oxford. I was grieved to find that prudence had made them leave off singing Psalms. I fear it will not stop here. God deliver me, and all that seek Him in sincerity, from what the world calls Christian prudence." Often, in open air services, the Methodist hymns drowned the noise of men hired to interrupt them. It is doubtful if the voices of an ordinary congregation of the present day would do that, though their organ might. Wesley liked the singing to be congregational. At Neath, in 1768, after preaching in the parish church, he writes: — "I was greatly disgusted at the manner of singing. Twelve or fourteen persons kept it to them- selves, and quite shut out the congregation." At Warrington (1771), speaking of the Methodist Chapel, he says: — "I put a stop to a bad custom which was creeping in here ; a few men, who had fine voices, sang a Psalm which no one knew, in a Ltune fit for an opera." Describing a similar scene at Dublin (1787), he says: — 14 But is this Christian worship? Or ought it ever to be suffered in a Christian church? " Several stories of Wesley's dealings with music and singers have been handed down in Methodist families. It is said that once, at Bristol, he overheard the singers practising, in an upper room, [some florid and fuguing tunes. He ran up to them, and in a stern voice said : — 72 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. . " Let me have none of your Lancashire hornpipes here." Elsewhere at a service, "Wesley is said to have stopped a man with a peculiarly bad voice, and told him not to sing. " I can't help singing," replied the man. " Sing on then," said Wesley, unwilling to hinder the expression of religious feeling. Wesley sums up his advice to Methodist singers in the preface to his "Sacred Harmony," with characteristic abruptness. He says : — 11 1 want the people called Methodists to sing true the tunes which are in common use among them. . . I have been endeavouring for more than twenty years to procure such a book as this. Masters of music were above following any direction but their own, and I was determined whoever compiled this should follow my direction ; not mending our tunes, but setting them down neither better nor worse than they were. At] length I have prevailed. The following collection contains all the tunes which are in common use amongst us. " That this part of worship may be more acceptable to God, as well as the more profitable to yourself and others, be careful to observe the following directions : — 11 1. Learn these tunes before you learn any others; afterwards learn as many as you please. " II. Sing them exactly as they are printed here, without altering or mending them at all, and if you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as soon as you can. III. Sing all. See that you join with the Congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of AVeakness or Weariness hinder you. If it is a Cross to you, take it up and you will find a Blessing. " IV. Sing lustily, and with a good Courage. Beware of singing as if you were half Dead or half a Sleep, but lift up your voice with Strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of it being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan. " V. Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the Rest of the Congregation, that you may not destroy the Harmony, but strive to unite your Voices together, so as to make one clear, melodious Sound. " VI. Sing in Time. Whatever Time is sung, be sure to keep with it. Do not run before or stay behind it, but attend close to the leading Voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can, and take WESLEY ON ORGANS. 73 care you sing not too slow. This drawling Way naturally steals on all who are lazy, and it is high Time to drive it out from among us, and sing all our Tunes just as quick as we did at first. " VII. Above all sing spiritually. Have an Eye to God in every Word you sing. Aim at pleasing Him more than yourself, or any other Creature. In order to this attend Strictly to the Sense of what you sing, and see that your Heart is not carried away with the Sound, but offered to God continually, so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve of here, and reward when He cometh in the Clouds of IJeaven." Notwithstanding that Wesley speaks, in describing the ordinary Church of England services, " of the unreason- able and unmeaning impertinence of a voluntary on the organ," there are two passages in his journal which tell the other way. At Manchester, April 7th, 1751, he writes: — "I went to the new church, and found an uncommon blessing, at a time when I least of all expected it— namely, while the organist was playing a voluntary." At Macclesfield, March 29th, 1782, after assisting the Rev. David Simpson to administer the Sacrament, he writes : — " While we were administering, I heard a low, soft, solemn sound, like that of an ^Eolian harp. It con- tinued five or six minutes, and so affected many that they could not refrain from tears. It then gradually died away. Strange that no other organist (that I know) should think of this." On the other hand must be put the following, from the Rev. S. Dunn's " Life of Dr. Adam Clarke : — " The question was once put to Wesley, ' what is your opinion of instruments of music in a place of worship.' He replied, ' I have no objection to their being there, provided they are neither seen nor heard ! ' To this Dr. Clarke adds : — ' 1 say the same, only I think the expense of purchase had better be spared.' " The following hymn by Charles Wesley is entitled 11 On the True Use of Music," and is founded on 1 Cor. xiv. 15 — "I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." It is worth (juoting, 74 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. . not only as showing the spirit of the writer, but as wholesome reading for all singers in church : — Jesus, thou soul of all our joys, For whom we now lift up our voice, And all our strength exert ; Vouchsafe the grace we humbly claim, Compose into a thankful frame, And tune thy people's heart. While with the heavenly choir we join, Thy glory be our whole design, Thy glory, not our own : Still let us keep our end in view, And still the pleasing task pursue, To please our God alone. The secret pride, the subtle sin, O let it never more steal in, To offend thy glorious eyes, To desecrate our hallowed strain, And make our solemn service vain, And mar our sacrifice ! To magnify thy awful name, To spread the honours of the Lamb, Let us our voices raise ; Our souls' and bodies' powers unite, Regardless of our own delight, And dead to human praise. Still let us on our guard be found, And watch against the power of sound With sacred jealousy ; Lest haply sense should damp our zeal, And music's charms bewitch and steal Our hearts away from thee. That hurrying strife far -off remove, That noisy burst of selfish love, Which swells the formal song ; The joy from out our hearts arise, And speak and sparkle in our eyes, v And vibrate on our tongue. Thee let us praise, our common Lord, And sweetly join with one accord Thy goodness to proclaim ; Jesus, thyself in us reveal, And all our faculties shall feel Thy harmonizing name. CHARLES WESLEY'S SONS. With calmly reverential joy, 0 let us all our lives employ In setting forth thy Love ; And raise in death our triumph higher, And sing, with all the heavenly choir. That endless song above ! The two sous of Charles Wesley, Charles and Samuel by name, developed a remarkable taleut for music. The musical precocity of Samuel has been recorded by the Hon. D. Barrington, and recalls the stories of Mozart's childhood. Samuel displayed a passion for music when three years old, and always sat by when his brother was receiving his pianoforte lesson. He taught himself to read by help of the oratorio of Samson. At rive he had all the airs, recitatives, and choruses of Samson and Messiah by heart. Before he had learnt to write, he would lay the words of an oratorio before him and sing them over, extemporising melodies of his own. In this way he set the airs of Ruth when six years old, and laid them up in his memory till he was eight, when he wrote them down. When Dr. Eoyce saw the manuscript he was astonished. " These airs," he said, " are some of the prettiest I have seen; this boy writes by nature as true a bass as I can by rule and study.' ' From the first, Samuel was ready at transposition, harmonising a melody on the spur of the moment, or extemporising. The two boys attracted the attention of the musical world about the year 1781. The leading composers became their friends, and the aristocracy followed suit. As a result, a series of subscription concerts was established in Charles Wesley's house. These concerts, which included twelve performances each season, were continued for some years, with a subscription of from thirty to fifty persons. John Wesley was at one of these concerts on January 25th, 1781, and lie writes after it: — "I spent an agreeable hour at a concert of my nephews'. But I was a little out of my element among lords aud ladies. 76 STUDIES JX WORSHIP MUSIC. I love plain music and plain company best." Charles Wesley fully approved of these gatherings. "I am clear," he writes to his brother, " without a doubt, that my sons' concert is after the will and order of Providence." John Wesley, in printing this, after his brother's death, adds in a foot-note, " I am clear of another mind." "There can be no doubt," says Mr. Tyerman, "that by these concerts Charles was brought into the society of a large number of the rich and great. The simple-minded London Methodists were staggered at one of their great leaders having such musical performances at his house, and at his mingling with persons who, though highly genteel, were not religious. Many began to regard him with suspicion; his preaching popularity was waning." The two sons, however, continued to pursue their profession; Charles became a favourite with George III., and lived to become the organist of George IV., and the teacher of Princess Charlotte. He was a man of deep devotional feeling, and an attendant at the Methodist Chapels. He never married, and died in 1834. Samuel entered the Roman Catholic Church before the age of twenty. He composed a High Mass for the Chapel of Pope Pius VI., and received that Pontiff's thanks. In his last days he renounced the Church of Eome. He died in 1837. As a composer, Samuel Wesley hardly fulfilled the promise of his childhood ; that is to say, he produced no great work as a legacy to other times. His fame as an organist was unsurpassed in this country, but that faculty died with him. His music is, however, so full of close-packed strength and learning that it may yet become popular. v In some of his vocal compositions, the Psalm In Exitu Israel for example, he rivals Bach himself in the wealth and fertility of his contrapuntal skill. The names of Samuel Wesley, and of his son Samuel Sebastian Wesley, will always stand high in the list of English musicians. They were both men of undoubted genius. METHODIST SINGING. 7 7 If we are to believe Methodist writers, the psalmody of Methodism is at present on the decline. We hear com- plaints of a departure from the simplicity and bare spirituality of Wesley's services, of a lack of warmth in the congregation, and a disposition to hand over the singing to a choir. A writer in the Cornhill Magazine (1878), who is evidently himself a Methodist, says : — " The \Yesleyans of 50 years ago were specially distinguished for the fire and force of their singing. There might be a lack of art, but y^u were always sure of heartiness. In this respect, as in others, the Wesleyans are somewhat changed. They have increased their musical education, but the energy and earnestness of their singing are diminished. This is partly owing to the congregations leaving the organ and choir to do the singing for them, and as long as they are content with a vicarious worship of this sort, their devotional fervour will be comparatively unemployed during the singing. Their falling off in congregational singing may be partly attributed to another cause. Education is spreading among the people, and the social level of the Wesleyans is higher than it was. Their children learn vocal music and the piano, and some of them know too much of music to like bad singing, and so avoid imperfect psalmody by remaining silent in the chapel." Methodist singing varies in style much more than it did in Wesley's day, when the Methodists were poor, and had not culture enough to think of ritual, even if they had been so minded. To hear Methodist singing as it was a hundred years ago, we must find our' way to remote Cornish villages. Here the fishermen and labourers assemble week by week in their whitewashed meeting- houses, after the simple fashion of their grandfathers, who learnt from Wesley not to smuggle. How they revel in "Miles's Lane" and " Kousseau's Dream!" The pace is so slow that the first verse wearies you out, but they plod on to the end. These must be the people that Wesley told to sing quick, and to give the not they are written, without rnns and ornaments of their own. They certainly need the advice now. 78 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. It is strange that the Methodists, with their compact organisation, and their great fondness for singing, have never attempted to arrange for the systematic instruction of their congregations in the rudiments of music, which is the only radical method of promoting congregational singing. Wesley was more practical, than his successors. His Tune Book has a preface which gives a course of exercises and lessons in the art of reading music, on the system prevalent at the time, which called the scale tones fa sol la fa sol la mi. This was the best system known in Wesley's day. Had he lived now I do not doubt that lie would in the same way have sought out and eagerly promoted the simplest and most straightforward plan for enabling the multitude to read music. 79 THE PSALMODY OF THE INDEPENDENTS AND SEPAEATISTS. The early Separatist Churches made in general a hearty use of singing in public worship. In feeling their way back to purer and more primitive habits, they found no objection, as a rule, to the service of song. It would indeed have been strange if they, the Protestants among Protestants, had rejected a custom which had stamped the Protestant Reformation in every country it had reached — a custom which required little form or ritual, and which placed all the worshippers upon that equality before God which it was the special care of the Nonconformists to assert. This, however, is only generally true. The radical methods of some of the Churches, and their stern attempt to revert to what they believed to be apostolic custom, led them to reject singing, and to carry on their worship with only the aid of reading the Scriptures, exhortation, and prayer. On this point Mr. Edgar, in his "Old Church Life in Scotland," remarks: — 11 At the present day there are not a few persons, even in the Church of Scotland, who maintain that the only proper subjects for divine praise in public worship are the metrical versions of the Old Testament Psalms. But it may very well be contended, that the principles on which these people frame their theory of worship should lead them much further than this. The metrical version of the Psalms are not the Psalms themselves, but the Psalms paraphrased and distorted by human inventions, to suit the exigencies of rhyme and metre. They are not the verbatim words of inspira- tion that came from the lips of David and Asaph, or the prophets of so studies IN iron SHIP MUSIC. the captivity and restoration. They are not even a literal English translation of these words, There have accordingly been straight- laced people that have objected to the use in public worship of the metrical version of the Psalms quite as strongly and vehemently as the late Dr. Begg objected to the use of human hymns. And their argument is just Dr. Begg's argument carried out to its logical conclusions. The first Protestant Dissenters, and the true fathers of Puritanism in England and Scotland, were the Brownists, and they rejected altogether metrical versions of the Psalms, as an un- authorised union of divine and human, inspired and uninspired elements. One of their chief apostles says : — ' What I speak against is not that comfortable and heavenly harmony of singing Psalms, but it is the rhyming and paraphrasing of the Psalms, as in your Church.' And in Scotland, during the hot times of the persecution, there were a few fanatics that took up these views. The Brownists allowed the singing of Psalms in prose, but only as a matter of instruction and comfort, whereby God is glorified, and not as an act of immediate praise. All praise as well as prayer, they contended, must be extempore, and not expressed in any set words, whether found in the Bible or not. The singing of hymns, they said, is an ordinance, and any member of the church exercising his gifts is free to bring a hymn of his own, and sin? it to the congregation, all the rest being silent and giving audience. And it was not the Brownists only that held these opinions, but some of the Independents also, about two hundred years ago, were imbued with the same fantastic notions." Ainsworth and Robinson, the fathers of Congrega- tionalism, gave a cordial approval of psalmody, and Ainsworth -was the author of a version of the Psalms published at Amsterdam under his initials in 1612. In the preface he remarks that he finds no tunes for the Psalms set of God, so that each people is to use the most grave, devout, comfortable manner of singing they know. John Smyth, who seceded from Ainsworth's Church, and became the virtual founder of the English General Baptists, differed from his companions on this question. "We hold," he says, "that seeing singing a psalm is a part of spiritual worship, it is unlawful to have the book before the eye in time of singing a psalm." Ainsworth replied to Smyth in a "Defence" (1609), in which he TEE INDEPENDENTS. 81 asks why the secedcrs use not singing "by gift of the Spirit " in their assemblies, although they allow it to be a part of Divine worship. " If," he says, " it be an ordinary part of worship, why perform it not, but quarrel with us who, accounting it an ordinary gift now ceased, do content ourselves with joint harmonious singing of the Psalms of Holy Scripture, to the instruction and comfort of our hearts, and praise of God." The Separatists had manifestly been driven to advocate this singing " by gift of the Spirit " in their utter reaction against forms. It consisted, in theory at least, of a brother standing up and extemporising a hymn and tune at the same moment. The extreme difficulty, if not the impossibility, of this exercise, was sufficient to account for its non-use by the followers of Smyth. A hostile review of the tenets of the Independents by Robert Baylie, published in 1645, but referring to the Dutch Churches, says: "The singing of psalms in metre, not being formal Scripture, but a paraphrase, is unlawful. They permit to sing psalms in prose, but herein Mr. Smyth is wiser than his fellows. All singing out of a book is idolatry, but he admits of singing such psalms as the Spirit declares to any person immediately, without book." The statement of an opponent is not so reliable as the confessions of the Churches themselves, and we think there is no evidence that "singing psalms in prose" was ever advocated or practised by the early Nonconformists. Mr. Barclay, in a short history of the psalmody of the Independents in his recent work, says that singing was at first not practised by Johnson and Ainsworth's Church at Amsterdam, but was later on attempted by some with "barbarous success." In the Independent Church at Arnheim, founded by T. Goodwin and Philip Nye, a controversy arose whether singing should be that of one person or " conjoined." Thomas Ford, minister of the gospel in Exon (Exeter), 82 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. published in 1653 five sermons on "Singing of Psalms the Duty of Christians under the New Testament; or, a Vindication of that Gospel Ordinance." Ford was an Oxford scholar of repute ; he brought upon himself the censure of Laud for his puritanisrn, and was expelled his Alma Mater. He was one of the ejected ministers of 1662. The ground covered by Ford is necessarily much the same as that covered by Cotton. Like Cotton, he sees that anti-formalism, carried to its logical extreme, must forbid the use of any prescribed words in worship, but he sees nevertheless that the last appeal must be to common sense. "A man cannot conceive and sing a psalm, it being impossible at once to contrive the matter and metre, and be devout too." Ford attacks the objection to the profane joining in the praises of the Church with much spirit. Is it not as bad, he argues, to read a psalm as to sing it ? Is not the minister as wrong in including all the congregation in his prayers as in allowing them to join in the Psalms? There is a touch of irony in his voice as he proceeds : — 11 Out of all question the people of God are in a very sad condition, because they can hardly assemhle without great hazard of having one devil or other among them, what will then become of them? Nay, I would fain know with whom they shall join? For our Saviour Himself had a select company, but twelve in all, and one of them was a devil. And so, when you have done what you can, and made choice of company, if there be not a black devil, or profane wicked man, yet there may be a white devil, an hypocrite, which is as bad, and as abominable to God as the other. I have heard that some have forborne prayers in their families with their children and servants, because they thought them not good enough to pray withal. I desire these to consider what Paul did in the ship before the company he sailed with. He was not so scrupulous, but gave thanks to God, even before professed infidels and heathens. Now 1 am sure that it is the duty of all men in the world to praise God : wicked men are bound to praise God in a Psalm ; it is their sin and misery they cannot do it as they ought, but they are bound to do it in a Psalm as much as they are bound to pray, to hear the Word, or to do any other duty." BAXTER'S VIEWS. B3 Baxter, in his Ecclesiastics (1673), naturally takes an enlightened view of the subject. He thinks church music by organs and such instruments lawful, but would not have it where its introduction would cause a division. He regards it as unlawful to use such strains of music as are light, or as the congregation cannot easily be brought to understand ; much more unlawful to commit the whole work of singing to the choristers, and exclude the congre- gation. • " I am not willing," he says, "to join in such a church where I shall be shut out of this noble work of praise." Singing, he says, is not an instituted ceremony merely, but a natural help to the mind's alacrity. "As it is lawful to use the comfortable help of spectacles in reading the Bible, so is it of music to exhilarate the soul towards God." Baxter has little patience with the extreme churches that reject singing. "Why," he says, "should the experience of some prejudiced, self-conceited person, or of a half man that knoweth not what melody is, be set against the experience of all others, and deprive them of all such helps and mercies as these people say they find no benefit by ? And as some deride Church music by many scornful names, 60 others do by singing (as some congregations near me testify, who these many years have forsaken it, and will not endure it, hut their pastor is fain to unite them to the constant and total omission of singing psalms). It is a great wrong that some do to ignorant Christians by putting such whimsies and scruples into their heads, which as soon as they enter, turn that to a scorn and trouble which might be a real help and comfort to them, as it is to others." The records of the Churches seem to show that the discussion on singing ended in the general adoption of the practice by the Independents, and the movement was probably quickened by the publication of the New England version of the Psalms in 1640. The resolutions of the Cockermouth Church, at its formation in 1651, mention "the singing of psalms" among the practices owned by the church; and in 1656, when troubled with Quakerism, the church resolved to keep up its standing ordinances, one of which is still the " singing of psalms." 84 STUDIES TX WORSHIP MUSIC. . In 16o7 the Beccles Church record has the following note : — " It was agreed by the Church that they doe put in practice the ordinance of singing in the publique upon the forenoone and after- noone on the Lord's daies, and that it be between praier and sermon, and also it was agreed that the New England translation of the Psalmes be made use of by the Church at their times of breaking of bread ; and it was agreed that the next Lord's day seventh night be the day to enter upon the work of singinge in publique." The Yarmouth Church sang a song at Mr. Hannot's ordination, June 12th, 1688, but hitherto it had not formed a part of their ordinary public worship. On May 17th, 1693, "it was agreed to sing a psalm or an hymn after sermon, but which was not fully concluded. " Keal gives us a new reason for the disuse of singing by the Nonconformists of this period. He says that at the ascension of James II (1685) persecution was renewed, and to avoid the observation of neighbours and passengers, they never sang psalms. This is likely, and the records of the Church once assembling at St. Thomas's South wark, in the year 1682, give support to the statement: "April 1st, we met at Mr. Russell's in Ironmonger Lane, where Mr. Lambert, of Deadman's Place, Southwark, adminis- tered to us the ordinance of the Lord's supper, and we sang a psalm in a low voice." How eloquently do these short words speak of patient and silent endurance ! Mr. Barclay, in his recent work,* is careful to show us that singing was acknowledged by George Pox and his coadjutors, from the commencement of their religious movement, to be a part of Divine worship. In 1670 we find Barclay writing: "That singing is a part of God's worship, and is warrantably performed amongst the saints, is a thing denied by no Quaker so-called, and it is •"The Inner Life of the Keligious Societies of the Commonwealth.' London, 1876. OPPOSITION TO SINGING. not unusual among them, and that at times David's words may be used as the Spirit leads thereunto. " Mr. Barclay thinks, however, that the singing of the Friends was not \' conjoint," but that of a single person. A tract by George Fox and R. Hubberthorne, 1658, says: " Those who are moved to sing with understanding, making melody to the Lord in their hearts, we own ; if it be in metre, we own it." There is certainly nothing in these quotations to prove that congregational singing was practised. In the passionate desire for freedom from form and for the direct action of the Spirit upon the individual, not only Psalm books, but Bibles were declared to be hindrances to spiritual worship, and as such, unnecessary to a converted person in time of public devotion. The Friends shared with many of the Independents and Baptists the objection that, as it was illegal to stay away from church, wicked and indifferent people were forced to take David's words into their mouths without feeling them. Mr. Barclay mentions the fact that Sewel's History of the Society of Friends, published in Dutch in 1717, contains a hymn with musical notes, and he concludes from this that the practice of singing lingered among the Friends in Holland longer than it did in England. The Quietist party opposed singing in the time of George Fox, and apparently succeeded in putting a stop to the practice, and thus forming the tradition which has remained to this day. We are told in Jay's Autobiography that in the latter part of the seventeenth century John Eyland, who had been discoursing on the presence of angels in Christian assemblies, said to the people, when they had sung after the sermon, " I wonder the angels of God do not wrench your necks off," from which we may infer how bad the singing must have been at that time. yy The psalmody of the Independents showed no signs of progress at the opening of the eighteenth century, but 86 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. hardly had that century come in when the stir of new life was apparent. Enoch Watts, writing to his brother Isaac in 1700, urges him to " revive the dying devotion of the age " by publishing the hymns which he had written four or five years previously for the use of the Southampton Church of which his father was an elder. To this and other appeals Watts yielded, and produced his hymns in 1707. His Psalms followed in 1719. In the preface to these he finds fault with the custom of " lining out," and wishes it could be given up. " It were to be wished also," he says, " that we might not dwell so long upon every single note, and produce the syllables to such a tiresome extent with a constant uniformity of time ; which disgraces the music, and puts the congregation quite out of breath in singing four or five stanzas ; whereas, if the manner of singing were but reformed to a greater speed in the pronunciation, we might often enjoy the pleasure of a longer psalm with less expense of time and breath, and our psalmody would be more agreeable to that of the ancient churches, more intelligible to others, and more delightful to ourselves." The glow of spiritual delight that passed through the Independent Churches as this book came to be diffused among them was not due to the fact that Dr. AVatts had made a new translation of the Psalms of David. Tate and Brady, Dr. Patrick, and others had done this, without reviving the spirit of the psalmody. The work that Dr. Watts did was to Christianise the Psalms. To use his own words, he imitated them in the language of the Xew Testament, and applied them to the Christian state and worship. "'Tis not," he writes to Cotton Mather, March 17th, 1717-8, " a translation of David that I pretend, but an imitation of him so nearly in Christian hymns that the Jewish Psalmist may plainly appear, and yet leave Judaism behind." ]N"o one before had done this. For a century and a half metrical psalmody had been used. " During that time," say Bennett and Bogue, " the Protestant people of England, while in their prayers and in their WATTS' 8 WHIMS. 87 sermons the)' were Christians, in their praises were little better than Jews. Many an eminent believer, who joined in the public worship for fifty years, never sang the name of Jesus till he arrived in heaven." It is difficult for us, amid the wealth of modern hymnody, to appreciate the eagerness with which the first Christian Psalter was received. Doddridge has described, in one of his letters, the almost magic effect upon a provincial congregation of the hymn, "Give me the wings of faith to rise." Scarcely would the emotion of the worshippers allow them to sing, and he found in talking to the humble Christians of the place, that Watts was their daily solace. " What if Dr. Watts should come to Northampton!" said one. "The very sight of him would be like an ordinance to me," was the reply of another. Dr. Watts's liberties however condemned him in the eyes of the conservatives. One of these was Bradbury, of Fetter Lane, who continued the use of Dr. Patrick's version in his chapel long after that of Dr. Watts had been gener- ally adopted in London. We are told that an unlucky clerk, on one occasion, stumbled upon one of Dr. Watts's stanzas. Bradbury got up and reproved him with " Let us have none of Watts' s whims." Bradbury was noted for his eccentricities. It is said that he would never allow his clerk to sing a triple time tune, which he used to call " a long leg and a short one." Romaine in his Essay on Psalmody published in 1775, attacks Dr. Watts for his freedom of paraphrase just as Beveridge, a generation before, had attacked Tate and Brady. 11 I want a name," he says, " for that man who should pretend that he could make better hymns than the Holy Ghost. His collec- tion is large enough ; it wants no addition. It is as perfect as its Author, and wants no improvement. Why in such a case could any man in the world take it into his head to sit down to write hymns for the use of the Church ? It is just the same as if he was to write a new Bible, not only better than the old, but so much better that the 88 sruDii-s in worship music. old may be thrown aside. What a blasphemous attempt ! And yet our hymn-mongers, inadvertently, I hope, have come very near to this blasphemy." In spite of Bradbury and Bomaine, Watts's Psalms were however adopted by the Independents, and by the evan- gelical Nonconformists generally. Bomaine, writing in 1775, complains that many of the Nonconformists have left off the use of psalms in favour of hymns, among which he evidently includes Dr. Watts' s Psalms. "As for his psalms," he says, " they are so far from the mind of the Spirit, that I am sure if David was to read them, he would not know any one of them to be his. The Scrip- ture wants no mending, nay, it is always worse for mend- ing." The Church of England, of which Bomaine was the representative, whether from inactivity or prejudice, retained the use of the old metrical psalms for many long years. It is said that Tate and Brady are still used in one or two London churches, and modern hymns have been introduced into many of the established churches within the memory of the present generation. We must not omit to notice the series of Practical Dis- courses on Singing in the Worship of God, preached at the Friday lecture in East Cheap by several ministers, and published in 1708. This lecture, we are told, was estab- lished specially for the encouragement of singing, and the six lectures exhort to the duty, give directions for its right performance, and combat the arguments of objectors. Mr. Beynolds, one of the preachers, complains of the practice of " lining out," which makes the music flat and dull, and hinders the understanding by breaking the sense. He ex- plains its origin — 14 Thife practice was at first owing to the ignorance of people, who living under the darkness ol popery, vast numbers of them could not read. For this reason our first reformers thought it much better to practise this way of singing psalms, by the clerk's reading line after line, than that such great numbers (as there were) should be deprived of the benefit of this ordinance. But, blessed be God, it is now a long time since we came out of popery, and there are but IF. COLE'S WORK. »9 few among us but can read, or who (if they would be at the pains), might soon attain it." A very intereresting little book was published in 181!) by William Cole, a schoolmaster at Colchester, entitled "A View of Modern Psalmody, being an Attempt to reform the Practice of Singing in the Worship of God." Cole was an Independent, but he takes within his view the Estab- lishment as well as the Dissenters, and he is manifestly a musician of culture. He defends the use of instruments and organs in service, but complains of the frivolous inter- ludes played between verses and lines. In u playing over " a tune, he would have the air and bass only played. In country churches, he tells us, the psalm and tune are chosen by clerk or singers, while in Dissenting con- gregations the minister chooses the psalm or hymn and the singers the tune. The singers are generally ignorant of the psalm until it is given out with its metre, although in some congregations the psalm is given beforehand to the singers. Cole recommends that a tune be fixed unalterably to every hymn, and specially urges care in choosing hymns to the repeating tunes. He tells us that the custom is to read two lines at a time before singing ; instead of this he would read the whole psalm through before starting. The auxiliary parts of treble and counter-tenor, he says, often predominate, whereas the congregation at large and the trebles of the choir should all sing the melody, leaving the auxiliary parts to the tenor. We have the following- picture of the mode of pitching tunes — " In some places the sound is not only given by a pipe, it is com- municated by the singers from one to another in succession, so that hy the time it lias made its way round the pew, it has oftentimes considerably varied from the original sound. Sometimes the business is deferred to the last moment, so that when the psalm ought to begin, this formal preparation remains to be gone through, and operating as a kind of disappointment, it never fails to produce a bad effect. " Cole tells us that in many meeting-houses the choir sits round a table near the middle of the building. It is the 90 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. general custom for the leading singers to stand during singing, while the congregation at large indulge them- selves upon their seats. He mentions that a small tract lately published, recommends the practice of sitting while singing, on the ground that it is "the most natural and easy posture," and "a sign of the privileged state." Gross faults of pronunciation prevail, such as giving an aspirate to every syllable, drawing the termination of one word into the beginning of the next, or prefixing the sound of some consonant, such as " n " or "y " to every word that begins with a vowel. There is a chapter on the composi- tion of psalm tunes, and antiphonal singing by men and women in turn is recommended. The book closes with an example of the verbal absurdities induced by a careless adaptation of words to a repeating tune. An article in the " Congregational Magazine, " 1830, recommends that an organ be placed in the hall of the Theological Colleges, and adds — 11 Some persons may fear that this might be the means of intro- ducing organs into Dissenting chapels generally; but to this there is an answer most solid and conclusive. Few dissenting congregations could bear the expense, without materially subtracting from the minister's income, which he is not likely to recommend." The same article says that among regular Dissenters things were not much affected by the Methodist revival; until Mr. Isaac Smith, clerk of Ayliffe St. Meeting, published a collection of psalm tunes, "a rage for hymn-tune com- posing now diffused itself rapidly through the country. " It is interesting to conjure up a picture of the old Inde- pendent psalmody. A clerk led the singing, and often, as in the' Church of England, chose which verses of the long psalm should be sung. The lines were read out one, and afterwards two, at a time.* It seems probable that Mr. A. G. Fuller, in describing- the form of worship in his father's (Andrew Fuller's) church at Kettering-, less than a hundred years ago, says, " The machinery of the Psalmody was something ludicrous. There was invariably a clerk or precentor who would announce the hymn thus : — 119th Psalm, eight- eenth part, long metre : read several verses and then, with due regard for the natural obfuscations of the people's intellects, parcel it out tiro lines at «. time" The italics are Mr Fuller's. SITTING TO SING. 91 the people generally bad no books. Thomas Reynolds, writing in IS 10, says that the evils of "lining out" are lessened u by that custom of singing which some of as have brought into our churches, viz., of singing with books in their hands" Dr. Watts in 1719 suggests that the same evil of lining out may be mitigated "by as many as can do it bringing psalm books with them." These passages seem to show that books were not in common use. The congregation also sat to sing and stood to pray. In 1805 was published " An Appeal to Serious Dissentei every Denomination concerning the Present Irreverent Practice of Sitting while singing the Praises of God in Public "Worship, and an attempt to prove that Standing is the only Proper Posture at these Seasons, as authorised by Scripture, and deducible from Analogy, Custom, and Com- mon Sense. By a Layman. " The author notices that all choirs stand to sing, as well as "the more serious Church- men, called Methodists." As the Dissenters generally do not go to the playhouse, he tells them how the reverence of the audience for a merely human genius finds expression in standing during the Hallelujah Chorus. Much more then we should stand while praising God. He notices too that it is the custom in some congregations for the singers to get together after public service and practise new tunes or improve eacli other in the science of musi< . On such occasions, though they have all been sitting while singing Divine praises, they stand for their musical exer- cises. The author acknowledges that kneeling is a better posture for prayer than the standing which is the custom among Dissenters, but he does not consider it his present duty to advocate it. To this picture of the old psalmody we must add the slow and wearisome pace, and the endless graces and turns by which every singer sought to beautify the tune. Music and words go always hand in hand, and it was inevitable that the revival of psalmody should give birth 92 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. to new and more ardent forms of musical expression. Such was the case. AVhat we now know as the old fugal tunes were the result of this revival. They were Nonconformist in origin, and although they infected to some extent the CI 1 inch of England, were chiefly used by the Methodists and Nonconformists. The composers were chiefly amateurs. In musical style they were the offspring of the oratorio, which had been created for England by Handel, whose choruses were the highest achievement of choral elo- quence and expression. The style of these tunes reflects the period to which they belong. They have been often unjustly condemned, and though no one would wish now to revive them, psalmodists must acknowledge that the new tunes do not awaken the fervour of the congregation as did some of those old ones. The growth of modern hymnody, and the return to a more correct musical taste, put an end to the fugal tunes, and with them the old Non- conformist psalmody may be said to have ended. THE PSALMODY OF THE BAPTISTS. The prejudices of the early Baptists against singing were general, but that they were' not universal is proved in a striking manner by the records of the Church at Broad- mead, Bristol. The story of the long and harassing persecution of this church is of profound interest, and one of its most instructive features is the use which these Bristol Baptists made of singing. Their seventh persecu- tion began in 1671, somewhat in the way that Neal describes, " through the complaints of one old Mr. Wright, that had been sheriff, that said he could hear us sing psalms from our meeting place." But no attempt seems to have been made, by omitting the singing, to conceal the place of meeting : probably this was felt to be impossible. Instead of forbearing to sing, the church persistently used singing to baffle the authorities. They hung a curtain across one end of the room, behind which about fifty brethren, including the preacher, were placed. The con- gregation could thus hear the minister, but no informer could give evidence sufficient to identify him. 11 And when (says the record) we had notice that the inform - officers were coming, we caused the minister or brother that preached, to forbear and sit down. Then we drew back the curtain, laying the whole room open, that they might see us all. And so all the people began to sing a psalm, that, at the beginning of the meeting we did always name what pealm we would sing, if the informers, or the mayor, or his officers came in. Thus still when they came in we were singing, so that they would not find any one preaching, but all 94 STUDIES TN WORSHIP MUSIC singing. . . . And when they were gone down out of our rooms, then we ceased singing, and drew the curtain again, and the minister, or brother, would go on with the rest of his sermon, until they came again — whicli sometimes they would thrice in one meeting disturb us — or until our time was expired." Still further to lessen the chance of arrest, they adopted the plan of reading their Bibles together silently, the first line only being read out by the minister. The reason why they chose singing as a safeguard was evident. -•Brother Terrill desired his worship to let him know his offence, for what he would send him to prison. He said for being at a meeting, brother Terrill answered, his being barely at a meeting did not make him an offender, unless there was something done there that made the meeting criminal. The mayor said we were singing. I told him, sinking of psalms is not contrary to the liturgy of the Church of England." The discomfiture of the mayor and his officers is related over and over again in such words as these : " The mayor commanded us to depart ; but all kept singing, and thereby but few heard what he said, and so took no notice of it, but kept on; every one with their books in their hands. And thus doing, when the mayor spoke to some in particular, such as he accounted chief in the meeting, to forbear, they would sometimes forbear if the mayor stood by them ; but notwithstanding, all the people sang round about his ears, keeping on, that he with the rest with him knew not what to do ; but went down the stairs to the door, and there with his officers, stayed till we had done." On one occasion the psalm they sang was the 46th — The Lord is our defence and aid. The strength whereby we stand, When we with woe are much dismayed, He is our help at hand. It has been supposed, from the mention of Eibles in close connection with singing, that these early Baptists chanteS the prose Psalms directly from scripture, but the evidence is insufficient, and all probability is in favour of their using the version of Sternhold and Hopkins. Prose chanting was a Romish practice, and that would be sufficient to condemn it ; besides this, the " singing psalms" were constantly bound up at the end of the TRE BROADMEAB (Ulnar. 95 Bibles of that date. The record contains a copy of a hymn composed by brother Terrill, and sung by the Church on the fifth day of the ninth month, 1678, upon the discovery of the then popish plot to destroy the king, and set up popery in the land. The divergence of practice in psalmody between the Nonconformist bodies at this period is curiously brought to light by the negotiations which took place in 1675 among the four congregations in Bristol Two of these were Baptists, one Presbyterian, and one Independent. A plan was formed at this period of direst persecution and peril for holding united services, and it seemed in a fair way of realisation. But the Presbyterians raised several objections, one of which was that "they were for singing of psalms with others besides the church.5. In reply to this — li Three of the congregations agreed as to matter and form, and also some of brother Gilford's people [Baptists] were for it. But others of them could not sing in metre, as they were translated ; though all of them did hold with singing of psalms. Only some scrupled the manner, that they could not show their dislike of it by keeping on the hat at going forth ; which thing bo to do would not be consented unto by the other three congregations. But they terminated it here; that if we did so agree in union, that such persons were desired to stay away, if they would not keep otf their hats, and sit still." Thus the protest, made by keeping on the hat or walking out, was seriously proposed to clear the con- sciences of the stricter members, and a compromise was effected by inducing them to stay away. The statement that they " could not sing in metre, though all of them did hold with singing of psalms/' gives colour to the opinion that they sang the prose psalms. We confess that the point is not clear, but we have already shown why we think it very unlikely that such a practice existed. That the congregational singing of the Broad- mead Church was a practice peculiar to itself, there is 96 STUDIES IN WORSHIP 11USIC. no evidence to show. Indeed, such a supposition is improbable. The church was constantly receiving and dismissing members and pastors, but there is no hint of their practice of singing giving rise to discussion. Grantham, one of the most eminent of the General Baptists, writing in 1678, says : — " That such persons as God hath gifted to tell forth his mighty acts and recount his special providences, and upon whose hearts God put a lively sense of present mercies, should have liberty and convenient opportunity to celebrate the high praises of God one by one in the churches of God, and that, with such words as the nature of the matter and present occasion requires, so that they be careful to keep the language of the sacred word, and as near as may be to the methods of those hymns and psalms used before Him by holy writers of the scriptures. And that all this be done with a cheerful voice, that may seem to express the joys conceived in the heart of him that singeth, the better to affect the hearts of the congregation. Thus he that hath a psalm becomes a useful minister in the House of God, whilst others wait on their gifts, whether it be in praying, teaching, exhortation, &c." But notwithstanding the practice of the Broadmead Church, and the song ministry advocated by Grantham, singing appears to have been abandoned by the Baptists very soon after. The reason for this is not clear. It may have been owing to persecution and the fear of betrayal, but the practice was not resumed when perse- cution ceased. It was more probably owing to the growth of objections founded on the views of worship which prevailed. The man who restored the lost ordinance of singing to the Baptist Churches was Benjamin Keach, pastor of the church at Horsleydown. He entered upon his ministry in 1668, and can have lost but little time in urging the practice upon the congregation. He first obtained their consent to singing after the Lord's supper, and when this practice had been continued for six years, he induced them also to sing on public thanksgiving days. This practice was continued for many years, and Reach OPPOSITION TO SINGING. 97 tells us that it was not omitted " at the time ot the late persecution." We have indeed a good record of the church meeting somewhere about the year 1688, at widow Colfe's house at Kennington, to join together in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. " At the conclusion of which/' says the record, " singing a hymn, the officers of the parish soon attended them, but having the conveniency of a back door, they all escaped except one." Fourteen years afjter the first introduction of psalmody, the church resolved to sing after sermon on the Lord's day, and this seems to have been the beginning of a lively controversy. Keach was something of a poet, his " Spiritual Melody," published in 1691, contains three hundred hymns, and it has been said that his desire for singing was prompted by the love of listening to his own compositions ; but this is easy criticism, and probably ill-natured as well. We have an authentic account of him from Crosby, who married his youngest daughter. "If I am not mistaken," says Crosby, " this was the first [Eaptist] church that practised this holy ordinance." The first introduction of singing into the Horsleydown Church was opposed by two members only, and the fate of these, as related by Keach, reminds us of Shakespeare's opinion of the man that has no music in his soul : — 11 1 cannot (says Keach) forget the two brethren that opposed singing the praises of God, and would not comply with the church (though they did not separate themselves from the church), when first the practice of it was received amongst us near twenty years ago. One of them soon aft^r brought a great reproach upon religion by immoral actions, ana came to nothing, and the other some time after turned Quaker, and to my face denied the resurrection of his body, &c." The opposition to Keach was led by Isaac Marlowe, a member of the church, who printed a tract in defence of his views. To this Keach replied in "The Breach llcpaired in God's Worship" (1691). He explains that " the matter of difference which is at present between the 98 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. Church and some few of our dear and beloved Brethren and Sisters is not about singing itself, nor singing with others, but only about singing on the Lord's day, unless it be one member, except the judgments of any other are lately changed." Singing, Keach argues, is not simply heart- joy, melody in the heart, or mental singing, as some would have. It is an act of the voice, and to talk of mental singing is absurd. Others say that one person may be the mouthpiece of the rest in singing as in praying ; others reckon that singing is comprehended in prayer, and that they sing when in prayer they give thanks to God. But all these are unnatural and distorted interpretations, which do violence to common sense. Marlowe had asserted that the essence of singing consists in an inward spiritual exercise of the soul of man, and that hence no human prescribed form can be accepted of God. He said that David's Psalms were for the Temple service, and that Christ never sang them, and he re-uttered the old objections that formal singing was the same as formal prayer, and that women ought not to sing in the church because they are not suffered to speak, and because singing is in the nature of teaching. All these points are answered by Keach. As to the unconverted joining in praise, Keach says : " Unbelievers joining with them is one thing, and they joining with unbelievers is another. It is a duty to be done. Let every man do his duty conscientiously ; he may afterwards come to do it spiritually." Marlowe objected that the Psalms are not in metre in the Scripture, but other words are added in tlie English versification, to make them fit to be songs, and that is human. To this Keach answers that Hebrew and Greek are the real words of Scripture, and that prose and verse is all one, if the same truth be contained in the verse as in 'the prose. "In the course of his argument, Keach strengthens his position by KEACII AND MARLOWE. 99 saying: " Have net our brethren ot tne Independent and Presbyterian persuasion used the practice for a long time ? n . Marlowe republished his tract with an appendix, to which Keach in turn rejoined with "An Answer," &c. (1691). 11 And whereas (he says) Mr. Marlowe reflects on me as if I singled out myself more than others in London in pushing on this practice of singing, 1 must tell him that I have abundance of peace in my spirit in what I have done therein. And if our people (I mean the church to whom I belong), are one of the first churches of our persuasion in this city found in the practice of this sacred ordinance, I am satisfied it will be to their great honour, and not to their reproach, and that not only in succeeding ages, but in the day of Jesus Christ." There is not only dignity, but an almost prophetic glow in these sentences. Keach is hopeful as to the adoption of his views: u Blessed be God," he says, "the greatest number of our worthy London elders [i.e., ministers] are as well satisfied in this truth as myself, and m;my of their people too, and will generally, I doubt not, in a little time get into the practice of it." He also defines his position as an advocate of singing : — 11 We do not say our dissatisfied brethren shall sing with us, or we will have no fellowship with them ; no, God forbid that we should impose on their consciences. We do not look upon singing, &c, as an essential of communion ; 'tis not for the being, but for the comfort and well-being of a church. We have told our brethren (since we sing not till after our last prayer) if they cannot sing with us, nay, nor stay with the church whilst we do sing, they may go forth, and we will not be offended." This answer did not end the controversy. It was continued in a tract entitled ''Truth Cleared of Calum- nies," and in pamphlets by Marlowe, Allen, and Dr. Russell. The arguments, however, had been exhausted. The time for action had come. The tract, " Truth Cleared," &c, contains a protest, signed by nine members of Horsleydown Church who objected to singing, and these withdrew to found a new church. 100 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MtTSIC. The lawfulness of singing was the only point in which this new church differed from Keach's. It was formed February 9th, 1693, at Mr. Luke Leader's house in Tooley Street. From that time to this, when its habitat is the handsome Maze Pond Chapel in the Old Kent Road, its records have been uninterruptedly preserved,, and form a most interesting story of church life. A manuscript sketch of the origin of the church, prefixed to one of the church books, says that the founders were declared by an act of the Horsleydown Church no longer members. Eut this is directly opposed to the tolerant attitude assumed by Keach, and is no doubt a mistake. The sketch in question was not drawn up until the church was fifty or sixty years old. It is interesting to follow the history of this church as related in the records. ^Ve find them in 1709 declining to unite with the brethren of the Church at l^hitechapel, because of their " mixed communion and singing." For forty years they continued their songless service, but in 1735, Mr. Abraham Vest being called to the pastorate, and finding that many of the members were convinced that singing in public worship is an ordinance of the Xew Testament, made it a condition of his acceptance of the office that a psalm or a hymn should be sung at the beginning of public worship, and at the* conclusion of the Lord's supper. Those who disapproved of this, were to be at liberty to stav in the vestry till after the opening hymn. Further details are recorded in the church minutes : — •'March 12th. 1734-5. A motion being made on behalf of those of the Church who see it their duty and esteem it their privilege to sing at public worship, humbly requesting they may enjoy their liberty every Lord's day (that is to say) before the first prayer in the morning, ending at farthest by 25 minutes after ten, and in the afternoon before first prayer, not exceeding 25 minutes after two, that they have the liberty to sing a hymn at the Lord's supper when the plate is gone round, this to be performed when it shall please our MAZE POND CHAPEL. loi Heavenly Father to tix u.-> with a pastor: — Agreed to deter tins affair to next Lord's day come sevennight. " Lord's day, March 22nd, 1734-5. Also the affair with regard to singing at our publick worship and at the Lord's supper was considered. After several arguments, pro and con, it was agreed for the peace and tranquility of the Church that our brethren and sisters be allowed to practise singing according to the form and manner prescribed in the minutes ot the 12th inst." With this one song the services were enlivened for the next nineteen years, when, all the original members of the church being dead, the question was reopened. The story is told fully in the following passages from the minutes : — " February 19th, 1753. A motion being made and seconded in relation to the earnest desire of many to sing after sermon as well as before, and on all other proper occasions, whether it might not be fit for the Church to appoint persons to converse with any who may be thought objecting to it ? — agreed to postpone the said motion to the next Church meeting." "March 19th, 1753. The motion relating to singing being resumed, it was agreed that brothers Wildman and Warren do en- quire after and converse with any person or persons who may be supposed to have any objection to what is proposed, and make their report at the next Church meeting." "April 23rd, 1753. Bro. Wildman reported that he and Bro. Warren found two brethren and two sisters who were all they understood were likely to be offended with singing, and they freely declared their willingnesss that the Church should use her liberty in relation to singing. Upon which it was agreed that henceforward singing should be practised after, as well as before sermon, and on all other proper occasions, according to the request and proposal in a former Church meeting." The only other entries in the Minutes of this Church referring to the psalmody, are these two : — February 26th, 1787. Resolved, that the Church take into con- sideration the propriety of singing without reading two lines at a time. To give their sentiments at the next Church meeting." 44 March 19th, 1787. Resolved that after next Lord's day the singing in public worship be carried on without reading two lines at a time for twelve months, and that notice be given of it next Lord's day." 102 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. The heats excited by the Keach controversy, to which we must now for a moment revert, led the assembly of the General Baptists, held in London in 1692, to interfere. From one of the tracts of the Marlowe controversy, we learn that Mr. Keach "in the first and greatest assembly of the messengers of our churches, did challenge to dispute the matter." This was the assembly of 1689, at which the practice of conjoint or congregational singing was con- sidered. The judgment was that " it was not deemed any way safe for the churches to admit any such carnal formalities, " and the opinion was expressed " that the singing of one was the same as the singing of the whole." When the assembly of 1692 met in London, the Keach and Marlowe controversy was at its height. It appears from the Minutes of the Plymouth Church that Mr. Buttall, their pastor, who was present at the assembly, was one of a committee of seven appointed to reconcile the contending brethren. The conclusion arrived at was that both parties had been guilty of personalities, that both were to call in their books, and that the members of the churches were to be requested not to buy, give, or dispose of any of them any more.* Of course a resolution of this sort could not end a contro- versy among earnest men. The point was generally settled by compromise. When the Society from Turner's Hall united with Paul's Alley Church in the year 1695, it was agreed, probably in compliment to Mr. Allen, the pastor, that one psalm should be sung at each opportunity of public worship, and this was sung at the conclusion of the service, to give those who disapproved of it an opportunity of withdrawing. Allen had taken part in the Keach controversy. In 1696 he published a book entitled " An Essay to Prove the Singing of Psalms a Christian Duty." The Church at Devonshire Square, London, adopted singing in 1701, and the following cautious and quaint resolution stands on the church books : — BAPTIST DISCUSSIONS. 103 " Upon the loth day of the 12th month, 1701. M It was solemnly agreed by the congregation that those brethren and sisters that are for singing the praises of God should have liberty so to do every Lord's day, as followeth, that is to say, Every Lord's day in the morning, and likewise in the afternoon after our public exercise of preaching and prayer is ended, allowing a little space for those brethren and sisters which are not for singing to go out of the meeting, and also for making the collection in the after- noon, provided that if there be any business which cannot be conveniently put off till our monthly day, that the same be managed and done' before the brethren and sisters which are for singing do begin in the afternoon. Provided also that there be no singing on the day of breaking of bread in the afternoon, till that ordinance be administered, and the collection made." The Plymouth Church, as it appears from their records, began to sing in public worship on November 19th, 1718. A story is told of a Somersetshire church, where the members, by a small majority, resolved to introduce sing- ing. The hymn was to be sung at the opening of worship, and those who disapproved of the practice were to remain in the lobby until it was over. Unfortunately the singers broke down at their first attempt, whereupon the mal- contents marched in shouting " Dagon has fallen, Dagon has fallen!" That the controversy was long unsettled is evident from the publication in 1737, of " Reasons for and against the Singing of Psalms in Private or Public Worship, considered with Candour. Inscribed to the Baptist Congregations in Great Eritain and Ireland, wherein the Ground of that Controverted practice is im- partially laid open. By David Bees." The author is an advocate for singing, and refutes the already refuted argu- ments of those who oppose the practice. One of his points is that singing after all is only a sort of speech, and ought therefore to excite no prejudice. M And pray (he says) what is a tune? 'Tis only a musical modu- lation of the sound, in a graver or brisker motion. We act some- thing very like it in common speech. Do not we raise and lower the voice ? The use and design of a tune in singing of Psalms is no other than this ; 'tis for the uniting of our voices, helping and raising 104 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. of our affections, and securing a just uniformity and regularity in this part of the solemn worship of God." John Gill, Baptist Minister of Horsleydown, in a sermon published in 1734, contends for the singing of psalms. While disallowing hymns and such " uninspired composures," he strongly advocates the use of the Psalms. He proves that the Hebrew Psalms are in metre of a certain kind, and concludes that there can be no objection to an English metrical version. !N"o doubt, he says, we often meet in singing with words that cannot be applied to our own case ; but we do the same in listening to the public reading of Scripture, or in following the extempore prayer of others. Gill strikes at the root of all objections of this class by showing that if a man could deliver an extempore psalm or hymn, it would be a form to the rest that joined with him, and that to be consistent, every one must sing his own psalm or hymn, " but that would be mere] jargon, confusion, and discord." He then proceeds to show that instruments in public worship were abolished by the Gospel dispensation, which retained only moral duties, and put away all meretricious show. Finally he argues, that all the congregation, including the women, may sing, and that it is no evil for the Christian to sing in a mixed multitude with unbelievers. The minute book of the Baptist Church at Unicorn Yard, Tooley Street,* shows that the church were in the habit of singing, at least from 1736 onwards. Whenever, as at ordinations or on thanksgiving days, a special order of service was used, the details are given, and not only is the singing, but the number of the psalm mentioned. At a church meeting held on August 23rd, 1798, however, the following appears — " Agreed that we sing by book in ye Publick service on Lord's Days for the future, to begin at Michaelmas next." At the next church meeting, September 22nd, we read — • This interesting old book is now in the possession of Mr. Philcox, of Bermondsey Street. TAYLOFi AND BOYCE. 105 " A motion made to reconsider the act of the; Church relating to singing by book. Several of our sisters objecting, but the chief is two or three of our sisters not being able to read. And on purpose to satisfy these persons that the last singing, both morning and afternoon, be only observed by singing by book only, or if not approved, to lay it aside, and sing as usual. After debate, this affair was postponed to a future time, and the former minutes were confirmed." There is apparently no subsequent reference to the subject.. The resolution to " sing by book " probably refers to the introduction of a hymn-book. The church was no doubt feeling the influence of the Methodist revival, as well as of the work of Watts and others. A prolonged and very interesting controversy on singing in the worship of God took place about 1786, between the Rev. Daniel Taylor and the Rev. Gilbert Boyce. Both were General Baptists ; Taylor a man of evangelical fervour, who endeavoured to recall the churches from their state of apathy ; and Boyce a moderate reformer, who agreed to some extent with Taylor, but deprecated the secession which he led, which resulted in the formation of the ]Nxew Connexion of General Baptists. Boyce was opposed to what he calls the "new invention" of singing in the Baptized Churches, and he repeats the stock arguments against the exercise, with some others which are original. He is distressed that we should sing the compositions of those we would not choose to be in church fellowship with, and he wants to know how praise can be spontaneous when one person judges of the hymn for the w7hole congregation. Taylor, in his reply, notices the arguments of Boyce generally as follows : — 11 He and many others seem to conceive of singing as if it implied an immediate address to God arising from present or past sensations, and expressive of present or past experiences. Now to me it appears evident that this is not what is intended by it, but rather an agreeable and harmonious musing or ruminating on any subject whatsoever, in such a manner as is calculated to strike and engage the mind, and thereby to instruct, admonish, and edify." 106 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. In a subsequent tract Taylor gives general advice on singing. He recommends those who have no capacity for singing to breathe after the singers, in order to keep their minds attentive to the song. He says that those whose capacity is slender ought to improve it for the honour of God and the edification of the church, just as a preacher ought to learn to speak well. He considers the subject in all its aspects, and concludes that it is not right to sing anthems or songs in prose during public worship ; that organs and instruments have no place in Christian worship ; that it is right to learn to sing by notes; and that carnal people and children may join with believers in singing the praises of God, for instruction and admonition. The question, "Is it right to sing in parts, and if so, in how many parts ? " he answers by saying that singing in two parts is most generally practised, and is, in his opinion, most profitable. But he considers that there is no scriptural or rational argument against more parts. In choosing tunes to be sung in Divine worship, Taylor would have those that are strong bear the infirmities of the weak. The congregation, in this respect, is like a family, where the children are allowed to share in all pleasures merely circumstantial. He would allow unconverted persons to assist in directing this part of Christian worship, but would not give them any authority over it. Boyce, from his next rejoinder, seems to have steeled his heart against the influences of music, and this is all the more remarkable as he appears to have studied the art, and practised psalmody in former days : — " Row much singing has contributed to the conversion of sinners and to the progress of saints in grace and holiness as you say it has, I know nothing of; and therefore can say nothing to it, so it must rest upon your word. . . I may tell you that there was a time when I liked and loved singing perhaps as much as you or anybody else can do. I had learned much of the art, having been taught by a skilful master, and practised it according to art, took much delight THE GENERAL BAPTISTS. 107 in it, and had a great deal to say for it. I often said that those who did not practise it were a poor, dull, heavy sort of people, who Bcarce knew half the pleasure of the Christian life. . . . But as 1 have, or think I have, seen my mistake, I am very willing and desirous to do what I can to convince others, but perhaps I have engaged in a work which I shall never be able to effect." Boyce is a hopeless Philistine. He would allow psalms and even uninspired hymns to be read, but he denies that they gain anything by being sung. " Why not sing our sermons," he says, "if words gain in force by being set to music." The Eoyce and Taylor controversy may be taken to mark the final stage of the singing dispute among the Baptists. The opponents of singing, notwithstanding their ingenious arguments, were beaten, and henceforth the practice became general. 108 NEW ENGLAND PSALMODY. The Pilgrim Fathers carried with them to New England the customs of the Independent Churches in which they had been reared, and they seem to have clung to tradition with even more tenacity than their brethren in England. Ainsworth's version of the Psalms was the only book used by them for many years. The Church at Plymouth used it till 1692. In that year, according to the history of the church, by John Cotton, " the pastor propounded to the church that, seeing many of the psalms in Mr. Ainsworth's translation, which had hitherto been sung in the congregation, had such difficult tunes that none in the church could set, they will consider of some expedient that they might sing all the psalms." The result of this was that the Bay Psalter was adopted, and Ainsworth laid aside. Ainsworth was printed with the melodies of the tunes in .the old diamond-shaped notes. The first book of any kind printed in New England was the Bay Psalm Book of 1640, a new translation compiled by a committee of divines, and intended to be more scriptural than Ainsworth. A facsimile reprint of this rare old work was produced in 1862. It is prefaced by a discourse, showing the lawfulness and necessity of singing psalms. The questions dealt with are, " What psalms are to be sung ? If Scripture Psalms, then in their own words, or in metre ? By whom are they to be sung ; whether by whole churches together with their voices, or by one man TEE HAY PSALTER. 109 singing alone, and the rest joining in silence, and in the close saying Amen?" The difficulty as to the metrical trans- lation not being inspired scripture is met as follows : "If the Psalms are translated into our English tongue, and if in our English tongue we are to sing them, then, as all our English songs (according to the course of English poetry) do run in metre, so ought David's psalms to be translated into metre." This • Psalter passed through no less than seventy editions, the last of which appeared as late as 1773. The ninth edition, issued in 1696, contained a few tunes, the first music printed in New England. The tunes hare only an air and bass, and directions are given for setting them within compass of the voice, so as to avoid " squeaking above, or grumbling below." The book ran through at least eighteen editions in England, the eighteenth being published 1754. The twenty-second Scottish edition was printed in 1759. Both the English and the Scottish re- prints were, however, based on the improved edition of the Eay Psalter, which was the work of Dunster and Lyon, and first appeared in 1650. It was to prepare the way for the revised Bay Psalter that John Cotton, of Boston, published in 1647 his book entitled "Singing of Psalms a Gospel Ordinance." In his constitution of a church (1642) Cotton had defended congregational singing, arguing that a set form of words is necessary for public singing, and that the use of this does not justify a fixed form of prayer. The heads of Cotton's argument in his " Singing of Psalms a Gospel Ordinance," may be taken as representing the points of discussion. He first dwells upon the duty of singing psalms with a lively voice. Then he discusses the matter to be sung, whether David's Psalms, or " songs immediately indited by some officer of the church." Next he asks, who must sing? whether one for all the rest, the rest only Baying Amen, or the whole congregation ; whether women Bfl 110 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. well as men, or men alone ? whether carnal men and pagans, as well as church members and Christians ? Lastly, he considers the manner of singing, whether the Psalms may be sung in metre devised, and in tunes invented, or after reading the Psalms in order to singing. Cotton answers all these objections with lengthened argument and much skill. With reference to women singing he says : — •' In this point there be some that deal with us as Pharaoh dealt with the Israelites, who. though he was at first utterly unwilling that any of them should go to sacrifice to the Lord in the wilderness, yet being at length convinced that they must go, he was content that the men should go, but not the women." Cotton meets the objection, so often urged before and since, that unbelievers must not join in words of thanks- giving and assurance, as follows : — M Nor is there any resemblance between putting the ark upon a cart to be carried by oxen, which should have been carried by Levites, and the permitting of men out of the church to join in singing the praises of the Lord. For neither do the members of this church lay aside this duty and leave it to non-members, neither are non- members as a cart and oxen upon whom this duty was never laid ; but are all of them enjoined, as to hear His word, and to call upon His name, so to sing forth the praises due unto his name from all his creatures.'' It is interesting to notice that Cotton grants that "lining out" the Psalms were needless if all have books and could read, or know the Psalms by heart. " Lining out," it may be mentioned, was not a practice of the first settlers. It was introduced from England later, and did not become general until about 1750. The Plymouth Church began the practice October 9th, 1681. The dis- cussion about its abolition was eagerly carried on, and lasted in some churches from five to twenty years. In 1772 the Rev. Lennel Hedge preached a sermon on the subject. Cotton deals with the difficulty about tunes by saving that as God has not given us the Hebrew tunes, we must invent new ones, for'He has commanded us to sing. For sixty years after the earliest churches were formed 8INGINQ BY NOTE. ill in New England, not more than ten tui wed. Later on, the number was reduced to five or six. J were known as Oxford, York, Litchfield, Windsor, St. David's, and Martyrs. They were written in the Ps dm Book or the Bible. The Psalms were sung, week after week in rotation, without regard to the subject of the preacher's discourse. It is said to have been the c. to sing a whole Psalm at one standing. Some of the Psalms have 60 to 130 lines, and took half an hour to sing through. As a consequence of this long continued use of a few tunes they came to be regarded as having the same authority as the Psalms themselves, and the intro- duction of new tunes was strongly opposed. Xor was this the only consequence. The tunes came to be sung differently in every church, and were tortured beyond recognition by grace notes. A very warm controversy arose about the year 1720, through the attempt of certain divines to rid the old tunes of these graces, and return to a simpler and purer rendering. In this year the Rev. T. Symmes, of Brad- ford, Mass., published " The Reasonableness of Regular Singing, in an essay to revive the true and ancient mode of singing psalm-tunes according to the pattern of our Xew England Psalm books, the knowledge and practice of which is greatly decayed in most congregations." In this controversy, the watchword of the reformers was " singing by note," but the antithesis of this was not, as might be supposed, " singing by ear." It was a question of delivering the tunes with the addition of endless unwritten ornaments and graces, or singing them plainly note for note as they are written down in the Psalm Books. "Singing by note" meant simply "keeping to the notes as written." Symmes clearly explains this point: — -• Now singing by note is giving every note its proper pitch, and turning the voice in its proper place, and giving to every DOtfl fa true length and sound. Whereas, the usual way varies much from 112 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. this. In it, some notes are sung too high, others too low, and most too long, and many turnings or flonrishings with the voice (as they call them) are made where they should not be, and some are wanting where they should have been." Symmes argues that " singing by note" is the primitive custom. He says : — '• There are many persons of credit now living, children and grandchildren of the first settlers of New England, who can very well remember that their ancestors sang by note, and they learned to sing of them, and they have more than their bare words to prove that they speak the truth, for many of them can sing tunes exactly by note, which they learnt of their fathers, and they say that they sang all the tunes after the same manner ; and these people now sing those tunes most agreeable to note which they have least practised in the congregation. " Symmes draws a curious picture of the condition of psalmody at this time : — " A part of two or three different tunes would be sung to the same stanza, and sometimes they would bs singing different tunes -at the same time. The introduction of a new tune was an event that called for the grave decision of the whole church, and sometimes for the parish vote." Next year (1721) the Rev. Thomas Walter entered the arena with his " Grounds and Rules of Music." He speaks of eight or ten tunes being the maximum in use, while some churches use little more than half that number. He has heard "Oxford" tune sung in three churches with as much difference as there could possibly be between as many different tunes : — " I have observed, in many places, one man is upon this note while another is upon the note before him, which produces something so hideous and disorderly as is beyond expression bad." The tunes in use had become so mutilated, tortured, and twisteM, that the psalm-singing was a mere disorderly noise, left to the mercy of every unskilful throat to chop and alter, twist and change, according to their odd fancy — sounding like five hundred different tunes roared out at the same time, and so little in time that they were often one or two words apart ; so hideous as to be bad beyond CONTROVERSY IN NEW ENGLAND. 113 expression. The decline had been so gradual that the very confusion and discord seemed to have become grateful to their ears, while melody, sung in time and tune, was offensive. The slowness of the singing may be imagined from his statement that in the country " I myself have twice in one note paused to take breath." Walter shows that the opposition to reformed singing springs entirely from blind prejudice: — •• Any man that pleads with me lor what they call the old way, I can confute him only by making this demand — what is the old way ? Which I am sure they cannot tell. For one town Fays theirs is the true old way ; another town thinks the same of theirs ; and so does a third of their way of doing it." He also propounds the novel doctrine of singing at sight : — 11 Singing is reducible to the rides of art ; and he who makes him- self master of a few of these rules is able, at first sight, to sing hundreds of new tunes which he never saw or heard before, and this by bare inspection of the notes, without hearing them from the mouth of a singer — just as a person who has learned all the rules of reading is able to read any new book without any further help or instruction. This is a truth, although known to and proved by many of us, yet very hardly to be received and credited in the country." The literature of the controversy grew apace. " Cases of conscience about singing Psalms briefly considered and resolved" (1723), was written by several ministers who favoured the reform. A writer in the New England Chronicle of the same year says: "I have great jealousy that if we once begin to sing by note, the next thing will be to pray by rote, and then comes Popery." Dr. Cotton Mather, in his " Accomplished Singer" (1721) recom- mends the minister to expound each Psalm before it is sung. He advocates singing by note, and says that the singing of some congregations has degenerated into "an odd noise." Symmes says that his town of Bradford "has for near half a year been in a flame" about the now style of singing. What took place at the town of i 114 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. Braintree is related in the following from the Fngla7\d Courant, of September 16th and December 9th, 1723:— u Laraintree. to regulate the disorders occasioned by regular singing in that place: Mr. Miles, the minister, having suspended seven or eight of the church for persisting in singing by rule, contrary, apprehended, to the r - : rmer council ; but the suspended brethren are restored to communion : their suspension declared unjust: and the congregation ordered to sing by rote and by rule alternately, for the satisfaction of both parties." • We have advice from the south part of Braintree, that on Sunday, the 1st inst.. Mr. Miles, the minister of that place, performed the duties of the day at his dwelling-house, amon^; of the congregation who are opposers of regular singing. The regular singers met together at the meeting house, and sent for Mr. Miles, who refused to come unless they would first promise not to sing regularly : whereupon they concluded to edify themselves by the assistance of one of the deacons, who. at their desire, prayed with them, read a sermon, A Cotton Mather was so concerned at the disturbance, that he published in 1723 a pacificatory letter, suggesting a compromise, urging that there was no direct divine command in favour of either style. In 1725, the ] Josiah Dwight wrote an essay ;'to silence the outcry that has been made in some places against regular singing.*' From a sermon in favour of the reformed singing, preached by Rev. X. Chauncey, of Durham, Conn., in 1727, we learn what were the objections against the change. "1. This practice leads to the Church of England, and will bring in organs quickly. " 2, The very original of this way was from the papists. It came from I^pme. -3. The way of singing we use in the country is more solemn and therefore much more suitable and becoming. " 4. It looks very unlikely to be the right way, because that ; people fall in with it ; they are not wont to be so forward for anything that is good." These objections — amusing as they seem to us now — TEE SINGING SCHOOL. 115 are seriously answered by Chauncey. The reforming party were gradually victorious. On May 7th, 1742, the Church in Hanover, Mass., voted to sing in "the new way." The giving of the key-note was a matter of serious importance. Sometimes it was done by the minister. On March 7th, 1731, the people of CI town voted that Mr. Stephen Badger, jun., " be desired to read and set the Psalms, and that lie be excused his poll- tax so long as he shall officiate in the said work." The tuner was assisted in his duty hy a large wooden pitch- pipe, looking very much like a mouse-trap. It was stealthily introduced into the churches, kept out of sight, and passed from lip to lip as slyly as a bottle of brandy in a stage coach. Specimens of these curious instruments are still preserved. The controversy, which ended in the introduction of new tunes, developed of necessity the "singing school." It was natural, also, that those who had met to practise tunes in the new way should sit together in church, thus choirs grew out of the circumstances of the time. They were not general, however, till the time of the Revolutionary war. Symmes, in the work already quoted, advocates the formation of singing scl "Have we any reason," he asks, "to be inspired with the gift of singing, any more than of reading?" On the ruins of the old psalmody, the singing school took its rise, and from this time Xew England Psalmody began to advance. Singing schools, which began in 1720, had become common, from Maine to Georgia, at the beginning of the present century. Old and odd notions still lingered in some places. One author, in this early period of American psalmody, maintained that as there were no discords in heaven, there should be none on earth, and confined himself to concords, without, however, evincing any repugnance to forbidden progressions. The following is an interesting account of " My First ring School," by the Rev. E. Wentworth, D.D.:— 116 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. "Time, sixty years ago; place, south-eastern Connecticut: locality, a suburban school-house ; personelle, the choir of a Congregational church, and two dozen young aspirants thir>ting fur musical knowledge; teacher, a peripatetic Faw-ftol-law-sol, who went from town to town during the winter months, holding two schools a week in each place : wages, two dollars a night, and board for himself and horse, distributed from house to house among his patrons, according to hospitality or ability: instrument, none but pitch-pipe or tuning-fork ; qualifications of teacher, a knowledge of plain psalmody, ability to lead an old style ' set piece ' or anthem, a light, sweet tenor voice, and a winning manner, delighting in the soft, the gentle, the tender, piano and pianissimo, the sugar-candy style of vocal effect. "For beginners, the first ordeal was trial of voice. The master made the circuit of the room, and sounded a note or two for each separate neophyte to imitate. The youth who failed in ability to 1 sound the notes ' was banished to the back benches to play listener. and go home with the girls when school was out. The book put into our hands was Thomas Hastings's Mu-sica Sacra, published in Utica in IS 19, in shape like a modern hymnal. There were four pages of elements and two hundred tunes, half of them written in three parts, wanting the alto or confounding it with the tenor. The elements were given out as a lesson to be memorised, studied by question and answer for a couple of evenings or so, and then we were supposed to be initiated into all the mysteries of staff, signature, clef. flats, sharps, and naturals, notes, rests, scale, and, above all, ability to find the place of the ' mi.' Only four notes were in use — faw. sol. law. mi: and the scale ran faw. sol. law. faw. sol. law, mi, faw. The table for the ' mi ' had to be recited as glibly as the catechism, and was about as intelligible as some of its theology: — ••The natural place for mi is B ; If B be flat, the mi is in E : If B and E, the mi is in A and C : If F be sharp, the mi is in G : If F and C, the mi is in C and C. '• The Continental scale, do, re. mi. had not yet been importer1. The key-note was called the ■ pitch,' and preliminary to singing, even in church, was taking the key from the leader, and sounding the 'pitch' of the respective parts, bass, tencr, and treble, in the notes of the common chord. A few simple elements mastered or supposed to be, the school plunged at once into the heart of the book, and began to psalmodise by note in the second week of the brief term. The teacher gave out two tunes each evening for home CHOIRS IN NEW ENGLAND. 117 study, and the very lir.-»t announced (^hade of Beethoven ! WU in the minor key; though none of the beginners had ever climbed a minor scale, or heard how the minor differed from the major ! How well I remember it — old ' Heading,' common metre, long Bince gotten ! How we hammered ' Heading' thin as gold leaf before we learned it, and how we hammered it in the gallery of the church M a btock stand-by for years afterward ! The second lesson for practice had the 'mi' in A, landing at the scale of two flits before we had touched the natural ! This also we learnt, by dint of repetition — a lively church tune, popular to this day, found in all the late hymnals — the - Cambridge ' of Dr. John Russell, musical doctor of the last century. 11 The rest of the winter's work comprehended ' Barby,' ' St. Ann's,' 4 St. Martin's,' ' Colchester,' ' Portugal,' ' Tallis,' ' Winchester,' 1 Shirland,' ■ Silver Street,' ' Easter Hymn/ ' Amsterdam,' and many others now forgotten. The favourite fugues of the preceding century had passed out of fashion, and the leading church airs of this were not yet. A few anthems of the simpler sort we tackled, such as ■ Denmark,' ' Dying Christian,' and ' Lord of all Power and Might.' When we sat on the four sides of the school-room, and poured the full volume of the four-part chorus upon the conductor, tiptoeing and beating time with pitch-pipe in the centre, we made, no doubt, a prodigious noise ; but when, standing in the end gallery, we faced the great open vault of the church, 1 would not wonder if, spread over a wide surface of arched ceiling, domed in the centre, and cut up with pillars, it sounded rather dispersed and thin. It was some years before the slender vocal force was reinforced by a bass viol, and still longer before it was supported by an organ. The Boston Handel and llaydn (1815) was in existence, trying, initiatively, the sublime oratorios that have since given it such deserved celebrity. Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven had all written their immortal works, but we were in as blissful ignorance of all these wonderful melodies and harmonies as if we had lived in the moon ! That, reader, was sixty years ago. Germany and Italy have since been transported to America, and, musically, we live in a new earth and a new heaven. Yet the simple strains of those days were as perfectly adapted to those who made them as Wagner, Liszt, Mendelssohn, and Chopin are to us to day I " Great care was exercised in New England a century ago, in regard to the formation of choirs. In the town of Rowley, Mass., in 1762, " the parish voted that those who ha 1 learned the art of singing may have liberty to sit in 118 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. the front gallery," and the record adds, " they did not take the liberty." In 1785, "the parish desire the singers, both male and female, to sit in the gallery, and will allow them to sing once upon each Lord's Day, without reading by the deacon," a privilege which seems to have met with general favour ; for, five years later, the old custom of "lining out" the psalm' or hymn by the deacons was discontinued. In the old church records of Topsfield, Mass., in 1764, it was "voted that the pastor he desired, Sabbath preceding the next lecture, in the name of the church, to desire the congregation, after the lecture is over, to tarry and consult with the church about choosing some person or persons to set the Psalm when Captain Averill is absent." Mr, Moses Perkins and Mr. Jacob Kimball were so chosen ; and then it was " voted that the said Perkins and Kimball set in the Elders' Seat." The custom of "lining out," or "deaconing off," lingered for a long time, but received its final blow at Worcester, August 5th, 1779. Here, we are told, a public meeting was called, "to consider whether they should sing in the usual way or the rulable way." The resolution being introduced, it was "voted that the singers should sit in the hind body seats on the men's side, and that the mode of singing be without reading the Psalms line by line to be sung." The next morning after this decision was the Sabbath day, and the venerable Deacon Chamberlain arose in the meeting to fulfil the time-honoured custom of reading line by line. But the singers made no pause between the lines. The deacon loudly ^ead on till overpowered, when he seized his hat and retired in tears. The choir continued their victorious chant, and the poor deacon was formally censured by the church for absenting himself from public worship. The publication of the " New England Psalm Singer" by Billings in 1770 marks the opening of a new and not MRS. BEECHER 8T0WE. 119 very bright era of American psalmody. At this time, the hymns of Dr. Watts were being substituted in the churches for the old Bay Psalter. Billings was the first native composer of sacred music, and his tunes were in the glee and fuging style. They became popular everywhere. The oldest musical society in America is the Btoughten Musical Society, one of the first which Billings taught, founded by him in 1774. The records show the nan. the singers at this " Sacred Singing School." First came twenty " singers of tenor/' of whom thirteen are ladies, the rest gentlemen. Then eighteen " singers of treble," all ladies. Next five " singers of counter," followed by five " singers of bass," all gentlemen. Jiillings was an untutored genius, who, under training, might have accomplished much. He died at Boston, September 2Gth, 1800. It is from this period, of American Psalmody — which has its counterpart at the same time in England — that Mrs. Eeecher Stowe draws the following picture in one of her stories (Poganuc People). The scene is laid sixty years ago:— 11 All was animation through the church, and Mr. Benjamin Davis, the leader of the singing, had selected old Denmark as a proper tune for opening the parallels between them and the opposing forces of ritualism. Ben had a high conceit of his own vocal powers, and had been heard to express himself contemptuously of the new Episcopal organ, lie had been to Dr. Cushing with suggestions as to the tunes the singers wanted to keep up the reputation of their meetin' house. So after Denmark came old Majesty, and Ben so bestirred himself beating time and warning, first to treble, and then to counter and then to bass, and all the singers poured forth their voices, with such ringing good will, that everybody felt sure they were better than any Episcopal organ in the world. "And as there is a place for all tilings in this great world of ours, so there was in its time and day a place and a time for Puritan music. If there were pathos and power and solemn splendour in the rhythmic movements of the churehly chants, there was a grand, wild freedom. an energy of motion in the old ' fuging ' tunes of that day that well 120 STUDIES IX IVOR SHIP MUSIC expressed the heart of the people courageous in coinb.it and un>haken in endurance. The church chant i> like the measured motion of the mighty sea in calm weather, but those old fuging tunes were like that same ocean aroused by stormy winds, when deep calleth unto deep in tempestuous confusion, out of which at last is evolved union and harmony. It was a music suggestive of the strife, the commotion, the battle-cries of a transition period of society, struggling onward towards dimly seen ideals of peace and order, Whatever the trained musician might say of such a tune as old Majesty, no person of imagination or sensibility could hear it well rendered by a large choir without deep emotion. And when back and forth from every side of the church came the different parts shouting — On cherubim and seraphim Full royally He rode, And on the wings of mighty winds Came flying all abroad, there went a stir and thrill through many a stern and hard nature, until the tempest cleared off in the words — He sat serene upon the floods Their fury to restrain, And He as Sovereign Lord and King For evermore shall reign. And when the doctor rose to his sermon the music had done its work upon his audience, in exalting their mood to listen with sympathetic ears to whatever he might have to say." The introduction of instruments followed the use of new tunes as the prophets of woe had predicted. The bass viol, or "the Lord's fiddle, " as it was quaintly called, seems to have been the first instrument to effect an entrance. But this was not without opposition. In Mid- dlesborough it was voted that it should not come into church under any circumstances. Some godly people at Pramingham rose and left the church as soon as its sac- rilegious tones were heard. Dr. Emmons left his pulpit and refused to preach because the singers persisted in its use. Meeting-houses were known as " catgut " or " anti- catgut " churches, according as they used or rejected the innovation. But the bass viol held its own, and the town of Hanover voted, October 21, 1805, to raise money to " repair the bass viol and the singers' seats." The flute, 1)11. LOWELL JUS OX. 121 hautboy, clarionet, trombone, and violin followed suit. Similar opposition greeted the attempt to introduce the first organ in 17 13. For nine months the instrument lay unpacked in the porch of the church to which it had been presented. In 1785, when the Dean of Berkeley presented an organ to the town which hears his name, the people in public meeting voted that " an organ is an instrument of the devil for the entrapping of men's souls " and declined to accept the gift. As a proof that at an early period the importance of music was recognised by religious men, I (juote the statutes of the Theological Seminary, at Andover, U.S. (1817):- 11 Sacred music, and especially psalmody, being an important part of public social worship, and as it is proper for those who are to preside in the assemblies of God's people, to possess themselves so much skill and taste in this sublime art as at least to distinguish be- tween those solemn movements, which are congenial to pious minds, and those unhallowed trirling medley pieces which chill devotion ; it is expected that serious attention will be paid to the culture of a true taste for genuine church music in this seminary : and that all stu- dents therein who have tolerable voices will be duly instructed in the theory and practice of this celestial art ; and whenever it shall be in the power of either of the said professors it shall accordingly be his duty to afford this necessary instruction ; and whenever this shall not be the case it is expected that an instructor will be procured for this purpose." We do not propose to follow American psalmody in its changes to the present day. Mention must, however be made of the congregational movement promoted by Dr. Lowell Mason thirty or forty years ago, which bore rich fruit in the service of song. Of late years the singing has fallen largely into the hands of quartets of professional singers, but an increasing number of churches now have large " chorus choirs " and congregational singing. Hand- some collections of hymns and tunes, the music and words side by Bide on the same page, are published by the principal denominations. 122 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. The following passage from an imaginary conversation on church music in an American paper probably covers all the varieties of church music : — Mr. A. — " Well, we've had a variety of things. To tell you the truth, we have never been settled upon any one basis very long at a time. For a while, we tried what we called the voluntary plan ; and then we tried congregational singing, to be led by the organist ; then, we added a precentor ; and, after that, we had a large chorus choir ; and when that was given up, we kept the organist and hired a man with a cornet to lead the singing, And, last of all, we are trying to fill the bill with this splendid quartette." In the following passage, the Rev. Henry AVard Beecher attacks, with characteristic vigour, an instance of congregational passivity with which he had come into contact : — "By the way, yesterday morning I was at the Methodist church here. A very pleasant room it is, and I am told that a very worthy society occupy it. But 1 have a most weighty charge to bring against the good people of musical apostacy. 1 had expected a treat of good hearty singing. There were Charles Wesley's hymns, and there were the good old Methodist tunes that ancient piety loved, and modern conceit laughs. at ! Imagine my chagrin when, after reading the hymn, up rose a choir from a shelf at the other end of the church, and began to sing a monotonous tune of the modern music-book style. The patient congregation stood up meekly to be sung to, as men stand under rain when there is no shelter. Scarcely a lip moved. No one seemed to hear the hymn, or cared for the music. How I longed for the good old Methodist thunder ! One good burst of old-fashioned mu.^ic would have blown this modern singing out* of the windows, like wadding from a gun ! Men may call this an improvement and genteel ! Gentility has nearly killed our churches, and it will kill Methodist churches if they give way to its false and pernicious ambition. We know very well what good old-fashioned Methodist music was. It had faults enough, doubtless, \against taste. But it had an inward purpose and religious earnestness which enabled it to carry all its fauits, and triumph in spite of them. It was worship. Yesterday's music was tolerable singing, but very poor worship. We are sorry that just as our churches are beginning to imitate the former example of Methodist churches, and to introduce melodies that the people love, our Methodist brethren should pick up our cast-off formalism in church HENRY WARD BEECHER. 123 music. It will be worse with them than with as. It will mark a greater length of decline. We could hardly believe our ey< ears yesterday. We could hardly persuade ourselves that we b1 before a Methodist church. We should have BUpposed it to be a good old Presbyterian or Congregational church, in which the choir and pulpit did everything, and the people did nothing. Our brethren in this church must not take these remarks unkindly. They are presented in all kindness and affection. The choir Bang better than many choirs in city churches, but no one Bang with them. The people were mute. They used their ears, and not their mouths ! ' But, alas ! we missed the eld fervour — the good old- fashioned Methodist fire. We have seen the time when one of Charles Wesley's hymns, taking the congregation by the hand, would have led them up to the gate of heaven. But yesterday it only led them up to the choir, about ten feet above the pews. This will never do. Methodists will make magnificent worshipping Christians if they are not ashamed of their own ways, but very poor Ones if they are. Brethren! you are in the wrong way. It will never do for you to silence the people. Your fire will go out if you take it up under the ashes of a false refinement. Let an outsider, but a well-wisher, say these plain words without offence. The Methodist Church has laid the Christian world under a great debt by its service in the cause of Christ, and we have a right to it, and an interest in it as common Christians, too great to suffer us to see signs of degeneracy in it without sorrow and alarm. We hope God means to do great things by it yet for our land. But it will not be by giving up heart and soul, zeal and popular enthusiasm in worship, for the sake of sham propriety and tasteful formalism, that the Methodist Church will become yet further efficient. We hope to see such a revival of religion among them as will come like a freshet upon their churches, and sweep out the channels of song, and carry away the dead wood and trash which have already dammed up the current of song, and made the congregation stagnant. Oh, that there may be a rain of righteousness upon them, which shall swell their hearts to overflowing, and cleanse their sanctuary from all formalism! and especially from the formalism of pedantic music! " Of the quartet choir, Mr. Joseph Bennett writes as follows : — 11 1 heard one quartet choir in New York, and desired to hear no other. Not that the performance was bad. Churches on Madison Avenue do not tolerate indifferent music, when it is a question ol regaling Sunday ears. The four singers under whom I sat were 124 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. artists in their way, and quite worth the, no doubt, large salary paid them. But I could not force myself to regard their doings as other than a kind of divertissement thrown in for some relief to the religious proceedings. I repel the charge of uncharitableness on this account, since who could look on the well-dressed congregation — with ladies resplendent in diamonds — as they sat listening to the picked singers in their pay, and associate them with an act of worship ? It is said that the quartet choir is going out of fashion, and for a long time past many American voices have been lifted up against it. The institution will die, unwept and unhonoured, save, perhaps, by those who, looking mainly to the interests of the musical profession, regret the loss of an opportunity for advancement such as cannot easily be replaced." As to the ways of some quartet singers, the Eev. C. S. Robinson writes in the Century magazine : — u Once our alto asked me, as I was entering the pulpit, whether I had any objections to changing the closing hymn, for she was expecting some friends that evening, and they could not come till late, and she wanted to sing a solo. And once, at a week-day funeral, our tenor crowded me even to my embarrassment with a request that he might be permitted to precede the arrival of the train of mourners with a vocal piece in the gallery, for he had just heard that two members of the music committee of another con- gregation would be present, and he wished them to hear him, as he desired to secure the place of conductor there." One of the most interesting examples of psalmody in the United States at the present time is Ruggles Street Baptist Church, Boston, where the problem of combining hearty congregational singing with quartet singing has been successfully solved. The church is situated in a working class quarter of Eoston, and its present influence dates from the time that its music began to be developed. The congregational tunes — few, well-known, and perhaps sometimes rather old-fashioned in character, are printed on leaflets, v and given away at each, service. The leaflet contains, besides the words and music of the tunes, the words of the anthems to be sung by the male quartet. This quartet consists of four very fine voices, and they sing all sorts of adaptations and compositions, in which the church style is, however, by no means adhered to. CHOIR AND CONGREGATION. 125 Seats in the church arc free, and every corner ia crcv Professional Bopranos, altos, and tenors are Beated am the congregation to lead them, and a chorus of fifteen trained bass voices sits in one of the galleries. It is this dispersion of the choir, perhaps, more than the actual vocal activity of the congregation, that gives such a remarkable richness and heartiness to the hymns. Anti- phonal choruses, in which gallery responds to gallery, after the manner of the Jewish Temple service, have been introduced. These have been specially compose 1 for the church, which possesses, indeed, a large store of manuscript music. Dr. G. F. Hoot, a well-known conductor and composer in America, is now engaged in promoting what he calls a reform in church music. He has seen the difficulty of getting both the choir and the congregation to join in the psalmody. The choir do not care to be always singing the old tunes, and the congregation cannot sing the music which best pleases the choir. Dr. Hoot says very truly that tunes are old because they are good; they are an illustration of the survival of the fittest, their weak and feeble companions having long ago been forgotten. The solution of this difficulty of interesting both congregation and choir Dr. Root discovers in having something suitable for all to do. He proposes to link the anthem and the hymn-tune together, making one lead into the other. Thus, the congregation will listen while the choir sing an anthem, " Come unto ATe," and upon its closing notes they will join in with the hymn, 14 Row gentle God's commands, How kind His precepts are : Come cast your burdens on the Lord, And trust His constant care." In the same way, " The people that walked in darkness n will be followed by 44 Joy to the world, the Lord is come, Let earth receive her King." 126 STUDIES IN WO R Sill P MUSIC. An intelligent organist, or the minister himself, if he chooses, can adapt a hymn to follow an anthem in this fashion. It is necessary that the tune should be in the same key as the anthem, and, of course, that it should he thoroughly familiar. Dr. Root says that a congregation will listen to an anthem which they are to follow in this manner with tenfold interest, and he speaks from experience of the heartiness with which they sing. On a recent occasion at Cincinnati, after exhorting the choir to sing with the inward harmony of devotion and the spirit, he called upon all the congregation to make a glad noise ; to sing, if not the tune before them, then any tune that was familiar to them! " And," says an ear-witness, "do you suppose the effect was discordant ? Xever have we heard better church singing. It was all that the most ardent reformer could ask. In it the words of St. Ambrose were realised: ' From the singing of men, women, and children there results an harmonious noise like the waves of the sea.' " This plan of Dr. Root's is, of course, only a revival of that of Bach's cantatas, where the music leads up to the chorale, in which all the people join. It is certainly deserving of a trial, and if it helps to satisfy the ambition of the choirs, and, at the same time, to enlist the sympathy of the congregation, it will prove very welcome to all friends of an ardent and spiritual psalmody. 1'27 SCOTTISH PKESBYTEKIAN PSALMODY. Tin: common notion that the story of Presbyterian psalmody is without interest or variety is altogether a mistaken one. Forms of worship, viewed as the expres- sion of religious belief, are always interesting, but in this case there are additional elements of interest. Presby- terian psalmody has always been conducted by the people themselves, rather than by any skilled order of musicians distinct from them. It has reflected the changing taste and habits of three centuries, neither rising above nor falling below the popular level ; and for this reason it is a very faithful reflector of national progress in music. And although this northern psalmody sprang from the same root as that of all Protestant churches, it lias from the first possessed a character of its own. Moreover, the student is attracted to the subject by the care with which its details have been preserved by recent writers, who have done for Scottish psalmody what no one lias vet attempted to do for that of England. The key to historical study is sympathy, To understand the lleforination in Scotland as it affected church music, we must enter into the spirit of the times. The spiritual force of the Scottish Reformation sprang from a new- conception of worship, which swept aside the adjun art and beauty which had been employed in the liomish 128 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC, Church as superfluous and impertinent. The essence of worship was communion between God and man ; it was a purely spiritual act, and in its awful solemnity any attempt at human effect was a mockery that was intolerable. This Reformation was not a reaction against art ; it was a movement towards spirituality of worship that found art unnecessary for its end. In the absorbing pursuit of this new ideal, the symbols of the old worship were stamped upon with scorn. Time has modified the views of Presbyterians. They see now that spirituality of worship may exist without the denial of those things that men call beautiful in divine service. Rut, to take a familiar illustration, it is because the organ is an historical symbol of the old worship which they renounced that so many Presbyterians still fight sturdily against its use in worship. In the days when the Reformation was a young and feeble movement, there lived at Dundee three brothers, James, John, and Robert Vedderburn, to whom Scotland owes its first metrical song. Two of the brothers had been educated as priests, and their attachment to the Lutheran movement compelled them to fly for their lives. James died in exile at Rouen or Dieppe ; John escaped to "Wittenburg, where, in 1539, he joined the other exiles, and sat with them at the feet of Luther and Melancthon. Here he not only imbibed the doctrine and spirit of the new movement, but found joy in its religious song. In 1542, John ventured to return to Scotland, but in 1546 he fled again, never to return. It is supposed that he died in England some years later. Robert is said to have survived both his brothers. The " The Book of Guid and Godly Rallates," which is associated with the TTedder- burns, was the direct fruit of John's residence at AVittenburg. Nearly all the pieces are translations from Luther's hymnal. The book is supposed by Professor Mitchell* to have been published before John's second * " The Wedderburns and their Work." Edinburgh, 1S67. THE WET)I)ERBURNS. 129 flight in 1546. The earliest copy extant is dated 1578, and it refers to a previous edition, which may have consisted of fragments or leaflets. Prof. Mitchell ind< e 1 conjectures that the publication of the hook was the cause of the author's flight, and the reason why he never returned. John was the principal translator, but his brothers seem also to have taken part in the work. The book had never any direct sanction from the Reformed Church, but it passed through many editions, and fell into disuse in the early part of the 17th century. It was especially circulated among the middle and trading classes. The first part consists of translations of German hymns and spiritual songs ; the second of metrical psalms ; but this second part was less successful than the first, and left no mark upon the people. JSTo tunes were published with the " Godly Ballates," but those that were moulded as to metre after German hymns would naturally be sung to the German tunes, circulated in MS. among musical people. Others would be sung to secular melodies already familiar in Scotland. Speaking of the German translations, Prof. Mitchell says : — " They are executed with spirit, freedom, and true poetic taste into the purest Scottish dialect of the time, and they have the 1 1 testimony accorded to their worth in the fact that without the sanction of the church, either reformed or unreformed, they made their way to the hearts and households of the Scottish people, and continued to be circulated, committed to memory, and sung in Scotland long after the circumstances which originally called them forth had passed away, while a more homely translation of a number of the same hymns into English by good old Coverdale appears to have had but a very limited circulation and influence among the English people." It was this book that first brought German influence to bear upon Scottish psalmody, and imparted to it a German tinge which it has never lost. On the general question of the music of the Reformed Church, John Hill Burton, in his History of Scotland, 130 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. "If we ask whether, in the new (Reformation) form of religious service, there was anything to compensate for the influence on the popular mind of the ceremonials and aesthetic apparatus of the old church, we must be content to find it in vocal music. The officiating clergyman might or might not be gifted with fiery eloquence, but it was always in the power of a musically inclined congregation to enjoy the luxury of song in vocal praise. As the forms both of the constitution of the church and of its service were taken from the French, so this, so far as it was borrowed, was brought from Germany. The Germans and the Scots are both a people eminently musical, each with their own great and original works in that art. In its application to vocal praise the Scots participated with the Germans in the grand hymnology of Luther and his followers, still so much sung and beloved in their fatherland." The origin of the Anglo-Scottish Psalter must be traced to Geneva. Here in 1556 the company of English and Scottish Protestant refugees to whom John Knox minis- tered were assembled. They needed a service-book in their own tongue, and with John Calvin's approval their want was supplied. The book was entitled " One and fiftie Psalms of David in English metre. Whereof thirty- seven were made by Thomas Sternhold, and the rest by others." The common metre psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins were adopted as the basis of the book, no doubt because they were easily fitted to tunes. The rhythms of the Erench Psalter which had been issued at Geneva in 1543 were irregular, and hence were avoided. It is not clear who provided the melodies for the English Psalter, but their character is dignified. The exiles versified 72 of the Psalms; the remaining 78 being taken from Sternhold and Hopkins, more or less altered. Mr. Colin Brown* has told the story of both the Erench and the English Psalters issued at Geneva under Calvin's auspices, and thas vindicated the reformer's love of church song. After full research he is satisfied that Claude Goudimel was the musical editor of this Psalter. On the return of the exiles to England and Scotland (1559-60), they brought with them the Genevan Psalter, * " British and Foreign Evangelical Review," October, 1870. THE SCOTTISH PSALTJER. 131 and it became the common foundation of the 1' published in London by John Day (1562-8), and in Edinburgh by llobert Leprevik (1564-5). This last is commonly known as the Old or John Knox's Psalter. The period which followed the publication of the Old Psalter (1564) is the golden age of Scottish psalmody. This Psalter, which the handsome facsimile reprint edited by the liev. Neil Livingston, and produced by the generosity of the late Mr. William Euing,* has brought within reach of the student, created all that is character- istic in Scottish psalmody. It was founded on the version of Sternhold and Hopkins, but differed from it in no less than 41 psalms, while it was especially distinguished from the English Psalter by a greater variety of metres, which, leading to a greater variety of tunes, added freshness and interest to the psalmody. The chief musical features of the Psalter may be briefly recounted. The edition of 1635 — which is that reprinted by ^Ir. Livingston — contained 104 Proper Tunes, 31 Common Tunes, and 8 tunes in Reports (to be presently explained). Of these tunes, 42 were taken from the Genevan Psalter, and the rest were probably composed for the work by musicians on the continent, in England, or in Scotland. The number of Double Tunes (containing eight lines instead of four) is noteworthy. The melody is, of course, in the tenor, and considerable use is made of the old modes. Thus of the Proper Tunes, 49 are in the ordinary major mode, 22 in the minor, 21 in the Dorian (on the 2nd of the scale), 6 in the Phrygian (on the 3rd), and 6 in the Mixolydian (on the 5th). Another feature of the book is the upside- down arrangement of the vocal parts, which was evidently meant for the convenience of singers seated on opposite sides of a table, and singing from the same book. On every page are the words, and with them the melody of the Proper Tune for each psalm. The earliest practice in England ■ London : Nisbtt ,v Co. Nil. 132 STUDIES IX WORSHIP Mr SIC. and Scotland as in the other countries influenced by the Genevan movement, was to fix each psalm to a Proper Tune, and by the name of its psalm the tune was known. The practice of making a tune common to several psalms of the same metre is later, and probably arose from the musical poverty of the congregations. The tunes are grave and devout, with one note to each syllable of the words, and there are added to the psalms fourteen Spiritual Songs, the precursors of the paraphrases and hymns of to-day. For a hundred years this book was the channel through which the religious life of a nation gave . utterance to devotion and praise, for during all this time there was but one Protestant Communion in Scotland. ^o harmonised edition of the entire Psalter appeared until 1635, and it is this that Mr. Livingston's reprint has preserved. There is evidence, however, that soon after the first publication of the Psalter harmonised parts existed in MS. Thomas Wood, vicar of St. Andrew'.*, occupied himself in the year 1566 in writing four volumes, each containing a part ^-treble, counter, tenor, and bass. He says that the task occupied him four years. The volumes are marvels of penmanship. Two of them — the treble and bass — are still preserved; the others (one of which would be the melody, i.e., the tenor) are lost. Mr. David Laing has published an "Account of the Scottish Psalter of 1566" (Edinburgh, 1871), which contains some finely-printed facsimile of Wood's MS. The position of the old Scots Psalter, however, was not nearly so secure as that of the English. After many attempts to supplant it, including a determined attempt to enforce the use of King James's Psalter, it was finally super- seded in 1650 by the version which was the outcome of the Westminster Assembly. This version was founded on that of Francis Eous, provost of Eton, which, on the re- commendation of the Westminster Assembly, was printed in 1645 by order of Parliament, and recommended for THE NEW SCOTS VERSION general adoption. The Church of {Scotland, howe was not wholly satisfied with this new version. It was, indeed, taken as a foundation, but six brethren were commissioned to compare it with the versions of Sir William Mure (llowallen), Zachary Boyd, William Barton, and especially with the old Scottish version. These revisions at length completed, the version was authorised and published in 1650. It is curious to note that Ron-, the father of the new Scots version, was an Englishman, while Tate and Brady, who nearly half a century later made the new English version, were both Irishmen. But the new versions of the two countries had nothing in common. They moved in opposite directions. While the new Scots version was welcomed as a closer and more literal rendering of the text, Tate and Brady's version made an attempt at elegance which many of the most devout and learned Englishmen of the time strongly resented. The new Scots version is still used in every service of the Presbyterian churches, while the new English version is extinct. This is not due merely to the merits of each, for there have been other causes at work preserving the one and upsetting the other, on which we need not now dwell. English people cannot understand the affection of the Scots for their metrical psalms. Affection is not to be explained. The language of these Psalms is woven into the spiritual life of every Scot, and it never occurs to him to criticise their prosody and diction as he would criticise a new book. " Everything," says Mr. Matthew Arnold, " which has helped a man in his religious life, everything which associates itself in his mind withj the growth of that life, is beautiful and venerable to him ; in this way productions of little or no poetical value, like the German hymns and ours, may come to be regarded as very precious.1' The following quotation from the Rev. J. W. Macnieeken's u History of the Scottish Metrical Psalms " explains the attitude of the 134 STUDIES IX WORSHIP 31USIC. nation towards its Psalter with much dignity and warmth of feeling : — u Stern veneration for the pure Word of God has always been a marked characteristic of Scottish Christians, who contemplate with something akin to horror the idea of addition thereto, or detraction therefrom. They have long cherished the conviction that no words can be a vehicle of divine praise equal to the words of Scripture itself; and though the stiffness of Scottish prejudice is proverbially unbending, in this aspect of it we cannot condemn them. The caricaturist may find much in these Psalms with which to humour his unworthy genius. The fastidious hypercritic may be dissatisfied with some expressions, plain, blunt, and uncouth, and rhymes rough . and rugged. But these defects, if defects they be, are surely not of such magnitude as to crush out the admiration which its severe and manly simplicity is so well fitted to excite. A poet might easily produce a version of certain passages of greater poetic beauty, and smoother in numbers, more perfect in refinement, and more elegant in expression, but he would overlay and bury out of sight the plain simplicity and truthfulness to the original, in which their beauty and value lie ; and he would find a great many which, for exquisite sublimity and thrilling pathos, it would test the capabilities of his muse to equal, not to say surpass. • Besides those arising from its intrinsic merits, the present version of the Psalms possesses claims on the veneration and regard of Scottish Christians which no other can possibly have, how high eoever its poetic excellence and beauty. It has given expression to the patriotism and piety of our ancestors in the dismal days of persecution, when to worship God according to His Word and the dictates of a sanctified and enlightened conscience was punishable with death. • Its ' grave swreet melody ' has awakened the echoes of our glens and mountains, and been swept in plaintive wail on moor- land breezes, the worshippers compelled to seek such solitudes for safety to pay their devotions to the God of heaven. It has been instrumental in quickening the faith and stimulating the fortitude of our fathers under trials peculiarly affecting — trials of which we in these days happily know nothing. Its strains have been poured into the ear of the martyrs' God from the dungeon, the scaffold, and the stake, expressive of the martyrs' heavenward hope, and reinvigorating them in every heavenly grace. Thousands and thousands have passed away to that better land with its cheering language on their lips. For generations our fathers have given expression to their souls' deepest feelings in the praises of God in its inspiriting THE OLD PSALMS. 135 language. It has been impressed upon our hearts in the moroilig and evening service of song around the family altar. We have learned it at a parent's knee. It has formed an element in our education at public schools. It is inextricably interwoven with our religious literature, and has acted an important part in the formation of our religious character. Its expressions spring most readily to our lips when we seek to give utterance to our religious feelings and experiences. Doubtless it will become antiquated and obsolete. But whatever changes may take place in the English language, whatever alteration or improvement may be made in the service of the sanctuary, centuries will come and go before this old version is lost sight of and forgotten by the Christian folk of Scotland." Sir Walter Scott bore an equally strong testimony to the old Psalms. In 182b, an erroneous impression got abroad that the General Assembly contemplated a revision of the Psalter. "Whereupon, Sir Walter Scott wrote to the convener : — 11 The expression of the old metrical translation, though homely, is plain, forcible, and intelligible, and very often possesses a rude sort of majesty which, perhaps, wrould be ill-exchanged for mere eloquence- Their antiquity is also a circumstance striking to the imagination? and possessing a corresponding influence upon the feelings. They are the very words and accents of our early reformers — sung by them in woe and gratitude, in the fields, in the churches, and on the scaffold. The parting with this very association of ideas is a serious loss to the cause of devotion, and scarce to be incurred without the certainty of corresponding advantages. But, if these recollec- tions are valuable to persons of education, they are almost indispensable to the children of the lower ranks, whose prejudices do not permit them to consider, as the words of inspired poetry, the versions of living or modern poets ; but persist, however absurdly, in identifying the original with the ancient translation. 1 would not have you suppose, my dear sir, that I by any means disapprove of the late very well chosen paraphrases. But I have an old- fashioned taste in sacred as well as profane poetry. I cannot help preferring even Sternhold and Hopkins to Tate and Brady, and our own metrical version of the Psalms to both. I hope, therefore, they will be touched with a lenient hand." The new Psalter (1650) fell upon barren soil. The per- secutions of the thirty years which followed its publication were not favourable to the growth of psalmody, and 1S6 8TUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. the Revolution of 1688 was followed by a century of " Moderatism," during which every manifestation of fervour was branded and ridiculed as enthusiasm. The new Psalter was published without tunes, and not even a separate tune-book was issued. " Church music, " says Mr. Livingston, " no longer enjoyed the protection of church authority, but was turned adrift to seek refuge wherever a private individual might be found willing to afford it. What result could be expected but deteriora- tion, in regard both to materials and performance ? " Only some half-dozen of the old Psalter tunes remained in . use, and these, being sung from tradition, were varied and elaborated according to the taste of every precentor. Mr. Livingston further attributes the decay of psalmody to an extreme reaction from the Episcopal movement of 1631-37. The people became jealous of any interest in the externals of worship. " Hence," he says, " the fallacy, which for generations held the Scottish mind in its grasp, that it matters not whether the musical material or execution is better or worse if the heart be rightly exercised To say that singing must be of the worst descrip- tion for fear of popery is to admit that protestantism and barbarism are in this matter convertible terms — a concession which popery will gladly welcome." The new version invited musical monotony by being wholly in common metre, with a few duplicate versions of Psalms in other metres. This metrical uniformity seems to have been deliberately fixed by the General Assembly. The Act of August 28th, 1647, appointing revisers of the version just brought from England, says : — " And because some psalms in that paraphrase sent from England are composed in verses which do not agree with the common tunes, that is, having the first line of eight syllables and the second of six, that so both versions being together, use may be made of either of them in congregrations, as shall be found convenient — therefore it is also recommended that these Psalms be turned in other metres which may agree with the common tunes." ~We revert for a moment to the question of organs in ORGANS.— THE GATHERING PSALM. 137 churches. The following passage from Mr. Edgar's "Old Church Life in Scotland" aptly summarises the matter : — " The use of instruments in the service of praise watfl repudiated or almost abjured. Organs were not even allowed standing room in church. In 1574 the Kirk Session of Aberdeen gave orders ' that the organ is with all expedition be removit out ot the kirk, ami made profeit of to the use and support of the puir.' On his visit to Scotland in 1617 King James endeavoured to inaugurate a more aesthetic and cultured form of worship in Scotland after the manner of what he had seen in England. Among other innovations he set up an organ in the Chapel Royal at Holyrood. * Upon Satterday the 17th May.' Bays Calderwood, ' the English service was begun in the Chapel Royal with singing of quiristers, surplices, and playing on organes.' And in Calderwood's history there are repeated allusions to the use of the organ in the Chapel Royal. The popular feeling, however, that in 1637 was aroused against the service book was turned against the organ also, and among the outbreaks of 1638 Spalding records that 'the glorious organes of the Chapell Royall were maisterfullie brokin doune nor no service usit thair bot the haill chaplains, choristis, and musicianes discharged, and the costlie organes altogedder destroyii and unusefull.' And in 1644 the General Assembly recorded as one of the ' praiseworthy proceedings and blessed events that had caused them great joy, to hear from their commissioners at Westminster that the great organs of Paul's and Peter's had been taken down by the Covenanters in England.' '"* As to " the gathering psalm," the same writer says : — M There is very little singing of psalms prescribed as part of public worship in either Knox's liturgy or the Westminster Directory. In each of these manuals of worship there are only two psalms appointed or supposed to be 6ung during the minister's service — one before the sermon, and another before the benediction. And in regard to the second of these psalms the directory only says, • let it be sung, if * The following notes on the organ in Scotland may be added : — " At the funeral tret the Queen 1091] the procession is Baid to have moved along to the sounds of the organ and the melodious songs of the choir singing in par The earliest record of organs in Perth is in the Town Council Records, Aug., 1511, which record the engagement of a parish clerk who was obliged to hnd a suitable person to sinsr and play the organ during divine - Dr. A. K. H. Boyd says in an essay written in lv*>, that the organ was coming, • Dean . ps, "I haw heard of an old lady describing clergyman without 'any idea of disrespect in these terms : ' Oh, ne ia a vrhisue- kirk minister.' " 138 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. with convenience it may be done.' It is possible, however, that there was from an early period a third psalm sung in the church by the congregation, although that psalm was not included in the service. Just as in modern churches where instrumental music has been introduced, there is a voluntary played on the organ during the time that the congregation are assembling, so in very ancient times, long before the Reformation, it was customary over a large part of Christendom for the people to ' entertain the time with, singing of psalms ' till the congregation had gathered. An old continental author, Durandus by name, who lived more than 600 years ago, states that in his day it was usual for people waiting for the morning services to hasten into the church as soon as they heard the psalm begun. And in this country within quite recent times the epithet of ' the gathering psalm ' was commonly applied to what we now call the first psalm." The custom of %i lining out," or reading one line at a time, was not a Scottish tradition, but was imposed by the Westminster Assembly under protest from the Scots Commissioners. The "Westminster Directory for public worship was adopted by the General Assembly in 1645, and the Directory recommends that 11 for the present, where many in the congregation cannot read, it is convenient that the minister, or some other fit person appointed by him and the other ruling officers, do read the psalm, line by line, before the singing thereof." This in itself must have had a depressing influence upon Scottish psalmody. Mr. Livingston maintains that the old rate of psalm-singing was not slow. Eight or ten single verses — double what is prescribed at the present day — was the portion given for use in the 1611 edition, and the double tunes point also to a lively rate of move- ment. Each syllable was sung to a minim, and this probably occupied about a second of time. From the absence of any discussions on the subject in the General Assembly, Mr. Livingston considers that the custom of sitting to sing was of the earliest origin. There is no evidence of a change from standing. The Rev. A. Hen- derson informs me that standing at praise seems to have been the custom in Orkney from early times. There is in TUNES IX RAPPORTS. 139 the Christian Magazine for 1800 an account of the depu- tation to Kirkwall in Orkney. Says the writer : " Their manner of praise is strikingly solemn, yet calculated to raise the aifections, and diffuse ardour and acti\ in- through the assembly. It is the manner of the church in the days of Nehemiah, chap, ix., 5. They nil rise when they praise, and sing also without reading the line." The practice of singing in harmony, already referred to, is proved to have had an early existence by the following incident. In 1582, when John Durie returned to Edin- burgh after a temporary banishment, he was escorted by a crowd that grew to 2,000 people, who at Netherbow took up the 124th Psalm, " jNow Israel may say," &C, and, says Calderwood, " sung in such a pleasant tune in four parts, known to the most part of the people, that coming up the street all bareheaded till they left the kirk, with such a great sound and majestie, that it moved both themselves and all the huge multitude of the beholders, looking out at the shots and over stairs, with admiration and astonishment. " Tunes in what was called " Rapports," or Reports (French Rapporter, to carry back), make their first appearance in the edition of 1635, although two of the eight there present appear in the Aberdeen edition of 1633. A line, or part of a line of the melody of a tune was taken and treated as a fugal subject, and the imitation was carried through all the parts. Fugal imitation was the leading device in all music of this period, and the Rapport applied it to the psalm-tune. The author of the preface to the 1635 edition says that the tunes in Reports are given "for the further delight of qualified persons in the said art" (music), and the probability is that they were sung by the more cultivated congregations in the towns. One of these tunes, known as "Bon Accord," or "Aberdeen," is still sung with much delight in Scotland, though divested of its fugal part. 140 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. The old custom of "prefacing the Psalms," that is, giving a short exposition of the Psalm before singing it, must have been very profitable to the worshippers, and very energising to the song. This practice is now obsolete. The Sang Schules (Song Schools) are an interesting feature in the story of Scottish church music. They were established by the Romish Church, no doubt for the purpose of training boys to chant the music of the service, and to understand the Latin language. They seem to have taught other branches of learning as well as music, and to have been attended by others than the choristers. They were, in fact, the nearest approach to primary schools which the age produced. This was probably the reason why they continued to exist after the Reformation, a fact to which the account books of various Burgs, as well as a distinct enactment of King James's time, testify. Under the Protestant regime, the Psalter tunes would naturally displace the Gregorian tones, and music would probably sink to a subordinate position. Mackintosh, in his " History of Civilisation in Scotland,' ' 11 An Act was passed in 1579, stating that the teaching of the young in the art of music and singing had begun to be neglected. It goes on to affirm that the instruction of the children in music and singing had almost decayed, and must decay altogether, if a timely remedy was not provided. The provosts and councils of the boroughs throughout the kingdom, and the patrons and provosts of colleges, were enjoined to repair and ' to set agoing the Sang Schools,' and to appoint qualified masters to instruct the young in the Science of Music!" Grant's " History of the Burgh Schools of Scotland," gives full and interesting details of Sang Schoolsj before and after the Reformation, taken from the Burgh records. In 1669, it seems that the town of Glasgow " was altogether destitute of a teacher for instructing the youth in the art of music," and "many," we are told, "were SANG SCnULKs. in the honest men who wished that an able musician should he tried out and brought to this place." In 1091, Mr. Lewes de France, who had humbly offered his sen i Aberdeen in 1675, undertook to teach the inhabitants of Glasgow music, including the " writing of the thirteen common tunes, and some Psalms," the scholars furnishing their own hooks. He will teach, free of expense, such poor as the magistrates appoint. In 1679, the Council of Dunbar ordained that music, vocal and instrumental, may be taught in the burgh school from one to two p.m., that is during the play hour, "the subject being a recreation rather than a task." The youths belonging to the sang school of Aberdeen were in the habit of attending " walkis," or wakes, and, in consequence of abuses, the Council ordained in 1643, that in future only four shall attend, and the master must be present. At Dundee, a music school was founded among the ruins of the nave of the church. There are records of it in 1603, 1609, 1614, 1636, 1637, 1647, and 1650. Grant's conclusion of the matter is as follows : — 11 From the foregoing notices of sang schools, it appears that from an early period down to the end of the 17th century there was, in several of the most imnortant burghs, either a separate school for teaching music, vocal and instrumental, or that it formed one of the branches of education in the grammar school ; but the art seems not to have been studied anywhere with interest or zeal." Traces of the old Sang Schules are still to be found in Scotland. In Dunfermline, the Parish Church precentor still enjoys the title of " Master of the Song,"and receivi - from the Town Council a yearly salary of £8 G*. 8d. as teacher of music in the Sang or Grammar School, which is a sinecure. It is evident that in early times it was always considered the duty of the parish schoolmasters to teach their children the tunes. The General Assembly on May 8th, 1713, made the following deliverance: " The General Assembly, for the more decent performance of the praises of God, do 142 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. recommend to Presbyteries to use endeavours to have such schoolmasters chosen as are capable to teach the common tunes ; and that the said schoolmasters not only pray with their scholars, but also sing a part of a Psalm with them once a day." Again, on May 22nd, 1746, the Assembly recommends " to schoolmasters in the several parishes, that they be careful to instruct the youth in singing the common tunes. " In early times, and probably long after, the precentor and schoolmaster were the same person. This is clear from an Act of General Assembly, Aug. 6th, 1649, which orders their salaries to be continued. Here it may be noted that the precentor seems to have been the successor of the reader of pre-reformation times. The custom was for him to go to the church half an hour before the minister, and, taking his place at his desk, which is still called the lectern (pronounced lettem), read to the people several passages of Scripture. On the entry of the minister, the precentor would give out a Psalm, and lead the singing. The musical condition of their country in the period of the old Psalter, is one on which Scotsmen love to dwell. At that time, psalm-singing was the daily solace of people of every condition and calling. The new Psalter brought in the period of decline. In such a period, people naturally become punctilious about little things. " Lining out " which had at first been resented as a concession to illiterate England, was clung to as a vital principle. An old widow at Tarbolton, who lived by herself, was in the habit of going through the form of family prayers every day, and she read aloud to herself each line of the Psalm before* she sang it. In Peebles, there was a well-to-do old lady who was so concerned for the continuance of the practice, that she offered to leave all she had to the church if they would but " read the line." An old Paisley body who went by the name of Janet, protested loudly to her minister against the abolition of the practice. She said LINING OUT. 143 she liked to " gust her gab " twice with the line ; in other words, to taste each line twice, firsl when it was read, and second when it was Bung. Borne time after this, a repeating tune was sung at the church, when Janet appealed to her minister against this second innovation. "Well, Janet," he said, "I thought you liked to ■ gust your gab' twice with the line." How Jain: escaped from the horns of this dilemma, history does not tell. Dr. Chalmers related on one occasion his own attempt to abolish the practice of reading the line at Kilmeny, There was one old woman who stoutly maintained that the change was anti-scriptural. Dr. Chalmers took an early occasion of visiting her, and on asking her what was the Scripture of which she regarded the change as a con- travention, at once was answered by her citing the text, " Line upon line." As recently as forty years ago, an Edinburgh congregation appointed a new precentor, who was told not to read the line. Before he was well begun, a man in the gallery rose and shouted " read the line, sir," and left the church in disgust. On May 22nd, 1746, the General Assembly voted that they "do recommend to private families, that in their religious exercises singing the praises of God, they go on without the intermission of reading each line." Says Mr. Edgar: " Great resentment arose, however, when attempts were made to abolish the practice in public worship, and it was not till the year 1809 that it was abolished in this parish (Mauchline). In a small scroll minute book of the kirk session, stitched up with another scroll book of earlier date, the following entry occurs, without any comment or notice of motion, or record of discussion about it : ' 1809, Dec. 10. Began to sing Psalms in the church without reading line by line.' Dr. M'Kelvie, in his annals of the United Presby- terian Church, states that twTo of the reasons that led people last century to leave the Church of Scotland, and join the seceders, were the introduction of the ' run-line ' 144 STUDIES IN WOJl snip MUSIC. and the paraphrases into the worship of the National Church. JIc addfl that the persons seceding on the run- line question in the parishes of Tough and Johnshaven were so numerous as to form congregations at once. On this point, the Rev. G. W. Sprott, in his "Worship and Offices of the Church of Scotland," says: — " A number of dissenting congregations in different parts of the country owed their origin, not to patronage, not to unevangelical preaching in the parish church, but to the introduction of paraphrases and the omission of the reading of the line ; and others were largely- increased from these causes. These determined prejudices were carried to the ends of the earth. I remember old Scotsmen in the colonies who never entered church, because the line was not read out as they had been accustomed to hear it in the old country." Mr. Davidson, a Scottish Probationer, whose life has been written by the Rev. James Brown, writing from Cullybackey, in the north of Ireland, so recently as January 4th, 1865, says : — " The people are very old-fashioned. They don't sing paraphrases, as Mr. assured me before the whole congregation when I had just given out the 46th, and they read the line always, which has a very strange effect to one who is unaccustomed to it." The following is one of Dean Ramsay's stories : — " A rather unfortunate juxtaposition was suggested by this custom (of lining out), which we are assured really happened in the church at Irvine. The precentor, after having given out the first line, and having observed some members of the family from the castle struggling to get through the crowd on a sacramental occasion, cried out, ' Let the noble family of Eglinton pass,' and then added the line which followed the one he had just given out, rather mal-aprogos, ' Nor stand in sinner's way.' " Although "lining out" has long since ceased in Scot- land, a curious custom survives in the communion service at the singing of Psalm 103, "0 thou my soul, bless God the Lord." The precentor intones a line on the 5th of the key in which the tune is, and then the people sing it. Two lines are often taken together. Sometimes the precentor intones on the key-note of the tune, or on the final note of the previous line, whatever it may be. GAELIC PSALM TUXES. 1 tS Perhaps the reason why this custom has been preserved is that during the singing the congregation are in motion, approaching and leaving the tables, and cannot, therefore, use their books. In Gaelic churches this musical recitation by the precentor is still kept up in all the psalms, and we may here briefly notice the curious use of the Highlanders. There are five tunes — French, Martyrs, Stilt (or York), Dundee,, and Elgin — which are the traditional melodies used for the Psalms. These have been handed down from generation to generation, amplified by endless grace notes, and altered according to the fancy of every precentor. When used, they are sung so slowly as to be beyond recognition. Nearly forty years ago, Dr. Mainzer, while staying at Strathpeffer in Ross-shire, noted down from the mouth of the precentor there the actual variations used in these melodies. He published his notes in 1844, under the title of " Gaelic Psalm-tunes," with an introductory dissertation. The first two lines of the tune French, given below, are copied from this book. The Sol-fa notes over the staff give the real notes of the tune. Precentor's giving out. ^2=^3 — p=»z 3E Congregation. d n f Precentor's giving out. frn p I r— p- 146 S '1TDIES IX WORSHIP MtTSIC. Congregation. n j^ ry^rfj~3. J m M^i d t, d V i ' 1 H5 — rd- « — ri -id 1 , — -*-r-^ — i — H [y J r* • # l c* • . U Such elaboration would hardly be credible, but for the fact that there are many who can bear witness to Dr. Mainzer's correctness.* Each parish and each precentor had differences of detail, for the variations were never written or printed, but were handed down by tradition. These old tunes are seldom sung now, at least in their ornate form. One line is given out at a time by the precentor, who chants it on the dominant or the tonic, according to the key of the tune. The dominant is preferred, but if it is too high or too low for the voice, the tonic is taken. The recitation is not absolutely on a monotone; it often touches the tone next above, especially at the penultimate syllable of the line. Dr. Mainzer remarks on the resemblance of this recitation by the precentor to the Antiphon of the Roman Catholic Church. The resemblance, however, is only on the surface. The Antiphon is a short sentence, generally from Scripture, recited by the priest before the commencement of a psalm or canticle. The words vary with the season of the year. Gaelic psalmody, which may still be heard in highland parishes, gives us in the main a good idea of Scottish psalmody of a hundred years ago. The following interesting account of the doxology after the Psalms is from Mr. Edgar's "Old Church Life in Scotland " : — «* An old practice in the public worship of the Church of Scotland was to introduce a doxology into the psalm that was sung. This * During a lecture which I gave on January 30th, 1884, at Tain, N.B., the choir sang, as an historical curiosity, the old tune French with the precentor's intoning and all the twists and turns above given. The tune and its time had been taken from the lips of an old precentor. I timed the performance, and found that each verse took three minutes. DECLINE OF PSALMODY. 117 doxology was just four lines of metre in which praise was ascribed to the three several persons of the Trinity. In the year L642 however, a great clamour arose in the west of Scotland about this doxology. It was a piece of human ritual, people said. It was a commandment of man's that ought not to he accepted as a divine ordinance. Over all Ayrshire there was as much strife about this doxology as there might have been about the most vital a of faith. Baillie, the famous journalist and controversialist, was then minister at Kilwinning, and so serious a matter did he consider the agitation that he made it the subject of a Bpecial address to his parishioners, some of whom had apparently been joining in tic- outcry. The General Assembly of 1G43 had the question under discussion, and for the sake of peace passed an act, draughted by Henderson, in which all disputation on the subject was ordered to be dropped. At the Westminster Assembly there was no debate about the dox«>logy. In 1649, the question of the doxology came up for discussion again in the General Assembly, and it would seem, says Dr. Spratt, that an understanding was come to, that witli the view of pleasing the divines of England, the use of the doxology in public worship should be discontinued. Against this concession one man spoke out stoutly. This was Calderwood, the historian, whi that he had always sung the doxology in public worship, that he would sine: it to his dying day, an 1 that after his death he would resume it louder than ever in the New Jerusalem. In L662, when prelacy was re-established, it was enacted by one or more synods that the use of the doxology should he revived." In the first half of last century Scottish psalmody reached its lowest point. The Sang Schules had c< their work, the power of reading inu>io had declined, and the tunes in use were reduced to twelve. Owing to long traditional use, these tunes came to he regarded by the common people as no less inspired than the psalms to which they were sung. Dr. Guthrie used to tell of an old servant in his family who would sing no paraphrases, and would not look at hymns, but vowed she u Wad sing the psaams o' Daavit to the tunes o' Daavit, an' naething else." The late Dr. Fletcher, of London, used to say that one day the precentor of his father's church at Leith, Stirlingshire, began to sing u Bangor," a tune that was not included in the authorise I twelve. Scarcely had he begun when the minister jumped up, and taking the great 148 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. pulpit Bible in both hand?, came down with all his force on the unsuspecting head of the poor precentor, daring him ever to start such a tune in his kirk again. About the middle of the last century there was a revival of church song. The story of the rise of the movement may be gathered from paragraphs, letters, and quotations in the Scots Magazine of the time. We are told that some Aberdeen citizens, while on a visit to England, to their surprise, found good and hearty congregational singing in several village churches where there was no organ. The common opinion had been that the organ was necessary to good singing, and that Scottish singing was bad because the organ was absent. These citizens, however, seeing what had been done in England, determined to promote a like reformation in their own country. In 1753, General Wolfe's regiment lay at Aberdeen, and some of his soldiers were heard practising music in the reformed way. One of these men, Thomas Channon by name, was found both capable and willing to teach,- and was first employed in the parish of Monymusk, in the presbytery of Garioch. The success of the attempt there, and the ability and good behaviour of Channon, induced a number of ministers of the Aberdeen Synod to apply to Lieut .- General Eland for his discharge, which was granted. Henceforth, Channon devoted all his energies to the work of teaching congre- gations to sing. He seems to have begun in the villages around Aberdeen, and that the movement soon attracted attention is evident from the following paragraph in the Aberdeen Intelligencer, November 26th, 1754 : — •We hear that a new method of singing the church tunes has been lately introduced with success into several congregations in this neighbourhood. The person who teaches it goes from one parish to another, and carries some of the best singers along with him ; who join with, and under his direction are very assisting to the learners. By his skill in vocal music, and the use of a small instru- ment called the pitch-pipe, he has made a great reform upon this part of divine service. We hear lie is come to this place, and is ABERDEEN MOVEMENT. 1 (9 to teach the boya in Gordon's Hospital. It \* said that some congregations look upon this as an unwarrantable innovation, aiul have refused it admittance among them; we are, however, persuaded that an improvement BO highly necessary, and BO much to the honour of religion, will get the better of all prejudices, as the clergy and everybody of taste must approve of it." The movement was not long in reaching Aberdeen. A paragraph in the Scots Magazine for December, 1754,* Bays : — •• The Same day (Jan. 2nd, I7oo) at the desire of the magistrates and some of the principal inhabitants of that city [Aberdeen], there was given in the High Church a specimen of church music as now- performed in several parishes in that neighbourhood ; when a variety of tunes were sung in three and four parts by a number of the parishioners of Kintore and Fin tray, who carried on the different parts in perfect harmony, and with the greatest exactness in time ; very much to the satisfaction of a numerous audience." A correspondent of the Aberdeen Intelligencer, who has seen the movement in progress in several congregations, and is favourable to it, enters into a fuller explanation of its nature than is supplied by these paragraphs. His letter is quoted in the Scots Magazine for April, 1755. First, he says, the movement aims to correct the Melody of the tunes. The best of the old tunes, long since disused, are revived : others are selected or composed, and a proper variety, suited to the different moods of the Psalms, is placed within roach of the congregation. The melody of the tunes is also taught " plain, without quavering," and a brisker time is insisted upon. Second, the movement deals with harmony, which, he says, scorns to have been used in Scotland at the time of the Refor- mation, and even so late as 17H, to judge by a sot of tunes published at Aberdeen. It declined by deg and is now entirely lost. Few have any idea of this • effect in music. The tenor part [/. To way, and Dalmoak. In so many parishes is there a call for the movement, that not only Mr. Channon, but also some of his scholars, find constant employment in teaching. The process of introducing the movement i8 this. A minister desirous of reforming the psalmody o* his church acquaints the congregation with his wishes, and invites some parishioners of a neighbouring congrega- tion, who have been taught, to attend on a given Sunday, and give a specimen of the manner in which they perform. The service concludes with an exhortation from the minister. If it succeeds, as it always has done, a school is opened, and the people attend usually about sunset,*' so that their daily labour may not be interrupted. The minister or an elder is present to preserve decency and order. In a few weeks the class are capable of performing some tunes in divine service, and in a few months they can generally do without their teacher. They continue to meet less frequently. Care is also taken to improve the younger generation, either through the schoolmaster or some of the parishoners who have made the greatest progress. The gentry contribute to ease the poorer people vof part of the expense of being taught, and to purchase psalm books for them. In conclusion, the writer asserts that the only innovations are: first, the pitch pipe; and second, the gathering of the singers in a gallery or loft, so that they may the better help each other and command the congregation. * Evidently the practices were held daily. WEART-BURN1NGS. 153 It was natural that this attempt at reform Bhould arouse opposition. The editor of the Scots Mag (April, 1755), refers to two letters lie has received, probably from the same person, attacking the new move- ment. The writer, who signs himself " B. 0.," complains that there is a new-fashioned profanation of the Sabbath introduced by singing the Psalms at church with a herd- boy's instrument of music, which gives offence to many serious. Christians, and says that instead of the ]>; duties of meditation and prayer, the young people mi whistle and fife, both before and after sermon, to improve them in this exercise. He hints that people stay at home on Sabbath, or walk to distant churches to avoid this innovation. As for the singing in parts by trained choristers, it is nothing but what was begun by a profane heretic above a thousand years ago. The Session seems to have been like-minded. It met after the Kintore and Fin tray villagers had visited the city, and passed the following Act : — •' Aberdeen, January 20, 1755. The ression being fully met and convened, and taking into consideration the specimen of music that was given in this church on the 2nd of January instant, do unanimously give it as their opinion that the said tunes should not be used in public worship : and they appoint their precentors to BlDg only in all time coming the twelve church tunes commonly rang in Scotland, and printed in parts, and recommend the precentors to sing the same in proper time, for this innovation is bad, and has occasioned such disturbances, distractions, alienations, divisions, and heart-burnings, that the yar 1745 [the year of the landing of the Pretender] was a jest to it." This Act, according to the correspondent, " X. V..'' already referred to, was passed hurriedly, so as to anticipate the popular judgment, and prevent a declaration in favour of the reform. He says the promoters of the Act gladly withdrew it from the Synod, with the excuse that the subject was not formally before them. "X. Y." ridicules the terms of the Act. He says the Church of Scotland never authorised any twelve tunes, and doubts if 15 1 STUDIES IN WOR SHIP MUSIC. anyone can say for certain which arc the twelve tunes most commonly used. He speaks gravely, however, of the state of feeling in Aberdeen. " Everybody who knows the circumstances of the new town of Aberdeen must be sensible that the schism which there obtains behoved to raise more difficulties in that congregation than if tnere was an actual secession " The Synod reversed the Act of the Sesson, and we learn in the Scots Magazine for October, 1755, that "at their last meeting'' they passed an Act, earnestly recom- mending people of all ranks within their bounds to embrace eveiy proper opportunity that offers of being • taught to perform that part of divine service in a regular manner, so as to sing plainly, and in just time, and urging ministers to use every method of getting their congrega- tions taught to sing. The dispute between the advocates of the two styles of church music ran high, and found vent in appeals to the law. In one church in Aberdeen some shrill-voiced boys, champions of " use and wont," had the boldness to take up the first line of a psalm before the minister had done giving it out, and to sing, with an extraordinary exertion of voice, a different tune to that which they knew the precentor and the rest of the congregation were to sing. The magis- trates were appealed to, and they inflicted a punishment suited to the age of the offenders, and in open court warned ev.eryone to beware of such proceedings for the future. Among those in court at the time who took no notice of this warning was one, Gideon Duncan, a weaver lad of Old Aberdeen, gifted with a good voice. What happened to him is told in the following notice of appeal to the supreme court at Edinburgh : — 4i A Bill was presented, July 21th, 1754, for Gideon Duncan, weaver in Old Aberdeen, praying suspension of sentence pronounced against him by Mr. George Gordon, professor of Oriental Languages in the King's College, Aberdeen, sitting as one of the Bailies of Old Aberdeen, by wThich he was decerned to pay £50 Scots fine, and £6 Scots expenses of plea, to find security for his good behaviour for GIDEON DUNCAN. 15S two yean, and to be imprisoned till he Bhould obtemper bis sentence, on «a complaint in name of the Principal and remanent meml the aforementioned College, founded on the Ad 27 pari ii. Jamei VI, accusing him of wilfully disturbing the congregation of Old Aberdeen when they were .ringing the Psalms, on Sunday the '2(Jth of Jane last, by interrupting th'' eb-rk in reading out the line, raising a noise, and making a tumult." We are told that answers having been given. Lord Auchinleck, after advising with the Lords, refused the Bill, August 2nd. On the 8th, a reclaiming petition put into the Lord's boxes, hut the agent of the College took care to have printed copies of their answers to the bill put into the boxes the same day. The accusation and the defence are thus summarised. The College states that a few months ago, at the time of the trial of the boys aforementioned, Duncan was engaged with all appearance of zeal for the new singing. For three or four months he had frequented the College loft, where the trained singers always resort. Eut he took offence with one of the professors of the College, and left it, taking his scat among the congregation. He now published his intention of making a disturbance, solicited others to join witli him, and sang the last notes louder, and drew them out longer than the precentor, to the great disturbance of the congregation. The petitioner, on the other hand, pleaded that it was the sacred privilege of every member of the Church of Scotland to join in the Psalms, and said that the practice had gone on since the Reformation without confusion. Rut of late certain ladies and gentlemen, with masters of the College, had attempted to introduce a new method of singing, quicker than the former, and had brought in new tunes, consisting of three parts, altogether unknown to the congregation, which was made up mostly of farmers and mechanics, who had neither time nor abilities to learn this new method. The petitioner, after sitting for some time in the loft witli the singers, 15G STUDIES IN W OR SHIP MUSIC. began to doubt the righteousness of the new plan. He consulted men of his own rank, and finding them altogether averse to every innovation in religious worship, resolved, led by his conseience, to abandon the new method, which he looked upon as in its nature indifferent, but in its consequences sinful. How can the mind, lie asks, " rise to that height of rapture and devotion whilst it attends to quavers and semibreves ? " "Scrupulous niceties of that sort," he considers, "are incompatible with the sacred fire and transports of real devotion, and the worshipper is too apt to be forgot in the musician." .Gideon attributes his prosecution to the spleen aroused by his leaving the choir, and he closes with this forcible statement of his case, in which he shows all the sharpness of an Old Bailey counsel : — 11 The petitioner must be forgiven to consider your Lordship's refusal of the bill as a declaration and interdict, that no person has a right, or shall for the future under penalty, sing psalms, unless he understands music so perfectly as to be able to bear a part in complex compositions which few can understand, and still fewer can execute." Their lordships, however, were deaf even to this appeal, and again refused the bill. Whether Duncan went to prison, and there found leisure to sing the psalms at his own speed, or whether he paid his fine and found his securities, history does not say. As he was probably a cat's paw in the hands of cleverer and more wealthy people, let us hope that the money was paid, and that he lived and died a shining light in the singers' loft. Aberdeen has never to this day lost the impulse of the movement of 1754. A Psalmody Improvement Asso- ciation,, numbering fifty or sixty precentors, was estab- lished in 1854, and still exists. The musical director is Mr. Carnie, whose " Northern Psalter" is used by four churches out of every five in the North of Scotland, and by all denominations. Mr. Carnie has also prepared a " Precentor's Companion," which gives three suitable MR. GIL80N. 157 tunes for every hymn or psalm in the principal collections, ranged in the order of musical character. ]*ut to return. The news of the doings at Aberdeen Boon reached Edinburgh, and stirred the capital to action. On November 26th, 1754, the Town Council resolved that a master well skilled in the theory and practice of church music should be immediately employed to teach in the city. A collection of church tunes was to be published at a low price, and six or more schools were to he opi in different parts of the city. The teachers were to be such of the city precentors as were best qualified ; they were to teach the poor gratis; and the classes were to unite in a weekly meeting for singing church music in public. On April 9th, 175G, the committee chose from among the candidates a Mr. Cornforth Gilson, of Durham. The city precentors were ordered to attend the new music-master, who was soon employed from morning till night in teaching classes. The first specimen of his work was given at Heriot's Hospital on the first Monday of June. Mr. Gilson's scholars, aided by several children in the hospital, sang ten of the common tunes in four parts, without reading the line. Another performance of the same kind was given later on in the aisle of the New Church, and it was proposed to have a public meeting there every month of Mr. Gilson's scholars. 11 The spirit that discovers itself among people of all ranks." saya the Scots Magazine for June, 17oC>, " is so great as promises that in a short time the psalmody in our churches will be performed in a much more decent manner than formerly. In one of the churches in this city they have now begun to sing every Sunday without reading the line." Six months later we read that the improvement of church music is carried on with great success. Seven singing schools are open, taught by tried and qualified teachers who are named, one of them being a lady. The scholar's fee is 20d. per month. The poor are taught gratis ; the teachers receive half fees for them, which are 158 STUDIES IX irOPSJTIP MUSIC. raised in a charitable fund. Persons claiming this exemption have to show a certificate of poverty from an elder or deacon, and a certificate from Mr. Gilson that they are capable of being taught. The General Sessions of the city passed an act, which was read from every pulpit on December 12th, approving the work, and exhorting heads of families to encourage their children and servants to attend the schools. Among the men who took part in this work at Edinburgh was Robert Bremner, whose " Budirnents of Music, sold at his music shop at the ' Harp and Hautboy/ " appeared •in 1756. The second edition, which is much enlarged, followed in 1762. Writing at this date, he recapitulates the events of the past six years. " The improvements in a neighbouring county [♦.*., Aberdeen] opened the eyes of those in power here ; " and the committee already spoken of was formed, including ministers, Lords of Session, Barons of Exchequer, members of the Musical Society, and the whole Town Council. Eremner tells us that he was appointed to print the book of tunes which the com- mittee authorised, and that they are those which appear at the end of his little book. M They were no sooner published than an universal spirit diffused through all ranks. Men of seventy and boys of seven years old were at school together, and equally keen of instruction. Their diligence enabled the teachers to provide very fine concerts in a few weeks, there 'being no piece of education a teacher can surprise the public with so soon as church music. . . . In a few months, the former erroneous style of singing was entirely forgot.'' Eremner is, however, far from satisfied with the present state of things. He addresses himself first to " those in power/' and urges that the legislature should appoint a select number of psalm-tunes to be used in the established churches of Great Britain. The great hindrance to psalmody is, in his judgment, the changing of the tunes. If the Psalms were changed every month it would be no bar to public worship, for people can read, and would find BREMMER AG A IX. 159 no difficulty with new words. JUit it is im diflferenl with the tunes. An organist or church clerk may teach the tractable part of a congregation the tenor of a church tune, or, with length of days and indefatigable labour, may produce the four parts, but soon lie dies or leaves tin- place, and his successor is sure to introduce a new set of tunes. Thereupon, the congregation are struck dumb; the beautiful fabric is cast down. But if the times were everywhere the same, all would know them and sing them. People would be attracted to the church by the grandeur of the music, for the harmony of united parts would strike the soul with awe and reverence. Why should this be the only part of worship which is vague, and un- controlled by law ? Next he speaks to " church clerks and precentors in general," and gives them a few hints for the better con- ducting of this high act of devotion. In giving out a psalm-tune, he would have them begin the note as soft as possible, and swell the sound. The congregation will imitate, and " what a striking effect must the swell of probably a thousand voices have ! " It is hard to under- stand the beauty of this. Bremner, however, dwells chiefly on the evils of grace notes. He tells the pre- centors to introduce none of them, even where they would be agreeable, otherwise the congregation will follow the example, and go much further. If the fancy is once set free, it is uncertain where it will end. 11 Had these nonsensical graces been the same everywhere, it would have been the less matter, but every congregation, nay every individual had different graces to the same note, which were dragged by many to such an immoderate length that one corner of the church, or the people in one seat, had sung out the line before another had half done ; and from the whole there arose sucli a mass of confusion and discord as quite defaced this noblest part of divine worship. 11 Endeavouring once to convince an old man who was precentor in a country church, how absurd he rendered the music by allotting bo many different BOUndl to one syllable, when there was only one 1G0 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. intended, he replied, with a good deal of briskness, that he believed that the people of the present generation knew nothing of the matter; for his master was allowed to understand that affair thoroughly, and he told him that there ought to be eight quavers in the first note of the ' Elgin ' tune. M 1 know the argument you use is that, in giving out the tune* you are allowed to sing some time alone, till the congregation know what tune you are singing, and therefore you grace these few notes to make them the more agreeable to yourself and the audience, but that after they join you grace no more. This is a very groundless reason ; for would you only take the trouble to name the tune you are to sing before you begin, the congregation would strike in at the very f.rst note." Breinner was a practical musician. He speaks of him- self as a pupil of Geminani. He is opposed to Sol-faing, but Lis arguments against it apply only to the tetrachordal use of the syllables. Instead of the Sol-fa syllables, he would have his pupils sing A, B, C, &c, altering F to fa, as more vocal. He says, however, in a later part of the work, that tunes should be sung neither to letters nor Sol-faing, but at once to the words of a psalm, or of any poetry known to the pupils. He elaborates a plan for transposing a tune by the use of movable letters laid on the table, and arranged so as to show the semitones. His remarks on speed are interesting. A common house clock is his basis of measurement. Each tick of the clock marks a crotchet, two ticks mark a minim, and four ticks a semibreve. As the tunes in his collection are all written with a minim to a note, and as the old fashioned clocks tick once in a second, it follows that the rate would be expressed as 1M. 30. This, [it must be remembered, is the notion of a reformer. What the speed of the unreformed congregations must have been, it is painful to think. The survival of the old mode on the 6th of the scale is curiously illustrated by his remarks. He says that : — " The ' Dundee ' tune, which is allowed to excel any other of the flat [i.e., minor] tunes, has been laid aside by such precentors or church clerks as have been regularly taught, because they found it BREMNER' 8 PLANS. 161 was impossible to bring their congregations to fall at the half note which concludes the first and third measures of the church part [melody], they having been in use so many years past to fall a whole note, that is to sing G natural instead of G sharp (i.e., the natural seventh of the scale instead of the leading note). It is thai proposed, with the consent of the honourable committee, that these half notes in the church part may be transferred to the treble, and the treble notes substituted in their place, by which the tenor or church part will be rendered natural and easy, without making the least difference in the harmony. Bremner therefore alters the melody in this fashion : — Bremner adds some practical advice to precentors : — 11 If the line is not read (which is by far the better way), take care you do not crowd the music too fast on the congregation. When one line is sung, make a proper pause, that they all may be ready to begin the next line along with you. ... If more than sixteen lines are sung at once, the congregation will be apt to tire, and turn careless both of time and tune." The concluding chapter is entitled "A plan for teaching the four parts to any number a house will conveniently hold with as little trouble and as soon as to four people." The shorter title is " A plan for teaching a croud." Bremner tells us that he writes for those who " know no more of the matter than having been taught a few tenors in their infancy," and yet are called upon to teach church tunes. He supposes a teacher called to a town for this purpose. " Your first care must be to procure the countenance of the people of fashion. This done, the vulgar will readily follow their example, and you must be much more anxious about their attendance than the better sort, as they are only to be depended on for a good performance at church ; for, exclusive of being more numerous, they are very fond of being of consequence, and sing with spirit, with a view to keep all around ri^ht. whereas if a pOOX m UQ sing a little out M 162 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. of tune or true, all the gentry next him are immediately silenced. Your next difficulty will be to persuade the better sort to meet with the commons, but a little reasoning will convince them that it i> as reasonable to meet together to learn to praise God in a decent and proper manner, as it is to meet to perform that office." In his remarks on the difficulties that a popular musio teacher encounters, Eremner writes evidently from personal experience : — u If you have not heretofore taught in this manner, you will probably be discouraged when you find many of them have such wretched ears that they know not one sound from another, and therefore conclude it impossible to make any hand of them in this way ; but there is no other way you can propose so good. For did you engage with one of these awkwards alone, you would find your labour and lungs spent to no purpose. To evidence this, let it be supposed that you undertake to instruct one destitute of genius ; your first attempt will be to sing the scale with him. Very well. You give a sound ; but instead ol joining you, lie gives a different sound. What is next to be done? You must yield to him, and take his sound ; so far you agree. You then inform him that you will sing the note with him again, and afterwards rise to the next note. He immediately agrees, but when you rise the second, he pays no regard to you, but goes on with his first sound, without the least sensibility of the monstrous discord occasioned by the first and second being sung together ; on the contrary, if you tell him he does very well, he is very happy. If you then inform him that after he sings the first note he must make his voice rise higher to sing the second, he again agrees ; but when he comes to put it in practice he only adds loudness to the same sound ; and thus he will beat you down, and baffle all your efforts. Now, if he is amongst the crowd; they will in time either beat him down, or drive him alongst with them ; for it is rare if there be not ten to one against him, that is, ten that have some musical genius for one that has none." '; You may think from this that it were better to inform such that they cannot learn, and therefore entreat them not to come to school any more, as they confound the performance of the others. Thi* would only be making bad worse ; for though you get rid of them at school, there is no getting rid of them in church, where they are sure to make more noise than those that know the matter." Eremner is a bit of a philosopher ; witness his thoughts on the influence of the bagpipes : — BRENNER'S PLANS. 163 "It is an undeniable fact that the musical genius of the \ in some towns is much stronger than that of others ; and this may be owing to their having or wanting a town piper, or Borne such musicanto, to buzz a few little tunes in the children's ears. ... I am credibly informed that there is a piper in a neighbouring town that can only play one tune; and was you to walk through i corner of that town you could hear that tune, and no other, in the mouth of every child and servant there. Now, it' the piper and his tune were gone, that town would have no tune at all, and in course the people's ideas of musical sounds would in a Bhort tine- 1- entirely lost." Breinner instructs his readers how to divide the parts in a choir. If the school consists of 200 members, he would have 50 basses, 30 trebles, 15 counters, and 105 tenors or church part. The 30 trebles would be the best-tuned women's voices, the rest of the women being thrown into the tenor. "If you have in the course of these trials found any bad geniuso. be sure to allot them to the bass, as they will do less hurt there than in any other part." He adds this curious advice, that boys should, if necessary, be put to fill up the bass and counter parts, because, though they have treble voices, " their being males will sooner or later remove this defect." The choir should be arranged in this way : basses in the centre, and tenors (church part) behind them ; trebles on the right, and counters on the left, of the teacher. Bremner dwells with rapture on the grandeur of the plain chords of a psalm-tune, sung by a large company of voices. "If you have not," he says, "heretofore heard any such, and if you are not void of all manner of feeling, you will be lost in wonder and admiration at the grandeur of this performance.'1 He then tells us of the first performance of the kind that took place in Edinburgh. A teacher brought his pupils together from several classes to the number of 100. tk No sooner was the music begun, but a sort of dread and amazement seized every countenance ; some looked pale and ghastly, 164 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. others were in a chilly sweat, and many stared at they knew not what ; nay, the teacher himself, a thorough-bred chorister, was not only silenced, but wept excessively. . . . Some may be of opinion that this performance must have been defective without an organ or other instrument to strengthen or enliven the voices. But the want of these was the very cause of its excellency ; for their number gave life and strength, and their parts being both short and easy, enabled them to perform more justly in tune than any organ is capable of. Add to this that' the words sung (which are greatly blunted by instruments) were distinctly heard, without which vocal music is, at its best, dull and insipid." As to the rate of progress that may be expected from a class, Bremner reckons that (evidently with daily practice, for he speaks of several lessons occupying a week) they will learn a tune in its four parts every week. They ought to learn in twelve weeks twelve tunes, which is a sufficient number for any congregation. The teacher will, however, do well if he make his school master of twelve tunes in six months. The singers must sit together in a loft or part of the church, to keep them from confusion. All should sing tenor for three or four Sabbaths, and in that time no more than three tunes should be used. Continue the tenor, he says, until the ignorant have got a proper grip of it. Then let the singers strike off into their own parts. Eut even after that they may sing the tenor at the first verse, to help the people. Eremner' s book contains thirty tunes, six anthems, four canons for three voices, and eleven canticles. The psalmody revival, which had spread from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, spread also from Edinburgh to Glasgow. Here books similar to Eremner' s were published by John Girvan and John McLachlan. The movement, however, did not fulfil its early promise. The utmost that it did was to increase the number of tunes in use from twelve to- thirty or forty. It was, indeed, wanting in the elements of permanence. The only real way to spread music is to teach people to read it, and it is easy to see that Bremner' s- method was merely to teach by ear. PARAPHRASES. 165 The question of versifying other parts of Scripture than the Psalms was long agitated. The General Assembly of 1647-8-9 made deliverances on the subject, but nothing was done. More than half a century later (1706-7-8) the subject was revived, with no better success. In the Scots Magazine for March, 1748, there is a letter " On the design of enlarging our Psalmody, " by " Philosebus," who argues the question with much calmness, and throws some interesting side-lights upon the state of psalmody. The writer says that the General Assembly, in 1742, appointed some of their number to make or collect trans- lations in verse of passages of sacred writ, to be sung, together with the Psalms, in churches. In 1745, a specimen of their work was published, which he says has been transmitted by three different Assemblies to the Presbyteries for their consideration. He considers that the Psalms of David are largely unsuitable to our state and times. Imprecations against enemies, references to the Temple worship of the Jews, or to the personal affairs of the Psalmist, do not find a response in our hearts. This, he thinks, is the reason of the coldness and unconcern so frequently observable in the churches at the time of singing. When the sermon is over, the minister is at a loss to find a Psalm so adapted to his subject as to keep up the ardour and concern which he has raised in his hearers. The writer incidentally mentions that the precentor is sometimes allowed, Sunday after Sunday, to go through the whole of the Psalms, portion after portion, without any adaptation to the service. It was probably a pre- centor of this sort who was the victim of a practical joke on the part of some wags at Harrington Parish Church. They are said to have pasted a piece of the ballad of 11 Chevy Chace " at the place where the precentor had left his mark. The poor man sang on in innocence, but was afterwards heard to say that he had sung the Psalms of David for forty years, but never before found anything 1G6 STUDIES IN irOR SHIP MUSIC. about Douglas or Percy in them. A later writer in the Scots Magazine (May, 1 SOI), says that some ministers are in the habit of picking out couplets here and there from the Psalms, so as to get the thoughts they want. The discussion on the paraphrases lasted for many years, and the opposition to them died very hard. Many old people tore them indignantly from their books, or pasted them to the boards. The collection of 1749 included forty-five paraphrases, and the full number of sixty-seven was published in 1781, with permission to use them in worship. Several influences were at work at the beginning of the present century, to increase the number and change the style of the tunes used. Florid compositions from England, and adaptations of all kinds took the place of the old Psalter tunes, while for the first time in the history of Scottish psalmody, the precentors, aided some- times by a select band of singers, took the music out of the hands of the congregation. In East Calder, a pre- centor was forcibly ejected from his desk by an elder, while singing a repeating tune. Dr. Pegg, in his autobiography, describes an extremely popular minister, Mr. Power, of Old Monkland, who, among other things,, disliked very much new and ranting tunes. Preaching on one occasion in a church where the precentor was alleged to be fond of novelties, he leant over the pulpit after giving out the Psalm, and giving him a smart tap with the Psalm book on the head, said : " Xow come, gie us nane o' your lilts." John AYilson, the Scottish vocalist, used to attract large congregations to the Roxburgh Place Pelief Church at Edinburgh, to listen to his singing of orna- mental roulades. A fashionable congregation at Edinburgh had a clever singer for a precentor, who held forth in the same style, and, owing to his drunken and improvident habits, they had to keep a suit of clothes for him in the Session House. R. A. SMITH. 167 Between 1820 and 1 830, an Important movement was inaugurated by R. A. Smith, who was originally a w< boy. Smith won his spurs at Paisley, Ee used to Bay thai at the Abbey Church there, he had succeeded in getting all the Bin gin g to himself and the choir, except for one old woman, who, in her own words, " Wad praise the Lord wi1 a' her micht, whether she kent the tune or no." Dean Hum say says : — fl 1 recollect at Banchory an honest fellow, who Bang so loud that lie annoyed his fellow-worshippers, and the minister even rebuked him for 'skirling' so loud. James was not quite patient under these hints, and declared to some of his friends that he was resolved to sing to the praise of God, as he said, ' gin 1 should crack the waas o' the houss.' " It was for the choir rather than the congregation that Smith worked. From Paisley lie removed to St. Geo] Church, Edinburgh, where, in conjunction with Dr. Andrew Thomson, his chief work was done. Dr. Thomson was himself a musician, and the singing of Smith and his choir was famed throughout the length and breadth of Scotland. Old men still remember this time, when, in spit< what had been done in a few city churches, but six or seven tunes, the remnant of the orthodox twelve, were sung in ordinary congregations. These were " French," "Dundee," "Newton" (New London), "Stilt" (York), "Bangor," " Coleshill," and " Martyrs." 11 At a time not far remote," says the Rev. Andrew Duncan in " The Scottish Sanctuary," " the introduction of a new tunc was apt to give offence to the older people; and I remember being told that, on one occasion, the precentor in the congregation with which I am connected, having, in the forenoon, sung a tune then recently composed, the elders were so highly displeased, that they determined he should be kept out of the desk in the afternoon, and one of them- Belves should take his place. The gravest of these seniors, accordingly, went into the desk; and with the view, perhaps, of counteracting as much as possible the evil that had been done, or of exhibiting a most emphatic testimony against it, he chose a very old and venerable tune to begin with; but being one that had been out 168 STUDIES IX WORSHIP Mr SIC. of use for a generation or more, it was known to few or none of the people ; and not only so, but he seemed to have forgotten it himself, and after some painful and unsuccessful attempts to proceed would have stuck altogether, had not the displaced and disgraced precentor generously come to his aid." The utmost point of slowness had been reached, M. 30, or two seconds to a note, being a common speed for the old syllabic tunes. A story is told of a minister from England, accustomed to quicker singing, preaching in a Scottish church. He listened to the 100th Psalm, which calls upon the people to " sing to the Lord with cheerful voice/ ' drawled out in the slowest fashion. When it was over, he exclaimed, " If this is your joy, what is your lamentation ! " The consequence of this sloth was, that only fragments of the Psalms could be sung ; twelve lines was a common selection, sixteen more usual, twenty were sung at a stretch, and twenty-four never. This state of things continued till 1848. The newer repeating tunes were sung faster, but these were eminently unsuitable for Psalms, whose lines are seldom capable of repetition. Mr. John Strathesk, in " Bits from Blinkbonny," notices the effect of the disruption of 1843 upon the psalmody of the Free Church. The book is cast in the form of fiction, but its spirit is real : — " Not the least observable matter in the new state of things, was the additional meaning and force found in the Psalms of David. Possibly they are best adapted for a militant, progressive, almost agitated state of the Church. In our parish church, by the same people, they had been listlessly sung, and seldom ' entered into,' but in the new church, even in the reading of them by the minister, there was new light thrown on old Psalms. Many in the congrega- tion could be seen giving an appreciative nod, and if nearer them you would have heard a very slight ' hem,' which meant, ■ I didn't observe that before.' " Joseph Mainzer, who was much in Scotland, published in 1845 his " Standard Psalmody of Scotland," in which he endeavours to recall attention to the treasures which John Knox's Psalter contains. AVith much eloquence, he All Kill) KEN. 169 recounts the use made of ringing by the Covenant, rs. Even " at the gates of eternity they sang their farewell to a life of sorrow ; their forgiveness to a world of persecution." He remarks that the Protestants of the Continent cling to the Reformation tunes as a sacred trust, while in Scotland they are inedited and forgotten. " What," he exclaims, " can be more touching, more imbued with meekness, confidence, and piety, than the [tune of the] 119th Psalm, 1 with me thy servant in thy grace.' Is there, in any collection of any country, a tune in which trust, hope, and triumph, after days of grief and calamity, are expressed in more elevating, in deeper felt melodious strains, than the 124th, ' Now Israel may say, and that truly ? ' Why is this tune, which is nowhere to be found but in the Scottish Psalmody, why is this monument, both of Scottish sacred music and of Scottish history, forgotten in the mouth of the Scottish nation ? And why has this tune been discarded, in all collections, for one borrowed from abroad ; one by no means com- parable to it, either in feeling, in power, or in melodious expression ?' This is the tribute of a German, and for this reason it has all the more weight. Mainzer gave proof of hi8 appreciation of the old tunes by including a number of them in the volume to which these remarks are the preface. Mr. William Smith, merchant, of Aberdeen, published in 1844 the first number of the "People's Tune Book," which was sold by thousands. In Aberdeen, congrega- tional meetings were steadily held to practise its contents. Privately edited collections were published at this period by Stevens and Robertson in Glasgow, by Davie in Aberdeen, &c. The Free Church, however, deserve the credit of first taking corporate action for the improvement of psalmody. The first committee was appointed soon after the Disruption, and produced its selection of ninety tunes in 1845. The style of this little work was stricter than the prevailing taste would support, and, as a consequence, some seven years later, the Committee addressed the other churches on the subject of a new tune-book. The aim was to produce a book whose tunes 170 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. should be common to all the Presbyterian churches, just as the Psalms are. The other churches replied, iu effect, "you do the work, aud we will accept it." The first edition of the "Scottish Psalmody" (1852), was the result. At this point there was a pause. A new hook had "been provided, but the power to read music was wanting. This power came through the Tonic Sol-fa movement. The Rev. A. Lowrie, of East Calder, who had been on a visit to London (1852), was the first to introduce the method into Scotland, and shortly after (1855), Mr. Curwen gave a series of lectures in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The adoption of the new notation was very rapid. It was everywhere eagerly received, and has spread until it may now be described as universal in Scotland. Hately was the musical editor of the "Scottish Psalmody," and he called attention to the forgotten wealth of Knox's Psalter. The "Scottish Psalmody" was at first used by all parties, but gradually the other churches produced their own books, and left it to the Free Church, who had originated it. The precentors have always been a chief power in Presbyterian psalmody. The old-fashioned precentor was too often ignorant and conceited ; a man whose opinion of himself was in inverse proportion to his knowledge of music. It was an old remark in praise of a precentor that "he*had a voice that filled the kirk," and Eremner tells us that in the old times, " when a precentor was wanted, the principal qualification was poverty, and a loud voice for reading the line, it being a matter of no consequence whether he knew a note of the music or not." ^In remote villages, such a man may sometimes now be found. Probably he is the village shoemaker or postman, and in the little pulpit which serves as a reading desk, he is supreme and awful. He has disagreeable tricks in singing, such as making faces, standing on tiptoe for high notes, and linking the end of one word to the PRECENTORS. 171 beginning of the next. He pitches the tunes haphazard, and nearly always lias them too high. But in his own judgment, he is a light of the musical world, and he regents, with the self-possession of a veteran, any attempts to interfere with tradition. Happily, the old precentor is dying out, and the new one who is taking his place is a much better man. The Tonic Sol-fa method, and the system of certificates and correspondence classes connected with it, has encouraged a far deeper study of the nature and laws of music than was possible to the average student before. Precentors now understand something of the management and training of the voice, of the sympathetic adaptation of hymns to tunes, as well as of musical art and notation. Moreover, though they retain their name, precentors are fast subsiding into choir- masters and congregational instructors. Instead of singing the air, chiefly as a solo, they train a choir to had the congregation, and the congregation itself to sing in harmony. This is far better. The custom of choosing a precentor by popular vote, after hearing several candidates for the office sing at the service on successive Sabbaths, still prevails, but it is defective, because it takes no account of the power to train a choir or congregation. The plan of referring the choice to a church committee is in every way superior. Sometimes a competent judge is called in to examine the candidates, and to present a k' short leet" to the committee. There can be no doubt that the choice of uneducated men for the precentor's desk has done much to disgust the more cultured congre- gations of the towns with the system, and has disposed them to favour organs. The future of Scottish psalmody depends very much on whether the precentors continue to advance in musical and general culture as they have done. The salaries paid to precentors compare by no means unfavourably with those paid to organists in England. The smallest are in villages, ranging from 1*8 172 STUDIES IX WORSHIP 2IUSIC. to £10. In the towns of the second rank, there are no salaries over £40 or £50. In Glasgow and Edinburgh, there are a fevr posts worth £80. Choirs, which are now so common, especially in the towns, are a growth of the last ten or twenty years. There was at first great prejudice against them. Gradually, however, the pre- centor left his box, and became a choirmaster. The full work of a precentor now consists in superintending the singing on Sabbath day, training the choir, and holding elementary music classes for the children and for the congregation at large. The choir is often dignified by the name of the "Psalmody Association," and studies high class music and oratorios as well as the service music. An admirable plan is commonly adopted in organising the choir. The Psalmody Association, made up of qualified singers, holding its weekly practice, will, perhaps, consist of fifty or sixty members, while the choir which sits around the precentor will number less than twenty. The rest of the members are seated among the congregation, and every month — sometimes every Sunday — those who have been sitting round the precentor give place to another section of their fellow-members. The great advantage of this plan is obvious. The scattered members of the choir permeate the congregation with both tune and time. The acting choir gives no trouble, for it is no longer a clique which knows itself to be indispensable, but a small section of a larger body. The order and custom of public service in the Presby- terian churches is gradually changing. The Free Church preserves the old customs most strictly. Here the people, as a rule, sit to sing and stand (the men at least) to pray, though the habit of standing to sing is spreading every- where. The Established Church is more free in its plans ; anthems are sung by the choir in some churches, and two or three congregations — one of them Dr. A. K. H. Boyd's at St. Andrews — have introduced prose chanting. BATTLE OF TIF ft IlYMXs. 173 The battle of the hymns has been fought and won inch by inch. The Reformed Presbyterians, who date from the Revolution settlement of 1688, use to this day nothing but psalms ; not even paraphrases, much less hymns. United services are occasionally held by the various evangelical bodies in some Seottisb towns in which Presbyterians of all shades, Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists, &c, unite. On these occasions the presence of the Reformed Presbyterian minister has to be purchased by the omission of all but psalms from the service. The paraphrases are very popular, and are very generally used. They carry with them the Bible authority, and are not mere " human composures. " The United Presbyterians are the most liberal in their use of hymns, and have led the way in their adoption ; but even they usually begin a service with a psalm. The Free Church do not at present generally sing hymns in the service. Even Dr. Horatius Bonar, to whom the Christian Church owes so many beautiful hymns, never joins in a hymn in his own church at Edinburgh. * It is curious, however, to notice how commonly Free Church ministers close their sermons by repeating, often entire, a hymn bearing on the subject that fills their minds. They read what custom forbids them to sing ; for a good hymn irresistibly attracts and condenses religious thought. Although hymns are not a part of the Free Church service proper, it is a common custom of late years to hold a supplementary service at • Dr. Horatius Bonar is known wherever the English language is spoken as one of the greatest of living hymn-writers, and it lias often been remarked by strangers who visited his church in Edinburgh, as something passing strange, that hymns were rigidly excluded from the services there. That is no longer the case now ; but the change has not taken place without very considerable disturbance in the congregation. Several of the elders have resigned, quite a number of people are said to have raised their hands to their mouths when the first hymn was given out, while Professor Smeaton, the leader of the Oppo- sition, lifted his hat, and walked out. Ho runs the rumour, ami Mr. BfcEwan in the 8iqnal rates Dr. Bonar very soundly for his wickedness in introducing such an innovation. It is pitiful to witness such a display of narrowness towards the end of the nineteenth century, and to think that any who have enjoyed the 1" n- tit of i)r. Bonar' s minis! rations, should offer 1 » strenuous a ' auce to the singing of his hymns. -Christian World, 1888. 171 STUDIES IN ironsnip MUSIC. which Moody and Sankey's hymns are used. The custom of "reading the line " has entirely disappeared. The minister reads the whole portion of the psalm or the hymn straight through, and then repeats the first sentence, after which the people sing. Even the custom of reading the hymn through is being dropped. The old habit of allowing the precentor or choir to sing the first line alone is still preserved in many places, though the tune is generally given out. So strongly does tradition dominate over us all. The three leading churches have all taken organised action to improve the status of precentors, and to encourage congregational song. They all have psalmody committees which make annual reports of progress ; these papers contain much valuable information on the state of psalmody, its hindrances and its successes. Certificates are granted to precentors upon a practical examination which tests them not only in theoretical knowledge, but in sight-singing, power to detect wrong notes, use of the voice, and ability to train a choir. The Established Church goes further, and has three travelling inspectors, who go from church to church, judge the results of a precentor's work, and award him a grant in augmentation of Ins salary if it is satisfactory. The annual reports of these inspectors are full of interest. The Eree Church has an organising secretary to its Psalmody Committee, who stirs up interest by lectures and addresses among the congregations. The U.P. Church has done something in the way of sending out travelling teachers to revive the psalmody of a district. It has also held elementary and advanced classes in Glasgow for training precentors. Each of the three churches has issued authorised music-books, containing both words and tunes. We have already noticed the "Scottish Psalmody" of 1852, of which a revised edition was published in 1873. The Established Church issued the first edition of its tune- COLLECTIONS OF PSALMODY. 175 book in 1868, Mr. Walter Hately and Mr. T. K. Longbottom being the editors. The completed edit ion of the psalter and hymnal were issued in 1872, nnder the editorship ol Mr W. H. Monk. The U.P. Chnrcli engaged Mr. Henry Smart as musical reviser of their new service books, issued in 1878. The psalters of all the churches have tunes and words in the same cover, but the pages of the words are cut apart from those of the tunes, so that any tune can be brought to open with any hymn. The tunes are arranged metrically ; the U.P. Psalter further classifies them according to their character, beginning with subdued, and passing on to bold and jubilant. The Hymnal gives the words and music on the same opening, after the plan of " Hymns Ancient and Modern." There are advantages as well as disadvantages in this uniformity. A good deal of discontent is caused by the alteration of time-worn harmonies to old tunes in several books, and the proverbial disagreement of musical people is fully sustained. The Presbyterian Church of England has also similar publi- cations. The English worshipper is struck by the impressive silence which precedes the commencement of worship in a Presbyterian Church. Whether it be from a sense of contrast or what, the stillness seems to speak more eloquently to the heart than the strains of an organ. In all churches but the Free Church, organs are rapidly spreading, but where they are adopted, voluntaries are seldom played either before or after worship. An organist in Scotland is at present a vara avis, and commands a good salary. That organs will in a few years be universal in Scotland is evident to any who notice the Anglican spirit which is infecting the Presbyterian service. "Hymns Ancient and Modern, " and other English collections, are to be found in the houses of all educated persons, and since the visit of Mr. Sankey, harmoniums and 17G STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. American organs have become very common. It is the undoubted tendency of organs to call off interest and responsibility from congregational singing, and Presby- terians will have to guard very carefully against the evils that English psalmody has suffered from the injudicious use of this grand instrument. Presbyterian psalmody may be said to have been subject to three influences ; the first Genevan, felt at the publication of John Knox's Psalter in 1564, the second Methodistical, felt (only as regards tunes) at the close of the last century and later, and the last Anglican, felt within the ten or fifteen years just passed- From all these influences it has benefited. It is, in fine, rapidly becoming a very different thing to what English people generally suppose it to be. In churches where the movement of the last twenty-five years has borne its full fruit, we hear in place of the nasal voice of a precentor singing a long-drawn Psalm, the sweet and pure chording of unaccompanied voices, a speed which is devotional without being wearisome, and a very fair attempt at congregational part-singing. The Tonic Sol-fa movement has taught the people to sing, and the results are far more artistic, as well as far more spiritual, than those of the old regime. PART II-PRACTICAL 179 THE ORGAN IN DIVINE SERVICE. When beneath the nave High arching, the cathedral organ 'gins Its prelude, lingeringly exquisite Within, retired, the bashful Bweetness dwells; Anon like sunlight, or the floodgate rush Of waters, bursts it forth — clear, solemn, full, It breaks upon the mazy fretted roof; It coils up round the clustering pillars tall ; It leaps into the cell-like chapels ; strikes Beneath the pavement sepulchres ; at once The living temple is instinct, ablaze With the uncontroll'd exuberance of sound. Quoted by H. H. Milman, ,1828. The enormous multiplication of organs during the last thirty years has caused a demand for organists far greater than the possible supply. Men still living can remember the time when organs were very seldom found outside the Church of England. The Methodists, Independents, and Baptists rarely had them, and by the Presbyterians they were stoutly opposed. But since these bodies began to introduce organs, the adoption of them has been Bteady and unchecked. Even the Presbyterians tire giving way, and if we read the future by the past, we can hardly doubt that, in a few years, unaccompanied singing will very seldom be heard. Yet, even in the Church of England itself, organs did not obtain admission without much controversy. The lso STUDIES TN WORSHIP MUSIC. Rev. J. H. Overton, M.A., in his "Life in the English Church/' 1660-1714, says :— u No part of the church furniture had suffered more severely in the devastation of the Puritans than the organs. The erection of an organ in the chapel of St. John's College, Oxford, was considered a decisive proof of Laud's popish tendencies, and Milton was quite an exception among the Puritans in his love of this species of church music. Even churchmen were not quite agreed upon the point. Jeremy Taylor gives but a reluctant permission to the use of organs in churches. Stillingfleet was of opinion that ' harmonious voices were sweeter when unaccompanied,' and that ' riddles and flutes,' and harpsichords even, in some people's opinion, could never be accom- modated to purposes of devotion. But he adds, ' I see no objection to the thing itself (instrumental music), and some years later (1698, the ' Dialogues ' were in 1686), he defended ' the use of organical music in the public service against the charge of its being a Levitical service.' It was more frequently charged with having a popish tendency. Both charges were answered, it need hardly be said with immense learning, by Henry Dodwell, in his treatise • Of the Lawfulness of Instrumental Musick in Holy Offices,' written in 1698, owing to a dispute which had arisen on the setting up of a new organ at Tiverton in 1696. In the same year, Gabriel Towerson preached a sermon ' concerning vocal and instrumental music in the church,' at the opening of a new organ at S. Andrew Undershaft. The erection had evidently met with opposition, for, after speaking of vocal music, the preacher proceeds, ' I must not expect to pass on so smoothly while 1 deliver my opinion concerning that singing and making melody which is attended with that of musical instruments.' The reintroduction of the organ into churches was gradual. Within a month of the Restoration, Pepys records, * This day the organs did begin to play before the king ;' and on November 4th, 1660, ' To the Abbey, where the first time that I- ever heard the organs in a cathedral ;' and on April 4th, 1667, ' To Hackney. Here 1 was told that at their church they have a fair pair of organs, which play while the people sing, which I am mighty glad of, wishing the like at our cnurch in London, and would give £50 towards it.' But the organ was not the only instrument that was used in churches. We hear of cornets in Westminster Abbey in 1667 ; of fiddlers in red vests in the same church ; of wind music at Durham ; and of the fiddlers being expelled by the queen (Mary), from S. James's Chapel Royal in 1689. By the time of Queen Anne, the lawfulness, and even the desirableness of instrumental music in church was fairly THE 'ERECTION OF ORGANS. 181 established; and we hear little or nothing on the subject dorij reign." It is far easier to mala1 an organ than an organist. The instrument is ready in a few months; the player is the slow result of years. The organ, moreover, is an instrument which allows boundless scope for indiscretion ; its very capabilities are its weakness in the hands of an injudicious or ignorant player. Those organists are fortunate who have sat for a year or two by the side of a. wise and masterful player, and formed their taste upon his model. But, unfortunately, only a small proportion of the rank and file of our organists have been trained. This is their misfortune, and not their fault. They in youth to play in public, and henceforward they have only the rarest chances of hearing the work of men better than themselves. An organist listens to a service as seldom as a preacher to a sermon. The consequence is that the path of improvement is difficult. Players of natural taste and enthusiasm, penetrated with the higher purpose of their art, work their way to excellence, but the majority remain at a dead level of incompetence — early faults are stereotyped, and the service is played with lifeless monotony. It is interesting to remind ourselves how recent is the general erection of organs in churches. Drs. Arnold and Callcott, in the preface to their edition of the Psalms, dated 1791, speak of " country parochial choirs . . . where generally no other bass than a violoncello or a bassoon is used." Up to quite recent times also, the dearth of players was met by the use of " barrel-organs " and "dumb organists" in churches. It is only thirty years since church barrel-organs began to go out of use. At that time there would have been found in the Church of England, all the country over, a considerable majority of barrel-organs over those played by the hands and feet. A barrel generally held eight tunes; four barrels were the 182 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC, utmost that were made. The duties of the "organist" under those circumstances were manifestly simple — they were confined to turning the handle. A " dumb organist" was a barrel placed outside the organ case, above the key-board. The barrel was covered with frets, which pressed down the black and white keys as the barrel went round, and thus played a tune. This contrivance was generally removable, so that the fingers of a living player could take its place. Organs fitted up in this way may still be seen in country churches. The multiplication of pianoforte players has made this expedient no longer necessary. In the most remote places, there is generally some one to be found who can play — after a fashion at least. Whether the change has always been for the better may, however, be doubted. Barrel-organs did not play wrong notes ; they kept to tunes which the congregation knew ; and when they played the tune over, it was always possible to recognise it. The only barrel-organ I have met with in actual use at the present time (1880), is one at the old parish church of East Ham, Essex, not more than six miles from the General Post Office. The maker is J. C. Eishop ; the instrument has a good tone; it stands 14 feet high in its case ; and its stops are Open Diapason, Dulciana, Stopped Diapason, •Principal, 12th, and 15th, which can be drawn according to the judgment of the performer. There are four barrels, with the following repertoire : — 1st Barrel. Devizes, CM. Old 100th, L,M. Easter Hymn, P.M. Shirland, S.M. Portuguese Hymn, L.M. St. Botolph's, CM. Gainsboro', C.M. Martin's Lane, P.M. Manchester, CM. Wiltshire, CM. St. Stephen's, CM. A ONCE FAMOUS BARREL ORGAN AT OLD BILTON, ENGLAND (See next page) BARREL ana ASS. 183 2nd BarreL Harlow, CM. Luther's Hymn, L.M. Doncaster, D.G.M. Hanover, P.M. St. Matthew, D.C.M. i Morning Hymn, L.M. Mornington'a Chant (Nunc Evening Hymn, L.M. Dimittis) Wareham, L M. Crotch's Chant (Magnificat). | Bedford, CM. 1 London New, (J.M. 4th Barrel. Battishill's Chant (Te Deum) Snffield, L.M. ! St. Miry, CM. Eaton. L.M. St.Bride's, S.M. Surrey, L.M. Jones's Chant (Jubilate) Pleyel's D.C.M. Stockport. L.M. 3rd Barrel. Sheldon, CM. Sanctissima, L.M. Irish, C.M, Zion, L.M. Abridge, CM. Ephesus, L.M. Bellefield, CM. Warminster, L.M. Gloria Tibi University. C.M. I will arise. Abingdon, C.M. I recently persuaded the old man who lias turned the organ for forty years to give me a recital. It was of no use, he assured me, for any one to play that organ who 2 had no ear for music. He explained how, at the reciting notes of the chants, he had to pause in his turning ; how he gave a rallentando at the end of the hymn ; and how he i piled on the stops at the successive lines of a repenting tunc The barrels are solid cylinders, about ten inches in diameter, and five feet long. Those not in use stand in a box by the organ. The player takes his place at the rear of the organ, blows the bellows with his Left foot, and turns the handle with his right hand. The tunes move at a stately pace, M. 60 on an average. A short pause between each line, and a longer one between each e, is provided by the mechanism. The pedal note sounds first, and the time proceeds without "gathering notes," but with a good many turns, and suspended fourths in the cadences. The organ in question was built for St. John's Church, Stratford, but was turned out of 164 STUDIES IN WOR sin p MUSIC. that church nearly forty years ago, when it was taki East Ham. It is about forty-three years old, and must have been one of the best of its class. Listening to its quaint tunes, one sees most vividly the old psalmody, and realises its strength and its weakness. Alas for the old customs ! a subscription is already being started to convert the instrument into an ordinary key-board organ. * In cathedrals, the use of other instruments than the organ is an ancient practice, lately revived. Walcott, in his " Traditions of Cathedrals," thus tersely summarises the case : — 11 Viols were employed at Exeter, musical instruments at Lincoln in 1631, and the lyre and harp at Hereford; cornets and sackbuts were played at Worcester at the reception of Elizabeth, August 13th, 1575, and in 1613. In 1667, cornets were used at Westminster. Pepys humorously mentions ' the fiddlers in red vests ' playing in the Abbey. At Durham and York, when Lord Guildford visited those minsters, * wind music in the choir' had been only recently disused. Brane, however, mentions, twenty years later, in 1700* i the rich copes and melodious musick of all sorts ' at Durham. At Canterbury- among the members of the foundation, Laud appointed, in 1636, two sackbutteers and two corneteers. The choristers of Norwich were required to play on various kinds of musical instru- ments, the statutes prescribing the service to be sung canta organis et jubilationibus. Ravenscroft, in 1621, wrote for organs, lutes, harps, &c. P. Smart complained of pipers at Durham during the Holy Communion. Organs and violins are mentioned at St. Paul's, in a coarsejy irreverent work. On November 12th, 1702, and in 1700, the ' Te Deum ' was sung in that cathedral with vocal and instrumental music, and at the Feast of the Sons of the Clergy, December 8th, 1720. On August 6th, 1788, a full band of music played at the service in Worcester cathedral." The organ is often spoken of as " the king of instru- ments," "the church orchestra," &c. Its undoubtedly fine qualities are praised to such an extent that its defects are forgotten. It is, however, highly important that we * The Rev. H. Parr, vicar of Toxford, Suffolk, -writes :— " A barrel organ of good tone, playing both tunes and chants, was in use in Toxford church up to 1868. There is one still (1884) at Knoddishall, a small parish in the neighbourhood. 0I!(; AX TONE. 185 should impartially weigh it- strong and weak poii bs. [1 most serious defect for the purposes of tional music is want of accent. It cannol give more tn .one nolo than to another, and the very name in musi a tone which is equally loud during its whole Length is in tune." Singing Led by an organ alwa^ monotonous and heavy, and Loses its accent. and dim. of the swell organ must not for a moment be confused with what is here meant by accent. The swell alters the expression of tones after they have begun to sound; accent is a way of attacking them. There is nothing in the organ corresponding to the ''bite" of a double-bass player, which gives such a swing and solidity to orchestral music. The following passage from the " Kompositions-Lehrer " of Marx, the German theorist, is to some extent fanciful, but is, on the whole, very true : — u The want of elasticity in organ tone is most noticeable in this, that consecutive sounds are not only not merged and blended as is the case with stringed and wind instruments and the Binging voice, but that they admit no crescendo or decrescendo. no change from forte to piano, except through what can he obtained from various registering of the whole. Every Bound of the organ, the Boftest as well as the strongest, is hard and unchangeable like a column, and is, in Bpite of its natural Btrength and sweetness, Lifeless. While, on the other hand, all living things are for ever changing, transforming, waxing and waning, consolidating, inflecting, and even testify to their vitality by sinking and rising again, thus claiming our immediate sympathy as the echoes of the pulsation of our own mind. In this respect, therefore, the organ is unsympathetic and foreign to our innermost life, of which, as o( all other life, the chief characteristic is motion and change. In every voice, in every combination of voices, the organ gives us the same unchanged expression, and every individual sound from first to last is unvarying and rigid, however soft and Bweei it- material may he. This is the unsympathetic and nonhuman, because unliving, aspect of this instrument . bo admirable in other respects." Sir llobert Stewart, writing to a Dublin paper (April 20th, 1880), mentions this weakness of the organ. 186 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. He had gone into St. Patrick's Cathedral one Sunday afternoon, and seated himself in an unobserved corner, taking, as it were, a perspective view of the music : — 11 At four o'clock all the bells stopped, and while they were being swung down one by one, the organ began a tasteful prelude in the key of B minor (two sharps). The want of any accent in the organ tone struck me at once. The sounds went wandering about without point of any sort, much more vague than when 1 heard them close to the keys. The pedals, however, sounded better, softer, and deeper down westward ; hut the general want c: accent is most distressing to a musician." The real value of the organ, when properly used, is that it floods the building with sound, so that timid worshippers are encouraged to sing. They are encouraged because they do not hear their own voices, and because it is easier to sing when the way is smoothed by instru- mental accompaniment. The musical effect, also, is improved by the organ ; harsh and loud voices are levelled ; the interstices, as it were, are filled up, and the congregational voice is rounded into harmonious unity. The work of the modern organist divides itself into two parts — playing voluntaries, and accompanying the voices of the choir and congregation. As regards the voluntaries, the vulgar notion is that the opening one should be as soft, and the closing one as loud, as possible. Some organists have such an unvarying habit of making a deafening noise as the congregation retire, that it is necessary to make for the door with all speed after the benedibtion, lest one should get caught in the storm. Such a habit is in the worst taste. The only possible excuse for the voluntaries is that they assist the service* That music without words may minister to the religious feeling is a fact to which the experience of most people bears witness. The organist should rise to the spiritual importance of his duty, and seek to make his voluntaries harmonise with the spirit of the worshippers. It is quite true that, as a general rule, that spirit will be more ORGAN VOLUNTARIES, 187 jubilant at the close than at the beginning of the service, but one often finds the solemn and subdued tone of a sermon dissipated by a flippant and incongruous con- cluding voluntary. jSTo doubt the majority of organists choose their pieces beforehand, without reference to the sermon,, but it is highly desirable that all should have two or three pieces in different styles ready for use. In the opening voluntary, it is a good deal the custom for the organist to extemporise, and when this can be well done, it is perhaps best. The voluntary has to cease with the entry of the minister, and to a player who appreciates form and design, it is distressing, on the one hand, to stop before the end of a piece, or, on the other hand, to have to tack on a postscript to some one else's conclusion, in order to fill up time. Extemporising is, however, a most difficult art, and one hardly dares to recommend ordinary players to attempt it in public. The extemporising that is commonly heard is of a most melancholy kind. Timeless and halting, the music waits for the ideas of the player, who, when he can think of no more chords, draws a solo stop, and holds on a single note while he attempts to move the harmony underneath. A string of cadences, long drawn out, takes the place of connected thought. The whole is diversified with endless " swell pumping ; " and a convenient way of resolving a discord that defies the player's theory is to shut the swell, and let some concord emerge from the silence. It is only the most fluent extemporisers who are able to keep up a metronomic speed ; to give a distinct form and movement to their thoughts, or to impart cohesion to their ideas by thematic treatment. "We cannot, therefore, venture to recommend organists to extemporise unless they feel that they have a talent, natural or acquired, for the art. The majority will do well to be satisfied with the well- considered thoughts of other musicians, and the awkward- ness of expansion and contraction must be got over as well as may be. 188 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. The organist who has a repertoire of pieces may often minister to the service by the happy choice of a voluntary that chimes in with the occasion : the Dead March on the occasion of some sudden national calamity; " In native worth " before a wedding ; " How lovely are the messen- gers!" before the first service conducted by a new minister in his church. Pieces like these catch the passing mood of the congregation, and deepen the impression. On the other hand, Ebdon's Nunc Dimittis, which I once heard as a concluding voluntary, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace," as the people were going out, was rather mock-heroic. It was almost as ill placed as the anthem, " Blest are the departed," which is said to have been sung on one occasion at York Minster in a special service for the cattle plague. Interludes between lines and verses are now generally given up. The interlude between every line is not heard out of Lutheran churches, but in England the interlude before the last verse has not wholly gone out of fashion. Regarding the hymn as carrying the sacred thoughts and aspirations of the congregation, it is a most disturbing- thing to interpose a break just at the place where the feeling of the poet generally reaches its most intense point. Some hymns there are where a pause between certain verses might profitably be introduced, but this custom disregards the words, and parts, with a ruthless hand, the sense of the poet. Besides this, it is a difficult thing to play an interlude in sympathy with both the tune and hymn. As with other efforts at extemporising, the organist will less easily satisfy himself in this as his musical feeling ripens. It would be a difficult task for the minister to stand up before the last verse, and, in a couple of sentences, to catch and sustain the emotion of the congregation ; and to a conscientious organist, alive to the higher aspect of his work, it is hardly less difficult to produce an appropriate interlude. POSTLUDES. 189 . But though interludes are indefensible, postludes might more generally be introduced, especially after the hymn before the sermon. At the close of every hymn, a few chords may add to the triumph or the subdued pathos of the words ; but the hymn before the sermon may be followed by a longer postlude, while the bustle of the congregation is subsiding. T have a friend, a painstaking- organist, who has composed a series of postludes to the tunes commonly used in his church. They are all thematic, and treat a part of the melody with new harmony or rhythm, or take up a few notes of it, and imitate by sequence and modulation. His manuscript book of post- ludes lies before him, and he opens it at the tune he is about to play. The postludes are short, seldom more than eight measures, and their effect is very pleasing/" A hint may be given to organists who play preludes and interludes. There is no need to come to a tonic cadence at the close, and the interest is thrown forward by ending on the dominant or dominant seventh, or on the dominant of the relative minor. It is remarkable that this device is not more commonly used. In playing to voices, whether of the choir or congrega- tion, the function of the organ becomes subordinate and complementary. The artistic, as well as the devotional interest centres in the voices, and the words they are singing. The place of the organ is to encourage and support, to help the intonation of the singers, and to aid in the musical expression of the words. In vocal music, every one feels the importance of the words being heard. "When these are inaudible, the music sinks into a mumble, and loses its elocutional force and meaning. The tendency of organ tone is to obscure the words. It is inarticulate * An amateur organist in New Zealand, a gentleman of much enthusiasm. read this paragraph in the first edition, and wrote to me asking if I could get a set of preludes and postludes written to one hundred of the most used times in " Hymns Ancient and Modern." I consulted Mr. Ebenezer Trout, who intro- duced me to Mr. John R. West, by whom the work was done in a most musicianly style. Afterwards, I believe, Mr. West wrote preludes and post- ludes for a second hundred tunes in the same book, for the same gentleman. I have always regretted that these pieces have not been published. 190 STUDIES TX irons in p MUSIC. — does not shape itself into vowels or consonants. The louder it becomes, the less able are we to distinguish the words, for the tone rises like a mist upon a landscape, and blots out everything. There can be no doubt that devotionally, artistically, and musically, a loud, over- bearing accompaniment is wrong. It may be thought unnecessary that I should further insist upon the subordination of the organ when it unites with voices. But the prevailing habit of loud playing makes it necessary to reiterate what has already been said. M. Gevsert, the Principal of the Brussels Con- versatoire, a musician who has a European reputation, says, in his " Traite General d'lnstrumentation " : — i 11 In the association of voices and instruments, the voice forms the principal element, the instrument the subordinate one. By the addition of words to musical sounds, the voice addresses itself, not merely to the feelings, but to the intelligence. This rare privilege gives it the preeminence over every other musical instrument. In the midst of the largest orchestra, let one voice make itself heard, and immediately it attracts general attention, the instruments are relegated to a secondary place, and the whole takes the name of vocal music. . . . Naturally, a chorus requires a fuller accom- paniment than a solo ; a strong and deep-toned man's voice will battle more easily with the noise of the orchestra than a weak and delicate soprano. ... If the principal interest be concentrated at the moment on the poetry, a too heavy accompaniment will have the inevitable effect of weakening the energy of the declamation r and of rendering the words unintelligible. The dramatic effect sometimes necessitates the voice being altogether without accompani- ment. A third consideration of great importance, above all in a fully. developed work, is the want of variety and repose for the ear. Now this condition can only be fulfilled by cleverly graduating the strength of the accompaniment in the various parts of the work. . . . As we have already said, the orchestral accompaniment may be more developed as the vocal mass is increased, although voices have no absolute need of the aid of instruments, as is proved by the almost certain good effect of unaccompanied choruses." These remarks were, of course, not written with an especial reference to psalmody, but they gather into a few words the general principles of accompaniment, and the spirit which should animate it. SUBORDINATIOX TO VOICES. 191 The following extracts from the already quoted work on Composition by Marx, the German theorist, are also to the point : — 11 We have already seen that singing is the most individual and genuine music ; that it is, in fact, the music of humanity. Not only does its essence spring from the mind of man — this is the case with every artistic creation — but man himself is the instrument of its expression. Body and ^spirit, thought and medium, are one. Instru- ments may have many advantages over singing — one may have greater compass, the other stronger sound, the third may be more mobile, &c. — but singing will ever have the supreme merit of being the supreme utterance of man. In it we feel the breath of life, the vibration of the nerves; it touches in every one a sympathetic chord. To this must be added the important fact, that singing is wedded to language, the most distinctive organ of the human mind ; that in singing there meet the two fundamental forms of mental activity, here merged into one. Hence the following rule is fully justified: In the union of song and instrument or orchestra, the voice rules and determines ; the instrument follows, and is subordinate." . Having quoted French and German writers on this point, we will now quote an Englishman, Mr. Ebenezer Prout, who has a chapter in his " Instrumentation " on accompaniments. His remarks refer to the orchestra, hut we will substitute the word " organ," in brackets, wherever " orchestra" occurs. The principle is in both cases the same : — 11 In the branch of our subject on which we are now entering, we shall have to consider the [organ] in a new light. Hitherto we have regarded it as the principal, if not the sole factor in music ; but when combined with the human voice, it sinks, for the most part, into a subordinate position. In the present chapter, we shall speak of the treatment of the [organ] when used for the purposes of accompani- ment. The first, and most important principle to be laid down, is that, when the voice and the [organ] are combined, the former is of primary, the latter of secondary importance. To this rule there are doubtless numerous exceptions, some of which will be presently referred to; but it will, nevertheless, be probably well within the mark to say, that of every twenty bars of vocal music with [organ] in the works of the great masters, the voice will be found, in at least nineteen, to have the prominence. The mistake most otteri made 192 studies ix won sir ip music. by beginners is to score [accompany] vocal music far too heavily, ompaniment which is so strong as to overpower the voice, or which, even if it does not overpower it, distracts too much the atten- tion of the hearer, is, in a large majority of instances, an artistic mistake." The exceptions to which Mr. Prout refers occur chiefly in descriptive music, when the instruments are engaged in realistic painting of a storm, the steps of a giant, &c. Such exceptions may occur in the accompaniments of hymn-tunes or chants, but they Trill be rare. The registering of an organ in accompanying a congre- gation, must always depend upon the size and quality of the instrument and its stops, and of the building it is in. Ko general directions can be of use. It is, however, most important that every organist should take an opportunity of hearing himself as others hear him. Very few do this, and very few ha.ve any idea how their playing sounds in the body of the church ; for an organist cannot judge of the effect of his own instrument while he is playing. The best way of proving one's playing, is to get a com- petent friend to play a service, write down the stops he is to use in the several verses of one or two of the hymns, and station one's self in the middle of the church. Those who have no friend on whom they can rely for a service, may generally find some one who can play a tune over with various combinations, while the building is empty f and a good deal may be learned from this. Thfe most complete work on the subject of organ accompaniments, is " Choir Accompaniment," by Dudley Buck (Xew York: G. Schinner). The author starts with the assertion that the good accompanist is distinct from the good player. He must consider a stop or a combination, not as an organ effect, but as a means of accompanying the voice, llegistration, says Mr. Buck, cannot be taught, but may be learned; that is, the pupil's judgment may be cultivated. In accompanying voices, eight-foot ORG AX ACCOMPANIMENTS. 193 tone must predominate. The use of four and sixteen-foot tone, and of mixtures, must be exceptional and restrained. In starting the tune, after " giving it out," Mr. Euck recommends keeping* down the pedal note. He urges organists to practise withdrawing the hands alternately while, playing, so as to acquire dexterity in the exercise. The stops must be added or withdrawn upon the exact rhythmic accent of the piece. In closing a hymn-tune, a " dying away, echo effect " may be some? times produced by sustaining the last chord upon the swell ' manuals, gradually closing the swell. At other times, the sound must sink away by a downward arpeggio upon the last chord ; while elsewhere, a crisp and jubilant ending suggests an abrupt and simultaneous lifting of hands and feet from the instrument. Speaking of accom- panying a single voice, Mr. Euck says : — 11 The mental conception of how a given organ combination sounds at a distance from the keys — whether in vocal combination or by itself — must be acquired by every good accompanist. Some instruments * carry over,' as it is termed, when the pipes produce their true effect at some distance from the instrument. Of such organs, it is safe to say that, in many pieces of a soft character, voices and accompani- ment only sound perfectly balanced (to the congregation), when the accompanist hears but an occasional note of his instrument, or literally nothing. . . . In a crescendo, the effect is often good when, for a moment, at a climax, the organ exceeds due proportions as an accompaniment, but it must instantly subside." Mr. Euck remarks that choirs of boys and men require a fuller accompaniment than choirs of mixed voices, because the voices of boys are so peculiarly penetrating, and are strong just where the voices of women are weak. In chanting, he recommends adding and withdrawing the pedals during a long recitation, according to the clauses of the words; this leads the choir to sing with expression. AVhen we plead for soft accompaniments, and complain of the organ extinguishing the voices, we are met by o 194 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. practical difficulties. "If I soften down the tone," an organist says, "the congregation always get slow, and through getting slow they get flat. It is almost impos- sible to recover the time or the pitch, and the singing becomes heavy and wearisome. I am obliged to play loud to keep them going." This is true, but it is at the same time misleading. It is of no use for an organist who has been accustomed to play loudly because his people will not sing, to expect that the singing will improve simply because he subdues his instrument. Active measures must be taken to make singers in every part of the church, and to drill them in time and tune, so that what is withdrawn in pipe-tone may be given back in vocal- tone. When the singing is chiefly done by a choir, it is easy to play a real accompaniment. A choir is, or ought to be, independent of the organ, not easily put out or surprised. In such a case, the congregation are not taken into account ; the musical whimpering in which they indulge exerting no influence on the style or speed of the music. Eut when a vast congregation takes the singing into its own hands, the case is altered. A choir moves with the precision of a regiment; a congregation with the straggling waywardness of a crowd. The organ in this case must necessarily exert itself to secure steadiness of time and pitch. In what way should it do so ? The two most prominent faults of congregational singirkg are dragging and flattening; but I believe that both are encouraged by careless organ-playing. The vis inertia of a large congregation is certainly great. Some people habitually let their voices drag behind the others. Eut the organist has an opportunity, in the playing over, to infect even the sluggish spirit of a congregation with precision and rhythm. Let him study the rhythmical form of the various metres, and see where pauses between the lines are proper, and where they are improper, and let ORGANISTS AND TIME. 195 him play over the tune in strict time. The rank and file of organists are wretched tiinists. It is very rarely that one hears a tune played over in anything that can be called time. Sometimes nearly every note has a different length. Organists who doubt this statement should take a clockwork metronome to the instrument, and let it tick beside them as they play over a tune. It will cause some revelations. The fact is, that the sustained tones of the organ are rather an inducement to laggard players, and it is only those who are also pianists who retain their feeling for rhythm at the organ-stool. Organists who wisli to reform themselves in this matter, whether in their volun- taries or accompaniments, should practise with the metronome ; and, in performance, should count the pulses of the music to themselves. The effect of an exactly- timed playing-over upon the congregation is magical. It affords them a pattern, and they catch at once the march and flow of the music. In cases where the congregation is incorrigible, staccato playing is the only remedy, but it is a very ugly one. I have heard organists who habitually play staccato ; anything more distressing, or more contrary to the genius of the instrument, cannot be imagined. It should be remembered also, that there are various degrees of staccato. The first is to raise the right hand, keeping the left hand and foot down ; the second, to raise both hands, with the foot still down : the third, to raise hands and foot. The last should very seldom be used; for all ordinary cases, the second is sufficient. AVhatever speed an organist determines to adopt for a tune, let him begin with it, and adhere to it. AVe often hear the organ and choir start a hymn at a quick pace, but give way entirely to the congregation at about the second line. It is here that the tug of war comes. If the speed can be kept up to the end of the verse, there will be no difficulty afterwards. 196 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. Flattening, as we have already noticed, is largely caused by dragging. The other causes of flattening are various. It arises from the physical laziness of the singers, from defective ears, and very often from contralto voices sing- ing soprano, or tenors using their lower register on the high notes. Untrained boys' voices, which are harsh, and sing above C or D with effort, are also fruitful causes of flattening. In a half-empty church, on a dull, damp morning, a congregation is more prone to flatten than when the building is full, and the air bright and warm. The cause of this is entirely physical. The people want the stimulus of numbers ; they are relaxed and. depressed by the weather. Excitement and bodily comfort give them a vigour which passes into their voices, and keeps their vocal organs tense and strong. In one class of tunes, moreover, a congregation will flatten more than in another. Diatonic melodies, creeping up and down the scale, cause flattening more than those with bold intervals. The ordinary remedy for flattening, when it does happen, is to put on more piercing stops, such as reeds and those of four-foot tone. I have seldom, however, heard an organist succeed in raising a congregation that had fallen. Flattening is much better prevented than cured, and it can be prevented by attention to the points I have indicated. The best way to secure independence of attack, and power to sustain pitch in a choir, is to rehearse them without any accompaniment, or with the accompaniment of the pianoforte, lightly played. The organ should never be used at rehearsals. On this point, Mr. Dudley Buck, in the work already quoted, says : — 11 Although no better support tor voices can be found than that afforded by the organ, it nevertheless frequently proves a poor instru- ment to rehearse with. Both its merits and defects as an instrument contribute to this result. In the first place, the distinctness with which it sustains every tone of the harmony causes it to render too much support to the voices for the purposes of rehearsal. Besides tin's, it measurably prevents the organist (supposing him to be the director STUDYING THE HYMNS. 197 of the choir, as he always should be), from accurately hearing the mistakes and faults of the singers, especially if the choir is a large one. In securing promptness of accentuation and rhythm in the first practice of a new composition, the piano is far preferable to the organ. When a choir has once made itself fairly familiar with a piece, the organ will furnish all the rhythmic accent necessary, if properly handled. The piano, beyond securing intonation and accent, does not support the voices in the sense that the organ accomplishes this. With the piano, the singers are forced to rely upon themselves to a far greater extent, and defects in performance are far more readily detected. For these reasons, every choir should hold tneir rehearsals, of new compositions at least, with piano." The best way to start a congregation or choir is to touch the treble note half a beat, or less, in advance, putting down the rest of the fingers and the foot simultaneously an instant later. This is a clearer guide than putting down the pedal first. Some players keep down the pedals between the verses, but the best do not. Care should be taken at the close of the hymn not to shut off the tone too suddenly. That the organist should study the hymns before coming to church is highly important. It is impossible to gi\ e due expression to the words on the impulse of the moment. One of the most careful accompanists I know receives a list of the hymns from his minister by post every Friday morning, in time for his own study before the choir practice. The resources of the organ should be brought to bear upon the intelligent expression of the words. I do not mean that there should be a rumbling on the pedals when we come to the words " Shake like Lebanon,'' or a shake on the flute when the vocal performances of the " fowls of the air" are mentioned in the Benedicite. Such word-painting is undignified and commonplace. But the sense of the words should be thrown out by the accompaniment. The best accompanist I ever heard was my late friend, Mr, Alfred Stone, of Bristol. He had no uniform speed for hymns, and varied the time, even in verses of the same hymn, in sympathy with the words. 198 STUDIES IX IVOR SHIP MUSIC. Mr. Stone paid great attention to phrasing in his choirs, and lifted his hands, or at least his right hand, at the elocutional pauses. We may best illustrate what phrasing is by showing what it is not. Here is the melody of a tune which I heard not long since sung slowly and heavily, the breathing being taken as marked : — m mm Yes gra - cious Sa, viour we will come,0 -9- — s ~P- bey, Thee love, Thee and, be key F. :n m :f :n In Yes I gra - cious' Sa, blest. :1 II \t_ :se 11 :: viour' we will I come, f :1 il :— :t Id1 :— :1 In :— :r Id :- • O-l bey, Thee' love, Theel and, be I blest. How such a rendering violates sense and feeling is elear to all, and it is equally true that attention to the laws of speech makes music live with emotional expression* For example, take the last line of a hymn by Faber : — Father of Jesus, love's reward, v AY hat rapture will it be, Prostrate before Thy throne to lie And gaze — and gaze on Thee. The monotonous player goes straight on; the expressive player will lift his hands from the keyboard (not his foot from the pedals), and his choir, to the manner born, will make a break and take breath before the final words "and gaze on Thee." So also in another hymn, every verse of which ends " Father — hallowed be Thy name," there is similar scope for expression. The same may be VERBAL EXPRESSION. 199 said of 'k Watch — 'tis your Lord's command." Hymns are full of such passages for those who have interest and intelligence to find them. To follow Mr. Stone's reading of a hymn was to awake to the power of music in aiding and deepening religious thought. The last time I sat by his side in his organ-loft we had the hymn, " Children of the heavenly King." At the second verse he played softly on the swell the words — We are travelling home to God, In the way the fathers trod ; They are happy now — Then, dropping his hands on to the great organ, he went on loudly — And we Soon their happiness shall see. His choir, accustomed to such changes, answered at once to his lead, and sang out joyously. The effect of all this was never jerky, and it was intensely devotional. Both choir and congregation liked it because it threw the words into prominence ; and as it diminished the tendency to slur, and drag, and hold on the ends of the lines to a wearisome length, it gave elasticity and force to the psalmody. In the old psalmody verbal expression was not attempted. The organ played on without reference to the words. This is evident from numerous passages quoted in the chapter on " The Old Parochial Psalmody." The same expressionless playing still exists in Germany, and psalmodists belonging to the German school are against the attempt to give varying shades to the accompaniment or to the voices. Mr. Eugene Thayer, an American musician, writes : — 11 Expression, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, is, I believe, not only impracticable but undesirable in congregational singing. Alterations ot loud ami soft, or any attempt to produce mere effect in this or any other manner, invariably lead to confusion and poor results, and will eventually be abandoned. The general character of trie hymn is alone to be considered. " 200 STUDIES IN irOIi SIJIP 2LUSIC. This school of psalmody is right in so far as this, that expression in worship music must never be theatrical or gushing-, but always dignified and gradual. Word- painting, such as we have already described, is wholly out of place ; the hymn or psalm must be read in a broad and connected spirit. "We give below four passages from hymns,* the pervading sense of which is joyful. Organists who take a piecemeal view of hymns, and catch at words rather than thoughts, are almost certain to change the expression at the italicised portions — He makes me triumph over death And saves me from the grave. * * * This is the grace that lives and sings When faith and hope shall cease. 'Tis this shall strike our joyful strings In realms of endless peace. His worship and his fear shall last Till hours and years and time be past. Cease, ye pilgrims, cease to mourn. The musical expression should be loud and bold throughout. The following hymns have also been quoted as requiring bold and joyful expression : — Gone for ever parting weeping Hunger, sorrow, deatli and pain. 0 magnify the Lord with me, With me exalt His name ; When in distress to Him I called, He to my rescue came. I was struck, a few years since, by a fine lesson in expression which I received from ^Ir. Lambeth, at Park Church, Glasgow. The hymn — Saviour, breathe an evening blessing Quoted in " Hymns and Choirs," Andover, U.S., 18G0. OLD If A JUTS. 201 has for its last verse — Should swift death this night overtake us And our couch become our tomb, May the morn in heaven awake us, Clad in light an I deathless bloom. Usually the first two lines are sung very softly and the last two very loudly. It will be noticed, however, that throughout the whole hymn the attitude of supplication and prayer never changes, and Mr. Lambeth refl this in the music by maintaining the soft expression to the very end. The effect was truly devotional. When the sense demands it, the pause between two verses may be omitted, and we may run straight on to the next. If the organist gives a lead, the choir and people will follow. For example — As dew upon the tender herb Diffusing fragrance round ; As .-bowers that usher in the epring, And cheer the thirsty ground; So shall His presence bless our souls, And shed a joyful light. That hallowed morn shall chase away The sorrows of the night. Such examples might be multiplied to any extent. There are several old-fashioned tricks of organ-playing which still linger in many places. One of these is the habit of touching the note a semitone below that on which the melody of the tune begins, making an acciaccatura, which is supposed to call the attention of the congregation to the air. Happily this vulgar and useless habit is almost extinct. Another is the custom of invariably suspending the fourth in the closing tonic chord. In old psalm-books we find this suspension commonly printed, so the custom was no doubt universal at one time. The device, however, loses all interest, and becomes obnoxious when it is habitually resorted to. Besides this, if the 202 STUDIES IN 1VORSII1P MUSIC. choir are singing in harmony, and do not suspend the fourth when the organist does, a hideous discord is the result. A third habit is that of simultaneously putting down the left foot on the tonic and the semitone below it in a fortissimo close, making an ear-splitting noise which cannot possibly be called music. The practice is con- demned by the best musicians, although some able organists still so far fall in with tradition as to perpetrate it. There is an ambition among some players to use greater freedom in accompanying than a mere doubling of the voice-parts allows; to employ the organ, in fact, as Handel and Mendelssohn employ the orchestra to accompany their choruses. These "free-parts" are especially in demand for chanting, where, with twenty or thirty repetitions of the same short phrases, variety is felt to be welcome. There is nothing to object to in this practice, and, as congregations and choirs sing better, and become less dependent on the organ, I have no doubt the custom will generally spread. The worst that can be said against it is that it requires much judgment, and offers great temptations to an indiscreet and secularly minded player. Many eminent organists advocate unison singing for the hymns, and this leaves the harmonies entirely at their discretion. I should be very sorry to see unison singing generally adopted, as it would deprive psalmody of half its interest for a large and increasing portion of the con- gregation— I mean the part-singers. Eut unison alter- nated with harmony is highly expressive when the words suggest it. I do not know any better model of a free organ-part, with unison and harmony for the voices, than Sir A. Sullivan's arrangement of the tune " St. Ann's," to the words, " The Son of God goes forth to war," in " Church Hymns." All who desire to study this kind of effect should carefully examine this arrangement, and then try to produce others equally good if they can. In a piece like this, it is necessary that the choir and congre- ACCOMPANIMENTS. 20;} gation be informed which verses are to be sung in harmony, which in unison, which by men only, which by women only, &c. In the ordinary service the choir, and, to some extent, the congregation, sing in harmony, and a player has to be content with varying the accompaniment without disturbing the vocal parts. The most obvious, and by far the most neglected variety under this limitation, is obtained by stopping the organ altogether for a line or two, or even for a verse. This is commonly done in cathedrals and churches where the choirs are well-trained and reliable. Every player knows how far he can trust his singers to keep the pitch and ^o on alone ; and, so long as he can trust them, lie may use the effect ad libitum. The beauty of the change to unaccompanied singing cannot be known, or it would be more commonly employed.*'' The organ can re-enter very softly or loudly according to the words. A second resource, which, however, cannot be so often used, is to play a few notes in unison on the organ, followed by harmony. Such a passage as this : — • The Musical Standard, in a recent number, notices that one object of the Roman Catholic Society of St. Cecilia is to revert to the pure vocal school of the sixteenth century, and to dispense with instrumental assistance in church music. ( m tin's, the Standard remarks : — " The reliance upon the human voice naturally secures the most reverent of all musical sources of expression. Vocal music, unaccompanied, forbids that excessive tendency to a dramatic 204 studies IN iron SHIP Ml'sic may be accompanied :- I :~B: --£3 — U -I J ' SI n J gl^=t S^ KEY G. r : n . f I s r : n . f | s r :n .f |s r :m .f Is :-.d d :- ,S| Si : :- .n n : :- .d s. Id :- Id :- |n :- Id :- without conflicting with the vocal parts. The remaining variations which are possible, consist in inverting the alto or tenor with the soprano, and throwing them into prominence by the use of solo stops, or in adding an entirely new part to the harmony. There is no need to say much about inverting the alto or tenor parts. It requires little knowledge of harmony, and the only danger is lest it should lose freshness by being too often done. In playing such a part, we may skip from the air to* the tenor, or from the tenor to the alto, accord- ing as a well-shaped melody presents itself. The stop chosen will generally be a reed, or one whose " clang- tint " stands out from the voices. The remaining devices require a knowledge of harmony, and, if done extempore, great fluency. The first consists expression of the sacred text, encouraged by the presence of instrumental tone colour, which is so likely to border upon presumption, and attempted realism often almost profane. * The Scriptures by no means, however, point to the neglect of instrumental music in the church, and a judicious treatment of the combined musical, vocal, and instrumental forces would seem to be the true medium at which to aim. Certainly, we in England do not, in church music, sufficiently cultivate pure vocal music ; and it would be well for us to en- courage more the liturgical use of unaccompanied vocal music, and to drill our choirs more than we do in the singing of music without accompaniment, especially as the hard temperament, and often too noisy use of our organs, are alike destructive of devotional manner, by inducing a departure from the pure, elastic temperament of voices, and by encouraging an over-strained and irreverent method of singing." ACCOMPANIMENTS. 205 in playing counterpoint of the second species on the pedals, two notes to one of the tune. Thus the line; : — f*= 1 — zzzz: zj _ _ zj 1— II i .' 1 -1 —pi- A. — ^ — p 1 1 1 1 1 . - r^> — t 1 1 J± s— II 1 ^h*-- G — -G — — ^y — CZ. t — : ^ H -\- - KEY S| G. G Id d 1- r :r In — u d ) S| :si |S| S| t, :t| Id d } s :s In n s :s Is n [ S| :s. In, fli S| :s. id d may be accompanied with this bass :- rc__ f d E*El^3^i= -^ -: m KEY G. 1 1 S|.l| :si .f| |h| .ri :d| .m, I S|.fe(:s|.s, |d. ,t2 :d| In doing this, the player should avoid altering the progressions, i.e., the first note of each beat in the bass should remain the same. This counterpoint cannot be used when the vocal bass is strong, as it will be discordant with it. Lines of hymn-tunes may sometimes be connected with a few notes. The device of putting in a chromatic passing note in moving from dominant to tonic chords is unfortunately too well known to some players. An arpeggio may occasionally be introduced, as in Mr. Henry Smart's tune, " Pilgrims of the night," of which it will be sufficient to quote the treble part : — Organ. fz^zzrjia .3 of liirht, 206 STUDIES AY WORSHIP MUSIC. hkv r * y=«z5=t=zt A 1- Sing-ing to wel - come the pilgrims of the night. key E. Organ. r I r . : - | n :f Is : - d :- |l:-|s :f In :r7 | m : I j | | An - gels of I Je - bus, ' an - gels of I light, il d1 :- |t :1 Sing - ing to s :n | d :f In : n jf :r Id : - wel - come the' pilgrims of the! night. An arpeggio of this sort can always be inserted when two or more pulses intervene between lines, and the insertion greatly helps a large congregation to keep together. So also when a line has ended in the dominant key, the leading note may be flattened in the pause, and so prepare the ear for the return. All this should be done without interrupting the rhythmical flow of the tune. In Lutheran churches, an ad. lib. pause is made between every line, and there is room for short interludes on the organ. Mendelssohn, in the chorales of St. Paul and Elijah, has left us models of what these interludes should be. In tunes of a marching style the accent is reinforced with much effect if, after starting, the organist strikes every alternate note on the pedals, omitting the unaccented notes. Life and gladness may be expressed by striking every chord twice (turning minims into crotchets), and by keeping up the rhythmical figure in the space between the lines. As an occasional resource the air may be played with the left hand in the bass octave, with accompanying chords in the right hand. Connected with the expression of hymns is the subject of attitude. The posture of standing has superseded that of sitting, and kneeling while singing a hvinn is rarely KNEELING WHILE SINGING. 207 heard of. Yet each posture lias its appropriateness in hymns of varying- spirit. A writer in the Baptist Magazine recently analysed our popular hymns, and found them of a very mixed character. Worship, lie contends, cau only properly exist when we are directly addressing the Deity in adoration, supplication, praise. Yet applying this principle in its largest sense, and admitting many hortatory hymns which are, in effect, devotional, there remain many hymns of prayer, many hymns which preach the gospel and are addressed to men, not to God ; many others which can only be accepted as "pious recreations," a kind of interlude or relief. The writer suggests that the difference between hymns be emphasised by posture. Let the congregation stand for hymns of direct worship ; sit for reflective hymns ; and kneel for hymns of prayer. Mr. Sankey, says the writer, sings as solos hymns which are intended to warn or woo his hearers, and asks the congregation to join in direct expressions of fervent emotion. At a recent Church Congress, Dr. Pigou, vicar of Halifax, read a valuable paper on the devotional use of hymns, in which he pleaded that hymns of supplication should be sung kneeling. "We cannot condemn in language too strong the habit of accompanying chants and Gregorian tones by running up and down the chromatic or diatonic scale, as is the custom of some organists. It is vulgar, and not worthy the name of music. As a rule, free parts lose dignity as they become rapid. Let us take the following single chant : — Dr. Crotch. 208 STUDIES IN WOK SHIP MUSIC. KEY A. d :t, s, :s, n :r d :si d :- I1' S| d s, :— f 8| fe, n : — Id d d d :— |fi "i 1, d :t, S| :s. r :r s, :s, The following free part is quite correct, but it is distressingly flippant and secular : — _Q_ H I- I %= 2 "I 1- KEY A. I nf I s.lis.fl n :— II d r I n.f :n.r| d :ti Id The folio wine: is a little better : — ^3* i * P # P--P- -Gh- 1 J frit* # # r i 1 i \ / "it r^ ■ ' 1 ■ V\ ■ r o f I s . 1 : t .d'j r1 :r> In1 KEY A. I d I d ■ : r n The following is the extreme of vulgarity and empti- ness :-»- ■ Q&Jfc '>• * r— . 0 > 0- ^ff— ^ j£ t=t= KEY A. Tils. l:s. lis :- ||d't|d,.t:dl.t|dl :r' In1 :- FREE ORGAN PARTS. 209 The following is an example of the racing up and down the scale already referred to : — v* #_^ „ ... * KZ **t m -+- *-- $*~ *£- +- -0. *-rr _ - t=c II*" KEY A. d1 .n :1 .la I s :se 1 1 .d1 :r' .re1 na1 .r1 Id1 .r1 :n' .f In1 The player's taste must guide him as to what is reverent and artistic. The following is an example of a good free part added to a chant by Dr. Steggall : — Free Organ Part. key D. Free Organ Part. s 1 t d' :- d1 r' rt f l1 d- — | Vo n cal H f armo S nies. m : — d1 s n d r n d d r d :- n r d d d d — s 1 t d' :- d1 r1 s 1 1 s — d d d d :- 1, t, d f f d — 210 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC, This moves for the most part in contrary motion with the air. It is dignified, and adds greatly to the interest of the organ part. These free parts may be played in any octave, so long as they do not go below the bass. For instance, a fine effect would be produced by taking the last example in the men's octave on a trumpet. Some players are fond of occasionally giving the air in the men's octave while the congregation are singing, and the effect is often good. When the first edition of this work appeared in 1880, I am not aware that anything was in print elsewhere upon this subject of extemporising additional parts on the organ. Since then the subject has been ably treated in Mr. Dudley Buck's " Organ Accompaniment," in Dr. Bridge's " Choir Accompaniment," and in Mr. F. G. Edwards' " United Praise." Dr. C. J. Frost has also written {Musical Opinion, June, August, and October, 1887) three articles on the subject in which, after giving much valuable advice, and several examples of free parts, he says : — It is with a certain amount of diffidence that I place such illustrations as these upon paper, for it is treading upon somewhat delicate ground to speak of these things at all ; as no master ever gives his pupils instruc- tions in such work, and students are thus left to their own resources, and thus do whatever their own inclination prompts them in this matter, whether it be appropriate or inappropriate, good or bad, desirable or undesirable. And although it is perhaps not quite so bad as placing loaded firearms within reach of a child, still it is a questionable and somewhat dangerous accomplishment with which to provide a young and enthusiastic organist. It is, though, a question whether some little knowledge on the matter — given with due caution as to its use — would not prevent many a student from running wild directly he is out of his preceptor's hearing." Dr. Frost takes Dr. E. G. Monk's chant in A minor as a foundation, and after printing a free CONTRAPUNTA L THE A TMENT. 2 1 1 part above the air, four notes to the measure, he gives the following specimen of a contrapuntal treatment of the tenor : — i Manual 1. Manual 2. ^ "p • -•- vi -r -p-T- I ^ i— 1- ££ Pedal. -<©- i ^=g , s. i- F "GT &c. ^ ^u key C. Lah is A. Manual 1. d':-|-:- n :-|-.— d :-|-:- Manual2. L.H :l \t uV Pedal. 1 :-|-:- t :— 11 :- f :-|— :— r : — |— :d H :f |r' : I ^^z~T~o^n Nd" I— :— I— :— II =11 N I 1 Reverting to Crotch's chant, the following is an example of a new pedal part under the vocal bass: — E«i«E -fdn zz: £Z~ 221 II key A. (Bass.) dm I s :f |n :r :S| Id : — This, however, is tampering with the harmony, and is a great liberty to take unless we are sure we can improve it. The addition or inversion of upper parts does not seriously alter the music, but to touch the bass is to change its whole complexion. A good effect may be made by letting the harmonies spread qut above the vocal parts, accompanying Crotch's chant in this manner : — doubling Norm. 213 KEY A. d d :s s : — d s :1 d1 r1 m1 S| S| :t, d :- 1. d :d s t d' — :s, Si : — si : s f s n — :f :fe s s m n :r m : — f d :d r r m : — d d :s. d, :- f. ni :1| S| :s, d, — Both here and in the free single melodies, the player should be careful how he doubles sensitive notes like the leading note, chromatics, &c. The thickening of the chords will also greatly depend on the stops employed. With piercing stops, such positions as those above would be far too penetrating. Most organists fill up the chords with their spare fingers to some extent, but the modern tendency is rather in favour of playing real parts, unless a distinct orchestral effect be intended. Sebastian Wesley, in his " Selection of Psalm Tunes," refers to this point. He says : — " Whether the organ be a good one of its kind or otherwise, we all feel how important it is that in playing chords the hands should not be crowded with notes. In waiting for the organ, as for the orchestra, there appears a like necessity for attaining clearness and distinctness in the division of harmonies, of not doubling certain notes, and of spreading out the sounds which compose a chord at distant intervals. Perhaps it may not be too much to assert that some of the most beautiful effects in the organ music of Bach, as in the orchestral writings of Spohr, arise from the clear and distinct mode of writing of these exquisite authors. Much truth there is in wrhat has been proposed by one of our ablest musical critics, that the Germans are led to accompany their psalmody in real parts, where it is done, by the rich and beautifully balanced tone of their organs ; for the performer to double anything being not only unnecessary but objectionable." Wesley goes on, however, to say that he has not him- self written in real parts, because the counterpoint of English psalmody is strictly simple, and real part-writing seems less essential in simple than in florid counterpoint. The conclusion is that thickening must be done sparingly 214 STUDIES IN JV0RSII1P MUSIC. and with judgment. The custom which some organists have of thickening up the pedal part by the use of the right foot, playing two notes at once on the pedals, is to be condemned. It greatly confuses the flow of parts. The occasional use of the arpeggio to start a verse may be allowed, but the device is unsuited to the organ. The arpeggio, as its name indicates, belongs to the harp, and instruments of the same class, like the pianoforte, which do not sustain their sound. Its purpose is to keep the chord in the ear. Obviously this is unnecessary on the organ, where the sounds are sustained. An arpeggio can only be used if the choir and congregation are accustomed to start decisively. So far we have written for organists. A word may be now addressed to church committees, and people " about to have an organ. " In the first place, organ-building is very easily scamped. For the same number of stops, the difference between good and bad organ-building is more than 25 per cent. This is owing to the custom among some builders of putting their work out to be done "by the piece, " and done of course carelessly. The builder can also save by the way in which he makes the pipes. Larger pipes give a thicker and broader tone. The cheap builder puts in small-scale pedal pipes, which are not only smaller, but thinner. He does this, of course, at a far less cost. There is also a pernicious habit of altering the voicing vof the pipes, so as to increase their tone, or rather their noise. Pressure, speaking generally, gives noise, not music ; it ruins the character of the diapasons, though up to a certain point it adds brilliance to the reeds. The Royal Albert Hall and Crystal Palace organs are familiar examples of over wind pressure. It is said that some of the reeds in the Albert Hall organ are voiced to such a pressure that they have to be screwed down to prevent the wind blowing them off. Mr. N". J. Holmes, in his remarkable organ at Primrose Hill, has proved that SCALE OF PIPES. 215 heavy wind pressure is not necessary to produce either power or volume of sound. Tone-colour is best obtained by varied pressure. The choir organ stops need the least, the diapasons of the great organ more, and the reeds most. Some reed-stops, however, should have a low pressure of wind. ' A good builder knows how to vary the pressure so as to produce the best combinations of tone-colour, avoid- ing the whistling, screaming quality which results from over-pressure. In a large building, there must be more pressure than in a small, in order that the tone may carry far enough. Besides increase of pressure, by which the builder often tries to conceal the shortcomings of his work, there are other ways in which a showy specification may deceive a committee. The lowest stops of the swell are sometimes taken out of the box to help in forming an ornamental front, and by this means the sensitiveness of the swell- organ is seriously weakened. The " scale " of pipes of every class, as we have already seen, powerfully affects their tone. In a specification, the scales of all the important stops should be given; it is not enough that the builder promises " a large scale." Particular attention is needed in the case of bourdon pipes. When they are of small scale they have no weight, and speak their harmonic twelfth. The Rev. Dr. Hayne, who has devoted much study to organ construction, advocates large-scale bourdons which go by the name of " Hayne's tubs." The CCC pipe (16ft. tone), is 11 J by 13 inches, inside measure, and the lowest pipes are of 1J inch timber. These pipes are costly, but they speak the purest tone. An 8-inch square bourdon is considered a very good measure. It is a common practice to carry solo stops on small organs only as far down as tenor C, beyond which they have to be allied to a combination of different quality. The reason is obvious. In any stop the octave below tenor C costs as much as the whole of the octaves above it. It should •216 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. be remembered that, if the stop cannot be carried right through, every note below tenor C is a gain. It is a good plan also to carry the stops on the great organ up to the C above the G where they usually end, and to have a super- octave coupler to the great organ itself, adding brightness to the tone. All these facts show how easily a committee may be misled by merely inviting estimates, and taking the cheapest. Sebastian Wesley, in some notes on the subject, pleads in all cases of organ buying for a pro- fessional man to stand between the builder and his employers — to be the architect, in fact, of the instrument, and advise as to stops, position in the church, &c. This is by far the wisest and best plan, and it is being more and more adopted. The " organ architect" should be an organist who has made a study of his instrument. Many players on the organ know next to nothing about its mechanism. Such a referee will be able to mention a builder who can be trusted. Open competitions among builders are unwise ; the best men will not enter them. A committee should say at once how much money it can afford, and the specification will be prepared accordingly. The position in which the organ stands influences greatly its tone. Architects have a great fondness for putting organs iu alcoves and recesses, cut off from the main roof of the building. It needs but a small knowledge of acoustics to see that such a position dissipates the tone and changes its character. The sonorous waves that issue from the tops of the pipes are shattered by the sharp edges of the roof, and the higher and dissonant harmonics replace the lower and consonant ones. One-third of the tone may be lost by a bad position, while the remainder is effete and thin. The organ should always be within the boundaries of the main roof. In the Church of England the most advantageous place is against the west wall ; Nonconformists, who have no altar, can have it at ORGANS IN USE. 217 either end, taking care, wherever it may be, that it is not in a recess or a Gothic arch. If, however, the nature of the building makes it necessary that the organ be placed in a recess, let the clear space above the pipes be as high as possible. The arch of the chamber cannot be too high, and tile roof especially should not be higher than the opening of the arch ; it should be formed for reflecting sound, and the inside of the chamber should be lined with wood. An excellent plan is being adopted in Scotland, of having the organ behind the pulpit, and the keyboard in front of it, trackers connecting the two. The organist then sits at a sort of desk, with his singers around him, and he both hears and sees them. By this means he is able to act as choirmaster. This contrivance adds about 7 per cent, to the cost of the instrument. Roughly speaking, it costs £25 for a two-manual organ, and £40 for a three-manual. When an organ is built and in use, let it by all means be kept in tune. The hard and rough effect of many organs arises from neglected or inefficient tuning. The organ is a most delicate instrument, and even when tuned its pitch fluctuates with the temperature of the building it is in. As the air becomes heated the flue gets sharp, and the reeds flat, for heat expands metal and contracts wood. Extreme cold is as bad as extreme heat. On a sharp, frosty morning the reeds will be sharp, for cold and damp weather swells wood and contracts metal. Hence the church should be warmed to its normal temperature when the tuner is at work. This may be done by lighting the gas and burning it for two or three hours. The sensitiveness of the organ to changes of temperature makes evident the advantage of placing it on the ground floor of the church rather than in a gallery. The employment of water engines to blow organs is desirable when they can be afforded. At present the use of these engines is confined to the largest organs, but it is 218 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSK . to be hoped that the ingenuity of mechanicians will, before long, produce a cheap and serviceable motive power for small instruments. I met with one, not long since, at Farnworth, in Lancashire. The engine is made by Joy, of Middlesborough, and was obtained through Messrs. Jardine, the well-known Manchester organ-builders. It is the third engine that has been tried at the church. Both the former ones were unsuccessful, but this works silently and well. The pressure of the water supply varies at Farnworth from 15lbs. to the square inch in the daytime, to 40lbs. at night and on Sundays, when the mills are stopped, and the organ is wanted. The 15lb. pressure is enough for practice, but about 30lbs. is required to supply the full organ. The cost of the engine was £40, and the fitting cost £5 more. The organist, on passing to his seat, has merely to turn a tap, and the bellows are steadily filled. Of course this is more expensive than the wages of a single blower, but the plan has many collateral advantagas, especially to the organist, and may be commended to the opponents of Sunday labour. A.t the Eoyal formal College of Music for the Blind, at Norwood, there is a gas engine which works six hours a day, and blows three organs, at a work- ing cost of a penny an hour. The engine cost about £120. One parting injunction may be offered : Do not buy an organ too large or too powerful for the building. This is the common fault of the day, and committees are as much to blame in the matter as organists. I have a case in mind of a church where there is a powerful organ. The organist considers it quite strong enough for the building, but the congregation and officers are pressing to have it enlarged. The following recent letter from Sir George Macfarren to Sir Gilbert Scott, on the question of enlarging the organ at All Saints', Maidstone, shows the opinion of one of our most experienced musicians on this point : — 0 VER B EA R1N G 0 R G A NS . 219 - " On the question proposed to me, 1 think that it' the object be to lead congregational singing, or more properly expressed, to drown the inaccuracies of unskilled vocalists, a large, coarse-toned organ may be highly desirable. If the object be to produce the effect of musical beauty, by judicious accompaniment of a trained choir, then an organ of moderate power, but of good tone, and of full pedal compass, *is very greatly to be preferred to a larger and louder instrument, which no player with a real feeling for his task would use at the full for such a purpose. If a sum of money be contributed for musical ends in any church, I believe it would be tar better applied in some investment that would yield an annual fund to be spent upon choir-training than upon the increase of an organ, inasmuch as it would lead to the efficient performance of admirable compositions, and the taste of hearers as well as of executants would thereby be exalted. This opinion, being framed more upon general principles than upon experience in church music, is offered with diffidence, but I believe it would have the concurrence of persons better versed in this particular branch of the subject than myself." Sir George Macfarren's notion of the place of the organ in relation to voices is clear from this extract, and although he has a fling at congregational singing, his principles must be applicable to it as it becomes artistic. There is a notion among some people that "we ought to have plenty of sound for our money," and thus the artistic vulgarity of overbearing organs springs as much from the vanity of congregations as the recklessness of players. Voices are smothered in a muddy sea of inarticulate tone. The choir have no object in singing well, for they scarcely can hear themselves, and they feel that others will not hear them unless they shout their loudest. Choir-training is neglected ; elegance and ex- pression give place to screaming and bawling. This is not music, it is noise. It is neither congruous with worship nor with art. It is not according to the habits of our cathedrals, or of the Roman Catholic Church, where the oldest traditions of the art of accompaniment still prevail. As musical culture spreads an improved feeling will no doubt arise, and the organ will assume its right and lovely office of waiting upon the voices. 220 THE HARMONIUM AND THE AMERICAN ORGAN. It is a convenient fiction to speak of the organ as the only instrument in use for church purposes. If all assemblies of worshippers, large and small, in town and village, were counted next Sunday, we should find in them five or more harmoniums and American organs to every legitimate organ. Many organists, moreover, speak of these small instruments as beneath notice. They do not concede to them a special place, and special characteristics which are worth study. This paper is. written in the hope of helping those who have to play the harmonium or the American organ in village churches, mission-rooms, Sunday schools, &c, and the key to it is the conviction that every instrument which is used to aid worship is worthy of study, and ought to be managed in the very best way. The instruments in question are generally used from motives of economy. The same motives often lead to their being played by incompetent hands. The harmonium, especially, is the best abused of musical instruments. Among these, it occupies the position which the donkey occupies among animals. Any one can play it, and it is EXPRESSION STOP. 221 mercilessly overblown, while its delicate capabilities are ignored. Let us briefly note the points in which these two instruments differ from each other and from the organ. The harmonium and the American organ are often com- pared, and the friends of each dispute for the superiority of their favourite instrument. The fact is that each instrument has its own special character. Both are alike in this, that in them the sound comes from little tongues of metal called reeds, vibrating in the free air, while in the organ the sound comes through pipes. But in the harmonium the air is blown outwards, while in the American organ it is sucked inwards. As a consequence, the American organ is slower of speech than the harmonium, which, especially with the percussion stop, speaks with almost the rapidity and clearness of the pianoforte. The tone of the American organ is less rough and penetrating than that of the harmonium ; it is veiled and dreamy, and has been compared to a person singing a song under the bedclothes. This difference of tone is partly due to the suction, and partly to the bent and twisted reed, which causes the air to attack the tongue less suddenly. The grand feature of the harmonium is its Expression Stop, by which the foot of the player has as complete a control over the emphasis and phrasing of the notes as the lungs of the singer, or the bow of the violinist. There is nothing corresponding to this in the American organ, and, for artistic purposes, the want of an expression stop is an insuperable defect in that instru- ment. The knee swell may be named as a substitute for the expression stop, but it is a far inferior contrivance. On the other hand, the American organ is a better imitation of the real organ than the harmonium. M. Debain, the inventor of the harmonium, always ridiculed the idea of comparing it to the organ. He intended it for the drawing-room, its special purpose being to imitate 222 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. orchestral effects. The music written for it by Lefebure- Wely, Fessy, and other French composers, avoids massive chords, and presents intertwining melodies generally in thin harmony. There can be no doubt that this is the proper style for the instrument. For the special purpose of accompanying chants, hymn-tunes, and anthems, the American organ is on the whole the superior instrument. The free reed, especially of a certain shape, generates loud harmonics, which, owing to the temperament, dissonate with the higher notes, and give roughness to the effect. These harmonics are more heard on the harmonium than on the American organ, because its tones are louder. They often make the bass of the harmonium drown the air when close harmony is played. In the American organ the highest part sings out as it does in the diapasons of an organ. This advantage is obtained at the cost. of the power of leading which the expression stop of the harmonium gives. * Everyone with an observant ear must have noticed how the harmonium is abused. To begin with the expression stop ; every good player uses it, but he reserves it for places where the words or the shape of the musical phrase suggest a crescendo or the opposite. The vulgar player keeps up a perpetual see-saw, analogous to the " swell- pumping " which players of the same calibre keep up at the organ. He jerks irregularly at the beginning, the middle or the end of each note of a hymn-tune, varying these ^musical spasms with staccato, which always comes so as to break a musical or verbal phrase. The following is no exaggeration of what I have often heard : — * Debain, in his Organophone, has combined the advantages of both instru- ments. He uses suction, and has all the smoothness of the American organ, with an expression stop. The instrument is rather costly, but it is the nearest approach to pipe tone that I have heard from free reeds. The bass is especially grand, and suited for supporting a large congregation. FA UL TS 0 F PL A YERS. l>2;$ The effect reminds one of a child playing with a squeaking doll, or of an infant trying to play a concertina, and unahle to control it. At other times I have heard players jerk every note of the tune in this style : — m «* * * :o. II or even jerk every syllable of the recitation of a chant thus : — i :£=£=£=£: ± £ ¥ 0 come, let us sing un - to the Lord. It is almost superfluous to condemn this. The player should seek for a smooth, organ-like effect, using the pressure tones very sparingly. Here and there the fingers may he lifted to help the phrasing of the words (as is elsewhere recommended on the organ), but the normal style should be legato. Some players, without using the expression stop, play the harmonium as they would the pianoforte, raising their hands between each chord. This is equally atrocious. The fingering of the harmonium resembles that of the organ. Almost anything may be done to obtain an unbroken legato, especially in the outer parts. The fingers must constantly be shifted while holding down a note, so as to release other fingers and obtain a smooth effect.* A last class of players have a simple way of dealing with the instrument. On sitting down to it they pull out the Grand Jeu, and blow as hard as they can from first to last. The result is a hoarse and windy noise, devoid of expression or real musical tone. The American organ is not so easily abused as the harmonium. The worst that players can do is to play on at full power without change of stops, or variation from soft to loud. And this they do very often. * For a thorough exposition of the rules of fingering* seethe " .'iannony Player for the Harmonium," by John Curwen, and others. This goes more fully into the matter than any work in the English language. 224 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. The real Bource of the ill use of both instruments in public worship is this, that people attempt to lead a congregation with them, a thing which can never be done. An organist, with a powerful instrument at command, can drive and drown the people into silence or submission, but the hannoniuni and American organ can exert no power of this sort. Their only use is to accompany ; to give and maintain the pitch, and to smooth the roughness of the voices by filling in a background of sound. In eveiy case, a choir or one or more leading singers are necessary in addition, and these must start and sustain the time and expression. Where the singing is good, the harmonium or American organ ought to be completely drowned by the voices, and audible only for a moment, at the beginning of every new verse. The attempt to follow the harmonium leads, invariably, to a heavy, nasal style of singing, without accent or decision, and very wearisome to join in or listen to. Choirs should practise without accompaniment, and pay attention to decisive starts, never prolonging notes at the end of lines beyond their proper length. In playing over a hymn-tune on the harmonium, it is often well to " solo the treble. " This can be done by drawing *an 8-foot stop* (Cor Anglais or Oboe) in the left- hand side, and a 16-foot stop (Clarinet or Musette) in the right hand, playing in the left hand the tenor and bass as written, and in the right the treble, an octave higher than written. The alto may be omitted, the left hand putting in the third of the chord wherever it occurs in that part. The tenor should not rise above E (first line of treble staff), or it will cross the break. If the melody of the tune does not go below F (first space of treble staff), there is no need to use a 16-foot stop. An extra 8-foot stop (Oboe, for example) can be drawn in the right hand half of the instrument, or the left hand side can be * An 8-foot stop has the same pitch as the pianoforte ; a 16-foot stop an octave lower, and a 4-foot stop an octave higher. VOLUNTARIES. 225 subdued by using the Sourdine instead 01 the ( or Anglais. Both these devices will throw out the melody, and in the harmonium, owing to the loudness of the bass, this is what the player should constantly strive to do. For those who are so inclined, and have the necessary skill and knowledge, free parts may be played in the right hand, as on the organ 'see chapter ou the organ). When the congregation are singing, it is sometimes well to play the air and bass only; these parts are more clearly heard when alone. As a rule, in the harmonium, when 16-foot tone is combined with 8 -foot tone, the 8 -foot tone is extin- guished, and the music sounds an octave lower. This fact should be remembered in all combinations into which 16-foot tone enters, for we must then play an octave higher to produce the effect intended. This is the case when the Grand Jen is drawn. Both' hands, or, at least, the right, should then be raised an octave higher. The last paragraph applies to the harmonium only. In the American organ, the break between the two halves of the instrument occurs lower than in the hamioniurn, namely, at middle C, or in some instruments lower still. The same is the case in harmoniums of some English makers. In the American organ, also, the 16-foot tone does not always drown the 8 -foot, but often merely adds depth and roundness to it. As the melody is naturally prominent in this instrument, the devices t'<»r rendering it prominent which are used on the harmonium are not necessary, although the air may be " soloed " if we desire to throw it out very loudly. Voluntaries for use before and after service are in general request. The advice which players seem most to need is to choose arrangements suited for the instrument, and, whether the movement be fast or slow, to keep the time strictly, without overdoing the expression stop. In conclusion, let it be remembered that neither the harmonium nor the American 'organ can ever be satis- Q 226 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. factory substitutes for the real organ. The sound of is far superior to that of roods, and not all the ingenuity of manufacturers will ever result in a serious competition between the two. Gigantic harmoniums, or American organs with pedals, the cost of which approaches that of a small organ, are mere monstrosities, and should nevi bought by churches. Congregations who can afford a real organ, should never hesitate to prefer it to either an harmonium or American organ. The only merit in these small instruments, in the eyes of those who wish for human voices rather than instruments in public worship, is that they make so little noise, and cannot drown the congregation. 227 CHANTING. I.— INTRODUCTORY. Chanting is an exercise which is very easy in theory, and very difficult in practice. Nothing can he more admirable than the directions which the editors of countless Psalters have given to choirs and congregations ; nothing can be more universal than the disregard with which these directions are received. In every Psalter preface we are told that chanting is musical reading ; that in it the fixed measures of music give place to the habits of deliberate speech. Yet where shall we find a choir or a congre- gation that carries these principles into practice ? The virtual rule is " gabble and pause," and sacred words are delivered somewhat in this way : — TrustintheLordbeofgoodcourageandlle sh-a-11 strengthen thine hand. Everyone professes dissatisfaction with the irreverence of the prevailing system, yet no one succeeds in reforming it. This evil is, apparently, one of long standing. Dr. Beckwith, organist of Norwich Cathedral, in his Book of Chants (1808), says:— " It is possible to hear a chant where the men and children are trying which can sing loudest, which can recite fastest, and which can fairly get to the last note first ; but, with all this irreverent clatter, the grand object is not gained, as the organ contrives to be either behind or before them all the way. ... It is incalculable what harm is done to the minds and sentiments of a congregation by such a complete destruction of all that is sublime and beautiful in the matter of their devotion, and all that should be attractive in the chants." A dispassionate4 American observer, Dr. G. F. Hoot, during a visit to England in 188G, heard chanting at St. 228 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. Paul's Cathedral, the Chapel Royal, St. Jan ., and, as a result, he writes : — "I must Bay that chanting here, judged by every consideration excepting tradition, is poor — more than that, it is to me irreverent. I will not judge others ; but how anyone who thinks the words of the Bible should be read or intoned deliberately, can be devotionally impressed by the unseemly haste and inevitable confusion that this mode of chanting compels, I do not understand. And it is passing strange, that while the ''chapels " and dissenters generally, who have broken off from the Church of England, repudiate mostly the modes of that Church, they stick to this — I was going to say, terrible — chanting: that is, so far as I have heard them. The now^r of tradition is astonishing. It still holds sway over the Episcopal Churches of our country, but we have reason to be thankful that Dr. Lowell 3Iason, a half a century ago, inaugurated the better mode that prevails in our other churciies ; that is, the chants so arranged that the words are uttered about as fast as the reverent reader reads " As to the devotional excellence of the practice, if it conld be done decently and in order, there are hardly two opinions. The Church of England has always adopted it ; and, within the last twenty or thirty years, Noncon- formists of all shades have forsaken historical prejudice, and followed her example. It is worth while, at the outset, to enquire why the Reformers, with their strong reverence for the Bible, rejected this custom of chanting. Surely, one would think, the combined recitation of the very words of Scripture would have been their favourite exercise in public^ worship. Yet they sacrificed this, and diluted the Psalms by putting them into metre. The reasons were probably two. First, the chanting of the Romish Church before the Reformation was, no doubt, irreverent in the extreme, and to suppress it was easier than to reform it. Second, the Reformers had felt the power of song, and song implies metre. This point is well put by Mr. Hullah in the preface to his Psalter (1843) : — 11 The strong attachment which has ever been shewn to metrical psalms and hymns by the people is far from being unreasonable or THE VALUE OF RHYTHM. 229 unaccountable. Music connected with umnetrical words conveys but little notion of melody or tune to the common ear ; and though the utmost amount of musical License be taken in the setting of the prose psalms and hymns, their performance amounts at last to little more than chanting ; a species rather of musical elocution than music, beautiful as it may be. As religious feeling and musical knowledge form closer union, there may be no difficulty of rendering the practice of chanting more popular and more general, but it can never altogether occupy the place of singing, in which alone the fulness of the human heart can find adequate expression. Let the prose psalms be never so happily allied to music ; let the versicle or response be fitted to strains never so reverent or exalted ; without the alliance of metre, the song of praise and thanksgiving must still be wanting." And Sir Geo. Macfarren says {Musical Times, 1867) : — " There needs no profound knowledge of music, nor deep insight into humanity, to lead to an understanding of the fact that strong feelings, however stimulated through passive obstruction, demand active expression ; and that the rhythmical nature of hymnody marked in its character, and facile of comprehension, renders this a specially fitted medium for such expression. The ear promptly notes the strong accent and definite phrasing of a metrical tune, which the memory easily retains, and this becomes a ready vehicle for the outpouring of the heart whose feelings are overflowing." It is well, at the outset, to reflect upon these passages, and to remember that chanting, however excellently clone, can never be so popular or so stirring as hymn -singing. The Reformers knew what they were doing. Just as the Bible was translated into English that the people could understand it, so the Psalms were put into verse that the people might sing them. In order to understand the chant, we must regard it as having its origin in speech, and not in music. This is the historical view. Let us, for the moment, forget the existence of Anglicans, single and double, and of Gre- gorians, with all their endings, and place ourselves, in imagination, at the time when a number of our remote forefathers first wished to repeat aloud together some form of words. In doing this, they would unconsciously STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. unite their voices upon a musical tone, and as surely would they mark the end of a clause or sentence by a fall <>f the voice corresponding to some definite musical interval. This is an instinct. Primitive and spontaneous intonation and cadences of this sort may be heard from day school children as they repeat their multiplicati-»]i table ; they may be heard occasionally from public speakers. Here is the germ of the chant. It is the utterance of words on a monotone, with a cadence at every pause in the sense. Chanting of this sort knows nothing of musical measures or harmony. Historically, it is long anterior to both. The process of elaboration is obvious. The cadence would soon be lengthened from one note to several ; then a number of cadences would be invented, to give variety. The addition of harmony, vocal or instrumental, is comparatively recent. At a very early period, two recitations with their cadences were coupled together, and made one chant. The recitation note was at first the same in both cases, but the ending was different. "Whether or not this was done in view of the parallelisms of Hebrew poetiy, there can be no doubt that it is excellently suited to the Psalms. ."What these parallelisms are will be understood from the following example (Psalm cxiv) : — 1 When Israel went out of Egypt, The house of Jacob from a people of strange language : • 2 Judah was his sanctuaiy, v And Israel his dominion. 3 The sea saw it, and fled, Jordan was driven back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, The little hills like lambs, &c. In this Psalm, each verse divides into halves ; the second half is the echo or repetition of the first in new language. Corresponding with this are the two parallel halves of the Gregorian or Anglican chant. The Psalms, however, are not all written in these parallelisms, and the attempt to THE GREGORIAN CHANT. 231 -write them thus throughout, which has several tim< s been made, leads to divisions which arc arbitrary, and have no rhetorical basis. Antiphonal chanting, that is, the singing of alternate verses by each half of the congregation or choir, has a very ancient origin. There can be no doubt, however, that the true antiphonal style, in nine Psalms out of ten, would be to sing, not each verse, but cadi half verse, so that the vocal answer might correspond with the rhetorical affirmation. This plan is adopted at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. If we fix in our minds the natural origin of the chant, we shall not consider its various forms as antagonistic, but as evolved from a common type. Of these forms, the Gregorian is the oldest. 2.— THE GREGORIAN CHANT. In its true form the Gregorian chant has no bars or measures ; the time and the accent are verbal, not musical. Each note of the mediation (or first cadence) or the ending is emphatic or non-emphatic, according to the word or syllable it happens to be sung to. The endings which follow the recitation do not fall into musical measures, but are as unrhythmical as the reciting tone itself. Gregorians are traditionally written in a notation of square notes on a four-line staff, which need not lure be explained. But whether written in the old way or in modern notation, the true Gregorian chant is seldom heard in England. Modern music, and the instinctive observance of rhythm which is an essential part of it, have modified the old chant, and given it accent and time. The following is an example of the chant (tone 3, 1st ending) in modern notation : — i % i i- \ — 7i— rr*- o Intonation. 1st. Mediation. Dominant. KEY A. ^ ||s, :1, jd ||r :d |t, :d 232 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. 2nd. Ending, Dominant. A Id :1, :t. Hi It is the custom for the priest to sing the first half-verse of every psalm and canticle by himself; the choir and congregation joining in at the second half. The intro- ductory notes, known as the intonation, are generally used to every verse of a canticle, but only to the first verse of a psalm, except on special occasions. The recitations take place on the two dominants ; the media- tion and ending form the cadence. The reason why the attempt to adapt the Gregorian tones to the English language has resulted in their modification is not far to seek. The non-accented system suits Latin and French, but not English. Apart from the instinct for time, and the desire to make a "tune" of the chant, which is a part of human nature, it is a feature of the English language that in speaking we pass from, accent to accent, and elide the intervening syllables.* "Besides the accentual system,' ' says Wad- ham, in his " Treatise on Versification," " which we may look on as native, there is another, and a rival, against which it has to make good its ground. This is the totally different base of quantity or prosody on which the Greeks, closely imitated by the Latins, constructed the whole body of their poetry." The first attempts to adapt the Gregorian tones to English use proceeded strictly upon the plan of " one syllable to a note." Of however many notes the mediation or cadence of the chant consisted, that number of syllables was marked off from the end of each half-verse, and the recitation ended when they were reached. For example, in Rev. F. Oakeley's Psalter (1843) we find:— ADAPTATION OF GREGORIANS. 233 ^ The Lord shall root out all de - ceit - ful lips KEY Gr. n In :r If :n Ir :d The Lord shall root out all de - ceit - ful lips, n * V tr /T n ii (ft) !/Oll ri vl/ ' r ' ' and ecclesiastical error." And again, the same writer says {Musical Times, 1807^ : — " The spirit of tiie reformation was to render tne church service intelligible to the utmost to all classes of the people ; this spirit rejected the use of a dead in favour of a living verbal language, and this spirit must reject a dead instead of a living tonal language ; the art of song claims the same privilege of vitality as the art of speech- The essence of Christianity is, I feel, to reject conventions in favour of convictions, to reject forms as forms, and to act upon truthful impulses. Am I then wrong in the belief that the ground is not to be defended which would foster what is old because it is old, at the cost of what is sympathetic because it is new ? It may be fair to explore in what the beautiful effect consists which would justify the revival, for standard use, of a system which is obsolete and has been superseded. It cannot be in the vexatious vagueness of key, which, with all definiteness of tonality, takes away all patisfactoriness from a musical phrase, that this beautiful effect is found. It cannot be in the irregularity of rhythm, which deprives music of its chief stronghold upon the attention of the schooled and the unschooled, that this beautiful effect is felt. It cannot be in the insusceptibility of agreeable harmony, which robs music of its most powerful charm for the English ear that this beautiful effect is assumed. The beautiful effect of Gregorian music as now presented in some of our churches 1 believe to consist totally in its being sung in unison by all the congregation." ]\Ir. Henry Smart, in the preface to his " Choral Book," writes : — 11 A contemporaneous publication rejoicing in all the mediaeval barbarism of the four-line staff and diamond note, makes its appearance on the assumption that metrical psalmody ' is found no longer to satisfy either the spiritual wants or musical tastes of Christians.' What may be the * spiritual wants ' of the Christians 23G STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. here alluded to, it is needless to enquire; but there can be DO difficulty in deciding that 'musical taste' must be indeed at the lowest ebb in any who really prefer the meaningless and uncouth 1 plain song of the church ' to any other combination of sound whatever. . . . English psalmody has many faults, but I hold it to be the far wiser course to endeavour to correct these . . . than to supplant it by a style of music utterly barbarous in itself, antagonistic to the grammatical structure of the language, and so wholly opposed to the feeling of the people that it can never come into general use, except on the incredible supposition of a second universal ascendency of the church which invented it." The late Dr. Samuel Sebastian Wesley wrote charac- teristically on the subject to a pupil as follows : — 11 Your question about Gregorian tones has caused me much pain. 1 thought I had made a better musician of you I am sorry for this. I beg to assure you that I am a musician, a Protestant, and yours truly, S. S. Wesley." Dr. W. H. Longhurst, organist of Canterbury Cathedral, said at a church-worker's festival at Canterbury in 1883 : — " It is generally known that most Cathedral men are averse to what is called Gregorian music, which is, at least to my mind, music without music — for where music is intended as a help to devotion, I fail to see or allow that that help can possibly be rendered by the music people call Gregorian. We might as well hold up Chaucer as the most elegant of all writers, and expect all our modern poets to imitate him." We have collected the best testimony against the Gregorian revival ; let us now hear what its advocates have to say. The school deserves a hearing, because its avowed- design is the promotion of congregational singing ; the introduction of the congregation to an active part in the service. It is impossible to read the publications of the London Gregorian Choral Association without being- struck by the earnestness and even enthusiasm witli which Gregorianists are animated. One advocate of the system, on being asked what he had to say in favour of Gregorians, replied "Well, I can only say this, that I believe them to be the song of Moses and the Lamb."* • Paper read at Annual Meeting" of London Gregorian Choral Association, November 18th, 1872, by Samuel Gee, Esq. TESTIMONY FOR GREGORIANS. 237 He meant, we are told, that they arc the true lai - devotion. The Bishop of Bedford capped this remark by Baying at a recent (1885) dedication festival at St. Matthias. Stoke Newington : — " He'liked tnose grand old Gregorian tones, which he was glad to find were still used at St. Matthias. He knew a clergyman in Shropshire who was so passionately fond of them that he conversed with his wife with inflections, and even had a Gregorian festival with a choir consisting of a servant maid and a boy in buttons." The apologists for the old tones say that their unrhythmical nature is true to the language of the psalms; their monotony is denied: they are said to be full of rich melody; suited in their easy compass to a large body of mixed voices; easily transposed; full of stateliness, majesty, and depth of expression and devout- ness. Their antiquity is much dwelt upon. "In their use," it is said, " the Christian church has succeeded not only to the devout and inspired aspirations of writers of the Jewish church, but also to the very music in which they clothed their words. They may have been familiar to our Blessed Lord himself, to Ezra and Hezekiah, to Solomon and David." The Ecv. Dr. Dykes, however, in Blunt's "Annotated Prayer Book," attributes the Gregorian tones to Greece. He says : — " It seems almost certain that church music is rather Greek than Hebrew in its origin. The very names of the so-called ecclesiastical modes, or scales — Dorian, Phrygian. Lydian. Mixo»Lydian, hear incidental testimony to this fact. Perhaps the Church's metrical hymn music is that branch of her song which is most directly and immediately borrowed from Ancient Greece. We find the old Greek and Roman metres freely employed in the ancient Christian hymns, and doubtless the music to which they were first allied bore no very remote resemblance to that used in heathen temples." Gregorian organists usually accompany the tones v\ it li the strongest modern harmonies — Lefebure-AVely shaking STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. hands with Ambrose. This custom, however, is not sanctioned by the best authorities, who prefer an earlier style of harmony. When the association holds its yearly demonstration at St. Paul's Cathedral, and the mighty edifice is filled with ten thousand people, twelve hundred white -robed men and boys forming the choir, the result is of course imposing. A band of brass instruments leads the melody, and great is the force and weight of the unison. Every- one is thrilled by the vastness and power of the sonorous effect. But on recovering from the immediate sensation, one feels regret for enthusiasm and devotion so strangely misspent. The idea of reviving the people's song in the nineteenth century by means of the Gregorian tones is nothing less than preposterous. Gregorian chanting is by no means so simple as it looks, because its idiom is strange to the modem ear ; and the testimony of many choirmasters who have tried both systems is that the people do not join any more heartily in Gregorians than in Anglicans. The fact is that music for the people must be something more than simple: it must be interesting; it must be in the current idiom. In the ears of the educated fe.w, the tonal indecision of the old melodies has a quaintness which is charming, but to the many the tones are hopelessly monotonous. Gregorian music seems at present (1887) to be on the decline. The London Gregorian Choral Association had 2,000 members in 1880; now it has 700. In 1882 the receipts amounted to nearly £300 ; the last report gives the receipts at £190. In 187o the percentage of London churches using Gregorian music was 19 J ; in 1884 it was 12J. The Church Times, in a leading article, condemns the strict Gregorian school as reactionary. " We used to be told," it says, " that the music of the sanctuary should be unworldly. Kow it is insisted that it should be nothing of the kind ; that the grave, majestic, and THE ANGLICAN CHANT. 239 truly church-like organ is not enough, but that we must have trumpets also, and shawms, fiddles, and kettledrums. Instead of an attempt to do for the church tones what our church artists have done for painting and sculpture, we are told that unless we are prepared to take the old music in its grimmest and most ungainly forms, we must give it up altogether ; which is like saying that we are not to have painting or sculpture unless we are willing to make our saints bandy -legged, goggle-eyed, or wry- necked. Sometimes an odd compromise is effected ; the crudest mediaeval strains being selected for strictly ritual purposes, and the choirmaster compensating himself by going as near the music-hall as he can get, without quite following Mr. Booth." III.— THE ANGLICAN CHANT. The Anglican chant, as its name implies, is English in origin. It did not come in with the Reformation, but can be traced to the time of the Restoration. The double chant was developed from the single. There are several stories as to its origin. It is said that upon one occasion a pupil of Dr. Croft, in the course of his duty in a cathedral, happened, through forgetfulncss or careless to strike into another chant, which the choir immediately took up. The same story is told of a pupil of Hine, organist of Gloucester, 1710-30. But in one of the old service-books belonging to St. Paul's Cathedral, there exists an MS. copy of a double chant by John Robinson (not the well-known one in E flat, but a rather monotonous one in C), in the hand- writing of Dr. Turner, his father-in-law, dated 1706. These stories are therefore fabulous. The Anglican single chant lias a first reciting note followed by two measures (mediation), and a second reciting note followed by three measures (cadence). The form of the double chant is that of two single chants 240 studies in iron SHIP MUSIC. placed together. Coinp aerally endeavour at a response between two or all of the cadences, in order to give that unity of impression which is the basis of musical form, and which favours the parallelisms of the Hebrew poetry. Canon Havergal's double chants have all one subject, which reappears in the second half, tr contrapuntally. Objection is taken, and not without cause, to the indiscriminate use of double chants. The psalmists often shift their attitude from praise to prayer, or vice versa, during the course of a psalm, and the double chant is liable to link together two verses between which there is a natural hiatus (see verses 5 and 6 of the Venite, Psalm xcv). The repetition of the second half of a double chant, necessary in all psalms with an odd number of verses, is distressing to the musical sense. Quadruple chants are a further advance in the same direction, and are still more liable to the same objections. Both double and quadruple need to be employed with foresight and intelligence. The musical character of chants should also be more closely studied in adapting them to psalms. John Jones, the organist of St. Paul's Cathedral, marked his chants (1785), with the letters P., P., and H., for Eejoicing, Penitential, and Historical, as a hint to which kind of psalms they should be fitted. The 'multiplicity of recent chants has not been favour- able t& a pure and dignified style. The efforts made by composers at originality are desperate, and the most far-fetched chromatic harmonies are used. The rule laid down by Dr. W. Hayes, that there should be no discord on the reciting note, has long since been discarded. In the attempt to make a pretty tune, the real function of the chant is forgotten, and the reciting notes are fixed too high. The chant ought always to be within the medium compass of each vocal part. I have heard the boys of a FORM OF THE ANGLICAN CHANT. 241 good choir flatten irrevocably and persistently in this chant by Dr. Greene : — $ r> -&- KEY Bb- II' id :r It, :- lid :n :r Id : — The reciting notes are above the medium pitch, and the cadences give no sufficient relief. Several attempts have been made to amend the form of the Anglican chant. Dr. Kemp composed a few chants in triple time, one of which was used, long ago, at Christ Church, Oxford, but this was merely for the sake of variety. Samuel Webbe the elder, in his " Sixty Original Chants," uses a variety of forms, among them these : — it /t\ rr\ L % w -Q- 3± KEY Gr. In If :n s- id ^Jhr=\ i — V rr\ 1 — n SPS rj -&^ q fj -Gh- -o- rJ -&- rz> ^(9 — U KEY E. |n |r :d Is :f In :— 111 |s :f |n :r Id :- Mr. W. H. Monk, in his " Ancient and Modern Psalter " (1878), introduces a form which combines the Gregorian with the Anglican. The case in which this new form is of sendee, is when two syllables occur on the last note of the mediation. Take the words — Holy, holy, holy. 242 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. These would be sung to an ordinary Anglican chant, and by an ordinary choir, in the following time : — o * '- o ' Ho KEY E^J. s :- .s ly, 1 ho - :s ly, ho - Is .S Ho lv, ho - ly, ho - lv. ly. The effect of the last " holy " has been likened to the " rat-tat " of the postman, and it is certainly /irreverent and flippant. To prevent this jerky effect, and to promote smoothness, Mr, Monk introduces an optional note, in the last measure, which is used where there is a syllable for it, and is passed over (not slurred) when there is not. The use of this note will be evident from the following examples :— Used. Omitted. i§ 1 Q XT Thou did' st turn Thy face KEY Ej}. tl ^ II :s Then did' st turn Thy face from me. is :n from me. |f^S -h 4= Then I cried unto Thee, O Lord. KEY E}. II T l1:s Is Ml Then I cried unto Thee, O Lord. Mr. Monk has enlisted the help of a number of Cathedral organists, who have composed chants in this new fo^rm, always taking care that the chord of which the optional note is a part can be omitted from the harmony when necessary. He found, when at work upon this new plan, that Samuel AVebbe had anticipated him in it, and the Psalter contains one or two of AVebbe's chants. Rev. John E. Lunn, writing in the Church Tim s (December 19th, 1884), asserts that the Anglican chant dates no farther back than 1750 : — " Anglican chants are not. properly speaking, chants at all, but are really rhythmical tunes. The necessary consequence of their form THE FREE CHANT. 243 i-, that a strong accent occurs on the last note of tiie mediation and cadence. If the words in English prose were generally accented on the last syllable, such an arrangement would do admirably; but, unfortunately, the reverse is the case ; our accents have a tendency to go back. Anglican chants, therefore, to be rational, ought to end, not .with an accented note, but with an unaccented one ; to have a mediation of four notes, and a cadence of six." In the same paper, Mr. James Baden-Powell, writing from the Gregorian stand -point, says: — "So-called Anglican chants are hymn-tunes, divided into Btri measures, in ' sevens ' metre. A double chant is a complete tune ; a single half a tune. But prose recitation properly wants musical recitative, not a hymn-tune, to express it. . . . It is very much easier at first to sing the Psalms well to Anglicans than to Gre- gorians, just because it is easier to sing a hymn-tune than a recitative. ... I have no fear for the future. By degrees, Gregorian psalmody will assert itself." Mr. John Crowdy lias put forward what he describes as the Free Chant. He rejects the compromise of the Anglican form, and reduces chanting to its primitive unrhythmical state. We are presented with four couples of chords : on the first chord of each couple we recite, and the second is the cadence or inflection which closes the half verse. Thus each free chant covers the same quantity of words as an Anglican double chant. In the free chant, the musical and rhythmic element is reduced almost to zero ; and the attention is thrown hack upon the delivery of the words. There is no temptation to spoil the elocution in order to keep the musical time. Mr. Crowdy's exposure of the Anglican chant is, from the strict point of view, unanswerable. But it is the very compromise between '-tune" and free speech which makes that chant interesting and popular. Chanting, Mr. Crowdy's system, would he at once pure and dull; music would not shackle the words, and it would not ire tli em. 244 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. IV.— CHANTING AND POINTING. The innumerable published Psalters, with their innu- merable systems of pointing, are a frank confession of the difficulty of carrying out the compromise between metre and prose which the Anglican chant attempts. We can only briefly notice a few of the plans used. Many pointers beg the whole question by marking only the measures of the music, and leaving singers to observe the natural rhythm of the words by their own inner light : a thing which experience shows they never do. A number of others use italic type for all words not belonging to the recitation ; with the measures, and some- times the half-measures, marked with long and short perpendicular lines. One Psalter has lines drawn under all the notes of the cadences, each line marking by its length the duration of a pulse or beat. Another (1835), cuts up the words according to their notes in this fashion : — For-th-e-Lord : i — s — a — grea — t — God. The author of this little work relates the difficulties caused by the barrel-organ, which cannot repeat the last half of a double chant where an odd number of verses renders this necessary. Mr. T. G. Ackland (1843), Mr. Hullah (1844), Mr. "W. H. Cummings (1852), and others, draw lines from tap to bottom of the page, and arrange the words within the measures to which they are to be sung. Others, not adopting this plan, use points . or dashes ' in place of bar lines. The Sudbury Psalter (1868), the Office of Praise (1854), the AVeigh House Psalter (1854), and others, vainly attempt to demetricise the Anglican chant by printing it without bars, and directing that it shall not be sung in strict musical time, but in the natural time of the words. It is remarkable that pointers have been at so much pains to mark the words of the cadences. They do not seem to have dis- POINTING. 245 covered that these can take care of themselves. Tell a singer where the cadence is to begin, and guide him when more than one syllable has to be sung to one note, and there is no need for bars, italics, or any other signs. Pointers differ in their method of fixing the entrance to the inflection or cadence. The ancient Gregorian use, as we have seen, was to have one syllable only to each note of the cadence. Mr. Turle (1866), adopts the plan of having as few syllables here as is consistent with correct accentuation. Other authorities crowd syllables into the cadence. The two methods are compared in the following examples: — He hath prepared for him the instru | merits of | death || He hath prepared for him the | instruments of | death || Behold he travail | eth with | mischief || Behold he | travaileth with | mischief || Sing unto God O ye kingdoms | of the | earth || Sing unto God O ye | kingdoms of the | earth || These are distinguished as the syllabic and the accented systems. The true course lies between the extremes of either. Too much crowding of syllables is flippant in effect ; while, on the other hand, the accent and import- ance of words must govern their position in the metrical part of the chant. The real difficulty of the chant lies, of course, in the recitation, and here it is that the help of the pointer is most needed. Nearly all pointers acknowledge the necessity of doing something to help singers, and to secure uniformity. Dr. Jebb, however, says : — " A great anxiety is often shown, so to regulate the recitation as that each word and syllable may be pronounced at the same time by the whole choir. It would be impossible, or, at least, a work of extreme difficulty, to make or enforce such a rule. But it is not, in fact, desirable. A certain degree of license ought to be permitted in ttiis part of the chant to each singer, so as to allow of that devo- tional^ freedom and elasticity which gives such life to the chant, and 246 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. which distinguishes it from metrical psalmody. This is quite con- sistent with sufficient distinctness, as will be found by the practice of all choirs who have been taught to observe the rules of punctuation and accent ; and I confess I should be sorry to exchange for a correct, but tame and mechanical performance, that majestic roll of the chant which resembles the voice of many waters." This opinion is probably singular ; at any rate, the great preponderance of authority is in favour of securiug as much oneness of utterance as possible. What Dr. Jebb calls a "mighty roll," others feel to be an indecent scamper. Surely coincidence and distinctness form the first condition of power and impressiveness in choral recitation. In speaking of the recitation, let us first remark that the prevailing custom is to deliver it far too rapidly. There is no reason why the Psalms should be chanted any faster than any other part of Scripture is read in public worship. Indeed, the comprehension of a number of people in the act, suggests a slower speed than that which one voice would adopt. The Rev. Canon Pullen, in his Psalter (1867), writes well on this point. He says : — '; It may, perhaps, be worth while to raise the question, whether our present system of chanting is not a great deal too fast. Nobody, of course, would advocate drawling, but it is surely possible to err in the other extreme ; and the reckless fashion in which syllables are now crowded together, and commas ignored, tells its own tale only too plainly. We have gained a certain amount of vigour and brisk- ness, but, if we have lost distinctness and expression, we have made but a poor exchange." The first reform in Anglican chanting must be to reduce the speed of the recitation from that of the quickest possible articulation to that of reverent and measured speech. "We have said that most pointers make some attempt to guide singers in the delivery of the recitation. Some direct that all commas shall be observed by a slight pause, a few (e.g., Hake, 1877) adding the sensible rule that the THE IMA GIN A RY BAR. 247 comma is not to be observed when it occurs between two parts of an invocation, as "Thou, 0 Lord." Others use the asterisk (*) to mark where breath is to be taken in the recitation, and as this sign is more prominent than the comma it is preierable. What may be called the doctrine of the " imaginary bar" is to be met with in many recent Psalters of authority. Dr. Stephen Elvey, whose Psalter (1856) is a landmark in the literature of the subject, appears to have been the first to give the sanction of principle to a device to which chanters had probably worked their way in practice some time previously. His design was to produce greater smoothness in chanting, and especially to get rid of the long and unmeaning pause before the tune, which he tells us was almost invariable some years ago. He asserts that the words of the recitation should be sung, as nearly as may be, at the same rate as those of the rest of the chant. In order that the recitation may be joined nicely to the cadences, Dr. Elvey distinguishes the last accented syllable of the recitation by a change of type, and says that this syllable is to form the commencement of an " imaginary bar." It, and the syllables which intervene before the entrance to the cadence, are to have strictly one measure of time, and the subdivisions of this measure are prescribed by four varieties of type, according to the natural emphasis of the words. Dr. Elvey does not say that this marked syllable is to have more accent than the rest ; he speaks of it only as the last accented syllable of the recitation, and his desire for smoothness shows that he would not wish it to be jerked out with more than its natural weight. The pointers who mark this last accent of the recitation are by no means agreed as to its function. Mr. Joule, nine years before Elvey (1847), speaks of 11 A short pause [on the accented syllable] . . . continued 248 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. just long enough to secure the simultaneous enunciation of the remaining syllables before the perpendicular line." But he does not fix its exact time. Mr. Troutbeck (1876) says:— "The thick type shows the last emphatic word, or the last accented syllable upon the reciting note of the chant. Care should be taken not to dwell unduly on the word or syllable printed in thick type. Any syllables which come between the syllable printed in thick type and the first bar, should be sung clearly, and not too fast." The Magdalene Psalter, edited by Stainer and Tuckwell (1875), says : — 11 The syllables printed in black letter are to be held longer, but not sung louder, than the other syllables in the recitation. Care must be taken, that any syllables which occur between that in black letter and the first bar be pronounced as clearly, and at the same pace, as the previous recitation." The Oxford and Cambridge Psalter (1871) says : — 11 This is not always an emphatic syllable, nor is it even to be marked with an exaggerated accent." The S.P.C.K. Psalter (1866) marks the last accented syllable, but says nothing about the imaginary bar. Indeed, such a passage as this — And tyrants, which have not God before their eyes | seek | after my | soul || seems to show that the editor does not believe in it, for it is scarcely possible to get the words, " God before their eyes," into one measure. The Sudbury Psalter (1868) marks the last pause in the recitation with an asterisk when it occurs before the last syllable, but says that when there is no asterisk (i.e., no natural pause), the singer should proceed straight to the cadence. This is part of the attempt to abolish fixed musical time in the chant. Mr. E. Prout, in the " Psalmist" Psalter (1878), says : — THE IMA GINAR Y BAR. 249 " In the reciting passages, there is generally one word which bears a stronger accent than the others." It would be interesting to know on what principle of elocution this statement is made. The Trinity Psalter (New York, 1864), endeavours to account for this convenient device of the imaginary bar in the following elegant form: — 11 The underscored word is to be sustained. It serves as a point of departure, so to speak, from which singers are to proceed to the rhythmical portion of the chant. The critical point in a chant is where the recitation ends and the cadence begins ; and choristers, as they approach this place, instinctively seek some word or syllable — some rallying point — as a preparation for that which is to follow." Canon Pullen (1867) disposes very well of this notion of a " rallying point." He says : — 11 Though the capital letters may prevent the chorister gabbling beyond a certain word, they clearly cannot prevent his gabbling up to it ; nay, they almost invite him to do so, by the very fact of catching his eye. ... To imagine a bar is to create a bar. All bars are imaginary. You cannot see them or hear them. They have no real existence, except upon paper. Accents, indeed, you must have, and the bar is a convenient method of showing where your accents fall, but the bar itself is a mere imaginary line." The fact is, that the doctrine of the imaginary bar has no elocutional foundation whatever. It has been put forward as a way of escape from a greater evil. If singers are to get over the recitation helter-skelter as best they can, and to enter the cadence in strict time, it follows that some rendezvous is necessary on the way. The singers naturally made this on the last syllable of the recitation, whether it happened to be in the middle of a word, or however badly it broke the sense. To prevent this violation of the words, a less objectionable rendezvous was fixed by the pointer. The change removed the glaring error of the old plan, and allowed the helter- skelter to proceed as before. For whatever pointers may say to the contrary, there is no doubt that, as a fact, 250 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. singers scamper up to the marked syllable, emphasise and prolong it far beyond its deserts, and that they skip over the syllables which intervene between it and the cadence, so that they are scarcely audible. The question is often asked, must the reciting note last for two pulses of time when there is only one syllable to be sung to it ? Here, in my opinion, the musical form over-rides elocutional rules. The reciting chords are the harmonic foundations of the chant, and cannot occupy less than a measure. In the Church Psalter, by E. W. Crawley, Leeds, Mr, P. Jackson says : — " Whatever pause in the recitation is needed in the tune, interest of the chanter is duly marked by a bold and unmistakable asterisk (*). On a similar, and equally simple principle, with a view of marking the accent in the recitation, the syllable so accentuated is printed in italics. All commas, &c, are removed." My father published; in 1847, a small collection of " Psalms arranged in proper rhythm for chanting," in which he made an attempt — the only one I have been able to find — at a notation of emphasis, grouping, and pause in the recitation. From Push, the American writer on elocution, he had conceived the idea that measured speech is .just as rhythmical as poetry. He found also that it differs from poetry only in the measures being an irregular mixture of duple and triple rhythms. "The number of syllables uttered between one word and the next," 'he says, " may vary considerably, but the pulses themseltes still recur at equal intervals." This fact being established, it followed that the words of the recitation could really be made to fall into measures, the time of which was the same as that of the cadence. Yarious dashes and signs were used to mark out these measures, and, as a result, the singer was provided with an exact guide. Any number of people who had learned the meaning of the signs, could not fail, at the first attempt, to deliver the recitation, syllable by syllable, II 0 W TO TEA CIT CITA NT1NG. 2 5 i with perfect accuracy of time, and with the same emphasis. The " Clapton Park Psalter," compiled by my uncle, the late Mr. Thomas T. Curwen (1876), is the latest development of this system of elocutional pointing of the recitation. The objections commonly made to this plan are that it leads to a mechanical and jerky style, and that it perplexes the eye by a multiplicity of signs. It may fairly be said that mechanical chanting is better than the irreverent gabble which now too commonly pre\ ails, but there is no reason why chanting on this system should be mechanical. The second objection has more weight, especially in the case of congregations, who will not take the trouble to understand or to observe the signs, and are much prejudiced against them. y._HOAV TO TEACH CHAXTI^GL The attempt to make chanting congregational increases very greatly the difficulties of the task. Choirs are more or less skilled and practised, but the congregation are, to a large extent, listless, and slow to read signs and points. In the Church of England, thoroughly congregational chanting may often, indeed generally, be heard in the Canticles, but I have never heard anything which can fairly be called congregational chanting of the Psalms. The people know the words and pointing of the Canticles by heart, hence they sing heartily and easily. How is congregational chanting to be taught ? We must rely very much on teaching by ear and by pattern ; repeat both words and music often, and keep to a small number of easy chants. If the recitation is not pointed in the Psalter, each chant must be rehearsed at the congregational practice until it is so familiar that all move together with clearness and decision. On Sunday, the rest of the congregation will follow so decided a lead. In learning a new chant, let the choir or congregation, assembled at practice, first hear it read aloud by the 252 STUDIES IN W0RSII1P MUSIC. choirmaster, with deliberate pause and emphasis. Let them then imitate his pattern, and repeat each verse until all speak together. Better still, let them repeat it on a monotone, say E or E. Then the chant may be intro- duced, and its music learnt. Next let the words be sung to it in exactly the time in which they were read, and the process will be complete. The same plan should be used for choirs, especially for choir boys. The custom of singing hymns to chants has become general of late. There is no musical or artistic objection to it ; on the contrary, lit is to be recommended as a variety, especially for hymns with irregular and long lines. For a congregation to learn and keep in memory a tune for each of the countless metres which hymn writers now use is impossible ; but, by using chants, these hymns may be sung without any difficulty. Canon Havergal recommends the practice as an easy introduction to prose chanting. It is specially common among the Presby- terians, who use chants to help them through their metrical psalms. It is, however, hardly necessary to point out that, in common and long metre hymns, the chant loses its nature, and becomes strictly a metrical tune. The second and fourth lines of common metre go without chanting. This time form — I 5Bk 1e= {§j~* — o1 «• * rj" S [_l f^ ~cr ||s *s .,s |s :- .s jd1 :1 |s : — is used for the two recitations of the first and third lines, whatever the accent of the words. Sometimes the pause at the end of the recitation suits the verbal phrase ; sometimes it does not, but no change is made: — Tne heavens are Thine, Thou for Thine own Who is like God And will to gen And will Thy ho And with Thv mi among the sons erations all ly oil my King ghty arm Thou hast, &c. SINGIJYG IIY21NS TO CHANTS. 2.5:) The following hymn-tune by Sir A. Sullivan, from "Church Hymns, " shows the point at which the chant meets the metrical tune : — ||g :„ ■=t ;: -Gh- Q* -o My God, is a uv hour so sweet, i fe^ -J© 3i: Q ' From blush of morn to even - ing star, As i r> g> • # ^>— .g- fcz that which calls me to Thy feet, The hour of pray'r. i|i II KEY E'?. s :s .s |s :- .S If :n Ir :- { My God, is an - y ' hour so sweet, J 1 :1 .1 |1 :- .1 1 S :f In :- .d' j From blush of morn to lev' - ning star, As S d1 :- .d1 |d' :t 11 :s If ■- I that which calls me 1 to Thy feet, ) n : — if :r Id J— II The hour of 1 praj •'r. This is really a chant in spirit and intention. The time in which Sir A. Sullivan has written the recitations should be noticed. The jerky effect described above is avoided. The chant is much more in its place for a hymn with such long lines as "Abide with me." Some special chants, with four reciting notes, and a cadence of three accents to each, have been written for such hymns. Here, however, the abuse of hurrying and pausing at the " imaginary bar " prevails. AVe hear occasionally such bad recitation as — Abidcwithinefastfailsthe - e - e even tide. 254 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. The whole line should be sung smoothly and in un'.form time, with elocutional pauses — Abide with me* last falls the eventide. There should be no pause after " falls," and the notion of a specially accented syllable near the close of the recita- tion should be dissipated. As the accents of a hymn are regular, the combined recital of the lines ought to be perfectly easy. Chanting is such a popular exercise, and one which may be made so truly congregational, that all must wish for its improvement and development. The prejudice against it is largely owing to its prevalent abuse, and it is for the friends of chanting to show that the Anglican compromise is possible, and that good reading can be reconciled with good singing. THE STYLE OF HAEMONY PROPER FOE CONGREGATIONAL MUSIC In writing on styles of harmony, one cannot help being, in some degree, technical ; just as, in criticising a painting, it is necessary to speak of the laws of perspective, and the principles of grouping. But, as a person of ordinary taste can judge whether lie likes a picture or not, without any formal knowledge of the painter's art, so those who are quite ignorant of the jargon of musical theorists, hut have an ear for music, can discriminate between styles of harmony in the music they hear. One may hope, therefore, to interest the general reader in a subject which has great importance for all lovers of church music. The: remark has often been made, that sacred music- is always a generation or more behind secular music. What one generation forbids another accepts ; the innova- tions of one bold composer are the commonplaces of his successors. No one can examine the progress of church music without acknowledging that this is true. Hence it comes to pass that not until now are we feeling in psalmody the full force of the influence of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Spohr, and other writers in the free style. It is only necessary to compare an anthem by such a writer as Croft, with one by a composer of to-day — Henry Smart, (joss, or Sullivan — to see how the notion 256 STUDIES IN ir OH SHIP MUSIC. of the church style lias been modified. We shall, how- ever, in the present paper, confine ourselves to hymn tunes, which, as the terse expression of a composer's feeling, are no less characteristic of their period than longer compositions. Let us first remind ourselves that the hymn-tune is subject to the weakness as well as the strength of all vocal music written in the stanza form ; that is, which repeats the same music to successive verses of the poetry. The weakness of this form is that the composer cannot take account of the changing sentiment of the words; its strength — and for popular purposes this strength is of overwhelming importance — is that the frequently recur- ring tune impresses itself upon the memory, and helps to keep the words in mind. AVhen — to Anglicise the con- venient German word durchcomjponiert — the music is " composed through," it bends entirely to the words, and the most intimate expression becomes possible. This is no doubt the form of setting lyrics to music best calculated to please the musician, whereas the stanza form is that best calculated to please the populace. The hymn-tune is even more shackled in regard to verbal expression* than its secular counterpart, the ballad. A ballad singer can vary the length of notes from verse to verse, so as to improve the elocutional force of the words. Metrical irregularities can be accommodated. But in the case of the hymn-tune this is not possible. The hymn tune is for the congregation, a vast, unyielding mass, which would be perplexed and confounded by attempts to accommodate the music to the poetry. Everyone who listens first to the " Old Hundredth," and then to one of Dr. Dykes' tunes, say " Jesu, lover of my soul," feels the difference between the modern and the ancient manner. It is as the diction of Chaucer is to that of Tennyson, or the language of the Authorised Yersion to that of Matthew Arnold. The rules of the TYPES OF BYMN-TUIVES. 257 old style are well known, and can be imitated by modern writers when they choose, like Chatterton, to cast their thoughts in antique form. But the use of the old counterpoint is at best an affectation, foreign to modern feeling and practice. Our hymn-tunes may be said to belong to three types. First, we have the grand old tunes, like the "Old Hundredth, " "French," and "Winchester Old," har- monised with the chords mostly in their root positions, massive and imposing. Then come the dulcet tunes of a later time, such as " "Rockingham " and " Melcombe," in which the progressions are less rugged and bold, a more sweet and flowing style being cultivated by the com- posers, who belonged to the period of the English glee. Now we seem to be arriving at a third type, in which harmony, not melody, is studied ; and in which the composer, if he can delight the ear by one novel progression, is content to die happy. Tf the first type is awe-inspiring, the second gives pleasure, while the effect of the third is generally melancholy. Amid the various styles of harmony which we find in church music, what are the canons which should regulate us ? The teaching and practice of psalmodists is very varied. The late Rev. W. H. Havergal may be regarded as the prophet of the purists. In his " Old Church Psalmody " he shows himself to be a musical Pre- Raphaelite. As Wordsworth found his ideal life among a few Westmoreland shepherds, so Mr. Havergal wishes for nothing more in church music than the old psalter tunes, or new ones written upon the same model. He glories in the "severe but pleasing simplicity " of Tallis and Playford, and deplores the plague of the "glee-like, sing-song productions " that were the offspring of the Methodist revival. Mr. Havergal advocates the strict style, because, he says, it is what persons of sober taste and devout feeling like, and he adds that even those 258 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. whose misfortune it lias been to sing tunes of a more light and trashy character gradually come round to it. That is one view of Church music, and, though there is some truth in it, no one can suppose that it will prevail in the present day. At the opposite extreme from Mr. Havergal we have Mr. Barnby. In the preface to his collection of tunes he writes : — 4iThe terms effeminate and maudlin, with others, are freely used now-a-days to stigmatise such new tunes as are not direct imitations of old ones. And yet it has always appeared strange to me that musicians should be found who, whilst admitting that seventeenth century tunes were very properly written in what we may call the natural idiom of that period, will not allow nineteenth century ones to be written in the idiom of that day. You may imitate and plagiarise the old tunes to any extent, and in all probability you will be spoken of as one who is ' thoroughly imbued with the truly devotional spirit of the old ecclesiastical writers,' but you are not permitted on any account to give your natural feelings fair play ; or, in short, to write spontaneously. The strangest part of the argu- ment, however, is that whilst you are urged to imitate the old works, you are warned, in the same breath, that to succeed is altogether without the bounds of possibility. The question then naturally arises: Would it not be better, though at the risk of doing feebler things, to follow your own natural style, which, at least, would possess the merit of truth, and to leave the task of en- deavouring to achieve an impossibility to those who prefer it ? For my part, I have elected to imitate the old writers in their independent method of working, rather than their works." !Mr. Hullah, writing on the same subject, says: — 11 Why, so long as they move in different, though parallel lines, should sacred music be always in arrear of secular? On what principle are even the wisest and best people of one age to dictate to those of another, not truths which are eternal, but mere forms of expression, in themselves non-essential, and, as all experience proves, ephemeral? A late musical writer, in answer to the question, ' And must we then have no new church music ? ' replied, ■ Yes, but no new style.1 Surely an answer more consistent with common sense would have been, ■ No, let us have no new music unless it be in a new style.' For is it likely that a musician trained in the CONFLICTING SCHOOLS. 2.59 idiom of Mozart will ever surpass or equal Palestrina in the use of his? And what else but the hope of doing so could justify the composition of new music in the style of the sixteenth century. or in any style other than that of the composer's own epoch? That modern church musicians should penetrate themselves to the utmost with the spirit of the great masters of the age of Palestrina is in the* highest degree to be wished ; that they should attempt to use their forms of expression is as much to be deprecated. In setting recent hymns, the composers have not stopped to consider how Tallis or Gibbons would have set them (putting the impossible case of their having had to do so), but they have simply tried how, in the musical idiom cf their own time, they could best express the thoughts and feelings of contemporary poets." This thought receives independent support from Sir George Macfarren (Musical Times, 1867): — " 1 recant my once firm opinion that the strict diatonic style of the contrapuntal masters only should be employed for the music of the sanctuary, being convinced that sincere feelings must have their faithful utterance in unrestrained expression, and being confident that the truthfulness of the composers must impart itself to the listeners." On the other hand, Sir George Macfarren utters this caution : — ki The rapid passages frequent in modern music, the quickly changing harmonies, and very far more the chromatic element which strongly characterises the writing of the day, is all but incompatible with good, and unquestionably so with grand effect, in buildings of the form and proportion of our cathedrals." Between the composers who write hymn-tunes in the modern style there is a considerable difference. Mr. Hullah, for example, shows moderation, and rather avoids inflected notes ; while Mr. Barnby crowds his tunes with chromatics, almost in the manner of Spohr, leaving Mr. Havergal and his counterpoint far behind. Mr. Barnby's tune in G minor to k' Jesu, lover of my soul," and Dr. Stain er's in D major to " Thou hidden love of God," both of which are in most of the recent collec- tions, are conspicuous examples of the modern hymn tune. 260 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. We cannot listen to such compositions when played upon the pianoforte or organ without allowing that their rich chromatic effects are very delightful to the ear. Nevertheless, while acknowledging their exceeding "beauty, one feels that it is a beauty which does not last. In proportion to the ravishing effect of these progres- sions, the ear does not care to have them repeated. We always feel this by the time we get to the fonrth or fifth verse. The weight of dissonance, which at first delights the ear, soon palls upon it. Our palates are surfeited ; it is the strawberry -jam of music. Those who have listened to one of Spohr's oratorios will feel the truth of this remark. It is quite true that music would be dull and insipid without discords, but the delight which the ear experiences is not in the crash of the discords themselves, but in following their orderly motion into consonance. Consonance is the substance of music ; dissonance its adornment. We never tire of plain chords, such as those in the "Old Hundredth." The grandest progression in music is from tonic to dominant, or vice versa. There is, I am aware, some ground for the tu quoque argument. Hymns of the period are introspective and dreamy. ' It has been said that, whereas Bunyan's. pilgrim shook off his burden with a vigorous effort, and saw it no more, the modern pilgrim sits down, takes off his burden, and examines its contents, one by one, with melancholy interest. Hymns of this kind naturally invite weak and somewhat maudlin tunes. Composers are justified in making this retort when they are accused of not writing better tunes. Nevertheless, these are the aesthetic considerations which should lead us, at least, to be very guarded in our use of chromatic harmonies in hymn-tunes. There are, however, other considerations. All schools of psalmodists intend their compositions to be sung by a choir, and some of us even go so far as to desire that the congregation MOD ERN JfYMX- TUNES. 26 1 should sing them too. Now tunes such as the two that have been named are very difficult to sing in tune ; their chromatic chords try the skill of even a first-rate choir. If a trained choir stumble over these harmonies, what will become of a congregation ? The organ thunders forth the chords, but what do the people do ? These ingenious harmonies demand a balance of parts, which is what, at present, we never get in congregational psalmody. The effect of these modern tunes, when heard in an ordinary service, is most distressing. A number of men sing the air, while others make attempts, all more or less out of tune, to sing their parts. There is a feebleness about the whole thing, which is almost enough to convert us to Mr. Havergal's views in favour of diatonic harmonies. " The great fault of modern hymn-tunes," once said one of the most successful of living English composers to me, " is that they are too much in the character of part- songs. The finest hymn-tunes are those that are plainest, and full of broad, strong effects. The hymn-tune is not for the choir, but for the congregation, and it should, therefore, be what everyone can sing. The melody is all- important. Chromatic harmonies in the lower parts are weakening and incongruous. We have all done this sort of thing in our time," he added, pointing to a specimen of the weak modern style that lay before us, " but, speaking for myself, as I get more experience, I find it best not to do it. People say that to write simply is to pander to the popular taste ; not so, it is doing what is consistent and right. Rely for your effect upon a good and well- shaped melody, and plainly-written parts."* The fact is, these modern tunes are written to be played rather than sung. We strum them on our piano- Sebastian Wesley, Bending the manuscript of "Harewood" to Mr. ickett (Ixeter, November 22nd, 1838), says:--*' Explicated harmonies, but they do not suit Rnglial in Musical standard, November 4th, L8»2, pa Hackett (Ixeter, November 22nd, 1838), Bay8: "I could easily semi more complicated harmonies, but they do not suit English congregations." Quoted 262 STUDIES IX WORSHIP JIUSIC. fortes, and sigh over the most beautiful of the discords. Our fingers know nothing of awkward and unvocal intervals, or of the effort and training which is needed to hold a strong dissonance with the voice. The study of the' pianoforte, while it has discouraged the practice of purely vocal music, has cultivated the sensibility to musical sounds to a remarkable extent, for the mere habit of listening to music cultivates the ear. It is this wide-spread appreciation of instrumental music which has, in recent years, affected our psalmody. But the style of instrumental music is necessarily dis- tinct from that of vocal ; the singer and the player need different treatment. A dissonance of a semitone is no more trouble to play than the most ordinary concord, but it is almost impossible to get a choir to hold it with perfect resolution, and in perfect tune. The old counter- point was born of singing rather than of playing. It comes to us from a time when instruments were feeble and imperfect, and it studied that smooth motion of the parts which is so effective in vocal harmony. The later tunes, bearing traces of the glee or the Handelian chorus, are no l'ess distinctly vocal. Effects that are congenial to voices are studied, and what voices cannot do is carefully avoided. Xow-a-days, composers of hymn-tunes write for the organ, and seldom stop to consider whether what they write can be sung. The tunes of the late Dr. Dykes are good examples of the judicious use of free harmonies. There is not one that does not contain something strikingly modern, and yet the colouring is never overdone, and the progressions are eminently smooth and singable. In later editions of his tunes, a few slight alterations may be observed, and they are all in the direction of the singer's convenience. In order to illustrate the various styles of harmony that we have discussed, we will take a few examples. OLD HUNDREDTH— PAST. 263 Below appears the melody of the : -^; t=tt ~^r {2JC2J1 KEY A. d :t| |1, :s. d :r |m :n In :n |r :d f :n |r f. :f. |fi:fi Pl| :si |d :d d :d |t, :d t, :d |t, r :r |d :t, d :s Is :s 1 :n |s :s s :s |s S| :si |S| :s. li :t| id :t| 1, :s, |f, :n, r, :d, |s. r :n |r :d 1, :t, |d :s n :d |r :f n :r |d d :d |t| :si s, :f, |n, :s. d :d |d :d t, :t| Id 1 :f Is :d n :r |d :r s :s |1 :f f :f In U :fi Ifi :"i fi :s, |1, :t, d :n, |f, :r, S| :s, |d Future. U Q ~ ^=Fq i i.i I ■fJL^gLtHL J 4 -4 « I i % ~-*^ ~crj KEY A. :d :s, :n I :d, d :t, |1| :s, set :set |1| :si.f, r .r f Ina :r 7 r *r lid :t,j pii :f, |fei :s, :r n :n nai : lai |si : sei d :d la, :f. |a :r I tai :ti n :n s, :s, de :de ta, :1, |r If. |r |r, d 1. n l..le. f sei r ti n |r 1. It, n |f d | sei r :n |r :d d :tai |l|.lai:si.sei f :de |rt7:d~~ la, :s, |f, :n. 1, t, |d :s ll Si 1 la.| :t| f s | f e : f . r f, f, Ina, :r. n :d d :d n :f |r Itai If d.taiili.la: ta f lai f f, m :r |d t, :t| Id f :f |n S|.lai:lai.S||d| The first version, which I have called that of "the past," is the one to which we arc accustomed, and it is certainly the one most congenial to the tunc, because 266 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. it represents the harmonic school of the period to which the tune belongs. Even those who know nothing of har- mony will recognise its quaintness ; the fifth chord, and the last progression of the last measure but one, having specially an antique sound. The chords are mostly in their strongest positions, and the whole effect is sonorous and grand. The second version, which I have entitled " the present,'' is less masculine in effect, but more polished and smooth. Had the tune been written by one of the more cautious of our living composers, it would probably have been harmonised after this fashion. The stepwise motion of the bass, with the free use of inversions, gives a modern sound to the chords without the use of a single altered note. The arrangement of "the future" will probably be pronounced horrible. It is the reductio ad absurdum of the extreme chromatic style. The piece is intended as a caricature, and the contrast of the harmonies with the old melody is ridiculous ; but passages may be found in recent hymn-tunes every bit as bad. It is necessary to say that the arrangement is perfectly correct in harmony ; every discord is resolved according to rule, and each combination of notes can receive a satisfactory theoretical explanation. My object has been to crowd as inaiiy discords as possible into the space. How much discord the ear will bear is of course a matter of taste. These chromatic chords are the adjectives, the strong language of the musician, and the arrangement affords a good example of musical profanity. But as in the language of speech, so in the language of sounds, forcible expressions should be held in reserve, and cautiously used, if they are to produce any effect. We will offer yet another example ; the old tune u Bedford" harmonised in the same violent fashion : — BEDFORD. 2G7 I J KEY E|?. n :d |1 :s d :d |de:de s :n |n :n d :tajl| :ta, f :s |1 :s d :de |r :n f :ta|l ;d' li :n, |f, :s, f :n de:tai 1 :s 1, :de f :n r :d t :d' se,:l, |r :s |d).f n.r |fe:f |r is, |r :s Id :t, II :f If :s, d1 :t |1 :1 d :r |n :re se II :fe :t, Id :n |f :d |1, na :n r la,:s, |f, :s. And in order to prove that this and the previous examples are fair caricatures, we will quote two passages from recent tune-books. Everyone knows the following tune; everyone feels how perfectly the simple harmonies agree with the simple melody : — $ *3 3=t =± ' t± S IfaSz o :%L_b<3s>: !H , i i :^2=t 2 rA I =pc ^m 268 STUDIES IX WORSHIP music. p- ^m Sx ~-f}—B-^t I -- rj *=E -&^^- •p — <& — ^11 KEY F. d S| d d S| d ti d Si r n r ti d :- d :- _ S| — t, — n d n d n d n r n d f s f S| n : — d :- — d — S| — n :n :n d :d :d s :s :s n r n d s s f n d s r : — t, : — s : — — d t, d ti s — s — d — d n r d s, : — — Yet these are actual quotations from published col- lections:— From the " St Alban's Tune Book." 1 w m =A: n r3 rs I rj il I J ., I -G>- I z&~ ZZ2Z >e^ ei r* p> KEY F. d d d d t, d r : S| S| fe, S| .— S| li : n n re n r d d : d d 1, S| f. "I ft.fei: :r :s, :s. CHS 0 MA 7 TC II A RMONIES. 209 From the " Song of Praise." ^jp=g=a=E^] n li :tai n :r :n s :f :n S| 1, :- :de de :r :dc d d :de de :r :s ta :1 :s d 1, :s, f, :— :n. r, :- :1| Sir George Macfarren, remarking KEY F. r r f r a series of chromatic progressions not unlike those just given, says: — " Some ingenious authors amusingly explain all musical effects as imitations of the natural noises we daily witness ; such as the chirping of birds, the rippling of water, the howling of tempests, and the like ; and however unacceptable, however untenable the proposition as a whole, we must all admit that it derives some odour of verity from a comparison of the chromatic progressions I have just shown you, with the sound of wind roaring through crevices, when our fear, or our solitude at least, quickens our perception." Another point may be noticed in connection with these extreme chromatic arrangements. In churches which use Gregorian music, it is the custom for the choir and congregation to sing in unison, while the organ plays a free accompaniment. In the case of the Gregorian tones this free accompaniment is a great anachronism, for the tones come down to us from an age when harmony was probably unknown, and the modern feeling for key did not exist, yet they are accompanied in the strongest modern manner. Things quite as bad as the arrangement of the " Old Hundredth," and discords not so carefully resolved, may be heard in any church where Gregorian? are used. The arrangements in question show how chromatic harmonies disguise a melody. The air of the "Old Hundredth" and " Bedford " remains the same in 270 STUDIES IX lVORSIUP MUSIC. each case, yet few persons will recognise it, unless they are told what to expect. Even supposing, then, that congregations could be induced to sing in unison, this style of accompaniment is not desirable, because it hides the melody. One of the most pressing evils wrought by tune-book editors is the alteration of the harmonies of standard tunes. I refer to such national tunes as "Old Hundredth," " Bedford," &c. As an example of this, I have taken " Winchester Old," and compared it as it appears in sixteen or seventeen collections. Here is the tune in what I consider its best form : — Este's Psalter WINCHESTER OLD. 271 The style of harmony is congenial to the period to which the tune belongs. There are no unprepared second inversions, and we have the suspended fourth in the cadence. I am aware that from the earliest printed records of these tunes editors have been accustomed to reharmonise them, but this reharmonising ought always to be done in the historical spirit of the tune, and, as alterations are in all cases annoying to singers, as few as possible should be made. In the " Hymnary " I find the transition made in a weaker way than in the original model : — :r :ti :s KEY G. n a s d #*~^ , 1 — - — 1 — m — i — 0 — jkm | \—&— 1 i — 3 — - 1 1 _#_ " '0 0 1 A # • i -0- 0 — 1 0 ! r f3 ' 1 -v&£ * -t— — 0 — — \ — 1— I — * Is |r II :fe s — — :- .a t, — — :r r — — :r Si — — In the " Anglican Tune-Book," edited by Dr. E. G. ^lonk, the effect of ruggedness is certainly obtained by this string of root positions, but I fail to see the justification for the change : — P^ tr=t :o: jq: Q _3 :8 r 8 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. KEY n a. 1 :s If n r d It, A d :t. Hi li 1, n, Is, s f :r |r d 1, d |r d fi :s. |r, li f, 1, Is, In other arrangements I find the following variations:— Mabtinrau. I 3E3S3& --<^^ -&- m --Z-V rJ-.C? *=& _cL I ZZ2Z )■■• \ :si KEY G. n :s |s :fe d :s, |d :1, s :r |n :r s :-| t, :-| r :-| d :t, |1, :r | s, \ — \ — d |d :t, d — 1 — si |f| :s, S| — 1 — d |r :r n — 1 — n, |r, :s, d, — 1 — Leeds Tune Book." i p HO ~p _QL k KEY G. n :s d :ti s :s d :n s fe s r d ti 1 1 s r r S| d :t, li :s, f :r f, :s, EDITORIAL CHANGES. 273 ; London Tune Book." zot ~W — ^T "P~ =£= ES: "JJ- -2- KEY a. n r S| s, .f, : d t, : d, ■i • d Id :t d •fi III |r n :s :f li Is, :s Harland's Church Psalter. =p* =£ £P 4=0: > ! «E^ KEY G. PPi d=3= I I I I d : — n :- .n |r d n 1 - .s If n s, : — d :d It, d d d -.d |r d n : — s :- • s |f n s f — .sis s d : — d :- .d Is, 1, d f - .n |t| d r :d It, n r :t 1 |d :t i d 1, :li Is, s. 1, :] I, |ii :s i S| - f :n |r n f :i [ |n :i n fi :f, Is, d f :i t Is i :s i d 274 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. m ■ WeeleyaD Tune Book ' W 5=fc 1 j*- k* KEY ( :n 1 : :d d : :d f : :d f : .s If d |r .s Is ,n It, :n r : :d 1. : :s s : :d r : d It, 1. Is, fe Is r Is, New Mitre Hymnal.*' jzL =^=±^ "P- =r^=F: :q: KEY G. 1 :s If d :tai Hi f :r Id f, :s. 11, :n r : :s. fi : :d 1, : :d f, : d it, Hi .fi |s, d " |r 1. Is, ; Bradford Tune Book." SE^EES i r J_ jcl^ ^A A. A. && m ^=?2i 23 WINCHESTER 0 L D. 275 KI V G. :d n -.n r d f f n n r d (1 :ti d :s. d -.d ti d d t, d d t, S| 1. :s. S| :ri s -.s s n 1 s s s f n r :r n :d d a. Si 1, ri S| d, d, r( H| f. :s. d, llolv Year." KEY G. n 1 : .d d : n f : d f, : s If n r d i It, d |d d t, li |se. n |1 s s n In d If, d S| 1, In, Dr. Hile i±=l=l: '^'r^ m / 276 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. KEY G. [ d n - .n |r d f f |n \ d t, - li Ui.s, S| 1. S| |S| J n r - .d |d .t, d d t, Id ( d sei - .1, If. Hi ri ■i Id, I leave you to make your own comments on these changes. I have passed over many minor variations, as matters of taste. What I protest against is the principle that it is an editor's duty to impress his individuality upon every old tune. This principle is a somewhat dangerous one. The composers of " Winchester Old," and the "Old Hundredth," are not in a position to complain of these outrages upon their work, but when the process is applied to the tunes of living composers the unfairness of the result is manifest.. For example, I found lately in an American tune-book the following derangement of Sulli- van's tune to " Onward ! Christian soldiers : " — 1 * ! w w i r — a i ^ l * i i -1 i i i ^P ifcMM=? *n=t: q*- rJ , J.J JJ* cp PS r=t i *i i *p i *i i \ i Tr7 SI HfA r~ s=5zlza==t=i=l: r£rt?!=±3 -4J? J* ^^^^^==^ I I I I 1=q=t » ***i »-H»-L# --d—d-m- ■l I ! I l i^l **JkJ I N — ^^_ s d d d -o**12- -*- d 9. .v. ^ i — KEY E. :s |s :s :r |d :le :r |n :n :t, |d :de s -.lis :- t, f -Id :- fe Is :— r re |n : — r :r |d :r d :t, |d :t, 1 :1a |s :f f :f in :r 278 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. B.t d :n |s :dlf f : — |n : — f E r :r |1, :t, ds: - |- _ ) d :d it, :»,d r. :-|d,:- f, :f, |n, :s. sir:- |- — \ n :d |r :s d t, :-;d :- 1, :1, |d :r "t:- | — — d :li |s, :",ls f. r :r |s :r r h A. "t,: :-|U:- -.dit, :- r, :f| 11,: r :r |s S| r ds:- ',-- n :-|-: ti :t, |d :r c ls,:l, |s, :- s, -s, |s. t, d :-|-: s :s |s :s 3 r :na |r : — t, :t, |d f n :-|-: - 1 s :f in :t, £ ls,:f| |s, :- s, :f, |n, ■i d :- -: - n :r !d :r n :r |d :r n :r |d :t. E.t. j s, : se, 1| :1| n :r\ 1 Pi r 1 , d :t, |1, :f, se,:t| '1, :1a t. :n |n :t, n, :iei|l| :f| l, S| :se,|l, :s, d :f |n :n d| :d| |d| :dei s,d r|S :*t Hi :s. :s |f 1- — Hi d :d |d :d s, :1| jl| :1a. d : s, : t,.l,|t, :d - Is,: — r :r |r :d.r - si :d |d :d.t. n :-|- d :- 1- : — n :n |f :f d :1, |f, :r, r : s, : d' : — |f :n — |r :d -Is :- s :fe|f 'I~ t, :1, |la,:si f :n |r :-.d' n :s |d' d :-lt. :1, s :s Id1 t d r :r |d f n : -|n :- r :d |t| :-.d. d — | — : — — :t |s s s : 1 |ta:— 1 :s |s :-.n n — I — : — si :t In r n - |de:- r :n.f|s : -.d d — As to tunes adapted from secular sources, it is held by some that these are in every case inadmissible. With this I can hardly agree. Music in itself is neither secular nor sacred, and each piece must be judged upon its merits. Where there are living secular associations to a tune, it cannot of course be employed in vrorship. Let us take as an example the adaptation from Mendelssohn's Festgesang, which we sing so commonly to "Hark! the herald." IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD MELODY. 279 This is a song in honour of the inventor of printing, and at the point where we sing " Hark ! the herald angels sing," the original sentiment is " Gutenberg der grosser Mann." The change of sentiment is striking and bold, yet who would object to it ? Many tunes written for hymns are distressingly secular, while we have cases in which music, originally designed to express non-religious sentiment, is admirably adapted for hymns of worship. The tendency of modern writers to sacrifice the melody of their tunes for the sake of harmony, has already been noticed. The old tunes, such as " Hanover," the later " Rockingham," and the recent " Eegent Square" and " St. Peter," written in the same style, are thoroughly melodious ; the air is such as one can remember without effort. But in these modern tunes the air is only one of four parts ; it is sacrificed to the exigencies of the harmony, and there is nothing in it to attract us. The 11 tune" is in the harmonic progressions. As an extreme case — a degree worse than is to be met ^yith at present — here is an air. if such it may be called, with no melody at all :— :qz QZZ2I -O— O— G>— - 1 I I- ~= =t=t tdZQZQZdZ :-: — ^— <^- ^z^zz^zic?- KEY F. \|s:s |s : s Is : s |s :— If :f |f:f If:— | — :- sin :m In :n |r :r |r :— Id :d |d :d Id :— | — :- Xothing more doleful and uninteresting than this run imagined, yet we may harmonise the same notes thus: — 280 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. / i. a <^ ^ rd 52 G* rj 1 — * 1 ♦ -g- W • *3 -^ i C2 r £2 1^— j — ! 1 1 i ^=P e-P-^-e- S: 5E reirEfca:; i^fc:irfcEt=t: z£Emi 18 if it, is Ir r 1, r f, :f f : \ :t,.d r : :se.l s : :r .d ti : n :n d . S| : set s .d :r d :t, In Hi Id Hi .ta. de Si Ir :- d d |d d d — 1 — Id :ti d d.t,|l, la, s. — 1 — |s :-.f pi s |s ,f d.r n — 1— Is, :- 1, n, |f. f, d, — 1 — "BEDFORD" WITH A PEDAL BASS. 281 It cannot be said that this makes a good tune ; but it sounds rather pleasantly on an instrument, and proves how much interest may be imparted to a dry melody by motion and point in the harmonies. Eut what of this as a style of harmonising congregational music ? In congre- gations, the lower parts are weak, and any effect which depends on them will probably be lost, except in so far as the organ makes up for the deficiency of the singers. But the hymn-tune, if it is to be interesting and inviting — that is, if it is to be sung generally — must be complete in itself, and not dependent upon the organ for its beauty and form. Musicians may educate themselves to what they please, but popular music must always have a dominating melody in the highest part, and natural, singable under-parts. To take a further example ; here is the old tune ki Bedford," harmonised with a pedal bass : — 2^ rfcjt^ i -&- tr\ i i i" Z2I I i ! -^ £S ■-&•— ^£^nzztrz:tzrzt:z:tzzzz-z: _<± :^z f^ESzpz^zp: L I I I m £ m z :^rs: 1 .QZZZC I I JCL ;^zgzzi— - ^l^p^SEgEgp^SEgEg^EpEg^pfZI KEY E7. n :d 1 1 : s t, :1, |t, :d s :f |f :n d :d Id :d f n |r s d1 . d t, 11, t. d . 1 s if r n : d d |d d d : t 11 :1 PI If :r s 11 :t d Id :d 282 S1ULIES IN WORSmP 3IUSIC. [:n f s H :s :d d d It, :d " r n If :n [:l d d Id :d f :n |r s ti :d It, t, t :n If f d :d Id d d1 :n |f :r d :-|- d :d |1, :t. d :-|- n :1 |r :f n :-|- d :d |d :d d .-|- This, again, when we hear it on an instrument — especially on an organ, which sustains the pedal note — sounds pleasant ; but what an insult to offer such a bass part to a singer ! It has been urged by several writers on psalmody, that the proper arrangement of a tune for congregational singing is that which gives the melody to the tenor. This part, it is urged, can be sung by all, whether men or women, boys or girls, who have not inclination or ability to take their proper part. Eelow this canto fermo, or plain song, is placed a bass, and above it a higher part, called the counter-tenor. Both of these are to be sung by such of the congregation and choir as can read from notes. This, as is well-known, was the plan adopted in the psalters of the Reformation times, except that they had two parts above the melody instead of one. " The custom," says Mr. Havergal, " arose, it seems, from the desire to* render unisonous singing in the congregations more agreeable to all true lovers of harmony. In an age when Psalms were sung with great energy by large masses of people, the men's voices predominating by their power would engross the ear, and clearly sustain the melody. The devout musician, leaving that melody to be sung with all simplicity and fulness, employed a few superior voices to encompass it with harmony. The process was analogous to that of an architect who substantiates and ornaments a plainly-built edifice, by making good the foundation to it., and then adding a new roof embellished in becoming style." This method of arranging the score of psalm-tunes continued to a later time than is sometimes supposed. It MELODY IN THE TENOR. 283 is adopted in Harrison's "Sacred Harmony," 1784-91, which was long the authority in Lancashire. The Rev. H. Parr informs me that "he has seen a copy of this work in a singing loft within the last forty years. In the third edition of AVebbe's " Collection of Psalm Tunes," first published in 1808, the author speaks of having been " apprehensive that its circulation would be considerably impeded by deviating from the common, but absurd usage in works of this kind, of converting the melody into the tenor, and of employing onlv the treble, or G clef, for the three parts above the bass." The apparent justification of the plan is to be found in the actual form which congregational singing takes. There are always a number of men who sing the air an octave below the women, and this is said to spoil the four part harmony, and conflict with the tenor part. The organ, however, whose presence may now be counted upon in English psalmody, covers up this defect. In ordinary congregations, the voices of the men who sing the air do not, as in Reformation times, absorb th? higher octave of the soprano, whose bright and clear quality is always paramount. The experience of every worshipper must support this statement. It is a general rule, in 11 registering " the harmonium, that the lower octave covers the higher — that an 8-ft. stop is absorbed by a 16-ft. — but this is not the effect at present in our psalmody. The only objections that an harmonist can raise to men singing the air are, first, that if either the tenor or the contralto move in fourths with the soprano, these will become fifths when that part is sung an octave lower ; and second, that it may happen that the air, when sung by men's voices, will go below the bass, and invert the chords. The fear of consecutive fifths is a theoretical one only, for the stops of the organ give us this com- bination constantly, and, provided the men's voices are not strong, no ill effect is felt. As to the air going below 284 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. the bass, the possibility of it ceases when the pedals of the organ play the lowest part an octave under the voices. Tar be it from us to encourage men to sing the air ; our only object is to show that their habit of doing so is no fatal objection, from a musical point of view, to congre- gational part-singing. The plan of counter, tenor, and bass, is therefore objectionable, because it is uncalled for, our present arrangement of parts being satisfactory ; because it does not find employment for each of the four natural voices — the high and low of women, and the high and low of men ; and because it is certain that the form which psalmody has taken, of giving the melody to the highest part, is the most natural and pleasing, in popular music at least. "Psalmody of this kind," says Mr. Havergal, referring to Ravenscroft's arrangement of the melody in the tenor, " was fitted only for the age in which it originated. It required a mass of plain tenor voice, with a full round bass, and a few skilful trebles and counter-tenors. Such a combination was at per- fection only in Elizabeth's day." One has occasional opportunity for hearing the adapta- tion of this plan to the modern balance of voice at Gregorian festivals, when the " Church tune," or melody, is sometimes put, for passing variety, into the tenor part. The one factor in this style of harmony — an over- whelming mass of congregational unison — is absent, and what is the consequence ? The ear seizes at once upon the highest part as the melody, and we seem to be listening to a new and strange tune. The following quotation from Mr. Hullah's " Psalter " (1843) states well the case for and against the melody in the tenor : — " So strong was my feeling as to the propriety of this mode of arrangement — and the beauty of its effect I had ascertained by experiment — that, notwithstanding it has been falling into desuetude since the time of Play ford, I had scored the whole of the tunes in SINGING IN HARMONY. 285 Ravenscroft, Este, and some other works, and had even obtained and made many arrangements of the more modern melodies in this old manner. Further reflection, however, convinced me that this revival would be inexpedient, if not impossible, and that many circumstances which rendered the old mode of arrangement fit for its own time, rendered it unfit for the present. In the first place, it was necessary that the congregation should know the tune, a circumstance very probable in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, but by no means to be expected now. . . . The result of a revival of this arrangement would be that the treble part would often be sung with considerable strength, and the melody not at all, or perhaps an octave too high. Moreover, believing that all who will take sufficient pains can not only be made to utter musical sounds, but to read with understanding the syllables of music, and seeing that everything was tending to a rapid extension of musical knowledge, it seemed unfit to provide anew for a state of things in which ignorance would be the rule, and knowledge the exception. Supposing it once recognised as a duty that everybody should take his share in the music of the church, everybody would make an effort to quality himself to do so : in whicli case, each individual member of a congregation would study to find tne part suited to his own voice. There would then be no undue prominence of any one class of voice; and, assuredly, in such case, the melody, to be felt at all, must be given to the highest part, the soprano. Believing, then, in the propriety of aiming at a complete envct. however long we may be in reaching it, I thought it my duty to abandon this old mode of arrangement, and to follow that which has for many years received the sanction of usage, wherever attempts have been made at choral harmony in divine worship." This paper takes for granted what many regard as a chimera — that congregations should be encouraged and taught to sing in harmony. The whole argument depends upon this. For if the choir are to sing to the congregation, or if the congregation are to sing in unison with the organ, it matters very little what style of harmony be adopted. With a large mass of singers, many of them with wavering and false intonation, the only chords that can sound satisfactory are the plainest. Handel's, and even Mendelssohn's, most powerful choral effects are produced from plain chords. Witness the shouts of 2S6 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. " Hallelujah " in the Jlesxiah chorus, and of " Thanks be to God" in the Elijah. The researches of Helmholtz have shown us why, from a scientific point of view, concords must be sonorous and distinct, and discords comparatively weak, and, at a distance, confused. ~No one would wish to deny people the enjoyment of the sweet harmonies of many recent composers, but, in so far as they depart from the plain style, these tunes are fitted to be played in the family circle, on the pianoforte, or organ, or harmonium, rather than introduced into public worship. Psalmodists have great need, at the present time, to take to heart some remarks of Mr. Havergal on the tunes of the old Psalters. " They are," he says, " such as the least learned singers may sing, for, abounding with easy progressions, no great skill is requisite, even for their good performance. Herein, the sound sense of the age was displayed. Thought ivas taken for the common people." 2Ht THE RHYTHM AND NOTATION OF HYMN-TUNES. The quick singing of modern times has directed attention to the metrical structure of hymn-tunes. When music comes to be sung in any hut the slowest style, the rhythmical sense seeks for regularly recurring accent, and requires that the several musical sections of the tune shall contain a corresponding number of these accents. In the same way, the ear does not tolerate an irregular line in poetry. When tunes are sung as slowly as the German chorales, no recurring accent exists ; every note bears a strong accent ; and between every line there is an ad libitum pause. It matters little how such tunes are written. Lut a quicker speed awakens the rhyth- mical sense, and the lines of the tune become members of a whole, between which a due proportion is felt by the ear to be necessary. It is by thus encouraging the observance of accent that dragging, which is so common a fault of congregational singing, is best prevented. Hence the practical importance of the subject. Taking, at random, ten tune-books edited in recent years by musicians of repute, we find no less than seven different ways of writing the old CM. tune, "St. Anne": 288 STUDIES IN IFOR SHIP MUSIC. 1. Havergal; Old Church Psalmody. i -&—_ — -F— 1 Y^^—^-^-p^V^^- I o P ::o: SE :cL s :- In :1 Is :d' Id1 :t Id1: -II s :-id':s II : f e I s :- It : — |d':l|r':t |d':l|t :-||s :-| 1 :d'|r':t |d':- IPEElzE^: w Dr. Steggall : Hymns with Proper Tunes. i p -- ZZI s : — I n . 1 I s :d'| d1 :t I d1:— II s : — Id1 : s II :fe| s t :-|d';l |r':t |d':l It :-||s :-| 1 idMr1 :t Id1 : Sir John Goss ; Mercer's Psalter. Mr. Turle; S.P.C.K. Psalter. # Qr_^_^3-_C5; f=^=t ra 1 — • r «o P* 0 r> rj r^» V7 ! -©-M2- n :1 Is :d' Id1 :t Id1 lis Id' :s II :fe Is :t Id1 :1 Ir1 :t Id1 :1 it lis II :d' Ir1 :t Id1 THE RHYTHM OF TUNES. 289 4. i Mr. E. Prout ; The Psalmist. ^ a 7?— t 3^3 o I ^-jJj-P^Qr^-gJt oil I 1 gj hfH" fg=o1"r3~fl t±±=t=tt :s In :1 Is :d' Id' :t HI' id1 :s 11 :fe Ml :t Id1 :1 r' :t Id1 :1 |f|. 11 :d' |r' :t Id1 1 5. i Dr. Hullah ; Book of Praise. s T'J'ir-M^?^ rEn m s In :1 |s :d' Id' :t |d> :s Id1 :s |1 :fe Is :— | |.:-l J j :t Id1 :1 |r' :t Id1 :1 |t :s II :d' |r' :t Id1 :— |- 6. Mr. Barnby; Hymnary. Dr. Sullivan ; Church Tunes. fe4^-r-FH^ ^5^- i '^ ^ :s In :1 |s :d' Id1 :t Id1 :s Id1 :s II :fe Is :- :t Id1 :1 |r' :t Id1 :1 |t :s II :d' |r" :t Id1 ( 290 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. 7. W. H. Monk ; H. A. & M. Henry Smart ; U. P. Hymnal. :e£ qp ^ ~^r tdbe±t=«=E$dB*3B Z3 O" <^" ZQZ :s In :1 Is :d' Id1 :t Id1 lis Id1 :s |1 :fe Is :-|- :t Id' :1 |r' :t Id1 :1 |t lis II :d« |r' :t Id1 :-|- The notes of double length at the beginning of the line, which the first and second examples contain, may be noticed first. They are a relic of the old style of notation. There is no proof that, in the old psalmody, congregations, in singing, really gave a double length to these notes. All their [notes were so long that any of double length would surely have been unendurable. The notes were certainly written in this way in the old Psalters, but this may only hare been to mark the commencement of each line. Before bars were intro- duced, this would be necessary, and the custom would naturally survive. The actual observance of the notes in singing is probably modern. They are now universally condemned by the best musicians. They have been called " gathering notes," and are said to have been intended to give time for the people to come in. It was also argued, that if the first notes were sung slowly the rest would be sung quickly. But expedients of this sort are of no real service. The cure for slow singing and dragging, as has already been said, is not to relax the rhythmical form of the tune, but to assert and enforce it, relying on the instinctive ^feeling for time which is possessed by all. The gathering note offends the ear of everyone with a knowledge of music, and those who have no formaljknowledge disregard it, they know not why. GATHERING NOTES. 291 It is, in effect, as if an officer, instead of saying " quick march" to his men, said " quick," and then, after a pause, " march," while they stood poised and balanced for the step. Congregations are in advance of many tune- book compilers in doing away with the gathering notes, for it is the exception to hear them given with their full value of time. When they are written, the course for the organist or choirmaster to pursue is easy ; he should disregard them. The congregation will move with perfect ease. The first example is also noticeable for the odd half bar at the end of the second line. The third and fourth examples are alike except for the pauses (/r\) at the end of each line in the fourth. The objection to both is that the lines are unequal, the measures running thus, 4, 3, 4, 3. The third example can never have been meant to be sung in the exact time in which it is written. The fifth example marks progress. Crotchets are used, and, but for the pauses, the lines would be of equal length, i.e., two measures each. The silent pulse before the beginning of the third line does not disturb the balance. It is merely a hint to take breath. The sixth and seventh examples present an exact pro- portion between the lines. They differ only in notation ; one being written in crotchets, the other in minims. As to this difference, it is no doubt more correct to take the crotchet as the unit of time, or pulse, but open notes are supposed by some persons to be more sedate than crotchets. The point is not important. The same may be said of the double bar, which is convenient to mark the close of a line, although, according to the rules of notation, it should only be used at the end of a musical period, or at a change of measure. A comma, placed above the staff, is used in some books to mark off the lines from one another. Others employ a specially thick bar line. The real excellence of these two 292 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. readings is that they adopt quadruple time, or four-pulse measure, instead of duple, or two-pulse, and that the lines balance, each consisting of two measures. ^No one can sing these two versions, keeping strictly to the time in which they are written, without feeling that the form satisfies the ear. A breath must be quickly caught between lines 1-2 and 3-4, without delaying the time. It is necessary to add, that some of the best authorities — Dr. E. J. Hopkins, for example — though they write the tunes in this way, give, in practice, a pause of the length of one pulse between each line, for the convenience of singers. Others, however, find this unnecessary, and I think they are right. The true form of the short metre tune is given below. It can, of course, also be written in minims. Each line consists of two measures : — it HE ^ r> ^ * ^m i^irr -*—m- rp^iT KEY E?. :d |r :n If :s In : — s II :d« |f :n |r :-|- j :s Id1 :t |1 :s II :1 |s lis Id :n |r :r Id : — The Long Metre tune should be written thus (or in crotchets) : — flhJEf THE1 »ilJ i * LIES CO .1 1 S- s=t ^zl P *£ h=W m IC?Zcr ~rr za: t=t ZZJ. KEY E. j :s Is :f |n :r Id :1 |s :s Id1 :t |1 :s Is :fe|s :n In :f |s :n |r :n |f :f In :r |s :f in :r |d TRIPLE TIME TUNES. 293 Here, however, the convenience of the singer is in con- flict with the laws of rhythmical proportion. The common and short metres allow time for breathing in the sustained notes, but long metre has no such break. The writer has heard a long metre tune sung strictly without pause from first to last ; he has even heard the six-line long metre, " Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go," sung in the same way. Eut the gasps of the exhausted singers were painful to hear. Physical comfort, on which good singing depends, requires that a short pause, say of the length of a pulse, shall be observed after every second line in long metre, and its derived forms. Hymn-tunes in triple 'time, of common or short metre, as usually printed, contain halting lines. For example, take the following CM. : — ti Four measures. IE Three measures HJijjujjijrh^i KEY G. CM. Four measures. Ihree measures. j :si|n :- :r Id :- : 1 1 [ 1 1 : 1 1 : d Isi :-:s Is :f:n In :r:d Id :t( I Four measures. j , Three measures. :si In :- :r Id :- :t|lti:li:d I S| : — : s Is :f :r Id :n:r Id :- Here is a S.M. :- Three measures. -M-u WJ^jj} I J-H rgj-J-LaL j. | Four measures. n 1 1 Three measures. i4' r I r> 0 ^J IT i- 1 • f IE3B — Ezu— 1 — t=i — -^-- Ezf^-— cczzjd llfrj /JjJiJ. ^p^P te =t 1 i U:=3= *-L-c*^— o-u IRREGULAR FEET. 295 KEY D. S.M. :d' Id1 :t :1 |1 :s :f In :- :- I- :- :r t |jn:- :1 |s :-:fe|s :- :- |- :-:s |1 :- :t |d« :- :t j ||t :- :1 Is :- :f |n :f :1 [s :n :r |d :- :- |- :- || Choirmasters are often perplexed by the irregular feet of the verses in the hymns they have to prepare. In an Iambic hymn, such as — The roseate hues of early dawn, the accent will be upset in this way — 0 for the pearly gates of heaven. The elocutional feeling resents an accent npon the word "for," yet, if an ordinary tune be used, what is to be done ? Similar cases are — Soft as the breath of even ; Spirit of purity and grace ; both of which occur in an Iambic hymn. Cases could be multiplied to any extent. The tune to which the first of the two lines just quoted is usually sung gives us this W,<* If J' J IkJI Soft as the breath of KEY E1?. I :s Id1 :n In :fe Is : — Soft as the breath of even, are we to alter this to — I S£e=E3=3=gEEE#E Soft as the breath of key E->. (id1 :n ,n |n :fe Is :- ( I Soft as the breath of ' even. 290 STUDIES IN WORSSIP MUSIC. If the choir only were in question, we should reply, "Yes; certainly." And in some churches, the choir is (unfortunately) all that need be considered. But only a very alert congregation would remember and observe these changes of rhythm, and if the choir observed them alone, the result would be disorder. There are, it should be remembered, some Iambic tunes in all collections, that begin the lines with the strong accent, and when this contrivance predominates in a hymn, it is well to use them. There is a notable tune of this kind to "The roseate hues.', It may be noticed, in passing, that recent composers have taken advantage of the present custom of singing lines in couples, by occasionally abolishing the cadence between two such lines. The following quotation from a tune by Sir A. Sullivan illustrates the point. No one with an ear for music would pause on the unresolved dissonance at the end of the first line of the poetry : — Love di - vine, all love ex - cell-ing, Joy of heav'n to earth come down. KEY G. In :f Id :t| Is :f Id :s, Love di - vine, all love ex- cell-ing, Joy of heav'n to earth come down. d :-.d|r :n f :f f :-.f d :t, |1, :1, l.:li S| :-.s. n :-.n|f :de r :r r :-.r 1, :s, |f, :n. r,:d t, :-.t. n :s |s :fe s : — s, :s, |d :d tit- d :r |n :r r : — d :t, |1, :r S| : — This treatment gives a continuous and flowing character to the tune, which suits well with the increased speed of modern singing. BARRING OF TUNES. 297 The notation of the above example leads us to another point, which is, however, of minor importance, as it appeals more to the eye than the ear. It is a rule in composition, that a cadence should never fall in the middle of a measure, but always on the first pulse of it. To carry out this rule in hymn-tunes, it is necessary that we should begin several metres on the second or third, instead of the fourth or first of the measure. The following are examples : — Long Metre (Iambic). iii y^^ssiste P Q ^ t=t=t *A ii§ }=t r±=S: =B=t Q-rXEi *±t±gr+-^3±g:t -- 32 KEY E. j :s |s :f In :r |d :1 Is :s |d' :t II :s |s :fe jls :n |n :f Is :n |r :n If :f |n :r Is :f |n :r Id 7s Metre (Trochaic) . I EEE^ j&: ^ ~-& £2 — ^~ jcz: £ I i i i=i=* ^^ gi-^LLJL^^ 2d KEY G. |s :n |r :d |r :r In :- |f :n II :s |f :n |r:- |s :n |r :d |r :n If :-|l :s 1 1| :d |n :r Id :- 8.7d. Metre (Trochaic). f ,--■ m i=f=r 3^ P* zzi: "iQ 22 KEY F. | Id :-.r|n :r |f :n |ivt,:d |1 :s |f :n |r : m^d J s :- 298 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. Haydn himself adopts this barring for this melody. See the String Quartet, Op. 76, No. 3, second movement, in which it is treated with variations. In 7.6. (Trochaic) metre, this arrangement would be incorrect, because, although it would suit] the first line, it would not suit the second. We cannot write : — ± Let our choir new anthems raise, Wake the song of glad - ness. KEY Efc>. } Is :s |s :1 |f :s |n :- |s :-.s|s :t |1 :- |s :- | Let our choir new anthems raise, Wake the song of glad - ness. and must, therefore, begin on the first of the measure. Although musicians agree, in theory, as to the correct- ness of this barring of tunes, there is no book in which it is consistently carried out in practice. On this point, as on the whole subject of the notation of tunes, editors in general are extremely indifferent. Professor Macfarren was decidedly in favour of the principle, and the nearest approach to consistency in its application that I have seen is in the " Anglican Tune Book," edited by Dr. E. G. Monk, to which work Professor Macfarren was a large contributor. Mr. Barnby generally adopts the reform, but he seems, in the "Hymnary," to have largely accepted the notation of his contributors, and himself writes ; — m -- A- Hark the sound of ho- ly voi-ces Chanting at the crys-tal sea. KEY F. Is :s |1 :s In :d |m :r Id :d |r :n Is :f |r :- iHark the sound of ' ho - ly voi- ces, I Chanting at the I crys-tal sea. instead of- m EE &c. ABIDE WITH ME." 299 KEY F. s :s 1 :d I n :£ .8 II :s II .8 :s .f |n If .r :n .fe is But this throws each cadence into the middle of the measure. A Scottish editor has mistaken the opening note of each line for a " gathering note," and prints the tune thus : — 11 Scottish Psalmody," revised edition, 1873. i BE ~9—0Z z£z ZZ21 =pz= Q * KEY F. ,n In :r If :s II :- .s II .s :s .f In :- .n .8 |f .r :n ,fe|s :- , The original version, it seems to me, is the best. The "Old Hundredth" is often sung with the three last notes of xeach line prolonged to double length, and is quite correct in rhythmical form. The lines balance each other. The aim must be, in setting and in singing irregular metres, to preserve, as far as possible, a balance between the musical phrases. An irregular line must be answered by one of the same length. Such lines will often contain an odd number of measures. The last line may be of any length ; it is a sort of coda, and may be prolonged, especially if prolongation will bring the last IRREGULAR LINES. 301 chord on to the first of a measure. The following, from recent collections, are examples of " how not to do it " : — F m €>^Cf ZZ ?2 se -**&€> :a &- ttJZt j^n rfr-'r-. Tit. ^_C±T2-¥-&-73 o -4- rJ Ql Z2S KEY A^. || si :1i :s, jd : — :n |r :1, :t, |1, Id :— :d In In :— :n In :f :s, || r :1, :— Is, si. :s I -1| i»| rit. n |n :r :1, lit, :1, :t, Id :- :- Here the first line occupies four bars, the second three, the third four, and the last two. The practical evil of this ill-proportioned writing is, that congregations drag when there is nothing in the tune to assert its rhythmical form ; on the other hand, they are quick to respond to evenly measured rhythm. I should prefer to write this- tune as follows : — l £^ 1231 IE ir- * Se :z2: i-^ "D~ I fflE -p rj rx =?2Z O* C?" q re Si Z&UOEL A 1- Q» O^ KEY Kr). I si :1, :s, |d :- :n Ir :1, :t, |1, :- :s. |d :-:d |n_^r :1, jr : In :f :n |n :r :1| |t| - :- :- |s, ;1| :s, |n :- :n |-:l,:t, Id :- :- |- :- :- 302 STUDIES IN IVOR SNIP MUSIC. In the following tune, three-bar lines are, I think, unavoidable. The words are, " We speak of the realms of the blest." It is an eight-line tune, but I quote three lines as sufficient : — Lutheran. ? IM ,c !3i=Ct2± .1 — lXj *A ^-w PC ^t=t -P- KEY A. :s, |d :d :r jn :n :r In :r f If this were made into four-bar phrases, the prolongation would be very monotonous : — =1 m A 3± ^7^-^ o P I± r±-- zrj—r^z jln :n :n :n If :— :t, Id :— :- HALTING RHYTHM. 303 should, I think, have its second and fourth lines prolonged to four bars each. In the following tune :- i 3E w ZS±L z2^_ o: "With the sweet word of peace we bid our breth-ren go ; i ==t :^>: zzz -&-- Peace as a riv - er to in-crease, and cease less flow. KEY F. J :n.r|d :1| :t( Id :— :r |n.r:n :fe Is :- With the sweet word of peace, We bid our brethren go ; II :l.s|f :r :s.f In :d |r n :- Peace as a riv- er to in-crease and cease :m :f jn less flow. the first line occupies six pulses, the second seven, the third eight, and the last ten. The enr feels at once the halting rhythm of such a tune. It may also be noticed that tunes with a mixture of long and short notes, though they cannot well be avoided, generally suit the first verse of a hymn best, and in subsequent verses nearly always interrupt the elocutional pause and phrasing of the words. There is a tune by the late Dr. Gauntlett, entitled " Jeshurun," of which I venture to submit the following as the correct rhvthmical form : — ^bc d S I m j^g^ zw=r\ T ZM=3t±Jtl 304 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. *-*-&- 1 PS 1 | =PE m- m~ WTLZMZ i=^=^ 1 1—1 **= -* *__*: -I I- zmzz*: KEY BH). II S| :d |n :-.n|n :r |S| :S| Isi :d |d :t| Id ||S| :d |n :-.n|n :r |S| :S| Isi :d |d :t| Id || 8| :-.s,|l, :s, |r :-.d|d_|t, |s, :-.s,|t, :d |f :f |n ||n, :li |1| :sei|li :d |ti :d |d :r |t, :ti |d This divides the tune into four-bar phrases. The follow- ing arrangement, from the " Wesleyan Methodist Tune Book," also gives four-bar phrases, but the cadences fall in the middle of the bar very awkwardly : — « £ ± & 3CZBZ ■x=&- ~cf * s arzmz ^Ez^rg: TtTJKl '-? f o % m + rJ ■xi-w-o- KEY Bb- j | si :d In :-.n|n :r | s . :- jl S| :d |n :-.n|n :r |S| :- :si |S| :d Id :t| |d :- :si |S| :d Id :t| |d :- UNSEEMLY SPEED. 305 \ I S| :-.Si|l| :si |r :-.d!d :t| ||si:-.S||t| :d If :f |n :- II || n, :1, |1| :se,|l, :d |t, :- || :d |d :r jt, :t, |d :- | In its original form, the tnne is thns printed in " Tunes ]STew and Old " : — I & Z± izrnr^z zz KEY B^. S | s i : d In :-.n|n :r I s j :- I :S| |si :d jd :t| Id :- I Although most of these improvements in the rhyth- mical form of tunes have become necessary through the quicker singing of recent times, a word of caution must he spoken on the subject of excessive speed. I quote on this point some weighty words of Sir George IMacfarren : — 11 Let me refer to the growing practice of singing — psalm-tunes especially, but some other portions likewise of the church service — at a speed most unseemly for pious strains, and with as little emphasis as solemnity. There is no warrant for this hustling liveliness of manner in any record of ancient usage, and it has no support in the effect it works in modern practice. Many an earnest man is scandalised by the unfitness herein of the manner to the matter, and too many others give way to the flippancy." W 306 THE OLD ITCAL TUNES. WnmH the memory of middle-aged men, a great change has gone over the style of English psalmody. Forty or fifty years ago the grand old tnnes like the "Old Hundredth" and " French," our heritage from Eeforma- tion times, were used with others, like u Hanover M and " St. Anne," written in the same style, and scarcely less noble and lasting in structure. Their massive force, when sung by large congregations, was not to be surpassed, but the popular taste seems to have desired a relief. Tunes of a more florid structure had found their way into use, and very greatly did the people enjoy siDging them. These tunes, unlike those of the note and syllable sort, contained slurred notes, and runs for the voices, and were especially remarkable for the way in which one line — generally the last — was taken up by men and women in succession, and repeated with growing force by both together. The movement towards these tunes is generally spoken of as wholly bad in art ; unworthy of the notice of the musician; a mere ebullition of rant and vulgarity. In this judgment there is much prejudice ; it is surely worth while to enquire into the causes which made these tunes so popular. In all that has been said against them, no one has doubted that they called forth the voice of the people in a way that the syllabic tunes fail to do. Granting that the popular taste needs directing and REPETITION. 307 elevating, there is, at least, a prima facie case for a tune if the people sing it. The compilers of some recent collections appear to have gone on the opposite principle, and considered that congregations must never expect tunes which they can enjoy, any more than little boys must be allowed to hope for pills made of sugar. These old tunes certainly contained a germ of good ; they are worth examining; and our condemnation of them, if condemnation it must be, should be measured and intelligent. We pass over the constant use of florid scale passages in these tunes. This is a part of the style of musical composition belonging to the period at which the tunes flourished. The runs and "divisions" are no more essential to the type than are the commonplace phrases and hackneyed sequences of which the tunes mainly consist. The real feature of the tunes is the repetition of the last line, either wholly or in part. There is nothing musically or artistically wrong in the repetition of words. As a rhetorical device it is often used in descriptive prose, as the two following examples show : — 11 The earthly world had cast him off to wander, wander ; no living heart to love him now." — Carlyle, On Heroes. " There was no one with them now to calm and save, for Jesus was alone upon the land. Alone upon the land, and they were tossing upon the perilous sea." — Farrar, Life of Christ. The effect of repetition in forcing the mind to dwell upon a leading thought is seen very clearly in these extracts. Even within the bounds of metre the same device is used, as in the following verse from old Sternhold and Hopkins : — Mercy, 0 Lord, mercy I crave, This is the total sum ; For mercy, Lord, is all I ask, O let Thy mercy come. It is unnecessary to add, that the occasional resource of writers of prose and verse is the perpetual habit of 308 STUDIES IN IV OR SHIP MUSIC. writers of vocal music. "Whether in ballad, song, oratorio chorus, or fugue, the composer avails himself ot the emphasis which iteration gives, and infuses a heightening colour and passion into his music by playing upon some significant word or phrase. An interesting proof of the extent to which Mendel- ssohn felt the need of repetition in setting to music a short lyric, is contained in a letter which he wrote, June 8th, 1842, to Henry Phillips, the bass singer.*' Phillips had written some words for a song, and had sent them to Mendelssohn, with the request, that he would set them to music. To this, Mendelssohn replies : — u The only objection I have to them is at the end. Could you find a sentence just for the end, which would do better for the winding up of a song — I mean, which could be repeated several times, had an energetic expression in itself, and gave a point to the last part of the music ? If you can find such a phrase to be placed at the end, pray let me have it as soon as you can." However horrified some may be at the comparison, it is undoubted truth that, just what Mendelssohn wished to do with a secular lyric, the composers of the old repeating tunes attempted to do with the sacred lyric or hymn. Of course, the weak point of the tunes was that most hymns, like Phillips's verses, have no " phrase of ener- getic expression " at the end ; or if they have it in one verse,- want it in another. Some of the tunes were special offenders, because they stopped to repeat in the middle of the last line, and sometimes cut a word in two, rendering the phrase capable of a ludicrous double entendre. As one of many examples of this that might be given, the following from Fraser's Magazine, September, 1860, may be quoted : — * Printed in Phillips's Recollections. REPEATING TUNES. 309 11 One Sunday afternoon, we joined a clerical friend in a visit to his school. He was by no means either a musical or an energetic character; indeed, to tell the truth, he was known by the sobriquet of ' Old England,' because he ' expected every man to do his duty ! ' Our friend closed the school with Watts's hymn, ' Lord, how delight- ful 'tis to see,' in which is the following verse : — O write upon my memory, Lord, The texts and doctrines of Thy "Word ; That I may break Thy laws no more, And love Thee better than before. The tune was a miserable one, called ' Job ' — as miserable as the patriarch in his worst estate ; and it required a division in the last line, so that the words ran thus : ' And love Thee bet — and love Thee bet — and love Thee bet-ter than before.' Now, what was my consternation at catching a great, hulking fellow, telegraphing a buxom damsel on the other side of the room, and accompanying the sentiment, ' And love thee, Bet,' with what he considered a little pleasant pantomime, while ' Old England ' seemed to be reposing in that state of dreamy self-complacency which is Old England's characteristic at all times ! We felt a strong impulse to take Betsy by the ears, and bundle John out by the shoulders; but we con- tented ourselves with wondering whether John and Bet>y or their spiritual guides were more to blame." But even if this was not done, lines were often repeated which would not bear the process. For example, in the hymn, " There is a land of pure delight," it would be very well to repeat the last line of the first verse, "And pleasures banish pain." But the last line of the second verse, " This heavenly land from ours," is not complete in sense, and its repetition would therefore be weak and meaningless. In fact, we may say, that if in one case the repetition was effective, in nine cases it was ineffective — without meaning, or directly nonsensical. "When the repetition suited the words, it did much to inspire them. One of the few tunes of the repeating kind that has been spared to us, by the reluctant consent of musicians, is " Miles' s Lane," with its thrice repeated cries of "Crown Him." This tune bids fair to last. It has been included in " Hymns Ancient and Modern," a 310 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. solitary specimen, by no means the best, of an extinct genus. Tunes like this, which " work up" the last line, are inevitably more emotional, more declamatory and robust, than the tame syllabic tunes. The old-fashioned phraseology apart, everyone feels how the repetition stirs the feelings by successive assaults as the parts join in one by one, the whole culminating in a tumultuous shout of praise. The weakness of these old fuguing tunes was that they attempted too much. The hymn-tune which is to be applied generally must not have a particular expres- sion. The utmost it can do — though this every good tune does — is to bear a general character, which may be expressed by such words as " joyful," " plaintive," or " medium." It is obvious that there must be, in hymn- tunes of this general character, no repetition of lines or parts of lines, and the music must be such as to have a general agreement with many verses, rather than a particular suitability to one. There is one form in which it is possible to unite the advantages of the old repeating tunes with the requirements of decency and taste. This is by adding a refrain or chorus to each verse of the ordinary syllabic tune ; which refrain, as it has only one set of words, may be freely treated. Hymn-writers have a growing custom of winding up each verse with the same line, and it is bbvious, that when this is done', the danger of making nonsense by repeating the last line ceases. In Dr. Eonar's hymn, "A few more years shall roll," we find each verse ending with the lines : — O wash me in Thy precious blood, And take my sins away. Another well-known hymn ends each verse with : — Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee. HYMNS IN ANTHEM FORM. 311 Other recent hymns have such recurring lines as " My Saviour, comfort me," "Thy will be done," &c. To all such hymns, musical refrains might be written. Com- posed in good taste, and in a style suited to the solemnity of public worship, they would form an agreeable variation from the ordinary type of syllabic tunes. As an example of a refrain added to a hymn, we may refer to that adapted by Dr. Gauntlett (" Congregational Psalmist," jNo. 238), to the words, " Hallelujah, hallelujah! we are travelling home to God." The hymn is, " From Egypt lately come." There is no reason, either, why hymns should not be set to music in the anthem form, which gives all the freedom of the old fugal tunes without their disadvantages. This is coming back to the old " set pieces," like " Before Jehovah's awful throne," or " Yital spark of heavenly flame," which were as heartily sung by large congrega- tions thirty or forty years ago as any hymn-tunes, having been made familiar by constant repetition. Those who are for congregational singing have, at the present day, to face this disagreeable fact, that with a great advance in musical capacity by the congregations, the singing is less hearty and general than it was thirty years ago. Where one person could read music at that time, there are probably ten who can do so now : tune- books are cheap, and singing classes are everywhere. Yet the general testimony is that our psalmody has lost much of its vigour and religious force. Everyone with a love for the service of song, everyone who believes in its power, should set himself to discover the reasons for this. No doubt they are many, but among them is the prominent one that our tunes are less interesting. We keep the congregations to one uniform pattern of syllabic tunes, many of which are utterly without individuality. The congregations want more variety — more outlet for the feelings— tunes that they can remember and enjoy. 312 THE TRAINING OF BOYS' VOICES. Anyone who has listened to the boys in a cathedral, or a first-class parish church choir, must have noticed that they sing in quite a different way from the boys of an ordinary village church or school. The cathedral boys have voices of a soft, flute-like timbre, while untrained boys have hard and ragged voices, which rattle in one's ears, and resemble the brassy sound of a trumpet rather than the mellow and pure tone of a fluie. Trained boys are distinguished by the compass as well as by the quality of their voices. They can sing up to the G and A above the treble staff without losing volume or sweet- ness, and without effort. Untrained boys, on the other hand, though they rise with fearful energy to the D on the fourth line of the treble staff, or thereabouts, break from this point into a feeble, piping voice, which is useless for musical purposes. The defects of the un- trained boys are obvious. They cannot sing the soprano part, unless it happens to lie low, and when it does they sing harshly, and afford pain rather than pleasure to the listener. If the part lies in the upper half of their compass, their voices soon tire ; they waver like the nearly exhausted pipe of an organ ; they flatten atrociously, and they wear out long before the natural change to the man's voice. If the melody leaps to F or G (at the top of the treble staff), they become in- audible, and when a high note of this sort follows the BOYS1 REGISTERS. 313 C or A below, which has pr oh ably been delivered with piercing force, the contrast would be comic if it were not so very disagreeable. Properly trained boys, on the contrary, have a wide and even compass. The superiority of the cathedral boys is not owing to their singing every day, and gradually falling into the right way by the light of Nature. It arises from their having been taught to use the voice in a radically different manner from that adopted by untrained boys. Speaking broadly, boys have two " registers " or modes of producing their voices. The hard, loud voice in which they shout at play, and in which the untrained boys we have been describing sing, is the lower register, and is produced when the vocal chords vibrate in their whole thickness. The softer, flute-like voice, in which a boy would plead with his mother, and in which the trained boys we have been describing sing, is the higher register, and is produced when the thin edges of the vocal chords only vibrate. The point in pitch where this mechanical change takes place in the little box which we all feel in our throats, is not absolutely fixed. It can be varied at the will of the singer, the lower register being forced up, or the ^higher one carried down. But the change is real ; as real as the change of a horse from a walk into a trot, or as the tightening of a violin string by turning the peg. These two registers have been called the thick and thin registers, after the change which takes place in the larynx, a change which the laryngoscope enables us to see with our own eyes. They are often called the chest and head or throat registers, but these names have no physical meaning. The difference between the two sorts of voices is briefly this : the untrained boys sing, as they speak, in the thick register, and force it up for the high notes. The trained boys sing almost entirely in the thin register, which by practice lias become full and round, and which ill STUDIES JX WORSHIP JlUSIC. they can carry up to A, B, or C above the treble staff. Boys, especially of the class who play in the streets, ami live in an atmosphere of noise, naturally sing in the thick register. Boys who are surrounded by gentle influences, and who are taught to restrain their voices, will sing in the thin register ; but even such boys when they are in a large building, or are excited by companionship, will break into the coarse thick voice. If we take a dozen untrained boys, and try their voices one by one, the result is misleading. The boys are timid. Being timid, they sing softly, and change early into the thin register. The best way of noticing the natural habit of boys' voices is to make a company of them sing all together up the scale of C, beginning at the C between the two clefs. If they are told to sing loudly, the break will be all the more marked. When they reach A (second' space of treble staff), the change will be perceptible in a very few, but as each higher note is reached, the forced and harsh tone of the thick register will drop out more and more, leaving the clear and soft tones of the thin register. Everyone who tries this experiment, carrying the voices up to the G above the treble staff, will be at once convinced of the change of register. There will, of course, be a great difference among the voices. Some will instinctively change at the proper place, and will show an even quality throughout. Others will be poor and husky, apparently almost without the thin, register. If the choirmaster can pick and choose, he will naturally take those boys who already seem to know how to use their voices, and reject the others. Many are, however, obliged to take the material they can get. It is certainly the greater triumph to cure boys with bad habits than simply to accept those with good ones. The rules for developing the thin register, and forming the habit of its use, are two : Jirst, insist on soft singing ; THE FLUTE-LIKE VOICE. 315 and second, practise the upper part of the voice. The trainer must stand in front of his boys, and watch every voice, checking at once every coarse sound. If the boys sing softly they are bound to sing right, and power will come with practice. For practising the voice, the simpler the exercise the better. Let the trainer sing up the scale of F, making the change of register in his own voice if he can, and calling the boys' attention to it. Then let them imitate, changing on the same note. In ascending, the change should never be made higher than on A (second space of treble staff). In descending, the thin register may be carried down to G, or even F (first space of treble staff). Exercises in singing down the scale or chord are the most useful for developing the thin register. If the boys are made to sound F on the top line of the treble staff, they must do it in the thin register, and once in this register they can easily carry it down. Only by constant watchfulness on the trainer's part can the habit of changing on an ascending passage be formed. Ascend- ing passages generally suggest increase of force, and the boy naturally strains his thick voice upwards. But when he feels his thin voice become strong through practice, lie will soon begin to use it. Boys who have formed old habits of shouting in the thick register are very hard to cure. Considering how short-lived a boy's voice is, it is scarcely worth the trouble, from the trainer's point of view, to conquer these old habits. It is easier to organise a wholly new choir than to reform a bad one ; for new boys, when put among those who sing in the thick register, are sure to fall into the same bad ways. The thing can be done, but it is difficult. The thick register must be silenced. Let a few hymn-tunes or chants be pitched a fourth or a fifth higher than they are written, and the boys made to sing them softly at this pitch. They will be obliged to use the thin voice. In training these or new boys, every practice should be preceded with 316 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. chord exercises sung to " la," and exercising the thin register. The thick register is not to be wholly forbidden. The altos, if there are any (and boys* voices differ in natural compass as much as men's), will need it. But it must not be forced, but must become round and sonorous by restrained practice. In these remarks, I have had in view those who, for ecclesiastical reasons, are called to train choirs of boys. For musical reasons, I think women are much to be preferred to boys. Certainly, there is a sweetness about well-trained boys' voices which has a charm of its own. But boys' voices are very seldom well-trained, and women [are able to give far more intelligent and musical expression to what they sing than boys. It has been well remarked that the true soprano voice is the woman's ; the boy's is a poor makeshift, which Nature destroys in a few years. The Rev. Sir F. Gore-Ouseley and others have written elaborately on the moral and religious training of choir boys, and have described the extraordinary pains that must be taken to make them sing the service with devout feeling, and behave with decorum during the lessons and the sermon. One rises from the perusal of such essays with the thought that in putting boys forward as choristers in church, we are laying upon them a responsibility which they are unable to bear, and which it is unreasonable to demand of their tender years. We place them in the front, yet we know that they can but dimly understand a large part of the service. On this point, I quote Dr. V. H. Longhurst, organist of Canterbury Cathedral, ^who said, at a Church Workers' Festival at Canterbury, in 1883 : — " It is rather to be regretted that certain High Church authorities will recognise no high-pitched voices save those of rough country lads, who may have had, during several weeks, no other mode of practising their vocal organs than that obtained by screaming in the cornfields and orchards as living scarecrows. By an infusion of WOMEN IN CHOIRS, 317 ' female voices, the rough tone of these country lads would be greatly ameliorated, and the congregation most grateful for such a real blessing; saving them all the ear-splitting which is, in some of the rural districts, truly distressing. What I have advanced has not been the result of a passing impression, but that of mature judgment; for, without egotism, I may safely assert that very few men have had more, or even as much, experience in training choir boys than 1 have had.'' The late Dr. Hullah, in a paper on "Music in the Parish Church" (1855), spoke strongly in favour of women's voices in parochial choirs. He said : — 11 Why, I would ask, are we bound to follow the cathedral system in the parish church ? Why must we also ignore the existence of half the creation, and that the most musical half? Why are those who possess a talent of which the Church stands in such pressing need, to be debarred the privilege of devoting it to the honour of Him who has given them the wish and the opportunity to cultivate it ? It is possible that a proposition to admit, or, more properly, to invite the co-operation of women in our choirs, will come with a sort of shock on many who now hear me . . . the same kind of shock which is caused by the first mention of every attempt to bring feminine tact and energy to bear on any of the thousand good works which still ask their help, and which will never be done com- pletely without them. ... I never hear — I hope I never shall hear — the clear treble ring through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, without experiencing something more than mere musical gratification. But when it has died away upon my ear, I cannot forbear asking myself whether my emotion has not been raised at too great a cost ; I cannot forbear asking myself what is likely to be — what is, in many cases — the effect of all this on the clear treble himself." Mr. E. II. Turpin, in an article in the Musical Standard, on " Female Singers in Church Choirs," says : — 11 The choir of men and boys is not only something of an anomaly, as involving the rejection of the most beautiful of created voices, but it is an institution which involves endless trouble in its training, with but usually poor results, as boys' voices are rarely tractable, and unfit to sustain much of the finest church and sacred mueic, altos are scarce, and it has been adopted upon mistaken grounds. 1 wish to show, while retaining the men and boys' voices for the more 318 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. purely ecclesiastical responses, &c, we need large, full choirs 0u1 the chancel choirs; or, better still, perhaps, to be so placed as to join with advantage the chancel choirs in singing noble anthems and service music, and in leading the warship songs of our congregations. Even in the performance of ordinary church hymn-tunes and chants, the men-and-boy choir may be supplemented, strengthened, and made infinitely more expressive, by the presence of extra female voices. This could be managed by bringing forward the more musically intelligent members of the congregation as a separate and adjunctive choir. Anyway, let us not wilfully neglect those precious musical gifts — fine female voices, but let us utilise them as it was intended we should ; and, deterred by no fooli>h superstitious restriction, uplift and develop our church music in every pi a way." AVe have no concern, in this place, with ecclesiastical tradition. But the fact that among the Jews and the Roman Catholics, in the Churcli of England, and the Catholic Apostolic Church, &c, women are constantly being brought into choirs in defiance of this tradition, shows that their exclusion is unnatural. The Roman Catholic diocesans all declare in principle against the admission of women, but most of them tolerate it as a convenient irregularity. Cardinal Manning is the only one who is obdurate on this point. Some few years ago he broke \rp all the mixed choirs in his diocese. Here and there, girls have been introduced into church choirs, in company with boys, and the case for them is thus tersely put by the Rev. W. H. Jackson, in the Church* limes : — M My choir consists of men and boys in cassocks and surplices on one side of the chancel, and girls in a uniform dress on the other side. If a country parson wants good singing in his church, the best that the resources of his parish afford, he will find himself driven to some such arrangement as I mention. The difficulty that confronts him is this. A country village contains a very limited number of boys of the chorister age, say from eight years old to fourteen. There are possibly in the parish fifteen such boys. Of these fifteen, two are the children of Dissenters, two have neither voice nor ear, two ' dunna reckon to care much aboot t'choir," one is too naughty, two live too A DRESS FOR CHOIR-GTRLS. 319 far off for it to be possible for them to attend practices. This process of elimination leaves you just six boys for your choir, and you soon find that you are at the mercy of these six boys, and when they find this out too, your ' lot is not a happy one.' " There is a further objection to a choir of unmitigated boys in country* parishes — I mean the quality of country boys' voices. What can be more distressing to a musical ear than the tinny metallic nature of the country choir boys' voices, especially in some counties. It is not treble, and, as a practised old singer once .-aid, 1 you can scarce bide to put a bass to it.' But this kind of voice, which is so grating and distressing by itself, does admirably well when mixed with girls' voices. In fact it has then a distinct value, as giving body and breadth to the singing. Much in the same way that the best tea is a blend of several separate growths, and the be>t Hour is an amalgam of English, Hungarian, and American wheat, so the best musical result comes from mixing girls' and boys' voices together. " There are other advantages attendant on an admixture of girls which will be more obvious. Girls are more manageable, more anxious to please, more reverent in their behaviour, sing with more leeling, and do not perversely lose their voices just when they have become useful. On the whole, then, I give my vote in favour of girl choristers in country villages. And if they are employed, it is not fair to put them away behind a screen or a curtain, or even in the front seats in the nave. They ought to have a recognised place and recognised attire. I believe 1 borrowed the idea of a choir dress for girls from my friend, Rev. G. V. Heathcote, of West Deeping. In one point, however, my use differs from his. My girls do not 1 process,' but take their places in the chancel individually and informally before service begins." In a subsequent letter, Mr. Jackson explains that lie limits himself strictly to girls. On no account would lie admit women to the choir. Argument from the musical point of view is, of course, futile with those commuuities to whom the exclusion of women is a matter of principle; but with others, such as the Evangelical party in the Church of England, and the Protestant Nonconformists, there is no principle in question. Sucli churches may be reminded that boys give more trouble, and produce poorer results, both musical and devotional, than women. 320 HOW TO TEAIN A CONGREGATION. The very attempt to rehearse and train a congregation is supposed by some to be Utopian. Mr. John Crowdy, an able writer on church music, in an article in Church Bells, January 25th, 1879, reluctantly observes that congrega- tions will sing, whether musicians like it or not. Not only will they sing, he says, but they will not learn to sing. The few cases in which the congregation has been induced to learn to sing in parts are purely exceptional, and only prove the rule. Accordingly, Mr. Crowdy says, musicians must take it for granted that they will be assisted by a miscellaneous body of persons, bent upon joining, and with a right to do so, but possessing, most of them, no skill in music, many of them rough voices, and a few vno ear for tune. He then goes on to describe the voices of the women in the congregation, as giving to hymn and chant a dreamy religious sweetness, which floats over the more disciplined performance of the choir. The men, he intimates, make worse noises than the women ; but even including them, he is by no means sure that a quiet hum of untrained voices has not a good effect when added to a trained choir. He compares it to the mixture stops of the organ. Mr. Crowdy looks upon any attempt to teach the congregation how to sing, or to BREAKING THE GROUND. 321 rehearse the service-music with them in the week, as altogether futile, but lie thinks that something might be done in the way of getting them together, and telling them not to sing except in certain parts of the service. This position is a very unsatisfactory one. The desire of the congregation to sing is allowed, but the congrega- tional voice is dealt with as an evil to be minimised instead of as a good to be developed. Much of Mr. Crowdy's description of the apathy of congregations is undoubtedly true, but this apathy is to be overcome, not accepted as a principle. That it can be overcome there is abundant evidence to show. The ground must be broken by appealing, not only to the sympathies of the congregation, but to the solemn standard of religious duty. The following words are written by one who is not in favour of congregational singing,* but they are strictly true : — " As to the privilege of singing, it seems to have been generally overlooked that, by a universal law of morals, no right whatever can be claimed for those who do not qualify themselves to exercise it. The right to join in a musical service is acquired by submitting to a musical training, and is forfeited at once by any man, however highly endowed with natural gifts, who will not be at the pains to cultivate either his voice or ear." There is, in short, a duty in this matter of congrega- tional singing, and it must be forcibly preached to the people if their vis inertia is to be stirred. ]N"ot only must the clergyman or minister, by his teaching, exalt the service of song, and by his personal example move the congregation to their duty in it ; he, or some trusty followers, whose interest in the subject is religious more than musical, who approach it from the side of worship rather than that of art, must exercise a general control over the arrangements. I am sorry to put in contrast the two interests of the worshipper and the musician, but on every side I sec how they are brought into collision. A * Canon Pullcn. Preface to Psalter and Canticles, 1S67. 322 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. knot of cultivated and enthusiastic amateurs in a con _ Ration, sincerely anxious to beautify the service of praise — how unconsciously they neglect the interest of the general congregation, with its dull musical capacity, its slowness to learn and remember new tunes, and its inability to sing "fine" harmonies. I have seen the process at work in many places. But it will be said that clergymen and ministers are too ignorant of music to undertake any control. That depends on what sort of musical knowledge is necessary for the purpose. To understand the use of music in public service ; to know when the tune is one that the people can sing, and one that they have learnt ; to judge what speed is congenial to devotional feeling ; to hear when the organ is played too loudly ; to encourage and direct the assembling of the congregation or the choir in its weekly meeting — to do all these things, a man does not need to know harmony or play the pianoforte. It is strange how people are disposed to look to some external aid for the improvement of congregational sing- ing, instead of to the only productive force, the instruction of the people in the art of singing from notes. If you hear at a church that " we are going to have a new organ,'' any further enquiries are understood to be superfluous. It does not occur to such people that the new organ will not change the capacities of the congrega- tion in the least ; will, at the best, only awaken a passing excitement about the singing ; and may even make the congregation take less trouble to sing, from a feeling that they have subscribed to something that does the work for them. In the same way, the information that " We have engaged a leading singer with a splendid voice ; " " We have adopted a new tune-book ; " " Our new choirmaster is an excellent musician ; " is held as equivalent to saying that " there need be no more fear for the service of song in our church, for it may now be trusted to take care of itself." THOSE WHO CANNOT SING. 323 The responsibility cannot be shifted in this way. The example of every church whose psalmody lias reached a high degree of congregational power and beauty shows that the key to success is hard and sustained work in teaching the congregation. If the singing in parts by the people of hymn-tunes, and perhaps chants, and the simplest anthems, is what we aim at, then . every worshipper should be able to take the part suited to his voice in these exercises. It is hard that the churches should have to undertake the teaching of music, but this will be necessary to congregational singing as long as people generally are uninstructed in music. The schools are, of course, the proper places for this work to be done, and there are signs that they will soon do their duty ; but at present the churches, if they wish for congregational singing, must begin by supplying the musical instruction which the schools should have given. This is the work which strikes at the root of the evil, and, slowly but surely, b rings out the general voice of the congregation. The elementary singing class should be a constant appen- dage to the churches, and should be distinct from the gathering of congregation or choir merely for the purpose of rehearsing the tunes. Says Sir George Macfarren, in the Musical Times, 1867:— 11 1 feel that persons who cannot sing should not be permitted to nullify the efforts of those who can, and offend the ears of all who are modestly silent, any more than a non-artist should be permitted to erect a building, or a man with a defective delivery should he permitted to read, or one who had not the power to convince should be permitted to preach in it. But what is the art of choral singing ? Is it so measurelessly difficult that its attainment is beyond the reach of the very great majority of earnest persons? " Is it unreasonable to wish that some regular organisation might he formed in every church congregation, for such amount of musical study as would enable whomever chose to take and to sustain a part in the service, and for such an amount of authori- tative interference as might hinder whomever chose not to befit 324 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. themselves to sing by taking advantage of this study, from frustrating the exertions of the competent by ignorantly missing the right notes, or wilfully singing the wrong ones ? To induce congregations to sing we must enable them to sing, and this by means of a due course of technical instruction." This point is important. Most attempts to improve congregational singing begin with the institution of a congregational practice. What is this? It consists usually of a certain number of people who can read music, who already know what they come to learn, and a larger number who cannot read music, and who attempt, on what we may call the " do it again " method, to drum into their own ears a few chants and hymn -tunes to be used in church next Sunday. On the face of it this is an illogical and fruitless proceeding. What should we say of a class for reading Shakspeare, formed chiefly of people who have not learned their letters, but who hope, by hearing the others read a few passages over a great many times, to get them into their memories ? Everyone sees the futility of this. After much wearisome repetition and labour we do not teach them to read Shakspeare, but to repeat a few short passages, with tolerable correctness, by memory. How insignificant the result ! Surely it will take far less time to send these people to learn their letters, so that they may come to read Shakspeare, and all other books, independently of our help or presence. Apply the illus- tration to singing. "What we have to do is to teach people to read music ; and then every chant and hymn- tune is within their reach. The fallacy of attempting to teach psalmody in any other way than by teaching to read music, is well exposed by Mr. Hullah, in the introduction to his Psalter (1843) :— " In what does the singing of sacred music differ from the singing of other music ? What is really meant by ' teaching psalmody ? ' Do we use another process to teach the reading of the Scriptures and the reading of any other book of infinitely inferior importance ? TEACHING PSALMODY. 325 Let us apply the same principles to the teaching of music. That a greater or lesser number of tunes may be taught to a congregation, or choir, or class, by the aid of a voice or an instrument we know, and that such teaching ends invariably in a slovenly, indecent mode of performance, we have the experience, that is to say, the failure of centuries to prove. And yet attempts are still made, and not without countenance from those who should know better, to teach psalmody in twenty, ten, or possibly a smaller number of lessons. There is every reason, religious as well as instructional, against these empirical attempts ; nothing can be done, nothing ought to be done if it could, without proper training ; children must be taught some- thing, and more than something of the principles of music, before they can correctly execute even a psalm -tune — even a psalm-tune in unison. I would ask those who give and take and encourage 1 lessons in psalmody,' whether they are doing that which is most reverential, as they are assuredly not doing that which is musically most wise, in exercising the untrained ear and the dis- obedient voice in those very strains which are to be devoted exclusively to the Most High ? There cannot be a doubt that the attempt at a duty so important as singing in church should be deferred till a decent, if not a skilful mode of performance be possible. 1 repeat, there is no such thing as ' teaching psalmody ' to any good purpose ; good congregational singing can alone proceed, by the blessing of God, from the cultivation of that talent of which He has given more or less to all men ; to expect congregations to take part in the musical portion of the services of the Church without preparation, trusting only to impulse or the imitative faculty, is to perpetuate one of the most objectionable features of Romanism — to call upon them to offer up prayer and praise in a language they do not understand." Let not the drift of this argument be misunderstood. Our purpose is not to discourage the meeting of the congregation, but to make such meeting infinitely more productive by classifying the congregation into two portions — those who can read music and those who cannot. Those who can read form the choir, which is recruited at the close of each season from the ranks of those who have been learning how to read in the elementary class. The choir should be a large body, one portion of which sits together in church, the larger portion being distributed during service among the congregation, helping, by their 320 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. presence, the timid and the wavering. Such is the plan which is adopted wherever successful congregational singing has been achieved. Tire whole of the choir may indeed be dispersed in this way. It is very rarely that an organist is found who is also a good choirmaster and trainer of the congregation. There are such men, hut they are not common, and the host way is to divide the two offices whenever possible. Where such division is not possible, the organist should be chosen more for his proved ability to train a choir and teach a congregation than for dexterity at his instrument. Be satisfied that he can play the service, and then give chief weight to these other qualifications. We frequently hear of competitions, at which a distinguished organist pre- sides, and awards the post to the best player of a show piece, the best reader at sight, the best player from a figured bass, or the most clever performer of one of Bach's fugues. All this is right and proper in churches where professional and artistic music is all that is required, but when congregational music is desired it is the height of folly. To a player of this kind, a plain congregational service is intolerably dull ; he itches for opportunity to display his talent. Congregational singing is at a standstill in a hundred churches because the organist is entirely taken up with his instrument, and has neither experience, tact, nor inclination to teach the choir or thc\ congregation, and perhaps worse than that, has no religious interest in his work. The yearly gathering of the leaders of singing from several churches of a district, for a choral festival, is an admirable institution. The Diocesan Choral Festivals of the Church of England have, according to general testimony, exerted a remarkable influence upon the choirs which take part in them, raising their taste and aims, and increasing their interest in the work. At these festivals, the crude material of a village or small town choir is CHORAL FESTIVALS. 327 brought under the refining influence of the best talent. Rough singers catch the style of the large choir, and inexperienced organists listen for once to the playing of a master. To some extent such gatherings are already held among Nonconformists. The Calvinistic Methodists of Wales cultivate them greatly. In this body, from five to six to thirteen chapels are accustomed to unite for a festival. They meet in the largest chapel in their district, or sometimes in the open air, in some picturesque spot. The clay is observed as a general holiday. A travelling conductor arrives the evening before the festival, and rehearses as many singers as can be assem- bled ; there is generally a second rehearsal early next morning. Two services are held, at two and six p.m. respectively; sometimes there is a third at ten a.m. The4 same music is sung at each, to different audiences. The number of singers taking part in these festivals is from 300 to 800. In conclusion, the question may be asked, " Do you really mean that all persons can be taught to sing? What about those that have no voice, or no ear ? " To this I reply, that although natural capacity for singing differs greatly in different people, I believe that, speaking generally, all persons can be taught sufficient to enable them to take their natural part in the chants and hymn-tunes of the service. Dr. Hullah is never tired of reiterating his disbelief in the common talk about people having no ear and no voice. It is, of course, easier for a boy to learn to sing than a man ; it is easier for some men than for others ; but it is impossible for so very small a minority, that we may safely say it is possible for all. 328 THE ARGUMENT FOE CONGREGA- TIONAL SINGING. Ix what way can we use music most surely and power- fully to awaken and impel the worshipful feeling in the hearts and souls of the greatest number of people ? There are three ways in which we can use music in public worship. "We can have performance by an organ, or other instruments ; we can have performance by a band of trained singers ; or we can have performance by the congregation itself. That all three forms are con- sistent with worship, that all three may minister to it, few will 'deny. The question is, which form is the safest — the least liable to abuse ? We must all have felt ourselves lifted into a strange rapture of high thoughts and desires when listening both to the solos and the choruses of an oratorio or an anthem, whether heard in the concert room or the church. Why not let performances of this sort, artistic and highly finished, take the place of the rough and often untutored singing of a mass of people ? The advocates of pro- fessional singing may say, not without reason, " If the people were generally instructed in music, if they dis- played a thorough interest in the singing, came to rehearsal, cared to learn the tunes and join heartily in them, your arguments in favour of congregational singing THE PROSE OP EVER Y-DA Y EXPERIENCE. 329 might bo good. But what is the fact? The congi tions are deplorably unmusical, and they and the ministers aro to a largo cxtont indifferent. They flatten, they drag- behind, and their indecision spoils the music. Congrega- tional singing, in the present state of musical culture, is a delusion — an ideal which cannot be attained, and should, therefore, be honestly given up." There is much truth in this ; the prose of every-day experience does a great deal to make the congregational psalmodist faint-hearted. In one church, we have rough and hearty singing by the congregation ; in another, the people follow in a low murmur, while the lead is taken by a well-drilled choir ; in another, a paid singer does most of the work ; in another, the organ storms and thunders. In one place, enthusiastic amateurs are anxious to turn the service into a Sunday concert ; in another, we are told that so long as everybody sings, it does not matter how, and that to tell a man with a bass voice not to shout the air, or to forbid a lady with a contralto voice making a second of her own, or to hint to a congregation that drawling has no connection with piety, is to quench the workings of the Spirit. In an ordinary congregation, about one person in ten possesses a music ,book, which is an indispensable requisite for taking one's part in the harmony of the congregation. The women sing the air by ear ; the majority of the men stand silent, and we must charitably suppose them to be making melody in their hearts. Others of them sing the air, and miss out the high notes. Here a man is singing all on one tone ; there one is singing every tone but the right ; there is another who can only be said to be making a joyful noise. The children, whose pretty voices might come to swell the stream of sound, sing with feebleness and uncertainty, and it is only here and there that you find one of them singing out heartily and confidently, with a great enjoy- ment, as children will do if they can. 330 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. It is to be feared, too, that matters are not improving. The Times, in a leading article, said as mnch. It speaks of the Church of England, and the various Nonconformist bodies are subject to the same influences. It says : — 11 The Church of England has almost lost its congregational singing. The process of deterioration, not to say abandonment, has long been in progress. The organ and the select body of singers began the mischief, which has only been turned in another direction and aggravated by the little troops of choristers. The results are sweet, but childish, cold and unimpressive. There is no body, no depth in the result, and it must be the feeling of every man in the congregation that the performance is wholly outside of him ; that he is not expected to join, and has, in fact, nothing to do with it." We must all feel that there is much truth in this picture, and acknowledge that there is much work to be done before congregational singing can become general and refined. Of late, there have come several warnings from cathedral organists, as to the tendency of musical style in parish churches. Dr. Stainer, writing in The Guardian, September, 1882, says: — " What the writer feels, and feels strongly, is that many of our church choirs are struggling after a bad imitation of a cathedral service, when it is really quite in their power to establish and maintain a noble congregational worship." And Mr. J. K. Pyne, organist of Manchester Cathedral, lecturing in the Manchester Town Hall, November 28th, 1884, said:— " Cathedral music was not in any case congregational music, except in the case of psalms, suffrages, litany, and psalmody, but with regard to the parochial system, it was obvious that in many parts the people were defrauded of their musical rights. They had a right to expect that in their churches they should have such simple music as they could fairly join in. But was that simple form of musical worship to be found now ? Certainly not. Women, whose voices were flexible and easily trained, were tabooed, and boys substituted, with an indifferent result. Instead of sticking to the chants and the good old English massive music, the cathedrals were injudiciously copied, and a kind of ' service ' and anthems were THE DEVOTIONAL ARGUMENT. 331 unwisely introduced, and indifferently performed. He sympathised with the Bishop of Manchester, when lie deprecated the long anthems which were specially prepared for his delectation, at churches which he visited in various parts of his dio If the argument for congregational singing were artistic, it would be enough to point to its present condition in many churches as a convincing reason why it should no longer be tolerated. But the argument is not artistic, it is devotional. It is, in fact, very hard to Bustain that elevated mood which draws spiritual good from listening to others singing. The thing can be done, but it cannot be done for long, it cannot be done constantly. We are always tempted to shrink from worshippers into critics. Xo one can worship if he is criticising. This is as impossible as it is for a river to flow backwards and forwards at the same time. The worshipper looks up as a son to his father ; the critic- looks down as a judge upon the defendant placed before him. Even if we do not criticise, we are apt, in listening to a choir, to think that its object is to give us pleasure. But the sound of voices all around us, uttering the same words and sounds as ourselves, moves us by a force of sympathy which is well-nigh irresistible, and incites us more powerfully to worship. Upon the general question of worship, and the place of music therein, I quote from a well-written article in The New Englander (Mew Haven, U.S.), 1849 :— " There is a far deeper meaning than is commonly supposed in the assembling of a congregation of worshippers. They do not meet because it is the custom, for a custom is unmeaning unless it rests intelligently on some vital truth. They do not meet mainly in obedience to a Christian injunction ; for the efficacy of such an injunction must be derived from something deeper than a mere positive rule. Nor does an assembly of worshippers meet on the principle which calls a large company together to listen to a scientific lecture — the economic principle, namely, that in so doing the intellectual wants of hundreds may be ministered to as cheaply as the wants of one. This principle has, indeed, its place in 332 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC, the Christian Church, but it is a very low place. Christians do not come together in worship merely that each may offer his separate thanks and prayers, nor that each may interpret the general expres- sion of worship into his own particular ca>e. Neither is it that Mich may carry away a little theology — practical or theoretical — >uited to his tastes, his mental idiosyncrasy, or his particular business in life. But it is that each one, forgetting himself, and entering into the great truths in which all are concerned, may see himself only in the light of tho.^e great truths. It is that coming into the light of their relations with God, the worshippers may come to feel as children of God, and therefore as brethren. So when they shall separate, they shall not go each bearing his little peculum of truth to help him on in his solitary way, but they shall go all bathed in the same spirit ; prepared to see eye to eye, and to feel their brotherhood through the jar and conflict of the week. We do not assert that many other ends are not attained through public worship ; ends quite distinct from the one we have dwelt upon. The preaching may refute error, may combat vice, may quicken the intellect, may give direction to public sentiment on particular moral and religious questions. It may, and should do all this, but it should do it through the feelings awakened in the acts of worship. It is through the awakened soul that the attention mu^t be arrested, the understanding enlightened, and conviction of sin attained. It is through the subdued feelings that exhortation, reproof, and rebuke should be administered. Otherwise, the preacher's claim to be the ambassador of God finds no response in the hearer's heart. It is on this principle of the relation of the feelings to the understanding, that most of the acts of worship precede the delivery of the sermon. " The soul, then, must lead the understanding in the house of God. The preparatory acts of worship are not a mere getting ready to hear the sermon, as if that were the great service of the day ; but they are acts, standing in their own right, on the deepest principles in man, and the call to these acts is a call to every worshipper to surrender himself heartily to the performance of them. * * * * " By congregational singing, we mean no less than this : that the great body of the congregation shall have a free, hearty interest in it ; that the singing shall be with such a degree of power, that each one will be relieved from hearing his own voice, and consequently, one individual will not hear the voice of another. Nothing short of this fulfils the idea of congregational singing ; nothing short of this takes away individual timidity and reluctance, or removes the tempta- SINGING AN EXPRESSION OF FEELING. 333 tions to vanity, display, and criticism ; nothing short of this will merge individual peculiarities and faults in one broad, inspiring tide of song. The great end of religious culture is to lead men out of their individual thoughts, cares, and feelings, into those great truths which pertain to the whole of humanity ; and public worship is important because, from its very nature, it furnishes the highest opportunities for securing this end. The meeting together for united acts of devotion is an acknowledgment of a common nature, of common relations to God, of common wants, and of a common destiny. Now whatever shall, at this time, call the mind off from the great truths which encompass all alike, and fix attention on what is circumstantial, and characteristic of individuals only, is at war with the very soul of worship, and as far as it prevails, defeats its highest end. What then must be the effect of singing when only a few defective voices are heard, each marked by its own peculiarity, and, all together, not half enough to blend with each other, and fill the house ! What must be the effect of this, but the opposite of the true feeling of worship ? not negatively merely, but occasioning a positive distraction, and constituting a virtual pro- hibition of all hearty and united praise. * * * 11 Singing by the congregation is the most natural and appropriate of all possible means for the expression of their religious feelings. It may be thought that the same end is attained in the simultaneous utterance, with the speaking voice, of words in a liturgy. But there are two important points of difference. First, singing is in itself an expression of feeling, without reference to the words uttered ; whilea language is the natural expression, not of feelingr but of thought, and expresses feeling only through the conven- tional meaning attached to words, and in the low degree in which the words may be uttered in the tones of emotion. Secondly, a multitude singing together utter sounds in harmony ; a multitude speaking together necessarily speak in discord. The voices may, in themselves, be melodious, but they do not hold any connected relation to each other in an harmonious point of view. It may be said that a multitude of voices, speaking together, produces a grand and elevating impression. This is granted, but the effect is produced, not without discords, but in spite of them ; how much greater, then, would it be were the discords removed, as they would be if the multitude should sing together ! We say how much greater, and we leave the question unanswered ; for we have few illustrations, if any, of the power of congregational singing." Says Sir George Macfarren [Musical Times, 1867) : — 14 Question, I think, there cannot be, as to the fact, that whatever 334 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. actively engages tu must better enchain our attention than what appeals to u> <>nly as passive obs< nrere.M Dr. G. F. Root, of Chicago, says :— •• We may ase music in two ways: in one to entertain others, in the other to benefit ourselves. In these days, comparatively few sing well enough to entertain others, but all may so utter their voices as to benefit themselves. This is on the principle that ID exercise alone are growth and strength, and that the utterance of an affection is an exercise of it. The little child wTho says, " I do love you, mother,' loves the mother a little more. The patriot who sings his love of country, or the lover who utters his true affections to his beloved, strengthens it thereby ; and it is a work that cannot be done by proxy. We may enjoy seeing the rowers in a boat-race, but their exercise does not strengthen our arms. The only possible benefit they can be to us, beyond the passing enjoyment, is to induce us to exercise for ourselves. " It is sometimes said, ' The minister prays for us ' (we do not always join audibly in the prayers). True, but if the prayer of the minister does not lead us to pray for ourselves, it does us no good. It is admitted that there is a difference in the nature of prayer and praise, in favour of silent prayer: still, the law holds good here that 1 power is in ultimates.' He who only thinks ' Have mercy upon me, O Lord ! ' does not so affect himself as he who says ' Have mercy.' There is a power in the reflex influence of the spoken word that the mere thought has not. 11 Do you say, 'Our choir sometimes sing with so much pathos as to bring fears to the eyes ? ' That may be of the sensibilities only, very near the surface. A novel or play will do as much. Were an angel to sing us a song of heaven, it would only be a passing enjoy- ment, unless it caused us to do something for ourselves. " Do- you further say, ' I can't sing ; ' or, as some one said in one of our meetings, ' 1 can't sing fit to be heard? ' My reply was, and is, you do not sing to be heard. That's just the point. You sing for your own benefit. If you are a sincere worshipper, your voice will be reverent, and, in the preponderance of correct tones, your imperfections of time or tune will probably not be observed. But supposing they should be, you are not in a concert room, where entertainment is the main thing. You are where people are bound to offer praise and worship to the Lord. And you come 'just as you are,' and give Him the best you have." The Rev. A. J. Gordon, D.D., writes: — " Try to sing without utterance, and observe how your thoughts CON GREG A Tl ON A L EM 0 Tl OX. 33 5 straggle off, and finally, before you know it, get beyond recall. Words are the channels and viaducts of thought ; and, without them, the stream of devotion is always losing its way. Either spreading out so thinly that it evaporates before it reaches its desti- nation, or, falling into the mere *pray of aimless meditation, it is lost. Hence, when one sings, he needs words to help him think God's thoughts'after him. He needs audible words to quicken and kindle his devotion by the action of thought upon itself, through the medium of hearing." It is curious how these writers are supported by a writer who approaches the subject from an entirely different standpoint, and indeed, to whom the term " worship " has a very different meaning. In his jS"ew Year's address (1887) to the Positivist Society, at Xewton Court, Mr. Frederic Harrison said : — "lam myself very deeply convinced that the time has come when we need for ourselves and for others a more and more definite expression of religious emotion ; some more systematic type of worship than any we yet have. We have never for a moment believed that we could rest satisfied with simple lectures as a sufficient embodiment of religious emotion. If there be real religion, there must be congregational emotion ; and if there be this it must become systematic, and take orderly expression and form. There is, I hold, deep meaning in the popular instinct, that the test of a really religious communion amongst men is that it rouses in them the desire for the vi>ible expression of common religious feeling. The public are right in that, and our hearts respond, I believe, to that instinct." An American writer observes : — 11 Differing essentially from the preaching of the truth, the dis- tinguishing idea of the song service is not impression but expression ; the outflow of the worshipful sentiment, not upon the people, but up to God — the soul soaring towards its source on its own wings ; which, God- given, though never so weak, are strong enough to fly into His very audience -chamber. The moment the idea of a performance enters, which an auditory is listening to, whether sympathetically or critically, what time the conception possesses the soul that it is making or must make an impression upon men. then the delicate, ambient atmosphere of self-forgetfulness and devotion. with which true song-communion with God surrounds the soul. 336 S1ULIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. must be ;vitiated in some degree, and the indefinable rapture of genuine worship brought down to a bid for worldly applause." This is flowery language, but its drift is undoubtedly right. There is something in the very vagueness and impersonality of congregational singing that lays hold of the feelings, and stirs that " wannth within the breast that melts the freezing reason's colder part." Musical, or would-be musical people, often complain of the discords made by those who are not singers in their attempts to join with the congregation. Certainly there are obtrusive voices to be heard that, do what we will,, we cannot help being distracted and annoyed with. In a recent lecture on the service of song, at Gourock, Mr. J. M. Hutcheson referred to this point. He said : — " I have endeavoured to emphasize my opinion, that as all should worship, so all should sing who can, but there will be a few in every church who really cannot sing. To such I say, your best offering is the silent worship of the heart, and as we all ought to give our best , so you should be content, not to be silent — for to God's ear you will riot be silent — but to be still. Which of us#has not heard, during public praise, some voices which/ made it impossible for anybody within reach to retain a single thought of worship ? Some sounds which, outside of a church, would only be called braying or groaning, but, being inside, are miscalled singing. Are the good people wh,o make such sounds not under a grevious delusion as to their duty ? Why should they shut music out of their hearts by shouting it down ; and in their anxiety to speak her language, which they either cannot or will not learn, they will not allow her to speak to them." These noises are certainly a source of annoyance to all worshippers who have the misfortune to possess a musical ear. A well-known divine once described them, in our hearing, as " sanctified caterwauling." Mr. James Higgs, in a discussion on the subject at the Musical Association, said that sometimes, when placed near these discordant persons, he had to pinch himself, to relieve his nerves by counter-irritation. Unfortunately, the persons who make these noises are generally well satisfied with their vocal powers, and think themselves nightingales. They are BLENDING OF VOICES. 337 never likely to accept general hints on the subject ; nothing but the most direct rebuke will silence them. And is it worth while to give such a rebuke ? We know a lady who, in a friendly way, thus spoke to a man who sat near her in church, and regretted it ever after. She says his silence — the thought that she had caused it — was worse than his discord. Probably the best way is to wait for the general musical improvement of the country, and to seek, by an overwhelming number of true voices, to drown the small minority of false ones. On this point, Dr. Gr. P. Eoot says: — " Those who are truly in love to the neighbour may be as fastidious as they please where music is given for music's sake ; but where the worship of the Lord is the main thing, and music is entirely secondary — only the humble helper — they will not only not be otfended at the singing of their more unmusical neighbours, but will be glad to hear them trying to strengthen their good affections in that way. It is astonishing to see how much a hearty love for the neighbour's welfare will do towards stopping the squeamishness of musical people in regard to congregational singing." Eut even from the musical point of view, it is remark- able that voices, when combined in large numbers, become pleasant and even sweet in effect, although individually they may be coarse and out of tune. It is like the hum that rises from a busy town, or the strange murmur of the forest — a thousand noises, each of them tuneless, combining to make one harmonious whole. Congrega- tional singing has a charm quite distinct from that of artistic music ; a charm which the greatest musicians have acknowledged. Not only, however, is congregational singing justiiiable on these grounds ; it is to be defended as a part of the primitive tradition of the church. Bingham, in his " Ecclesiastical Antiquities, " says on this point : — " From the first and apostolic age, singing was always a part of divine service, in which the whole body of the church joined 338 STUDIES IN 1V0RSII1P MUSIC. together ; which is a thing so evident, that although Cabassutim denies it, and in his spite to the Reformed Churches, where it is generally practised, calls it only a Protestant whim, yet Cardinal Bona has more than once not only confessed, but solemnly proved it to have been the primitive practice. Of which, therefore, I shall say no more at present, but only observe that it was the decay of this that first brought the order of singers into the church. For when it was found by experience that the negligence and unskil ful- ness of the people rendered them unfit to perform this service, without some more curious and skilful to guide and assist them, then a peculiar order of men were appointed and set over this business, with a design to retrieve and improve the ancient psalmody, and not to abolish or destroy it." But if congregational singing be advocated as the surest and most direct means of expressing the feeling of worship, it follows that there must be such a feeling as its first condition. Congregational singing is depen- dent upon religious fervour ; upon the strength of the divine life in the hearts of the worshippers. Says Mr. Pears* : — " But it is replied, ' My congregation will not sing.' If so, and if they have been fairly tried, which I should greatly doubt, there must be a fault somewhere. It is not in the voice and ear, for assemblies of men and women are about equal in those respects. It is not want of practice ; Hullah classes will not mend it. The evil lies deeper. It lies in the hearts of the congregation. There must be a want of earnestness among the people, or there would not be so many silent worshippers. And the remedy must be looked for in the pulpit and the preacher. Let them hear more of the love of Christ. 1 am sure, and the history of the Church fully bears me out, i^hdit wherever the heart is full of love, the lips will be ready with praise. . . . Whenever the Church has been very much in earnest, the Church has contrived to praise God for itself, without the help of organ, or choir, or proxy of any kind." Men must have some adoration, some longing, some thankfulness bursting from their hearts, or they had better not sing at all, for their song will be formal and lifeless. Singing is the expression of joy, and there * Remarks on the Protestant Theory of Church Music, by S. A. Pears, B.D., Assistant Master of Harrow School, 1852. THE WORSHIPFUL FEELING. 339 will always be as much of the one as there is of the other. 11 Only keep thee on the wing, Music dieth in the dust ; Nothing that but creeps can sing. Soaring, we can sing and trust." AVith the warmth of the worshipful feeling, congrega- tional singing fluctuates in different ages, nations, and churches ; in different services, and in different parts of the same service. The congregational singing of to-day is dying of respectability. It is the fashion among a certain class of people to repress feeling ; to admire feebly, to be interested instead of eager, disgusted instead of indignant, and so on all round the passions. So to sing with warmth and heart -felt vigour is taken as the sign of a vulgar mind, and if the people who sit behind us sing in anything more than a respectable whisper — their voices, like Mrs. Micawber's, " the very small beer of acoustics" — we remark upon it on the way home from church. I was worshipping once with a friend in an English church among the hills of North Wales. The little edifice was filled to the door, and almost the whole congregation was made up of visitors to the place. On our way home, I asked my friend if he had not been struck by the unusual heartiness and generalness of the singing, considering the " genteel " character of the con- gregation. " Certainly," he replied, " and the reason is a plain one. The people did not know each other." This incident brings forward another condition of congregational singing — a well-filled church. Heartiness is killed by empty benches and distance. In order to have congregational singing, we must have a con- gregation. F. W. Robertson, in one of his sermons, dwells on the electric force of sympathy : — " Till we have reflected on it, we are scarcely aware how much the sum of human happiness in the world is indebted to this one 340 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. feeling — Bympathy. We get cheerfulness and vigour, we scarcely know how or when, from mere association with our fellow-men. "We catch inspiration and power to go on from human presence and from cheerful looks. The workman works with added energy from having others by. . . . When the electric touch of sympathetic feeling has gone among a mass of men it communicates itself, and is reflected back from every individual in the crowd, with a force exactly proportioned to their numbers. The speech or sermon read before the limited circle of a family, and the same discourse uttered before closely crowded hundreds, are two different things. There is strange power even in the mere presence of a common crowd, exciting almost uncontrollable emotion. . . . It is the thrilling thought of numbers engaged in the same object. It is the idea of our own feelings reciprocated back to us, and reflected from many hearts. It is the mighty presence of life." On the same point, the Rev. A. J. Gordon, D.D., in a sermon, says : — 11 We urge hearty, united congregational singing as a means of raising the aggregate devotion of the Christian assembly to its highest point. It is not without purpose that Providence has set Christians in companies for worship, instead of leaving them to render it privately or individually. Men, like coals, kindle best in the mass. Each serves as a radiator to throw heat upon his neigh- bour, and so the zeal of the whole is quickly raised. But let each worshipper be only a dull absorbent of the warmth that is thrown upon him from scripture, prayer, sermon, and hymn, and the preacher will find it a very onerous task to get the people into a devotional frame. Now, singing is a means of spiritual radiation. Truth, and love, and fervour are easily contagious, when it is the medium of intercourse. As the people speak to each other in psalms and hymns, there is a rapid circulation of the currents of devotion. The pulse of song beats quick, and the glow of worship is easily attained. " One has little idea, who has not experienced it, of the help which it gives to a preacher to have a high average of fervour in the congregation. If only a few are kindled in the service of God's house, their warmth is absorbed, and becomes latent in the inert mass about them. But, if the majority are stirred so that the general level of feeling is high, a minister with any sensibility can feel the fact as soon as he comes in contact with them. We recog- nise the value of communion or community of spiritual life in all worship. No man is to be an independent unit here. What he DISTRIBUTING FERVOUR. 341 brings to church with him of interest, of desire, of earnestness, he brings to put into the common fund; and singing is the circulating medium of worship. It distributes the fervour of each Christian among his brethren, and equalises the devotion of the whole body. Hence, I appeal to your sense of fairness. If you, the people, expect the preacjrer to stir you to duty by his sermons, ought you not to put yourselves in the best possible condition to be stirred ? The preacher cannot furnish both incitement and susceptibility. " Human affections and sympathies are the chords which he has to strike for God. These must be put into the best possible tune, and kept at the highest pitch of susceptiveness, if the strongest impres- sion is to be produced. I am not theorising. " If any fact has been made clear to me in my pastoral experience it is this : that the people that enter heartily and enthusiastically into the worship, as earnest participants, can be inspired with interest and moved to duty with half the labour which would otherwise be required. To throw a word into hearts that are all resonant with devotion, to touch chords that are all vibrant with sympathetic feeling — there is a real delight in this. And what minister cannot feel the difference in the touch of a congregation that has risen just before the sermon, and poured itself out in an inspiring and hearty hymn of praise, from that of a religious audience that has been quietly sitting and listening to a musical performance ? There is a kind of spiritual elasticity in the former case which gives the preacher's words back to him in a responsive echo, which comes from dropping a sermon into a listless and silent company of hearers." Unison singing is spoken of by many as the panacea which is to revive congregational singing in England. The advocates of unison are generally those who have heard and admired the Lutheran singing on the Continent, and who hastily conclude that it can be transplanted to England. But the conditions which give the chorales such a hold upon the Germans, Dutch, Swedes, &c, are wanting here. In those countries they are national hymn-tunes, endeared to the people by life-long tradition, a part almost of the Reformed faith, and moreover, associated definitely with one set of words. So strong is this association of tune and words, that there are instances 342 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. in Bach's work- where he has used a few notes of a ehoral in the instrumental part to suggest the word* which belong to it, in connection "with what is being sung by soloist or choir. AYith the same definite meaning, Mendelssohn introduces the chorale, " Em' feste Burg," in his Reformation Symphony. In England, we have no counterpart to this; even the "Old Hundredth" is not certainly associated with one set of words, and the number of hymn-tunes that can be called national is very small. Sir G. Macfarren, in St. John the Bajrtist, and Sir A. Sullivan, in his Festival Te Learn, have followed the example of Each and Mendelssohn, and introduced English hymn-tunes ("Hanover" and "St. Ann"). But the full force of the introduction of the choral is wanting ; it is only the tune they introduce, not the hymn as well. The style of our tunes is also radically different from that of Germany. English tunes are more rhyth- mical ; they move quicker, and reflect the national energy. A speaker at a recent Church Congress dwelt on the magnificent effect of the chorales as he had heard them sung in unison by large congregations in Sweden. He considered this to be the most impressive devotional music in existence. That it is impressive, none who have heard it will deny, but whether it is suited to the .English people is another matter. The point can easily be put to the proof. In a lecture on the subject, not long since, the present writer introduced a German chorale, " TVie schon leucht't uns der Morgenstem," and got the audience to sing it in unison, exactly after the German fashion. They were instructed to remain seated, to give no accent to the music ; every note was to be heavy, and held out to its full length. The rate of singing was to be M. 30, or rather more than two beats of a healthy pulse to each note. Between the lines there were to be pauses, filled up by the instrumental UNISON SINGING. 343 interludes which are commonly used, and printed in the Looks. The organist was directed to use the great organ throughout, and to turn on the sound as loud as he pleased. In this style, one verse was sung to the English translation, " How lovely shines the morning star." All present who had heard Lutheran singing, declared it to be an exact imitation, without exaggeration ; indeed, two young ladies, who had been at school at "Wiesbaden, were quite overcome by the recollections which the singing revived. But before the exercise was half through, the audience showed signs of impatience, and by the time the end was reached, all declared it was the most intolerably wearisome thing they had ever experienced in music. It would be well to submit the advocates of the German style of psalmody to this process. No arguments would be needed to follow. But it may be urged that this comparison is unfair. We may be told that it is the more lively and pointed English tunes that should be sung in unison, and that these may be given at a pace which would not prove wearisome. The fatal objection, however, to unison, is that the easy compass which is common to low and high voices in men and women is too small for a varied and interesting melody. Unison singing means that basses and contraltos must drop out at the high notes, or strain their voices. On this point, Dr. Stainer says, in a letter to the Guardian, September, 1882 : — " Experience proves without doubt that pure unison singing never can, and never will be adopted for parochial use. Providence has given mankind, roughly speaking, two broad divisions of voice ; one high, the other low. Women and boys are either trebles or altos ; men either tenors or basses. Those portions of unison music which lie comfortably in the range of the trebles and tenors are so un- comfortably high for altos and basses, that they cannot long sustain them in tune. When the music, on the other hand, suits the range of altos and basses, the other voices seem to have lost all brightness 344 STUDIES IN W OR SHIP MUSIC. and beauty. It is no exaggeration to say, that four-part singing is more truly natural than singing in unison." Thibaut, in his " Purity in Musical Art," acknowledge - this defect in German choral singing. He speaks of the need of using our "best endeavours to bring the melodies within such a compass as by sinking in octaves [?'.£., what is popularly called unison] would be ordinarily within the range of all voices, and thus avoid what has hitherto so often been the case, viz., for the basses and altos, or again, the tenors and sopranos, to be half reduced to silence, or else forced to scream." The division of voices into parts is, indeed, natural and inevitable. Thibaut regards congregational part-singing as quite possible, provided that ministers and musicians co- operate with a devoted and willing congregation for its attainment. 2s"o doubt the difficulties in the way arc- great. It will be many and many a year before the goal is reached. But every step we tread towards it is an advantage gained, multiplying the opportunities of blessing and communion for the people at large. PART IE —DESCRIPTIVE 347 THE TEMPLE CHURCH. "Whex, many years ago, Mr. Edward J. Hopkins, a young man of twenty -five, was appointed to the Temple organ, the finished musical service wdrich is now the admiration of all choirmasters did not exist. The chnrch had just been restored, and at the re-opening a choral service was instituted. For the first few months, Mr. Hopkins was organist only ; after that he was made choirmaster as well. Young as he was, he had already played at Mitcham, at St. Peters, Islington, and at St. Luke's, Berwick Street. A choral service with men and boys completely revolutionised the Temple service, for in the old days, the organ filled the arch between the round and the square churches, and the only music was that of a mixed quartet, "who sat in front of the organ, and revealed themselves by withdrawing a curtain as the time for each psalm-tune came round. The rest of the service was said, not sung. All well-read organists arc acquainted with the pon- derous " History of the Organ, " which Mr. Hopkins edited in conjunction with his friend, the late Dr. Eimbault. It is a standard work of reference. But Mr. Hopkins has made his position at the Temple even more as the careful and judicious choirmaster than as the erudite and masterly organist. Many of our younger organists are absorbed in their instruments. They know little, and care less, for the genius of vocal music, and seem to think that the choir should accompany them, and 348 STUDIES IX WORSHIP JTUSIC. form a groundwork for their own display. But the ex- clioir boy of the Chapel Royal carried with him to the Temple those old English vocal traditions which come to us from a time when organs were small and feeble. Mr. Hopkins separates most clearly the two functions of the organ — that of accompaniment and that of per- formance. In the voluntaries, the organist may summon all the resources of his instrument, and express his composer and himself without thought of anything else ; but in the presence of voices he falls back. " In accom- panying," says Mr. Hopkins, as we discuss this point with him, . " the organ should be the background; and the remedy for indecision and flattening in choirs is not more organ but better [choir-training. If the singers flatten at the pianos, practise until they can keep the pitch. Now- adays, everyone is for quantity, not quality, and coarse- ness is the prevailing- vice. We are told of surpliced choirs of thirty-six voices, and if we go to hear them, what do we too frequently find ? A great racket and shouting certainly, but not music." With a choir of twelve boys and six men, Mr. Hopkins realises his ideal of " quality, not quantity." The two Honourable Societies of the Temple pay liberally for their music ; hence they command as good voices as the cathedrals. The boys receive a general education at the Stationers' School. "When a boy comes to Mr. Hopkins, and applies for admission to the choir, he is set to imitate a number of notes struck at random on the pianoforte. If he does this quickly and truly, he is accepted as having a good ear. Iso knowledge of notation is demanded, as that he will learn in the choir. Mr. Hopkins lays stress on the fact that he takes his boys at eight years ; he thinks it a mistake to begin with them at twelve. But mark what he does witli them. For a year or so they are probationers. They undergo daily drill in the rudiments of music and in voice -training ; but they do THE TEMPLE CHURCH. 349 not wear surplices in church, although they sit close to the choir. During this period they come under discipline, and are insensibly trained by listening. No responsibility in singing rests upon them ; but they an4 learning, never- theless, and when the voice of one of the older boys breaks, a probationer is ready to step into bis place. Every afternoon Mr. Hopkins spends an hour-and-a-half with bis boys. The practices arc held in the little choir vestry near the organ, where there is a cottage pianoforte, flanked by a couple of long music desks, at which the boys stand as they sing. They are taught in groups, according to the stage they have reached, and they spend the time in practising scales and voice -exercises, in singing pieces, and in studying notation. The voices are practised up to A ; but, in his own music, Mr. Hopkins prefers to avoid notes above E. Every new piece is sol-faed, and the course of modulation, the imitative and effective points, are dwelt upon. On Saturdays there is a rehearsal in the church, with the organ, which adult members of the choir attend. At the Sunday service, the ear of the listener is arrested by the smoothness and blending of the general effect. It is the purest art. Mr. Hopkins knows the power of soft music over the emotions, how the spirit of the worshipper yields to the still, small voice when thunder and declamation fail to touch. With a choir which can float without support, unnumbered effects in accompaniment are possible. The power of the Temple choir to sustain pitch will be understood when we sav that they habitually sing right through the Litany and Suffrages without the organ. The starting chord is all that they have. The Kyrie Eleison is accompanied, for the most part, on the shut swell ; the air of a free part will be taken on a soft solo stop, or the bass alone hummed on a deep-toned diapason on the pedal organ. In the verse parts of the Canticles, similar effects are 350 STUDIES IX WORSHIP JWSIC. used. There is, however, no (feebleness in Mr. Hopkins' handling of the instrument. He knows how to draw tone when the words require, and the ehoir rise to him with a will. Each service includes the plain harmonics to jjhe old inflected tones which are known as the Ferial Responses, a setting of the Canticles, an anthem, and two hymns. On Holy Days, Tallis's Eesponses take the place of the simpler harmonies. In the hymns, Mr. Hopkins has fed his taste upon the old psalmody, though his tunes are many of them modern in character, and his tune to " Saviour, again to Thy dear name we raise," shows that he is abreast of the move- ment of the times. This tune is now generally printed in four parts, but is, in its original form, a melody with changing harmonies to each verse. It is interesting in another respect. Mr. Hopkins has formed the design of reviving the old modes in the construction of hymn-tunes. " Saviour, again," but for one inflected note at the end of the second line, is in the Mixo-Lydian mode — the mode of the fifth of the scale, that in which " Scots, wha hae' " is composed. It was designedly written in this mode by Mr. Hopkins, and there can be no doubt that the melody derives much of its freshness and charm from this novel construction. As we talk with Mr. Hopkins about speed, he says : — 11 Years ago, people said I played too fast, now they say I play tob slow ; but I have kept the same time." He gives M. 60 as the average duration of a syllable, but varies it, in either direction, with the character of the tune and words. Mr. Hopkins has recorded his ideas of speed in "A short selection of hymns, with appropriate tunes," where metronome marks are given. The choral, " Morning Star," is marked at 66 ; " Sleepers, wake ! " at 42; his own " Saviour, again," at 108, or 54, beating twice to the measure. It is, however, a very difficult THE TEMPLE CHURCH. 351 thing to fix in the study the speed used in a large build- ing, and I am inclined to think that the hymns at the Temple go rather slower than these marks would seem to indicate. " Luther's Hymn " I have heard taken at 38, judging the time by my pulse. The hymn, " It came upon the midnight clear," to a tune adapted from one of Mendelssohn's Zieder, occupied 85 seconds for each verse of eight lines (D.C.M.), which, allowing for the pauses, cannot have been faster than 56. The tune " Netley," from the Moravian Psalter, to the words, ' ' Hark ! how the watchmen cry" (D.S.M.), occupied 65 seconds for each verse of eight lines, which is about the same rate. The tune " Culford," by Mr. Hopkins, to the words, " Hark ! the song of jubilee," occupied 55 seconds for the first two verses, and 50 seconds for the last. This, with a beat between each line, is M. 66. The singing at the Temple is, in fact, slower than it sounds, because well- trained voices can sustain tone without the appearance of effort. An ordinary choir would exhaust itself and flatten hopelessly at such a speed ; but the carefully husbanded breath of practised singers enables them to deliver the tones sostenuto, and with lightness and emphasis. Mr. Hopkins objects to adaptations from the great masters, chiefly on the ground that they set men hunting for a tune, and pruning and fitting words to music. The true way is to read and consider the hymn until the feelings move with the impulse of the poet, and then the notes will come back, an embodiment of the musician's heart and mind. "The tune," says Mr. Hopkins, "should be the offspring of particular words, and should be consecrated to them." In this way he himself composes, taking care to write for the hymn as a whole, and not for the first verse alone. It is with this desire to draw music and words into closer and more perfect sympathy, that the Temple organist, in his last-published service, has contrived to 3o2 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. dispense1 with all verbal repetitions. He sets the text of the Te Deum, for example, straight through from beginning to end. With others, he has felt the lcvelness of the early contrapuntal writers, whose music is pure and beautiful, hut wants essentially the warmth and emotional freedom of the modern manner. cl Music," says Mr. Hopkins, " should so reflect the words, that a foreigner, ignorant of the language, and coming into the church, should he able to tell the character of the words from the character of the music." The strongest admirer of Gibbons can hardly say that this would be possible with his music, and even writers of a later time are apparently more interested in their music than their words. Again, those who have composed know very well that words, if they are often repeated for emotional effect, are not infrequently repeated to balance phrases, and to prolong a period. Mr. Hopkins has, of course, no objec- tion to repetition in itself ; his effort has been rather of a tentative kind. He wished to prove that it is possible, as one of his friends has remarked, " to make music move as fast as words." This style of setting manifestly forbids fugal imitations, and it taxes to the utmost the ingenuity of the composer, in avoiding ill-balanced phrases. But, as Mr. Hopkins remarks to us, " the secret of doing work of this sort is to have a waste-paper basket. In this service I destroyed more than I preserved, and dismissed many thoughts without committing them to paper." The effect of the new service upon the hearer is novel and instructive. It compels close attention, for the thought flows unhindered, and to let the attention wander is to break the chain. There was, however, another and more prosaic reason for avoiding repetition. The Temple service is long, and the settings of many composers spin out the time occupied by the Canticles to an undue length. Mr. Hopkins' new service saves from seven to ten minutes. TEE TEMPLE CHURCH. 353 • As we ascend the narrow ladder that leads into the organ, Mr. Hopkins discourses on its perfect mechanism. On every side arc pipes and sounding hoards, and the Least imaginative mind is touched with reverence as our guide points to the diapasons of Father Schmidt, the hard oak blackened by an age which has only mellowed its tone. The organ is now as perfect as modern workmanship can make it; but, in the two centuries which have elapsed since its foundations were laid, what progress has been made! Modern mnsic has had its birth; and organs, from a clumsy and imperfect beginning, have grown to be the embodiment of skilled mechanism. The Temple service is meditative, not active, so far as the voices of the worshippers are concerned. In the hymns, the congregation join fairly ; this is, perhaps, owing to the large number of masters and members of choirs who attend, especially in the afternoon. As for the rest of the service, it is best to listen, and make melody in the heart. The most earnest advocate of congregational singing may be content to allow of an occasional exception of this kind. In point of choir- training, the voices of the boys must naturally excite the attention of choirmasters. Their sweetness and fulness, the agility with which they attack the notes, their strength and clearness in the region which lies from D to P at the top of their voices, arc alike remarkable. There is neither rattle nor strain — all is pure tone ; and the power of the soprano part gives brightness to all the music. To one other point the excellence of the Temple music is due. We are accustomed to admire the rever- beration of sound in cathedrals, but although this in- distinctness may have a sensuous beauty, it gives to the harmony a fuzzy and confused effect. The Temple church is well shaped for sound, and the singers are well placed in it, so that each chord strikes the ear with a sharp and separate impression. 2 A 354 ME. HENRY SMART ON PSALMODY. Eefoee a snug fire in the work-room of his house on Primrose Hill, Mr. Henry Smart discourses to us on congregational music in general, and that of St. Pancras Church in particular. " How far," we ask, " does the service at St. Pancras represent your idea of music in worship, and how far have you merely fallen in with the custom of the place?" " That, you see, is the question," he replies. " The church is about sixty years old. At first the service was of the usual old-fashioned sort — a few charity children sang to a congregation who did not join. Then Henshaw was the organist, and I was at. St. Luke's, Old Street. Later on there was a competition for the place of organist at St. Pancras, and I was asked to be the judge. I gave the post to Craddock, who was a clever player. He had hardly been 'there a year when he left, and the trustees asked me td take the organ. It was a pleasanter place than Old Street, so I did. Mr. Weldon Champneys, afterwards Dean of Lichfield, was vicar then, and the first thing we did on my appointment was to have a talk about the music. Were we to have a choir service, or a congregational service? Mr. Champneys said the con- gregation were more apt to listen than to sing, but as he read the Prayer Book, he thought it was intended that there should be Common Praise just as there was COMMON PRAISE. 355 Common Prayer; praise which was to be joined in by all, just as the prayers were. Cathedrals, he said, were originally the private chapels attached to monasteries, and the common people attended the services on sufferance. But the parish church belongs to the people of the parish, and no one can keep them out. ' Well,' I replied, ' I will have a choir service if you like, or a congregational service. But if I have a choir it must not be a voluntary one. I will not be subject to the whims and fancies of the singers, or liable to have all the tenors absent, or all the altos. If I have a choir, it must be a paid one, whose services I can command. And if I have a choir of this sort I must ask you to request the congre- gation to be quite silent while they sing, for I cannot have my music spoiled by people singing what they call ' seconds,' a third below the air all the time.' ' Oh ! ' said Mr. Champneys, ' but I cannot do that!' 'TVell,' I replied, ' a service must be either strictly choral, or strictly congregational. Suppose we make it congre- gational, what are we to do? Are the people to practise? The thing is impossible. Out of 1,000 perhaps 200 are able to read music, and how are we to secure a proper representation of the four parts ? The only part-singing I understand is when the parts are balanced. To attempt to make the congregation sing in harmony is only to magnify the haphazard of a voluntary choir. The proper way of treating the congregation is the old way, the way of the Germans and the Dutch, whose countries are the home of the choral — to make them sing in unison, or in octaves, which is musically the same thing. This, again, is not enough. In a hymn of six or eight verses the same harmony repeated gets tiresome, and if the organist is what he should be, he will vary the harmonies according to the verbal expression, keeping them ecclesiastical in style." li We set to work on these principles. Craddock was a 356 STUDIES IX IVOR SHIP MUSIC. much better player than I, as far as notes go, because he was always up in practice, and I haven't touched the organ, except on Sundays, for yeais; yet in his time there was no singing. How it was I don't know, but we hadn't been at work long before the volume of sound doubled. I encouraged the timid by playing out boldly, and in a short time nine-tenths of the congregation sang. At the present time, I think there is no church in London where the singing is heartier. In the evenings, it is sometimes magnificent. I do as I like now ; there is no need to play loudly unless the sentiment requires it. If the hymn is jubilant I pile on the tone at the last verse to any extent, but the people are always above it. Or, if the words suggest, I go down to a diapason on the swell shut. When I vary the quantity of tone, the congrega- tion imitate perfectly. If I increase it, out they come ; or, in a rallentantfo, they are with me exactly. AVe never had any congregational practices. What the people do they have picked up. I don't know any congregational singing in London so good as ours at St. Pan eras. I went to ]\Ir. Spurgeon's a year or two ago, and found the sing- ing very indifferent. There were twelve sorts of bass going. ' The boys who sit round the organ are taken from the National School. There are about twenty of them. They practise with me once a week, or once a fortnight. If there is anything new, I go and try it over with them. " Qf course, some of the people don't like it. They want a choir, and would like to sing the tunes fast. Xow I wonCt play the tunes fast, and I tell them why. First, because it is vulgar ; second, because it is musically wrong (for all music has its proper time) ; and third, because there is no authority for fast playing. ' 0/ they say, ' don't you know that — and take the tunes fast ? ' And who are these ? They are men altogether too young to be quoted as authorities. Those who have had the longest experience, such, for instance, as Goss, FREE ACCOMPANIMENTS. 357 Hopkins, and the late George Cooper, are the authorities, and they take the tunes slowly. Often you will find that this quick singing is the act of the clergy, and not of the organist. Sometimes I am told that the congregation would like to sing more quickly, but I answer that I am the best judge of their inclinations, and I have a good deal of trouble to keep them up to their present speed. We do not believe in notes of double length at the beginnings of lines. They are ugly, liut we make a slight pause between each line." We ask Mr. Smart whether he finds that the louder he plays the more heartily the people sing, and he replies : — " "Well, that may be carried too far. When I began, with only a handful of people singing, they were timid, and it helped them on for me to play out. Eut an organist may make such a noise that everybody is deafened and disgusted, and that will not encourage anybody. In my accompaniments, having been an orchestral as well as a vocal writer all my life, I know what notes to double. I am free to harmonise as I like, bound only by a sense of propriety. I don't consider the congregation. They have become so accustomed to me, that they go on whatever I do. Here is a fine effect in the last verse of ' Hanover ' : — V t At >" '3 2X =PZ :g= :g==z ms i =P2= &. 4 _Q_ '^=C^ i=S KEY A. ~ffT :*F :s :s, :n :s, :n2 1. it, id r :s. :n 1, n 1. it, :s2 id :1, f r ; — :1. :dei r 1. :r :t, - :f 1, :— :s, r, :f, :s, 358 STUDIES IX IVOR SHIP MUSIC. With the organ full to mixtures, the E sings out very finely. Or take the 100th Psalm ; if the counterpoint is florid they go on ; nothing disturbs them : — BE* P^ I I ^^ s=»LfL=^ p fc*= 321 u r lt u i JOtl -w\ *->- ^>^s>- =Q= ^E^=y =£2= KEY A. :d :s. d .1. :n :d ,r • ti ,d - ,t, li .d :ni .f, ,n, d ,1, .r ,d f. :r. .n, ,r, :- 4*1 .S| ,i| s, ,f| .ri| :1| ,f| .ri ,s d .,t, :d .t, Hi .li ,S| :f| ,ri ,S| Or take the last line of the same tune, with Sebastian "Wesley's harmonies, in the old church style : — NEW TUNES 35! KEY A. / :s n :d r :f m :r d [ :r d :d tai :li S| :s. S| 1 :si B| :fi f. :fi m, :fi n. I :r n :d r :d d :t, d ( St| d :li tai :fi S| ,, \ s, ) d, i In reply to the question whether he is not limited in the choice of tunes, Mr. Smart says: — " No, we have a great many. When a new tune has to be learnt, I generally manage to bring it in on four consecutive Sundays. The first time it is sung, it is interesting to hear more and more voices joining in each verse as we go on, until, at the last, there is quite a respectable sound. The prelude that I sometimes play before giving out a tune is very short ; never more than three bars. I will tell you the story of these preludes. Henshaw, the first organist, had an interlude at every verse. This was the old custom, and in the hands of Wesley, Jacobs, Thomas Adams, and such, the interlude was looked upon as a great treat. The way that some men did it was this. They would hold on a chord in the left hand, and run up the scale and down again, generally ending on the wrong note. In course of time, at St. Pancras, the interlude was omitted from all verses except the last. Even there, Mr. Champncys did not like it, as it often interrupted the sense of the words. We gave it up, and our doing so caused a sensation. There were great complaints from the congregation, so we reinstated it. Afterwards, it occurred to Mr. Champneys to substitute for this interlude an introduction to the hymn before the sermon, lasting all the while that he was changing his gown. We keep this up still, and I take care that it shall be an introduction to the tunc, and contain phrases of it. When the minister reaches the pulpit, I begin to play over the tune. I do not, as you say, adopt the German style entirely, in the 860 studies ix iroiisirir music. interludes between the lines, for example. AVhen these interludes interrupt the flow of the tune they are objectionable. They should never last longer than the natural pause between the lines." On several other matters we ask Mr. Smart's opinion. He doubts if England can be said to have a school of psalmody, as so many of our old tunes have a foreign origin. He objects greatly to the vulgarity of "Miles' Lane " and its class. His definition of vulgarity in a hymn-tune is a jigging motion in the rhythm, and commonplace phraseology. Not, necessarily, that the construction is slight, or the harmony changed but once or twice in a measure. That would not make a tune vulgar. Some of our native hymn -tunes he considers very fine, especially those of the two Wesleys. " Do you know Sebastian Lesley's ' Harewood ? ' Take his tune to ' 0 God, the Eock of Ages.' It is as good. I am not very fond of Dr. Dykes' s tunes. To my mind, they have generally an effeminacy^ of character which is not appropriate. There is too much of this kind of thing — y • > r b i* (o 7 v — i — * — • -m ir- — ^ :*- $P — * i -d- i i • i J /oN' ■ 2 m (W.- /fc * m - r \^1- 1 j ] | 1 1 KEY F. f S| :n |n r d - i- — l S| :S| |lai la. ■i - I- — J m :s If f n - i- — ( d :d Id d d - i- — We take down a metronome, and !Mr. Smart goes to the pianoforte, while we tiy to fix his time for one or two standard psalm-tunes. After several attempts, he is satisfied when the index stands at 45 for the " Old SPEED. 361 Hundredth," at 60 for " Hanover," and at 48 (to a semi- breve, or two beats to the measure) for Lis own tune, "The pilgrims of the night." Speaking of this last tune, he says, " I have heard it rattled off like a jig. To think that people who eall themselves musicians can't feel a thing better than that ! This fast singing is the essence of vulgarity." "One thing," he adds, "you may notice: I seldom play the tunes in the keys in which they are written. 1 nearly always lower them, for I endeavour never to go above E£ in the melody." "I must confess to you," says Mr. Smart, in winding- up his observations, "that I don't think the St. Pancras service would do everywhere. Good taste is a quality not so universally distributed that we may rely upon finding it in every church, and my plan leaves much to the judgment of the organist." Mr. Smart is quite right. The rank and file, placed in his position, would be either monotonous or irreverent. It needs a man with Mr. Smart's freshness and fertility, with his ready command of the key-board, and his knowledge of the various harmonies of which a given melody is susceptible, it needs, more than all, a man with his sense of historical and artistic fitness, and his sober judgment, to accompany as he does. His fancy is always busy with the melodies, and he harmonises them as he goes along. A happy example of this faculty occurred one Sunday when the present writer was at St. Pancras. The Advent hymn, " Lo ! He comes," was being sung to the old tunc, " Helmsley." AVe all know the line — r * d: M_ \ i r-, i 362 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. KEY A. r .,n :r .n |f s, :si |s, :n .r :s, .f. d Pll ,,r :d .f |n .r :li |s. :d :n. t, :- .d |r s, :s, |s. :s. d 1, :d |d .t, :fi Is, :d :d Mr. Smart played the first verse with the common harmonies ; the second/ which has at this point the words, " Deeply wailing, deeply wailing," came out with de- lightful surprise and touching pathos in this form : — key A. r ,,n :r ,n t| :tai s :— s, : — |f :n .r |1, .t, :d |f .r :n |r, .si :d, d .,r S| n tai d, d .f |n fi Is, d .d |d li . la, | s. r d S| t. d fi n. — The St. Pancras service is, in fact, sui generis ; moulded after ATr. Smart's taste for the massive and colossal in church music. In the full stream of sound that issues from the vast congregation it reminds us of a Lutheran service, but it differs from that in the sympathetic and artistic way in which the organ is made to express the meaning of the words. Since this sketch was written, Mr. Smart has died. A few additional notes of intercourse with him may, there- fore, be of interest. On one occasion, he invited me to sit with him on a Sunday evening in the roomy organ pew at St. Pancras Church. Mr. Smart was so com- panionable and chatty that he liked to have friends with MB. SMART AT THE ORGAN. 363 him at his organ, and, indeed, I believe he was seldom alone. Mr. Smart's enthusiasm for the broad voice of the congregation was unbounded. As the service opened, he beckoned me to come and sit on the stool beside him. At the Cant ate Domino, the people began to make them- selves heard. " Do you hear that?" he said, as the sound rose from nave and gallery, "that, to my mind, is finer than any choir." And he played away, revelling in the massive unison which he was accompanying. He managed to give expression to the hymn in this way. The youth who was his amanuensis and companion would read the words to him, while he listened with head bent, drinking in, as it were, the spirit of the poet. Then when the time came for singing, he was ready. But now and then, in the progress of the hymn, he would forget, and ask, " ^Vhat's the next verse about?" changing the character of his accompaniment to suit the words. " Hark at that," he said to me, as he played an old tune which he admired, "there's a fine line. Regular German that. Could you take that faster." This last reference was to the prevailing custom of quick singing. It was the accompaniments and the extemporising of Mr. Smart that attracted so many musicians to the St. Pancras service. Extemporising is generally formless and lackadaisical, but Mr. Smart's was rhythmic and thematic. He kept up whatever time he adopted until he came to a change of rhythm and style. He extemporised three times : before and after service, and before the sermon. The opening voluntary was generally a eantabile or slow movement, expressive of sweetness rather than power. The sortie, as fcthe French organists call it, was generally marked by spirit and motion, and a sustained develop- ment and form that made it hard to believe that it was not premeditated. The voluntary before the sermon filled up the time while the minister was changing his gown, and was of a meditative kind, always ending in 364 STUDIES IN WORSSIP MUSIC. the playing over of the hymn-tune that was about to be Bung. It lasted three or four minutes. AVhen the clergyman had reached the pulpit, the youth 1 have before mentioned touched Mr. Smarts shoulder, and he began to work back towards the key of the hymn-tune. I re- member, that at the moment he was recalled from his delicious wanderings, he was in D2, and he had to get to I). The masterly way in which he modulated through related keys, using sequence and figures, until he reached the goal, almost made one hold breath with interest. 365 UNION CHAPEL, ISLINGTON. The fulness and beauty of the congregational singing at Union Chapel, Islington, have excited the admiration of Churchmen and [Nonconformists alike. As one joins in the service at this church, the very air seems charged with the breath of worship ; the multitudinous song speaks to the heart like the voice of many waters. In many places, the thin and meagre singing chills the feelings ; but at Union Chapel, the audible participation of a thousand worshippers induces a sense of communion which appeals most powerfully to the religious emotions. In many places, too, there is hurry and noise, the choir sing as if for dear life ; strained and coarse voices stand out by themselves ; or a blatant organ is offered as a substitute for the silence of the congregation. At Union Chapel, on the contrary, are the ease and dignity, the blending of the individual in the mass, which accord with worship. No effort is apparent. The sound of singing comes equally from every part of the large church ; and, both in time and tune, the choir, the organ, and the congregation move together in consolidated strength. The organ supports the voices in perfect taste, and the measured pace which is adopted favours con- templation, 'and allows the thoughts to dwell upon the words. Ministers and psalmodists from distant places turn away from this service with mingled feelings of envy and 366 STUDIES IN WORSHIP Mr sic. delight. They have been profoundly moved, and they ask themselves whether it is possible to produce such singing in their own churches, and by what secret process of organisation and drill the results can be achieved. In such a spirit of enquiry, we ourselves went to Dr. Allon. We asked him what was the history of the psalmody of his church ; what were the stages by which the present excellence had been reached ; and what advice he could give to others who were labouring, less successfully, towards the same end. Te will give his answer, as nearly as we can remember, in his own words. " It was," he said, " in 1843 that I first went to Union Chapel. There was then a membership of 300, and the psalmody was, musically, at zero. There was no choir, the congregation was led by a precentor — an old man of seventy. With his lead, the congregation laboured at such tunes as 'Denmark,' 'Poland,' 'Calcutta,' 'Hamp- shire,' ' Cranbrook,' &c. The 'Union Tune Book' was used, and Rippon and "Watts' s Hymn Books. There was a one -manual organ, which we sold some years after for £40. The old precentor died two or three years after I went there. Then, after two or three changes in the precentor ship, one of the deacons, Mr. Benjamin Overbury, took upon himself that duty. Our first step in psalmody reform was taken in 1846 or 1847, when we adopted the ' Congregational Hymn Book,' which had recently been compiled by Conder. Soon after we substituted Xovello's ' Psalmist ' for the ' Union,' and first Mr. Travers, and afterwards Dr. Gauntlett, taught a psalmody class. In 1852, we had commissioned a new organ from Gray and Davison, planned by Dr. Gauntlett. In the same year Mr. Lewis, senior pastor of the chapel, died. The late Mr. Puttick, one of our people, who was secretary to the Sacred Harmonic Society, took considerable interest in improving the singing, and had been the means of in- troducing us to Dr. Gauntlett. Dr. Gauntlett became BR. ALL ON' S STORY. 367 organist in 1852, and continued in that office, and as teacher of the psalmody class, until the enlargement of the chapel in 1861. During all these years, I chose the tunes as well as the hymns. I have done so, in fact, from the first ; yet I have never had the slightest trouble on that score with our organists or choirmasters. It was a recognised principle, that the responsibility of every part of the worship rested with the minister." We ask about the means adopted for teaching the congregation, and Dr. Allon continues : — " About 1847 or 1848 we originated our psalmody class, which has con- tinued to the present time. The plan of it is worth noting. We have a weekly practice from October to April. Single tickets for the course are 2s.; double tickets, 3s.; family tickets, 5s. The conductor receives the fees, after a nominal sum for expenses has been deducted ; for the church has never thought of making money out of the class. Half an hour is given to tunes, half an hour to chants, and half an hour to anthems and classical music. The anthems and oratorio choruses keep up the interest of the singers, and certainly help the classes to hold together. Almost from the beginning of the psalmody class until three years ago, Mr. Charles Kemp was our choirmaster. Mr. Williamson succeeded him, and under his very able management, the class has now grown to between two and three hundred." Dr. Allon next speaks of his publications, which have grown out of the necessities of the congregation. He says : — " In 1856 we came to the conclusion that the ' Psalmist ' was impracticable. We found we were1 using only some forty or fifty tunes from it, and Dr. Gauntlett, who had been one of the contributors to the work, con- fessed that he had studied the capabilities of choirs rather than of congregations. As a supplement to the 'Psalmist,' some thirty or forty tunes, some of them 'Psalmist' tunes 368 STUDIES IN WORSHIP TtUSIC. re-harmonised, were lithographed and used in the congre- gation. A larger collection was soon called for. At first I meant this to be only supplementary to the 'Psalmist;' but when about 100 tunes were ready, I decided to publish them as an independent collection. They formed Part I of the ' Congregational Psalmist.' About the same time, I published the ' Book of Chants. ' The first chanting among Nonconformists that I remember was at the opening of Dr. Brock's chapel in 1848. AVc began to chant in 1856 or 1857. Mark this — I have never forced anything upon the congregation, or gone on before they were ready. In this matter of chanting, for example, for several years I dropped casual remarks on the subject. I used to say, ' ¥e are getting on with our psalmody, I wish we could chant the prose psalms of the Bible.' At last, on my making a remark of this kind at a church meeting, an old and honoured member of the church, the late Rev. Henry Townley, rose and proposed that we should begin to chant. He made a warm speech in its favour, and said he should press his motion to a division. The thing was carried with only some half dozen dissentients ; and this is the more noticeable, as, about the same time, another church was split up on the same point by an injudicious forcing of the views of the minister." In 1861, on the resignation of Dr. Gauntlett, Mr. Ebenezer Prout became organist of Union Chapel, and held the oflice until 1872 ; when, on devoting himself to musical composition and criticism, he relinquished all Sunday engagements. A second organ, planned by Dr. Gauntlett, was built by Holditch, under Mr. Prout' s directions, in 1867. It cost £1,000, inclusive of fitting. The old organ was sold to Queen's Square Chapel, Brighton, where it still stands. When the new church was built in 1877, it was found that Holditch' s organ could be made to fit the organ chamber only at an expense DR. ALLOWS CTWTR. 009 which approached the cost of a new instrument. It was, therefore, decided to sell the organ, and Mr. Willis built a new one, planned by Prof. W. H. Monk, at a cost of £1,600. We ask Dr. Allon the history of the choir, and he continues : — " In 1859 we formed a choir for the first time. While we were in the old chapel it numbered about twenty-five, but while our new chapel was being built, we had to provide for two congregations, and we doubled the choir. It now numbers sixty. Each applicant for admission is examined by the choirmaster, and is admitted by ballot of the members, purely on the grounds of musical capacity. I have recommended persons who I thought could sing well, and yet they have not passed the choirmaster's tests. There are now numerous applicants, and we are able to choose the best. You will judge of the quality of the singers when I say that wre have been able, at a Christmas morning service, to do the first part of the Messiah, solos as well as choruses, by the members of the choir. Note that the choir, for the time being, is the committee for the management of the musical ai Fairs of the church. If a new organist were wanted, they would recommend one for appointment by the deacons. They are the directors of the psalmody class, and can engage any leader they please — of course, in consultation with the pastor and deacons. The members of the choir, at their annual meeting, choose, by ballot, their choirmaster, secretary, and treasurer, and appoint a sub-committee to attend to minor matters. The choir attend the psalmody class, but have now no separate practice ; so that the psalmody class is really the only means we use for sustain- ing the singing. When the choir was first formed, I used my influence to induce ladies of good social position in the church to join it. We very soon killed all class feeling, and now any member of the congregation would, 2 B 370 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. so far, feci it a privilege to join the choir. As a rule, if I am not taking part in the service, I sit with the choir." "It is a mistake," continues Dr. A Hon, " to suppose that I spend much time on the psalmody. I do not go to the psalmody practices more than three or four times in a winter. The choirmaster comes to me once a week for the tunes, and, though he suggests, and we talk over what is to be sung, yet I have always kept the choice in my own hands. My great endeavour has been to get music-books into all the pews, and, having got them there, to take care that we never sing any tune that is not in the books. I insisted no less on this when we used the old ' Union Tune Book' and the ' Psalmist,' and if the choir were to sing a strange tune now, or strange harmonies to a familiar l tune, I am sure we should have loud complaints. A large proportion of the regular congregation use the music-book, and we have provided 800 copies of the anthems, chants, and hymns, for the strangers frequenting our new church on Sundays. We begin with a Sanctus, and have besides this, in each service, three hymns, an anthem, and a chant. In fact, we alternate each part of the service with singing. At one time we had only two hymns, but this was felt a privation, and we increased the number to three. The 1 Anthem Book' was issued in 1872, partly as an ex- periment, and partly as an expression of our musical growth, and the congregation now sing the anthems as generally, easily, and heartily as the tunes." We enquire whether the singing at Union Chapel has been of a hearty kind from the very first, or whether heartiness has come of late years. Dr. Allon replies that it was always hearty. " Even in the days of i Denmark ' and ' Calcutta,' the people sang with something of the old Methodist fire, and they have never been respectably mum, like some congregations." REASONS FOR SUCCESS. 371 Dr. Allon sums Tip the case somewhat in this way: — " People, as is common when success is achieved, imagine our success to be owing to favourable circumstances ; to have been reached at a leap, or by the exercise of some magic spell. Our psalmody, however, has been a gradual and prosaic growth ; and, though a choir can be formed in a week, a congregation must always take years to learn to sing. All I have done is to provide good hymns and tunes, to have plenty of practice, and to encourage the congregation by quietly showing my interest in the psalmody. If I have had any advantage over others, it is in a taste for music, and in possessing enough know- ledge to enable me to exercise control with some little intelligence, and in a way which does not give offence. We have an advantage in possessing a cultured congrega- tion, who are quick to appreciate and enjoy both hynms and tunes, and who have more than an average musical education. Other churches may be less favourably placed in this respect. But, for the rest, we have no organisa- tion. The thing goes of itself, and I am sure that our psalmody helps to attract and sustain the congregation." It will be seen that the story of Union Chapel psalmody is the old story of tenacious endeavour, of growth from a small germ* to full strength and manhood. Thirty-live years ago, Dr. Allon sowed the seed ; in the long years that have passed he has matured it ; and now he is reaping the well-earned fruit. The machinery moves so smoothly now that strangers are deceived ; they imagine that they have only to adopt Dr. Allen's books, or get an equally good organ and choir, to reproduce the Union Chapel service in its impressiveness and beauty. This is altogether a mistake. The peculiar depth and richness of the psalmody are owing to the fact that nearly everybody is singing; and that, instead of a bald unison, there is an approximate balance of parts. The ear is filled with the sound of voices, and the organ is subor- 072 STUDIES IN WORSHIP JfUSIC. dinate. To produce all this lias been the labour of half a lifetime. Of all the agencies employed, the most useful, un- doubtedly, has been the psalmody class. It has excited and sustained interest ; and, week by week, has not only prepared the choir, but a large contingent of the congre- gation also, for active participation in the service of praise. The fact that the congregation as well as the choir have been trained is important. A good choir is always a help when the congregation have learned to sing; but we can never produce congregational singing by merely organising and drilling the choir. At Union Chapel, they have always taught a far larger number than the choir ; or, rather, they have trained an immense choir, the larger part of which is dispersed throughout the congregation, leavening and quickening it with musical devotion and fervour. The only weak point in the whole scheme seems to me this, that no provision is made for systematic instruction in the elements of time and tune, musical notation, and voice management. A knowledge of music is not to be picked up by attending a practising class. Those who learn in this way want certainty ; they are little better than singers by ear. The efforts of people of this sort arc a perpetual endeavour to hit the right note. This they do when the part is obvious and 'easy; but when it is not, they fumble about with a hesitancy which is distressing to those who happen to be near. Mr. Williamson, the honorary choirmaster and conductor of the psalmody class, is emphatically the right man in the right place. He has a fine tenor voice, and plenty of enthusiasm and tact ; while his experience as precentor for many years in an Aberdeen church, where the singing is unaccompanied, must have taught him how to handle voices, and make strong and independent singers. CHOIRMASTER AND ORG AX I ST. 373 • It is an instructive Bight, on a Monday evening, to enter the new lecture hall, and discover Mr. Williamson upon his rostrum, baton in hand, with the accompanist seated at the grand piano in front of him, and the two or three hundred singers of all ages grouped, according to their parts, in the four quarters of the room. The con- ductor has to contend with the common faults of chorus singers, and to conquer them by hard work and persistence. To this agency is now added a Tonic Sol-fa class, holding separate meetings. Here the real work of making readers of music is done. The changes in the congregation and choir, owing to removals, as in all London congregations, are frequent, and a constant influx of new singers comes to sustain the psalmody. Xow that Union Chapel is so widely noted for its music, it attracts musical people who come to live in the neighbourhood, some of whom find the charm of its worship greater than their love for their own denomi- nation. There is thus a reciprocal action ; people go there because they are musical, and they become musical by attending there. Families are especially infected with a love of hymn-singing on Sunday evenings, and the musical life of the congregation supports an endless number of sacred concerts, organ recitals, and services of praise. In one respect, the present control of the psalmody is interesting. Neither the organist nor the choirmaster is a professional musician. "When Mr. Ebenezer Trout re- signed, after Mr. Payne, who for a short time was organist, removed from London, the managers had the crowning good sense to see that a member of one of the families' of the' congregation (who, by the way, is a most capable and artistic player), would be far more likely to take pains with the service, and accompany it with reverence and sympathy, than a great professional man, with only brilliant executive powers to recommend him. 374 STUDIES IN JTr07?SI//l> UU8IC. The wisdom of their decision lias been amply proved.* In the selection of an organist, brilliant playing La not the test, but tact and sympathy in accompanying. Hence the importance of the organist's connection with the psalmody practice. Everything depends npon the di in which the organist enters into the spirit of worship. Let ns gather up, in a few words, the story of Union Chapel psalmody. A minister with an unceasing interest in the service of praise, and enough musical knowledge to guide him as to what is practical and in good taste ; a minister, moreover, who is a good tactician, and, while earnest, is also patient, — such a minister, gathering round him a gradually increasing company of enthusiasts, providing means for their culture, and taking care that this culture shall tell directly upon the congre- gation, while insisting that the congregation shall always share to the full in the music sung. Add to this the cumulative power of thirty-five years' persistency, and we have the apparent causes of the success which has been reached. Let those who would emulate the service at Union Chapel, remember that the real way to improve psalmody is to increase the number of singers. A few memoranda on the speed used at Union Chapel will be useful. They are taken from my own observation. " Hail to the Lord's Anointed," sung to " Bonchurch " (No a 224, " Congregational Psalmist "), each verse occupied 50 seconds. This is about M. 76. " Lord of the living harvest," sung to " Aurelia," each verse occupied 45 seconds. This is about ^1. 84. 11 When I survey the wondrous cross," to the tune " Gregory" (No. 83, " Congregational Psalmist"), verses one and two occupied one minute each. Yerses three and * Mr. Charles Forington, the organist referred to, died in 1879. SPEED IN SINGLX'.. 375 four, which picture the scene of the crucifixion /u See from I [is head," &c), were sung softly and more slowly, occupying 65 seconds each. This tune is printed with d mble-length notes at the beginning of each line;, which were observed in singing; and this, of course, added to the time: The speed must have been about M. 40. " Jesu, lover of my soul," sung to Dr. Dykes' 8 " Hollingside," averaged throughout 80 to 84 seconds to a verse. This is about M. 45. "Abide with me," sung to Dr. Gauntlett's tune, " Kelso" (No. 112, " Congregational Psalmist"), each verse took 62 seconds, and between each was a pause of 10 seconds. This is about M. 60. The reader will probably doubt the accuracy of these figures, on account of the slowness. It should be remembered that a large congregation sings far more slowly than it appears to do. 376 ST. ANNE'S, SOHO. St. Axle's Chxkch, in Dean Street, is not attractive, either in its surroundings or its architecture. It would have remained obscure and unvisitcd, a plain church in an unsavoury street, but for the fact that here Mr. Barnby, invited and seconded by Canon Wade, has occupied himself in working out the problem of bringing music to bear upon worship. In Wren's building, there is nothing ecclesiastical ; it is a plain double cube, with waggon roof, and a broad gallery stretching round three sides. Of course, the original place of the organ was the west gallery, but the instrument — a fine one, built mainly by Walker — stands now in the south-east corner of the church*. Wren's buildings, if they are less churchy than those of his modern successors, are, at least, far more comfortable. They allow every worshipper to see and hear ; and their splendid acoustic properties are, in the case of St. Anne's, at any rate, an important advantage. The church seats 800 people, and it is generally filled at the Sunday services. As the large surplieed choir troops in ordered ranks from the rear of the organ, at the commencement of service, its appearance is formidable. A normal strength of sixty-four is divided as follows : — Thirty-two treble boys, four alto boys, four alto men, twelve tenors, and twelve basses ; at the special services, such as the Lenten and Christmas performances of Bach's music, this number ST ANNE'S, so no. ;:: ■is increased to seventy or eighty ; at ordinary service s, there are seldom less than fifty present. No provision for such a body of singers is possible in the slight recess which is Wren's apology for a chancel. The choir stalls are virtually in the nave, backed on one side by the organ, and on the other side by the end of the north gallery. The organist sits exactly opposite to the cantoris half of the choir, and his seat is high and exposed, so that he commands his singers. Mr. Earnby is the responsible musical director at St. Anne's, but since his appointment to Eton, he has placed the Sunday work in the hands of the deputy organist, Mr. J. M. Coward, and is himself but rarely present on Sundays. Mr. Barnby, however, regularly attends the Friday night rehearsal in the church, when he conducts with the baton, leaving Mr. Coward to accom- pany. As far as the men are concerned, the choir is a voluntary one. It will easily be understood that Mr. Barnby, as conductor of the Albert Hall choir, has no difficulty in filling places with good voices. Most of the boys attend St. Anne's National School hard by, and here they are drilled every day by Mr. Coward. This constant practice, under a skilled hand, explains the fine results that are achieved. The service is fully choral, the prayers, &c, are in- toned, the psalms are chanted, the canticles are sung to settings more or less elaborate, there is an anthem at each Sunday service, one hymn, and several offertory sentences are sung in the morning, and two hymns in the evening. Scattered in the pews will be found a leaflet, giving all the music for the month, witli the words of the anthem in full. It is notified that the choir secretary will supply copies of this paper monthly, post free, on payment of 5s. annually. The expense of the music is borne, apparently, by the offertory, which reached last year the sum of £1,100. STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. The Sunday offertory is Beldom less than £13, while the offertory at the special festivals reaches £40 or more. There is a special box at each door u for choir expense s." Of the 800 sittings, 700 arc unappropriated. The quality of the music is of the first order. The choir display all the finish and precision which are expected in the concert-room. They sing music of all schools, without heeding difficulty or elaboration. That they always sing with perfection no one would expect. Uncertain intonation on the part of a few voices is not uncommon, but flattening is very seldom heard. They attack fugal music with a fine courage and steadi- ness, and in short staccato phrases they are at one with each other and with the organ, however rapid the music. The shape of the building, and the proximity of the organist to the choir, both contribute to the sharpness of effect that we have noticed. The boys' voices are at once sweet and strong ; their tone is delicious. The solo boys seem equal to any music, and there is a softness and intelligence, and, withal, a vigour in their voices, that is rarely found among boys. The "Cathedral Psalter" is used for the Venite and the daily psalms. ^Messrs. Turle, Stainer, and Barnby are the joint editors of this work, which provides chants for each psalm, varying with its character and structure. Single or double chants are used, as may best suit the words.; a change of chant marks every change of subject or sentiment, and when the parallelism occurs between two halves of one verse, each half is assigned to Cantoris and Decani in succession. It is asserted that musical time begins, not at the first note of the cadence, but at the word in the recitation which bears an accent. When a pause is necessary in the recitation, it is marked with an asterisk. As the fashion goes, the chanting is not exces- sively rapid, and the choir show great skill in their elocution. But if the ideal of chanting is to deliver the FAULTS IN CHANTING. 379 words as a good reader would deliver thera, the chanting at St. Anne's must be described as a failure. When two syllables remain after the accent in the recitation, they are skipped over so as to be almost inaudible. For example, in the passages — tIf the Lord had not | helped | me, or And my God is the | strength | of my | confidence, the words " had not " and " is the " scarcely reach the ear. When the recitation is 'long, it is nearly always confused, as — In the multitude of sorrows that I had | in my | heart. But if there are faults in this chanting, where are there none ? The chanting at St. Anne's is as good as chanting can be under the present system, and may be recom- mended as a model to many choirs which do worse. The hymns are drawn from Mr. Barnby's own collec- tion, " The Hymnary." The first line, or the first two lines, are generally played over, and then the choir starts. The tunes in the " Hymnary " have all metronomic marks for speed, but, so far as my observation goes, these marks are not always observed at St. Anne's. A few notes as to speed may be interesting. " Hide on, ride on, in majesty " (253), took 20 seconds to each verse, and between each there was a pause of five seconds. This is marked 80, but it must have been sung at least at 96. Hymn 258, " To Christ, whose cross repaired our loss," took thirty-five seconds for each verse except the last, which was sung in thirty seconds. This is marked 69; it must have been sung at 60 or slower. No. 289, " Christ the Lord is risen again," took thirty seconds to each verse. It is marked 88, but must have been sung at 66. There is a habit at St. Anne's of making a rallentando at the end of each verse, which is most objectionable. I have allowed for it in my metronomic reckonings. It is done without reference to the sense of the words. In such a verse as — 380 STUDIES TN WORSHIP MUSIC. Christ the Lord is risen again, Christ has broken every chain ; Hark ! the angels shout for joy, Singing evermore on high, Alleluia ; surely, if there is any impulse or life in words or music, it needs to be kept up to the " Alleluia." Eut the choir began to slacken at the word '•' evermore," and by the time they reached the " Alleluia," they had dissipated all energy. For the rest, the hymns [are sung exactly as written, without pauses between the lines. The organ is played by Air. Coward both with dexterity and taste. The reeds are hard, and the full power of the instrument, when it is brought out in the fortissimo passages, tramples down the voices. Eut the fortissimo is only used for special effect. In the chants and hymn- tunes the accompaniment is free, for the choir are safe whatever the organist plays. The staccato is, perhaps, too freely used in the hymn-tunes. At the close of the evening service, Mr. Coward usually gives a recital lasting for nearly half an hour. A goodly number of people stay, and many more would, doubtless, remain if they knew what was coming. Air. Coward has the style and mastery of a fine player ; his effects are often most original, and his time and phrasing are well studied. Alany must feel this to be the most impressive music of the service, as they sit in the darkened church, and yield themselves to the rapture of pure musical delight, allow- ing the organ to play upon their feelings — now tender and pleading, now triumphantly bursting with a thousand notes of praise. One hardly knows if it is fair to contemplate the St. Anne's service as an expression of Air. Earnby's ideal of a parish service. In a paper read some time ago at the Church Congress, Air. Earnby divided the Church ACTIVE AND MEDITATIVE. 381 Service into two great classes— the Congregational or Parochial, and the Cathedral or Meditative. He said: — " It will, I think, be conceded on all hands that the congregational services of our Anglican Church were based on the principle that everyone in the assembly has a right — nay, even an obligation — to take part in the service beyond that of an auditor. The reading of the prayers and Scriptures in English, the uttering of the General Confession by yriests and people together, the arrangement of the Responses, alike in the Morning and Evening Service, the Litany, and, indeed, everywhere, all point to this great and fundamental rule. 1 do not think that the introduction and development of music in the service was intended to do away with this right." Mr. Barnby proceeds to maintain that the ransic of every chnrch must be such as the congregation can appreciate ; that, in fact, the musical ability of the congregation must be the standard of selection. The prayers must, however, at all times be intoned, the Psalms and Canticles chanted, the hymns sung in unison. The musical rehearsal of the congregation is also desir- able. The service at St. Anne's seems to answer more closely to Mr. Barnby's subsequent definition of a cathedral or meditative service. The ' Psalter,' with music, is a large quarto, price five shillings, which few will buy, and fewer carry to church, but which is certainly necessary if one is to join in the Psalms. The hymns are sung in harmony by the choir; any person, therefore, with the slightest skill in reading, will prefer to take a part rather than to sing the air. A quiet hum of treble, both of men and women, may be heard in the well-known hymns, but the congregational voice is not, in any sense, a musical force at St. Anne's. The service is, in short, an illustration of the saying that the better the choir the worse the congregational singing. The worshipper is naturally disinclined to destroy the balance of such fine choral music, or to intrude his own voice upon those who are listening around him. 382 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. Mr. Barnby, in the paper to Avhicli we have referred, spoke severely of the attempt to attract a congregation by music. He quoted Pope's lines on those who " To church repair Not for the doctrine, but the music there," and he said : — 11 Of all the errors which cry aloud for a remedy, the worst, to my mind, is perpetuated in the endeavour to draw a new congregation to a church, or to fill up the thinned ranks of a decreasing flock, by the exhibition of startling novelties, and what I should term musical tours de force. ... I should wish music to occupy its rightful place, and no other ; nor can I see aught hut disadvantage and ultimate failure in the attempt to make the musical part of the Church Service more than an accessory." How far has Mr. Barnby, at St. Anne's, drifted towards the very result which he here deprecates ? A glance at the congregation shows that they are not drawn from the parish : indeed, an appeal for Sunday School teachers, circulated in the pews, seems to take for granted that those who read it will be non-residents and strangers. There is a small stampede after the anthem, and a printed notice has been placed on the doors requesting the con- gregation to stay at the morning service until the prayer for the Church militant has been read. The demeanour of the congregation is reverent, but, during a solo, people stretch their necks to discover the singer, and turn to one another when the thrilling phrase of a vocalist pleases them. Mr. Barnby has said that the anthem may be looked, upon as " a kind of musical sermon." That it is such to many of the congregation must be cheerfully and thankfully acknowledged. That to others, it and the Canticles are merely a musical gratification, is unfor- tunately as true. The service at St. Anne's is only a new cnuR en C ONCER TS. illustration of the difficulty of seeking at once the ends of art and the ends of worship.* * The following- verses, which are anonymous, expose very sarcastically the position of the "church concert" party. I do not put them in the text, lesl tin y should be deemed offensive, but appearing- as a foot-note, they will not be considered as having any personal application : — If pulpit utterance won't suffice To win the people from their sons, You'll find a method more concia • Than preaching : play on violin-. Or if you see devotion sinks Beneath the organ's solemn tones, Increase th' attractions of your jinks, And to your fiddles add trombones. If still the people stop away. And if to church you'd have them come, There still is one effectual way To catch them— try the kettle-drum. 384 THE LONDON ORATORY. For many years the Oratory at Brompton has been noted among "Roinan Catholics for its congregational hymn- singing, and Protestants are but little aware of the extent to which the practice is carried. In this innovation — the singing of English hymns — the Oratory has taken the lead. Father Faber was for many years a member of the society, and he' died Superior of the Brompton Oratorians. While there he wrote the English hymns — ■ eighty-four in number — which are now in use at the chapel. Many of Faber's hymns have been adopted, with verbal alterations, by Protestants. Among these are, " Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go," " Pilgrims of the night,". "0 Paradise," "0 come and mourn with me awhile," the children's hymn, "Dear angel, ever at my side" (altered to "Dear Jesus, ever at my side"), and the stirring " Faith of our fathers, living still, in spite of danger, fire, and sword." It was, no doubt, Father Faber's Angliban training that led him to feel the value of vernacular hymns as an element of worship. In thus quietly adopting a Protestant practice, the Roman Catholics have shown that readiness to fall in with popular habits which always distinguishes them. In establishing popular evening services, at which these hymns are sung, they have likewise taken a hint from the Church of England, just as that Church, a generation since, took a hint from the Methodists. THE I! ROMP TON ORATORY. Of course, the offices of the Church are all sung at the Oratory, as in every Catholic Church, in Latin. No English hymns are allowed during the progress of mass, vespers, benediction, &c. In the mass, the congregation takes no audible part. The music is sung by the choir, which ' consists of thirteen men and boys. All the Catholic choirs are small, the large " chorus choirs" of the English Church being unknown. Twenty-two masses were sung by the Oratory choir during last year. The style of mass composers is familiar to most Protestants. It is very far removed from the English sacred school, and the work of recent men does not show any progress in the direction of solidity or dignity. Many of the Agnus Deis would make very good love-songs in an opera. The accompaniment is painfully rhythmical ; there is a perpetual tendency among the Catholic composers to treat the organ as if it were a big banjo. The music is ear- catching and always pretty, but that is as much as can be said. In the Yesper Service come the Psalms for the day (in Latin), shouted to Gregorians by the whole company of priests, and by such of the congregation as can read the language. The popular evening services at which English hymns are sung conclude on Sunday and Friday evenings with the Benediction Service, which is technically distinct, but follows without pause. Every evening of the week, at eight o'clock, there is a service of this sort, at which three hymns are sung from Eaber's book, which Mr. Pitts, the Oratory organist, litis edited with suitable tunes. On ordinary nights there are but few people present, and the singing is led by a young priest with a stentorian voice. On Sunday nights the place is full, and the singing is much better. It is purely congrega- tional. The choir gallery is empty, and there is no choir in any part of the building. The organ announces a line or two, and then the people, always retaining their seats, 2c 386 studies in iron SI/IP MUSIC. begin to sing. The best singing, however, is on those nights when there is a procession. The Oratorians conduct their services at present in an iron chapel which, being lined with wood, is strongly resonant. On one occasion when I happened to be present, there was a crowded congregation, and a procession of some ninety men and twenty priests was pacing the aisles. The members of the procession were each armed with a candle and a hymn-book, and as they marched they sang with great vigour the processional hymn. The congregation caught the infection, and the heavy baritone voices of the men were brightened by a chorus from the women, and from the rest of the congregation. Everyone was singing. I have not heard anything more hearty or thrilling in the way of congregational sound. A little boy of nine or ten sat next to me, and I offered to share my hymn-book with him, but he declined it with a gesture which said that he knew the words, and I saw that he sang away heartily all through the hymns without either words or music. There are several reasons for the undoubted success of the Oratorians in their cultivation of congregational singing ; »and the readiness of this lad is an example of the first. They have but few hymns and tunes, and sing them very often. The book contains only eighty-four, and a large section of these being for saints' days, which occur once a year, the rest are more frequently sung. One (^No. 14) is sung before benediction on Sundays and Fridays all the year round; another (Xo. 19) is sung every week-night, when there is no benediction. The same is the case with the Latin hymns — " 0 Salutaris," and " Tantum Ergo," which occur in the Benediction Service. The tunes to these used in the Oratory are inalienable, and, from constant iteration, the people know both words and music by heart. The " Litany of our Lady of Loretto " which occurs in the same service, FEW AND OFTEN. 387 becomes equally familiar. The verses of this Litany, more than twenty in number, consist of three lines of "sevens," with the response, "Ora pro nobis" or "Miserere uobis." It is taken verse about by priest and congregation to a simple melody, and the singing is most general*. The tune which Protestants know as " Inno- cents " is very commonly used for this office. The " Adeste Eideles " is sung, as often as Christmas returns, to the old tune. Samuel Webbe composed tunes for various Latin hymns, which have been, for a generation, almost universally used in small Catholic chapels in England, and are, indeed, "as familiar to Protestants as to Catholics. These include the "0 Salutaris " (Melcombe), two settings of the " Tantum Ergo " (Benediction and St. Werburgh), "Alma Eedemptoris " (Alma, sung to " Come, ye disconsolate "), and " Stabat Mater " (Milan). Every English Catholic knows these melodies, and they are used wherever there is either no choir, or a weak one. The consequence is, that choirs which pretend to musical skill are rather given to turning out Webbe's tunes. They are as clear a mark of a certain stage of musical culture as was " Jackson in F " in the Church of England. Webbe's tunes are, however, so perfectly smooth, simple, and melodious, that any and all can sing them. The advantage of this constant repetition of words and tune is obvious. It is the only way of moving the inert mass of the congregation to raise their voices. It can, of course, be carried too far. The Latin hymns are a part of the liturgy of the Church, and English hymns, repeated every Sunday, virtually take their place as part of the liturgy also. We should very seriously limit the devotional range of our hymnody if we confined ourselves to fixed hymns of this sort. But the principle of frequently recurring hymns and tunes is a good one, and one that is too much lost sight of among Protestants at the present time. 388 STUDIES IJST WORSHIP MUSIC. There can be no question, in the second place, that the Oratory congregation sings heartily because of the easily caught and tuney melodies to which the hymns are set. The Roman Catholics are under no Genevan traditions as to the type in which a hymn-tune should be cast. They have no " syllabic" propriety; their notion seems to be that the best hymn-tune is that which common people take up most heartily. They adapt airs from all sources; national songs, instrumental movements, &c, and are careful to admit no tune without strongly marked character, and rhythm easily learnt and easily remem- bered. That their policy succeeds in setting everybody singing there can be no doubt. But is this a sufficient justification of it ? Mr. Barnby, on behalf of a school of Church musicians, directly traverses the notion. He says : — " Church music is distinctly an offering dedicated to God. It, therefore, requires to be purer and deeper than that which is offered by man for the delectation of hia fellow men ; and this entirely dis- poses of the specious argument sometimes used, that because a congregation sings a certain tune with fervour and evident enjoy- ment, it must be good. Such an argument might be admitted if the end and aim of going to church was the personal enjoyment produced by singing ; but it is absolutely certain that congregations are known to pour out their hearts to God with equal, if not with greater fervour, in strains which were specially written and intended for church use." The'point is a difficult one to decide. It is noteworthy that .trite Anglican Ritualists use the same lively and secularly shaped tunes as the Catholics, and that Evangelical revivalists, at the opposite pole, use not only American tunes of the same cast, but hymns of the same warm expression and free metaphor as those of Faber. If congregational singing be the object, the presumption is certainly in favour of tunes that succeed in calling out the voices of the people, and it is for the strict school to show how far any tune distracts the POPULAR TUNES. 389 "thought of the worshipper to sensuous pleasure, My own opinion is that these lively tunes do far less to shock or divert religious feeling than is generally supposed. Mr. Pitts, in his " Oratory Hymn-Tunes," has arranged the melodies for unison singing. The harmonies are not in vocal counterpoint, but in the form of instrumental accompaniment. The air is accompanied by staccato chords on the first of the bar, by arpeggios^ by pedal passages, and such devices. In this way the hymns are sung at the j Oratory — men, tvomen, and children all taking the air. The pronounced rhythm of the organ part keeps up the spirit of the singing, and prevents dragging. The refrain or chorus which many of the hymns have is also a secret of their power. As the couplet returns, verse after verse, the most listless can join ; those who have no books, or, having them, cannot read, take up the words which form the burden of the hymn, and which repetition has made familiar. The congregational singing at the Oratory has not been established without years of persistence. The Fathers have preached the duty and privilege of singing, and have encouraged the practice in every way. It is instructive to dwell upon their complete success, and to endeavour to fathom its causes, and the lessons which it teaches to ail who are working for congregational singing. 390 THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE SERVICE. The synagogue service, in its most characteristic form, is not to be heard in Great Portland. Street or Bayswater, hut in Aldgate. The West-end congregations are sparse, and composed of the higher classes; while the synagogues in the East-end are crowded with the middle and lower grades. The Polish Jews, who fill the East-end synagogues, are very fervent in their responses, well acquainted with Hebrew, and not at all afraid of hearing their own voices. Drop into the Great Synagogue in Duke Street, Aldgate, and, if you are fortunate enough to find a seat, you will be struck with the strangeness of the scene. Synagogues are all built upon the same general plan. Men and .boys only are admitted to the ground floor, and the seats are not transverse, but longitudinal, like those in the House of Commons. The two halves of the congregation sit facing each other, with a broad vacant space between them. In the midst of this space stands the almemroar, a rostrum for the reader and the choir, in shape like a large waggon off its wheels, entered by steps in the middle of each side, and furnished with seats. A fair- sized almemmar will hold twenty people. Two side galleries and a small end one are reserved for women, who stand or sit as the men do, but take no audible part in the service. The Reader, standing at his desk in front of the almemmar, faces the ark, which stands against the east wall of the synagogue. Here the scrolls of the law are TEE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE. 391 kept, and the doors are opened as these ancient records are solemnly taken out and returned at every Sabbath and festival service. As you enter, the service is probably proceeding. The Reader is chanting in strange recitative, the choir of men and boys standing at the back of the almemmar, and clad in black gowns and shiny silk hats, is responding in harmony, or the hoarse murmur of the vast congregation of men fills the ear as they read or respond in speech or chant. Round about the Header stand those members of the congregation who are called to take a nominal part in the service, nominal because the skill to chant has long since deserted the laity. The form of coming up to the desk is still preserved, but the man who is called merely stands by the Header, who chants a portion of the law for him. The men and boys in the congregation, one and all, wear white scarves thrown carelessly aronnd their shoulders, and they sit or stand according to the portion of service which is being read. The orthodox Jews admit no instrumental music. There is a growing feeling in favour of the organ, especially among the richer congregations, but no organ has yet been erected. Dr. Adler, the Chief Habbi, has the entire control of the ritual of the synagogues, and he can veto any proposed change. As a fact, the only instrument in an orthodox London synagogue at the present moment is an harmonium at Bayswater, and this has been permitted on the understanding that it is only to be used at weddings which are not celebrated on Sabbath day. If a Habbi is asked why instruments are tabooed, he will tell you that they were only used in the Temple, and that the only place for the Temple was Jerusalem. An exiled and scattered race must not pretend to imitate the Temple service as it was rendered in the past, and as all Jews hope it will be rendered in the restored Jerusalem. 392 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC, Synagogue choirs are a growth of the last thin j forty years. From the earliest times, a man has stood on each side of the Header to assist him in ease of illness or fatigue, or to correct him in case of errors. Gradually it became the custom of these assistants (called Merahoro- rium; to lead the responses in harmony. This was found so pleasant and tasteful that the next step was to chouse assistants who had tenor and bass voices. Then came boys, and, lastly, the balanced choir. Still, the theory is that the choir represents the congregation. Whatever is not for the Header is for the congregation, and the choir is merely its substitute. The common place for the choir is at the rear of the almemmar, where the men' and boys stand in a group, in full view of all the congrega- tion. Eut in one recently built synagogue in London, the choir has been placed in a 'gallery over the ark, hidden from view by the massive ornaments that rise high above the sacred chamber. All the London choirs are paid in order to secure regular attendance, Eehearsals are held when necessary — at the approach of a festival, or when some new music has to be introduced. It is altogether contrary to the rules of orthodox Jews to admit women to the choir. ]Male and female worshippers must not be mixed. Eut in one or two provincial synagogues, the innovation is tolerated for the sake of sustaining the music of the service. The late choir- master'of Duke Street Synagogue, Mr. Mombach, was universally known among English Jews, and very highly esteemed. He composed a great deal of music for the service, and trained a great many Eeaders. The develop- ment of the choir, to which we have already referred, took place within the span of his long life. He was, therefore, an authority on a movement which he had guided and led. The offices of Eeader and Eabbi are distinct in all large synagogues, though they are sometimes united in small REB 7? E J J r C IF A NTTN G . ones. .V string and musical voice, usually a baritone, is essential for a Header. These ministers sing the Scrip- tures with much energy and elocutional force; they are especially skilled in the use of grace notes. Their chant- ing is exceedingly rapid; so rapid, indeed, that, to take an example, the Book of Esther has been read in less than thirty minutes. It is wonderful that the Headers are aide to give oil the recitative for so many hours with unabated vigour of tone. Their training, which consists in prac- tical imitation and theoretical study, lasts for years, and they are nearly all practised musicians. Some who have learnt the Tonic Sol-fa notation find it a convenieir shorthand for recording the different melodies they have to sing. TThen the minister reads the Hebrew Bible in the synagogue, he chants it 'according to the musical notes always printed with the text. These are variously curved signs which stand close above the Hebrew letters, hardly to be distinguished from them by the unpractised eye. It is a tradition that these signs were arranged by the men of the Great Synagogue (Ezra, &c.) Each note may represent a single tone, or a cadence ; and each note is translated into tone in a different manner, according as it occurs in (1) the Pentateuch as read on Sabbath; (2) the Pentateuch as read on New Year ; (3) the Prophets ; (4) the Book of Lamentations; or (5) the Book of Esther. Moreover, certain portions of the Pentateuch have peculiar traditional melodies attached to them irrespective of notation : e.g., the Song of Moses, the Decalogue, &c. The Piryutim, or prayers composed by the llabbis of old, are crooned, as it were, in the Dorian mode ; but the pauses, rallentandoSy &c. , render it wonderfully difficult to write them down. The books of the law from which the readers chant have neither vowel points nor signs of in- flection, much less verses or chapters. The singing Lb, therefore, a matter of memory. The melodies are nearly 394 STUDIES TN WORSHIP MUSIC. all in the minor mode, and very quaint in form. The choir music of the ."ic on the other hand, is chiefly modern. Adaptations from all Bources are pted, and chromatic harmony is freely employed in the pieces composed by choirmasters for Jewish use. Every day there is morning and evening service in the synagogue, at which the Psalms are read in the ordinary speaking voice. They are read through in the course of a month or less, at the discretion of the Header. The Pentateuch is read, on Sabbaths, and is spread over fifty- two weeks. Each Sabbath portion is divided into seven parts, and ^qycr members of the congregation are called to read their portion, which they do by deputy, as we have already seen. The association of certain tunes with fixed passages of Scripture, and with the various festivals and seasons of the year, has an important result. The melody recalls its words, and the words recall the season. If a Jew should travel until he lost all reckoning of the season of the year, and should then enter a synagogue in any part of the world during a festival, he would at once know by the tune that the Header was singing whether it was Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, Pentecost, &c. Perhaps he would recognise the chant which occurs only on the first and second days of IS'ew Year ; or that which comes at the anniversary of the destruction of Jerusalem. Perhaps his ear would catch the plaintive tone which accompanies the Book of Lamentations, the rapid declamatory chanting of the Book of Esther, or he might hear the Reader raise his voice to deliver the Ten Commandments. The service includes a few Hebrew metrical hymns of ancient date. There is one especially, founded on the thirteen articles of the Jewish faith, which is sung every Friday evening (the eve of Sabbath), to the tune which we know as " Leoni." The same hymn, with the same THE REFORMED JEW 395 music, is sung on New Year's Eve, and on the eve of the Day of Atonement. It is sung, too, at the death-bed of every Jew at the moment of dissolution, typifying the faith in which the soul leaves the flesh. In synagogue, the reader and choir take it alternately, verse by verse. The two families of Jews are spoken of roughly as German and Spanish. The Spanish Jews include the Portuguese : the German Jews include the English, Dutch, Polish, &c. The service of the Spanish Jews is the more ancient. They pronounce Hebrew in a different — indeed, in an opposite — way to the German Jews. Although the marks of inflection in their Scriptures are the same as those of the German Jews, they interpret them differently. Their ritual, however, resembles out- wardly that of the German Jews in its main features, and anyone not knowing Hebrew would not notice much difference. The Spanish and Portuguese synagogue for London is in Bevis Marks. The Reformed Jews, whose London synagogue is in Berkeley Street, Mayfair, differ very much in their ritual from the orthodox Jews. They maintain that anything is justifiable which can render the service more acceptable in the sight of God, and more in conformity with the spirit of the age and advanced enlightenment. As a consequence they have an organ, and they have women in their choir. The organ in Berkeley Street stands behind the ark, and the choir are seen through a grating, sitting- round the organist. Dr. Verrinder is a master of the noble instrument he lias at command. He plays volun- taries before and after service, and uses the solo stops freely to embellish the vocal harmony with free parts. He has published a book of elaborate service music. The settings which this book contains are frequently sung. The Psalms are sometimes taken to Anglican chants, and a very joyful Hebrew melody is sung every Sabbath to the Song of Moses. There is little or none of 396 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. the old recitative in the The ordinary Bpeaking voice is used by the Reader and by the congregation in their responses. Notwithstanding that women have found their way into the choir, they are still relegated to the galleries of the synagogue, though these galleries are low and elegant. The Reformers attempt to adapt the services to the wants of the times. They avoid the repetition of prayers, in order to reduce the length of the service. References to captivity and oppression are omitted, as inapplicable to present times. The Reformed Jews, however, are in a small minority in England. The orthodox body is by far the larger, and it adheres, with invincible conservatism, to the traditional practices of the past. 397 CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH, GORDON SQUARE. The visitor to Gordon Square carries away with him the recollection of a ritual more splendid than that of the Roman Catholics, performed in a church which, in its noble proportions, rivals a cathedral. The nave is 90 feet high, and, at the point where the transept crosses it, a lantern rises to the height of 120 feet. Standing at the western door, we mark the pillars that separate the aisles from the nave, and in the distance we see the chancel rising gradually eastward to the altar, which stands remote and solitary, the dimness and the distance lending a strange impressiveness to the scene. In the north transept, twenty feet from the ground, is the organ, an imposing instrument of fifty stops, eight of them in the pedals, whose power is so reduced by the lofty building, that its fullest combinations have only the effect of grandeur. How different is this from the Puritan conception of worship ! Here art in all its forms plays upon the feelings, and worship and purification are symbolised in Gothic arches, glorious music, incense, holy water, and a crowd of white-robed ministers filling the chancel. 398 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. One point in the Catholic Apostolic services must be noted at starting. They are absolutely fixed by the rubric. They must be held at the hours named in the book ; they can neither be shortened nor lengthened ; whatever is marked to be sung must be sung; whatever is to be intoned must be intoned, and not spoken. The nature of the music may change with the capacity of the choir. The Te Beam, for example, may be sung to a chant instead of to a setting of its own, but the rubric does not allow it to be said, as is sometimes the case in Anglican churches. The whole of the prayers are intoned, and this in- variably. Intoning marks the distinction between public and private prayer. The psalms are sung to the Gregorian tones, in accordance with the traditional practice of the Church. Service is held morning and evening daily ; on Sundays the services are more frequent, and more fully musical. How much music there is in the ordinary Sunday service will be understood from the following epitome : — Morning Prayer: Introit, "0 come, let us worship," sung while the ministers enter in procession ; Jubilate and Benedictus to settings ; Kyrie in the Communion service, usually to Tallis's music ; Gloria in Excehis to a setting ; Epistle anthem ; Creed, sometimes to a setting, but usually on a monotone, with varied harmonies from the orgai\ ; Offertory anthem, Sanctus, Incense anthem, Agnus Dei, Communion anthem proper to the day (like the Epistle anthem), Te Deum, and Gloria Patri. Evening Prayer: Introit (usually as in the morning". Evening anthem (" Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house"), Incense anthem, Magnificat. In the forenoon prayers preceding the Communion service, the music consists on Sundays of Introit, Jubilate, and Gloria Patri, which closes the service. At the end GORDOX SQUARE CHURCH. 399 of this service the sacrament is removed, and some music is sung which is arranged to Plain Chant. The stated organist and choirmaster of the Church is Mr. Heath, an amateur of very fine attainments, hut the Church has the professional assistance of Mr. E. II. Turpin, the well-known secretary of the Colleg Organists, whose connection with Gordon Square str< hack over twenty years. Mr. Turpin is organist of St. George's, Bloomsbury, but as the hours of service at Gordon Square differ from those at St. George's, he is able on Sundays to play three times at St. George's and twice at Gordon Square. He is also organist of the Festivals held every month at Gordon Square, when the " Seven Churches of London " assemble together. Most of the music sung at Gordon Square has been composed or adapted to the liturgy of the Catholic Apostolic Church by Mr. Turpin. He is, in fact, a kind of standing musical counsel to the Church at large, and lias supplied services for various parts of the United Kingdom, some of his music being employed on the Continent, in the Colonies, and in America. The choir is placed in the south transept, and consists of about thirty-four men and boys. The boys are supple- mented by sixteen or twenty ladies, who sit close to the choir seats, and help to sustain the melody, but who are not recognised by the canons of the Church as forming part of the choir. In addition to Mr. Turpin and Mr. Heath, a youth of fifteen, trained by Mr. Turpin, acts as assistant organist, and usually plays when Mr. Turpin is absent, so that Mr. Heath may be free to take his place in the choir. Formerly, when Mr. Heath was playing there was no leader in the choir, and unsteadiness was the consequence. Now Mr. Heath stands before the singers, and beats time unobtrusively, with greatly improved results. At the Friday choir practice, Mr. Heath con- K)0 IN WORSHIP MUSIC. ducts, Mr. Turpin also being present, while the youth already mentioned is accompanying. The ladies separately rehearsed by Mr. Heath. The choir has fourteen services and a large number of special anthems in use, all hut one of them in MS. One or two are adapted from Plain Chant, another is taken from a service by Dr. Cooke, the r mposed by Mr. Turpin, who has for the different churches composed some thirty complete servi The choir is wholly unpaid. It is a rule of the Church, that all who take part in the service must be members, duly set apart for their office. This rule, though it increases very greatly the difficulty of sustaining a large choir of men and boys, gives a high tone to their work. The liturgy of the Church prescribes a " Form of Prayer, invoking the blessing of God on singers, &c," which it is worth while to transcribe: — " Almighty God, who hast ordained the faculties of man to be the eternal instruments of rendering to Thee glory and praise ; and hast moved the hearts of these Thy servants to desire to serve Thee, in singing the praises [or, playing on instruments of music unto the praise] of Thy name in the midst of the congregation ; grant them, we beseech Thee, Thy blessing and grace. O Thou, Whose name is Holy, Who wiliest that all things in Thy house should be holiness unto Thee ; sanctify these Thy servants, we humbly beseech Thee, in this holy ministry ; endue them with the spirit of worship in Thy holy fear ; [and give unto them to sing the songs of the Spirit with the spirit and with the understanding ;] that, through the presence and. power of the Holy Ghost they may edify themselves and all Thy congregation in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with grace in their hearts. Hear us, for the sake of Jesus Christ ; to whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be glory and praise for ever. Amen." A form of prayer is also used in the choir vestry before each service. It will be seen from this that the Church distinctly recognises the ministry of song. Mr. Cardale, who was CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 401 one of the twelve apostles, and had the charge of the; chnrches in England, states this view of the use of musif at length in his " Readings on the Liturgy." He says : — " The object to be attained is not that everyone in the congregation should be able to join therein, but that the worship and praise of God may be set forth and advanced in the most perfect and glorious manner. The first desire of each person should be for the attain- ment of this object, and then that he himself may be in a condition of spirit consistent with and suitable to the action which is in progress. Those who are able to join in the singing should do so with their hearts fixed upon God, not thinking of themselves or of their own performances. Those who are not able to join should be filled with the spirit of worship and praise, rejoicing in that ministry of praise which the Church, through means of those actually engaged^ in the singing, is occupied in fulfilling, and content that others should be found more capable than themselves in this respect." About ten years ago, the Church formally recognised the use of hymns, and a hymnal has been published containing 320, which is now in its second edition. Mr. Turpin has compiled a companion tune book for this selection, which not only includes most of the standard tunes, but others adapted from Gregorian sources. As in the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, hymns are employed to fill pauses in the service rather than as an integral part of it. The psalter is attached to the liturgy, and it gives, in every case, the number of the tone to which the psalm is to be sung. The twelve tones are also printed in the liturgy in Gregorian notation. A new psalter is, however, in preparation, containing a fuller system of pointing, with an appendix in the shape of a book of varied organ harmonies to the tones, by Mr. Turpin. The Church separates preaching from worship. A sermon follows the conclusion of evening prayer on Sundays, but there is an interval of about fifteen minutes during which the organ plays. Again, there is an interval of ten minutes between forenoon prayer and the 2d 402 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. Holy Eucharist or Communion Service, while the priests change their vestments ; here the organ again plays. When there is a full congregation, it is remarkable how well the people join in their part of the service — the psalms, the responses, and the hymns. The congregation is a select one ; select, that is to say, as regards earnest- ness and attachment to the liturgy. People may even be heard joining in those parts of the service where they ought, according to the teaching of the Church, to be content to listen. At special festivals the choir is en- larged, and the choral result is very fine. It is, as we have said, practically a mixed choir, and the bright tone of the ladies' voices rings through the great building with telling effect. The attack, the phrasing, the pro- nunciation of the choir are commendable, and they seem never to flatten against the organ. The music thrills the listener, not only with artistic delight, but with the spirit of devotion and praise. 403 MR. W. H. MONK AND CHURCH MUSIC. At St. Matthias' Church, Stoke Newington, the musical editor of "Hymns Ancient and Modern" realises his conception of parochial church music. It was in 1847 that Mr. Monk's public work began with his appointment as choirmaster at King's College, in the Strand. Two years later he was made organist ; and five or six years ago he succeeded Mr. Hullah as Professor of Vocal Music. When St. Matthias' was built in 1853 — indeed, some months before the church was ready, when the congrega- tion met in a school-room — Mr. Monk was appointed organist : a post which he has held, in conjunction with that at King's College, without interruption to the present time. Mr. Monk prefers the Gregorian music, both as a return to the practice of the ancient church, and on the ground of its fitness for congregational use. Thirty years ago, so he tells us, he thoroughly disliked the Gregorian "tones." In the course of study he was led to examine them, and to search for the true forms of these ancient melodies. The result was shown in some contributions to early numbers of the Parish Choir, the monthly paper of the " Society for the Promotion of Church Music," a few years before the publication of the valuable works of Mr. Helmore. This was the first real attempt to adapt the tones to English use. Extended knowledge altered Mr. Monk's early opinion. He found that the tones he had heard sung were tortured and twisted versions, made to assume an Anglican form because, to their editors, any 404 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. other form was unfamiliar. Their spirit had not been understood ; for there was no English tradition to guide either theory or practice. Mr. Monk advocates the tones as best for church use, and by church use he means congregational use. As we converse with him on this point, he instances a recent experience at St. Paul's Cathedral as to the value of unison singing. He was standing at the extreme western end of the nave during a crowded sendee. When the choir sang in harmony he could only faintly hear their voices, but when they sang a Gloria in unison, the strong, clear melody rang through the building, and penetrated every corner. Mr. Monk maintains that unison singing, such as we have in the Gregorian system, gives the people the tune, and if it is not altogether in use, the choir may wisely sing the first verse or two of a chant in unison, and then drop into harmony. Another point mentioned by Mr. Monk is that unison singing will bear louder organ support than vocal harmony, and in a large congregation this is sometimes an advantage. Even when, as in the hymns, the choir sing in harmony, and the congregation mainly in unison, Mr. Monk has no fear of the musical effect. He dismisses the objections which are sometimes urged on this point as having no practical foundation. !N"o doubt, theoretically speaking, when the treble moves in fourths with the alto, the inversion of this by the men's voices will make consecutive fifths, but the objection comes from the head rather than the ear ; no ill effect is heard, whatever may be predicted or imagined. "We do not find at St. Matthias' the highly-finished and concert-like performance of the Temple Church, or of the Chapel Royal, or of the Parish Church, Stoke Xewington. Mr. Monk prefers a more masculine and broad style. " The moment," he insists, " a choir, by its delicacy of performance, challenges the ear of the congregation, it ST MATTHIAS', STOKJJ NEWINGTON. 40.) virtually says, ' Listen to me ; ' but it stops the voices of the people, who are so lost in the act of attention that they forget to sing." The unison singing by the choir at St. Matthias' has, in Mr. Monk's belief, justified itself in its results. It has encouraged the congregation to sing, whether this may be in unison or in harmony. Mr. Monk has carefully watched the conditions and possibilities of congregational singing, and his notes are of value. Occasionally he finds his congregation disposed to drag, whereupon he forces them on with the organ. At once, when this is done, not only do they answer to the whip, but he hears a large accession of tone, as if many voices that had gone to sleep were waking up. Flattening and dragging he finds go together, and if the time is good, the pitch will be generally good as well. The forcing which the organist is now and again compelled to do, need not be so done as to drown the voices. A momentary burst of tone, like a flash of lightning, is enough, and it encourages and inspirits the people. The congregation is used to Mr. Monk's manner. He can take a verse, in the chants or hymns, slowly, and then resume the speed ; he can even make them give a rallentando. u We do every- thing," says Mr. Monk, in winding up this part of the conversation, " we do everything we possibly can to encourage the people to sing, but in one respect we ignore them completely. We never consult them in any way about the music, and the consequence is that they never offer us any advice." As we speak of speed, Mr. Monk tells us that he would take a narrative hymn, such as " When God of old came down from heaven," quickly. There is an analogy between speech and music, and a narrator would tell a story without pause or deliberation. On the other hand, a contemplative hymn may be taken as slowly as may be wished. Such is the Pentecostal hymn, " Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire." We have heard this sung at 406 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. St. Matthias' with the utmost slowness, the prayerful effect heightened by the kneeling attitude of the congre- gation. Mr. Monk says he has often been urged to put metronome marks to the hymn tunes in the books he has edited, but has hesitated to do so because the speed must always vary with the size of the congregation. A large congregation sings more slowly than a small one, without the rhythmical sense perceiving any difference. In play- ing the Gregorian tones for the Psalms and Canticles, Mr. Monk use? perfect freedom as to key. Take, for example, the 90th Psalm, " Lord, Thou hast been our refuge." In the warm and bright summer weather, he would play it in A ; the more sombre atmosphere of a wintry day would suggest the lower pitch of G ; but when the same Psalm occurs in the Burial Service, he would take it in P. . According to a law which every musician has noticed, the lower the key the slower will be the singing ; while in the last key the boys, who are prone to force the time, would lose the brightness of their tone, and would be overpowered by the men, and obliged to take time from them. The reverse of this is also true. When the 2nd Psalm, " Why do the heathen so furiously rage," occurs in the ordinary course of the Psalter, it would be taken in A ; but at Easter, Mr. Monk would transpose it a tone higher. A fine example of this effect of transposition occurs in Mr. Monk's recently -published Psalterv He has set the last three Psalms (148, 149, 150) to the same Gregorian tone. But he has led up to the climax with which this chain of praises ends by raising the pitch each time. Beginning in A, he passes to B flat, and ends in C. Each rise forces the men's voices into prominence, and adds weight and power to the music. As a rule, however, the compass of the tones is studiously limited. The recitation is rarely on a higher tone than B flat ; it is generally below that. Mr. Monk's organ accompaniments are solid, and in the SEPARATION OF JfEX A XI) WOMEX. 407 true church style. He scorns the slightest approach t<> flippancy or studied display. Like all Gregorian organists, he varies the accompaniment to the tones, but he does this rather by changing the fundamental harmonies than by " fireworks " in the right hand, or on the flutes. Occasionally he rides an upper part over the harmony, but this is only done in entire sympathy with the words. Mr. Monk lays stress on the fact that at St. Matthias' the men and women sit on opposite sides of the church. He thinks that this arrangement encourages both to sing ; makes each less diffident, and helps the weak-voiced. The pew system, also, does not exist ; the people sit where they please ; and thus the congregation is compact. But chief among the encouragements to congregational singing is the habit of using always the same music to the same words. This principle is carried out, not in the hymns only, but in the Psalms and Canticles, which are unalterably associated with their proper tones. Thus each festival of the year brings, hand-in-hand, its own words and its own music. The congregation remember and expect both, and long use makes them familiar with both. In many churches, well-known music is used on ordinary days ; but at festivals this is thrown aside for new music which the congregation do not know. Such a suicidal policy is avoided at St. Matthias', and the congre- gation is never baulked by unknown music. New music is rarely introduced. The whole is chosen with a single eye to the season of the year, and the character of the service. " We never," says Mr. Monk, " sing an anthem because we like it, or because it is asked for." The service papers, which are preserved in volumes, show how, for the most part, the same music recurs year after year. The choir of St. Matthias' is a voluntary one, and by its extraordinary enthusiasm, a daily choral evensong is maintained, as well as the Sunday services. The work is got through by dividing the choir into halves, and letting pis 8TUDIB& IX WORSHIP MI' sic. them take the lesser services by turn. No man is pted who will not promise to attend twice on Bunday, and three evenings in the week, one of which mast be Friday, the night of the choir practice. The an- expected to be present even more often. Mr. speaks in the highest terms of the willingness and capacity of this voluntary choir. It does far more work than a paid choir would be willing to do. On a recent occasion, there were seventeen appointments for the choir, either services or practices, between two Sundays in- clusive. Seven of the fourteen boys were present at the whole of these. Mr. Monk's reputation as a choirmaster is widespread. He is much sought for by the London clergy, who are anxious to engage him as choirmaster, even though the lack of omnipresence prevents him from playing for them on Sunday. These practices he holds, wherever possible, in the schoolroom rather than in the church ; and he prefers the pianoforte to the organ as an accompaniment, because it asserts the time more decisively, and gives accent to the singing, without covering its weak points. Mr. Monk tells most entertainingly the story of "Hymns, Ancient and Modern," the marvel of English church music, of which twenty million copies are known to have been sold. He recalls how, in a happy moment, he suggested the title of the book to his friend, Sir Henry Baker. We ask him about his own tunes, which are so instinct with devotional feeling, and breathe so tenderly and perfectly the spirit of their words. " Abide with me," he tells us, was written at the last moment, because no tune had been found for the hymn. As he sat writing it, one of his assistants was within two yards of him, playing a Thalberg Fantasia. Speaking of style in church harmony, Mr. Monk says, " Although I enjoy Spohr and the chromatic school, I prefer diatonic harmony, especially for congregational music, where WORKING FOR THE PEOPLE. 409 simplicity, breadth, and strength are obvious require- ments." Denominations and religious parties of all sorts may learn much from the organisation of the worship-music at St. Matthias'. It is interesting to notice how extremes meet — 1how the Ritualist works for congregational singing as earnestly as the Primitive Methodist or the Presby- terian, and uses the choir only as leader of the people. 410 THE FOUNDLING CHAPEL. To go to the Sunday morning service at " The Foundling," and stay to see the children eat their dinner, is generally part of the programme of our country cousins when they come to town. The girls in their high caps and snowy pinafores, the boys in their sober brown, form one of the prettiest sights imaginable as they sit in the steep gallery around the organ. Even straight-laced people may enjoy this bit of Sunday sight-seeing, for it reminds us of the all-embracing [ philanthropy of which Christ was the founder. The Foundling Chapel services have been noted for their music ever since the days of Handel, whose devoted labours for the institution are a matter of history. Their reputation is fully sustained by the present organist and director of the music, Mr. Willing, who has held the post for many years.* As an organist, Mr. Willing stands in the first rank. He plays for the Sacred Harmonic Society at Exeter Hall, and is also known as the composer of a number of hymn -tunes, among which those to " We are but little children weak," and " While shepherds watched their flocks by night," so prettily sung by the Foundlings, are very widely known. His organ is a modern instru- ment, successive enlargements and replacements having left hardly any traces of the organ on which Handel played. The singing is in the hands of the children's * Mr. Willing' resigned the organ in 1S79. THE FOUNDLIXG CHAPEL. 411 choir, numbering about one hundred, and six principals — soprano, contralto, two tenors, and two basses. The committee spare no expense to obtain the very best singers. Madame Sainton (as Miss Dolby), Miss Louisa Pyne, Mr. "Weiss, and others not less celebrated, sang here in* years gone by, and the present singers include Miss Jane "Wells (the soprano of the late Mr. Land's celebrated glee party), Miss Marion Severn (contralto), and Mr. Chaplin Henry and Mr. C. E. Tinney (basses). It will thus be seen that, at the Foundling, the singing is of the few rather than of the many. There is no attempt to encourage the congregation to join, though, as a fact, their voices are heard fairly well during the hymns. Mr. Willing is no believer in congregational singing. He argues that a thousand people coming together promis- cuously once a week cannot be expected to make anything but a disagreeable noise. If it is said that the cathedral service should be a " meditative " one — a service in which the congregation are to listen and worship — why, he says, should not the service at the Foundling be the same ? He considers that the congregation, who are, for the most part, uninstructed, should exercise the grace of allowing those who make music the study of their lives to sing for them. Having a hearty belief in congregational singing, we cannot, of course, agree with this ; but it is good to hear the other side, and when that side is not the prevailing one, we like to listen to a bold statement of its views. From the art point of view, no doubt the congregation are a nuisance, and would much oblige by keeping their mouths shut. But the problem in public worship is how to awaken most earnestly the devotional spirit of the people, and we have a great belief that audible participa- tion contributes most powerfully to this end. No one who has had anything to do witli choir training- can listen to the Foundling service without feeling that 412 STUDIE8 IN WORSHIP MUSIC. the remarkable result- have not been obtained without hard work. Whatever may be understood by the doctrine of original sin, choirs, especially of children, in their natural state are very depraved. They mispronounce, they spoil the phrases of the music, and they sing wofully out of tune. Mr. Willing rehearses the children of his choir three times a week, and sometimes four. The rehearsal on Saturday morning is attended by the principals, and, like the others, is held in the girls' schoolroom, without any instrumental accompaniment whatever. To this custom of unaccompanied rehearsals we attribute the confidence and good intonation of the choir. There is nothing like the organ for covering up faults and shortcomings ; to hide the weakness of their singers by a loud accompaniment is the resource of incompetent choirmasters all the country over. On the other hand, when there is no accompaniment, the wrong notes, the uncertain intonation, the feeble starts, the wrong entries, stand out in all their bareness, and this is just what the efficient choirmaster desires at a rehearsal. On these occasions, Mr. Willing, baton in hand, directs his choir, enforcing expression by his gestures, and patiently trying the "shaky" places until they come right. Confidence at the starting-point is insisted on, a tendency to flatten is corrected, and the result is that when the organ is added, the singers, like every good choir, are independent of it. In the organ loft, Mr. Willing is, if we may so express it, more of the musical director than the organist. As he is playing, his clear tenor voice may be heard leading the children, like the voice of a general giving confidence and courage to his soldiers. He is so placed that the children rise above him on either side ; and, though screened from the congregation, he is in full view of his juvenile choir. Playing the instrument with the ease of a master, he is free, when he finds the slightest lagging or indecision, to SUSTAINING THE PITCH. 418 beat time for them with his left hand, and ready to encourage or subdue them as may be needful. Mr. Willing' s accompaniments, as all who have attended thfe service will remember, are of the lightest kind. He holds the right view of the functions of the organ in accompanying voices, and dislikes to overweight them. In appropriate places he leaves his choir unaccompanied, and they sing on the same as ever. For example, the hymn on Sunday morning last, " With hearts in love abounding," consists of three verses of eight lines each. In the second verse, Mr. Willing did not touch the organ from first to last, but the intonation was perfectly true at the beginning of the third. The children will even sing five or six verses in this way without losing pitch. So much for unaccompanied practice, and the independence it creates. This independence allows Mr. Willing to play a free accompaniment to the Psalms, which, on Sunday morning, was very musicianly and ingenious, bringing out various solo stops, and an endless variety of counterpoint against the melody of the chant. Of course it would be much less trouble for him, instead of spending so many hours in teaching the anthems and canticles, to pull out a few more stops, and make up in organ-tone for the deficiency of the voices. But in his musical picture the voices are the leading figure ; the organ accompaniment is a background to set them off. The hymnal and psalter used at the Foundling are both compiled by Mr. Willing ; the first is entitled " The Book of Common Praise." It contains 208 hymns, with tunes on the same page. There is also a collection of the words of 146 anthems, showing the large repertoire of the place. Mr. Willing finds, as do most music-teachers, that girls are very much more workable material than boys. The boys' voices are not so musical, nor have they apparently the same will for the work as girls. The choir consists of 411 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC about a third of the children, chiefly the elder ones, and three-fourths of it are girls. The boys who belong to it sing alto. Of course this classification has no physical basis ; girls are not all sopranos, nor are boys all con- traltos. But it is the most convenient for producing results. The children are evidently fond of Mr. Willing, who seems to know every one of them, and animates them by a personal influence. All successful teachers of children work in this way. Everyone who listens to the service is struck by the clear pronunciation of the children. It is something altogether unusual. In such words as " to " you distinctly hear the tongue leave the palate for the "t;" and in a word like " shall" there is quite a sibilant rush of sound from their young lips. Initial and final consonant?, on the sounding of which clearness in speech depends, are perfectly heard. It is this clearness, combined, with united and steady utterance, that gives such a charm to the chanting, which is the best we have ever heard. We may be sure these results are not the growth of a day. They are due to the formation of good habits. Mr. Willing worked hard and long before he got the children to pronounce the words, and he has still to persevere in keeping them up to the standard. But, of course, when good habits are once established they are maintained with ordinary care, and the younger children who do not belong to the choir gather experience by constant listening, and are, therefore, not raw material when admitted to it. It would not be difficult to find fault with the music of the Foundling, if one were so inclined. The psalms are sung antiphonally — one verse by the girls, another by the boys and the principal singers ; and, as the boys sing alto, there is a preponderance of that part in their verse which sounds strange. Indeed, the want of "balance" is the chief defect in the service, for it is manifest that two tenors and two basses are wholly insufficient against WANT OF BALANCE. 415 such a body of soprano and alto. It is a pity that such an obvious consideration should be overlooked, though we can hardly suppose that Mr. Willing can have failed to bring it to the notice of the authorities. Speaking generally, to praise the Foundling services would be superfluous. Their character is already known. Mr. Willing is one of our best organists, but it is evident that he has succeeded at the Foundling still more because he throws himself heartily into the work of choir -training, and has the tact and skill to govern and inspire the forces at his command. 416 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, REGENT SQUARE. I extend my observations to the Presbyterian Church in Regent Square, of which Dr. Oswald Dykes is the minister. The church is a large and comfortable one, well adapted for sound. The congregation is also a large one, especially when Dr. Dykes is preaching ; and it is evidently composed of cultured people. Instead of being put out of sight in transepts and aisles, the congregation have the advantage of an unbroken view of each other and of the minister. All these are important helps to good congregational singing. There is no organ ; the praise is led by a precentor — ^Ir. Proudman — who is surrounded by eighteen or twenty ladies and gentlemen in the singers' seats. * The materials of worship are the Scottish metrical psalms, and a collection of hymns ; nothing more. The book used is that compiled a few years since for the use of the Presbyterian Church in England. It contains the psalms, followed by more than 500 hymns ; but the point to be noticed in this book is that the tune is given on the V ... same page with the words to be sung to it. Editions are, I believe, issued without the tunes, but the majority of the Regent Square congregation have the notes before them as they sing. This is an undoubted help in pro- moting general and intelligent singing. Nolens vol ens, the people have the tune before. them, and having it, they try to take their part. After all, this is but a revival of * Both Dr. Dykes and Mr. Proudman have now (1SSS) left Regent Square. VOICES ALONE. 117 the plan of the lloformation psalters, as any inquirer may find. This Presbyterian psalter contains, probably, more new tunes and modern tunes than any other collection in use among Dissenters. Many of them are very beautiful. To each psalm an alternative chant is given, and metrical chanting, which, of course, does not present the difficulties of prose, is frequently employed. The reader must not, however, imagine that there is any resemblance in style between the singing of the psalms at Regent Square and that which obtains in country churches in Scotland. I am afraid some of the old folk there would shake their heads, and mourn over the worldliness of the age, if they heard the Regent Square psalmody. The people stand to sing, and by standing lose that nasal quality of sound that distinguishes the German Protestants, and the Scotch, so far as they sit to sing. Their psalmody has life ; they do not prolong the tones ; in fact, they sing the old psalms as we do our hymns. The eccentricities of the versification they pass nimbly over. They can sing " supplication " to five syllables, and put the accent on the second half of " surely," and do the spiriting so gently that it is unperceived. The singing at this church strikes upon the ear with inexpressible sweetness. It produces that sense of calm repose which the sound of voices alone always imparts to those who have been used to instrumental accompani- ments. With a like feeling of relief, after the exciting instrumentation of Mendelssohn's Elijah, the first accents of " Lift thine eyes," from pure, unadorned human voices, fall upon the ear, exercising a charm such as the grandest combinations cannot produce. There is a great deal of part-singing at llegent Square, and the singer- are not tempted by a loudly-played organ to strain their voices. The vocal forces blend well, and the choir is not heard as a smaller body within the larger, but it joins the general stream of sound. No doubt the resonant 2 E 418 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. character of the building is a great help in this respect. One carries away the impression that the service of praise at Regent Square is a joyful, pleasing service. This is very much due to the fact that it does not weary those who sing, because the tunes are taken at a decent speed (thougli not too fast), and the last notes of the lines are not lengthened out beyond all reason, but dropped when their time has expired. If congregations generally would leave closing notes thus, instead of clinging to them, how much less exhausting would it be to them to sing ! The life of the singing at Regent Square is evidently the precentor's voice. It exercises an almost magic influence upon the congregation. Mr. Proudman makes a careful study of the proper expression suited to each line and verse of the hymns and psalms he has to lead ; and the congregation answer to his voice, in the variations of force and speed, with a promptness that I have never heard equalled. In fact, there is probably no church where such attention is paid to expression in congrega- tional singing, and where such fine results are obtained as llegent Square. To take an example from the 30th Psalm, which was sung on Sunday evening last. The psalmist begins by praising God. His mood of confidence and joy is interrupted at the seventh verse, where he thinks of God being hidden from him. 11 But when that Thou, O gracious God, * Didst hide Thy face from me, Then quickly was my prosperous state Turned into misery." Before this verse a pause rather longer than usual was made ; then, at the bidding of the precentor's voice, it was sung slowly, and with bated breath. The effect was touching. In complete contrast to this was the returning joy of the last verse, where the people quickened, and sang out heartily — EXPRESSION OF iron US. 419 11 That sing Thy praise, iny glory may, And never silent be, 0 Lord, my God, for evermore, 1 will give thanks to Thee." In the same way, when singing the hymn, " Nearer, my God, to Thee," the congregation sank their voices low at the words — u Though, like a wanderer, Daylight all gone, Darkness be over me, My rest a stone ; " and quickened to firm and bold tones as the thought came — 11 Yet in my dreams I'd be, Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee." Examples of the same kind might be multiplied to any extent, but the above will suffice. Any who look upon such a study of expression in hymn-singing as merely musical and sensational should go to Eegent Square, and study its effect. They will find that the attention is arrested and fixed by this method upon the meaning of the words. More than this, the heart is touched in a way that can never be done by the monotonous singing of ordinary congregations. I have always been in favour of organs, but a Sunday at Eegent Square is enough to shake one's faith in them. The organ gives a great deal of pleasure, but, after all, it is a sensuous pleasure. We worship when we send up aspirations and feelings of adoration, prayer, and joy to God. The organ can hardly do this, and, therefore, can only be admitted as a helper to the voices. With this oifice about one organist in a hundred is at present content. At llegent Square you feel the absence of mechanism ; the people stand up, and you hear the sound of their voices speaking forth their worship. The effect is' powerful and direct. You feel that the congregation 420 STUDIES IX irOKSTTTP MUSIC. are engaged in worshipping rather than in making music. The skill of the organist, the beauty of his instrument, the training of the choir — the thoughts cannot wander to these; everyone is doing what you arc doing; the of common praise is on every side. That this is- the' most legitimate form of Church music we can hardly deny. Without wishing to shut up all the organs, I can truly say I should be sorry to sec one at Eegent Square. The singing could not fail to lose much of its expression, for it is easy to see that this is due to the voice of the precentor acting directly upon a sympathetic congregation, and that the refined variations in speed and force which Mr. Proudman obtains could not be managed by an organist, while they would be no less impossible if there were a precentor as well as an organist. At the same time, it must be noted that the arrangement makes every- thing depend on the precentor. If he were a monotonous, heavy, expressionless singer, the congregation could do nothing to help themselves. Of course, the results shown at this church have not been reached without work. There has for many years been a Psalmody Association, holding weekly meetings during the winter, and consisting of any musical or musically-disposed persons in the congregation who pay a nominal sub- scription and become members. Mr. Proudman has been precentor of the church for nearly five years, and for tw » seasons before that he held large elementary classes, in which'' the congregation were systematically taught to read music. The Psalmody Association, of which the precentor is conductor, has its secretary and committee, and consists of from fifty to eighty members. It is the members of this association that take turns, according to the invitation of the secretary, to sit in the singers' pews. There is no fixed choir, and, as a consequence, there are no tiffs and misunderstandings. At the weekly meetings of the Psalmody Association, the tunes for the following P& / LMOD Y A SS 0 ' 'L I Tl OX. 4 2 1 Sunday arc generally practised. The printed programm • for the winter, which lies before me, includes several short papers by Mr. Proudman on musical topics relating to psalmody. Among these are " Force and speed in relation to psalmody, with experiments," "The training of the voice needful for all singing," " Pronunciation in singing vowels and consonants," " Studies in expression in psalmody," &c The most public efforts, however, are the praise meetings, two or three of which are held in the church during each season. At these, a number of hymns are sung by the congregation, and a few by the Psalmody Association alone. Dr. Dykes and an elder of the church usually give an address bearing on the subject of Praise ; and the precentor conducts the singing, occasionally pointing out the appropriate expression, and sometimes asking the congregation to repeat a verse if they have neglected it. These meetings appear to be well attended, and to be enjoyed by all. Their distinctive object — Praise — is kept before the minds of the people, and they are not allowed to become merely a prayer meeting, or an ordinary service. 422 KENSINGTON CHAPEL Tiie psalmody at Kensington Chapel is not of an excep- tional kind. It resembles that of many other churches in the metropolis and in provincial towns. The difficulties which are found elsewhere in carrying on the musical part of Divine worship are found here, but great pains are taken to secure the orderly management of the psalmody, and in this respect the place is a model. The organ is behind the pulpit, and stands in a gallery, which will accommodate about a dozen singers, who sit facing the congregation. This is the common arrangement in [Nonconformist churches, but it would be more pleasant for the minister if the organ were placed at the other end of the building. The leading power of the choir would not really be less, and their voices would rise from among the congregation, instead of beating down upon them in a sort of antagonism. The recesses in which organs are so often placed cause a great deal of their sound to be lost. ' Some look upon this as a merciful provision, and say that we are already deafened by their noise. But when the instrument is fairly inside the church, so that its sound permeates the building, the organist can rely more upon the softer stops for accompanying. It is not the diapasons that weary the ear, but the brazen sound of the reeds, which are drawn to prevent flattening, and these can be less used when the organ is well placed. At Kensington Chapel hymns and anthems are sung, but there is no chanting, except occasionally of the Te BE A G G IX a A XI) FL < i TTKXIXC. -1 1 3 J}eum. The service on Sunday morning last opened with the anthem, " The Lord bless thee," from the Rev. S. March's collection. In this little book simplicity has certainly been studied, and the possibilities of congrega- tional singing have been regarded in a praiseworthy manner. ' Some years ago, a member of the congregation presented the church with a supply of copies of this book, live or six for each pew. His name should be remembered with gratitude. The people thus have the music before them, and join very generally, if not very heartily, in these short anthems. "Lord, for Thy tender mercies' sake," which came between the lessons, and " Thine, 0 Lord," at the evening service, were very well sung. The hymn, " 0 day of rest and gladness," to Wesley's melodious tune, " Amelia," was taken in a spirited way by the choir. The third verse was sung almost without the organ, then there was rather a longer pause than usual, followed by a loud burst at the fourth verse. This plan of making a longer pause than usual between the verses when there is a change of sentiment is a good one ; it prepares the people for what is coming, whether the change is to loud or soft. The hymn, " Up to the Lord that reigns on high," was sung to a tune (L.M.) in which short and long notes are mixed. From the middle of the side gallery, with the choir on one hand and the congre- gation on the other, one could hear in the short notes the distinct beat of each, the congregation dogging the foot- steps of the choir, or mocking it like an echo. This miserable dragging — we hear it everywhere ! ]So wonder that it should be said that a tune always goes better if the congregation don't know it, for then the choir and organist have the field to themselves, and can keep up the time. Another weakness of congregational singing was shown in this hymn, when during one verse the organ was subdued, and at the beginning of the next, the leading note of the organ cut the ear with the sharpness 424 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. of a surgeon's knife, for the congregation had fallen in pitch. These evils of flattening and dragging are n<»t peculiar to Kensington Chapel ; they arc the common experience everywhere, and to cure them would I make congregational singing what it should be. The causes of these defects are very many; but it ma] chiefly said that dragging leads to flattening, and that first thing is for the organist in playing over, and the choir in leading, to set the example of precision and accent. If the organist dwells on the notes, much more will the congregation do so ; and if the choir come down heavily on unaccented parts of the measure, so will the congregation. ¥e generally find in the pews a faithful imitation of the faults or excellences of the organ loft. The psalmody at Kensington Chapel is in charge of Mr . J. TV. Sully, a deacon of the church, who undertakes this as his share of work. Mr. Sully chouses the tunes and acts as choirmaster, thus dividing the duties with Hr. Attwood, the able organist. The choir are all memtx . - the church, and regard choir-membership as their portion of work in the church. They practise usually for half- an-hour after the sendee on Sunday evening, when a full attendance is ensured. At the yearly social meeting of the church the choir sing anthems, and Mr. Sully en- deavours to impress upon the congregation their duties in regard to the service of praise. What he says on these occasions we cannot tell, but we know the sort of homily we should be inclined to deliver, not to the congregation of Kensington Chapel in particular, but to a great many others not unlike them. " Why is it," we should ask, "that you stand in your pews, Sunday after Sunday, without tune-books ? Not one in twelve has a tune book. As it cannot be a question of ex] we must suppose that you are indifferent. True, it is awkward to hold two books in the hand at once ; and if the hymn-and-tune-book-in-one plan were adopted, you A HOMILY. 125 would be very much aided. But good psalmody is worth a little trouble to obtain, and was never reached without trouble. You make no preparation for the service of song. Have you ever looked upon it as a duty to learn enough of notation to read a hymn-tune at sight ? lla> it ever occurred to you, mothers and sisters, to teach your husbands and children and brothers their parts in the hymn-tunes and anthems at home, so that when they come to church their tongues may be untied, and the harmony of the service enriched by a proper proportion of tenor and bass? Does it ever occur to you to listen for the organ and choir, and try to aid them by singing Tip to time, instead of acting as a dead weight upon them ? Beware of that false gentility which suppresses any display of warmth or enthusiasm, and makes people lower their voices to a musical simper. Sing heartily, but not obtrusively, and never mind what the people in the next pew think. Above all, put off that critical habit, that cynicism which is so easy, and which is for ever carping at the honest and well-meant efforts of others. If your musical taste is too refined for congregational psalmody, it is to be pitied. 1 Sing while the village voices Fall harshly on the ear, And while more earnestly you join, Less discord will you hear.' Tli is is the true spirit ; and what a soul-stirring thing our psalmody would become if it possessed every member of the congregation ! " 426 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE. The mere fact that Mr. Spurgeon's is the largest congregation in the country invests the singing with an interest to the church musician, and there are other reasons which make the Tabernacle psalmody a profitable study. But the congregation is a special one from its size and the spell which 3Ir. Spurgeon's voice and presence exert upon it. One .is, therefore, cautious in drawing general conclusions from the good and bad points in the singing. Nothing but hymns are sung at the Tabernacle, and these are taken from a collection of no less than 1,130, made by Mr. Spurgeon about seven years ago. The book superseded Dr. Bippon's selection and Dr. Watts' s psalms and hymns, which had before been in use. Dr. Bippon, by the way, was a former pastor of the church from which the Tabernacle congregation has descended. He was an earnest worker in the service of song, and published a tune-book which was much used in old times. The tunes used at the Tabernacle are chiefly taken from the " Union Tune-Book." A few come from the "Bristol Tune-Book," and three or four from " Hymns Ancient and Modern.'' A new tune is not introduced unless it has become popular in the schools and classes connected with the place ; then it is tried in the service, and if it goes well it is per- manently placed on the list ; if not, it is dropped at once. This caution is commendable, and contrasts with the MR. 8PURGE0JP8 TABERNACLE. 427 carelessness of the people's interests which many pre- centors and choirmasters display. The tunes are led by a precentor. Mr. Hale, who has held the office from boyhood, has lately been disabled by weakness of the voice, and Mr. Turner, who had before led the week-night service, now does the whole duty. The first hymn on Sunday morning last was " God is our refuge and our strength," to the tune " Evan." Mr. Spurgeon read it slowly through, then he announced the tune and read the first verse again. As the people stood up the precentor advanced from the back of the platform, and started the melody with a clear voice. Like a giant that needs a moment to arouse himself the congregation allowed a note or two to pass before they entered in full strength. Then the heavy tide of sound streamed forth from every part of the building. Many churches have more cultivated congregational singing than Mr. Spur- geon's, but, from the numbers engaged, no other singing touches the heart with such an indefinable pleasure, and makes the frame glow with such a sense of worshipful sympathy. " There are waterfalls," it has been said, " more beautiful than Niagara, but none so over- whelming." To yield oneself to the power of this great human voice, to let the spirit sink and rise with the swell of this mighty bosom, is to know the force of human sympathy, and feel the joy that companionship in worship inspires. The second hymn was " Thou hidden love of God," to one of the old tunes, "New Creation," made up from Haydn's chorus, " The heavens are telling." This the people enjoyed, and sang as generally as before. The third hymn was " Beneath Thy cross I lay me down," to the tune " Rockingham," which, of course, was a congenial melody. The people were warming to their work, and the volume of sound poured forth more solid 428 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. and powerful than before. 13ut why should the hymns be read twice through ? It may help some illiterate people to understand the words, and Mr. Spurgeon's energetic reading may infuse the devotional spirit of the poet among the congregation ; but nearly all the hymns are so well known, that these considerations must be of little practical worth. The reading takes up time, and is evidently wearisome to many ; besides, it takes away the freshness of the thoughts that are to be uttered. The sermon was followed by the benediction; it is very rarely that a hymn is sung at this part of the service. I have said that the singing was led by a precentor ; but Mr. Spurgeon is the real motive power of the music, as of everything else at the Tabernacle. The fact is that when the precentor has set the ponderous body of voices rolling, he finds it beyond his power to control it. He battles with his Goliath, but it is all in vain, and if he were three or four notes in advance, the people would not quicken. Mr. Spurgeon evidently takes delight in the service of song, and is anxious above all things that every man, woman, and child in the place should sing. In announcing the hymn he generally makes some remark, such as, " Let us sing joyfully the 48th Psalm," — " Dear friends, this hymn is full of joy, let's sing it with all our hearts," &c. Occasionally he will stop the congregation, and make them sing more softly or more quickly, when the effect is at once felt in a surprising degree. " Dear friends, he said at the watch-night service last week, " the devil sometimes makes you lag half a note behind the leader. Just try if you can't prevail over him to-night, and keep in proper time." For this dragging, the besetting fault of the Tabernacle singing, the immense size of the congregation is partly the reason. It is also encouraged by the use of a class of tunes in which the tendency is always to linger on the notes — I refer to tunes in triple time, and those in common time with runs and IT DOES NOT MATTER SOW WK SING. 429 slurs. But neither tendency is invincible, if pains were taken to instruct the people in the duty of intelligent and joyful prai . At present the beauty of the Tabernacle singing is religious, and spiritual. That is the highest attribute of congregational singing; without that quality no church- singing is worth anything. But its musical improvement would not make it less of heart-singing ; it ought to make it more. It is a pity that the reaction against Romish ritual has driven the Puritan churches to an opposite extreme, and led them to take this objectionable ground, that " it does n< t matter how we sing, so long as we sing with our hearts." Why should the service of praise be singled out like this? for in other actions of our lives we do not say, " Xever mind how you do it, as long as it is done." Such a view of praise is dwarfed and incomplete. If we have the foundation, it does not follow that we are to be content with an ugly superstructure. " Clothes do not make the man, but when he is made they improve him." The Tabernacle singing is, musically speaking, such as may naturally be expected from an undisciplined company of untrained voices. It is breathy and whispering in effect, and lacks that musical ring which comes from people who have learnt to use their voices. But much might be done to improve it, notwithstanding that the vast size of the congregation and the large number of strangers in it will always he difficulties to contend against. To begin with, it is out of all reason to expect any improvement until some means commensurate with the size of the congregation are taken to practise the people in the tunes, and to provide them with enough reading power to take their part in a hymn-tune. One tune-book should be adopted and adhered to, and this should be in the hands of the congregation. Until the average musical culture of the nation is much higher than 430 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. at present, good musical congregational singing in a church can only be maintained by systematic training, extending from the Sunday school upwards. "We see in the Tabernacle how helpless a precentor, who is nothing but a precentor, is to control a large congregation. But if the precentor were also the teacher of large singing classes, through which numbers of the congregation had passed, if he were also the conductor of a " psalmody association " of several hundred members, which met weekly for practice, and although scattered all over the place during the service, had all the esprit de corps of a choir — the case would be different. All the best singers of a congregation would be familiar with the voice and manner of the precentor, and would be accustomed to obey it with precision. In a year or two they would have grown in numbers sufficient to carry the congregation along with them. The heavy, rhythmless singing, with its gliding from note to note, would give place to a more impulsive and accented style, in keeping with the joy and thanksgiving of Christian worship. With all its shortcomings, the Tabernacle singing is thoroughly enjoyable. The heartiness of Mr. Spurgeon's manner is felt by the congregation. They use their voices, if with a drawl, yet with a will ; and no one can doubt that they sing as much from the heart as any congregation in the kingdom. 431 FOKESTEES' HALL, WILDERNESS ROW. The Rev. H. R. Haweis, in his latest volume, discusses the question of rendering public worship acceptable and attractive to the masses. He describes the kind of sermons that he would preach to them, and the kind of psalmody he would encourage. " Hymns," he says, " loud and long, not skipped through at express speed by vocal race-horses, who seem to require no wind and no stops ; but leisurely winning their way, like a good ship gathering in all the breeze of heaven, so gathering in all the voices and the hearts of the people until the praise swells high, and rolls along triumphantly before the great white throne and Him that sitteth thereon. Try an easy, taking liymn with twelve or twenty verses, and see what an effect you will get out of an unlearned congregation, and how they will come together again and again to engage in a kind of hymn-singing they can master and enjoy." This is a good description of the psalmody at the services conducted by Mr. W. J. Orsman, the apostle of the costcrmongers in Golden Lane. For sixteen years Mr. Orsman lias been labouring, and he has from the first held strong opinions as to the importance of singing in mission work. The man who should attempt to preach to ignorant and neglected people without the aid of song, would, he considers, fail to get many hearers. The Gospel, he says, is only good news to those whose hearts are open to receive it, and the words of the preacher arc often an unknown tongue to the man whose soul is 432 STUDIES IX WORSHIP Ml 'SIC. narrowed and degraded by long contact with misery and vice. For this reason, Mr. Orsman, like other mission workers, lias always used singing to attract people to his services, and, when he has got them in, he keeps them alive with plenty of it. But he goes a step farther, for lie argues that if singing is so important, and may be so rich in spiritual blessing to the people, it is worth making a definite part of the operations of the mission. Hence he has for ten years past had singing classes at work — two or three distinct classes, for those in different stages of knowledge, meeting on separate evenings during the week. The number of members in these classes has varied from 40 to 180, but the average attendance has been from 80 to 100. The beginners, for whom a class is started every autumn, go through a regular course of teaching, and learn to .read music at sight. The subscrip- tion to the classes is a penny a week, which goes to buy the music, and to provide a yearly tea for the members. The more advanced singers have formed themselves into a society known as the Temperance Glee Party, the strength of which is always kept up to 40. The Golden Lane singers use their gift almost entirely for religious purposes. Xow and then, when one of the fraternity has an accident, or is in distress, they will give- a concert (admission 2d. and 3d.), and fill the room to the doors, with the spirit which- is so characteristic of their class. But their vocal powersvfind full vent in their hymns and sacred pieces, so that there is little time for secular music. Almost all the young people connected with the mission belong to the singing classes, so that there is no distinct choir, with its separate spirit and semi-professional feeling. The young people who sing occasionally at the Sunday services in front of the Royal Exchange, and in the streets and open spaces in the neighbourhood of Golden Lane, are, in fact, the Bible classes of the Mission, and not a choir in the sense usually understood. The open air singing services OPEN AIR SINGING, 433 which are held during the summer in the broadway near the Foresters' Hall, are a special feature in the work of the Mission. They are called " singing services," and Mr. Orsman believes that open-air services should consist chiefly of. singing. He finds, in London at least, that wayfarers do not stay long enough to appreciate the drift of a long address, and are not unlikely to misunderstand the preacher by listening to a few sentences. In his experience, the people who are to be seen surrounding the street preacher are mostly sympathisers and friends, for whom the service is not intended. On the other hand, the singing attracts everybody, and he remembers case after case of men and women being drawn to the services from having listened, sometimes for months, to the sing- ing. One Sunday afternoon, Mr. Orsman was called to see a young man who was dying in his lodging in Wilder- ness Row. He was one of those who had been led to attend the services by means of the singing. He spoke of the good that these songs had done him, and said, " Oh, that I could hear them again before I die," mentioning especially, "Free from the law," and "Yet there is room." The singers were then at the other end of the street^ but Mr. Orsman sent for them to come to the house. They stood under the dying man's window, and softly sang the pieces he had asked for, while Mr. Orsman sat by his side, and saw the bright look that lit up his face as he heard the music and the words that had so deep a meaning to him. The Foresters' Hall has been hired because the room at the Mission is not large enough for the evening congrega- tion. Here, on Sunday evening last, was assembled a large company. Now that the service is held in such a good hall, a number of people drop in who are not denizens of Golden Lane, but the majority of the congregation was of the genuine class. They looked disappointingly respectable, but we are apt to forget that 2f 434 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. the mission work, apart from its spiritual aspect, is a grand process of temporal improvement. Providence, self-respect, temperance, and economy soon cause rags to disappear, and the result of the reformation is that these people leave Golden Lane for the suburban repose of Hoxton and Islington. This explanation is necessary to account for the appearance of the congregation. The Sunday evening service begins at a quarter to seven, but the people like to come early and sing hymns. A hymn was being sung as we entered, led by Mr. Walkden, who, with Mr. Hawes and Mr. Richards, helps Mr. Orsman in the singing department. Soon after, the service began. The book used is " The Christian Hymnal," and a supple- ment compiled by Mr. Orsman, containing hymns specially suited to mission work, with a few anthems. "We are assured that the people sing one or two of these anthems, such as " The earth is the Lord's," and " Lord of all power and might," very generally. Mr. Orsman does not encourage the extreme ranting style of tunes, with the chorus five times repeated, and " once more" for the last verse. In fact, the tastes of the Golden Lane people are rather classical. One of the hymns on Sunday night was " The God of Abram praise," to " Leoni ; " another was " Jesu, lover of my soul," to .Dr. Dykes' s " Holiingside." Duly mixed with such hymns and tunes as these come the American pieces made popular by Mr. Sankey. On Sunday night, we had " The prodigal child " and " Mourner, wheresoe'er thou art." One of these was sung in the middle of the sermon, to afford a relief to the congregation. Mr. Orsman finds, as others do, that these American pieces are evanescent, while the people never weary of the standard hymns and tunes. It is, however, wise of him to use both kinds. Mr. Orsman's congrega- tion set themselves to enjoy the singing in a truly hearty fashion. And their enjoyment is active, not passive. They are troubled by no fear of singing too loud, and SINGING WITH A WILL. 435 being remarked upon by their neighbours. They work hard at their trade in the week, and work hard at their singing on Sunday. It is quite inspiring to stand among them ; you find yourself singing without knowing it. There is no choir, or rather, the congregation is the choir, and they evidently are not disposed to delegate their privilege of singing to anybody. Hence you do not feel, as at other places, that they are managing the music at one end of the church, and that you are out in the cold. The sound of singing comes from the people around you on every side, and it does one good to witness their enjoy- ment of the exercise. The harmonium, played by Mrs. Orsman, serves to give the key, but it is almost inaudible when the people join in, and they sing with too much vigour, and use their lungs too heartily, to think of flattening. Each verse of the hymn seemed to go better, as the people warmed to the work, and they sang louder and quicker as the music went on. I had always thought that this quickening of the time was the natural expres- sion of rising feeling, but had never witnessed it before. The young people of the singing classes, scattered all over the hall, effectually prevent drawling and dragging. The singing is full of life and force ; the ends of the lines are dropped off short, and the rhythm of the short notes is correctly marked. The hardest thing is when Mr. Orsman, before a verse says, " Softly, please." The people obey him, but it is like making children walk when they want to run ; and how they burst forth when the restraint is removed ! Of course, the singing has not much refinement about it. There is a great deal of portamento — the gliding from note to note — which is universal among untrained singers. But there is a fair proportion of alto, tenor, and bass, and a strong body of sopranos, who make the music sound sweet and bright. Moreover, the practical absence of accompaniment enables us to hear the words, and this gives a new force and 436 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. meaning to the psalmody. The results produced in the singing at the Golden Lane Mission are, in short, excel- lent, and they are manifestly due to the systematic instruction of the people in the art of reading music. 437 THE CITY TEMPLE. The vast congregation which is attracted to the City Temple by Dr. Parker's ministry is about as unwieldy for purposes of psalmody as can well be. The place is always full of strangers, unaccustomed to its "use," as they say in cathedrals, and very much given to drawling and dragging behind. Against the vis inertia of this great crowd, the choir and the organist contend with commendable persistence. The organ, built by Forster and Andrews, of Hull, has lately been placed in the gallery behind the pulpit. AVhen it came, the precentor, Mr. Edwin Moss, was packed off without ceremony, and his work is now undertaken by the choir, which numbers between twenty and thirty, and occupies the organ gallery. The services of last Sunday may be taken as fairly representative. In the morning there were three hymns and a chant ; in the evening, three hymns and an anthem. The services are both short, and hence there is less singing than is usual in other places. The first morning hymn, " Plunged in a gulf of dark despair," was sung to the fine old tune, "St. Magnus" or " [Nottingham " (CM.) The organist ignored the double notes at the beginning of each line, and coupled the first and second lines, and the third and fourth together. The effect of this was seen in the steadiness with which the people sang. The pro- portions of a tune were, however, not observed in the short metre which followed, for here we had the 438 8TUD1JBS IN WORSHIP MUSIC. i double notes, and the pause between each line, which set in to forbid the congregation to feel the impulse of musical rhythm. Dr. Parker's sermon was on the Day of Judgment, and he spoke of it as a day of terror to the oppressor and the evil-doer, hut one which the righteous and the wronged should look forward to with joy. Newton's hymn, " Day of Judgment, day of wonders," exactly caught the feeling inspired by this thought. It was sung to the Russian National Anthem — a fine example of successfully turning a secular melody into a hymn-tune. The singing of this hymn by the great congregation, stirred by the sermon into feeling what they sang, was very impressive. Xot the wail of the Lies Ira, but the song of joyful expectation, this hymn, sung to this grand old melody, was a fitting climax to the service. The organist, Mr. Minshall, played the people out with a fugue of Palcstrina's. The full power of the instrument is great, yet it is not deafening, as in so many other places which have organs too large for their size. The evening service, when the temple was crowded to the doors, began with the hymn, " Children of the Heavenly King," in which the great preponderance of men's voices singing the air was remarkable. In every place of worship there are a number of men who sing the air, but here the dull, heavy sound of the men's octave quite outbalanced the sopranos. It reminded one of a garrison church, or of one of the college chapels at Cambridge. As the melody of the tune only once touched E, the low voices were able to sing it, but in the other tunes they dropped out at the high parts, and the bright (juality of the sopranos rose clearly and sweetly above them. Exactly the same thing maybe heard in Germany; in fact, wherever unison singing is attempted. The anthem was " Sing unto the Lord," by Mr. Ebenezer Prout, from Dr. Allon's collection. It was sung by the choir, with the help of a few voices in the congregation. PREPARATION FOR PRAISE. 439 It would probably be better if the people were requested not to join in the anthem, but to stand and listen, as in the Church of England service. An untrained congrega- tion like that of the City Temple can never sing such anthems as are in this collection, though Mr. Prout's is one of the simplest. They are only likely to make them muddled and confused if they try to join in. By the way, it is strange that so good a musician as Mr. Prout should write such a progression as that at the last chord of the fifth measure. If a leaning towards the modern German school induces such discord as this, we may well pray to be delivered from the music of the future. As to the performance of the anthem, not much can be said. AYe must make allowance for the choir having been recently formed, and hope that they may ultimately learn to keep time with each other and with the organ, and to dwell less heavily on the quaver which follows a dotted crotchet. The hymn, " Jesus calls us o'er the tumult," was sung to one of those stepwise German melodies that the English people always fail to enjoy. It is evident that with such a miscellaneous congregation the number of tunes used must be very small, and these must be such as are common to the psalmody of the country — that is, if it is desired that the tunes shall help the emotions of the people rather than suppress them. In the sermon, which consisted of outspoken advice to those who listen to sermons, Dr. Parker told the people that if they did not profit by a sermon, it was as often their fault as the fault of the preacher. They should seek preparation in the devotional part of the service — in the prayers, the lessons, and the hymns. Except on special occasions, the sermon was the least important part of the service. The hymn, " Forward be our watchword," sung to the tune adapted from Haydn, closed the service. That such a stirring melody, and such stirring words, should be sung heartily was not to be wondered at. The hymn, however, 440 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. was not a mere shout ; for in the second verse, the organist hushed his instrument, and the change was as welcome to the ear as it was suited to the words. The last four lines of each verse form a sort of chorus, and here the organ thundered forth, while the people answered splendidly, and a great mass of sound came rolling up from the congregation. It is, after all, music of this sort, rough and uncultured though it be, that makes the heart swell. It stirs the feelings with an indefinable rapture, and has more of God in it than the Pantheist hears in the thunders of Niagara. Notwithstanding the general heartiness of the Temple singing, it is melancholy to see so many standing silent, or making incoherent and bovine attempts to join in it. Considering that almost any person with ordinary perse- verance may learn to read his or her part in a hymn-tune, there ought to be a great deal more singing, and singing in parts, than there is. Dr. Parker's regular congregation are not responsible for the strangers, who merely reflect the musical incapacity of the nation, but they might themselves do more to aid the service of song. Mrs. Parker has set an excellent example in joining the choir; and if .a number of young ladies who are so ready to sing in the week, would turn from critics into workers, and follow her example, it would be well. This applies to more than one congregation. As the space is limited, the choir ought to consist of tuneful but strong voices, that they v may give a commanding lead to the congregation. Weak, or even average voices are insufficient. The great fault of congregational singing is dragging, and this would be much lessened if the choir were doubled in size, and half of it sat in the opposite gallery to the organ, over the clock. A well -drilled choir, containing a powerful soprano part, thus distributed, would be too much for the laziest congregation, and would keep the singing up to that speed which makes psalmody a delight rather than a ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 441 penance. A weekly choir-practice is held, to which, as in other places, the congregation are invited, but do not go ; and a choral society has lately been formed, which will give occasional concerts. Eoth are useful, but neither is likely to increase the number of readers from notes. ' "What the congregations want everywhere is enough elementary instruction to enable them to sing in parts harmoniously. Congregational part-singing is not a chimera as some would have. The progress made towards it is slow, and the average results at present are poor. We cannot rise much above the general musical culture of the nation. Eut where it has been properly cultivated, the results have shown it to be a possibility, and the end is certainly one that is worth striving for. 112 SUEEEY CHAPEL. We tread upon historical ground in Surrey Chapel — rical, not only for evangelical labours, but what is more to our present purpose, for congregational psalmody. Surrey Chapel is perhaps the only chapel in London whose psalmody can be said to have a history. All other efforts at the improvement of worship music among Dissenters are recent compared with those which, for more than ninety years, have been carried on in this place. Eowland Hill, whether he called himself musical or not, had a strong belief that "the devil should not have all the best tunes," and in the music of Surrey Chapel the influence of his opinion can still be traced. In those days organs were unheard of among Dissenters ; Eowland Hill placed a fine one in his chapel, an instrument which was said at the time to be the second in the kingdom. Moreover, the Church of England service, which he used, gave greater opportunity for musical elaboration than the " bleak ritual " of the old Dissenters. The consequence of all this was that Surrey Chapel became famed for its music ; and people dropped in merely to hear the singing, into which the strong nature of Eowland Hill infused a great deal of life and vigour. To this day the old people love to dwell upon the glories of those times. Then, "old Jacob " was the organist, and wasn't he a man of the right sort ! There are no such organists, they will tell you, nowadays, no such choirs, and the new organ (it was renewed about THE G 001) OLD TIMES. 443 twelve years ago) is nothing like the old one. The glories of Surrey Chapel psalmody in those palmy days culminated in the " pieces, " as the old anthem -like hymn- tunes were called. Where now, they ask ns, are pieces like " Vital spark," " Before Jehovah's awful throne," " Soon shall the trumpet sound" (which brought out, obbligato, that fine trumpet stop in the old organ), and a dozen others ? The rapture with which certain passages of these tunes are recalled at a distance of thirty or forty years shows how deep must have been the impression they made. " Several of the pieces," says Mr. Sherman, in the preface to Surrey Chapel Music, " by being frequently sung, are as familiar to the congregation as ordinary tunes. Nothing can be more imposing than the union of nearly three thousand voices rapturously and harmoniously singing the praises of their Saviour and God ; and for many years it has been to strangers one of the charms of Surrey Chapel, and to its regular attendants a tie not easily broken." Surrey Chapel has been provided, in its lifetime, with three hymnals and two music-books. Rowland Hill's collection of hymns was remodelled by Mr. Sherman, and Mr. Sherman's book has given place in turn to a little book, containing less than two hundred hymns, compiled by the present pastor, Mr. Xewman Hall. The prefaces which Rowland Hill and Mr. Sherman wrote to their hymnals are highly characteristic, and enforce, with homely earnestness, the duty which lies upon every worshipper of exerting himself to praise God with a loud voice. The first Surrey Chapel music -book was "compiled by Dr. Arnold and Messrs. Breillat and Dixon, and respect- ully dedicated by permission to the Rev. Rowland Hill, M. A." It is in two volumes of an oblong folio, and looks very quaint with its figured bass and antique score. This was followed in 18 17 by a new book issued under Mr. Sherman's superintendence, which had the advantage of 444 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. the fine taste and good harmonies of Vincent Novello. It was, Mr. Sherman assures us, " a great improvement on the old." This book, like its predecessor, has now fallen into disuse at Surrey chapel, and is only turned to occasionally for an old tune which the people will not part with. Its place has been filled by the " Congrega- tional Psalmist," and anthems and services of a modern sort have superseded the " pieces." Sic transit gloria mundi. The service on Sunday morning last began with the hymn, "Hark! the herald angels sing." The chord was abruptly sounded by the organ, the choir stood up, and both went away in a brisk staccato style, which was caught up by the congregation as soon as they found out what the tune was, and continued to the end of the hymn. Heartiness and "go" were the characteristics of the singing throughout the service. The choir numbered about thirty, nearly all powerful voices, and, with the organ, they drove the congregation in so sharp and decided a way that dragging was impossible. The repeating of the general confession, of the psalms for the day, and of the creed, brought out very generally the voices of the congregation, but the effect was harsh, and more like the buzz of *the market-place than worship. Surrey Chapel still adheres to the plan, which is all but extinct in the Church of England, of having the responses led by a clerk. The official speaks in a voice nearly as loud as the minister, and a little behind him, while the people follow a little behind the clerk. "Whether the result is of devotional value I do not know ; it is, at least, confusion beyond measure to the ear. The speaking voice can never have been meant for combined utterance ; intoning is the natural form that congregational response should take. But there is a stubborn prejudice against intoning among Dissenters ; and in days of Eitualism it is a prejudice that many respect. The Amens were intoned on E by the choir and congregation, the organ PLAYING OVER. 445 softly giving the cadence. This note, without doubt, is the one given with least effort by miscellaneous voices, and is of a pitch which is natural to grave and prayerful utterance. It is a common fault to intone too high. This is not the case at Surrey Chapel. An elaborate Te Deum, by J. L. Hopkins, was well sung by the choir, but only joined in to a small extent by the congregation. A more plain and popular Jubilate was taken up by the people with much spirit. The hymn before the sermon was " Joy to the world, the Lord has come," sung to the grand and solid strains of " "Winchester Old." The melody was played over, after a short symphony, on a rich and clear-speaking Cremona stop, the lower parts being taken on the swell. This is manifestly the way to get the tune into the people's ears. Some organists seem, when they are playing over, as if they are trying to conceal from everyone what the tune is. One fancies that they finish with an air of triumph, as much as to say, " There, I defy any of you to recognise that tune." The apology for playing the tune over is not, however, that the organist may indulge in a dreamy rhapsody, but that the people may sing more easily from having heard it. The playing over cannot, therefore, be too clear. After the sermon the hymn, " Lord of mercy, Lord of might," was sung to a tune made by Dr. Gauntlett from a Gregorian tone, and called " Ambrose " in the " Congre- gational Psalmist." The people fell heartily into this, singing the air lustily, and keeping excellent time. After the benediction, the congregation stayed to hear the choir sing Goss's " Behold, I bring you glad tidings." This anthem took the place of the usual " playing out • " the plan is found to keep the choir together by giving them work to do. The people enjoy listening ; and if they do not, they can go home. The evening service was curtailed in consequence of the communion. It is usual to chant the psalms> 446 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. and to use Tallis's music for the responses to the com- mandments. Hearty as the Surrey Chapel singing is, but little appears to be done to teach the congregation to sing. The choir practises weekly ; occasional services of song are held ; beyond this there are no psalmody meetings or singing classes. If work was done in this direction, the psalmody might be made the best in London. The way in which the people now join in by ear (for as the tunes are not given out, none of them can have the notes before them) is surprising. Whether the old people are right in saying that the music of Surrey Chapel is not what it used to be, I cannot judge. It is easy to see, however, that the old anthem tunes which they so much enjoyed have dis- appeared, and it is no less easy to see that they have been replaced by modern compositions which, though musically superior, are beyond the reach of the congregation. The strength of Antaeus was invincible so long as he remained in contact with his mother-earth, but when lifted from the earth he was crushed in the air by Hercules. So psalmody loses its force and vitality, and becomes a feeble thing, if it is taken away from its mother-earth — the hearts and voices of the people. The desire of the congregation for the " pieces " of bygone days might be met by the introduction of simple and musically unpre- tentious anthems and sentences. The study of Surrey Chapel psalmody is most interesting. For three or four generations the church has stood apart from all other churches, and kept its individual path. It has always cultivated music in its services, and the changing tastes of nearly a century are reflected in the history of its psalmody. Its ministry has always been distinguished by that Christian fervour which kindles hearts and voices in the praise of God ; and is, rather than SURREY CHAPEL. 117 a good organ or a well-trained choir, the basis of a real and joyful psalmody. The old building will soon be closed,* and much of the traditional style which still lingers in the psalmody of the place will, of necessity, be forsaken. in the new church to which the congregation are removing. The history of the music of Surrey Chapel will, however, always remain a unique and profitable study. * Surrey Chapel was closed in ls77. 448 WEIGH-HOIJSE CHAPEL. The "Weigh-house Chapel was known for its psalmody throughout the whole of Mr. Binney' s ministry. It had the inestimable advantage of a minister who possessed a fine notion of worship, and a small band of devoted followers who undertook the work of applying their minister's notions to the service of praise. In all the efforts of this band of church musicians, Mr. Binney was at their right hand ; his presence and his teaching directed and encouraged them. If a psalmody class was about to begin, he would preach a sermon on the duty of praise ; he would attend the practices, and go in and out among the young people as they were singing. One of the sermons occasioned by a new psalmody class was enlarged to a pamphlet, and published in 1849 under the title of " The Service of Song in the House of the Lord : an Oration and an Argument." It is a survey of the use of * music in Jewish and Christian worship. The vicarious office of the Temple musicians is shown to have ceased with the old dispensation, or rather to have been transferred to the Christian congregation, on whom the duty of the priest now devolves. The style of the writer is lofty and impassioned ; it is a noble argument. More practical and business-like is the short preface which Mr. Binney wrote in 1853, for " Congregational Church Music." He there disclaims any scientific acquaintance with the art, but shows a knowledge of the essentials MR. BINNEY. 449 of congregational music such as few musicians pog "True science," lie says, "is always simple, and so is true and earnest emotion. That is the truest and best music which most efficiently, and to the largest extent, unites all' in calm, solemn, public praise. If, indeed, it be the duty of the congregation to sing, it must be its right to be furnished with such music as it can sing : and though it is also its duty to learn to sing, and to learn to sing well and skilfully, yet the degree in which scientific power is presumed or demanded in habitual worship, must be regulated by a reasonable and con- siderate regard to what is likely to be the condition, in respect to musical knowledge, of the mass and majority of an ordinary congregation." With a minister who had an interest for the singing as well as the sermon, the Weigh-house congregation were on the path to a general and intelligent service of praise. The desires which he awakened soon found expression in a movement for the improvement of the psalmody. " Rippon and Walker" was given up, and a " Weigh - house Tune-book " was compiled by a committee, and issued in 1843. One of the members of this committee was Dr. W. M. Cooke, and, though his hand has carefully concealed itself, we may regard him as the originator of the subsequent efforts for organising the Weigh-house psalmody, and publishing what have come to be known as the Weigh-house books. At the time when London was full of the excitement caused by Mr. Hullah's classes, one of his pupils came to the Weigh-house, and gave a course of sixty lessons to some 200 or 300 people. A few years later many of the congregation went to swell Mr. Waite's congregations — they were too large to be called classes — at Finsbury Chapel. After a time, faults were discovered in the first tune-book, and a second was begun. While it was in progress, Dr. Lowell Mason, of Boston, TJ.S.^ came to London, and gave some lectures in the Weigh- 2 G 450 STUDIES IN WORSRIP MUSIC. house. The charm of his manner, and the wonderful faculty for teaching which he possessed, are remenibeivd by all who were privileged to hear and have intercourse with him. Dr. Mason's notions of congregational psalmody were in harmony with those of the Weigh -house leaders, and he rendered valuable help in the new tune-book, which, appealing to a wider circle than before, was issued in 1853 as " Congregational Church Music." From that time the winter psalmody practices were generally con- tinued under the management of the precentor for the time being, and musicians were occasionally engaged to lecture on expression, pronunciation, and other topics of psalmody cultivation. At these practices secular music as well as sacred was sung. Part-songs were introduced to afford better illustrations of various styles of singing, and to interest the class: A series of " Practice Songs for Classes " was issued, consisting of easy and unpretending pieces. The Weigh-house singing was at its best about fifteen or twenty years ago. The chapel was crowded, and the congregation included a large proportion of men, whose voices •made the singing solid and well-balanced. The psalmody was led by a precentor, without either choir or organ. The testimony of those who then heard it is, that the singing was the best attempt at congregational harmony that has been made. The sound arose from the "body of the people ; it had a unity, fulness, and sweetness of which, it is said, there is now no equivalent in London. The scheme of praise included chants and anthems, as well as hymns. In all of these the principle laid down by Mr. Binney, which I have quoted, was followed. The Weigh -house books show a determined resolve to keen to music within the capacities of an ordinary congregation. While other compilers of tune-books inserted whatever sounded well, without regard to chromatic harmonies THE WEIGR-HOUSE SERIES. 451 and abrupt modulations, the Weigh-house people had ouo paramount question to ask, which decided at once the fate of a tune, "Can ordinary people sing it?" Musically, their book was impoverished by the imposition of this test ; hut it remained true to its professions, and is to this day the most truly congregational tune-book in common use. The Weigh-house anthems, as might he expected, are very simple compositions. Strictly speaking, they are not anthems at all, and, as the compilers say, might be more properly called "prose tunes." Here, as in the hymn-tunes, the book errs perhaps on the side of simplicity, and a want of variety is felt. It is asserted in the preface that congregational music admits neither of direct fugue, nor of those inversions or distributions of the melody in which choirs so much delight. The air, it is said, must be confined to one part. An anthem constructed on these rules is, of course, very simple, and wants the antiphonal character which the very etymology of the name suggests. l>ut I am told that these com- positions were greatly enjoyed by the people, and sung more heartily and generally than anything in the service. The art and practice of chanting was much studied at the Weigh-house, and a little book " on chanting," issued with the Weigh-house chants, remains the most careful treatise on the subject that has appeared. In it the objections to chanting are met and answered, and the structure of the chant is explained. The really important part of it is shown to be the recitation ; the cadence is subordinate. The writer distinguishes between a pretty melody and a good working chant, and shows the importance of a low reciting note and an easily -flowing cadence. The chant, it is said, lias no musical time, only speech time, so that chanting is only musical reading. This rule is followed even in the cadence; here the majority of church musicians and the universality of practice is against the writer. The plan recommended 452 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. for learning- a chant in a congregational practice is as follows : — First the minister or leader should read the passage deliberately and distinctly, with great attention to punctuation and accent. The people should then read it after or with him ; they should next repeat it on one tone, say G, keeping the articulation distinct ; and, lastly, they should pass to the music (which they have already learned by heart), taking care to keep up the speech time, and not to fall into the cathedral style of gabbling and pausing. The use of single chants, and these of the simplest type, is advocated ; here again the practice is severely plain. The Weigh -house congregation were most carefully drilled in chanting, and Mr. Binney would read the psalm at the weekly practice in the way just described. For four years the congregation practised chanting before it was introduced into the service ; then they used only one chant for more than six months. In dwelling thus upon the old days of the Weigh -house psalmody, I have no desire to disparage the present psalmody of the place. The era which closed with Air. Binney •s retirement is a distinct one, owing to the character of the congregation he attracted, the impulse which his teaching gave to the psalmody, and the efforts of the labourers who were associated with him in the field' of church song. There is now an organ in the chapel, but it is played in good taste, and the voices are still supreme. The lady who leads has one of the richest soprano voices that can be heard, and the congregation obey her well. On Sunday morning last there were three hymns ; the Te Deum was sung to three chants, and one of the short anthems, " Thine, 0 Lord," by Lowell Mason, was fairly joined in by the people. The singing is sweet, and has an air of solemnity and calm, but as a whole it struck me as wanting in life. The expressive leading of Mrs. Marshall, however, her clear speaking of the words, A PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT. 453 and the admirable self -renunciation of the organistj arc qualities to be remembered. The "Weigh-house psalmody movement, which has influenced many congregations by the publications it originated, was essentially a movement on the people's behalf. The promoters of it took the side of the con- gregation, thinking not unwisely that this was the side which should be regarded in churches that professed to believe in congregational singing. If they sometimes erred in the direction of simplicity and commonplace we can easily forgive them, because it is less important that our music should please the ear of the musician, than that it should be such as the average people of the congregation can sing. 454 CHRIST CHURCH, WESTMINSTER ROAD. The musical traditions of Surrey Chapel are more than preserved in the new building to which the church has migrated. There are places where the congregation sing more heartily, and where one is more touched with the contagion of common praise ; but,, taken as a whole, the psalmody of Christ Church is much to be admired. Twelve hundred pounds have already been spent on the organ, and it is not completed. The organ contains, among several fine stops, one of the most lovely stopped diapasons that we have heard. The quality of the soft stops of the pedal organ is also admirably suited for accompanying the harmony of a large congregation. The reeds on the swell are rather hard and penetrating, perhaps because they are new. The organist, Mr. F. G. Edwards, R.A.M., is fully master of his instrument. The neatness and rhythm of his playing are, no doubt, due to the fact that he is a good pianist as well as a good organist ; while more than all his success may be attributed to his excellent training of the choir. If congregations, in choosing their organists, would seek first for a good choirmaster, and make brilliant execution a secondary consideration, they would be wise. Among the Nonconformists generally there is a stub- born disregard of times and seasons. They keep Christmas in their homes, but not in their churches. Perhaps they will gradually come to regard these observances on their CHRIST CHURCH. 455 own merits, apart from associations and prejudices. At any rate, this is what has been done at Christ Church, for the service on Sunday evening last bore constant reference to Christmas, and the church was prettily decorated with evergreens and illuminated texts. The service opened with the hymn, " 0 Jesu, we adore Thee," to Sebastian "Wesley's tune, " Aurelia." The quick and exact singing of the choir was soon caught by the congregation. There was no dragging at all. The psalms for the day were sung to a single chant. Here the good drill of the choir was marked, as well as its evenly balanced parts and powerful tone. The organ accompaniment was a model to be imitated — so soft, as a rule, that it often seemed as if the choir alone were singing, but changing in force and quality in sympathy with the words. The organist frequently played an independent part, treating the reciting tone with florid counterpoint, or playing the tenor or alto in a high octave. Through all this the choir sang steadily on, as a properly-trained choir should do. The canticles, Cayitate Domino and Deus Miser eatur, were sung to settings by Bayley, the choir singing as before, with great ease and confidence, and a fair proportion of the congregation following. The opening of the Deus Miser eatur, " God be merciful unto us and bless us," as well as the passage at the words, " God shall bless us," were beautiful examples of soft, sustained singing. The hymns which followed were " Lord of mercy and of might," to a Gregorian tune, and "Brethren, let us join to bless," to the joyful tune " Innocents." After the sermon two hymns were sung in succession, without pause, and then the Benediction was pronounced. The ordinary service was followed by a service of song, lasting half-an-hour, to which almost the whole of the congregation stayed. It began with the hymn, "As with gladness men of old," sung, of course, to the tune "Dix.'> 456 STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. In this the congregation joined heartily with the choir. Then came Gounod's " Bethlehem, " sung by the choir, followed by the old carol, " Good Christian men, rejoice," and Vincent ^ovello's arrangement of the " Adeste Fideles." The service of song closed with the hyinn, u Hark ! the herald angels sing," to Mendelssohn's tune, sung by choir and congregation. The words of each hymn and carol were lead by the Rev. Xewman Hall before singing. In these pieces the training of the choir was conspicuous, and the organ lent a subdued accom- paniment, which was in good taste. The precision of choir and organ was remarkable. "When two people are playing a duet, if one waits or listens for the other, there is no chance of their keeping together. The only way is for each to be confident, and to go ahead. The dragging and indecision of psalmody in general is caused by the organist waiting for the choir, the choir waiting for each other, and perhaps both waiting for the congregation. At Christ Church there is nothing of this. The choir know their work, and instead of leaning on the organ, sing independently, giving the music its proper accent, and strictly observing the time. The result is that organ and choir and congregation are together, and a most pleasant result it is. The laboured style, the heavy dwelling on unaccented notes, which are so common, have given way to an animated manner ; the music has a spirit and pulse of its own ;v it sounds as if it were intended for praise, and as the expression of joy. The choir of Christ Church is a well-organised and most useful body. It numbers about forty-five, nearly all of whom are members of the church, and take a deep interest in their work. There are always plenty of applicants for admission, and those who enter are tested in power of reading music, and are required to possess good voices. The members are mostly old singers, and their voices are formed and powerful, the only defect we noticed being a A WELL-ORGANISED CHOIR. 457 straining on the high notes by the tenors. On Wednesday evenings there is a service in the church, at which they sing. After it a choir practice is held for about an hour. The organist generally takes the baton on these occasions, and gets an assistant to play. No doubt this practice greatly accounts for the steadiness and precision of the singing. It is impossible to train and conduct a choir while sitting with your back to them at the organ, hindered by the sound of your instrument from hearing them properly. Mr. Newman Hall also takes an interest in the choir. He invites them to his house, and encourages a social spirit among them. The weekly practice-hour is spent in learning new music, such as chants, hymn-tunes, or services, and if there is time, in rehearsing some classical chorus. A choir of this sort is, of course, exceptional, and not easily formed or maintained. But all may learn the reasons of its success. It is trained to sing independently of the organ ; its practices are made interesting ; an esprit de corps is encouraged among its members ; a standard of efficiency is kept up, so that none but competent singers are admitted ; and the organist plays a real accompaniment, which encourages the singers to feel that their voices are heard, and that their lead is of use to the congregation, instead of wearying them out in a fruitless attempt to be heard above thundering organ pipes. The hymn-book used at Christ Church is one recently compiled by Mr. Newman Hall. The tunes are mostly taken from " Hymns Ancient and Modern," but Dr. Allon's collection is also used. A manuscript collection of 34 single chants has been made by the organist, and is used by the choir. The services used include the following Te Deums : Smart in E, J. L. Hopkins in Gr, J. M. "W. Young in G, and, of course, Jackson in F ; Jubilates: Elford in B^ (MS.), and Pyne in C; at the evening service, Bunnet in F, Bayley in F, and Ebdon STUDIES in iron SHIP MUSIC. in C : : also a complete service, in chant form, by Mr. Walter Macfarren. Anthems are only snng on special occasions, such as Harvest Thanksgiving, &c. The congregation join, to some extent, in these services, especially in those they know best ; but hardly any have the notes before them, and their attempts are consequently feeble and uncertain. There is a great need of good, yet melodious and simple, services for congregational use. Christ Church, occupying a position half-way between the Church and the Nonconformists, has something of the spirit of both. And Nonconformists may learn much from the place which music is made to hold in its services, without in the least lessening their devotional character — rather, let us hope, increasing it. 459 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS RELATING TO WORSHIP MUSIC. 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Containing a history of Church music and notation, biographical notices. Pol. London, n.d. DAYIES Rev. Maurice. Orthodox London. London, 1874-5. DISEAELI. Isaac. Paper on Congregational Psalmody in the Curiosities of Literature. 1791. DOBIXGTON, Theo. A Discourse on Singing in the Worship of God. London, 1704- DEUITT, Eobp:rt. A popular tract on Church music, with remarks on its moral and political importance, and a practical scheme for its reformation. 8vo. London, 1845. DEYDEN", Henry E. L. On Church music and the fittings of churches for music. 8vo. London, 1854. EARLY METRICAL PSALTEBS. Eev. H. Fleetwood Sheppard, W. H. Cummings. Musical Times. ENGEL, Carl. Eeflections on Church music for tho con- sideration of church-goers in general. London: G. Schuermann & Co., 1856. ENQUIEY into Historical Facts relative to Parochial Psalmody. York, 1821. ESTWICK, SAMSON. The Usefulness of Church Music. London, 1696. FEYJOO. 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RAMSAY, E. B., LL.D. The Use of Organs in Christian Worship, a sermon preached in Trinity Episcopal Church, October 22nd, 1865. Edinburgh, 1865. ROBSOX, Rev. Jas. A. Instrumental Music; a review of the arguments of the anti-instrumentalists. Belfast, 167:5. TOWERSOX, Gabriel, D.D. A sermon concerning vocal and instrumental musick in the Church. Svo. London, 1696. NONCONFOEMIST. I>AVIES, Rev. Maurice. Unorthodox London. London, 1873. EDWARDS, F. G. United Praise (originally published as " Common Praise.") London : J. Ourwen & Sons, 1887. FORD, R. G. Observations on Psalmody, by a composer. London, 1827. MIXSIIALL, E. Organs, Organists, and Oh London : J. Curwen & Sons, 1887. 480 STUDIES IX WORSHIP MUSIC. INDEPENDENTS,- &c. ALLEN", RicnARD. An essay to prove singing of Psalms with conjoined voices a Christian duty. 12mo. London, 1696. ALLOX, Eev. Henry. The Psalmody of the Eeformation. 2 parts, Svo. London, n.d. Church Song in Relation to Church Life. London, 1861. 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London: 32, Little Queen Street. Endless succession of letters, sermons, and articles on Church Music from the Anglo- Catholic standpoint. Correspondence of special value. THE MUSICAL TIMES, monthly. London : Novello. Occasional Papers and Discussions on all topics relating to Anglican Church Music. THE NONCONFORMIST MUSICAL JOURNAL, month- ly (commenced January, 18S8). London: 44, Fleet St. Edited by E. Minshall. Articles, biographies, &c, on the Service Music of the Wesleyans, Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians, &c. THE TOXIC SOL-FA REPORTER, monthly. London: Curwen. Articles, discussions, replies to questions, &c, relating especially to congregational singing, choir-training, &c. CATALOGUES. EUING, William. Catalogue of the Musical Library of the late William Euing, Esq., bequeathed to Anderson's College, Glasgow. Glasgow : Printed by W. M. Ferguson, 1878. HUSK, W. H. Catalogue of the Library of the Sacred Harmonic Society. London, 1S72. MA SOX, Lowell. Catalogue of the Music Library of the late William Mason, now in the Yale Divinity School, Xew Haven, U.S. In MS. POOLE, W. P., LL.D., Librarian of Chicago Public Library. An Index to Periodical Literature. Third edition, brought down to 1882. Boston: Osgood. London: Trubner, 1882. [See under Music, Org :aody, Hymnology, Singing, Congregational Singing, Church of England, Choirs, &c.]. INDEX PAGE Aberdeen, Psalmody at 148 4 ' Abide with Me , " Rhythm of . . 299 Accentual system, The 232 Accent, Want of, in the organ 185 Acciaccatura 201 Accompaniments, Organ 193 Adaptations 278, 357 Allen, Mr 102 Allon, Dr 365 American organ. The 220 varieties 122 America, Psalmody in 108 Andover Seminary 121 Anglican Chant, The 239 , New forms 241 Anglo-Scottish Psalter 130 Ainsworth 80 Antiphonal chanting 231 Arnold, Dr 23 , John 20 , Matthew 133 Arpeggio 206,214 Authorised versions 39 Badcn-Po well, James 243 Balance of lines 293 Baptist Psalmody 93 Barclay, Robert 81,84 Barnby, Mr., at St. Anne's 376 on harmony 258 on hymn tunes 388 Barrel organs 21,181 Barring of hymn tunes 297 Battle of the hymns 173 Baxter, Richard 83 Baylie, Robert 81 Bay Psalter 108 Beccles Church 84 Beckwith, Dr 227 Bedford, Bishop of, on Gregorians 237 , Rev. Arthur 7 "Bedford," with chromatic harmonies 267 , with pedal bass 281 Beecher, Rev. H. W 122 Bennett, Joseph — quartet choir ... 123 PAGE Berridge 51 Beveridge, Bishop 16 Billings 118 Bingham on congregational singing 337 Boyce, Gilbert 105 Boys and girls in choirs 318 t^rs ms women 316 ' voices, Training of 312 Bits from Blinkbonny 168 Bradbury 87 Breathing places 198 Bremner, Robert 158 Binney, Rev. Thomas 448 Broadmead Church 93 Brompton Oratory, The 384 Brown, Mr. Colin 130 Buck, Dudley, on choir accompt. . . . 192 Burney, Dr 24 Burn, Richard, LL.D 21 Burton, John Hill 129 Butler's " Principles of Music " ... 4 Cadences, Primitive 230 Camidge, Matthew 66 Caterwauling, Sanctified 336 Catgut Churches 120 Catholic Apostolic Church 397 singing 3S4 Channon, Thomas 148 Chanting 227 and pointing 244 at St. Anne's 378 , Dr. Allon 368 , How to teach 257 , Prose, in Scotland 172 , Weigh House 452 Cli arity children 15,26 Chauncey, Rev. X 114 Chichester, Bishop of 37 Choir at Christ Church 457 singing in Scotland 167 Choirmaster and organist 326 s in Scotland 172 Choral Festivals 326 Christ Church 454 504 Christ] Chromatic harmony Church concert, A Citv Road Chapel City T.mple, The Cockermouth Church Cole, William Common metre, Tune form Common praise Communion service in Scotland Conference, Minutes of Congregation and choir , Training a " Congregational Psalmist " ... — practices singing , H. Smart Cooke, Dr. William Cornish Methodists Costermongers, The Cotton, John Co-ward. Mr. J. M Crotch, Dr Crotchets, Notation of Crowdy, John Curwen. John, chanting , T. T., chanting Debain, M Devonshire Square Chapel Dickens, Charles Dispersed choir 10,32, in Scotland Disraeli, Isaac Dobson, Mr. John Dodd, Rev. Dr Double chant, The Doxology after Psalms Dragging Druitt, Mr. Robert Duncan, Gideon , Rev. Andrew Durchkomponiert Durel Dwight, Rev. Josiah Dykes, Rev. J. B , on Gregorians , Dr. Oswald. Eastcheap lectures East Ham, Barrel organ at Edgar, Mr. ' Edwards, Mr. F. G Eighteenth Century Elementary instruction Eliot, George Elizabeth, Queen Elvey, Dr. Stephen Established Church of Scotland Evangelising process Extemporising : H. Smart on the organ Expression at Golden Lane — Regent's Square iniu:.\. -, Congregational -, Organ PAGE ... 456 ... 259 ... 383 ... 64 ... 437 ... 83 ... 89 ... 287 ... 354 ... 144 ... 53 ... 126 ... 320 ... 367 ... 324 21, 328 ... 363 ... 449 ... 77 ... 431 ... 109 ... 377 ... 36 ... 291 ... 243 ... 250 ... 251 ... 221 ..'. 102 25 35, 430 .. 172 46 55, 66 21 . . 239 .. 146 .. 194 41 .. 154 .. 167 .. 256 7 .. 114 . . 237 .. 416 ... 88 ... 182 ... 79 210, 454 6 ... 440 ... 42 2 ... 247 ... 174 ... 51 ... 363 ... 187 ... 435 ... 418 ... 200 ... 36 F <*^Q> \/ - - - - Flattening 194, Ford, Thomas Foresters' Hall Foundling Chapel, The Free Chant, Crowdy's Church of Scotland harmonies : H. Smart . . . parts, Organ Frost, Dr. C. J Fugal tunes, The old Fuller, Andrew Gabriel, Mr. J. W Gaelic Psalmody, The Gathering note, The Psalm, The Gauntlett, Dr Gawler, William General;Baptists Genevan Psalmody Geneva Psalter German Jews Psalmody Gevaert, M., on organ Gibson, Bishop Gilson, Mr. Cornforth Gill, John Godly ballads Gordon, Rev. A. J Square Church Grantham Grant's Burgh Schools Gregorian chant, The. . . . Festival at St. Paul's music : W. H. Monk s, Accompaniment of Hall, Rev. Newman Harmonies, Alteration of Harmonium, The Harmony : Mr. W. H. Monk . . . , Style of Harrison, Frederick Havergal, Mr., on harmony ... Haweis, Rev. H. R T Hawkins, Sir John Hayne, Rev. Dr Hebrew music Heron, Henry HiU, Rowland Homily, A Hopkins, Dr. E. J Horsleydown Church Hullah, Dr , Mr., on women's voices , on chanting , on Gregorians , on harmony , on melody in tenor Human composures Hutcheson, Mr. J. M " Hymnary, The " 11 Hymns, Ancient and Modern " 3fe^ PACE 196, 423 ... 81 . . . 431 ... 410 . . . 243 ... 169 ... 357 ... 202 ... 210 ... 306 ... 90 64 145 290 137 105 1 130 395 342 190 8 157 104 128 340 397 96 140 231 238 403 207 457 270 220 408 253 335 257 431 37 23 215 390 25 442 425 347 96 40 317 228 234 258 284 17 336 379 408 u [NDEX. 505 PAGE Hymns, Chanting of 252 in Scotland 17:5 , introspective 260 Imaginary bar, The 247 Independents "'•> Instruments in el lurch 38 , various, in churches 184 Interludes, Organ 188 Intonation, the Gregorian 232 Intoning : Surrey Chapel 444 Irving, Washington 44 Isaac, Daniel 59 Itinerant teachers 26,35 Jebb, Dr 46 , on chanting 245 , on the choral service . . . 233 Jones, John 240 , Rev. W 22 Joule, Mr. B. St. J. B 247 Jewish Synagogue Service 390 Keach, Benjamin 96 Kennedy, Rev. Rann 38 Kensington Chapel 422 Knox, John, Psalter 131 Laing, David 132 Lambeth, Mr 200 LaTrobe 38 Leeds organ controversy 58 Leman, James 9 Lining out 9 : Independents ... 88 in Scotland 138, — : Methodist New England ... 110, Livingston, Rev. Neil.. London Oratory, The Longhurst, Dr., on Gregorians on women's voices... Long metre, true form Lord's tiddle, The Lunn, Rev. J. R Mace's Mustek's Monument Macfarren, Sir Geo., congregational singing 323, Macfarren, Sir Geo., on chanting ... , on Gregorians , on harmony ... , on organs , on quick singing Mackintosh Mackmeeken, Rev. J. "W Mainzer, Dr 145, Marlowe, Isaac Marx on organ tone Mason, Dr. Lowell 124, — , William Mather, Dr. Cotton Maze Pond Chapel Meditative service, A Melody and harmony in the tenor 333 229 234 259 218 3(»5 140 133 168 97 185 449 36 US MX) 381 279 282 P \<.i: Men and women, separation of Mendelssohn on repetition 308 Metcalfe, Rev. J. 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