THE X^IGICALi^ 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN REVIEA¥r 
 
 No. 21 —January, 1885. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE DOUBLE FUNCTION OF MUSIC IN THE 
 
 CHURCH. 
 
 THE hereditary ritual of the Presbyterian Church in this country 
 recognized one function of singing in divine service, and only 
 one. This function was that of a vehicle for the utterance of wor- 
 ship by the united voices of the Christian assembly, in literal metri- 
 cal versions of passages of holy Scripture. The Presbyterian rite 
 excluded all " human composures " as forms of prayer and praise, 
 excepting extemporaneous composures. Withal it had no place for 
 the use of musical instruments, and nothing for a choir to do apart 
 from the people. 
 
 This ritual was established and defended by no arguments of expe- 
 diency, or taste, or judgment of what was edifying. It was founded 
 jure divino on a theological principle which was thus enunciated : 
 "nothing may be added in the worship of God, as parts of worship, 
 but what is prescribed or appointed by the word of God."* Any de- 
 parture from this principle was held to be constructive idolatry, for- 
 bidden by implication in the Second Commandment. The principle, 
 though really developed by the exigencies of controversy with popery 
 and prelacy, was not on that account laid down with a less confident 
 dogmatism, nor applied with less of arbitrary authority. But having 
 outlasted several generations of strenuous polemic, it came at last (so 
 far as the main body of American Presbyterians was concerned) to a 
 violent death in the struggle that ended in the introduction into pub- 
 lic worship of Dr. Watts's " Imitation of the Psalms of David in the 
 language of the New Testament." 
 
 We listen sometimes with wonder and sometimes with amusement 
 to traditionary anecdotes of the intense animosities incident to the 
 introduction of that new psalm-book. But the real occasion of won- 
 der is that the animosities were not far more intense ; for that change 
 of books involved a theological revolution. The action of the Gen- 
 
 * Vincent's Catechism, LI. Q. 9. 
 
70 THE PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW. 
 
 eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of 
 America, at the close of the last century, in which the aid of 
 Timothy Dwight of Yale College and the General Association of 
 Connecticut was invoked to provide a suitable " system of public 
 psalmody," with the later vote authorizing the use of Dwight's book 
 of Psalms and Hymns, was the definite abandonment of a dogma 
 which, through the storm and stress of many a controversy, had been 
 counted by no small part of the church among "the fundamentals." 
 This barrier being taken down, free course was made for other inno- 
 vations. With Watts's Psalms and Dwight's collection of hymns, 
 came choirs, elaborate musical compositions practicable for choirs 
 only, and finally musical instruments. But the traditionary ritual of 
 the church, constructed originally to the purposed exclusion of all 
 these, underwent no deliberate revision. A new factor had entered 
 into the construction of the church services, but no place nor function 
 was assigned to it. It could keep its place only by crowding out 
 what was already in possession. As a matter of fact, in many 
 instances, the choir simply entered into Presbyterian congregations 
 and took the place which had been the people's. 
 
 This seems strange and illogical ; and it is illogical, but not strange. 
 It would have been quite consistent and reasonable for the Presby- 
 terian Church, having squarely repudiated the major premise on 
 which its immemorial controversy with the liturgists had been con- 
 ducted, to review all its practice as deduced from that premise, and 
 modify it accordingly. But such a course at that time, would have 
 been impossible. There was no distinct, intelligent consciousness 
 on the part of the people generally, of the logical consequences of 
 their action ; and if there had been, it would have been felt how 
 much harder it is to change a habit or a prejudice, than to change a 
 dogma. 
 
 Accordingly, from that time forward, the state of church music in 
 the Presbyterian Church has been, and still is, that of unstable equi- 
 librium. Much cost of labor and money has been expended from 
 year to year in organizing and perfecting the choir, and in constructing 
 the organ and providing an accomplished organist, and when all is 
 ready, there is nothing distinctly assigned to this expensive organiza- 
 tion to do, that cannot be as well or better done without them. The 
 traditionary ritual provides for nothing but two or three psalms; and 
 these arc taken possession of by the choir until the craving need of 
 some utterance by the Christian people demands them back again. 
 The difficulty is adjusted by some sort of compromise, parcelling out 
 one hymn to one party and one to another, and adding an " opening 
 
DOUBLE FUNCTION OF MUSIC IN THE CHURCH. 71 
 
 piece " at the beginning ; or quite as often by a melancholy effort to 
 fuse both the functions of song in one act, by a vague understand- 
 ing that choir and people are to sing together, only that the choir 
 shall not sing very effectively, nor the people very unanimously nor 
 heartily. 
 
 Now among those who seriously and intelligently study the subject 
 of church music, it is commonly recognized, I think, that there are 
 two wholly distinct functions of music in divine service, correspond- 
 ing to the two forms of choir singing and congregational singing ; 
 that music is good, first, as a means of uniting the voices of the wor- 
 shippers in uttering praise to God ; and good, secondly, as a vehicle 
 for conveying religious truth and sentiment to the minds of the peo- 
 ple as listeners ; that it is good for «pression, and also for z;/zpres- 
 sion. It is generally understood and admitted among such persons, 
 that the two functions which appear in the secular applications of mu- 
 sic, are to be recognized also in its religious applications ; that it may 
 belong not only to the worship of the church, but to the didactic and 
 hortatory parts of its services. And the widely different principles 
 which govern the use of music in these two different applications are 
 not unknown to intelligent critics. An ideal system of church music 
 is that in which the hearty, simple, unanimous song of the whole 
 people in the act of common praise becomes all the more significant 
 and delightful by contrast with the act of the choir using all the re- 
 sources of musical composition, with the utmost efforts of studious 
 skill, to impress upon the silent and listening people the meaning of 
 sacred words — " teaching and admonishing 'with psalms and hymns and 
 spiritual songs." But this absolutely vital distinction, however clearly 
 apprehended by a few, has never come into general and practical 
 recognition. And until it is recognized and acted on, any large im- 
 provement in church music is not to be hoped for. Once clearly 
 acknowledged, it will compel a deliberate revision of the whole sub- 
 ject of the order and methods of public worship in its relations to 
 the use of music. 
 
 The results of such revision, when it is made, will not be capable 
 of being summed in a formula of general application. General prin- 
 ciples can be enunciated, but the arrangement of details must needs 
 vary with different congregations. The attempt to bring about uni- 
 formity of use in a matter on which there is not and cannot be uni- 
 formity of conditions, but where there must always be a wide 
 diversity of culture, taste, habits, and resources, can do nothing but 
 mischief. 
 
 What a very fine thing it would be, if the Board of Publication 
 
72 THE PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW. 
 
 of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., would only issue (by a duly 
 authorized Committee) a series of working drawings for a meeting- 
 house, and then try to have all future Presbyterian churches, large 
 and small, cheap and costly, built after that pattern ! It is just so 
 wise exactly for this same Board to prepare a body of church music 
 to be used alike by congregations in all parts of the country, of all 
 grades of taste, culture, and resources. In the nature of the case, 
 the book which will be tolerably good for some of these congrega- 
 tions will be intolerable for others ; and neither the compiler nor the 
 Board will be to blame for it, but only the utterly impracticable idea 
 which it is attempted to realize. The only course to be followed, in 
 such a case, is to adapt the book to somebody's conception of the 
 average taste of the Presbyterian congregation, take it by small and 
 large ; and nobody will conceive that this average is a high one. 
 Consequently a book of music fitted to be acceptable and useful 
 in the average church, is an incubus under which some other 
 churches groan being burdened. The spiritual edification, the 
 enjoyment in worship, and the material growth and prosperity, of 
 some of the more cultivated Presbyterian congregations are suffering 
 from year to year from their being loaded with a system of psalmody 
 that is levelled down to the general average of the churches, North, 
 South, and West. If the tune-book were adapted, on the other hand, 
 to the congregations of higher musical culture, it would be a burden 
 to the others. In either case, this ambition for a sectarian uniformity 
 of use, in a matter of taste in which there is no uniformity of condi- 
 tions, is pursued to the serious detriment of individual congregations, 
 and is pursued in vain, after all ; for the uniformity is not secured. 
 
 Not only the selection of music, but, in general, all the details of 
 the order of worshipwith reference to the uses of music, ought freely 
 to vary with the varying requirements of the particular congregation ; 
 from the simplicity of those congregations in which nothing is used 
 but plain psalmody sung by the whole people, to those in which, 
 with cost, study and labor, the resources of sacred art are largely 
 drawn upon. But in speaking of those congregations in which good 
 choirs sing good music, there are some principles to be suggested 
 that are of general application. 
 
 (i.) It is most undesirable to find use for the choir by dividing the 
 psalmody between choir and congregation. The characteristic, histori- 
 cal purpose and use of metrical psalms and hymns, in modern Chris- 
 tendom, is for the folk-song of the church. The feeblest form of choir 
 music extant, is that which is known in America (though hardly known 
 at all elsewhere) as the " Hymn by the Choir." The habit of seques- 
 
DOUBLE FUNCTION OF MUSIC IN THE CHURCH. 73 
 
 tratingsome hymns in the service for the honors of a more exquisite 
 performance, tends to break the habit of simple, unanimous psalmody 
 by the whole people. It is much better that the announcement of a 
 hymn should be always the signal to bring the whole assembly to its 
 feet in an act of common worship. 
 
 This understanding ought to relieve the choir of the useless bore 
 of rehearsing six bits of plain psalmody every Saturday night. Good 
 psalmody, with a choir of the least skill, and a congregation of fair 
 musical capacity, needs no rehearsal. It is better without it. Prop- 
 erly led by the organist and choir-master or precentor, it goes of itself. 
 To set the choir practicing a people's hymn is only to tempt it into 
 certain choir "effects" which may, or may not, be good and useful in 
 their place, but are merely distracting in the act of worship. 
 
 But the minister and organist cannot be too studious of the hymn 
 and tune book — the minister to guide his selections with reference to 
 tune as well as hymn ; and the organist to have his copy well anno- 
 tated with reference to movement and registration. 
 
 Beside metrical psalmody, the congregation may easily have much 
 enjoyment in the chanting of psalms, if the selections for this pur- 
 pose are few in number and return frequently in routine. Ten selec- 
 tions, assigned for morning and evening worship on each of the Sun- 
 days of the month, in regular recurrence, give variety enough and not 
 too much ; and the utterance of the words together having once been 
 learned, the chant-music may be changed freely. 
 
 So much for the exercises of the congregational singing, which 
 ought to be not less frequent, but more frequent, than is now com- 
 mon. 
 
 (2.) Coming now to the question what duties, in the order of public 
 worship, shall be assigned to the choir, the first consideration to be 
 had is that these_duties shall^be prescribed definitely and with some 
 intelligible reason. This excludes, at the outset, that which, in the 
 too prevalent no-particular-order of church worship, is the horror of 
 people of devout taste, and the embarrassment of every serious and 
 conscientious church musician — I mean the " Voluntary by the choir," 
 that is, that at a certain point in the order of service, at the begin- 
 ning or elsewhere, the choir shall sing " something" without any par- 
 ticular reference to the meaning or fitness of it, except that the 
 words, so far as they are understood, shall have a pious sort of sound, 
 and not contain anything unsuitable. O, the frightful rubbish that u 
 is sometimes sung in Presbyterian churches, when the choir are thus % * 
 turned loose upon the people ! And who is to blame for it, but the 
 church that sets them up with an organ and with salaries, and with 
 
\ 
 
 74 THE PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW. 
 
 general orders to sing something, and no distinct and rigorous instruc- 
 tions what to sing? How does a public speaker like it, to be asked to 
 say something for about five minutes with no particular reference to 
 any particular subject or any particular object, but only to make him- 
 self interesting? The chances are, in that case, that he utters a lot 
 of precious nonsense; and that is just what the choir does in the like 
 case. 
 
 As to the musical forms best suited to the use of choirs in Presby- 
 terian churches, the most considerable is the Anthem. This word is 
 often used, in a loose sense, to mean almost any vocal composition 
 for the church except a psalm-tune, a chant, or a " spiritual song." 
 The Anthem properly so-called, the large and ample illustration, in 
 successive movements, of a passage of Holy Scripture, is not much 
 known in Presbyterian churches in America. It is a noble musical 
 form, which has employed the best genius of Christian composers, in 
 works some of which may task the best skill of any choir. It is the 
 sermon of the service of song, and when the musical superfluities with 
 which our worship is now incumbered are eliminated, it ought to have 
 a worthy place, if not for every Sunday, at least for frequent use in 
 the Lord's house, wherever there are choirs competent to such high 
 work. 
 
 But a simpler, more generally useful musical form for choirs, is 
 the Scriptural Sentence. And when the place of this in the service 
 is wisely fixed and the character of it defined, it may be in the highest 
 degree conducive to spiritual edification. The supply of good com- 
 positions in this form is not large at present ; but there is no other 
 reason why, in a well-ordered system of worship, it should not become 
 at once the best common form of choir-music. 
 
 (3.) After a somewhat definite notion has been gained as to what 
 the parts of public worship are to be, in a service in which the two 
 functions of music are both to be employed, the proper ordering of 
 these parts into a whole is not so easy a matter as it seems to those 
 who have never seriously studied it. The average minister, so far as 
 I have made his acquaintance, thinks it only a matter of a few minutes 
 and a half-sheet of sermon-paper to make out an " Order of 
 Service," to be pinned up inside of the pulpit, that will be just as good 
 as the next one — -here a prayer, and there a hymn, and there a 
 chapter, and somewhere a chance for the choir to sing " something "; 
 these for " the preliminaries" to the Sermon, and a little more for a 
 snapper at the end of it. But in fact the pastor who, within those 
 two canons of the New Testament " Directory of Worship " — " All 
 things to edifying," and "All things decently and in order" — shall 
 
 
DOUBLE FUNCTION OF MUSIC IN THE CHURCH. 75 
 
 construct and put into becoming language and shape (which is not the 
 shape of a concert-programme) a good Order of Worship for his church, 
 will find it as hard and as useful a week's work as the best sermon that 
 he ever wrote. 
 
 Among the principles which he will need to keep in mind are these : 
 
 (i.) Any change in customary habits and usages of public worship 
 in a particular congregation is, in itself considered, an evil, even when 
 it is a necessary evil. Therefore the existing usage of worship, in 
 any place, should be the basis of the new order, to be departed from 
 only for good reason— a principle which some neglecting, have failed. 
 
 (2.) In the successive offices of worship there must be a studied 
 alternation and variety, to engage the attention and sustain the interest 
 of the people, old and young, and to relieve the fatigue of the feeble. 
 This principle is violated, when (for instance) the singing of a psalm 
 is immediately followed by the responsive reading of a psalm ; or 
 when the song of the people comes just before, or just after, the song 
 of the choir. 
 
 (3.) But, far more important than this, there needs to be an intel- 
 ligible consecutiveness and progress in the order of service, that the 
 worship of Christ's house may be, as the word of the Scripture requires, 
 a " logical service " — rationabilc obscquium. If the act of Confession 
 has place at the beginning of worship, with Invocation of Pardon and 
 Grace ; then let there be no vain repetition of it later on. If Thanks- 
 giving for Mercies is part of the General Prayer, then let it not be 
 anticipated in the Prayer of Invocation. It tends " to edifying " when 
 the " ministered unto," as well as the minister, are conscious of the 
 progress and connection, and customary method of the service. 
 Whether those things which ought to be of constant recurrence in 
 every service may not advantageously find expression in recurrent 
 forms, is a question on which Presbyterians are divided, and which is 
 well worthy of study, but is aside from the special purpose of this 
 paper. 
 
 Now, for more distinct illustration of these observations, and to 
 bring them to practical point, let me propose an order of morning 
 worship, not as adapted to all churches, but as suited to some of those 
 in which choir-music is used. 
 
 After the organ prelude, the congregation rise and sing a Doxology (either the Gloria 
 Patri or Bishop Ken's version). 
 
 Then a prayer of Confession and Invocation is offered, followed by The Lord ' s Prayer 
 said by all the people ; and this by a Sentence out of the promises of Holy Scripture to. 
 the penitent and believing, sung by a choir. 
 
 Then an Invitation to Praise is read from the Scriptures, and the people chant a 
 Psalm. 
 
76 THE PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW. 
 
 Lessons are then read from the Old and New Testaments, and if there is to be an 
 Anthem, it is sung between the two Lessons. 
 
 After the Lessons comes a Hymn ; and then Prayer. 
 
 Then the Weekly Offering is received, during which Sentences of Scripture, suitable to 
 this use, may be sung by the choir. And after the necessary Notices have been given, a 
 Hymn is sung. 
 
 Then follow the Sermon, Prayer, a Hymn, and a Benediction. 
 
 This order is not proposed as an ideal one, but as a good one for 
 some churches. The question is how to provide for the Double 
 Function of Music in a certain church, without needless disturbance 
 of its existing usage. According to this order, the people sing five 
 times, and say together the Lord's Prayer; the choir sing a brief Sen- 
 tence, an Anthem, and " offertory sentences "; and yet the service is 
 not longer than in other churches. 
 
 There is no difficulty in making time for a rich, varied, animated 
 service of worship, by pruning away superfluities that have no use 
 except to take up time, or to give the high-priced organist and choir 
 an opportunity to do something for their money. Such, for example, 
 are the following : I. The reading of hymns — a survival from the 
 days when books were few ; 2, the organ interludes between stanzas ; 
 3, the " giving out " of the tune before singing, — properly obsolete, 
 except in the case of new tunes, since hymn and tune books came into 
 use. By omitting these, "giving out" the tune only by its opening 
 phrase ; by disusing the old-fashioned drawling, or florid, or repeti- 
 tious " choir tunes," in favor of the simple and animated people's 
 tunes ; and by the use of wall-tablets (almost universal in Presbyte- 
 rian churches abroad), for announcing the hymns, so that there may be 
 no hitch nor delay between the parts of service, the order of worship 
 may be greatly varied and enriched, while the course of it will flow 
 freely and unbroken, without weariness or loss of interest on the part 
 of those participating. 
 
 Leonard Woolsey Bacon. 
 
 Philadelphia.