K 
 
 2K§MHh*5& 
 
 :,, 
 
 
 K< A ~ 
 
 J^f^y 
 
 
 * • ', ' y 
 
 
 ■ ■"' '■ 
 
 
 tfWusir 
 
 tyapitface-fyj 
 lE^op-of^em-fork 
 
The Churchman. 
 
 July IS, 1896 (19) 
 
 The Evolution of Church Music. By the 
 Bet F Laodon Humphreys, Mm Doo., s.T.D. 
 With h i refuse by the Kt. K.v H. 0. 1'otter, D.D., 
 I.I. p.. OX L l'i 179, SI 75. [Nt-w York: Charles 
 Bcritmer'i Sons.l 
 In an introductory note the author of 
 
 this interesting book explains thai it is 
 
 rather a growth than the working out of a 
 
 tix.'d Intention. Beginning as a lecture, 
 several times rewritten, it has finally 
 been extended to its present form. It is 
 not t<> be expected that a volume of less 
 than two hundred pases will treat ex- 
 haustively a subject so large as the history 
 of music, for the history of Church music 
 is practically thai of all music down to a 
 comparatively recent period. The aim of 
 the author is rather to give a rapid and 
 comprehensive view of the subject, in a 
 style neither too condensed for easy read- 
 ing nor too technical to attract those who 
 might be repelled from pages bristling 
 with musical terms. 
 
 The iirst chapter sketches the develop- 
 ment of music from the "primordial cry" 
 through the first crude attempts at the 
 orderly arrangement of sounds by means 
 of roughly-fashioned instruments, and 
 through the early Hebrew and Egyptian 
 periods to the Greek modal system. At 
 the outset, we are inclined to think that 
 the author does not keep clearly before 
 his reader the idea of an evolution as dis- 
 tinguished from a mere progress. For 
 example, in speaking of the earliest known 
 forms of the scale, and in endeavoring to 
 explain the reasons why certain intervals 
 were recognized before others, he says: 
 "To elucidate this reason, it is neces- 
 sary to understand that melodic scales and 
 harmonic scales are quite different, and 
 that our system of harmony is a purely 
 scholastic product." One might easily 
 draw the inference from this that the 
 modern system of harmony was an al- 
 together artificial thing, based upon noth- 
 ing more than an accumulated mass of' 
 arbitrary dicta. Hut such an idea is 
 foreign to ihe very essence of an evolu- 
 tion. Involution is a growth from an in- 
 ferior form, through various intermediate 
 forms, to the highest possible stage of de- 
 velopment Prof. Drummond has aptly 
 illustrated the difference between true 
 
 evolution and mere development, by com- 
 paring the growth of the plant from seed 
 t < . shoot, from shoot to bush. and from bush 
 to giant tree, with the changes that take 
 
 place in a stalactite in a cave. Both the 
 
 plant and the stalactite become larger and 
 larger, and change their forms, but the 
 
 one i^ the result of an Inherent vital force, 
 
 the other is the result of mere accretion. 
 
 Now, the development of music has been 
 
 a real evolution, and the vital force which 
 
 has given impetus to it all along has been 
 the unquenchable desire of the human 
 mind for a system of tone-arrangement 
 which should satisfy the ear, and upon 
 which the musical sonse could rest as up- 
 on a finality. Hence the steady, though 
 incredibly slow, series of modifications and 
 amplifications which the scale underwent. 
 each one bringing it nearer to the fully 
 developed farm in which we now know it. 
 To say that these changes were only the 
 product of scholasticism. is to take away 
 the vitality from the growth of music ami 
 to reduce it to the level of the stalactite. 
 Moreover, it reverses the whole chain of 
 processes which we know to have taken 
 place in the progress of the art.' If we 
 follow the recorded history of music as far 
 back as it goes we find that every step in 
 advance has been made in the teeth of the 
 scholasticism of the period, which has 
 always arrayed itself against innovations. 
 The men who contributed to the advance- 
 ment of the art were those venturesome 
 souls who dared to do what had never been 
 done before, in obedience to an instinct 
 within them which told them that what 
 they did was musically right. Every com- 
 poser great enough to be classed among 
 the epoch makers, of whom we have any 
 knowledge, from Richard Wagner back to 
 Monteverde, trampled the theoretical rules 
 of scholasticism under foot and was bitter- 
 ly assailed for doing so. Scholasticism 
 prepared the way for discoveries: it did 
 not make them. Are we not justified in 
 
 supposing that the process of development 
 was the same through the earlier and pre 
 historic periods? 
 
 When one applies the inductive method 
 to an investigation, he must take account 
 of all the available facts, and the testi- 
 mony of the facts is that in every age the 
 final appeal of music has been to the ear, 
 and so completely is this now recognized 
 that, at the present day, the most dis- 
 tinguished composers have no compunc- 
 tion whatever in violating rules which 
 stand at the very beginning of the theo- 
 retical primer, if thereby they can obtain 
 the effects they seek. The ear is the 
 court of last rosort. 
 
 Again, if the modern system of harmony 
 is purely a scholastic product, why is it 
 that during the centuries since it has 
 been established science, experiment, in- 
 vestigation and erudition have neither 
 added to it nor taken from it? When we 
 look into the history of the preceding 
 periods, we find constant changes taking 
 place, not simply in the mode of employ- 
 ing the scale, but in the scale itself. Hut 
 the harmonic scale has stood through a 
 period of inquirv and experiment un- 
 
paralleled in the world's history without 
 change. We take the reason to be, that 
 the harmonic scale marked the summit 
 and end of the evolution of the 8y$tem of 
 music. We may borrow once more from 
 Prof. Drummond. His argument (in 
 "The Ascent o! Man") is that biological 
 evolution stopped with man. because 00 
 the appearance of man a new evolution 
 began— "the evolution of the tool." A 
 similar line of argument might be used to 
 prove that the harmonic scale was the 
 final step in the organism of music, be- 
 cause immediately thereupon a new evo- 
 lution started — the evolution of combina- 
 tion : harmony. 
 
 We confess that we prefer to believe the 
 present system to be the revelation of a 
 great fact— a fact based upon some greater 
 law of nature which science has not yet 
 fathomed— than to look upon it as the 
 mere artificial structure of scholars and 
 theorists. We do not comprehend how a 
 South Sea Islander's strumming of a 
 couple of fragmentary chords on his little 
 mandolin of gourd is any nearer to nature 
 than the strains of the Pastoral Symphony. 
 The savage's efforts are the poor result of 
 a dim comprehension. His music is 
 simply an imperfect, embryonic product. 
 It may have remained in its rudimentary 
 state for ages, but that only proves that it 
 is one of the instances of arrested develop- 
 ment of which evolution is full. The 
 terms "natural" and "primitive" are not 
 convertible. 
 
 The second chapter of the book deals with 
 the music of the early Christian Church, 
 but while it goes concisely over the histor- 
 ical ground it contains much more than its 
 title would lead one to expect. Indeed, we 
 imagine that this section may have 
 been the original lecture which forms 
 the nucleus of the volume, for it is in it- 
 self quite a complete essay on Church 
 music. We find it the most interesting 
 chapter in the book, because it sets out 
 Dr. Humphreys's views on the essential 
 differences between sacred and secular 
 music— an important subject. If we ap- 
 prehend the author aright, the first test 
 by which he would determine the essen- 
 tially sacred character of a composition is 
 the frame of mind in which the composer 
 has essayed his task. The argument is 
 based upon the proposition that music is 
 the expression of human emotion, and 
 that, therefore, sacred music must be the 
 expression of religious emotion. From 
 this he contends that "a person devoid of 
 spiritual discernment and spiritual life, 
 unstirred and uninfluenced by religious 
 emotion, cannot express, musically or 
 otherwise, an emotion to which he is 
 himself a stranger. " 
 
 The vulnerable point in this argument 
 lies in the major premise. That music 
 
 is not the expression of human emotion 
 was long ago proved, notably by Hansliek, 
 in his famous essay on "The Beautiful in 
 
 Music.'" We might, if space permitted, 
 quote page after page of the unassailable 
 
 argument by which the great Austrian 
 critic shows that there is no "casual 
 nexus 1 * between music and emotion. 
 we must leave this to the reader, and 
 on t<> the deduction which i )r. Humphreys 
 draws. It will be seen that his general 
 i/ation that "a person devoid of spiritual 
 discernment . . . cannot express, mu- 
 sically or otherwise, an emotion to which 
 he is a stranger" is only a partial state- 
 ment of a larger generalization. If what 
 he says be true of the expression of re- 
 ligious emotion, it is also true of emotion 
 which is not religious, and the statement 
 then assumes this form : No man can ex- 
 press to others emotions to which he is 
 himself a stranger. In other words, he 
 must himself have experienced specific 
 mental processes before he can set kindred 
 processes in operation in the minds of 
 others. Here, again, the inductive method 
 fails to support the conclusion. One 
 comes upon a whole line of facts which 
 cannotbe reconciled with the theory — facts 
 furnished by the stage. No one will 
 question the immense power, both of ex- 
 pressing and exciting emotion, wielded by 
 actors ; but no one for a moment sup- 
 poses that Edwin Booth underwent the 
 mental experiences of a madman as a 
 preparation for his presentation of Ham- 
 let, or that Mr. Irving's conception of the 
 "Merchant of Venice" springs from a 
 mind which has burned with revenge over 
 the loss of a bagful of ducats and a 
 .daughter, or that Miss Terry has ever 
 passed through the mental agonies which 
 she so heartrendingly depicts in the rOli 
 of Marguerite. There is a very distinct 
 line of separation between the actual ex- 
 perience of an emotion and the power to 
 comprehend an emotion which has not 
 been experienced. This power is not 
 vouchsafed to every one, but it is 
 possessed in a high degree by great act- 
 ors and great musicians. 
 
 It may be said that this line of reason- 
 ing deals more with the performance of 
 music than with its creation ; but when 
 we endeavor to apply the emotional test to 
 the actual composition of a work in order 
 to determine its sacred or secular charac- 
 1 ter, we are met by difficulties hardly less 
 formidable. To begin with, in respect to 
 a vast number of the works of dead com- 
 posers, we are absolutely without what 
 may be called collateral evidence as to 
 what frame of mind they were in when 
 they wrote. We must, therefore, depend 
 .solely upon the character of the music 
 itself, and this intrinsic evidence is by 
 no means reliable. Dr. Humphreys him 
 
self furnishes us with an illustration. He 
 Bays: "Instinctively, we feel, leaving the 
 significance <>f the words aside, that the 
 music of 'The Messiah 1 is Baited to b 
 church." Mervl\ pausing to note thai do 
 esthetic law can be based opoo so varia- 
 ble and uncertain a foundation as in- 
 stinctive feelings, We remark that it is 
 perfectly well known that Handel incor- 
 porated into "The Messiah'' a number of 
 earlier compositions of his own I some- 
 times unaltered even as to key) which 
 were of purely secular character and de 
 
 sign. Are we to suppose that Handel 
 Was in a religious frame of mind when he 
 Composed those madrigals which he after- 
 wards found could he warmed over and 
 
 served up again to advantage? And if 
 not. at what point did those compositions 
 cease to be essentially secular, and be- 
 come essentially sacred? In speaking of 
 the so-called sacred music of Mozart, 
 Rossini and some other composers, Dr. 
 Humphreys says : " In short, it is not de- 
 votional, either because the composers 
 had no religious idea to express, or be- 
 cause they wrote to please a worldly and 
 secular taste. . . . Although written 
 expressly for the Church, it does not 
 represent the feeling, and has not the 
 meaning that sacred music should have." 
 This is unquestionably true, but the con- 
 verse is also true — that much music of ab- 
 solutely secular origin is found to minis- 
 ter helpfully to the devotions of pious 
 people, though it may be as a stumbling 
 block to the thoroughly informed musi 
 cian, and to the critical listener as fool- 
 ishness. 
 
 In truth, association plays a part so 
 very important in determining the effect 
 of a given composition, that no deduction 
 is valuable which fails to take account of 
 this factor. "The Messiah" is an illus- 
 tration directly in point. It was launched 
 on its career as a sacred composition, and 
 it comes down to us backed by all the 
 force of a century and a half of religious 
 associations. Its character as sacred 
 music is not at nil disturbed by the fact 
 that its origin was partly secular. No 
 person who is unfamiliar with the history 
 of the work can possibly detect which 
 portions were introduced by Handel from 
 his earlier works, and ! hose who know (he 
 facts cannot specify any distinguishing 
 features which separate the worked over 
 madrigals from the rest. We "instinc- 
 tively feel" that "The Messiah" is a 
 sacred composition because we do uot 
 
 know it. in any other character. The 
 same thing is true of the Gregorian tones. 
 
 Investigation has shown that the origin 
 of these tones was pagan. Originally 
 90me of them may have been of religious 
 character, in tie- sense that the hymns 
 addressed to heathen deities were relig- 
 ion^. Hut whatever ma\ have been the 
 
 purpose of their first conception, they un- 
 doubtedly formed part of the current 
 music of the period at which the early 
 Church adopted them and put them to re- 
 ligious use- We owe the preservation of 
 these ancient melodies solely to the 
 Church. But for her, they would, doubt- 
 less, have been utterly lost and forgotten. 
 Consequently we have no conception of 
 any other use being made of them than 
 ecclesiastical use. They come down to 
 us surrounded by an atmosphere of re- 
 ligion, and their associations, together 
 with their archaic form, give them the 
 solemnity which so strongly impresses the 
 listener. But to say that they are in- 
 trinsically religious because of specific 
 peculiarities of construction is like assert 
 ing that there is something sacred in the 
 mere syntax of our King James version 
 Of the Scriptures. 
 
 That there are certain characteristics 
 which should never appear in the music 
 of the sanctuary is true, and Dr. Hum- 
 phreys points out some of them. These 
 features are objectionable, because asso 
 ciation has inseparably linked them with 
 what is worldly and trivial, and their use 
 in worship would suggest thoughts which 
 are foreign to devotion. We would not 
 be understood as undervaluing the emo- 
 tional side of sacred music, nor as con- 
 tending that a person of unbelieving soul 
 and irreligious life can render as worthy 
 service in the musical worship of God as 
 one to whom religion is a reality. 
 What we would gladly see more clearly 
 recognized is that sacred music does not 
 depend for its existence on any funda- 
 mental and necessary connection between 
 it and emotion, however valuable as an 
 emotional agent it may, under certain 
 circumstances, be. Unbelievers and irre- 
 ligious persons are out of place either in 
 
 initiating or performing the music of the 
 
 hurch ; but the objection to them stands 
 upon well-defined grounds of its own. and 
 not upon a psychological impossibility. 
 the existence of which is, to say the least, 
 debatable. 
 
 The whole question of the fitness or un- 
 fitness of a given composition for sacred 
 purposes must be left to the arbitration of 
 taste. It cannot be determined by any 
 hard and fast rules or theoretical stand 
 ards. 
 
 The elevation and refinement of taste, 
 both in those who perforin and those who 
 hear, is the real task before the ess;<\ isl 
 on Church music, and here Dr. hum 
 phreys grasps fully the opportunities be 
 lore him. Mis criticism is acute and far- 
 reaching, his taste cultivated, and his 
 reading wide. We could wish that that 
 portion of his book which relates especial 
 ly to hymns had been extended to a much 
 greater length, so full is it of sound and 
 discriminating judgment. That his nrof- 
 
erencos incline strongly to the English 
 school goes without saying, and he gives 
 a very comprehensive review of the de- 
 velopment of Anglican music. A classi- 
 fication which puts Sir John Goss in the 
 same historical period with Boyce and 
 Battishill, while it sots down Smart, 
 Dykes, Barnby and others as men of 
 "modern times," seems hardly accurate. 
 Goss lived to a great age, and only died a 
 few years ago, and 1; is quite as much to 
 
 be ranked as a modern composer as either 
 Dykes or Smart, both of whom, if we re- 
 member aright, died before him. 
 
 We can pay no higher compliment to 
 Dr. Humphreys's book than to say that it 
 is both suggestive and stimulating. The 
 time spent by any one who is interested 
 in the development of all that is best in 
 Church music in reading it will be well 
 bestowed. That we cannot accept all of 
 the postulates from which Dr. Hum- 
 phreys reasons has not prevented us from 
 deriving a pleasure and profit from "The 
 Evolution of Church Music," which we 
 trust may be shared by many readers. 
 
 f*—lS*P *t% / • " *+*++ / t*%, 
 
 kl to' 
 cd 
 
 S- - 
 
 ^ 
 
 C 
 
 '3 3 
 
 c o 
 ed 
 
 a. be 
 
 X B 
 
 v -r 
 
 c £ 
 
 x 
 
 g> : 
 
 53 Q 
 
 x X 
 
 s 
 
 u b 
 
 s ■: .- - 
 
 g^ 
 
 ?1 
 
 c >> 
 
 •- V 
 
 T E X 
 
 *2 G . 
 
 E - 
 
 o a « 
 
 •* W « 
 
 G cS B 
 
 8 2 fr 
 
 > "G 
 
 O C 
 u ed 
 
 Ih 
 
 O G 
 
 s-s 
 
 . X 
 
 p o 
 
 <*2 ° 
 
 tfl X 
 
 X 
 
 c 
 
 O 
 
 ^ O 
 
 X to 
 
 VI 
 
 C ro 51 
 
 Jo -c .22 
 
 y tO >. 
 
 'S. S b 
 
 >» 
 
 ~ bo ~ 
 
 «• *■■ w 
 
 « 15 
 
 Ifl u M 
 G x 
 
 * 3 . 
 
 ^ bo o 
 
 « « 3 
 
 3 0° 
 
 cr **- — 
 D u cd 
 u .o a. 
 
 P o ss 
 
 
 bo w " 
 
 C to o g ~ 
 
 ■ ~ s 3 § 
 
 x ^ 
 
 O 
 
 Ih 
 Ih 
 I) 
 
 1) 
 
 -G u 
 C O 
 
 cd 43 
 
 .5 « 
 
 
 Ih 
 
 o, b 
 
 B * 
 
 3 C 
 
 — c 
 
 £ I 
 
 Q to 
 
 S3 * 
 
 o o 
 (J 
 
 — x 
 
 4-1 X >. "3 
 
 < VH 
 
 
 G 2 
 
 o ■- 
 "5 ^> 
 
 e !i « u - 
 3~ * S J. 
 
 bo w 
 
 .S G 
 
 xi o 
 
 s i » ,: 
 
 X G d 
 
 "E- 3C 2 ~ 
 
 e u § g 
 
 •_: c -g . u 
 
 "G C 
 
 2 8 
 
 G bo 
 
 > V 
 
 >- > 
 
 !0 OJ 
 
 li X 
 
 g 5 
 |S 
 
 E C 
 
 Si 
 
 _ o 
 
 cd B 
 
 -G ^ 
 
 O J3 
 
 e -u 
 
 >> c 
 
 cd e 
 
 - 6 
 
 cd o 
 
 — 
 
 <u cd 
 c o 
 
 G 
 
 §5 
 
 G X 
 S -G 
 
 x 
 
 
 s a 
 
 jc cd 
 
 o 2 
 
 II 
 
 O J-H 
 
 ■£ c 
 
 G 
 
 T3 tu 
 
 O " 
 
 B c 
 
 O J3 
 
 o ed 
 
 5 ? 
 <u cd 
 E « 
 
 V 
 
 X — . 
 
 'A = 
 
 «4H "G 
 
 C G 
 
 ?* 
 
 E W 
 
 X _ 
 
 2 G 
 
 Hi 
 
 o *i 
 
 ji br 
 _- B 
 
 8 e 
 
 3-8 
 8" a 
 
 o b/: 
 
 "G _* 
 
 G 13 
 
 cd o 
 
 - S 
 
 E : 
 
 JJ o 
 
 X u 
 x x 
 
 SS 
 
 bo E 
 .5 
 
 'to "G 
 
 •3 £ 
 
 G.± 
 
 a, 
 
 X X 
 
 43 QQ — 
 
 <-> d 
 
 x 
 
 bo ; G 
 
 ■= >, x 
 
 *- cd 
 
 -3 E 
 
 '•j ._ 
 
 s a 
 
 a^ •- 
 
 cd o 
 E -B 
 
 v-« ex: 
 
 J= G 
 
 — u 
 
 c 0) 
 
 c w 
 
 =3 . 
 
 p^ . c ■- 
 
 J2 to v 
 
 m 3 tO 
 
 iS a 
 cd 
 
 — W -E 
 
 3 « 43 
 
 — Go 
 C -E u 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://archive.org/details/evochurcOOhump 
 
(tfuolution of Cljurcl) Jttusic 
 
 Netu JJork 
 Cijarks Scrtbncr Sons 
 
/ 
 
 JUN 22 1932 
 
 (EJjetEtoolutton 
 
 /ttus.gtor.§.(Lp.uritf)-prefatt-l>iJ 
 
 tl^W.fccu J.(t$otter-p. ip. MI. 
 
Copsrfgbt, \896, b£ 
 f. Xanl>on "fcumpbre^s 
 
 ^Habe bj 
 3 3- Urttle $c Co. 
 
 Well) Yurfe 
 
&o t\\z one 
 
 to tuliom 3 otoe t\)C most 
 
 is this least of offerings oeoirateo 
 
 JAB Jdt{j*r 
 
preface 
 
 It is eminently appropriate that the 
 story of the Evolution of Music should be 
 written by a clergyman. A retrospect 
 which reaches back no farther in the land 
 from which we derive both our language 
 and our literature than the third decade 
 of the thirteenth century will discover 
 that the first English school of music of 
 which any trace has been discovered, was 
 founded about that time by John of Forn- 
 sete, a monk attached to the famous 
 monastery at Reading, in Berkshire. Its 
 records still survive, and the curious 
 scholar may find them in a manuscript 
 bearing date 1226, which is known as the 
 Reading MS., and which is among the 
 treasures of the British Museum.* 
 
 It is a suggestive picture which such a 
 fact calls up. Dr. Jessup has shown, in his 
 charming volume on the monastic life of 
 
 * Harl. MS., No. 978. 
 
8 Preface 
 
 England in those times, how in days of 
 warfare and unrest the cloister was the 
 refuge of the student and the artist. 
 Everything that is best that has survived 
 those days reveals how men of native re- 
 finement and of cultivated taste found in 
 such retreats the opportunity for the cul- 
 tivation of painting, letters, and music. 
 John Henry Newman, in his memorable 
 sermon on St. Andrew, reminds us that 
 the author of the present system of musi- 
 cal notation is unknown, but the history 
 of music leaves little reason to doubt that 
 it was the invention of an ecclesiastic. 
 There were devout men, like David long 
 before them, who found in music the most 
 adequate expression of their deepest emo- 
 tions ; and the history of music may be 
 said, in one aspect of it, to be almost a 
 history of religion. 
 
 We go back to the earliest beginnings 
 in that history, and we find that music is 
 forever associated with two conspicuous 
 elements of a nation's life — war and 
 worship. Indeed, as in the case of Israel 
 in its wanderings, the two were, in a 
 
JJreface 
 
 sense, but one. The priests prayed, the 
 minstrels sang or trumpeted, and the peo- 
 ple fought ; and as one ascends out of that 
 earlier and more primitive stage of soci- 
 ety, side by side, struggle and song climb 
 up to loftier heights and wider triumphs. 
 
 That is a timely service, therefore, 
 which undertakes to make this plain ; to 
 trace the progress of music from its sim- 
 plest and most elementary form and in- 
 struments to its latest and most complex 
 achievements. For such a task the au- 
 thor of this volume has many excellent 
 gifts, and I am glad to be permitted to 
 express my confidence in the painstaking 
 fidelity with which he has addressed him- 
 self to it. 
 
 Henry C. Potter. 
 
 St. Andrew's Day, 1895. 
 
3ntrobtutorg Note 
 
 A few years ago, in response to the 
 request of an association of clergymen in 
 the Diocese of New York, the author 
 wrote a paper on music. This essay was 
 subsequently read before similar associa- 
 tions in other dioceses, and each time 
 was partially or w r holly rewritten. Later 
 the same matter, recast and extended, was 
 delivered in the more popular form of 
 lectures before the students of several of 
 our church colleges and seminaries ; and 
 now, with considerable additions, it is 
 offered to a still larger public. In pre- 
 paring it for print, all quotations have as 
 far as possible been revised, and due credit 
 has been given. Yet in the course of these 
 frequent changes and extensions it is quite 
 possible that some errors — I hope not 
 many — may have occurred. The ade- 
 quate consideration of so extensive a sub- 
 ject as church music would naturally call 
 
i2 Jntrobnctorji JTotc 
 
 for a much larger volume than this. But 
 I have aimed at nothing more than the 
 endeavor to present an accurate and com- 
 prehensive sketch of the subject in a com- 
 paratively small volume and in a readable 
 form. 
 
 We have not yet reached a proper con- 
 ception of the right use and dignity of 
 true church music. It is too often con- 
 sidered a mere ornamental accessory, not 
 the highest and best expression of reli- 
 gious feeling known to mankind. It is 
 in the hope of arousing a greater and 
 more intelligent interest in the subject, 
 among both the clergy and the laity, that 
 this book is put forth. 
 
(Origin ano (Emotional Significant* of Jttnsir 
 
11 Blest pair of sirens, pledges of heaven's joy, 
 Sphere-born, harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse, 
 Wed your divine sounds, and mixed powers employ, 
 Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce ; 
 And to our high-raised phantasy present 
 That undisturbed song of pure consent, 
 Aye sung before the sapphire-colored throne 
 To Him that sits thereon, 
 With saintly shout, and solemn jubilee ; 
 Where the bright seraphim, in burning row, 
 Their loud-uplifted angel-trumpets blow ; 
 And the cherubic host, in thousand choirs, 
 Touch their immortal harps of golden wires, 
 With those just spirits that wear victorious palms, 
 Hymns devout and holy psalms 
 Singing everlastingly." 
 
 — Milton. 
 
<£t)c (guolution of €\)\xxc\) Music 
 
 Chapter t 
 
 The power of music over human emo- 
 tions was acknowledged long before we 
 have any traces of its beginnings as an 
 art. Music owes its evolution entirely to 
 man. Painting, sculpture, and poetry, 
 apart from the media which they employ, 
 necessarily involve a reference to nature. 
 Music, in so far as it relates to its subject, 
 could exist if there were no world of 
 nature at all. It is at once sensuous and 
 spiritual. Its direct appeal is made to 
 the auditory nerve ; but it has certain 
 qualities which penetrate beyond, and 
 reach an aesthetic faculty which we have 
 every right to call the soul. Beethoven 
 wrote on the Mass in D, " From the 
 
i6 (The <£tiolMion of Cbnrrb fttnsic 
 
 heart it has come, and to the heart it 
 shall penetrate," and all true music may 
 take those words for its maxim. 
 
 The Bible itself bears frequent witness 
 to the power of music exerted by even so 
 imperfect an instrument as David's harp. 
 "When the evil spirit was upon Saul, 
 David took an harp and played, so 
 Saul was refreshed, and the evil spirit 
 departed from him." The most patient 
 of men speaks of those " who take the 
 timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound 
 of the organ." The early Fathers of the 
 Church also frequently testify to the emo- 
 tional power and value of music. St. 
 John Chrysostom said of it : " It hath a 
 sweetness and utility, and glorifieth God, 
 purifieth our hearts, elevateth our con- 
 templations, and helpeth to make us wise 
 unto salvation." St. Augustine speaks of 
 the "way music has of soothing whatever 
 passions hurt the soul, repressing sensual- 
 ity, and moving to holy contrition and 
 godly sobriety." St. Basil, after describ- 
 ing the power of music to repel demons 
 and lure the ministry of angels, further 
 
(ElK ©ooltttion of (Church ittusic 17 
 
 says : " It hath pleased him to borrow 
 from melody that pleasure which, being 
 mingled with heavenly truths, conveys 
 them, as by stealth, into our mind." 
 Luther said : "Music is one of the most 
 glorious gifts of God. It removes from 
 the heart the weight of sorrows and the 
 fascination of evil thoughts." 
 
 The most striking testimony to the 
 ethical influence of music is to be found 
 in the writings of the Greek philosophers. 
 The forms of music in ancient Greece 
 were known by national or tribal names 
 which were called modes : of these, four 
 were more commonly used ; namely, the 
 Dorian, Phrygian, Ionian, and Lydian. 
 Each of these was regarded as capable of 
 arousing particular emotions, and of act- 
 ing on the mind in a way to exert an 
 important influence on the formation of 
 character. Both Socrates and Plato men- 
 tion it as a serious consideration to choose 
 wisely those musical forms to be used in 
 state education. Socrates says : " Give 
 me the mode which will imitate the ac- 
 cents of a brave man enduring danger 
 
1 8 (£l]c Qhiolution of Cl)itrcl) ittusic 
 
 and distress, and fighting with constancy 
 against fortune." 
 
 Aristotle goes deeply into the discus- 
 sion on the power of musical forms over 
 the temper and feeling. In his "Poli- 
 tics " he refers to the distinction between 
 music that is ethical, suited to action, and 
 music that inspires religious excitement. 
 Both Aristotle and Plato recognize the 
 rhythms also of music as important moral 
 elements, and Plato declares that they 
 should not be varied or complex, but 
 must be the " rhythms of a sober and 
 brave life." A few passages from later au- 
 thors and thinkers may further strengthen 
 the claim that music exercises a powerful 
 influence over the heart, elevating and 
 regulating its impulses with the glow of 
 good actions or the grace of noble prin- 
 ciples. David the Psalmist knew this 
 well, and the poets of all times have found 
 it out. 
 
 14 There was a Te Deum Dante thought 
 he heard in accents blended with sweet 
 melody ; the strains came over his ear 
 even as the sound of choral voices that 
 
QL\)e evolution of dTFjurcl) iflnsic 19 
 
 mingle with the organ in solemn chants." 
 One of Goethe's soul-communers says : 
 
 " One pleasure cheers me in my solitude, 
 The joy of song. I commune with myself, 
 And lull with soothing tones the sense of pain, 
 The restless longing, the unquiet wish, 
 Till sorrow oft will turn to ravishment, 
 And sadness' self to harmony divine." 
 
 Cowper wrote : 
 
 " There is in souls a sympathy with sounds ; 
 Some chord in unison with that we hear 
 It touches within us, and the heart replies." 
 
 Coleridge pronounces music the most 
 entirely human of the fine arts, and while 
 he traces its first delightfulness to its 
 accordance with the ear, he goes on to de- 
 scribe it as nevertheless an " associated " 
 thing which recalls the deep emotion of 
 the past with an intellectual sense of pro- 
 portion. " Every human feeling is greater 
 and larger than the exciting cause — a 
 proof, I think, that man was designed for 
 music, in which there is always something 
 more and beyond the immediate expres- 
 sion." 
 
20 t&[)t (gwlntion of (2Tl)urch Jttusic 
 
 Milton also had associated music with 
 celestial harmonies when he wrote that 
 they 
 
 " May with sweetness through mine ear 
 Dissolve me into ecstasies 
 And bring all heaven before mine eyes." 
 
 In more recent days Dr. Channing, in 
 a letter to Blanco White, says : " I am 
 conscious of a power in music which I 
 want words to describe. It touches chords, 
 reaches depths in the soul, which lie be- 
 yond all other influences. It extends my 
 consciousness, and nothing in my experi- 
 ence is more mysterious. An instinct has 
 always led me to transfer it to heaven ; 
 and I suspect the Christian under its 
 power has often attained to a singular 
 consciousness of his immortality." 
 
 One more quotation may be given, in 
 the words of Charles Kingsley : " Music 
 is a language by itself, just as perfect in 
 its way as speech, as words, just as divine, 
 just as blessed." 
 
 The delight in music is universal. It is 
 discovered in all races and in all ages. It 
 even anticipates terrestrial history, for in 
 
QL\]c Qfrjolntion of (Elinrcl) ittusic 21 
 
 the Book of Job, the oldest in the world, 
 we read that God Himself, in His chal- 
 lenge to His desponding and distrustful 
 servant, said : " Where wast thou when I 
 laid the foundations of the earth, . . . 
 when the morning stars sang together ? " 
 
 Music has been called "the language of 
 heaven." It might, perhaps, better be 
 said music is the language of nature. 
 The winds sing in their own way ; and no 
 ALolian harp, orchestra, or chorus makes 
 such music as the wind-swept woods, sing- 
 ing brooks, and the perpetual diapason 
 of the floods, the water-falls, and the sea 
 waves. 
 
 " The idea of the music of the spheres 
 has now a far grander, because more 
 truthful, application. Periodicity of vibra- 
 tion, which distinguishes musical sound 
 from noise, has the same principle of 
 rhythmical motion which controls the 
 revolutions of the heavenly bodies. There 
 are sounds far too subtle for perception 
 by the human ear ; the universe itself is a 
 musical instrument, and the orderly or 
 harmonious procession of the stars is but 
 
22 (£|)c (KtJolotion of Clinrrl) Jttnaic 
 
 an infinite enlargement of the phenomenon 
 which determines the pitch of every note 
 that we hear." 
 
 The very youngest child is lulled and 
 cheered by song before it catches the 
 meaning of spoken words, and often 
 enough little children can sing snatches 
 of melody before they can frame sen- 
 tences. At all events, the singing spirit 
 discovers itself early in childhood. The 
 short cut to the heart seems to be by the 
 ear, and the heart and the ear are in close 
 connection. There is an emotional sig- 
 nificance in the very tone of the voice. 
 The tone-language is the universal lan- 
 guage known and read by all hearts. The 
 accents of joy, grief, melancholy, worship, 
 or even hatred, the incoherent screaming 
 and moaning, the threat, the war-whoop 
 and the murderous shriek, these are un- 
 mistakable everywhere ; and through such 
 tones men and women find a common 
 understanding who cannot exchange an 
 intelligible word. Nature, the common 
 universal feeling or emotion, will out and 
 make itself understood in tone. No one 
 
®l)£ (Eoolntion of <2Tl)urch iflnsic 23 
 
 can misunderstand the danger-signal, the 
 hiss and rattle of the serpent and viper, 
 the snarl and scream of ferocious beasts, 
 or the shriek of the devastating tornado. 
 
 It would be an interesting digression to 
 study the human voice as an expositor of 
 human character and morality. The per- 
 sonality of a man, or a woman, finds ex- 
 pression in the voice. Intuitively we ap- 
 peal to it as the interpreter of inner life. 
 " No man of real dignity," said Aristotle, 
 11 could ever be shrill of speech." 
 
 Little children, even domestic animals, 
 are drawn or repelled by the quality of 
 the voice, and it is wonderful how we 
 agree in our conclusion. Who fails to 
 understand the loving, cheery, inspiring, 
 courageous voice ? Then, for those who 
 have ears to hear, there are the brutal, 
 passion-laden, ferocious, sinister, whee- 
 dling, hypocritical voices. Indeed, to finely 
 trained listeners, the voice is a trusty 
 guide of the emotional and moral con- 
 tents of a life, whether of culture, feeling, 
 refinement, spirituality, reverence, purity ; 
 or, on the contrary, of the sorrowful and 
 
24 ®l)£ ©Delation of (£l)ttrcl) ittttsic 
 
 multiform phases of degradation and evil 
 living. 
 
 In order to gain a proper comprehen- 
 sion of the evolution of music from the 
 confused sounds issuing from the gloom 
 of antiquity to the elaborate harmonies of 
 to-day, it seems necessary to present an 
 outline of the process. In our brief view 
 of the subject we can permit ourselves 
 only a dip, here and there, into the stream 
 of history, and to mark merely the princi- 
 pal steps in its development. 
 
 The cries of primitive man under the 
 stress of excitement or emotion furnished 
 what may be called the raw material of 
 music. Nature herself prompted them. 
 The yell of battle, the shout of triumph, 
 the plaint of grief, the murmurs of love, 
 the crooning of the mother over her 
 child — this " music of humanity " comes 
 within the sphere of art as soon as it 
 ceases to be an articulate burst of natural 
 feeling and assumes a definite form, how- 
 ever crude that shape may be. 
 
 Dancing, which as naturally expresses 
 emotion, must inevitably suggest rhythm ; 
 
(Etje (Etjolntion of (thnrcl) ittnsic 25 
 
 both vocal music and dancing are manifes- 
 tations of the same class of feelings, and 
 their origin was very likely contemporane- 
 ous. 
 
 It is curious to trace the process in 
 which instinct groped its way into coherent 
 musical expression — into even the vaguest 
 tune. One of the most important ele- 
 ments in music has been already men- 
 tioned, the sense of rhythm supplied by 
 the motion of dancing ; a still more es- 
 sential requisite is pitch. We must place 
 ourselves in imagination in the time be- 
 fore the invention of any scale, before any 
 successions of sounds existed having a 
 musical relation to each other. How did 
 the primeval savage puzzle out pitch and 
 scale for himself? It seems as if accident 
 might have suggested the interval he 
 chose ; and then by reiteration of this, and 
 by the addition of a sound either above or 
 below this one, a scale of two, perhaps 
 three, notes was devised, which sufficed 
 him for a long period. In order to deter- 
 mine the interval, a general concordance 
 as to its agreeableness was necessary, and 
 
26 QL\)c ©tJolntion cf (SThnrcl) ittusic 
 
 also it is likely some rude instrument of 
 music assisted in fixing it. 
 
 What was the most natural interval to 
 choose ? Speaking as simply as possible 
 on a technical subject, modern scholars 
 generally consider that the fourth or the 
 fifth is the note most likely to have been 
 hit upon by the untutored ear in the for- 
 mation of a succession of musical sounds 
 as agreeable to him. These intervals 
 occur in almost every one of the musical 
 systems of the world. The third and the 
 sixth, on consideration, seem almost im- 
 possible ; the second and seventh are too 
 variable ; and it seems most probable that 
 the fourth or the fifth was the starting 
 point. 
 
 There is a difficulty in perceiving at 
 first why the fourth should have been 
 chosen ; it seems almost as difficult to find 
 as the others. To elucidate this reason 
 it is necessary to understand that melodic 
 scales and harmonic scales are quite differ- 
 ent, and that our system of harmony is a 
 purely scholastic product. The melodic 
 scale is a more natural one. To get back 
 
&\)e ©Dotation of (Eljurcl) iflnsic 27 
 
 to the status of the savage we must invert 
 or reverse our musical habits. It is our 
 modern system which makes harmony a 
 vital point. In the music of aboriginal 
 nations melody (not harmony) is alone 
 considered ; they employ only the melodic 
 scale, and " admit a single line of tune at 
 a time." 
 
 We have so long thought of scales as 
 built upward, that we forget that they 
 might just as well be built downward. 
 In fact, in all melodic systems this is the 
 case. Those who have studied Oriental 
 music closely have observed that their 
 scale tends downward, and, taken in con- 
 nection with other facts, it is believed that 
 this is the primitive practice. In proof of 
 this, take the leading note, which in our 
 harmonic scale tends upward. This note 
 is always employed in the final cadence, 
 and rises upward to the tonic, or key- 
 note. Now, the natural instinct entirely 
 reverses this process, and the very signifi- 
 cance of the word " cadence" implies a 
 falling instead of a rising inflection. The 
 natural cadence in speaking also tends 
 
28 <£!)£ GruohUion of <2Thnrcb fttnsic 
 
 downward. It is only in expressions of 
 astonishment or in questions that the 
 voice rises at the end of the sentence. 
 " Pure vocal art follows the rule of the 
 inflections in speaking ; and in melodic 
 systems, which are so much influenced by 
 the voice, cadences which rise to the final 
 sound are almost inconceivable." To im- 
 agine, then, that our primitive man sang 
 his few notes downward, will account 
 more easily for the universal use of the 
 fourth in the primitive scales. In build- 
 ing downward this interval comes natu- 
 rally and easily, and its choice in the first 
 scales is accounted for. 
 
 Musicians may object that there are in- 
 stances where a rising fifth was chosen as 
 the nucleus of the scale ; but the instances 
 are too few to affect the theory. The 
 Greek, the Japanese, and the aboriginal 
 Australian scales, are all formed on this 
 feature of the fourth interval. In China, 
 Java, and Oceanica the musical systems 
 employ a scale of five notes ; the scales of 
 India, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Greece, and 
 Europe include seven notes; and it is 
 
&be ©tjolntion of Cljurcl) fttnsic 29 
 
 generally believed that in these scales also 
 the fourth was the interval first agreed 
 upon. 
 
 Note by note the first scale put itself 
 together laboriously and slowly. The 
 earliest recorded one consists of a group 
 of only three notes; the two farthest apart 
 making the interval of a fourth, and the 
 intervening one being a semitone above 
 the lower note. Probably the use of some 
 sort of instruments preceded any formal 
 arrangement of vocal sounds. These 
 were undoubtedly percussion sticks, cala- 
 bashes, and tom-toms, and were used simply 
 to mark the time of the dance. Mankind 
 had probably got some way beyond this 
 when Jubal is recorded as being the father 
 of those who handle the harp and the 
 organ. The Hebrew word Aggab, which 
 was translated in our version into organ, 
 was more probably a shepherd's pipe, cor- 
 responding to the pipe of Pan in the 
 Greek mythology. Consisting at first of 
 only one or two, it afterward comprised 
 about seven pipes made of reeds and dif- 
 fering from each other in length. The 
 
30 QL\)t ©Dotation of (Eljttrcl) iHnsic 
 
 ancient Egyptians not only employed 
 flutes, lyres, and many other instruments, 
 but it has been proved conclusively by 
 competent authorities that this wonderful 
 people were as fully conversant with the 
 diatonic system as we of the nineteenth 
 century. From a flute and other in- 
 struments found in the tombs it has been 
 shown that nearly three thousand years 
 before Christ the Egyptians were using 
 every note which we employ in our mod- 
 ern music, their scale being the same as 
 our own minor scale. It is to them in all 
 probability that we are indebted for our 
 scale ; the Greeks merely learned from 
 them the elements of musical science. 
 
 About 600 b.c, Egypt, which had been 
 impenetrably closed to the Greeks, was 
 thrown open to them, and they immedi- 
 ately availed themselves of the opportu- 
 nity afforded for discoveries. From this 
 period can be traced the great advance in 
 all those arts and sciences in which they 
 so signally excelled. The Greeks had 
 four principal modes or scales, the inven- 
 tion of which was attributed to Pythag- 
 
STlie (Evolution of <ETl)ttrcb ittnsic 3 1 
 
 oras. By a tradition it was said that he 
 discovered the ratios of the perfect inter- 
 vals by hearing some smiths strike the 
 iron on their anvils with hammers of differ- 
 ent weights. "The smithy where Pythag- 
 oras worked his musical problems was 
 the land of Egypt, whence he imported 
 his learning into Greece." As I have 
 already mentioned, the principal scales of 
 this system were named Dorian, Phrygian, 
 Lydian, and ^olian. To these they added 
 others, taking the fourth above or below 
 the tonic for the new keynote, and desig- 
 nating the scales thus formed by the pre- 
 fixes Hypo, Mixo, etc., as Hypo-Dorian, 
 Mixo-Lydian. To each note belonged a 
 special character of subject which was 
 assigned to the different qualities of 
 voices. The majestic style, being suited 
 to a bass, would be sung in the Dorian ; 
 for tender sentiments, assigned to a tenor 
 voice, the Lydian mode would be used. 
 "Follow," says one of their poets, "nei- 
 ther a highly strung music nor the low- 
 pitched Ionian, but turn over the mid- 
 dle ploughland to an ^Eolian in your 
 
32 ®ljc evolution of <£l)nrcl) ittnsic 
 
 melody." Socrates and Plato both con- 
 demned the use of " slack or low-pitched 
 modes, because they do not incite to vir- 
 tue and courage." 
 
 Sappho had her share in improving 
 the Greek scale, as she contributed one 
 to the Pythagorean system ; but the great- 
 est of all improvements was made by 
 Claudius Ptolemy in 139 a.d. He enun- 
 ciated the law that the major tone should 
 be below the minor, and this principle 
 directs the intonation of our present scale. 
 The musical system was purely a melodic 
 one, harmony not being evolved until 
 much later ; in fact, until Christian Church 
 music had attained some development. 
 
 Music included, among the Greeks, 
 everything that belonged to a higher in- 
 tellectual and artistic education. Music 
 in a narrower sense was regarded by the 
 Greeks not only as an agreeable amuse- 
 ment, but also as one of the most effec- 
 tive means of cultivating the feelings and 
 the character. Plato, in his " Republic," 
 while discussing education, says, " Can we 
 find any better than the old-fashioned 
 
(Efie Groolntion of (dlinrelj iflnsir 33 
 
 text, Gymnastic for the body, and Music 
 for the soul?" and adds, "When you 
 speak of music, do you rank literature 
 under music or not ? I do." (Seyffarth's 
 " Dictionary of Classical Antiquities.") 
 
 This attempt to describe Greek music, 
 which is an exceedingly obscure subject, 
 may be made clearer, at least as to the 
 effect it produced, by quoting from Mr. 
 Herbert Passy's excellent analysis of it. 
 He says : " It is tolerably certain that the 
 artistic standard of the music of the 
 Greeks was very far behind their stand- 
 ard of observation and general intelli- 
 gence. They spent much ingenious 
 thought upon the analysis of their scales, 
 and theorized a good deal upon the nature 
 of combinations which they did not use ; 
 but their account of their music itself is 
 so vague that it is difficult to get any 
 clear idea of what it was really like. 
 
 11 The limitations of their systems were 
 such as do not encourage a belief in high 
 artistic development, for at no time did 
 the scheme extend much beyond what 
 could be reproduced upon the white keys 
 3 
 
34 &t)£ ©tjolntion of <2Tl)ttrch ittnsic 
 
 of the piano and an occasional B b and C#, 
 and all the notes used were comprised 
 within the limits of the low A in the bass 
 stave and the E at the top of the treble 
 stave. The first records indicate the time 
 when the relations of three notes only 
 were understood, which stood in much the 
 same relation to one another that A, F, E 
 do in our modern system, sung down- 
 ward." 
 
 This was called the tetrachord of Olym- 
 pus. In time, the note between A and F 
 was added (the note we call G had been 
 wanting), which gave a natural flow down 
 from A to E. This was recognized as 
 the Doric tetrachord, the first nucleus of 
 the Greek system. It was enlarged by the 
 simple process of adding another group 
 of notes which corresponded exactly to 
 the first, such as E, D, C, B, below or 
 above, thereby making a balance to the 
 other tetrachord. In course of time sim- 
 ilar groups of notes, called tetrachords, 
 were added one after another, till the 
 whole range of sounds which the Greeks 
 considered suitable for the human voice 
 
QLl)e (Soolntion of <£l)nrcl) Iflnsic 35 
 
 was mapped out. The whole extent of 
 this scale being only from B in the bass 
 stave to A in the treble indicates that the 
 Greeks preferred to use only the middle 
 portion of the voice, and disliked both the 
 high and low extremes which could only 
 be produced with effort ; and it proves 
 also that their music could not have been 
 of an excitable or passionate cast, because 
 the use of notes which imply any degree 
 of agitation is excluded. 
 
JDetJelopment of tlje ittnsic of tlje (Earls Christian 
 
" But let my due feet never fail 
 To walk the studious cloister's pale, 
 And love the high embowered roof, 
 With antique pillars mossy proof, 
 And storied windows richly dight, 
 Casting a dim religious light — 
 There let the pealing organ blow 
 To the full-voiced choir below 
 In service high and anthems clear 
 As may with sweetness, through mine ear, 
 Dissolve me into ecstasies, 
 And bring all heaven before mine eyes." 
 
 — Milton. 
 
Chapter 2 
 
 If music is the expression of human 
 emotion, does it not follow naturally that 
 sacred music should be the expression of 
 purely religious emotion ? If it predom- 
 inantly expresses any other feeling, it 
 cannot be sacred music. We are there- 
 fore not content that certain tunes should 
 have been written for the Church ; we 
 contend, further, that their composers 
 should be those who in their own souls 
 have experienced the emotions they mu- 
 sically express so as to arouse similar 
 emotions in others. 
 
 " If you wish to touch my heart," writes 
 Horace to the poets, " you must begin by 
 showing me that you . have touched your 
 own." There is no thought which has 
 ever excited love and reverence in the 
 hearers which has not sprung from a 
 fount of love and reverence in its creator ; 
 and we maintain that a person devoid of 
 
40 QLtyc (Etjointicm of <2IhurcI) ittttsic 
 
 spiritual discernment and spiritual life, 
 unstirred and uninfluenced by religious 
 emotion, cannot express musically, or 
 otherwise, an emotion to which he is him- 
 self a stranger. 
 
 It can hardly be doubted that religious 
 feeling was one of the earliest motives 
 for calling music into existence. Love, 
 ecstasy, and devotion are states of mind 
 most liable to foster a musical utterance. 
 
 Sir John Hullah, in his lectures, says : 
 
 "The first public use of music by every 
 people has been in religious rites and 
 ceremonies. The means presented by the 
 art of amplifying and prolonging cere- 
 monial ; of raising and sustaining in great 
 multitudes a similar state of feeling, and 
 of giving simultaneous expression to this 
 feeling — these qualities have at all times 
 recommended music to those on whom 
 the duty of arranging rites and ceremo- 
 nies has fallen." 
 
 We know that choral symphonies 
 adorned the gorgeous ritual of the Jewish 
 temple, that hymns to Apollo and Dio- 
 nysus rose in the clear air of Greece from 
 
ftlje (Euolntion of (Ulinrcl) illusic 41 
 
 Delphos ; doubtless, therefore, the sacred 
 songs and chants of the early Christians 
 were derived from traditions both of He- 
 brew and Greek origin. We have no 
 authentic record of the kind of music in 
 use among them. " Certain strains, short 
 fragments of melody, have come down to 
 us, which belong to a remote antiquity, 
 and which have undergone little if any 
 alteration. These strains — tones, tunes, 
 or chants as they are indifferently called — 
 were not yet metrical." 
 
 The type of these primitive hymns is 
 most like the " Sanctus " and the " Gloria " 
 of our Eucharistic service. It is natural 
 to suppose that strains like these would 
 have been used in a very remote age by 
 every people. The human voice under 
 the influence of strong and deep feeling 
 naturally utters it in something not unlike 
 the tuneless music of the Latin Church. 
 It is not difficult to trace the process, to 
 inquire how first the solemn monotone, 
 next occasional changes of pitch, and 
 lastly ornaments and graces, came to be a 
 part of the music. If such a monotone 
 
42 QL\\z (EoohUion of Cbnrcl) Jttnsic 
 
 be used by generation after generation, it 
 will crystallize into a cantillation or rude 
 sort of chant. This is proved by the his- 
 tory of our early church plain-song. 
 
 One of the features which distinguishes 
 the Christian religion from almost all 
 others in its quietness ; it aims to repress 
 the outward signs of inward feeling. Sav- 
 age instinct, and the religion of Greece 
 also, had employed the rhythmic dance 
 and all kinds of gesticulatory motions to 
 express the inner feelings, some of them 
 entirely unsuitable to purposes of worship. 
 The early Christians discouraged all out- 
 ward signs of excitement, and from the 
 very beginning, in the music they used, 
 reproduced the spirit of their religion — 
 an inward quietude. All the music em- 
 ployed in their early services was vocal, 
 and the rhythmic element and all gesticu- 
 lations were forbidden. 
 
 Now, this condition was one of the most 
 favorable for the development of harmony, 
 very little of which is needed for dance 
 music. The world, indeed, could go on 
 dancing forever, and do without harmony 
 
QL\)c (Eoolntion of (Elinrcli iJflnsic 43 
 
 entirely ; the simplest tune will serve to 
 keep step. But when voices of different 
 pitch sing a long sustained phrase, even 
 of the vaguest melody, there is an instinc- 
 tive craving for harmony ; it is so impera- 
 tively demanded that it seems as if instinct 
 itself must produce the chord. 
 
 The Christian Church first took up the 
 antiphonal method of singing ; this was 
 at the earliest period of which we have 
 any knowledge. It was borrowed from 
 Jewish and Syrian customs, for it was not 
 Greek. In Greece, antiphon was under- 
 stood as the singing a melody by men an 
 octave lower than it is sung at the same 
 time by boys ; the process has been mis- 
 called by us "singing in unison." Among 
 the Christians it meant the responsive 
 singing of two choirs, and we know it was 
 practised in the first century from the 
 report received by the Emperor Trajan in 
 the year no a.d. He had sent out to 
 Pliny the Younger to inquire into the 
 practices of the people called Christians. 
 In his report Pliny stated that their chief 
 error or fault was that on certain days 
 
44 &t)£ evolution of (Etjarcl) Jttasie 
 
 they assembled before daylight, and were 
 accustomed to sing alternately among 
 themselves a hymn to Christ as God. 
 
 The ancient Church undoubtedly availed 
 itself of the Greek formulas in its early 
 music. For parts of the service they pos- 
 sessed certain melodies, of a few notes 
 only, which were handed down by ear 
 from one generation to another. Not- 
 withstanding their indefinite form, they 
 were scrupulously preserved intact ; few 
 alterations being permitted, because, being 
 a part of worship, the people came to con- 
 sider them sacred in themselves, as is 
 always the case with whatever is associated 
 with ritual. With the lapse of time, how- 
 ever, changes gradually stole in ; with the 
 increase of churches, customs became 
 less uniform, and the diversities and de- 
 partures from the rubric became so numer- 
 ous that the Church authorities perceived 
 the necessity of writing the Church music 
 in a permanent form which should estab- 
 lish a usage common to all. Naturally 
 those forms which had the best and oldest 
 credentials were selected. 
 
(Elje (Eoolntion of Chnrcli Ittnsic 45 
 
 It is to St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, 
 that the credit belongs of having made 
 the first arrangement of sacred music. 
 For four hundred years tradition alone 
 had ruled the tuneless and unrhythmical 
 melody used in the services ; it was in the 
 fourth century that the Church acknowl- 
 edged its connection with the Greek sys- 
 tem, and openly adopted its signs and 
 method. Whether Ambrose did or did 
 not accomplish all that a pious faith has 
 given him credit for, the practical conclu- 
 sion for us is that, at this period, a new 
 set of scales began to be used, based 
 certainly upon the complicated system of 
 Greece, but simplified so as to meet the 
 requirements of a very rude people. Am- 
 brose adopted the responsive singing, 
 between two choirs, of the verses of the 
 Psalms, and he also rearranged the hymns 
 for the regular services of the Church. It 
 is a very pretty legend that some of the 
 Ambrosian hymns have come down to us ; 
 that O Ltcx Beata Trinitas from " Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern," and Jam Lucis, the 
 morning hymn, " Now that the Daylight 
 
46 QL\)c (Evolution of <2TI)txrcl) Muoic 
 
 Fills the Sky," are the compositions of 
 Ambrose. But recent students will not 
 allow us the indulgence of this poetical 
 belief, and insist that no melodies so de- 
 fined belong to the era of St. Ambrose. 
 That he attained some measure of suc- 
 cess, however, is proved by the testimony 
 of St. Augustine, who tells us in his 
 " Confessions," that he was moved to 
 tears as he heard these hymns sung by 
 the great congregation in the Church 
 of Milan. 
 
 St. Ambrose founded his system on that 
 of the Greeks, adopting the keynotes of 
 the Phrygian (D to D), Dorian (E to E), 
 Hypo-Lydian (F to F), and Hypo-Phry- 
 gian (G to G) scales, which henceforth 
 were called the " authentic" scales. 
 
 The first attempts at musical notation 
 were called Neunes, and are traced back to 
 about this period. The name is as weird 
 as the characters themselves, which bear 
 no resemblance whatever to our present 
 notes, and look more like Chinese writing 
 or stenographic outlines. They served, 
 however, to designate the inflections of 
 
®fK (ffoolntion of (Eljtircl) ittnsic 47 
 
 the voice. Two centuries passed before 
 the next improvement was finally devel- 
 oped. To St. Gregory the Great, Bishop 
 of Rome, 509-604, have been ascribed 
 four important reforms — the compilation 
 of an antiphonary, the founding of a 
 musical school at Rome, the invention of 
 a system of music peculiar to the Church, 
 and the introduction of notation by means 
 of Roman letters. He rearranged the 
 11 Ambrosian " hymns, with their melodies, 
 and his reform is known as Gregorian 
 from its authors name. It must be ad- 
 mitted that some modern scholars insist 
 that neither Ambrose nor Gregory was 
 capable of constructing the systems which 
 bear their names, and that they were grad- 
 ually developed, being the heritage of 
 church and lay folk alike. The words 
 Ambrosian and Gregorian may have meant 
 simply "use" — the " use of Milan" and 
 the "use of Rome." At any rate, it was 
 from this date the change took shape. 
 To the " authentic " scales of Ambrose 
 were added four subordinate scales which 
 were called plagal, a word that may be 
 
48 &!)£ (guolntion of (Eljiml) ittnsic 
 
 translated athwart or oblique. From that 
 time, not only have the chants still in use 
 borne the name of Gregory, but every va- 
 riety of ecclesiastical melody, technically 
 called plain-song, is popularly called Gre- 
 gorian music. The scales as formed by 
 Gregory ranged from A to A, and the 
 eight, the four authentic and the four 
 plagal, were then called church modes. 
 
 The ancient plain-song, coming down 
 from the times of Gregory, breathes the 
 deepest spirituality of a cloistered life, the 
 life of self-abnegation and self-sacrifice. It 
 makes little difference where you hear this 
 music, or what may be the circumstances 
 and surroundings ; you feel, from the very 
 emotions that it excites in your own heart, 
 the images called before your mind, that 
 you are listening to sacred music. 
 
 It is undeniable that it possesses a sen- 
 suous charm capable of inducing deep reli- 
 gious fervor. This impression may be 
 produced by the avoidance of the semi- 
 tones in these scales. Again, the strange 
 dislike of employing the third of the tonic, 
 especially in ascending passages, invests 
 
&f)e GntJolntion of dhntrli fflnsic 49 
 
 Gregorian melodies with an undefinable 
 and mystical character. It must be re- 
 membered that in these solemn strains 
 no attention was paid to time. That was 
 developed still later. Another circum- 
 stance which may heighten the effect of 
 solemnity and mystery produced by these 
 plain-song chants is the fact that they 
 rarely if ever end on their final. The 
 mind is left in a state of suspense, of ex- 
 pectation. The music has a quality which 
 seems intrinsically sacred. The influence 
 under which it was written resembles the 
 same state of deep religious feeling which 
 gave birth to the measured, rhythmical 
 chorales of Germany. The very structure 
 and rhythm of the music is full of the spirit 
 of reverence. 
 
 The next writer to take a step in the 
 evolution was Hucbald, a monk of Flan- 
 ders, in the tenth century. Hucbald 
 puzzled out a new method of notation 
 which was a little simpler than the clumsy 
 and confusing neunes which had previously 
 prevailed. It occurred to him to arrange 
 any number of parallel lines to suit the 
 4 
 
50 i&lje (Koolution of (Efjnrcl) fttttsic 
 
 requirements of either the voice or the 
 instrument ; and to the left of these lines he 
 placed the letters T for tone, and S for 
 semitone, to indicate whether the sound 
 proceeded by the one or by the other. He 
 placed his signs for the notes on the spaces 
 between the lines ; the notes were not 
 placed on the lines until later. The num- 
 ber of the lines was regulated by the parts 
 required and by the extent of the scale. 
 Sometimes there were as many as sixteen 
 lines, sometimes only six. This bore no 
 resemblance to modern notation, yet it 
 seems to foreshadow the modern stave. 
 
 Before the time of Hucbald all church 
 music had been what is called homophonic, 
 or consisting of one part only. Harmony 
 now began to appear vaguely. It may 
 first have occurred to musical ears from 
 the responsive singing of two choirs where 
 the second took up the phrase before the 
 first had dropped it, thus suggesting the 
 simultaneous singing of the part. It took 
 its first shape, however, under Hucbald ; 
 he called the second part, which accom- 
 panied the plain chant, the organum. 
 
QLl)e <ff Dotation of CHjnrcl) iHnoic 51 
 
 and this name was retained in church 
 music for centuries. It consisted anciently 
 in a second part written a fourth or fifth 
 below and concluding with two unisons ; 
 or in prolonging one note — the tonic, for 
 instance — while the voice moved up and 
 down in other directions. This last form 
 was like what we call the pedal note. He 
 arranged his scale in groups of four notes, 
 still retaining the name of tetrachords ; in 
 each of these the semitone always fell be- 
 tween the second and third note. The 
 disposition of the semitone was most 
 puzzling to the old musicians ; it had al- 
 ready at this history of the scale passed 
 through three stages. 
 
 Hucbald's system was approved by the 
 Church, and was called the " sacred or- 
 ganum." Another method, known as the 
 11 profane organum," was also in use, 
 which introduced thirds and seconds, and 
 was possibly a shade less discordant than 
 the sacred organum. The transition from 
 abstract theory to agreeable tonal effect 
 was made by almost imperceptible steps. 
 The attempts at part-singing of the 
 
52 &l)c (gooiation of (Eljarclj fflusic 
 
 Middle Ages were certainly characterized 
 by no inner sense of joyfulness, but were 
 rather the product of theoretical rules 
 and the requirements of musical practice. 
 Their distinguishing feature was extreme 
 harshness. Hucbald urged the persever- 
 ing practice of the uneuphonious fourths 
 and fifths with great courage and enthu- 
 siasm, but recommending repeatedly a 
 moderate time in singing, in which the 
 fifths and fourths, if not altogether har- 
 monious, were a little less offensive than 
 in a quicker movement. " If two or more 
 persons," he said, u fervently sing accord- 
 ing to my system, the blending of the 
 voices will be most agreeable." No doubt 
 the elucidation of real harmony was helped 
 by these crude attempts ; but the historical 
 critic, noting the constant references to 
 the " sweetness " of the uncouth chords, 
 has frequently questioned whether the 
 " sacred organum " can have been faith- 
 fully transmitted to us. Careful investi- 
 gation, however, has proved that it was 
 meekly endured by patient auditors for 
 no less than two centuries. One church- 
 
®l)e ©tiolntion of Cbnrd) ittnsic 53 
 
 man did venture to observe sarcastically, 
 14 that the organum was probably regarded 
 as a penance for the ear ; " and it may 
 have been really a sort of punishment of 
 the flesh, because at this period all sensu- 
 ous beauty (and therefore musical eupho- 
 ny) was supposed to come from the evil 
 one. Mr. Passy makes a very interesting 
 observation in connection with the early 
 developments of harmonic music in the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 "The harmonic phrase of music," he 
 says, " has been exactly coeval with that 
 particular kind of intellectual disposition 
 which continued to manifest itself more 
 and more as modern Europe slowly 
 emerged from the chaos which followed 
 the collapse of the Roman Empire. It is 
 as if harmony — the higher intellectual 
 factor in music — began with the first glim- 
 merings of modern mental development, 
 and grew more and more elaborate and 
 comprehensive, and more adapted to high 
 degrees of expression and design, simul- 
 taneously with the growth of man's intel- 
 lectual powers." 
 
54 &l)£ evolution of <El)tircb iHneic 
 
 No signs for regulating the duration of 
 notes were yet invented. In the primitive 
 music of the Church these had not been 
 necessary : the discretion of the performer 
 settled the question how long they should 
 be ; but when different ideas as to har- 
 monizing began to prevail, and individual 
 singers to improvise accompaniments of 
 their own, it became so difficult to keep 
 the voices together that musicians were 
 driven to invent signs to indicate how long 
 the singers should hold the notes. They 
 gave out the most puzzling and compli- 
 cated directions. There was no bass to the 
 music of the time ; when two parts were 
 added to the plain chant, the calculations 
 to produce concord were very arduous ; 
 and to add them so as to make an ordi- 
 nary piece of four-part writing, was con- 
 sidered to be a feat of almost superhuman 
 concentration. 
 
 But tributaries continually came to 
 swell the broadening stream of knowl- 
 edge. The principal one had its source 
 far to the south of Hucbald's monastery, 
 in a Benedictine convent near Ravenna. 
 
QL\)c ©Dotation of <£l)tircl) ittnsic 55 
 
 One of its brotherhood, Guido of Arezzo, 
 unquestionably added greatly to the grow- 
 ing fund of science, and advanced mate- 
 rially the theory and practice of the art. 
 But again the modern scholar ruthlessly 
 shatters a tradition — that of our indebted- 
 ness to Guido. He denies that Guido 
 was the inventor of the staff ; of the shape 
 of the pointed notes ; of the placing of 
 signs, or notes, upon the lines ; of the use 
 of closed lines ; and, finally, of the system 
 of syllables called solfeggi — ut, re, mi, fa, 
 sol Perhaps all these advances were the 
 gradual accretions of a common fund of 
 knowledge ; but it has long been the habit 
 of writers, when referring to the Middle 
 Ages, to single out one prominent name 
 and ascribe to it all the acquisitions made 
 by the art, omitting any adequate mention 
 of less prominent laborers in the field. All 
 these improvements took shape in Guido's 
 century, and clustered around his name. If 
 he did not first invent the system of solmi- 
 zation, or use of the syllables ut, re, etc., it 
 was no doubt the result of his teachings 
 noted down by his pupils ; and we are 
 
56 &l)e (£t)0ltttion of <2Tl)tircl) ittusic 
 
 unable to disassociate his name from the 
 system, because it accords with several 
 principles which it is well known were 
 established by him. 
 
 For the first six tones of the scales, 
 beginning with C at the tonic, Guido sub- 
 stituted the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. 
 They were taken from a hymn in constant 
 use addressed to St. John Baptist : 
 
 £//queant laxis, 
 ifcsonare fibris, 
 Mira. gestorum, 
 Tumuli tuorum, 
 Solve, polluti, 
 Labn reattim, 
 
 Sancte Johannes. 
 
 11 No difficulty connected with the musi- 
 cal art is paramount to one which may be 
 briefly described as heariiig with the eyes, 
 or, conversely, seeing with the ear ; in 
 other words, knowing the sound of a 
 musical passage at sight of the charac- 
 ters which express it. This was made 
 practicable by Guido's invention. Up to 
 his time, it had taken years to form a 
 chorister ; he made it the work of a 
 
Qlt)t (Eoolntion of (Eljnrclj fflnsic 57 
 
 few months. By his syllables the singer 
 learned to fix the pitch of each tone in 
 his mind, associating- tone and syllable 
 together." The syllable ut was afterward 
 replaced in Italy by do, but it is still 
 retained in France. Si was added by a 
 Flemish monk in 1600. Guido's scale was 
 written in hexachords, or groups of six 
 notes in succession, instead of in the 
 tetrachords previously employed. It had 
 a range of two and one-half octaves, and 
 included seven hexachords. It was clumsy 
 and inaccurate, but still it was an improve- 
 ment on the methods known up to that 
 time, and it continued to be used from the 
 eleventh to the sixteenth century, when 
 our modern heptatonic scale, comprising 
 seven notes, came into existence. 
 
 The mediaeval churchmen had ideas 
 about harmony which seem very peculiar 
 to us. One was their curious dislike of 
 the third of the tonic. To our ears no 
 final chord is satisfactory which does not 
 contain it ; to them it was disagreeable if 
 it did. We find chords containing con- 
 secutive fourths and fifths most discordant, 
 
58 &l)£ (Etioltttion of (JEbtrrcI) itttisic 
 
 but when they attempted more than sing- 
 ing one line of tune they doubled the 
 melody a fourth below or a fifth above. 
 It is an odd circumstance that this combi- 
 nation is still adopted in some parts of 
 Europe by street singers, and it is the 
 only thing at all like harmony in Japanese 
 music. It appears, then, to be a natural 
 process in the evolution of harmony. Per- 
 haps Japanese music, if it escape the 
 influence of Europe, may go through the 
 same stages of development as those of 
 mediaeval European music. 
 
 In Guido's hexachordal system the 
 semitone again changed its place, falling 
 now between the third and fourth intervals 
 instead of the second and third of Hue- 
 bald's system of tetrachords. It was thus 
 raised a degree higher. The gamut, named 
 from the Greek letter Gamma and the first 
 syllable tit, thus regarded the scale as a 
 hexachord, a succession of six notes, and 
 not as an octachord, or succession of eight 
 like our modern one ; and it employed 
 both letters and syllables. The former it 
 made invariable, but the latter were 
 
&f)£ (Evolution of C^urcl) iUtisie 59 
 
 forced to change according to key ; and 
 when the melody moved over the range 
 of more than one hexachord it was neces- 
 sary that the tones of the added hexa- 
 chord should be renamed, so that the 
 semitone, that ever troublesome quantity, 
 should fall in its proper place. In ascend- 
 ing passages the singer had to remember 
 to change it in one way, and when the 
 melody descended he had to remember to 
 reverse the performance. Any one famil- 
 iar with our simple modern method can 
 perceive how confusing this was ; it had 
 its name, mutation, but that made the 
 thing no easier. It was such a burden to 
 the memory that solmzzation was regarded 
 by the choristers of that age as their cross 
 of tribulation, and was even named by 
 some as such, " Crux et tormentum pue- 
 rorum." 
 
 Guido was also the author of many 
 books on the theory of music ; but unlike 
 many of his clerical brethren, he regarded 
 music not as a science solely ; he felt it to 
 be an art, for he says : " The musician 
 must so arrange his song that it is but the 
 
60 ®!)£ (Euoltition of QTh)tirc!) JHtisic 
 
 reflection of the words. If the melody be 
 for youths, there must be an exuberance 
 of cheerfulness ; if for old age, a fretful 
 seriousness." Guido was far in advance 
 of his time in uttering this golden truth. 
 It was reserved for a much later era to 
 perceive that music and words must be 
 united, as in song, so that the words will 
 awaken certain emotions, or trains of 
 emotions, which the music is all-powerful 
 to illustrate and deepen. Very often, 
 indeed, while the words are being uttered 
 the music has already passed into depths 
 of emotional feeling beyond the expres- 
 sion or control of words. 
 
 One of the inscrutable things for the 
 modern student is the lateness at which 
 notation was devised for defining the rela- 
 tive length of musical sounds. The earli- 
 est of the musical faculties is the sense of 
 rhythm ; yet centuries rolled over Chris- 
 tendom before any attempt was made to 
 indicate the length of the notes. Trance 
 of Cologne, a monk of the eleventh cen- 
 tury, was the first to supply this neces- 
 sity ; he wrote the earliest book on meas 
 
QL\)t (Evolution of Chnrcl) ittnaic 61 
 
 ured or timed music. One of the curious 
 theories which belong to that age shows 
 how everything was referred to religious 
 canons. Because there were three per- 
 sons in the Trinity, it was held that triple 
 time was clearly the only time proper to 
 sacred themes. Accordingly triple time 
 was called " perfect," and common time 
 was known as " imperfect." 
 
 Although ecclesiastical music, until the 
 twelfth century, had thus been absolutely 
 timeless, secular music had employed 
 time in its folksongs and dances which 
 are known to have existed. We have 
 nothing to do in this sketch with that 
 branch of the subject, but it may be men- 
 tioned that there has always been a music 
 differing as widely in character as in pur- 
 pose from church music. Little is known 
 of this early secular music, and indeed 
 the inquiry is a new one, but we shall 
 eventually recover some knowledge of the 
 subject. The certain fact that this sepa- 
 ration between secular and sacred music 
 has always existed makes it even more 
 important that in modern times the differ- 
 
62 (Elje (gooltttion of (Jllntrcl) Jfltisic 
 
 ence between music written for the Church 
 and that written for amusement should be 
 marked and distinct. There need be no 
 cause for mistaking the one for the other. 
 There are certain modes of structure 
 which should never be followed in sacred 
 music, certain characteristics of light, 
 secular melody should never be used in 
 the music of the Church. These seem to 
 rest upon the fundamental laws and struct- 
 ure of music itself ; they are such as quick 
 repeated successions of accented and un- 
 accented notes, and dotted notes with 
 rhythmical pulsations. These are op- 
 posed to the very nature of a religious 
 subject. Nothing sacred should be writ- 
 ten in three-quarter, three-eighth, or six- 
 eighth time. Moreover, what is termed 
 the Italian school color ature should be 
 avoided. This includes trills, runs, trill- 
 chains, and all those fancy figures which 
 belong strictly to musical ornamentation. 
 But sacred music requires much more 
 than the avoidance of light and irreverent 
 airs. The religious character of the sub- 
 ject ought to leave a deep and indelible 
 
®l]c (Evolution of (£l)ttrcf) ittnoic 63 
 
 imprint upon the very structure of the 
 music which has undertaken to express it 
 — upon all the elements of melody, har- 
 mony, and rhythm. 
 
 Some of the greatest masters of music 
 have written for the Church, and have 
 composed music of the highest artistic 
 excellence ; but it cannot be called sacred 
 music in the best sense of the term, be- 
 cause it does not express religious feel- 
 ing. In short, it is not devotional ; either 
 because the composers had no religious 
 emotion to express, or because they wrote 
 to please a worldly and secular taste. 
 Much of the music of Rossini and Mozart, 
 in fact a large number of the classic 
 masses, cannot be considered, according to 
 this rule, as sacred music. Although writ- 
 ten expressly for the Church, it does not 
 represent the feeling, and has not the 
 meaning, that sacred music should have. 
 One hearing such music outside of the 
 sacred associations of the Church, and 
 without knowing the words to which it 
 was sung, or the title, would never imagine 
 for an instant that it was an expression of 
 
64 &l)£ (EtmltJtion of Qlhtxrrl) ffttxsic 
 
 specifically religious emotion. Even when 
 heard in great cathedrals, where carved 
 stone and painted glass express the 
 spiritual aspirations of man, this music 
 does not excite especially religious feel- 
 ing. It does indeed excite pleasurable 
 emotions of the highest type ; and I must 
 admit that there is difficulty in assuming 
 a line to exist between exalted aesthetic 
 emotions and religious emotions arising 
 from spiritual sentiments. 
 
 And now as we stand, in our brief 
 sketch, upon the threshold of the full 
 burst of song which marked the opening 
 of the sixteenth century, it may not be 
 without interest to consider a moment the 
 reasons why music has such power over 
 the emotions of mankind. While the 
 enormous power of music over the feel- 
 ings has long been known, and has fre- 
 quently been the theme of poetry, the 
 more prosaic attempts to describe or to ex- 
 plain the reasons of this have amounted to 
 little. Indeed, the peculiar qualifications 
 for such study are rare, and consequently 
 the laborers in the field must be few. 
 
QL\)c ©nolntion of (Cl)wrch ttln&it 65 
 
 One thing is imperatively demanded ; 
 namely, that the feeling in music should 
 be worth expressing. In the words of 
 Herbert Spencer: "They sin against 
 science who have set to music ideas that 
 are not emotional enough to prompt 
 musical expression ; they also sin against 
 science by using musical phrases that 
 have no relation to the ideas expressed, 
 even when these are emotional. They 
 are bad because they are untrue, and they 
 are untrue because they are unscientific." 
 
 If the philosopher of evolution con- 
 sidered such words none too strong to 
 describe the worthless popular ballads of 
 our time, how much more severely do 
 they censure the " light quirks of music " 
 introduced into our services by untrained or 
 improperly trained choir-masters! There 
 is room in music for lightness, for humor, 
 perhaps for triviality even ; but sacred 
 music is no place for its exercise. 
 
 It is specially the office of music to 
 idealize feeling. 
 
 In scientific phraseology, an organism 
 should possess three main attributes. It 
 5 
 
66 &l)£ Solution of C^inrcl) ifltisic 
 
 should be definite, it should be hetero- 
 geneous, and it should be coherent. The 
 ideals of science and art are the same. 
 The law of organic proportion applies 
 with more peculiar force to music than 
 to the arts of poetry and painting. In 
 poetry the idea, and the language in 
 which it clothes itself, are two different 
 factors, and can be considered singly. In 
 painting we can take the thought, and the 
 picture which is its representative medium, 
 as two separate quantities. In music the 
 thought must be found in the representa- 
 tive medium alone ; the thought, and the 
 melody which is its form, emanate directly 
 and necessarily from the state of emotion 
 which produces them. 
 
 The musician has no fewer resources at 
 his command than have the painter and 
 the poet. Where they employ contrasts 
 of color and shades of meaning, he uses 
 combinations of tone and subtleties of 
 harmony and rhythm. But beyond the 
 scope of all these material devices of his 
 art, the spirit in which the composer of 
 sacred music combines them for his pur- 
 
®Lt)c (Eoolntion of Cljnrcl} Ittusic 67 
 
 poses should be a different spirit from 
 that in which he decks his operatic works. 
 All the truly great musicians have recog- 
 nized that the splendor which may be per. 
 mitted them must be sobered and trained 
 down in psalm and oratorio. Dignity 
 and reticence befit such works. 
 
 The temper of Beethoven's two masses 
 is wholly different from that in which 
 " Fidelio " is written. Berlioz composed 
 his "Te Deum" in another style from that 
 of "Les Troyens " or " Faust." Instinc- 
 tively we feel, leaving the significance of 
 the words aside, that the music of the 
 " Messiah " is suited to a church, and that 
 the music of " Tristan und Isolde " is not. 
 Music does not articulate, but it suggests ; 
 and the idea it suggests should be in 
 entire accordance with the conditions it is 
 intended for. Notwithstanding Richard 
 Wagner's " unorthodox" views and his 
 intense dramatic feeling, he is too great 
 an artist to neglect this principle. He 
 would never confuse sacred music with 
 secular. To do so is the sure mark of an 
 inferior composer. " We may naturally 
 
68 &\)t (Etjolntion of GH)txrcl) iHnsic 
 
 expect that in their higher development 
 the style and structure of music should 
 present the most complete examples of 
 artistic organism ; that they should be 
 the perfect type to which it is the glory 
 of other arts to conform." 
 
 Few men can be both musicians and 
 psychologists ; but with the daily accumu- 
 lation of scientific data, there is every 
 reason to believe that at no very dis- 
 tant date this most interesting branch of 
 science may be explained. Helmholtz, 
 who taught us so much of the aesthetics 
 of music, allowed himself to touch only 
 the fringes of this question ; and he has 
 declared that in the analysis of musical 
 works, and the search for the reason of 
 their beauty and influence, one encoun- 
 ters apparently invincible obstacles at 
 every step. 
 
 No one has made a successful attempt 
 to analyze what the peculiar features are 
 that constitute pleasing melody. No one 
 has ever satisfactorily explained why we 
 prefer some melodies to others ; why some 
 are sure to be popular and attractive, 
 
®t)e (EtJolntion of Church iflnsic 69 
 
 while others are passed over with indiffer- 
 ence. And yet, while all explanations 
 fail, the fact remains that music has a 
 wonderful power upon the human emo- 
 tions. It can both excite and express 
 them. Sometimes it seems to compel the 
 mind to clothe them with definite ideas ; 
 or even, again, to dispense with ideas alto- 
 gether. At one time music is subservient 
 to our ideas to express them ; again, it is 
 their master to command them. 
 
 And, as the emotions can exist inde- 
 pendently of definite ideas, so music, the 
 language of the emotions, can be indepen- 
 dent of all figures. Images and figures 
 are capable of evoking the deepest emo- 
 tion ; but they cannot half so well as 
 music, it seems to me, express the very 
 emotions they excite. It can take up an 
 emotion excited, or only partially ex- 
 pressed by words, and expand and deepen 
 it. Music has this power beyond that of 
 any written or spoken language. 
 
-from JJaUstrina to the Chorale anb (Earlo 
 English School 
 
" Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie, 
 To lull the daughters of necessity, 
 And keep unsteady Nature to her law, 
 And the low world in measured motion draw 
 After the heavenly tune, which none can hear 
 Of human mould, with gross, unpurged ear." 
 
 — Milton. 
 
 " Look how the floor of heaven 
 Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold : 
 There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest 
 But in his motion like an angel sings, 
 Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims ; 
 Such harmony is in immortal souls ; 
 But whilst this muddy vesture of decay 
 Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." 
 
 — Shakespeare. 
 
Chapter 3. 
 
 One of the latest inventions in the 
 development of harmony was counter- 
 point. Something resembling it had been 
 known previously, called descant. This 
 signified the singing of an improvised 
 melody to a fixed time or part. It was 
 the spontaneous production of the singer, 
 originating in his power of invention, and 
 it was not written down. 
 
 In counterpoint the part was written, or 
 rather pricked, down, as the custom then 
 was to prick the notes ; from this it was 
 also called prick-song. The art consisted 
 in combining several superimposed melo- 
 dies, writing them from left to right, not 
 vertically, as chords are constructed in 
 modern harmony. In general, counter- 
 point means a new voice-part added to 
 one already existing ; this voice is an in- 
 dividual, distinct, and independent part, 
 not merely a natural bass. In many 
 
74 $bs Cuoltttion of djttrcl) ittnsic 
 
 hymns which are feeble and poor in con- 
 struction, you will find that the bass has 
 no movement or melody of its own ; it 
 only exists so as to furnish a foundation 
 for the chords. Many modern so-called 
 revivalist tunes are constructed, if one can 
 use such a word in describing them, on 
 this plan. But take another instance — 
 E wing's tune, "Jerusalem the Golden"; 
 in this the bass moves freely and inde- 
 pendently, and if you observe them, very 
 interesting harmonies are developed in 
 that one part. This bass is formed on a 
 contrapuntal idea. 
 
 This is an example of very simple forms. 
 Another, which will be familiar to many, 
 is the choral " Sleepers Wake," from St. 
 Paul. Here the counterpoint is of the 
 kind called " note against note," and what 
 are known as " passing notes" occur occa- 
 sionally. The contrapuntal part is found 
 in the bass in this choral also. 
 
 Very much more complicated aspects 
 of counterpoint are commonly presented. 
 The composers of the fourteenth and fif- 
 teenth centuries transferred the motion 
 
&l)e (Euolntiott of <El)ttrcI) ittttsic 75 
 
 from one part to another — wrote it to be 
 sung backwards or forwards. Counter- 
 point, when used properly as an adjunct 
 in harmony, gives dignity to a sacred piece 
 of music ; it brings intelligence into play. 
 It led, however, in the early years of its 
 discovery, to purely mechanical forms, 
 devoid of artistic feeling, and it brought 
 music within the realms of mathematics 
 rather than of art. Under Sebastian Bach 
 counterpoint reached its highest develop- 
 ment ; he is the greatest master of the 
 art, and in his chorals its use produces 
 some of his most admirable effects. 
 
 By the sixteenth century the tonal art 
 had finally acquired, through slow and la- 
 borious processes, the material by which 
 it was to manifest itself. The language 
 was created in which it was to speak. 
 What had long retarded the advance of 
 harmonic music were the prejudices of 
 ecclesiastics, and their refusal to adopt 
 certain elements without which modula- 
 tion, as now understood, could not exist. 
 These antipathies were chiefly against the 
 use of the augmented fourth, without 
 
76 ®l)e ffwlntion of Cbtnrcl) ittttsic 
 
 which the use of the dominant seventh 
 was impossible. This chord was known 
 by a few musicians before 1522, but it was 
 not generally adopted. Claude Monte- 
 verde of Cremona, 1568, has the credit of 
 placing this keystone in the arch of mod- 
 ern composition, and his contributions to 
 musical art remain in effect to the present 
 day. He introduced the employment of 
 the chords of the diminished fifth, the 
 chords of the triad, the chords of the 
 major dominant and diminished seventh, 
 and its inversions ; the chords of the ma- 
 jor ninth, of the suspended seventh and 
 ninth, and also the sign of the # in the 
 signature. 
 
 The presence of the chord of the dom- 
 inant seventh shows at once whether 
 music is of earlier or later date than the 
 sixteenth century. Many a musician had 
 probably experimented on this beautiful 
 harmony and prepared the way for its 
 final adoption into the language of music, 
 in spite of its opposition from the more 
 orthodox. With all the self-reliance music 
 had now gained, it still waited for an im- 
 
®be (fuolntion of (Eljnrcl) iflnsic 77 
 
 petus which should enable it to shake off 
 the bonds which kept it outside the world's 
 progress and bring it into the current of 
 the new epoch — the Renaissance. It was 
 the spirit of this new birth of moral and 
 intellectual forces which gave to music 
 that form of expression in which it had 
 hitherto been deficient. At this juncture 
 the genius of Palestrina appeared, to exert 
 its profound influence — as if the time had 
 called for such a spirit and it came. The 
 forms of music had become perfect ; the 
 material to work with was prepared ; yet 
 music had been reduced by pedantry to a 
 system of mathematical problems. Beauty 
 as an essential quality was absolutely ig- 
 nored. The composers buried themselves 
 in working out ingenious subtleties and 
 devices at the expense of all ideal beauty. 
 Counterpoint had run mad, so to speak. 
 They wrote canons which could be sung 
 backwards and forwards equally well, and 
 if they could be sung upside down also, it 
 was so much more the proof of superior- 
 ity. Abuses even more disastrous than 
 the musical ones had crept into usage. 
 
78 QEbe Quotation of 0H}tircIi Jflnsic 
 
 Words of quite alien meaning were intro- 
 duced into the sacred text, which bore no 
 reference to the original, but were de- 
 signed simply to carry out the differ- 
 ent voice-parts in producing the whole 
 effect. 
 
 These words were at first not irreveren- 
 tial, but they had no meaning sung in that 
 connection. For example, while a certain 
 number of voices sang the " Credo " or 
 " Sanctus," the others would sustain their 
 part with " Alleluia" or "Ave Maria." 
 Familiar hymns or antiphons were se- 
 lected, and masses formed that were based 
 on their words. One was named '* yEterna 
 Christi munera," from an old hymn of 
 those words. There is a Missa for Christ- 
 mas called " Hodie Christus natus est," 
 and one for Whitsunday based on the 
 hymn " Veni Creator Spiritus," and so 
 named by its title. 
 
 When the import of the words was re- 
 ligious, as in these cases, the practice was 
 at least not profane and shocking. The 
 Roman Church has always allowed the use 
 of collects, short meditations, and devout 
 
(Etje (Evolution of Cljttrcl) ifltxsic 79 
 
 readings during the mass, if they conduce 
 to the excitation of religious feeling. 
 When, however, the music of secular 
 melodies began to be taken for sacred 
 subjects, the results were far worse. Then 
 it became quite common for the words of 
 the song which composed the melody to 
 be surreptitiously introduced, and while 
 two or three leading voices kept to the 
 sacred text, in the back rows the actual 
 words of the popular melody were being 
 sung. " It became usual for the most 
 solemn phrases of the ' Kyrie,' ' Gloria,' 
 1 Credo,' and ' Agnus ' to blend along the 
 aisles of the basilica with the unedifying 
 refrain of the lewd chansons of Flanders." 
 A council of ecclesiastics was called to 
 remedy this state of things, and the 
 chapelmaster of the Vatican, known to us 
 as Palestrina, was commissioned to write 
 a sacred composition which should be 
 pure in expression, should throw the true 
 meaning of the sacred words into the 
 clearest possible light, and should also be 
 able to arouse a feeling of true devotion. 
 14 Palestrina produced a mass which has 
 
80 (ftlje evolution of €l)«rrl) iHusic 
 
 been the model of sacred composition ever 
 since, and found an epoch in its evolution. 
 It is called the ' Missa Papae Macelli.' It 
 was received with the greatest enthusiasm, 
 and has been the admiration of musicians 
 of all time. It employed, indeed, the 
 clever subtleties, the ingenious artifices 
 of musical science ; the composer was 
 master of all the contrivances known to 
 his contemporaries, but they were used 
 as a means to something higher than 
 themselves. Canon and imitation, and 
 the devices of which they form the ground- 
 work, fell into their true relation to art. 
 They no longer overtopped it. The pres- 
 ence of a soul within it immortalized 
 Palestrina's work. It was his work to 
 breathe into music the breath of life, to 
 lift it from the dry formulae which stifled 
 it and give it an aesthetic beauty. 
 
 " It was not for the sake of its faultless 
 symmetry that the * Missa Papae Macelli ' 
 was selected as the model of ecclesiastical 
 purity ; its secret lay in the subjugation 
 of art to the service of Nature ; of inge- 
 nuity to beauty. To his work Palestrina 
 
(ftlje (Etjolnlion of €\)nxt\) fflmit 81 
 
 brought the qualities of heart and mind 
 which are a sine qua non in the composi- 
 tion of sacred music ; earnestness, a relig- 
 ious nature, the science of a thorough 
 scholar, and the refined feeling of an art- 
 ist whose sense of beauty is too strong 
 to allow technical display to overshadow 
 it. The distinguishing characteristics of 
 his harmony are its symmetry and its 
 equality. Whatever the number of parts 
 in which he writes, none is ever allowed 
 to claim precedence over another ; neither 
 is any voice permitted to introduce itself 
 without having something important to 
 say." 
 
 His effects are produced by "the inter- 
 weaving of the separate subjects." When 
 some rarely beautiful chord surprises us 
 we find on studying it that it was " the 
 natural consequence of some little point 
 of imitation, or the working out of some 
 melodious response which fell into the 
 delicious combination of its own accord. 
 Palestrina's loveliest harmonies come of 
 themselves, when he is quietly fitting his 
 subjects together without a thought be- 
 
82 &l)£ (£t)0httion of (E^nxci) Mn&ic 
 
 yond the melodic involutions of his vocal 
 phrases." 
 
 We have devoted so much space to the 
 position of Palestrina because he forms 
 an epoch in musical composition. We do 
 not hesitate to say that the " romantic 
 movement " in music which still continues, 
 and is destined perhaps to supersede the 
 classic forms, can be traced in its begin- 
 nings in Palestrinas music. Whenever 
 his principles have modelled the schools, 
 that music has been most successful and 
 most enduring ; as, notably, in the Ger- 
 man schools, which were deeply influenced 
 by him. 
 
 Another great impetus in the develop- 
 ment of sacred music was the Protestant 
 Reformation of the sixteenth century. 
 The very style of church musical composi- 
 tion was affected by it, and may indeed be 
 said to have acquired a Protestant char- 
 acter. The leading spirit of the Reforma- 
 tion, himself both poet and musician, was 
 the founder of the new school of music, 
 and was the first to place the words of 
 praise and prayer within the lips of the 
 
(&t)e ©notation of (fTl)Htcl) ittnsic 83 
 
 people, associated with rhythmical music. 
 11 Next to theology," he said, M I give the 
 highest place to music, for thereby anger 
 is forgotten, melancholy and many tribu- 
 lations and evil thoughts are driven 
 away." 
 
 The Chorale of Protestant Germany fur- 
 nish us with the best illustrations of per- 
 fection in metrical tunes. It was here that 
 the great leader of the religious move- 
 ment of the sixteenth century published 
 the first collection of hymns in the lan- 
 guage of the common people. The pos- 
 session of these stirring hymns, in words 
 they could understand and repeat, exerted 
 upon them an effect comparable to that of 
 the Marseillaise on the French. But for 
 these martial and inspiring tunes it may 
 well be doubted whether the new ideas 
 could have spread so rapidly as they did, 
 and taken such hold on men's minds. 
 
 These first hymns, in the modern sense, 
 were drawn from various sources : some 
 were transcriptions from old church chants; 
 many were frankly taken from the mel- 
 odies of the people, in the folk-songs. 
 
84 Qttje (Etiolation of €l)ttrct) Mnzic 
 
 Among those most familiar to us is " Nun 
 danket alle Gott." 
 
 The home of the chorals is so exclu- 
 sively Protestant Germany that we can 
 hardly believe that many of them came 
 there byway of France. In 1565 a col- 
 lection of hymn tunes was published in 
 Paris by Claude Goudinel, and many of 
 these were speedily adopted in Germany. 
 A large number of those were from secu- 
 lar sources. Their stern Calvinistic doc- 
 trine, however, firmly disowned all connec- 
 tion with a light or irreligious origin. 
 
 In this collection the famous tune known 
 as " Old Hundred" first appeared. It 
 seemed to come rather from a Genevan 
 source than any other traceable one ; 
 but it is of very ancient lineage, and has 
 an actual existence long prior to Gou- 
 dinel's collection. Hardly any example 
 more familiar to us could be given. Un- 
 doubtedly it is one of those old tunes 
 handed down from generation to genera- 
 tion by the living voice. " Why should 
 the devil have all the good tunes ? " as Row- 
 land Hill said later. Luther himself, mu- 
 
&l)e (Joolttticm of <£l)tircl) iUttsic 85 
 
 sician as well as poet, innovator and re- 
 former, doubtless had no hesitation in 
 taking a good folk-song whenever he 
 found it, and fitting it to his tremendous 
 phraseology. 
 
 To Luther are ascribed two hymns 
 which have remained in our collection, 
 11 Eine Feste Burg ist unser Gott," known * 
 to us as "AJStrong Tower is_our God," ' "* 
 and another, " Great God, what do I see ShcA. *£**' 
 and hear ? " The well-known choral in- 
 troduced several times by Bach in his St. 
 Matthew " Passions Musik," " O Haupt 
 voll Blut und Wunden," was a well-known 
 folk-song of Germany. It is called in our 
 collections " O Sacred Head now Wound- 
 ed." Johann Cruger was the author of a 
 very large number of these Chorale. 
 
 The use of hymns dates from the Ref- 
 ormation. There is no more striking 
 mark to show the change that had taken 
 place than the contrast between the vague 
 phrases and uneven rhythm of the Gre- 
 gorian chants and the measured move- 
 ment of the Protestant chorals. 
 
 The music of the English Church re- 
 
86 &!)£ (Evolution of <&t)xiTt\) Uttisic 
 
 quires a separate history to consider its 
 just claims to an art of its own. " If the 
 word indigenous can ever be rightly 
 applied to any school of art, the English 
 school of church music might put in a very 
 strong claim to it. The individuality of 
 England's music was favored by her in- 
 sular position, and its masters of earlier 
 times were left more to their own re- 
 sources than those of any other country." 
 A school of anthem and service music was 
 developed there which is most interesting 
 to us as being the heritage of our own 
 church. The English service was clearly 
 arranged with a view to its musical ren- 
 dering. No more noble church melodies 
 exist than are found among the English 
 psalm tunes, and English cathedral music 
 is a purely national development of the 
 highest artistic value and deep religious 
 importance. Of the form it developed, 
 known as the Anglican chant, we may 
 justly be proud. A cultured taste, how- 
 ever, will eliminate from it a florid style 
 of accompaniments and the variety of 
 light endings that some musicians have 
 
8TI)e (Etiolation of (Eljtircl) itttisic 87 
 
 chosen to add, with a mistaken view to- 
 wards ornamentation. 
 
 Whatever may be said in favor of the 
 Anglican chant, " the Gregorian chant is 
 one of the most perfect in the expression 
 of religious feeling which we have in 
 music. These Gregorian tones have been 
 the foundations of the best hymns and 
 anthems, and they have given rise to a 
 style which, for its simplicity and gran- 
 deur, many look up to as the perfection 
 of religious expression." The solemn ef- 
 fects of the Good Friday and Ash Wednes- 
 day services are immeasurably heightened 
 by Gregorian music. 
 
 When we remember that a proper un- 
 derstanding of this is essential to the per- 
 fect performance of the choral service, it 
 is to be wondered at that, in these days of 
 the multiplication of boy-choirs and choral 
 services, it is not more carefully studied. 
 Unfortunately, the Gregorian tones are 
 popularly supposed to be a kind of " rudi- 
 mentary music ; a kind of chrysalis melody, 
 compared to which modern music is the 
 beautiful butterfly with all its glorious 
 
88 &t)£ (EtJohiticrit of <&\)tixtl) fflnsk 
 
 color. Now, modern music is no more 
 the development of the Gregorian chant 
 than the delicious musical tones breathed 
 by the air, as it passes through the pipes 
 of an organ, are the development of the 
 song of the north wind as it whispers 
 among the pines." There is a radical 
 unlikeness between the Gregorian and 
 modern music, and the chant formed upon 
 the varied Gregorian tones has a richness 
 of melody that is different from anything 
 founded upon the modern scale, and is 
 often superior to it. Take the most ex- 
 pressive composition of the modern school, 
 strip from it all its accessories of harmony 
 and accompaniment, and place its un- 
 masked melody, its naked theme, in com- 
 parison with the chant melody ; the result 
 will be surprisingly in favor of the chant. 
 
 History records numerous instances of 
 the power of this devout and solemn mu- 
 sic ; as how worldly, sensual, and wicked 
 men, happening to hear this chant as it 
 was poured forth from cloistered walls, 
 have then and there resolved to change 
 their lives, many of them joining the song 
 
®he <Et)0lnti0tt of (ZEhnrcl) iHosic 89 
 
 of the monks never to return to the world. 
 The conversion of St. Augustine was at- 
 tributed to just such a chance hearing of 
 this wonderful song of the monks. How 
 beautifully the poet speaks of it ! 
 
 " A pleasant music floats along the mere 
 From monks in Ely chanting service high, 
 Whileas Canute the king is rowing by. 
 * My oarsmen,' quoth the mighty king, ' draw near, 
 That we the sweet songs of the monks may hear.' 
 He listens (all past conquests, and all schemes 
 Of future glory, vanishing like empty dreams), 
 Heart-touched, and haply not without a tear. 
 The royal minstrel, ere the choir is still, 
 While his free barque skims the smooth flood 
 
 along 
 Gives to that rapture an accordant rhyme. 
 Oh, suffering earth ! be thankful ; sternest clime 
 And rudest age are subject to the thrill 
 Of Heaven-descending piety and song." 
 
 No musician like Ambrose, and Greg- 
 ory, who was at once poet and composer, 
 belonged to England, nor was there one 
 like Luther, who became a household word 
 in his country. The hymns of England 
 never became the folk-songs in the sense 
 that Luther's did in his fatherland. Such 
 
90 (Jlje (Etiolation of QEIitircl) Jtttxsic 
 
 work as Clement Marot did for the Gene- 
 vans was imitated in England by Stern- 
 hold and Hopkins, whose version of the 
 psalms in English appeared only a little 
 later than Luther's collection of chorals. 
 The " apt notes to sing withal " were writ- 
 ten without bass or any other part. Not 
 long after, Bishop Jewell relates how 
 thousands of the populace, assembled at 
 Paul's Cross to hear preaching, would join 
 in singing psalms before and after sermon. 
 It was, doubtless, from this collection they 
 sang. It appeared in 1568, and was en- 
 titled " The Whole Booke of Psalms, coll. 
 into English metre by T. Sternhold, J. 
 Hopkins and others, conferred with the 
 Ebrue : with apt notes to sing them 
 withal." 
 
 The English Church remained depen- 
 dent on this version for nearly a century 
 and a half, almost down to the day when 
 Pope made his Horatian fling at " Hop- 
 kins and Sternhold, who glad the heart with 
 psalms," as sung by charity children ; when 
 
 11 The silenced preacher yields to potent strain, 
 And heaven is won by violence of song." 
 
Silic evolution of dTI]nrcl) Mmic 91 
 
 In 1696 another translation, that of 
 Tate and Brady, appeared. In this new 
 version were one or two hymns which still 
 find a place in our modern hymnals. Such 
 are " As Pants the Hart for Cooling 
 Stream," " O God of Hosts, the Mighty , • ^^ *•/ * 
 Lord,"jind tne beautiful Christmas hymn]"' • „/£ \ 
 
 of Tate, -While Shepherds Watched]//** fUi [ 
 their Flocks by Night.'U //*~*^V ^ 
 
 A long succession of musical compos- ' 
 ers, covering a period of more than three 
 centuries, have left us a magnificent inher- 
 itance of hymn tunes ; and many can be 
 referred to who have always aimed at the 
 highest expression of their art. Palestrina 
 undoubtedly made a deep impression upon 
 his brother musicians of England. A copy 
 of the original Roman edition of his mag- 
 nificent hymnal is still preserved in the 
 British Museum, and the English com- 
 posers probably had his music among 
 them as soon almost as it appeared. The 
 intercourse between England and Rome 
 could not have failed to bring from Italy 
 the works which had aroused such pro- 
 found enthusiasm there. 
 
92 (£t)£ (Scoolntiott of Cl)nrrl) iflnsic 
 
 Tallis, known as the father of English 
 cathedral music, was less influenced by 
 Palestrina's works than were some of his 
 immediate followers, as he was almost 
 contemporary with Palestrina and had 
 been formed by the music of the older 
 school. Tallis was chapelmaster first to 
 Henry the Eighth, and steered his course 
 so cleverly that he never lost his position 
 until his death, in the reign of Elizabeth. 
 His preferences were evidently for the old 
 faith rather than the new, but he managed 
 not to obtrude them injudiciously. Tal- 
 lies " Preces " " Litany," and " Service " in 
 the Dorian mode followed very shortly 
 the issue of the second Prayer Book of 
 Edward the Sixth. In 1560 John Daye's 
 " Morning and Evening Prayer and Com- 
 munion " was published, and to this Tallis 
 contributed eight tunes ; one of these is 
 the well-known tune to Ken's evening 
 hymn, " Glory to Thee my God this 
 Night." This is the first collection in 
 which the music is written for four voices. 
 The tunes were set in plain counterpoint, 
 and the melody was placed in the tenor part. 
 
QL\)C (Etjointion of Cbnrcl) iitttisic 93 
 
 In Ravenscroft's " Whole Booke of 
 Psalms," which appeared in 162 1, the 
 contributing composers were John Dow- 
 land, E. Blancks, Hooper, Farmer, Alli- 
 son, Kirbye, Cobbold, Johnson, and Far- 
 naby. The melody to these tunes was 
 always in the tenor part, and there is not 
 one in the collection which is not a model 
 of good music. These early hymn-tune 
 writers are mentioned because it is well 
 for any one who wishes to have even a 
 slight knowledge of the subject to be 
 acquainted with the names of our early 
 composers of sacred music. The music 
 to the one hundredth Psalm, by John 
 Dowland, is still often heard in England, 
 especially in Salisbury Cathedral, and it 
 would be well if it were in more frequent 
 use among us. In Barnard's " First Book 
 of Selected Church Musick " a great 
 many of Tallis's tunes were preserved. 
 During all those years of office he wrote 
 unremittingly. Over fifty services, an- 
 thems, and responses were printed, and 
 sixty manuscripts remain in Christ Col- 
 lege, Oxford. Nothing more solid and 
 
94 &f)£ Solution of (Etjurcl) ittnsic 
 
 excellent than Tallis's " Te Deum," set in 
 the Dorian mode, has ever been con- 
 ceived, and if it could be more frequently 
 heard by us, it would prove one of those 
 models by which to correct our taste. 
 
 Byrd, Farrant, and Bevin, in the " ser- 
 vice high and anthem clear," added 
 splendid examples of sacred writing to 
 the music of that time and school. A 
 few years later Orlando Gibbons appeared, 
 another musician of distinguished ability. 
 He was organist at Westminster in 1622. 
 A collection of hymns was published by 
 George Withers, and Gibbons, in collabo- 
 ration with Byrd, composed the tunes. 
 In its fine harmony and in its solemnity 
 and grandeur Gibbons's music is unsur- 
 passed by any of later date. 
 
 A little later came the troublous times 
 of Charles the First ; and a temporary 
 blight fell on the flourishing school of 
 English church music. No doubt the 
 times inspired the rugged and vigor- 
 ous hymns of the Covenanters, but they 
 were utterly destructive to the production 
 of anthems and musical services. The 
 
QL\)c (Eoohitioti of Cfjnrct) ffltisic 95 
 
 former, which had been highly cultivated, 
 died out completely. No words are too 
 strong to describe the hatred of the Puri- 
 tans for the English church and its music. 
 To destroy and to root out of the land 
 every office-book was believed to be their 
 bounden duty, and so well did they carry 
 out these zealous promptings that when, 
 on the return of the Stuarts, Matthew 
 Lock tried to get up some music for King 
 Charles's entry into London, he could 
 hardly find any music left to sing. For- 
 tunately some copies of Barnard's collec- 
 tion had been saved from the general 
 wreck, and a choir was gathered together, 
 as well as the scarcity of choir-boys ad- 
 mitted. Puritan animosity had so dis- 
 persed these that the treble parts had 
 finally to be given to a duet Falsetti, and 
 when these failed they had to be rendered 
 by cornets. 
 
 Diligent search at last discovered three 
 excellent choristers, and in those names 
 we recognize the founders of the new 
 school of church music. They were Pel- 
 ham Humfrey, John Blow, and Michael 
 
96 &l)£ (Etfolnticn of dljnrcl] iHusic 
 
 Wise. The form of the new music was 
 as strictly Anglican in character as the 
 English glee ; but it was a new develop- 
 ment, differing in many respects from that 
 which had preceded it. Its characteris- 
 tic feature was the verse-anthem, which 
 differed from the full-anthem of the old 
 school, as that did from the motet, which 
 was the specialty of the service preced- 
 ing the change of religion. The verse- 
 anthem was written for a large number 
 of voices ; it required a full organ accom. 
 paniment, and if it did not open with a 
 chorus it always finished with one. 
 
 The general character of the music now 
 became more elaborate. The King had 
 imbibed a decided fondness for French 
 forms, learned during his stay on the con- 
 tinent, and he commanded some embel- 
 lishments to the anthems. By this time 
 Pelham Humfrey's voice had broken, and 
 the King despatched him to Paris to study 
 Lulli, and ritornelli soon interspersed the 
 English anthems. 
 
 Shortly after this the choir received a 
 notable addition in the great composer 
 
&\)c Grooimion of Clinrclj fflnsic 97 
 
 Henry Purcell, one of the greatest musi- 
 cians of England. He is called the Eng- 
 lish Palestrina, so deeply had he drunk 
 the inspiration of the greatest of church 
 composers. In the grandeur, the earnest- 
 ness of purpose, the masterly employment 
 of fugue and polyphony, Purcell strongly 
 resembled that illustrious composer. In 
 his sacred music he exhibited a serious- 
 ness fully adequate to his subject ; in his 
 musical composition he evinced a learning 
 and skill far superior to his fellow-musi- 
 cians. His most celebrated anthem, " O 
 Give Thanks," contains a magnificent use 
 of the diminished fourth, an interval that 
 few musicians dare venture to employ. 
 Bach did so with distinguished ability in 
 his " Passions Musik," but Purcell employs 
 it with an effect equally remarkable and 
 pathetic. The first English " Te Deum" 
 written with full orchestral score was com- 
 posed by Purcell. He was a careful think- 
 er, perceiving the ideal in art, thoroughly 
 scientific in his methods, and artistic in 
 his feeling. 
 
 After these fathers of English music 
 
98 &I)e (Etiolation of Cbnrct) ittusic 
 
 come the worthy names of Dr. Boyce, Sir 
 John Goss, Battishall, all composers of 
 unvarying excellence, whose tunes are re- 
 liable models of style. In modern times 
 Dr. Dykes, Henry Smart, Barnby, the 
 two Monks, and Sir Arthur Sullivan have 
 given us hymns of great nobleness, worthy 
 to be ranked with any of their predeces- 
 sors. 
 
 In its hymn-nomenclature Germany 
 possesses a decided advantage over our 
 own. The words of a given hymn are 
 in Germany always associated with the 
 same tune ; no other one is ever used, 
 and the music immediately suggests the 
 hymn it is invariably sung to. In Eng- 
 land tunes were composed to metres rather 
 than to poems, so that one hymn has vari- 
 ous melodies, any tune in a given metre 
 being available for every other hymn in 
 the same metre. In Germany the tune 
 invariably suggests the whole subject of 
 the hymn with which it is associated. 
 None other is ever sung to it, and it is 
 named from its lines. In England tunes 
 are named generally after some place, 
 
®l]e GcDolution of (Etjnrcl) itlnsic 99 
 
 as " China," " York," " Dundee," or called 
 by kindred titles which signify nothing 
 musically. Barren of poetry and enthu- 
 siasm as the enlightened century was, it 
 was that nevertheless in which English 
 hymns were most prolific. Isaac Watts, 
 whatever partly ludicrous associations he 
 may suggest, can be called " the inventor 
 of English hymns." Many were almost 
 absurd, and some were quite painful, but 
 he atones for many faults in one really 
 strong hymn of his, " <S) God, our help in C/i/f' 
 ages past." / 
 
 Although it is with the music rather 
 than the words of hymns we are now con- 
 cerned, yet it is obvious that both text 
 and tune should be of equal excellence, 
 " Noble music wedded to noble words." 
 When music and words are united suit- 
 ably and fitly, — then only is the goal 
 touched which should satisfy us. While 
 the music of a hymn deepens and intensi- 
 fies feeling, and furnishes a " natural ve- 
 hicle " for it, the words are of no less im- 
 portance, because they suggest the ideas 
 which direct the feeling. Unless both 
 
ioo iEtje (fftjolntion of Church ittnsic 
 
 words and music come up to an equally 
 high standard of excellence they are not 
 worthy to be used in Divine worship. 
 This principle is freely admitted* although 
 not always followed in modern times ; but 
 prior to the Reformation music often 
 went its own way with apparently little 
 regard to the significance of the text. 
 This is very amusingly illustrated in Pales- 
 trina's " Lamentations;" the introductory 
 phrases, " Incipit Lamentatio," or " De 
 Lamentatione," and even the names of 
 the Hebrew initial letters, were set, by so 
 great a composer, as carefully as the verses 
 that follow. 
 
 Handel seemed at times to have given 
 little attention to his words, doubtless 
 under the strong conviction that the music 
 would convey the proper feeling without 
 reference to what words were employed. 
 Yet one of his biographers says that he 
 was exceedingly hurt when the bishops 
 sent him words for his anthem, as he felt 
 this implied his ignorance of the Holy 
 Scriptures. " I have read my Bible," said 
 he ; " I shall choose for myself." 
 
(Elje (EtJoltitioit of Cnjnrcl) itttisic 101 
 
 There always seems to have been in 
 the minds of the really great composers 
 a deep conviction of the dignity of their 
 labor whenever they attempted to express 
 the solemn truths of sacred subjects. 
 
 Handel, in commenting on the Halle- 
 lujah Chorus, said : " I did think I did see 
 all heaven before me, and the great God 
 himself." 
 
 At the head of his scores Haydn in- 
 scribed the words " In Nomine Domini," 
 and at the end of them " Laus Deo." 
 " When I was occupied upon the ' Crea- 
 tion,' he said, " always before I sat down 
 to the piano I prayed to God with earnest- 
 ness that He would enable me to praise 
 Him worthily." 
 
 Mozart composed his great Requiem 
 with the shadow of death falling on him ; 
 with every note he wrote, he realized that 
 it was a solemn task that he must finish 
 while life remained. " Who can ever hear 
 the Requiem," asks his biographer, " with- 
 out the sense of its sublimity being en- 
 hanced by the remembrance that it is the 
 work of the dying for the dead ? " 
 
102 ftlje evolution of (Elinrcl) ittnsic 
 
 Probably both words and music were at 
 the lowest ebb during the period in Eng- 
 land of the early Georges. After the 
 Commonwealth they banished poetry from 
 the Prayer Book, as far as that was pos- 
 sible, when the old hymns were left out of 
 its pages. The clergy were the greatest 
 reproach to their sacred profession. In- 
 different to their office and ignorant of all 
 learning, as many of them were, it became 
 the custom to leave the selection of church 
 music to parish clerks who were still more 
 ignorant. The Rev. Edward Vaux, in 
 his recent book on " Church Folk-Lore," 
 quotes a passage from John Wesley's 
 works, giving an amusing reminiscence of 
 the latter' s boyhood. " One Sunday, imme- 
 diately after sermon, my father's clerk said, 
 in an audible voice : ' Let us sing to the 
 praise, etc., a hymn of our own composing : 
 
 " ' " King William is come home, come home, 
 King William home is come, 
 Therefore let us together sing 
 
 The hymn that's called Te £>um." ' " 
 
 This shows the debased condition 
 
(ftfie (Evolution of Qlljtircl) ittnsic 103 
 
 church music had fallen into at that 
 time; but " the bald and unpoetical dog- 
 gerel, the false statements, glaring incon- 
 sistencies, and bad grammar too often 
 found in our hymns," show that the pub- 
 lic taste has not yet reached a very high 
 level. Sometimes the sickly sentimental- 
 ity of the words we are called to sing is 
 enough to keep sensible people away from 
 church. It is a slight on ordinary intelli- 
 gence to be asked to sing such hymns as 
 " O Paradise." Its sentiment is nearly as 
 senseless as that of another hymn which 
 no longer exists in any of the church col- 
 lections, and which must have given a 
 great many people a distaste for heaven 
 when they heard it bellowed forth in ac- 
 cents that were both distressing and deaf- 
 ening. 
 
 " I have been there, and still would go, 
 'Tis like a little heaven below." 
 
 We can readily see that if the greater 
 heaven above were like this sort of little 
 heaven below, we would far rather not 
 go there. 
 
104 f&tye (fftJ0ltttion of Cliarcl) ittasic 
 
 Some of our hymns in frequent use 
 contain statements that, if not untrue, are 
 at least inaccurate. A favorite hymn de- 
 clares, " We are not divided, all one body 
 we. One in faith and doctrine, one in 
 charity." Are we, indeed ? Then why 
 does another hymn directly contradict the 
 statement by describing the church as 
 " by schisms rent asunder, by heresies dis- 
 tressed" ? 
 
 Some hymns are too individual in their 
 character, too intensely personal, to be 
 suitable for congregational use. " Weary 
 of earth and laden with 6W sin " and " I 
 heard the voice of Jesus say " express feel- 
 ings of so deeply personal a nature that 
 one almost shrinks from uttering in public 
 such intimate and sacred experiences. 
 
 The class of hymns which dwell on the 
 physical side of our Lord's Passion seem 
 contrary to the spirit of humaneness which 
 is a characteristic of our age. We shudder 
 at the description of surgical operations 
 or of the tortures of animals under vivi- 
 section, yet during Lent we listen in our 
 hymns to the most harrowing details of 
 
QL\)c (ffoolntion of (JThnrcl) iflnsic 105 
 
 the agonies of the Crucifixion. Is it really 
 edifying to perpetrate the crude feeling 
 of the Middle Ages in such hymns as 
 number ninety-two of our new hymnal, 
 with its litany of " scourges," " nails," and 
 "livid stripes," or of " At the cross her 
 station keeping " and " O come and 
 mourn," which are full of painful ideas ? 
 
 It is in truth a mystery how people of 
 even ordinary culture can tolerate such 
 senseless repetitions, such stupid and ex- 
 travagant refrains, as some religious meet- 
 ings offer. For instance, such a petition 
 as " Let some droppings fall on me " is so 
 absurd that in any other sort of meeting 
 it would be thought idiotic. We will do 
 the clergyman the justice to believe it 
 cannot be his taste which leads to such 
 discrediting of his own intellect by these 
 selections. In his earnestness to win 
 souls, to catch the wandering thoughts of 
 his hearers, " to make the people sing," or, 
 as an even cruder class say, " to make the 
 meeting lively," he forgets that he has no 
 right to encourage so exceedingly a low 
 type of psalmody. 
 
106 (ftije (Eoohuion of Ctjttrcl) Jttnsic 
 
 Such hymns may be used, perhaps, 
 among the degraded class who are drawn 
 to street services, or they may please the 
 rough crowd which bawls of salvation 
 among the tents, but the taste of church 
 people should be cultivated by avoiding 
 all contact with music of a vulgarizing 
 type. All our collections contain plenty 
 of sound, good, sensible hymns. 
 -y oSS ' Authors like Palgrave, Whittier, Lynch, 
 
 w^lS ( (joss , riorslejs) Stanley, and many others 
 
 have written noble words for the use of 
 uj **}** the church. We have the heritage of the 
 
 Wesleys, of Cowper, of John Newton ; we 
 have hymns of the Puritans which are 
 robust in tone and profound in feeling, 
 even if rugged in form and sometimes 
 obsolete in diction. These will remain as 
 models of sense and solidity, and their 
 place in the religious life may be likened 
 to that of patriotic songs in the nation's. 
 
 " A good ear and a good musical taste 
 are not enough to qualify a man for being 
 a judge of music. The more popular 
 critic, the ready-made censor, usually re- 
 quires, in the cant phrase of the brother- 
 
&b* ©ttolntion of (Eljnrcli iflnsic 107 
 
 hood, 'tunes he can carry away with him.' 
 There is a better test for everything really 
 excellent, whether poem, picture, or music, 
 — to improve and grow upon us with 
 further acquaintance ; nor need its first 
 impression be vivid or acute." 
 
 We have seen the goodly store of fruit 
 garnered for us by the labor of centuries 
 of scholars. The questions which con- 
 front us at this stage of our subject are, 
 What use are we making of the vast ma- 
 terial which we have inherited ? Are we 
 constantly tending to a higher conception 
 of a musical art ? Are we pursuing the 
 course which modern science shows is the 
 only progressive one — the exercise of the 
 natural selection which must work here as 
 in the physical world ? Are we rejecting 
 the worthless, preserving what is fit to 
 survive in the learning of the past, and 
 maintaining constantly a receptive attitude 
 towards fresher and higher truths ? 
 
 Music is constantly called the youngest 
 of the arts. In spite of the claim that she 
 was born before either painting or poetry, 
 the sister arts came to maturity before 
 
108 &b£ (Etiolation of Cburcl) ifltisic 
 
 her. u She had an exceedingly long in- 
 fancy." She is so much more intangible 
 and inexplicable than the others, so ex- 
 ceedingly subjective in her character, and 
 so much more difficult to define, that her 
 evolution has been much slower. There 
 is no other art whose path is so strewn 
 with outgrown laws and exploded theories. 
 The future of no other is destined to be- 
 hold greater changes and developments. 
 The music world to-day is full of theories 
 unknown even twenty-five years ago. The 
 audiences which fell into raptures at Jenny 
 Lind's sweet songs a generation ago sim- 
 ply could not have endured the symphonies 
 to which our people now listen with absorp- 
 tion. Certain fundamental laws will re- 
 main, but forms and combinations will be 
 as changing and as diverse as the age 
 which evolves them from its being. 
 
Some &ses atib Abases of ^gmn ittasie JJast 
 anb JJresent 
 
" So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, 
 Through the dear might of Him that walked the 
 
 waves, 
 Where, other groves and other streams along, 
 With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, 
 And hears the unexpressive nuptial song 
 In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 
 Then entertain him all the saints above, 
 In solemn troops and sweet societies 
 That sing, and singing, in their glory move, 
 And wipe the tears forever from his eyes." 
 
 — Milton, 
 
Chapter 4 
 
 Very briefly we have now indicated 
 the main stepping-stones, as they may 
 be called, which have marked the evolu- 
 tion of church music. The details of the 
 long process would fill volumes. From 
 the strictly abstract rules in which Pythag- 
 oras swathed it, the art passed through 
 a similar unyielding system of bondage 
 under the conventional canons of the 
 mediaeval Church. At the close of the 
 sixteenth century it stood at last upon its 
 own feet, free to advance naturally hence- 
 forth, and spontaneously directed by the 
 spirit of development within itself. 
 
 Speaking comprehensively of its evolu- 
 tion, music, after its first beginnings as 
 an expression of natural emotion, entered 
 upon a long period when it was occupied 
 in acquiring its material, in organizing its 
 resources and principles. During this 
 time it almost lost sight of naturalness ; 
 
ii2 (Eljc (Stjcrltttion of (Eljttrcl) fflmic 
 
 it got farther and farther away from the 
 direct expression of feeling ; it buried its 
 head in the sand of its own abstract con- 
 ceptions and calculations. 
 
 Exactly the same thing happened in 
 the sister arts : painting and poetry both 
 passed through their stage of bondage to 
 the hard-and-fast formula of classicism, 
 which yet does not preclude a certain 
 beauty of its own. But the day came 
 when these forms were cast aside, or 
 rather they opened a hard outer shell and 
 showed a glowing heart — the infinite, 
 eternal, prolific heart of Nature. The 
 moment had come when beauty in the 
 abstract had attained its highest degree 
 of perfection ; it was a creation of spar- 
 kling ice or marble only, dazzling and 
 beautiful indeed, but lacking in the human 
 element to give it life. Then the pendu- 
 lum began to swing back again toward 
 the fuller expression of feeling, of pro- 
 found human emotions. Music, in com- 
 mon with the other arts, reached a higher 
 plane when the Renaissance brought the 
 artist into closer contact with human life, 
 
®bc (Evolution of €bnrcli ittnsic 113 
 
 human emotion, and natural feeling, not 
 merely on the ground of their beauty, 
 but because they alone are interesting 
 and attractive. It was the dawning of 
 Romanticism, that movement which to- 
 day is the preponderating influence in 
 modern art, and which declares truthful- 
 ness to Nature to be the end of art and 
 the only standard of criticism. 
 
 How did this movement affect sacred 
 music? It did so most powerfully. It 
 brought the music of the Church nearer to 
 the ordinary worshipper's own life. It in- 
 troduced the personal element. Music 
 ceased to be only a " branch of mathe- 
 matics " cleverly handled by scholarly 
 composers ; it began to be something 
 vastly more vital than a mere sequence 
 of abstract conceptions. People ceased 
 to care that canon and fugue could be 
 reversed and inversed, could proceed by 
 " contrary " or " parallel " motion ; they 
 stood no longer afar off gazing on the 
 sacrifice of the mass ; they needed words, 
 common words which they understood, to 
 voice the joys and sorrows, the aspirations 
 
 8 
 
n4 &Ik ©tjolntion of €l]ttrcb JHtisic 
 
 and repentance of their own hearts. This 
 was the cry which Luther and Wesley an- 
 swered by giving them hymns in their 
 mother tongues. 
 
 A store of good music " of sound and 
 church-like character" was laid up for us 
 by the English school of composers. It 
 is far from being exhausted, nor can it 
 soon be outworn ; for it has not yet been 
 surpassed as a model of music suited to 
 divine worship. 
 
 It was the influence of that same art 
 movement which made the importance of 
 the words equal to that of the music that 
 accompanied them. It insisted that words 
 truly poetic and spiritual in their signifi- 
 cance meant much with the music which 
 gives them utterance. Both must be of 
 an equal standard of excellence in order 
 to elevate and maintain the general taste. 
 There are always tendencies at work to 
 vitiate and lower the standard. Constant 
 care and cultivation alone will keep the 
 weeds out of our garden. 
 
 Now that we have gone over the ground, 
 and may be said to have a slight acquaint- 
 
QL\)e (Ebo Union of (Eljnrcl) iflnsic 115 
 
 ance with what has been already accom- 
 plished, we may permit ourselves to criti- 
 cise a few of the faults in common prac- 
 tice, and to express some observations as 
 to the principles which in our judgment 
 should regulate future efforts. Music is 
 a science as well as an art. A science 
 seldom if ever stands alone, but involves 
 others, sometimes very closely related to 
 each other. Music as a science relates to 
 physics, to acoustics, and to psychology. 
 It has so much to do with natural phenom- 
 ena that although a musical thought is 
 one of the most evanescent and intangible 
 of creations, still we can name, classify, and 
 arrange in order both its elements and its 
 effects. 
 
 In the language of the scientific philos- 
 opher, sound is the material that music is 
 made of ; therefore, music is based upon 
 acoustics as one of its foundation stones. 
 
 Second, Since the aim of music is to be 
 heard, and the auditory apparatus of the 
 hearer must be stirred, the science of 
 music also rests on physiology. 
 
 Third, As the effect of the musical 
 
n6 Qi\\t (KtJolution of Cljttrcl) fttnsic 
 
 sound does not cease with the auditory- 
 nerve, but penetrates beyond the mere 
 perception of sound, till it touches the 
 higher faculties and transmits an emotion 
 or an idea to the brain, therefore, the last, 
 and we may say the chief, of the sciences 
 which support music is the science of 
 psychology. 
 
 We have now reached the end of the 
 chain, and we find that, as a science, 
 music rests on acoustics, physiology, and 
 psychology ; an entirely different conclu- 
 sion from that of the old students, who 
 called music " nothing but a branch of 
 mathematics." Nevertheless, since math- 
 ematics are a part of physics, and we 
 have seen that music rests on physics, so 
 far it does involve mathematics ; and the 
 composer of sacred as well as secular 
 harmony must concern himself with these 
 facts. 
 
 As an art, our modern music is " the 
 sum of all the music which has been sung 
 or played or written " from the time of 
 Pythagoras and Sappho until the present 
 day. It is more self-reliant in its means 
 
&!)£ (Koolntion of Clinrcl) ittnsic 117 
 
 of expression than any of the other arts ; 
 it depends less upon Nature than they do 
 both in the material it employs and in the 
 result it creates. Painting and poetry 
 both require natural objects to enable 
 them to manifest themselves. Without the 
 material of paint and canvas, and of the 
 objects which are represented by their 
 use, painting could not exist. Poetry is 
 less dependent, but it also portrays nature 
 and humanity as its themes ; it says some- 
 thing about objects we all understand and 
 feel. 
 
 Music, on the contrary, is wholly sub- 
 jective. It is thought originating in the 
 mind of the composer and having no being 
 anywhere else. Nature has no hand in 
 producing it. It takes form in sound, 
 having no shape, no tangibility, and re- 
 lating solely to something within the mind 
 of its creator, and going straight to the 
 mind of its hearer. Nothing is produced 
 that can be seen or handled, measured or 
 compared ; nor does it resemble any pro- 
 totype. It does not pause, it leaves no 
 trace, and when it ceases naught remains 
 
n8 H\)c Solution of Cbttrcl) Jttusic 
 
 but the echo existing in the mind of the 
 listener. Its very nature expresses only- 
 spiritual relations. Can there be anything 
 more unsubstantial, transitory, and elusive? 
 Two mental states are alone concerned 
 with its cause, results, and effects. It is 
 as though a soul spoke to a soul. 
 
 Hegel says most beautifully of this : 
 " Music builds no permanent fabric in 
 space. It has no form which can be seen. 
 It is a voice. Out of the unseen, in skil- 
 fully modulated tones, it speaks to the 
 heart of the hearer. Like the voice itself, 
 it no sooner utters its word than it is 
 silent. Whenever we would recall its 
 message, we must recite the informing 
 word." 
 
 Its intensity of meaning thus makes 
 music preeminently the vehicle of religious 
 feeling. This is the reason why it has 
 been the natural, almost the spontaneous, 
 outlet and accompaniment of devotion. 
 It also strongly emphasizes the principle 
 that the line of demarcation between 
 sacred and secular music must be strictly 
 observed. Music which is associated with 
 
QL\)c (Eooltttion of (Ebarcl) ittusic 119 
 
 worldly thoughts and places and subjects 
 cannot accompany holy and devout medi- 
 tation also, and it should never be heard 
 in church. People come into the presence 
 of Almighty God sometimes with hearts 
 full of the rapture of thanksgiving, and 
 sometimes filled with a bitterness known 
 only to themselves ; it is an unwarrantable 
 offence to affront their ears with the 
 strains of light and popular melodies bor- 
 rowed from some frivolous source. The 
 many instances in which well-known hymns 
 have been fitted to Volkslieder, even 
 though authority for so doing comes from 
 so high an example as Luther, does not 
 controvert this assertion. The effect has 
 always been instinctively felt to be dis- 
 tasteful, and when music written expressly 
 for the operatic stage has been adapted 
 to anthems and sentences of sacred im- 
 port, the incongruity has jarred most 
 painfully upon sensitive perceptions. 
 
 It has been claimed that the sources 
 from which these melodies come are so 
 ancient and so little known that they 
 excite no recollections of their proper 
 
120 (El)* (fftjoltttion of CfTl)ttrcl) Jttusic 
 
 sphere. The adoption is then less repre- 
 hensible ; but in such a case the origin 
 should be very obscure indeed, and even 
 then some one is likely to trace it out and 
 destroy the feeling of reverence you may 
 have for it by telling you that it is some 
 love-song in the land of its birth. 
 
 What kind of hymns shall we use in 
 our services, and what form of music is 
 best adapted to accompany devotional 
 thoughts ? There is great difficulty in 
 treating this subject, owing to the wide 
 difference of opinion about it. Two diver- 
 gent theories of worship immediately con- 
 front us — the Ritualistic theory and the 
 Puritan. The first appeals to the senses ; 
 the second ignores them, and addresses 
 itself entirely to the intellect. 
 
 The Ritualist advocates the use of the 
 full choral service, performed beneath 
 Gothic arches, by white-robed priest and 
 vested choir, before an altar blazing with 
 light, rich with gorgeous coloring, and 
 clouded with incense. In this service the 
 congregation takes no audible part, but 
 worships in silence by listening to the 
 
&f)e Quotation of Clinrcl) itttxsic 121 
 
 choir and clergy. The Puritan, on the 
 other hand, considers such a service rank 
 idolatry ; he permits only such music as 
 that in which the whole congregation can 
 and shall participate. "Join heart and 
 voice with one accord," says one of his 
 hymns. In extreme cases the accompani- 
 ment of an organ has been forbidden. In 
 their religious edifices, almost bare of or- 
 nament of any kind, the Puritans make the 
 pulpit the most striking object, thus em- 
 phasizing their belief that the sermon is 
 the supreme part of the service. However 
 great its conspicuousness, its severe sim- 
 plicity presents no suggestion to tempt 
 any wandering thoughts. " The lust of 
 the eye" is nowhere conciliated. Hearty 
 congregational singing is encouraged, with 
 little regard as to whether it is good or 
 bad. And if all will join in it, it is esteemed 
 more inspiring to individual piety and 
 more acceptable to God than the most 
 artistic efforts of a few selected singers. 
 
 In large cities, where the number of 
 churches provides a variety of services to 
 meet all tastes and shades of opinion, and 
 
122 ®|)£ (Eoohrtion of dl)tircl) ittttsic 
 
 where the resources are sufficient to com- 
 mand all the accessories of a cathedral 
 service, the full choral service may be 
 practised and even advocated in many 
 instances. No service can be of more 
 dignity and impressiveness or of greater 
 beauty. It must, however, be greatly 
 modified to adapt itself to the resources 
 of country parishes. Very often such at- 
 tempts to imitate a cathedral service fall 
 lamentably short of the standard. 
 
 Almost every one will agree that the 
 hymns in church, and as far as possible the 
 chants also, should be sung by the whole 
 congregation. Unhappily, good congre- 
 gational singing is no easy thing to get, 
 and it is almost as difficult to retain. The 
 result where it is clung to is always distress- 
 ing and generally intolerable. The good 
 sisters who love to sing what they con- 
 sider an alto, a third below the melody, the 
 pious old gentleman who shambles after 
 the tune an octave lower than the proper 
 pitch, the person behind you who keeps 
 up what they used to call counter, the half 
 of the meeting who are dragging along 
 
(Efje (fftjolntion of (El)ttrcl) ittnsic 123 
 
 half a bar behind the time, and the other 
 half who use their noses to sing with — we all 
 have suffered too much and often at their 
 hands to dwell on the description. Pre- 
 centors may volunteer to " raise the tune ; " 
 but in most cases it is absolutely indispen- 
 sable that some sort of a choir should 
 lead. And this choir, in non-liturgical 
 churches more especially, too often suc- 
 ceeds in getting the upper hand, and ends 
 in silencing the congregation. It has too 
 often resulted in the quartette choir, one 
 of the most deadly of devices for inducing 
 dulness and coldness of devotion. If the 
 question is asked whether the people 
 ought to sing themselves, a hearty assent 
 will be given by all grades and sects of 
 church people. In God's house, on Sun- 
 day morning, an attempt to compete with 
 the concert room is hardly conducive to 
 spirituality. 
 
 The compositions known as " Moody 
 and Sankey hymns " appear to lie very 
 close to the hearts of a large class of 
 people. In England these are called 
 "American gospel hymns." The char- 
 
124 &be (EtJohttion of (fllitxrcl) Jttnsic 
 
 acter of piety they encourage is somewhat 
 superficial, not to say hysterical ; they are 
 full of extravagant and often foolish state- 
 ments ; but it cannot be denied that they 
 stir the hearts of the common throng. 
 The refrains which are generally attached 
 to them are readily caught by ear ; and 
 that wave of emotional sympathy, easily 
 started in large audiences, soon sweeps 
 over the meeting, and choir and congre- 
 gation are at once drawn into close accord. 
 When Mr. Sankey himself used those 
 hymns he adopted a number of devices to 
 arouse and compel this sympathetic feel- 
 ing between the choir and the audience. 
 At one of the meetings he conducted the 
 hymn was given out, " Take me as I am." 
 Each of the first three lines was sung by 
 a third of the congregation, and the whole 
 body joined in the fourth line, " And take 
 me as I am." These inventions of Mr. 
 Sankey were very telling, and very suc- 
 cessful in moving the emotions of his 
 hearers strangely. The following anec- 
 dote from his revival meetings in England 
 illustrates his methods : 
 
®be (Evolution of dtjnrcl) Jttnsic 125 
 
 u At Leicester the meetings were held 
 in a skating rink, where there was a far-off 
 gallery almost an eighth of a mile from 
 the platform. The hymn given out was, 
 
 * We shall meet beyond the river, 
 By and by, by and by. ' 
 
 Mr. Sankey sung the first line himself ; the 
 choir was to sing the first ' by and by,' 
 and the people in the distant gallery the 
 second. The last response was so long 
 in coming that on the platform they 
 thought the directions had been misunder- 
 stood. Almost as if indeed from another 
 world the words at last floated to them, 
 touching most powerfully the feelings of 
 the congregation." Under the manage- 
 ment of Mr. Sankey these performances 
 appeared spontaneous and intensely devo- 
 tional. No doubt, the participants were 
 moved by profound and genuine feeling ; 
 yet we are unable to approve of the intro- 
 duction of such melodies into church ser- 
 vices. It is, indeed, very questionable 
 whether it is best even in mission meet- 
 ings to allow the use of musical composi- 
 
126 &l)e evolution of €t]arcl) ittttsic 
 
 tions which we could not tolerate in 
 church. Furthermore, the musical taste 
 which has been cultivated by constant 
 association with the old English hymn 
 tunes, or even by the full modern harmo- 
 nies of Dykes and Barnby, would not 
 exchange their stately swing and dignity 
 of measure for the insipidity, too often 
 the vulgarity, of the gospel hymns unhap- 
 pily esteemed American. The musical 
 structure of these hymns is very slight ; 
 the harmony has hardly any variety, sel- 
 dom changing more than once in the bar ; 
 and they employ the march rhythms so 
 frequently that they produce an effect of 
 monotony, and prove how deficient in 
 knowledge and originality their composers 
 are. 
 
 What requisite qualities should good 
 tunes possess ? And how shall the hearer 
 of average ability recognize them ? State- 
 liness, majesty, solidity, grandeur, dignity, 
 beauty, purity of style, fulness of har- 
 mony, fine modulation and rhythm — all 
 these are characteristics of good music ; 
 they are essential to the formation of 
 
©l)c (Euohrtion of QThnrcl) JHtisic 127 
 
 model tunes. They should also be 
 "vocal ;" that is, singable. In each chord 
 the harmony should be complete, and it 
 should not be composed of chords of two 
 or three notes, but of several ; the har- 
 mony should be written in four parts, and 
 it should not depend upon the accompani- 
 ment to fill up deficiencies in the compo- 
 sition. There are plenty of good hymn 
 tunes. Recent composers, such as Sulli- 
 van, Dykes, Goss, Barnby, and Smart, in 
 England; Le Jeune, Parker, Hodges, and 
 many others, in America, have produced 
 excellent examples ; and, as the previous 
 pages have indicated, there is an inex- 
 haustible supply of earlier date. Some 
 of these were composed by the re- 
 formers, both Lutheran and Calvinistic, 
 and some by English and Continental 
 writers who imitated them. All the 
 German chorale belong to this class, 
 such as the melody called " Basle" set 
 to the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth 
 Psalm, "Old Hundredth," "Dundee," 
 "French," "Windsor," "St. David's," 
 " St. Michael's," " St. Ann's," " Martyrs," 
 
128 (Etje (EtJolntion of <2Tl)tircl) ittaeic 
 
 M Hanover," and many more of the same 
 structure. Most of these are written in 
 common time, and each note keeps step 
 with a syllable. They should be taken in 
 rather slow time, and they produce a grand 
 and majestic effect. 
 
 " Martyrs," " Dundee," " French," and 
 " Windsor " were of the " twelve orthodox 
 tunes " exclusively sanctioned for a long 
 period in the stern Presbyterian conven- 
 ticles of Scotland. Burns in the " Cot- 
 ter's Saturday Night " speaks of 
 
 li Plaintive i Martyrs,' worthy of the name." 
 
 Besides these tunes of a grand and 
 heavy character, there are others of a 
 little later date, which, though of the same 
 style, are somewhat softened, and are 
 more flowing and melodious. Examples 
 of this class are " Rockingham," " Ware- 
 ham," and " Wiltshire." While some of 
 these possess many of the characteristics 
 of the grand class of hymns, their rugged- 
 ness has been slightly softened ; they are 
 generally written in triple time, which 
 always makes a lighter effect, and "pass- 
 
QEIlc (Etiolation of Cbnrch ittnsic 129 
 
 ing," or sliding-, notes give them a still 
 more flowing quality. " Duke Street " is 
 one more example of this class. 
 
 The " florid " style of tune is still more 
 elaborate. The melody is broken up by 
 grace notes, dotted fourths, quavers, syn- 
 copations, and other embellishments. To 
 this class belongs the " fugal " tune, in 
 which some of the parts are occasionally 
 silent. This kind of a tune was a great 
 favorite with our grandfathers half a cen- 
 tury ago. Those fugal tunes were some- 
 times extended so as almost to make them 
 into a little anthem. In modern days 
 most of these have been excluded from 
 our compilations. The fugal theme ap- 
 pears in the middle of these tunes, and 
 ends with the repetition of the words of 
 the last line, where all the voices and 
 parts unite with great vigor in a final 
 strain. 
 
 On the whole it has been a gain to 
 discard these fugal tunes, though some 
 examples might be retained if their har- 
 monies had been slightly altered so as to 
 simplify them. They were not adapted 
 9 
 
130 ®l)£ ^oolntion of (STtjurcl) ifltasic 
 
 to congregational use, and the repetition 
 often made them ludicrous. A very droll 
 description of their performance appears 
 in Frasers Magazine for September, i860. 
 The choir was engaged upon the Eigh- 
 teenth Psalm, set to one of these fugal 
 tunes. " 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 altos, the tenors, 
 and the bass voices ; then all together sung 
 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 had become 
 perceptibly apoplectic about the eyes, and 
 a tall, thin man with a long nose, which 
 was his principal vocal organ, and which 
 
fZHje evolution of (&\)txxt\) Ittusie 131 
 
 sang tenor, was getting out of wind — they 
 all together rushed pell-mell into 'The 
 threatening waves that proudly swelled.'" 
 Another amusing illustration of the same 
 kind, but with a setting more familiar to 
 us because in our own New England, is 
 from the pen of Mrs. Stowe, and describes 
 the choir in her father's church at Litch- 
 field. It is of the time of our grand- 
 fathers. " The glory of the old meeting 
 house (the Noah's-Ark-looking wooden 
 church) was the singers' seat, the em- 
 pyrean of those who rejoiced in the mys- 
 terious art of fa-sol-la-ing. There they 
 sat in the gallery that lined three sides of 
 the house — treble, counter, tenor, and 
 bass — each with its appropriate leaders 
 and supporters. But the Magnus Apollo 
 of the whole concern occupied the seat of 
 honor, exactly in the midst of the gallery, 
 and opposite the minister. With what an 
 air did he sound the important fa-sol-la-fa 
 in the ears of the waiting gallery, who 
 stood with open mouths ready to give 
 their pitch preparatory to the general 
 set-to ! But the glory of his art consisted 
 
132 f&^e ©flotation of CHnrcli Music 
 
 in the execution of those good old billowy 
 compositions called fuguing tunes, when 
 the four parts that compose the choir take 
 up the song, and go racing around, one 
 after the other, each singing a different 
 set of words ; till at length, by some inex- 
 plicable magic, they all come together 
 again, and go sailing smoothly out into a 
 rolling sea of harmony. I remember the 
 wonder with which I used to look from 
 side to side when tenor, treble, and counter, 
 and bass were thus roaring and foaming ; 
 it verily seemed as if the psalm were going 
 to pieces among the breakers ; and the 
 delighted astonishment when I found that 
 each particular verse did emerge whole and 
 uninjured from the storm." 
 
 " Antioch " is one of these fugal hymns 
 still retained in some modern collections, 
 perhaps as a curiosity, for the writer does 
 not remember having heard any choir 
 sing it for many years. It was always 
 sung to "Joy to the World, the Lord is 
 Come." 
 
 There are, however, a few tunes where 
 the repetition, which adds strength and 
 
Qlt)t (foolntion of (Etjnrcl) ittusic 133 
 
 force to the hymn, is not to be condemned, 
 but rather commended. In the " Adeste 
 Fideles" the effect is dignified and musi- 
 cal. In " Miles Lane" the repeated acclaim, 
 "Crown Him," of the last line, produces 
 a very fine effect. All the undesirable ele- 
 ments of the old form of repetition are left 
 out. 
 
 Returning to the question of the proper 
 structure of good hymn tunes, there is a 
 large class which, though belonging to the 
 flowing or melodious tune, are still sedate 
 and in excellent style, the harmony being 
 full throughout in four parts. " Christ- 
 mas " is flowing, and yet dignified and 
 stately. Then there are some sweeter 
 tunes, which harmonize with gentle, tran- 
 quil words : " Heber," for instance, which 
 always suits that sweet old hymn, " Calm 
 on the Listening Ear of Night," better 
 than any other tune does. One does not 
 always feel like shouting a warlike strain. 
 Nothing falls more sweetly on the spirit 
 at Evensong than " Softly now the Light 
 of Day," sung to the softly gliding melody 
 of " Holley." 
 
134 ®be (EDohxtion of (STl)tircl) Music 
 
 A very excellent modern writer has spo- 
 ken in these words of these tunes, which he 
 terms at once florid and melodious : " The 
 writer would not wish to be misunderstood 
 to estimate these tunes as highly as the 
 grand tune with one note to each sylla- 
 ble. He simply contends that the florid 
 tunes are often melodious in a high degree, 
 and that their cheerful, tuneful notes are 
 preferable to the poor, whining, sensuous 
 strains now enjoying a certain kind of 
 popularity." The tunes he refers to are 
 "Milton," "Lydia," " Sheldon " or " New 
 York," " Gainsborough," "Boston," and 
 several others. " Many of the plainer 
 kind of florid tunes where the harmony 
 is full throughout, if taken at a proper 
 pace and correctly accompanied, are by 
 no means so objectionable as it is fash- 
 ionable to pronounce them. Nay, many 
 of them are so stirring, and many have 
 something so noble in them, that it must 
 be extreme fastidiousness that rejects 
 them. Among the composers of tunes 
 more or less florid are found the names of 
 Adams, Stanley, Jeremiah Clark, Dr. Ran- 
 
Zi)c (gvoinlion of Cljnrcli fflnsic 135 
 
 dall, Dr. Arnold, Dr. Hayes, Dr. Worgan, 
 and Dr. Boyce." 
 
 The modern tendency is to render our 
 psalmody simpler ; and as this makes it 
 better for congregational singing, it is to 
 be commended. The harmony in four 
 parts is to be preferred to that in many, 
 and florid counterpoint is no longer em- 
 ployed. 
 
 The collections of hymns are very nu- 
 merous and ample. There is not a 
 denomination which has not its own 
 approved hymnal. It is a pity that the 
 compilers of almost all have failed to bor- 
 row as many of the German chorals as 
 they should. Those chorale are so ele- 
 vated, and at the same time so simple and 
 devotional, that they are beyond question 
 the most perfect models of hymn tunes. 
 It is humiliating to compare our collec- 
 tions with those used in German churches. 
 In one for use in their Sunday-schools, the 
 title-page bears the inscription : " For our 
 children only the best is good enough." 
 Such a motto bears ample testimony to 
 the high standard of musical taste in Ger- 
 
136 &lje (EtJohttiott of Qlljttrcl) fflttsic 
 
 many. One of their collections is said to 
 contain over two hundred tunes — all of 
 them satisfactory, and many of them ab- 
 solutely perfect examples of psalm tunes. 
 If our compilers would give us a few 
 more of these chorale instead of the fee- 
 ble and sensuous melodies which are too 
 numerous in our collections, our psalmody 
 would be greatly improved ; and, more im- 
 portant still, the public taste would be 
 better trained. 
 
 It is very unfortunate that, in the United 
 States especially, the popular demand is 
 always for novelty. The feeling that we 
 must continually have something new is 
 deplorable, and it results in filling up our 
 hymn-books with a great deal of very 
 poor music. The success a tune finds in 
 the popular favor is far from being a sure 
 test of its real worth. It is often enough 
 a proof of the contrary ; many of the 
 worst compositions, by being often used, 
 have become favorites, and often the very 
 characteristics which have made them pop- 
 ular are precisely those which render them 
 so lacking in dignity as to be totally unfit 
 
&b£ (Euolntion of CUbortl) Jttnsic 137 
 
 for church. Musical taste is nowhere at a 
 lower level than in our own land ; and 
 nowhere is there greater need of educat- 
 ing it, hopeless as the task sometimes 
 seems. 
 
 It is most disastrous to try to please 
 unmusical people by lowering the stand- 
 ard of church music to suit their ideas. 
 It will never be possible to form a culti- 
 vated taste among us by such means. The 
 constant hearing of good music is the only 
 way to form an educated class, and by 
 "good church music" compositions are 
 meant that are artistic in their construc- 
 tion, suited to the spirit of the work, 
 decorous in their character, and singable 
 by the congregation. 
 
 Now let us turn for a moment to the 
 hymn music used by the Church, and ask 
 how it has fulfilled some of the conditions 
 of which I have been speaking. The new 
 Hymnal is certainly a great improvement 
 upon the old Hymnal it has superseded ; 
 and the various editions sent out, with 
 music, are a still greater improvement 
 upon the editions of the old Hymnal. In 
 
138 GTlje ©Dotation of Cljttrcl) itttisic 
 
 the old work, many of the hymn tunes of 
 cherished associations seem to have been 
 selected with little or no recognition of 
 any law of appropriate musical expression. 
 The recipe after which many of them are 
 manufactured seems to have been some- 
 thing like this : Take a sufficient quantity 
 of music and a sufficient number of words, 
 and if the final musical phrase ends with 
 the last word of the verse, that is all that 
 is necessary ; put an Amen at the end, and 
 it sanctifies the whole proceeding, no mat- 
 ter from what light melody the music may 
 have been stolen. 
 
 Thus we may have sung words which 
 speak of the deepest passions of the soul, 
 set to trifling airs of the lightest possible 
 description. We have used hymns of 
 the most sacred meaning sung to melodies 
 borrowed from sentimental love-ballads 
 and the lighter class of opera. " Bethany," 
 the favorite tune to " Nearer, my God, to 
 Thee," presses very closely upon " Oft in 
 the Stilly Night" and "Robin Adair." 
 Another favorite tune to " Jesus, Lover of 
 my Soul," is " When the Swallows Home- 
 
QLi)t ©flotation of <EI)tircli Jttnsic 139 
 
 ward Fly." In one hymnal, one of the 
 most solemn hymns in the collection, " O 
 Sacred Head now Wounded," was sung 
 to Thalberg's " Amid this Greenwood 
 Smiling." About thirty years ago " A 
 Charge to keep I have " was sung 
 frequently, in Grace Church, New York 
 City, to the " Prima Donna Waltz." 
 After such instances as this it seems quite 
 bearable to hear " Thou Everywhere," a 
 popular German song, sung to sacred 
 words as an anthem. 
 
 Hardly any of such glaring sins against 
 propriety are to be found in the present ^^ ut 
 Hymnal. It is, on the whole, probably the fil^ u ^ 
 best collection in our country, presenting / lij+^U 1 
 
 the fewest faults and the greatest number ' 
 of excellencies. A great many poor tunes yy /l£ /&t L /,fc 
 have been dropped out, and new ones . ■ Vrr %/S 
 
 substituted of real merit. The general 
 unsatisfactoriness with tunes of chromatic ~/a*, /*~44~l+<t 
 passages has been recognized, and these 
 are not as frequent as in older collec- " **&++& *£•*/ 
 tions. As already said, no congregation , y _ * *_» . M /*^1 
 can tollow with any accuracy the nice 
 gradations of a chromatic sequence. If 
 
 
*h 
 
 140 ®|je (gwhstion of (El)tircl) Mueic 
 
 they attempt to do so, a slovenly effect of 
 slurring is the result, and gradually they 
 learn this so well that they leave the 
 whole hymn to the choir. Indeed, it is 
 only in " quartette choirs " that they are 
 much used. " Seymour," for instance, a 
 ^f^/^ v tune with one of those difficult passages, 
 
 (is rarely heard nowadays. J> Even in 
 " Abide with me " there is a passage in 
 the bass which the congregation renders 
 very badly. 
 
 Now, when music can so well interpret 
 and express the highest emotions of man, 
 when it is so eminently the medium for 
 the transmission of religious feeling, we 
 should not tolerate the sacrilege of mak- 
 ing over unfit material, nor the fitting of 
 secular tunes to sacred words ; this should 
 be stigmatized as musical cobbling and 
 patchwork. The poorest collections of 
 camp-meeting songs have not this sin, at 
 least, at their door ; for, however bad the 
 tunes to most of them are, they were written 
 for those words and no others. 
 
 The German edition of the Moody and 
 Sankey hymns has been enriched there by 
 
(Elje (Evolution of C^nrch Xttaeic 141 
 
 a full harmony, which changes their slight 
 melodies so completely that you would 
 hardly know them for the same as the 
 originals. But it should be reiterated 
 that in Germany these hymns are used 
 only by the smaller sects — the dissenters, 
 so to speak. In the Lutheran Church the 
 introduction of those trifling tunes, even 
 for Sunday-school use, would not be per- 
 mitted. There is a certain dignity in the 
 German music, and indeed in their entire 
 conception of the church service, which 
 would not be unprofitable for us to con- 
 sider. Not that we could transplant their 
 usages to our churches : the sentiments 
 upon which those usages are founded are 
 their own, and this music is the outcome 
 of their own natures and of their own 
 needs. But a good critic knows that in 
 all matters it is well to study the merits 
 of others, and our own failings rather 
 than our own merits. 
 
American (Hljtxrct) fflmit— its Btvtiopmtnt anb 
 limitations 
 
" Over his keys the musing organist, 
 Beginning doubtfully and far away, 
 First lets his fingers wander as they list, 
 And builds a bridge from Dreamland for his lay : 
 Then, as the touch of his loved instrument 
 Gains hope and fervor, nearer draws his theme, 
 First guessed by faint auroral flushes sent 
 Along the wavering vista of his dream." 
 
 — Lowell. 
 
Chapter 5 
 
 In America no school of sacred music 
 has yet appeared which will bear com- 
 parison with that of England. The music 
 of England has been adopted outright by 
 the cultured classes, or where musicians 
 have attempted sacred compositions they 
 have been usually adaptations or trans- 
 positions of established themes. The , no 
 
 stern and gloomy ftymnology3'oI their L ^^^ J*r y j 
 
 fathers of the CommonwealtnT They used, .? „ 
 
 also, a few tones of a strange, quavering *>*~^J A_ 
 
 character, as " China," for instance. This 
 
 tune was sung to the funeral hymn " Why 
 
 do you mourn departing friends?" and its 
 
 unexpected turns and quavers produce a 
 
 very weird effect. It was probably not 
 
 immediately after their arrival that they 
 
 used these tunes, but later, in 1700 and 
 
 after. "Federal Street," "Rockingham," ) 
 
 "Hamburg," " Brattle Street," " Siloam " 
 
 /?+*#}<. -v. 
 
 10 
 
146 &l)£ (Etjoiution of Cljnrcl) Jttasic 
 
 — these are some of the tunes our ances- 
 tors sang as they sat nearly all day in the 
 white wooden meeting-house, always built 
 on a hill, and in which no heat tempered 
 the severity either of the winter weather 
 or of the austere doctrines. The women, 
 however, sat with their feet on little 
 square tin boxes full of hot coals — this 
 small concession being granted to femi- 
 nine weakness. 
 
 Our non- liturgical churches d epend 
 1[tt a<^ almost wholly upon the hymns for music 
 
 / -/ -^ /y alt .t- in their services, so that it is most unfor- 
 tunate when they are deprived of the 
 4U*s/£l*»4 fis&*>*i advantages of good tunes. In later days 
 
 they have not, generally, been as careful 
 to follow good usage in music as they 
 should ; but have adapted sacred words to 
 popular melodies and to trifling " catchy " 
 tunes, with absolute disregard to propriety 
 and decorum. They have not hesitated 
 to employ the songs of Mr. Sankey, and 
 others of his type, in their church services 
 as well as in their prayer-meetings. The 
 slight structure and trivial harmony of 
 these tunes only vitiate the public taste, 
 
I 
 
 ftlje Qfoolntion of (Eljtircb iJttnsic 147 
 
 and strengthen the impression abroad that 
 in America only the cheapest forms of art 
 can flourish. Lowell Mason and Thomas 
 Hastings are composers of a somewhat 
 higher average. "Olivet" and "Beth- 
 any " are works of Lowell Mason ; neither 
 can be said to present much that is 
 praiseworthy. 
 
 Over twenty tunes in the hymnal of the ^v£/*-c <*-*-*- t^t 
 Episcopal Church are from American tJT £r 7^Tc^r^ 
 sources. George Webb, Lowell Mason, 
 Dr. Hodges, Thomas Hastings, and L n c ^^ ' 
 
 William Bradbury are the leading contrib- //,• r 
 utors. " Toplady " and " Rock of Ages " 
 
 by Hastings, "Missionary Hymn" by L. //uZ 4U* ^*-^£ 
 Mason, "Webb" by George Webb, and 
 
 "Woodworth" and "Zephyr" by Brad- M*~Z '* "»y 
 bury, are probably the best known exam- . _ .^ 
 pies of each of these composers. 
 
 We cannot help feeling that the present m - / J 
 
 conditions in America are not favorable / 
 
 for the production of sacred music. That 
 devout and reverential spirit which pro- 
 duced the finest types of the seventeenth 
 century is certainly wanting among us, 
 and nothing can supply its deficiency. 
 
148 QL\\t (Etiolation of €t)ttrd) ittnsic 
 
 Such musicians as we possess have pro- 
 duced little that is successful in that line. 
 A distinguished choirmaster in one of our 
 leading cities says: " Englishmen who 
 take their pleasures so sadly, take a per- 
 haps equally serious view of the music 
 which they write for Divine worship, 
 deeming themselves unworthy sons of 
 Jubal if their church compositions con- 
 tain soupgons of secularity, or remind one 
 of things mundane. They abjure the 
 melody that cloys, that would do equally 
 well for a waltz movement. They avoid 
 the 'popular' anthem which contains a 
 sweet little tune for the solo soprano 
 (very high), a line for the alto (very low), 
 followed by a ' cute ' little melody (with a 
 turn-turn accompaniment) for the tenor, 
 and half a line of growl for the bass, 
 winding up with a grand crash for every- 
 body, generally irrespective of the mean- 
 ing of the words, astonishing and (con- 
 sequently) delighting the congregation, 
 who naturally don't know anything about 
 it, never having had an opportunity to 
 learn." 
 
(Etje ©Delation of CSEhurch ittnsic 149 
 
 Perhaps we may add that American 
 composers are more free in their methods, 
 and not bound by such ecclesiastical ideas ; 
 consequently their work is formulated on 
 lines whose meaning we may not under- 
 stand. From the category of such, how- 
 ever, we may except Dr. Hopkins, Dr. 
 Tuckerman, and, in many cases, Dudley 
 Buck, though work of the latter is not 
 always of equal merit. These last have 
 written some distinctly good "composi- 
 tions in the line of anthems and musical 
 services. 
 
 Will the so-called " music of the future " 
 produce any change in the established 
 type of sacred compositions ? It is not 
 easy to think that it can. The intentional 
 discords, the startling, peculiar, and novel 
 harmonic effects which characterize the 
 new school are typical, not of the spirit of 
 worship, but of the conflict and mental 
 unrest of modern thought — the Zeitgeist 
 or "movement of the time," as Matthew 
 Arnold calls it. In a high degree this 
 music appeals to the intellect. It voices 
 the restlessness, the discontent, the ration- 
 
150 &l)£ Solution of (STliurcb fflusic 
 
 alistic temper of our century, and it may 
 continue more and more to do so. 
 
 With all these questions true devotion 
 has naught to do. It belongs to the 
 inner sphere of the soul and of the heart 
 of humanity, which, through all the cen- 
 turies, " yesterday, to-day, and forever," are 
 substantially the same. There are no 
 new sounds in the gamut of human joy 
 and sorrow, rapture and anguish, weak- 
 ness and despair. The mysteries of pain 
 and death, the helplessness of each soul 
 when these mighty forces grasp it — in 
 every generation these are the same, 
 and they bring us to our knees before 
 the altar of God. As no form of archi- 
 tecture can ever surpass the Gothic for 
 church buildings, as no religious paint- 
 ings have excelled the works of the six- 
 teenth century, so the form in which the 
 voice of prayer and praise was fixed by 
 Palestrina, Bach, Handel, and Purcell 
 seems perfect ; no one is likely to outdo 
 these models. 
 
 " It is one of the limitations of music 
 that it holds no relation to reason. Music 
 
QThje (Koolntion of (JSThnrch iflnsic 151 
 
 is entirely outside the sphere of reason. 
 The latter begins to act only when it is 
 furnished with distinctly formulated con- 
 ceptions, or thoughts, and these are not 
 found in music. Reason and music, there- 
 fore, have nothing in common with each 
 other, but belong to different departments 
 of the soul. Music goes in through sense- 
 perception, and addresses the feelings di- 
 rectly as such. It can give us a prolonged 
 action of the soul, an emotional history, 
 and in this is its great superiority in spir- 
 ituality to other forms of art. The proper 
 sphere of music is to portray the progress 
 of the soul from grief or sadness, to com- 
 fort, joy, and blessedness ; this it can do 
 with an intelligibility entirely its own. 
 Whatever is bright, tender, joyful, daring, 
 noble, music expresses with peculiar force. 
 It is the art of the ideal sphere of the soul, 
 the sphere into which sin and its conse- 
 quent suffering have never entered. Evil 
 lies outside of its pure province " (Hegel). 
 One frequently meets with the opinion 
 that vocal music has but a small office, 
 that of adding force to words, and that its 
 
152 (Elje (foohitiott of (SHjnrcl) itttxeie 
 
 only raison d'etre is to heighten the effect 
 of poetic speech. Besides this duty, or 
 instead of it, music as an artistic arrange- 
 ment of sounds has a language of its own, 
 and an independent power of expressing 
 sentiments and combining ideas. Some 
 have claimed that the keynote, or funda- 
 mental tone, is related to the combinations 
 of the following sounds in a way similar 
 to that in which the leading thought in a 
 sentence is related to the arrangement of 
 of the words. The keynote, they say, de- 
 termines the leading sound, and all other 
 sounds in the sequence are dependent 
 upon it, as the main idea in a sentence 
 generally implies the method of arranging 
 the words. 
 
 We would rather say that it is not the 
 keynote, but the leading phrase, which de- 
 termines the thought in music. In every 
 musical phrase there is a certain definite 
 idea. Musicians call it the leading, or 
 principal, theme ; all the notes in the se- 
 ries relate to this theme : but it is not the 
 keynote to the passage ; it is a series of 
 notes, or tones, constituting a musical sen- 
 
®l)c evolution of GTIjurcl) ittusic 153 
 
 tence. Thus the musical thought does 
 not depend upon one single note, but 
 upon a combination of notes ; just as in 
 language the thought is not bound up in 
 a single word, but requires a whole sen- 
 tence, combining many words. But it 
 must be borne in mind that "the language 
 of music bears little relation to that of 
 formal thought. Each utterance is the 
 complement of the other ; they blend and 
 harmonize, yet neither can be definitely 
 expressed in the terms of the other. 
 Music is the only art whose theme cannot 
 be translated or accurately described." 
 
 An interesting illustration, however, of 
 the attempt to represent a given idea in 
 music may be found in Bernard Bosan- 
 quet's " History of ^Esthetic." The ques- 
 tion was whether any composer had suc- 
 ceeded in representing the idea of God in 
 music, in the sense of the phrase, " God in 
 history," or as Wordsworth employs the 
 idea in " Tintern Abbey." Bosanquet 
 says : " I reply by an instance : Brahms's 
 German requiem has often been praised 
 for the rich elaboration of its detail, its 
 
154 ®f)£ (EtJoltJtion of CSTbnrcl) ittusic 
 
 blending of the antique and modern, its 
 contrapuntal devices fused in the crucible 
 of romanticism. But it has yet finer and 
 deeper merits. The solemn opening, 
 1 Blessed are they that mourn,' is set to 
 the same music as the solemn close, 
 ' Blessed are the dead.' In the middle of 
 the piece the name of God is introduced 
 for the first and almost the last time, to 
 the words, * The souls of the righteous 
 are in God's hand.' That name is trans- 
 lated into music by the pedal note, which 
 is held down from beginning to end of the 
 fugue in which these words are set. The 
 pedal note persists, makes its presence 
 felt throughout, is all-enduring, all-pervad- 
 ing. The fugue starts from it, and finally, 
 after many intricate wanderings, returns 
 to it ; it is the fundamental note — the 
 foundation of the first and last chords ; 
 and although many different and appar- 
 ently incompatible harmonies are found in 
 the course of the fugue, these harmonies 
 are all finally resolved into the initial 
 harmony, of which that pedal note is 
 the characteristic note and the epitome. 
 
®l)c QEnolntion of Ctjnrcli Ulttsic 155 
 
 Everything proceeds from it, and returns 
 to it ; it alone is permanent, and steadily, 
 continuously, and irresistibly self-assert- 
 ing. Neither poetry nor painting nor 
 architecture can express such mysteries 
 as these with such searching force and 
 directness." 
 
 The inevitableness of this representation 
 may well be questioned ; but it is a good 
 instance of the attempt of music to pre- 
 sent an idea to the intellect by a peculiar 
 continuation of sound. There is another 
 way in which the representation can be 
 more readily apprehended, but it is not a 
 method of permanent force or value. I 
 mean the power that music has to asso- 
 ciate ideas by imitation. In numberless 
 cases, composers have introduced imita- 
 tions of natural sounds into their works, 
 inevitably suggesting the ideas intended 
 to be represented. Haydn reproduced 
 the barking of dogs, the bray of the ass, 
 the song of the nightingale, and the 
 cackling of the hen — not to speak of the 
 lordlier beasts in his oratorio of the 
 "Creation." He also imitated musically 
 
156 QL\)c evolution of Clinrcl) ittnsic 
 
 the sounds of yawning, sneezing, and 
 coughing ; and, again, the tones of the 
 mother soothing and caressing her infant. 
 Handel and Weber both imitated the 
 sound of laughter. In his Third Trio, 
 Beethoven introduced the talk of three 
 persons in a passion, and in another part 
 of the same work the moans of pain or 
 sorrow. Mozart in his " Magic Flute " 
 represented the voice of a scolding woman, 
 Rossini in " La Gazza Ladra" the sobbing 
 of a child. Berlioz is a master in the 
 musical imitations of sounds ; and the 
 instances where Wagner imitates nature 
 are too numerous to mention. He is, 
 indeed, an apostle of this principle. Fire, 
 sword, lightning, death, and all the varie- 
 ties of human love find expression in his 
 wonderful compositions. 
 
 In metrical tunes, or hymn music, this 
 power of music to represent ideas through 
 imitation has little scope. There are a 
 few instances where it has been faintly 
 shadowed or sketched ; as, notably, in the 
 tune to "Christian, dost thou see them ?" 
 where the composer certainly intended to 
 
&t)c (Evolution of (Etjnrcl) fttusic 157 
 
 represent the wriggling and crawling of 
 the powers of darkness "striving, luring, 
 tempting, goading into sin." Yet the 
 higher function of indicating to the mind 
 a leading thought is not impossible in 
 hymn music. A large class of hymns, 
 indeed, express one main idea very dis- 
 tinctly ; the keynote, or fundamental tone, 
 of the music cannot convey any exact 
 suggestion, of course, of the idea ; but 
 the leading theme can accord with it, and 
 be in consonance with the sentiment of 
 the text. Praise is plainly enough the 
 keynote of many hymns, adoration of 
 others, and of still others, aspiration, peni- 
 tence, love, heaven, judgment, holiness, 
 peace. Such hymns can easily be referred 
 to one main idea which is the summation 
 of the whole. 
 
 Of course, there is a real difficulty to 
 be recognized in the perfect musical inter- 
 pretation of a hymn, for the reason that 
 the music can hardly express anything 
 more than the totality, or general spirit, 
 or drift of the sentiments of the words ; 
 the difficulty arising from the fact that 
 
158 dlie evolution of ChttrrJ) Jttnsic 
 
 the several verses may express quite dif- 
 ferent, or even quite opposite emotions. 
 The task of reconciling them with the 
 music may be impossible, as in Weber's 
 " Der Freischutz," where the first line of 
 the first verse is " Softly sighs the voice 
 of evening," and the corresponding line of 
 the second, " O what terrors fill my 
 bosom ! " If there is a change of senti- 
 ment recurring regularly, as in our hymn, 
 "Christian, dost thou see them?" we can see 
 how beautifully it can be expressed, as in- 
 stanced in Dr. Dykes's tune for that hymn. 
 To the non-liturgical churches, as has 
 been said, the hymns are of even greater 
 importance than to those which possess a 
 liturgy. In them the music is almost ex- 
 clusively furnished by the hymn tunes. 
 They have not the advantages of the 
 musical services which enrich a liturgical 
 church. An increased knowledge of vocal 
 training and technique is much needed 
 among us. All choir leaders should thor- 
 oughly comprehend the compass and pitch 
 of the voice, and its power to produce the 
 proper effect in the different registers. 
 
QL\)c (Etiolation of Clinrcl) ittnsic 159 
 
 One recalls here the remark of a 
 teacher, who was also a distinguished 
 composer, when a pupil brought him an 
 anthem in which the tenor had the words 
 11 Praise the Lord" on G below middle C. 
 The teacher crossed out the passage, with 
 the remark, " The tenor cannot praise the 
 Lord below middle C," alluding, of course, 
 to the non-effectiveness of a tenor voice at 
 so low a pitch. The composer must con- 
 fine each part within a practicable range. 
 
 There is probably hardly any subject 
 upon which people in general are so ready 
 to express their ignorant opinions as music. 
 They talk and write perfect rubbish with 
 absolute blindness to the fact that it is 
 such. Even distinguished writers, well 
 informed on other branches, betray great 
 ignorance about music. A notable instance 
 from a famous poet occurs in the passage 
 in " Maud," where Tennyson says : 
 
 "All night have the roses heard 
 The flute, violin, bassoon ; 
 All night has the casement jessamine stirred 
 To the dancers dancing in tune." 
 
160 &|)£ (ffoolntian of <El)tircl) ittusic 
 
 How many readers would be struck by 
 the peculiar combination a flute, a violin, 
 and a bassoon would make ? But the next 
 sentence as to dancers dancing in tune 
 tells us an impossibility. Dancers dance 
 in time, but never in tune. 
 jkij * s ' The Rev 'Haweis, among some good 
 
 a, j At+vt J* 9 * musical observations, has made many more 
 that are simply unmeaning and impossi- 
 ble rhapsodies. Robert Browning, on the 
 other hand, is a notable exception ; he was 
 himself a musician, and his writings show 
 real musical knowledge. His lines ring 
 like true coin, and satisfy even a trained 
 musician. Observe the careful, scientific 
 phraseology in Abt Vogler, that poem 
 beloved by musicians : 
 
 "But here is the finger of God, a flash of the will 
 
 that can, 
 Existent behind all laws ; that made them, and lo, 
 
 they are ! 
 And I know not if, save in this, such gift be allowed 
 
 to man, 
 That out of three sounds, he frame not a fresh sound, 
 
 but a star. 
 Give me the keys. I feel for the common chord 
 
 again 
 
®t)C (Etiolation of (Eljttrcl) iHtisic 161 
 
 Sliding by semitones, till I sink to the minor, — yes, 
 
 And I blunt it into a ninth, and I stand on alien 
 ground, 
 
 Surveying awhile the heights I rolled from into the 
 deep; 
 
 Which, hark, I have dared and done, for my resting- 
 place is found, 
 
 The C Major of this life ; so now I will try to sleep." 
 
 Again in " A Toccata of Galuppi's" the 
 terms he employs are thoroughly scientific: 
 
 "What, those lesser thirds so plaintive, sixths dimin- 
 ished, sigh on sigh, 
 
 Told them something? those suspensions, those 
 solutions, ■ Must we die ? ' " 
 
 Those commiserating sevenths, " Life 
 might last ! we can but try ! " Through 
 the passionate ejaculations which follow, 
 " Hark, the dominant's persistence till it 
 must be answered to" — then, "So an 
 octave struck the answer." This is no 
 rhapsody of an untrained critic ; it is the 
 learning of a musician, as well as a poet, 
 who thoroughly understands his subject- 
 matter. 
 
 We can see, moreover, to-day, how our 
 life and mode of thought affect our hymn 
 ii 
 
162 QT^e (Etmlntion of Clinrcl) ittnsic 
 
 music. In place of the steady, flowing 
 counterpoint, dignified and grand as in 
 the German chorale, which were born in 
 a religious age, the unrest of our own time 
 is typified by our inclination to run into 
 chromatic harmonies — undesirable enough 
 in anthems, almost inexcusable in hymns. 
 Much of our modern hymn music to-day 
 is characterized by a straining after these 
 vivid effects in harmony, to the exclusion 
 of the essential grace and dignity of the 
 older hymns. 
 
 Admitting first the importance of good 
 hymns and good tunes, it will be granted, 
 second, that they are for the use of the 
 congregation ; they are to be sung by the 
 people, and not to be left to the choir for 
 the display of their skill. The hymns are 
 the language in which the soul of the 
 worshipper shapes unspoken prayer, or in 
 which he aspires towards God. But this 
 is not the only office that sacred music 
 has to perform. 
 
 Music is used in the church in two ways : 
 it is used for the melodious articulation 
 of words, as in the choral service, the 
 
QL\)c (fftjolmion of Clinrcl) iflusic 163 
 
 chants, and most of the hymns ; and again 
 for its high emotional expression, as in 
 the anthems and special services of the 
 choir. In the first instance it exists only 
 for the more harmonious and dignified 
 utterances of the words of prayer and 
 praise by the priests and people. In its 
 second use it is capable of rising far above 
 any form of human speech, and uses words 
 only as a sort of text — a foundation upon 
 which to raise its more glorious, more ex- 
 alted offering. Of this first use of music 
 it may be said that if the people have 
 anything to sing it is chiefly because they 
 have something to say — to say to God. 
 This music, therefore, should be easily 
 learned, and within the power of all to 
 sing; it should be plain and simple, but 
 with that simplicity which is so closely 
 allied to beauty and grandeur. That this 
 is quite possible they know who have had 
 the good fortune to hear the plain chant 
 sung by worshipping thousands in the 
 Continental cathedrals. There is some- 
 thing in this simple chant, a grandeur, 
 piety, and sublimity, after which the elabor- 
 
164 &\)c (Ktjolution of Cljtxrct) fttnsic 
 
 ate anthem would sound light, hollow, and 
 unsatisfactory. 
 
 We have no such cause to lament the 
 degeneration of chants as of metrical tunes. 
 They have maintained their character of 
 grandeur and style at a constant level. Of 
 the Gregorian chant, or plain song, we 
 have already spoken. To certain days of 
 the church calendar the Gregorian chants 
 are admirably suited ; when properly ren- 
 dered, and not disfigured by the crude 
 efforts of an unskilled organist, or tortured 
 into new forms according to his ideas of 
 improvement, they are most solemn and 
 impressive. 
 
 Dr. Dykes, whose authority as a critic 
 is unquestionable, says : " I dearly love 
 their varying rhythms and quaint cadences. 
 To hear them well and intelligently sung 
 and accompanied is to myself a great 
 treat." Many will feel that these words 
 voice their own feelings for this ancient 
 music of the Church ; but Dr. Dykes him- 
 self also gives the reason why they cannot 
 be very frequently employed: the great 
 difficulty of rendering them accurately 
 
(EtK Cfoolntion of Cbtircl) fflnsic 165 
 
 puts them beyond the scope of ordinary 
 choirs and organists. The rhythm and me- 
 tres of the Gregorian chants are different 
 in each psalm, so that each one is pointed 
 differently. Each psalm has to be specially 
 pointed for its own chants. This makes 
 it plain that it would be very difficult for 
 any congregation to join in a variety of 
 these chants, though undoubtedly a few 
 of them could be learned by repeated 
 use. 
 
 The Anglican chant presents less dif- 
 ficulty, both in pointing and in accompa- 
 nying, and for this reason that system is 
 more generally adopted by our churches. 
 There are many excellent examples of the 
 Anglican chants, combining " simplicity, 
 tunefulness, and beauty," and adapted to 
 all the seasons of the church year. 
 
 There are five principal varieties of this 
 system. Of these, those known as the 
 double chant and the single chant major 
 are most frequently used, as suitable to 
 general services. Except at Easter or 
 Whitsuntide, and during Advent and 
 Lent, they suit almost any words. When 
 
i66 &!)* ©eolation of Cljttrt!) Mnzit 
 
 psalms of praise and jubilation are sung, 
 the jubilant double chant is used, and at 
 penitential seasons, when plaintive and 
 mournful psalms are in order, they are set 
 to the double and single chant music. 
 Minor chants are so hard to sing in tune 
 that they are less frequently employed. 
 And all chants which are confusing to the 
 people should be avoided when possible ; 
 for, like the hymns, chants are for the use 
 of "the whole congregation." 
 
 I believe that the value of simple chant- 
 ing, and of a simple church service, is not 
 appreciated as it should be in the present 
 day. The anthem form of service is too 
 common. There can be no doubt that 
 the most of the canticles should be sung 
 to a plain and simple chant. In the an- 
 them form of service we run into the evil 
 which helped to bring the quartette into 
 disrepute : the people have no part in the 
 service as an act of public worship. 
 
 I have spoken of the two ways in which 
 music is used in the Church ; namely, that 
 it is employed merely as a more orderly and 
 melodious utterance of the words of prayer 
 
&he CPtJolution of (!Thnrrh iflnsic 167 
 
 and praise by priest, choir, and people ; 
 and again, it is used as the most elaborate 
 expression and portrayal of emotions and 
 depths of feeling beyond the expression 
 of words alone. M God speaks to the 
 hearts of men in many ways ; " not alone 
 by preaching from a pulpit, or through 
 the mouth of the priest does He reach the 
 hearts of His sorrowing- and errinp- chil- 
 
 o o 
 
 dren. Those who would harden to the 
 most eloquent sermon may expand and 
 melt to the tones of the sweet singer. 
 The voice of the organ, unaided by any 
 words, has often carried home His mes- 
 sage. In a great chorus there is a mighty 
 power to uplift the soul, even by the mere 
 waves of sound which break upon the 
 sense of hearing. And, in regard to the 
 singing of an elaborate anthem, I believe 
 there is such a thing as the grace of hear- 
 ing as well as the grace of singing or ut- 
 terance ; that there is a passive as well as 
 an active side to public worship ; and for 
 this the anthem certainly comes in at the 
 right moment. Balzac says that between 
 the human worshippers on their knees and 
 
1 68 &t)t evolution of QHjnrcl) iflnsic 
 
 the hidden God there is a distance best 
 travelled by the hundred voices of the 
 choir — "les chants qui alternent avec le 
 tonnerre des orgues." 
 
 When the church darkens in the deepen- 
 ing twilight, and evening has brought the 
 services of the day to an end, what an 
 effect of calmness and of trustful strength 
 comes to the waiting worshippers in an 
 anthem such as Mendelssohn's " He 
 watching over Israel " ! The steady tran- 
 quil flow of such a divine harmony fitly 
 preludes the benediction of "the peace 
 which passeth understanding." 
 
 On Ascension Day Gounod's uplifting 
 anthem, " Unfold, unfold, ye portals ever- 
 lasting," seems to bear us, with the as- 
 cending Lord, within the very gates of the 
 celestial city. And at Christmas those 
 breathless repetitions in the Hallelujah 
 chorus transport the overflowing praises 
 of our souls to the throne of God. 
 
 An excellent collection of anthems was 
 prepared a few years ago by Mr. Edward 
 Giles, then choir-master at St. James' 
 Church, Philadelphia. Nearly all these 
 
©I)e (ffoolmion of (Eljnrcl) ifclnsic 169 
 
 are within the scope of a boy-choir of 
 average ability — a competent choir-master 
 being understood. It is a compilation 
 which can be relied on for good taste and 
 as being serviceable in practice. 
 
 " The active phase of worship has been 
 carried to its climax. The congregation 
 has been for the most of the time stand- 
 ing or kneeling; the psalms and canticles 
 have been sung, the creed has been re- 
 cited, the prayers have been said, the 
 spirit is beginning to wax faint ; then, all 
 being hushed, the anthem comes to stimu- 
 late and refresh the spirit, and raise it 
 to the highest atmosphere of devotion. 
 There are in every congregation those 
 who cannot sing the simplest melody, and 
 yet whose appreciation of this class of 
 music is most keen ; and it acts to them 
 as an heavenly inspiration. They can at 
 least sing in spirit." And while in spoken 
 or written language there are but few 
 ways of expressing any one emotion, the 
 vocabulary of music is practically inex- 
 haustible. We have single words — love, 
 hope, fear, and a few more to qualify 
 
170 &!)£ ©solution of Cl)urcl) ittusic 
 
 them ; but music gives us an infinite vari- 
 ety of ways of expressing the same emo- 
 tion and its every shade of feeling. Take 
 a "Te Deum " by Stainer, another by 
 Goss, another by Barnby, still others by 
 Garrett, McFarren, and Calkin. Each 
 composer has treated the subject in his 
 own individual way ; no two are alike ; 
 yet each one beautifully and truthfully 
 expresses in music the meaning and feel- 
 ing of every sentence. 
 
 The American Church has not yet 
 thrown off the influence of the school of 
 music which the quartette choir, already 
 mentioned, brought into being and en- 
 couraged for many years. Little of this 
 music had the slightest pretense to relig- 
 ious feeling. Where it and the old-fash- 
 ioned "high and dry" quartette prevailed, 
 spiritual life was generally at a low ebb. 
 The reason was not far to seek. The 
 people took no part whatever in the ser- 
 vice ; the musical portion of it had de- 
 generated into a kind of entertainment 
 for the listening congregation ; the human 
 or sectarian idea supplanted the church 
 
QL\)t ©Dotation of <EI)ttrcl) ittnsic 171 
 
 idea, and public worship — the worship of 
 common prayer — resolved itself into a 
 service rendered exclusively by the minis- 
 ter and the choir. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Aitkjn, who is well known 
 here, published some of his impressions of 
 the American Church on returning home 
 to England. He said he was surprised to 
 find the quartette choir here in all its 
 glory ; he had no idea that this relic of 
 the past age would be lingering in the 
 "most go-ahead nation of the world." 
 He thus describes the performance : " A 
 female contralto voice murmuring inar- 
 ticulate utterances, sustained by an organ 
 accompaniment scarcely more audible than 
 would have been the tones of a musical 
 snuff-box heard at an equal distance, made 
 me aware, as I rose from my knees, that 
 something was happening. . . . Soon 
 the organ put on a crescendo, and a so- 
 prano voice broke in with equally inarticu- 
 late utterances, which presently culminated 
 in a blood-curdling shriek, a bass and a 
 tenor by this time assisting in the per- 
 formance, which lasted for about five min- 
 
172 QH)C (EtJohttiott of CII)tircl) Music 
 
 utes, and concluded without conveying 
 any single idea to my mind, except one 
 that I found to be in some degree sus- 
 tained by fact — that I had been listening 
 to very indifferent opera singers. Then 
 came the reading of the service, the four 
 distinguished persons in the west gallery 
 apparently taking no part until the Ve7iite 
 was reached. Here came performance the 
 second, the large congregation standing 
 meekly while the four actors gayly dis- 
 ported themselves up and down the dia- 
 tonic and the chromatic scales." 
 
 I dare say that few of my readers have 
 not had, somewhere in this broad land, a 
 similar experience. There is no denying 
 that a fine quartette choir can produce 
 most beautiful harmony ; so beautiful, in- 
 deed, that in listening the congregation 
 becomes entirely absorbed in the intellec- 
 tual or the sensual appreciation of it. Its 
 spiritual significance is so overshadowed 
 that none but the most devout can keep 
 sight of it. The quartette choir often 
 gives us a very finished performance of 
 chamber music ; but as church music, it is 
 
fttje Quotation of Clinrcl) iflnsie 173 
 
 paralyzing to congregational worship — it 
 promotes spiritual dulness and death. 
 
 But at present there is some danger of 
 our drifting to another extreme. From 
 accounts published from time to time in 
 the parochial news-columns of our church 
 papers, one would suppose that what is 
 popularly called a " boy-choir " is the only 
 choir that can fitly sing the church's music. 
 Thus it is told with deep satisfaction that 
 St. Harmonium's parish has at last at- 
 tained to a vested choir, which made its 
 first appearance upon such a date, and 
 under such and such circumstances ; and 
 from the way the affair is written up it is 
 easily seen how happy the good priest is 
 at his success, whether the people may be 
 or not. One would almost imagine that 
 some pressing doctrinal principles were 
 absolutely dependent on having a surpliced 
 choir. The idea has seized upon the com- 
 munity that it is more devotional that the 
 soprano parts should be rendered by boys' 
 and not women's voices, and the fancy has 
 swept the country, capturing parish after 
 parish, without regard to the many limita- 
 
174 &be (KtJolntion of (Eljurcl) Jttnsic 
 
 tions which must regulate and modify the 
 usage. The popular idea seems to be that 
 all that is needed to obtain a boy-choir is 
 to gather a mob of urchins from the 
 streets, give them books and a few re- 
 hearsals, put vestments on them, and turn 
 them into the stalls. They may sing flat 
 and sing sharp ; they may murder the ser- 
 vice and drag through the hymns, they 
 may shout and scream, with voices that 
 would scratch glass, they may rattle the 
 windows with the Nunc Dimittis — but the 
 parish has a boy-choir, and the rector is 
 happy, even though the long-suffering 
 congregation be literally sung out of 
 doors. 
 
 A poor boy-choir is the worst kind of 
 choir. A good one, outside of the larger 
 towns and cities, is, under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, an impossibility. There may 
 arrive a time when the musical taste and 
 knowledge of the mass of our people will 
 reach a level high enough to make it pos- 
 sible for every village church to have its 
 well-trained, vested choir ; but that time 
 has not yet arrived, nor is there much 
 
(Elje (ftjolntkm of Ct)nrcli fflnoic 175 
 
 hope of its coming for several generations 
 yet. Few large towns in this country can 
 furnish the material for a good boy-choir ; 
 nor, what is just as important, can they 
 furnish men-teachers capable of training 
 boys' voices. As compared with the Eng- 
 lish Church we are far behind in this 
 matter. There the cathedral services have 
 given rise to a class of men highly skilled 
 in music, whose instructions have raised 
 the whole standard of popular taste. 
 
 In his essay, " The Cathedral a School 
 of Music," the Dean of Norwich wrote, " It 
 must be remembered that music has by no 
 means as yet taken that position in our 
 service that it has a right to take. The 
 minds of the people are not all disabused 
 of the notion that music is a mere orna- 
 mental accessory of worship ; they have 
 not all yet come round to the view that 
 it is the highest, truest, deepest expres- 
 sion of devotional feeling." Bishop Pot- 
 ter, of New York, quoting this passage, 
 said in a recent sermon : 
 
 11 True as these words are in England, it 
 is impossible that they could more accu- 
 
176 Qtt)e evolution of Cliurcl] Jttnsic 
 
 rately describe ourselves. In the last 
 twenty-five years, the musical worship of 
 our church has, indeed, advanced to a 
 higher level. But it is still, in many 
 places, pretentious, obtrusive, and bad. It 
 often consumes more time than of old, 
 provokes more comment, and is far from 
 what it ought to be, and farther still from 
 what it easily might be. It will continue 
 to be so until we have some more normal 
 school of church music, such as the ca- 
 thedrals have shown themselves to be in 
 England, having about them a prestige 
 which cannot be despised, and illustrating 
 an excellence which cannot fail to provoke 
 a healthy emulation. And all this the 
 cathedral can do without the likelihood of 
 being beguiled into undue display or be- 
 trayed into foolish extravagance. In the 
 parish the vagaries of the individual par- 
 ish priest or organist may run away with 
 him; but in the cathedral there is an imper- 
 sonality of administration which tends 
 to restrain eccentricity, and to make 
 mere individualism almost impossible. 
 True, the cathedral is the bishop's church 
 
(ftl)e ©oolntion of QIl)urcl) lUasic 177 
 
 or seat, but the bishop who administers 
 it must be able to command the cooper- 
 ation of a body of clergy whose vari- 
 ous tastes and opinions must greatly 
 modify his own. Under such a system, 
 novel customs will not be apt to find 
 easy admission ; and while there will 
 be, as there ought to be, progress and 
 improvement in the Church's worship, 
 it will be progress in the direction 
 of those things only which have been 
 wisely and thoroughly tested and ap- 
 proved." 
 
 Yet, although this recommendation 
 holds good for the present, and it may 
 seem to us that the status of what we 
 esteem as sacred music has been estab- 
 lished, that the rules which regulate its 
 structure and feeling have been proved, 
 we must not overlook the fact that music 
 both as a science and an art is essentially 
 progressive. When all music was in the 
 sole hand of the Church, the obstinacy of 
 dogma hampered its growth for centuries. 
 " Pedantry is a finger-post which points 
 not forward to the road we seek, but 
 
178 f£l)e (Etiolation of (Slljnrct) iflttsk 
 
 backward to that which we have already 
 traversed." 
 
 None of the laws that we have enu- 
 merated may be laid down as final. In 
 their own age they have a recognized and 
 valid authority ; in the age which follows, 
 they may very probably be superseded by 
 a greater law. This is the spirit of true 
 reverence towards Art. We are con- 
 stantly standing on the threshold of new 
 discoveries ; we are constantly opening 
 up new and unexplored fields, and new 
 combinations surprise and delight us, 
 proving the inexhaustibility and endless- 
 ness of the gamut of musical expression. 
 For the soldier there is martial music to 
 cheer him upon the march, to excite him 
 to victory, or to rejoice in his triumph ; 
 there is music which invites us to the joy 
 of the dance ; there is the music of love, 
 pure and impure ; there is mirthful music 
 to make us laugh ; and there is the 
 solemn music with which we follow the 
 dead. 
 
 All these fitly arouse and express the 
 ever-changing passions of man. Shall 
 
(Elje ©oolntion of QThurch iJltxsic 179 
 
 the music of the Church be less adequate 
 to its consecrated purpose? If this is to 
 be so, it will not be through any lack of 
 power of its own to breathe the human 
 doubts and fears, the longings and aspira- 
 tions of an immortal soul. 
 
FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON. D. D 
 
 BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 
 ju \ 
 
 Section