SSAYS - . . ON . . CHURCH MUSIC. L Read before the First Convocation of Church Musicians, Philadelphia, Pa., June 1st, 1898. No. 1. Sunday School Music in its Relation to the Service of the Church 1 The Rev. G. C. E. Haas. No. 2. The Sphere of the Choir in the Rendering of the Service 9 The Rev. Luther D. Reed. No. 3. The Idea.Underlying the Lutheran A\ain Service 19 The Rev. Prof. A. Spaeth, D. D., LL. D. Read before the Second Convocation of Church Musicians, Pittsburgh, Pa., June 15-16, 1899. No. 4. What is Church Music ? 25 1 he Rev. Prof. A. Spaeth, D. D., LL. D. No. 5. Mow to Secure Good Congregational Singing 33 The Rev. R.-Worris Smith. No. 6. The Festivals of the Sunday School with Ref- erence to Their A\usic 41 The Rev. Gomer C. Rees. No. 7. The Vesper Service— Its Idea, History and Structure 49 The Rev. C. Theodore Benze, B. D. No. 8. The Gregorian Element in Church Music - 63 The Rev. Luther D. Reed. No. 9. Psalmody 71 The Rev. Elmer P. Krauss. No. 10. The Lutheran Choral 81 The Rev. H. D. E. Siebott. No. 11. Anglican Church A\usic 89 r_ ^ ^ The Rev. d. P. Ohl, /Vis. Doc. £r44£ THE BENSON LIBRARY OF HYMNOLOGY Endowed by the Reverend Louis Fitzgerald Benson, d.d. f LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY SC s7 Sunday School Music in Its Relation to the Service of the Church. BY THE REV. GEO. C. F. HAAS. Next after the pure preaching of the Truth of God, the administra- tion of the Sacraments in accordance with this Truth, and the recognition and confession of this Truth in a pure service, there is nothing of greater importance in the public worship of the Church than the musical setting of the service. Church music is, and of right should be, far more than a mere aesthetic embellishment of the Church service. It is rather a proper expression of, as well as a valuable aid to, the worship of the Christian congregation. Leaving aside the consideration of its service- ableness as not germane to the subject of this paper, we cannot but emphasize the appropriateness of Church music as a vehicle of expres- sion in divine service. By its rhythmical movement uniting in one ac- cord the prayerful utterance of the worshiping congregation, by its melodic progression elevating this utterance above the level of common- place speech, and by its harmonic setting beautifying and inspiring it, music is indeed eminently fitted to give external expression to the ele- vated thoughts and feelings of adoration, praise and prayer. But what is thus generally true finds its particular application in the fact that the musical expression of a thought, owing to the flexibility and subjective quality of music, is a reflex of the soul from which it flows. True music is characteristic, and the more distinct and marked the character of the musician, the more distinct and marked is the character of the music. That, therefore, there is Church music, distinct and different from pro- fane worldly music, need occasion no surprise. And that a Church with such marked characteristics as the Lutheran should have its own, Lu- theran, Church music follows as a natural consequence. The task assigned me really involves the answering of the question, how to bring the children and youth of our Church to a proper acquaint- ance with, and appreciation of, the treasures of our Church music, and especially, how to do this through the agency of the Sunday School. Before proceeding to give this answer, it may be well to call to mind the Lutheran idea as to the aim and object of the Sunday School on the one hand and the characteristics of the music of the Lutheran Church service on the other, in order thus to show that a relation be- tween Sunday School music and the service of the Church does and should subsist. According to Lutheran ways of thinking, the aim of the Sunday- School is not only, nor even chiefly, evangelistic and missionary. It is not only to bring in those who are yet without; it is also to instruct and train those who are within. In the absence or insufficiency of parochial or other religious schools, the Sunday School has a duty to perform to the children of the congregation. In distinction from the sectarian view, however, the Lutheran Sunday School recognizes and treats these children as baptized members of the Church and therefore eschews mere emotional means applied with the idea of making Chris- tians of them, but rather builds upon the God-laid foundation by systematic nurture and training in the faith of the Church. For, recognizing as fundamental the things that separate the Lutheran from other Churches, the Lutheran Sunday School also emphasizes the confessional standpoint, keeping herself aloof alike from unionistic and undenominational ideas and practices. Its work being distinctively Lutheran, the music in use in the Lutheran Sunday School can, therefore, be of none other than a Lutheran character, preparing for the Church service. Now the characteristics of the music of this service are those of the Lutheran faith and life. It is marked by adherence to objective prin- ciples rather than dependence on subjective moods. It expresses not so much individual feeling as the faith of the Church. It is not trivial, or sweetishly emotional, but dignified and profound. Though adapting itself to all times and circumstances, it preserves a unity of cast, ever churchly and decorous. Add to this that it is music for the people. Though there is abundant material for trained choirs, the essential por- tions of the service are meant to be sung by the congregation, each and every member uniting in the worship of the God of his salvation. From this brief review .of what the Lutheran Sunday School and what Lutheran Church music is, or should be, it is evident that the relation between them should be a very close one. How, then, is the Sunday School to attain this end? How can, and how should the Sun- day School train the children committed to her care so as to instill into their minds a knowledge and love for the music of the Church and make them able and willing actively and intelligently to join in her services? It will hardly be necessary to dwell upon the first requirement that, namely, the Sunday School should devote a not inconsiderable part of its time and attention to the practice and exercise of singing. This, however, is not only to be done as a matter of expediency, in order to introduce variety into the exercises, to hold the interest of the children, and to enliven the sessions of the School, but with a distinct educational purpose in view, remembering that it is the task of the School not only to instill religious knowledge, but also to train in habits of Church life. Therefore it becomes a question of the greatest import WHAT to sing. And right here is an opportunity, and with it the duty, of a thorough- going reformation in the prevailing methods of Sunday School work. The great mass of the so-called Sunday School music of our day has neither Sunday, nor school, nor even music about it. It consists in great part of a 5 lot of senseless ditties, manufactured by the yard, and made to sell, but without the shadow of a claim to spirituality, churchliness or even dignity. Its rhythm vividly recalls the thumpety-thump of the military brass band or the strumming of the banjo; its melodies bring up reminiscences of the waltz-song or the lover's lay and the blare of the cornet or the sensuous drawl of the violin and flute is wafted upon our imagination, while its harmonies rarely rise above those of the accordeon. Even the better specimens of this class of music are emotional often to mawkishness and mediocre to insipidity. Where the news of the day and the questions of the hour have replaced the Gospel on the pulpit, where pound-parties and church variety shows are the attractions about which gathers the communion of the saints, where the pure teaching of the Word has been set aside by rationalism, emotionalism and send- mentalism, there such music is the legitimate expression of the pre- vailing spirit. Where conservative churchliness is departed from, the logical consequence is the bass drum of the Salvation Army. When, then, is the Lutheran Sunday School to do with regard to such music? Why, throw it out, at once and forever. Consign the "Celestial Sunbeams," the "Seraphic Harmonies," and the like to the element to which Luther delivered the Pope's bull. Stop aping secta nanism and undenominationalism, introduce a good Lutheran Sunday School hymnbook and begin at once to sing the hymns and responses there offered you. It will require work and time, but the result will richly repay your trouble. The children will acquire a stock of virile, substantial tunes; the old chorals of the Church, with their plain melodies, strong harmonies and stately rhythm, the liturgical treasures of our Church used by her in her solemn services, and a selection of spiritual songs, which, though in a more popular strain and not used in the ordinary Church service, are yet in keeping with the rest and do not corrupt the taste for the more substantial music. Objections, indeed, to the introduction and use of this style of music in the Sunday School are not wanting. It may be argued that this music is not interesting to children, that their tastes lie in another direction, and that we must furnish them with something in a lighter vein. To this we reply: It is true, alas, that in many cases their tastes would prefer the modern music; but why? They, and often their parents before them, have so long been accustomed to singing religious senti- ments of a watery nature to music, which, if adapted to any, words, would certainly fit far better to such rhymes as "Hey, diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle," than to the songs of the Church. In other words, tastes are often corrupt, and it is ours not to stoop to such and perpetuate them, but to cultivate the taste of the young and elevate it. Again it is urged: This music of the Church is so entirely differ- ent from the music they hear and sing in their other surroundings, that it is impossible to cultivate a taste for it. We grant that it is differ- ent, different from the music of the world, different even from the music of the secularized Church. But is it not meet and right and altogether to be expected that it should be so? Is not the Church different from the world? Is it not well that this fact should be impressed upon the 6 child by all the means at our command? And as for the impossibility of cultivating a taste for this distinctively churchly music, the same argument would strike at the most essential work of the Church; for the Church's Gospel is even less to the taste of the natural man than the Church's music. An objection not infrequently heard is that this old music is too slow and stately, and therefore exercises a somnolent effect, deadening the life in a school. Answer: That depends in very great measure upon how the music is rendered. If you take the old chorals and, fig- uratively speaking, iron them flat, making each note like the preceding, a solemn half-note, and playing and singing them largo sostenuto, it is true. If, however, you take the trouble to study their original rhythm and then sing them with life and vigor, it is not true. It is a distinguish- ing quality, indeed, of Church music to move more measuredly than secular music. It is the child not of the swaying, fickle mood, but of the deep-rooted, steady faith. Yet dignity is not synonymous with slowness, and orthodoxy is not measured by sluggishness of movement. Some very frankly admit that they consider much of the music of the Lutheran service as too stiff and antiquated. They desire some- thing more melodious and more in keeping with the modern develop- ments of musical art. They, therefore, make the matter one of individual taste and preference. Without going into the question of how far this preference is justifiable, it may suffice to allude to the fact that the liturgical and hymnological treasures of our Church were brought forth in the purest and most spiritual periods of her history, and that it is but natural that an age so widely different in its tastes and pursuits should have to acquire a taste for those products of a purer age. When once we have again lived ourselves into the spirit of the old music, there is, indeed, no reason why the Church should not use the freedom of her gifts and with her present enlarged resources continue to build on the old foundations. Again, some delight in change and variety. They think it necessary to introduce a new hymn book and new hymn tunes from time to time, and would therefore object to the music in question as being always the same. Knowing how soon they grow tired of the modern Sunday School music, they argue that the same would be the case with regarl to the old. But the cases are not at all parallel. There is a solidity about the true Church music of which you do not tire, but which you learn to love and prize ever more highly. And then, too, let the world seek relief in change and variety, the Church holds fast to her old approved treasures. Finally, some may be deterred from the adoption of the music of the Lutheran service into the Sunday School by the idea that it is too dif- ficult to learn and execute, and that the desired goal is unattainable. To those we would say: Try. No good thing can be attained without exertion, but the difficulties in this case are not insurmountable. In conclusion I will briefly enumerate some of the requirements underlying, and some of the means helpful in establishing in fact the relation which exists in theory between the music of the Sunday School and the Church: i. It is necessary that there be the proper relation between the School and the Church, so that the School be not run as an independent institution, but working together with the congregation under one leadership to one end. 2. The use of the proper Lutheran hymn and service books is another essential prerequisite. 3. The adoption of churchly music for the opening and closing service of the school. The music used at every session of the school, though it need not be constantly the same, should always be drawn from the same sources, the liturgical treasures of the Church. 4. A definite part of the school session should be devoted to the practicing of Church song. It should be made part of the regular school work. 5. The school festivals may be utilized to introduce new features, new hymns, Psalms, portions of the liturgy yet unused and where necessary to bring them to the notice of the congregation. 6. Occasional allusion by the pastor, superintendent or leader to the history, characteristics and meaning of the music sung may be helpful. 7. Finally, the actual rendering of Church song and portions of the service by well-trained schools or classes at Sunday School conventions would without doubt be productive of good results. Let us rejoice that the Church bearing the name of him who, while the great reformer, was at the same time the great master-singer of evangelical Christendom, has of late again begun to recognize and reinstate the liturgical and musical treasures bequeathed to her, and let us teach them to our children, that young and old may unite in worthy praise to the Lord, whose name we confess and adore. The Sphere of the Choir in the Rendering of the Service. BY THE REV. LUTHER D. REED. The Choir, regarded as a body of singers, of the Congregation but yet separate and with distinct functions, is, in its very nature, a product of a highly developed form of congregational life and worship. It evolved not from the private communion of the individual believer with his God, or even from the public worship of the Jewish people in their early history. Only after the desert had long since changed to the promised Canaan, and the Tabernacle had given way to the Temple, do we ob- serve permanent bodies of white-robed singers with specific functions participating in the highly developed services of the sanctuary.* In like manner the early Christians, after the fall of Jerusalem, gathering in catacombs and caverns in instant fear of profane interruption, presum- ably ventured not beyond simplest congregational Psalmody and Hym- nody. But when the various edicts of Constantine assured ample protection and even royal patronage, and made possible regular and permanent times and places of common worship, the Choir as a dis- tinctive body soon again reappears. The music of the Church received great advancement at the hands of Gregory, but from this time the Congregation more and more delegated its privileges to the growing body of clergy and choristers, the latter soon coming to be entirely distinguished from the Congregation and regarded as semi-clerical in character and function. The Middle Ages, with the absolute ignorance of the people, but completed the passivity of the latter, while the dis- covery and development of Harmony and Counterpoint afforded new opportunities for the expansion of the Choir. Now enters a new factor in the history of the Choir and its relation to the Service of the Church. Until this time it had developed within the walls of the Church; its music was true Church Music, evolved from the very life of the Church as expressed in its Service, and as such fre- quently voicing its ever-increasing doctrinal error; its function was clearly one of worship. Its unpardonable sin had been its assumption of the birthright of the Congregation in its appropriation to itself of the Responses and other portions of the Liturgy which belonged to the latter. That the Reformation knew how to correct. It reassured the people of the universal priesthood of believers, and raised them from * I Chron. 25, 7; II Chron. 5, 12, etc. (9) 10 the position of auditors and observers of the Service to actual partici- pants in the same. But now the art which had received its quickening impulse and early nourishment from the Church itself, leaves its home and goes into the world. The spiritual character hitherto manifest gives way in the air of freedom and worldly suggestion to secular thought and expression. It in turn re-enters the Church and secures such a name for polyphonic music, that nothing short of the genius of a Palestrina saved it from proscription and prevented the absolute extension of Gre- gorian music to all parts of the Service in the Roman Church itself. He, together with his cotemporaries and immediate successors, both in the Roman and Protestant Churches, clearly vindicated the spiritual power and beauty of part composition, and left works that will serve as imperisha- ble models and ideals of true sacred music as long as the resources of the art remain as they are. But spiritual decadence within the Church resulted inevitably in the fall of this high standard of music. As an art. Music developed rapidly outside of the Church. We see the perfection of a new scale system, the restoration of strong rhythm, the development of the orchestra and the rise of the opera, with the accompanying proficiency of players and vocalists. Lowered spirituality in the Church lost the conception of the organic unity of the Service itself, to the expression of which unity all Art was to be subordinated. Art asserted, especially in the Roman Church, a right to be heard for its own sake, and musicians and singers from the theatre brazenly entered the choir loft and bade the act of service cease and the thought of worship depart while they displayed their virtuosity. Within Protestantism itself things were little better. Though Luther and his followers retained the purified Service, and with it the Choir as an integral factor in its rendering.* the iconoclastic zeal of the radicals, which was not according to knowledge, abolished the Choir as distinctively Popish. Bitter sectarian controversy, the ravages of war. and later Pietism and Rationalism allied to rob Evangelical Christianity of her simple faith, which was her life, and with rude hand shattered the forms of devotion that had been at once the conserver and herald of that faith. Much of her historic belief, as well as nearly all of her true Church Music, were placed together side by side with her beautiful Liturgy in the same grave. Thus the Choir, where still permitted to exist at all,, came to have a new place and function in public worship. Once an integral part of the worshiping congrega- tion and a distinct participant in the united Service, it now enters through a side door as a total stranger, and. in the name of Art simply, br in upon a Service already arbitrary, personal and temporary in character, and affords relief from ennui or tedium, or at best gratifies individual lie taste. Such is the unhappy lot of the Choir in general to-day. but gratefully we observe a seeking of the old paths, a study of for- * Luther has left us numerous assurances of the high regard he entertained, both for the melodies of the Gregorian system and for polyphonic composition. With reference to the latter, he said, "the one who is not moved by such an art work, resembles a coarse log, and does not deserve to hear such lovely music." II gotten principles, and a resumption of historic practices that shall, undei the Spirit's guidance, lead us into the truth. Of primary importance in our endeavor to understand the proper sphere of the Choir will be our apprehension of the correct principles of Divine Worship in general. Let us briefly mention some that most in- timately affect our subject. The worshiping Congregation gathers not simply to see and hear the officiating ministry perform a vicarious ser- vice, and to engage in silent, individual prayer. It comes as a body of spiritual priests, reverently yet "boldly approaching the throne of grace," and together entering the very Holy of Holies. But it assembles not simply as a body of Christians for common edification and united sac- rifice; where mutual fellowship and common faith may ''provoke unto love and good works."' where individual understanding and experience as voiced in sermon, prayer or song may enkindle devout feeling to be expressed in united praise or prayer. It gathers in response to the invitation of God to engage in a Common Service, in which it shall receive through the Word and Sacraments His offered grace, and shall in return give its grateful sacrifice. Its Service is thus a series of recip- rocal actions or conditions. It is not merely passive nor alone active; it receives and then it gives, receives again, and is con- strained to further offering — a true "communion" of the united body of believers with their Gcd. But as the service of the Congregation is not personal and individual in character, but common and collective, so it cannot separate itself from the whole body of Christian believers. When it enters upon its common service it is not as an isolated Congregation, separated in thought, in faith, experience, hope and promise from all others in the world. In all these it is most intimately related to all other bodies of true wor- shipers. It is but a part of the great worshiping congregation. And not only do limitations of space fall away, but those of time as well. It must recognize itself as a member of the great Holy Christian Church, which is the Communion of Saints of all time. The sacramental grace it receives is but its part of the great legacy entrusted to the Church Universal to administer; the sacrificial offering of praise, prayer and thanksgiving which it brings is but a single note of the symphony of devotion, a single breath of the incense which for ever and ever rises from the golden altar in the spiritual temple of the New Jerusalem. The fundamental relation of the local Congregation to the Church Uni- versal, though essentially, of course, only a unity of faith, is represented and impressed upon the mind in no clearer way than by the Liturgy. The Church Year, and the naturally unfolding expression of it in the Liturgy, was a gradual and spontaneous evolution from the inner life of the Church. It crystallized the consensus of Christian thought, which loved to review the development of God's plan of redemption, as well as systematically to study the doctrines of Christian faith and to learn the duties of Chris- tian life. In its very nature it is utterly foreign to the spirit of isolation, individualism, emotionalism, arbitrariness and temporality which have ever been the distinguishing marks of sectarianism. The worship of 12 the Roman Church (leaving out of consideration the specific expression of other doctrinal error therein) ignores the evangelical principle of the universal priesthood of believers. The worship of the Reformed Churches ignores the essential union with the devotional life of the historic Church, and regards the public Service as entirely independent, personal, and purely eucharistic-sacrificial in character. The Lutheran Church asserts the rights of all believers to a participation in the common Service, and recognizes the essential connection of the local Congregation with the Church Universal. It cuts itself loose from neither the historic faith nor the historic forms of devotion of the Early Church. Both are cleansed from error and restored to believers, and in the public use of these forms "of appealing beauty," which enshrine the pure faith, Minister, Choir and Congregation together participate as integrant factors. In the light that history and the true principles of Divine Service shed upon our path, it will be at once apparent that we cannot conceive of the Choir as a species of "minor clergy," or as exercising certain ministerial functions, either by reason of its independent character as a body separate from the Congregation as such, or because of powers which the latter may delegate to it. The Congregation must exercise its privilege of response, appropriation and confession itself. Shall we then regard the Choir simply as the leader of the Congregation, as the portion of the latter chosen by reason of special qualification to guide it in devotional singing? Or shall we recognize in it the exponent of the "musical charism of the Congregation, the ordinary form of the original wonderful gift of tongues," which is now, according to I Cor. 14:26, to be heard in the interest of common edification? (Hqmmel, Kuemmerle, Koestlin, etc.) Or, again, shall we agree with the writer who says, "I consider the legitimate office of the artistic Choir to em- bellish and enrich public service; to impress, to prepare for worship; the legitimate office of congregational song to subserve the purposes of actual devotion." (R. S. Willis.) All these conceptions seem to us to fall short of the true ideal of the sphere of the Christian Choir. They all present phases of the prac- tical work of the Choir and its influence upon public devotion, and they perhaps reflect the ideas of the great majority of worshipers, as, in consequence of this, they explain to a large extent the reason for the totally unsatisfactory character of the great bulk of that which by custom and courtesy is called Church Music. A stream cannot rise above its source. Radical misapprehension of the true principles of public ser- vice cannot but banefully affect every factor and detail of that service. The Choir is the leader of the Congregation ; it does edify and en- courage devotion; it does bring the consecrated offering of spiritual gifts; it does beautify and enrich the Services, but all this it does, or should do, incidentally — this is a part of the practical effect of its participation in the common Service. Its true sphere is wider than this; it has an ideal function to fulfill. We conceive of the full Service as an organic whole within itself, and also as a part of the system or plan of Christian Service as outlined 13 in the Christian Year. In the choice of the thought that shall be upper- most and that shall rule the character of the particular Service, which characteristic thought or theme appears in Lections, Introit, Psalmody, Hymns, Sermon and Collects, we see the molding hand of the Historic Church. The invariable parts of the Liturgy, in every case to be sung by the Congregation, reflect the great unchanging needs and joys of all; it is the function of the Choir to announce the special thought of the day or season in certain of the variable parts of the Service. And, as Dr. Schoeberlein, who has especially advanced this idea of the choir,* asks, in what manner can the union of the local Congregation with the Church Universal be better represented than by the Choir ? In the Introitt consisting of an Antiphon and Psalm verse, a probable relic of the early Psalmody at the beginning of public worship, the Choir, rep- resenting the Church, announces the thought of the day. In the Gradual, Responsories and Antiphons, from all of which our modern Anthem has gradually developed, we hear the voice of the whole Church sound- ing time and time again the great theme of the present Service, calling all local bodies of believers to unite in harmonious meditation and de- votion. And here we believe we have the ideal sphere of the Choir in the Service, the ideal function it is called upon to fulfill. It constitutes one of the three active, integrant participants in the common Service of God's people. All are worshipers, all are spiritual priests handling the holy things of the sanctuary, but each has its separate function, and exercising these, each in turn now giving, now receiving, now declaring, again appropriating, Minister, Choir and Congregation together build up the beautiful structure of the perfect Service as an organic whole. The Choir is of the Congregation, and it does serve as its leader in certain parts. So the Minister is of the Congregation, and in the prayers leads the whole body of worshipers; while Minister, Choir and Congregation all unite in voicing their hymns of supplication and praise, even as they all kneel before the same altar and "partake of this one bread and drink of this one cup." But as a distinctive body the Choir has its specific function, even as the Minister has his distinctive offices. It is not dis- tinct or separate in the sense of a foreign, extraneous body, intruding in the Service simply in the name of Art to beautify and gratify. For when the admonitory and invitatory "sursum corda" is proclaimed from the altar, the responding "habemus ad Dominum" must not sound in hollow mockery, but must voice in very truth the spiritual condition of the believing worshipers, all standing in their common need upon the common plane of a common faith. All must be. and must feel themselves to be, a part of God's people of all time, members of the great army of the redeemed. So we hear the voice of the Old Testament saints in * Particularly in "Schatz des liturgischen Chor— und Gemeindegesangs," and in "Ueber den liturgischen Ausbau des Gemeindegottesdienstes." f The Introit was originally sung by the Choir, the Congregation standing to receive the announcement as they did during the Gospel. Durandus knows nothing of its recitation by the priest, and in Reformation times it was only sung by the minister when there was no capable Choir, and for this same reason in villages it sometimes took the form of an In- troit Hymn by the Congregation. 14 the Psalmody and in the verses from the Psalms and Prophets which form so large a part of the Antiphons; while the very employment of these historic forms of devotion leads us to think of those who, having used them ages ago and finding satisfaction for their souls' needs its their beautiful structure, left them, as they passed into the company of the Host Triumphant,, as a priceless inheritance for us and the thousands yet unborn. Of course when we speak of the organic unity and completeness of the Service, and define the sphere of the Choir as we have, we are dealing with ideals, liturgical and musical; we are beyond the bounds of bare necessity and even of utility. But, as we stated at the outset, the very nature of our subject leads us into the realm of the artistic and the ideal. The individual believer in his private communion with God needs not the help of Art. But the collected body of worshipers has larger re- quirements for its public Service. It does not, indeed, demand a beau- tiful building, a richly developed form of Service, or an artistic Choir. It can truly worship in the woods, or in a barn, or in caves and dens of the earth, as thousands of God's saints have done. But this is not the ideal place, nor are these the most satisfying and helpful conditions for united public worship. The very necessities for some place to gather, means for administering the Sacraments, ways to voice the common grat- itude, faith and prayer, the consciousness of relationship with other worshiping communities and the desire for uniformity in the expression of the common belief — all these not only call for utilitarian structure, but they invite the aid of Art itself, which is only Art as such after it passes the limits of the absolutely necessary and utilitarian. Moses in his forty years' exile communed with God in spirit. When at the head of Israel, God Himself gave him plans for the Tabernacle, with all its wealth of adornment, and Himself invited His people to contribute of their means, talents and time to its completion. The same principle is ap- parent in the erection of the Temple, and in the history of the New Testament Church, as soon as it passed from the throes of persecution and the necessity for concealment. The Renaissance of Art was indeed synchronous with the expansion of the Church in its outward form and secular power, but Richard Wagner is wrong in suggesting that this employment and development of Art was the direct product simply of the secularity and worldly pomp of the Church, as if, as he says, "the Christian, who impartially casts aside both Nature and himself, could only sacrifice to his God on the altar of renunciation: he durst not bring his actions or his work as offering, but believed that he must seek His favor by abstinence from all self-prompted venture.'"* This is largely true of individual, private worship; but, as we have seen, collective public service presents new requirements and gladl) r uses every gift of God for mutual edification, and thus appropriates and consecrates every helpful art. Not indeed as "the free Greek, who set himself upon the pinnacle of Nature, could procreate Art from very joy in manhood." The development of Art. as such, is not the Christian's aim; he seeks * "Art and Revolution."— (Ellis 1, 37.) 15 the advancement of common, public worship, the furtherance of spirit- uality, the building up of Christian faith and character. Art is not an end. but a consecrated means; but in its employment in Christian wor- ship, like all else that ministers in the sanctuary, it here has received its purest and noblest development. This establishes the essentially distinctive character of Christian Art. It is Art taken from the world, like men and women themselves, cleansed and purified by the Spirit of God and consecrated to His service. Like these same men and women, it now has "einen anderen Geist." As the true Christian who keeps himself '"unspotted from the world" de- velops a life and character that is distinctive in its Christianity, so must all Art in the employment of the Church express its holy calling by its distinctive form. Whether it be architecture, painting, poetry or music, it must be "churchly," i. e., distinctively Christian, purely symbolical and at the same time adapted to the requirements not of the individual but of the congregation. The observance of this principle is of special importance in our consideration of the sphere of the Choir. Possibly, as has been suggested, Music, of all the arts, is the hardest to subordinate in this manner. Impermanent, intensive, elusive, it seems to demand the absolute attention of every hearer, and invites the simple appreciation of its own inherent beauty. But just in so far as it fails to raise the heart higher and direct it to the supreme object of worship, it is a pro- faner of the Temple; it is in the company of those who "enter the sanc- tuary only for sacrilege." Here we have to do with the elusive, intangible and yet intensely real quality that John Mason Neale in reference to Architecture calls "the Sacramentality of Art." Abstract beauty in itself is not the ideal. As the Roman writer Krutschek has pointedly said, "the beauty of a Schiller tragedy is no sufficient ground for its intro- duction in the Church or its substitution in place of the sermon." Much music that is exquisitely beautiful could not be called Church Music, and has no place in the Christian Service. Worship must be first, Art second. Further, in order that this ideal may be realized, the music of the Choir must be liturgical. By this we mean that it must have an organic connection with the Service as such. As soon as it assumes the form of an independent art work it severs itself from the Minister and the Congregation, and indeed from the Service itself. We believe with Schoeberlein that "the true view of Church Music is to be had only through the door of the Liturgy." These two. Church Music and Lit- urgy, are mutually dependent, related to each other "as plant and bloom." The Liturgy is the plant, striking its roots deep into the faith of the Church as contained in the Word of God. It finds its highest development and most perfect expression in the flower which springs by divine law from its own organic life. Church Music. This beautiful blos- som maturing under the tender care of the Church, sends forth the ripe fruit of a perfected art form, at once artistic and distinctively spiritual, which bears within itself the precious seeds of Christian faith which will lodge and spring up into further life wherever the breath of the Spirit may waft them. The developing Liturgy of the Early Church i6 found its expression in the Gregorian Chant and the latter in the hands of St. Augustine, Boniface and other missionaries was the means of introducing the faith of Christianity and of uniting the scattered bodies of converts with the whole Church in thought and fact. The restored truth of Reformation times appeared in versified arrangements of parti of the Liturgy and in independent Hymns. These found their true and adequate expression and obtained their marvelous dissemination in the noble melodies of the Chorale. And all Church Music to-day, worthy of the name, must be distinctively liturgical — a direct outgrowth of some part of the Service itself, or of some thought of the day or season of the Church, some precious portion of the faith, not of the individual com- poser, but of the Church as a whole. We quite agree with Mr. Edward Dickinson that "musical reform in the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches is most difficult, simply because they have no liturgical style or school of composition." while Ritter, with reference to these same Protestant Communions that have thrown away all regard for historic liturgical principles and practices, says that for these "Church Music, in the sense of appropriate art-music, has no future." The logical. de- velopment of the isolated, sacrificial, temporary and arbitrary character of the worship of these Communions is to make their service simply a human gathering for religious purposes, a "meeting"; the sermon be- comes a scholarly essay on a religious or moral theme, or perhaps a "lecture" on some timely topic; while the music cannot possibly rise above the level of a "sacred concert." The true principle of the liturgical unity and completeness of every Service as a sacramental-sacrificial trans- action between God and man must be clearly apprehended if we would conserve the true welfare of our Church Music, especially as it relates to the Choir. In this conception of the Service, the Gospel, as related to the broader thought of the particular part of the Church Year, must furnish the controlling theme. To the elucidation and development of this the variable parts of the Liturgy, the Hymns and the Sermon con- tribute. The noble models of Church Music for the Choir found in the a capella compositions of Palestrina, Lasso, Vitorria, Eccard, Hassler, Praetorius and Schuetz are models not only because of their artistic beauty and lofty spirituality, but because of their pure liturgical feeling. They seem to be organic developments of the very Service itself. The Anthem, which, in its present form as the distinctive contribution of the English Church to Church Music, has established itself firmly in the affections of most of our people, too often bears the character of independence and subjectivity. It might be interesting to inquire as to the relative re- sponsibility for the unsatisfactory character of many of these composi- tions that should be borne by several factors, among them the striving for dramatic effect, the increasing opportunities for the mere display of vocal virtuosity, the growing indifference to the rightful claims of the text for pre-eminence, and the prominence accorded the Organ as an independent factor. Emil Nauman (Ouseley) says, "The great works of the great masters of sacred music, whether Catholic or Protestant . . . would never have been called into existence had their authors been limited to an organ 17 accompaniment," and we recall the words of Richard Wagner, who, though commanding the resources of every art as none before him in his own marvelous Music Dramas, said, "If Church Music is to be again restored to its original purity, vocal music must again alone represent it." But at all events, with conditions as they are, with especial reference to the sphere of the Choir, our choice of Anthems and all distinctive!} Choir music must be guided not only by regard for purity of content and form, but with especial concern for liturgical unity and coherence. Not any well written composition upon Scripture text will suffice. Unless it exactly harmonize with the thought of the particular Service, it will be a distracting, extraneous element for whose presence in the Service there is no excuse or justification. In recapitulation we may state: 1. We regard the Choir not as a body semi-priestly in character, performing delegated functions of the Congregation; nor as an artistic intruder into the worship of believers; but as an organic factor in the ideal Christian Service. 2. Though leading the Congregation in Hymns and Responses, though in all its efforts using the gifts of the Spirit for the mutual edi- fication of all worshipers, its especial function is to sound the voice of the Church Universal in the local Congregation, and to impress upon the latter the thought of its organic connection with all believers. 3. Its true sphere is further defined by its effort to elucidate the essential, organic unity and completeness of each individual Service, and consequently in the selection of its distinctive music, one must be guided not only by regard for purity and "churchliness" of style, but first of all by principles of liturgical unity. The Idea Underlying the Lutheran Main Service. BY PROF. A. SPAETH, D.D., LL.D. For a proper understanding and appreciation of the subject before us, we must first of all remember the great principles which were at stake in the conflict of the Reformation era. The question is concerning faith and works, God's act and man's act, that which is from above, and that which is from below in the relation between God and man. The healthy com- munion between God and man must rest on the proper relation and pro- portion of these two factors. There is a constant reciprocity : God gives, man receives; and having received the blessing of God, man gives what he is able to offer to his God, the sacrifice of a pure and reasonable service. But this latter is altogether based upon the former. That which establishes and preserves the communion between God and man, that which provides, appropriates and seals our salvation is altogether the gift and act of God, the ordinance and testament of God. This principle being true of every true and healthy communion between God and man, must also be true of the service or cultus of the congregation through which such communion is produced, nourished and preserved. The Church is the assembly of true believers, the congregation of saints in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the sacraments rightly administered (Augsb. Confess., Art. 7). These things make and mark the true Church. They must likewise make and mark the true service of the true Church. The true service is where the Word of God and the sacraments are properly used and administered. Now, all the gifts of God, and all His acts toward our salvation, cul- minate in the unspeakable gift of His Son. And the gift of His Son culminates in His propitiatory sacrifice on Calvary, where God set Him forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. This New Testa- ment of the body and blood of Christ is most beautifully and perfectly com- prehended, offered, appropriated and enjoyed in the sacrament of the altar. The Lord's Supper, not as a work or performance of man, but as the very heart and height of all the saving gifts and acts of God, is therefore the real center of Christian worship. Everything else is grouped around this point, and leads up to it. Thus it was already in the Apostolic Church. And thus it remained throughout the Middle Ages, at least in the formal arrangement of the service. But it must be said that the spirit and nature of the service in the medieval Church had changed into something vastly different from the Apostolic and early Christian conception. The act of God had to give way to the act of man. The principal feature in the ser- vice was now the work of man, the human performance, the sacrificial act (19) 20 in the offerings which man brought to his God. Even the New Testament sacrament of the body and blood of Christ has ceased to be the act, the gift and ordinance of God, it is turned into a human work and performance, something offered by man in order to gain the good will of God, to secure reconciliation with Him. As early as 1520 Luther protested most em- phatically against this perversion of the true service, in his "Sermon von dem Neuen Testament" (Sermon on the Lord's Supper) : "The sacrament of the altar (Mass) is not a sacrifice which man offers to God, but a testa- ment by which the Lord promises and conveys to us an unspeakable treasure, the forgiveness of sins." In accordance with this fundamental principle our Lutheran order of service correctly conceived and consistently carried through the idea of our communion with God. It is established, preserved and nourished by what God offers and conveys to us in the Word and the sacrament. And our main service culminates in the Holy Communion, by which God's grace in Jesus Christ is sealed unto us. From this point of view we must consider the different parts of the main service as they follow each other in most beautiful order. There we find in full accordance with the spirit of Scripture, and almost throughout in the very words of Scripture, those two elements of true service combined, the sacramental, viz., that which comes from God, as His gift, ordinance and testament, and the sacrificial, viz., that which comes from man, as his own offering, in confession, prayer, praise and thanksgiving. There is presented to us in the most vivid, we might almost say, dramatic manner, the whole plan of God's salvation, including everything that He has done and provided for our redemption, and the wonderful riches of Christian experience, from the depths of the Confiteor (confession of sins) to the blessed height of the Nunc Dimittis — Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace! The service opens with the Confiteor, the confession of sins. It is our purpose to draw near to the Holy One. But we ourselves are unholy and full of sin. Therefore those opening versicles, with the declaration, "I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord," and the hopeful, confident looking forward to the divine act of forgiveness which we have so often experienced, "And Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." The confession of sin is followed by the declaration of God's mercy, in the words of absolution, "Almighty God, our heavenly Father, hath had mercy upon us, and given His only Son to die for us, and for His sake iorgiveth us all our sins." Here already the last and final aim is set before us, to be "saved." But it stands here not yet as the consummate act of God, but as the object of our earnest, believing prayer, "Grant this, O Lord, unto us all," — the sacramental act of God's saving mercy, embraced by the sacrificial act of human prayer. Thus far the preparatory part of our service, which is not found in all the Lutheran orders of the Reformation time. But now the real beginning of the service of the respective Sunday or festival day is made with the Introit, striking the proper chord for the day and its peculiar message in the words of the Psalm of which it is composed. Many Sundays in the Church year have their traditional names in the almanac from the opening 21 words of their Latin Introit, such as Invocavit, Reminiscere, Oculi, Laetare, Judica. There is a singular and beautiful coincidence in the names of the first four Sundays after Easter, forming a striking Latin sentence which echoes the full Easter joy of the Church: "Quasimodogeniti Misericordias Domini Jubilate, Cantate ! (As the new born babes shout and sing the mercies of the Lord.) The words of the Psalm used in the Introit always close with the Gloria Patri (Glory be to the Father, etc.), which is to be taken, not so much as an expression of our praise and thanksgiving, but rather as a confession of the Trinitarian faith of the Christian Church, in distinction from the Old Testament use of the Psalms in the synagogue. The Gloria Patri, therefore, is properly used at this point, even during the solemn season of Lent. Cleansed from our sins, and the heaviest burden taken off from our conscience, we have thus entered upon the service of the Lord's Day with a joyful heart, in the Introit of the day. But there are still other burdens to be taken off, to make us perfectly free and cheerful to enjoy the day which the Lord hath made. We have just passed through another week of toil and labor, with its cares and sorrow, and we have before us the new week which is sure to bring similar trials. We therefore lift up our eyes and our hearts to. the Triune God, praying that He should mercifully deliver us from all evil of body and soul, present and future. We cry in the Kyrie, "Lord, have mercy upon us ! Christ, have mercy upon us ! Lord, have mercy upon us !" Now we are ready to praise, magnify and worship the God of our sal- vation from the very depth of our heart. The angelic hymn of the Gloria in Excelsis bursts forth, that hymn "which was not made on earth, but came down from heaven" (Luther). In this song of songs we have the grandest summary of all that the mouth of mortal man may sing and say to the praise of God's glory as it is revealed in the incarnation of the only begotten Son of the Father. Thus far the sacrificial character predominated in the service — confes- sion, adoration, praise and thanksgiving on the part of man. Henceforth the sacramental side becomes more prominent, God's own work through the Word and the sacrament, though the sacrificial is constantly interwoven. We prepare ourselves to hear the voice of the Lord in His holy Word. But its first reading is preceded by a short prayer, the Collect, which is in- troduced by the Salutation, pastor and congregation blessing each other mutually with these ancient Scripture words, "The Lord be with you. And with thy spirit." Then they offer before the throne of the divine Majesty that brief, comprehensive prayer, called the Collect — "A breath of the soul sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, offered up to the Eternal Father in the name of His Son." Now follows the Word, first, as the Holy Ghost spake it through the blessed Apostles in their letters to their congregations — the Epistle. There can hardly be any doubt that in the history of the New Testament itself this was chronologically the first and earliest form in which any literature of the New Testament was .to be found. The congregation responds with the Hallelujah, "The voice that must never be silent in the Church," as Luther says. It may be enlarged by sentences from the Scriptures, espe- 22 daily the Psalms. And here is the proper place for the so-called Gradual, a good, substantial anthem of the choir, of strictly churchly character, in organic connection with the character and spirit of the day that is cele- brated. Instead of this the congregation may sing one of the fixed, tradi- tional hymns of a strictly objective character, such as, Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates ! All praise. Lord Jesus Christ, to Thee. Christ the Lord is risen again, etc. Now only we hear in the Gospel of the day the voice of the Lord Himself. Ipsissima Verba. There are special marks of dis- tinction for the Gospel, over against the Epistle. The congregation rises, saluting the Lord with its festive "Glory be to Thee, O Lord," and re- turning its special thanks for the hearing of the Gospel in the closing vers- icle, "Thanks be to Thee, O Christ." The Word of God as read in the Epistle and the Gospel is followed by the Creed, the confession of the common faith of Christendom. In the Word God Himself has been speaking to us. In the sermon His servant is to speak to us, with his personal testimony of the saving truth as it re- flects itself in his own consciousness, and as it has taken shape in the ex- perience of his own life. His mission is to explain and to apply the Word that has been heard for the life of the congregation .and for the time in which he lives. But before the preacher opens his mouth, before his per- sonality is brought forward in the sermon, the Church has first to speak her word in her historic Creed, the testimony of her faith, showing how, from the very beginning, she has understood and received the word of the Gospel. The preacher is a member and a minister of the Church. Her faith is his faith, her doctrine his doctrine. He is not to give his own thoughts in distinction from, or possibly even in antagonism to what the Church holds and believes, but the common faith as personified and em- bodied in his own gifts and experience. The Sermon is under the Creed, the Creed under the Word. Sacramental and sacrificial features are com- bined in the sermon. All exposition and application of the Divine Word in the sermon is a sacramental act in the sen-ice. But there is at the same time a sacrificial side to the sermon. It is the solemn, joyful testimony of the congregation of what God in His mercy has done for it, proclaimed through its official speaker. The congregation responds to the sermon in the Psalm words of the Offertory, expressing the unreserved surrender of the heart to the service of the living God, while at the same time the offerings of the Church are gathered, and deposited on the altar. The General Prayer which follows is, in a special sense, a sacrificial act of the congregation. There the Church appears before the throne of God as an assembly of spiritual priests, making intercession for all the es- tates, conditions and needs of mankind. Her words of prayer culminate in the Lord's Prayer, uniting all believers as children of the Father in heaven, and brethren. And now we have reached the height and center of the whole main service, the Communio, in the stricter sense of the word, the celebration of the Lord's Supper. It is introduced by the sacrificial act of the Preface, breathing the spirit of thanksgiving and adoration.. The great funda- mental facts of redemption are set forth in the concise and stately Ian- 23 guage of the special prefaces for Christmas, Passion Season, Easter, As- cension Day, Whitsunday and the festival of the Trinity. This introduc- tory part of the communion closes with the Trishagion (Holy, Holy Holy) of the Sanctus, to which are added the Benedictus and Hosanna. The Lord is coming to His Church in the sacrament of His body and His blood, and she greets Him and meets Him with her song of homage, in which the Old and the New Testament are blending most beautifully. This is im- mediately followed by the act of Consecration, setting apart the earthly elements for their sacramental use. The Exhortation, however beautiful and edifying it is, ought not to interrupt the course of the sacramental ser- vice, with its homiletical tone. We would rather recommend it for the private reading of the Communicants themselves. As every crea- ture of God is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, so it is to be also with the earthly elements that are to be used in the sacrament of the altar. The prayer used at this point is the Lord's Prayer. The Word cannot be anything else but the Verba Institutionis, the words of the institution. Then follows the Agnus Dei, (O Christ, Thou Lamb of God) the most appropriate song of the congregation, with which the communicants prepare themselves to approach the table of the Lord. There they reach forth their hands to receive the grace and peace of God through the Lamb that is given for our transgressions. The song of the Agnus finds its echo in the Pax (The peace of the Lord be with you alway). Here is, as Luther says, "noth- ing but the pure Gospel, proclaiming forgiveness of sins, the only proper and worthy preparation for the table of the Lord, if it be apprehended in true faith." (Vox plane Evangelica unica ilia et dignissima ad mensam Domini preparatio.) Then the Distribution, with the simple announcement of the redemption which Christ has wrought for us on the cross. The words ought not to be changed but constantly repeated, "The body of Christ, given for thee; the blood of the New Testament shed for thy sins." Higher than this we cannot rise in this present life in our communion with God. Here is the most real and perfect union with our God and Saviour. His life and salvation, His grace and peace are sealed to us in the testament of His body and blood. We therefore make the conclusion with the parting song of old Simeon, the Nunc Dimittis, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, followed by a brief Collect of thanksgiving and the Benediction. It was peace in the last words of the Agnus, peace in the Pax, peace in the opening words of the Nunc Dimittis, and peace in the last words of the Aaronitic benediction. This is the aim and end of our whole service. But this peace, not as a superficial, passing emotion, but in the realistic and comprehensive, scriptural meaning of the word, including perfect well-being, reconcilation and union with God, forgiveness, life and salvation. Thus the dream vision of the patriarch, Jacob's ladder, becomes a living reality in our service. The angels of God are ascending and descending, God's messengers and greetings to us in His Word and sacrament; our mes- sengers to God in our prayers, confessions and thanksgiving. Here is, in truth, the gate of heaven, and we wait for the angel that is to carry us home to the heavenly mansions. What Is Church Music? BY PROF. A. SPAETH, D.D., LL.D. During the last fifty years the Lutheran Church of this country may be said to have been in a steady process of recovery, finding herself again with all the treasures that had been her inheritance since the days of the great Reformation. She had, indeed, wandered away from her Father's house where there was bread enough and to spare. She was begging for bread at the door of strangers, and perishing with hunger. But at last the time came when she said, "I will arise and go to my Father, — to the Rock from which I was hewn." And so she returned to the same experience which the reckless and deluded son in the parable made when he came home to the fatted calf, the best robe, the ring and the shoes, the feast and the music. Thus our dear Church, in the time of her gracious revival, returned to the sound, substantial Gospel doctrine of the fathers and to the beauti- ful robe of her glorious service — and now she is looking around for the harp, and beginning to tune it, and to clear her voice for the new song which the Lord has put into her mouth, — the new song that is, indeed, the old song which her fathers knew so well, and which she had forgotten. When for the first time the solidity, grandeur and earnestness of our Church Music was exhibited before the General Council, in that beautiful Choral Vesper, given in Philadelphia, in 1885, Dr. Jacobs was moved to write the following words with reference to it: "As Lutheranism manifests its dis- tinctive characteristics, not in a few points of doctrine, as some think, but pervades the whole system, and gives a different cast and shading to those doctrines in which there may be a superficial agreement with others ; as it enters the domain of Ethics and treats questions of morality from a dif- ferent standpoint ; as it has a mode of preaching and service peculiarly its own, as the natural utterance of its own distinctive life, so also with its music, the language of impassioned thought and feeling. How inconsistent with a service rendered in such music would be many of the errors and abuses which at times have led our people astray V But having now become fully conscious again of her position in the history of God's kingdom, her scriptural confession, her pure, historic Service, her treasures of inspiring hymns, it is time for her to take up the question "What is Church Music, as we understand it? the music of the Mother Church of the Reformation?" And having found the correct answer in theory, let us have the courage to put the theory into practice, and to enter again into full possession and use of those precious and inexhaustible treasures which are stored in our Cantionales of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. To us Lutherans there is certainly no antagonism between those two terms, Church and Music. We do not agree with the godly Quaker who <»3) 26 once asked me, in a tone of defiance and condemnation, ''What has a Chris- tian to do with music?" We rather find that the Church and Music belong together in beautiful harmony. Even if we should not be quite ready to hold with Matthias Claudius, (the "Wandsbecker Bote"), that "All art starts from the Altar," we certainly have no hesitation in affirming with Martin Luther, "That the Gospel does not set itself against the arts, nor tend to abolish them, as some hyper-spiritual men pretend, but rather that all arts, particularly music, should be in the service of Him who has given and created them." Those silent arts of painting, architecture and sculp- ture may indeed do their share in beautifying and hallowing our places of worship, but music enters into much closer, much more living and active union with the service of the Church. That service is the actual inter- communion between God and man. Such intercourse and communion is not one of silent meditation, leaving each individual member to himself. It is carried on by means of the Word, — God's own Word addressed to man. with all its solemn warning, admonition, rebuke, threatening, and all its blessed consolation, speaking peace to the troubled heart, offering and conveying forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. And it is man's word addressed to God, — praising Him, blessing Him, worshipping Him, glori- fying Him, giving thanks to Him for His great glory, in the jubilant strains of our Glorias, and Te Deums, and Hallelujahs and again praying to Him, crying to Him out of the depth, confessing our guilt, our misery, beseeching Him to hear us and to help us, in our Kyries, our Litanies, our Suffrages and Collects. Now all those words, — the sacramental words of God addressed to man, and the sacrificial words of man addressed to God, may, of course, be simply recited, spoken by the pastor and the congregation, and they would still be the essential organs to establish and to exhibit that intercourse be- tween God and man which we call worship. But it needs no argument to prove how much the word may be beautified and enhanced, its weight and force be strengthened, its impressions deepened, by the sound of appropriate music in which it is expressed. Music that is true to the word to which it is joined brings out the very soul of that word. And when the whole multi- tude of believers, assembled for worship in the house of God, is to join in any part of the service, whenever there are words which they ought to say together, as a congregation, with one heart and one mouth, the musical form is undoubtedly the most satisfactory for such common united utterance. However well trained a congregation may be to speak together, all such common recitations will be lame and unsesthetic compared with the grand unison of song in which the Amens, the Hallelujahs, the Kyries, the Psalms and Prayers and Hymns burst forth from the lips of hundreds of devout worshipers. With these introductory remarks we have actually already indicated all the essential features of what is properly to be called Church Music. It is worship set in music. Service Music, liturgical music, not concert music. though it be a sacred concert in the true and full sense of the word. As Dr. Ohl said of the Choral Service above referred to, "No one could es- cape the overpowering impression that this was pure worship-music, music- free from secular suggestions, music that can be used only in the 27 service of the Church and for no other purpose, music that begets devotion where devotion does not exist." Where there is no organic connection let ween the service of the congregation and the music rendered in the Church, that music cannot justly claim the name Church Music. The Arias, Duos. Quartettes, Choruses of elaborate Cantatas or Oratorios, with all their beauty, have their proper place in the sacred concert rather than in the service of the congregation. This brings us to the second feature which we deem essential in our definition of Church Music. It must essentially be Congregational Music. The art which it introduces and employs must, after all, be of such a character that it can be fully appreciated, appro- priated and executed by the congregation itself. It must not be the con- gregation listening to and entertained by artistic performances of profes- sionals, but the congregation aided, lifted up and edified by a musical art which identifies itself with the spirit of the service of the Church, an art that does not come in for show and display, but to serve, an art that is within reach of the congregation itself. This point, I think, can be and ought to be maintained, even if we advocate, as I do, the regular employ- ment of a choir in the service of the congregation. But, of course, the character of the choir itself and its membership, the place it holds in the service, the music it renders, will have to be governed by the principle which we laid down that Church Music must essentially be congregational music. In close connection with this is the third point which we mean to emphasize in our definition of Church Music. It will appear from what has been said before that true Church Music must be primarily and essentially Vocal Music. The Word rules in the service of the Church. And the use of musical art in the house of God must always be subservient to the Word. Church Music is song music, not instrumental music. The development of instrumentalism in modern music has certainly not been helpful to the pre- servation and cultivation of true, pure Church Music. Its influence has rather been in the opposite direction. In making this statement as strongly and emphatically as it can be made, I do not mean to exclude the instru- ment of instruments, the Organ, from the service of the Church. A special paper will be presented at this convocation on the independent use of the Organ, by Dr. Schmauk. But as Lutherans we hold that the proper place for the Organ is in supporting the congregational singing. And I may add that the most impressive effect of the Organ at certain points in the service is its — Tacet. Let it remain silent during the singing of the Choir. Our choirs must learn again to sing a capella, the .only style of choir music for which our best and earliest masters wrote ! And even in our congrega- tional singing the silence of the Organ will be found to be of great solemnity and impressiveness at certain times, for instance on Good Friday, or at the singing of the Agnus in the communion service. A brief historical survey of the development of Church Music will help to support and illustrate the principles above stated. The Jew and the Greek, those two elements which presented such formidable problems to the theology and life of the ancient Church, also represent two important fac- tors in the development of Church Music. Israel furnished to the New Tes- tament Church the first hymn book and the first tunes, the Psalms and the Psalmodv. Hellas contributed the popular element, with its inherent dan- gers of worldliness and sensuousness. The chanting of the Psalms, as taken from the Old Testament temple, and, later on, the Synagogue ser- vice, is the simplest form of Church Song, solemn, monotonous, unadorned, merely a festive, emphasized recitation, with hardly a distinguishable melody, no rhythm, no harmony. Later on, when original hymns, in Greek and Latin, of remarkable force and beauty, were added to the Psalms of the Old Testament and the Canticles of the New, these hymns, as a matter of course demanded other musical forms for their proper rendering, dif- ferent from the Plain Song of the Psalm. Ambrose of Milan is generally considered as the prominent leader in the effort to supply this demand, by adapting secular Greek tunes to those Christian hymns. Thus the ancient Church Song was enlivened and enriched by the introduction of rhyth- mical and melodic elements which had hitherto been foreign to it. And their effectiveness and popularity was greatly heightened by the responsive or antiphonal mode of rendering the tunes. But the great danger which is inherent in all similar efforts at once appeared even in those early cen- turies of the history of Church Song. The chaste solemnity and sim- plicity of ancient Church Song was lost. The world got the better of the Church in those popular tunes, and the result was a lamentable degener- ation. The reaction came through Gregory the Great, and it was relentless and thorough-going in the extreme. It was the restoration of plain, stern psalmody, to the exclusion of the hymn, the popular element in Church Song, yea, to the exclusion of the laity, the congregation itself, from all participation in singing the service of the sanctuary. The clerical choir of the priests henceforth monopolized the whole service of song (Cantus Choralis), and the people were reduced to silent listeners, and are so to the present day, as I witnessed in listening to a matin service, a few years ago, in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. The natural result of this movement was that what the people were denied in the Church they tried to find, to use and to enjoy outside of it. Popular songs, both secular and sacred, of striking power and beauty were heard at the festivals, processions and pilgrimages. I refer to such songs as that incomparable "Christ ist erstanden" (Christ the Lord is Risen Again), which for four long centuries was knocking at the Church door and waiting to be admitted into the sanctuary. Their time came at last with the Reformation of the sixteenth century. When the pure Gospel was restored to God's people, the Lord put a new song into their mouth. The Church once more became the congregation of believers and con- fessors. Her service became the service of the people themselves, not the vicarious act of a separate order of mediating priests. There was now at last congregational singing, such as the Church had probably never heard before, not even in the first centuries of her history. The true historical conservatism of the Mother Church of the Reformation manifested itself also in this field. There was nothing of the wild, destructive radicalism of the Swiss Reformation, headed by Zwingli, who, on the basis of Amos 5:23 ("take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy viols") condemned the singing of the service, and or- dered the organs to be removed. (When this decree of vandalism was 2 9 carried out in Berne, in 1528, the organist asked and received permission to play a last piece on his doomed instrument, and most fittingly selected that striking pre-Reformation tune, "O, du armer Judas, was hast du ge- than?" ending with a plaintive Kyrie Eleison.) In justice to the French and German Reformed Churches, however, it ought to be stated that they kept themselves free from the radicalism of their Swiss co-religionists. Calvin's influence was one of moderation, and in Geneva much attention was given to the singing of Psalms. Claude Goudimel's name is illustri- ous in this connection, and some of the tunes collected, edited and possibly composed by him have found their way also into the Lutheran Church. But in a peculiar sense the reconstruction and sound development of Church Music was the charisma of the Lutheran Church of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Our great leader and teacher, Martin Luther, was himself a highly gifted musician and an enthusiastic lover of music. But he was a conservator as well as a reformer also in the sphere of Church Music. While criticising freely the abuses and defects of medieval Church Music, he made no secret of the high esteem in which he held the Cantus Gregorianus. He was anxious that it should be retained in the service of the Church. And though he was fully aware of the formidable difficulties that were in the way of adapting German texts to the ancient Gregorian music, he resolutely undertook that work himself in the prepara- tion of the music for his German Mass, 1526. He set the whole service to Gregorian music, using the first Tonus for the Introit Psalm, the eighth for the Epistle, the fifth for the Gospel. It is well known how his friend, cantor Johann Walther, assisted him in this important work with his advice and criticism, and how he admired Luther's "masterly setting" of every part of the service. Here, then, is the first element of Lutheran Church Music, the precious legacy of the Gregorian tunes, handed down from the pre-Reformation Church, and faithfully preserved with Luther's own approval and recom- mendation : "This music is excellent, and it would be a pity if :t should perish." Wherever the Lutheran Church fully appreciates the beautiful organism of her service in which she preserves, as well as in her oecumeni- cal creeds, her historic continuity and oneness with the preceding centuries, she will consistently and logically be led back to Gregorian music as the most dignified and appropriate musical rendering of that service. But in loyalty to the evangelical principles of the Reformation, especially that of the spiritual priesthood of all believers, she cannot and ought not to culti- vate and employ such Gregorian music as a performance of the choir, to the exclusion of the congregation. However necessary the services of the choir may be in the introduction of this difficult music, and also in its proper antiphonal rendering, our aim must always be the participation of the whole congregation also* in this particular service, and we dare not, by surrendering it to the choir alone, return to the Gregorian Chorus Clericus of priestly or professional singers. But the most important and far-reaching influence of Luther's musical genius was the introduction of the popular hymns and tunes ("Das Geist- liche Volkslied, " "Der Choral") into the service of the Church. When he began to contemplate the reconstruction of the service he at once expressed 30 his great anxiety to secure good scriptural, heart stirring hymns. "German Psalms," in which the whole congregation might join in a grand unison. "'It is my intention," he wrote, to Spalatin in 1524, "after the example of the Prophets and ancient Fathers, to compose German Psalms for. the people, that is, spiritual songs or hymns, so that the Word of God may abide among the people also in the form of song. We are looking everywhere fo." poets." And the poets came, and with the poetry the music to such an extent that the treasure of German hymnody, according to a moderate estimate, at the present day numbers not less than 80,000 hymns and 8.800 tunes ! Luther is the father of congregational church song. He kindled the spirit of con- gregational singing in praise of the restoration of the pure Gospel. The hymns were springing forth like living fountains, and with the hymns the tunes. If they were not all original, they were all intensely popular, sol- emn, deep and strong, sanctified by the spirit of true devotion, a never- failing source of power and blessing to the Church of Christ. So strong was the determination of Luther and his associates to popularize the music of the service by the introduction of the hymn and the Choral, that we are free to say there was danger of going to an extreme in this respect. For every single part of the liturgical service a substitute in metrical form, a hymn, was furnished, so that all the responses of the congregation could be made in hymn form. Thus for the Introit a German psalm, that is. an opening hymn, might be substituted, for the Kyrie the song, "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig," for the Gloria in Excelsis, the hymn, "Allein Gott in der Hoeh sei Ehr," for the Creed, Luther's, "Wir glauben all an Einen Gott," for the Sanctus his "Jesaia dem Propheten das geschah" (German Mass, 1526). Even the Lord's Prayer, the Magnificat, the Nunc Dimittis, were all to be had in hymn form. In addition to the Gregorian element and the popular Choral, and, to a certain extent, as a combination of both, there is yet a third element which became quite characteristic of the Lutheran Church Music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I refer to the artistic compositions of the great masters in sacred music, with their elaborate polyphonic settings and figur- ated chorals. The study of musical harmony and the art of contrapuntal writing had reached a high state of technical perfection at the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. The Dutch school of composers was particularly prominent in this field. Masters like Orlando di Lasso, Hobrecht, Joquin de Pres (Jodocus), Ludwig Senfl, Johann Wal- ther, and others, deserve to be remembered in this connection. Luther him- self prized this form of music most highly, and wished it to be retained for the service of God's house. But a new spiritual life was infused into this art by the introduction of the popular choral tunes. They offered the most beautiful and suggestive themes to be harmonized, elaborated, en- larged and developed in those masterly settings of men like Hassler, Schrceter, Joachim von Burgk, John Eccard, Melchior Franck, Prasetorius and Heinrich Schuetz, who, however, already represents a transition to the more dramatic oratorio style of Bach and Handel. In the combination of these three elements, the Gregorian, the popular Choral and the artistic, figurated settings of our great masters we have such a rich and beautiful ensemble of true and pure Church Music as no other Church possesses. 3i And well might Ludwig Schceberlein, who gave us the fullest collection of such music in three volumes of 756, 996 and 1108 pages respectively, call it a treasure or storehouse of liturgical and congregational song, "Schatz des Liturgischen Chor und Gemeindegesangs, nebst den Altarweisen in der deutschen Evangelischen Kirche, aus den Quellen vornehmlich des i6ten und I7ten Jahrhunderts geschcepft." (Gcettingen, Vandenhceck und Rup- precht.) I close with a brief summary of this whole subject in the following points : 1. Church Music is Service Music, not Concert Music. 2. Church Music is Congregational [Music, not Choir Music, to the exclusion or deprivation of the congregation. 3. Church Music is essentially Vocal Music, not instrumental. 4. The three chief elements of Church Music are: The Recitative in the Gregorian; the Melodic in the Choral: the Harmonic in the Mottette, the figured settings of the masters. 5. These three elements ought to be carefully studied by all lovers of true Church Music, especially our leaders and organists. 6. For the Mother Church of the Reformation the Choral is to be considered as the very heart and center of her Church Music, and every reform, especially in our English Lutheran churches, ought to begin with the restoration of the rich treasures of our Chorals, if possible, in their original, animated, rhythmical form. How to Secure Good Congregational Singing. BY THE REV. R. MORRIS SMITH. One is almost tempted to ask, "Is the attainment of the subject within the range of possibility?" There are those who answer this question with a decided No. Others admit the possibility but deny the probability. Still others, with a faith that stops at no obstacles, boldly and emphatically an- swer Yes. We wish to be enrolled with the last class. Good congregational singing is a desideratum, and like all desiderata, results only from constant striving for the goal. It is attained, nor by idly dreaming of its desirability and beauty, but by earnest, conscientious prac- tice. If wish were consummation then were congregational singing per- fection. The thetical statement of the subject implies a tacit confession that con- gregational singing is not, in general, as good as it should be. Any one conversant with the facts that call forth the subject will not question this. In this defect all denominations share, some, perhaps, to a larger extent than others. Remedial agents are wanted. To prescribe these is the object of this paper. It is to be understood, however, that we shall not attempt to lay down rules and theories, or advocate methods that seek to turn our con- gregations into finished and artistic singers. The subject does not imply that much. Neither shall we aim to give a philosophical disquistion upon the worth and utility of congregational singing. The subject is an em- inently practical one and our treatment shall be one of plain, practical, common-sense means by which the apparent apathy and general in- difference as to good congregational singing may be overcome. It has been remarked by a very able writer on Church Music that "not only will con- gregations sing, but they will not learn to sing." Here lies the chief dif- ficulty. The love of song and participation in it are ingrained in human nature. But it does not follow that, because the love of music is in one's soul, therefore correct expression can be given in singing. Good congre- gational singing is an acquirement developed along lines that need not pre- sent Alpine barriers to its worthy attainment. We desire, therefore, to lay down this proposition : — I. TO HAVE GOOD CONGREGATIONAL SINGING THE CONGRE- GATION MUST LEARN TO SING. Propositions are more easily formulated than demonstrated. We look upon this proposition very much as we do upon a sinner and his reforma- tion. Convince a man of sin and you pave the way for repentance. Con- vince a congregation of the desirability and beauty of good singing and the entering wedge has been driven. Much as we may lament the absence of (33) 34 good singing by our congregations we cannot help asking the question, "What active measures are we pursuing to remedy the fault?" Simple lamentation is never productive of realized desires. A congregation must be made to feel and know that its efforts are not the best of which it is capa- ble. How this knowledge is to be imparted is the practical part of the ques- tion. A series of lectures on "Christian Worship" wherein the ideal is ever held to view, would by no means be unprofitable. Singing would naturally claim a fair share of such lectures, and in so striking a manner could be pre- sented a sharp contrast between the real and the ideal that a congregation would at once discern the faults adhering to its own performance and seek deliverance therefrom. Many congregations guilty of poor singing are in total ignorance of their defect. This is not due to the fact that they do not appreciate good singing but that their attention has never been called to its importance. The blame does not always rest upon congregations, but more often upon organists, choirs and pastors. We do not wish to condemn any class of persons that take part in the services of the Church ; but it does seem very apparent that many highly-skilled organists and well-trained choirs prefer the virtual silence of the congregation in order that their superior gifts may shine with greater lustre and evoke the pleasing admiration of an entranced congregation. We have never yet been able to feel the charm of worshiping by proxy, whether in the elaborate High Mass of Rome or in the diversely opposite bleakness of non-liturgical Churches. Pastors equally share the blame for poor singing, because they never seek to elevate the standard a congregation sets for itself. We doubt not that some pastors would rather have golden silence reign in their congregations than have the silver tones of their fluttering orioles marred by the drawling hum of even one man with no music in his soul. A preacher who thinks of little else than a $5,000 salary, patent-leather shoes, a square foot of immaculate shirt-front, dress coat, heart-stirring and tear-producing prayers, and the delivery of political buncombe that a ''yellow journal" might generously adopt as edi- torials, must assuredly receive more gratification from the mellifluous strains of operatic airs dispensed by his harmony-keeping choir than from the swell of congregational voices that to exasperatingly slow time linger over a beautiful tune like "Germany." The fact of the matter is that individuality usurps too great a place with some pastors and choirs, while the wants of the congregations are ignored. To have good congregational singing there must be hearty co-operation on the part of organist, choir, pastor and con- gregation. Just as the different members of the body form after all a unit in a person, so these, though having somewhat different functions, should still form a congregational unit. Wherever this unity is broken the attain- ment of our aims is not realized. The worst feature is that the congregation is the first to suffer and is not slack to delegate its distinctive prerogatives to those who, from the very nature of worship, cannot fulfil for the con- gregation what every individual worshiper must do for himself. There is here a congregational responsibility that cannot be shifted if worship is to redound to edification. Edification and not simply gratification must un- derlie every part of the service of the Church. The first clear duty, there- fore, is to awaken a congregation's responsibility in this matter as in every 35 other. This accomplished, we believe that every successive step in the ac- quirement of better congregational singing will be more easily attained. Awakened responsibility, however, and even a congregation's desire to have good singing on its own part are not the realization. They are only the beginning. How the aim is to be accomplished we now intend to detail in considering. II. THE METHODS BY WHICH A CONGREGATION MAY LEARN TO SING WELL. It is not possible for every congregation to maintain a Conservatory of Music. Neither is this necessary. It is possible, however, and more- over should be a requirement, that every congregation have an organization looking to the elevation of congregational singing. Such an organization nearly every congregation has in its Sunday School. We would, therefore, suggest i. Uiilize the Sunday School. Does singing receive the attention in our Sunday Schools its importance demands ? Singing is one of the ele- ments of worship. The Sunday School should be the preparatory train- ing-ground for the right interpretation and proper understanding of and joyful participation in the services of the Church. To develop but a part of that which constitutes worship is reserving a part the lack of which will destroy the equilibrium of a worshipful spirit. The length of time allotted to the services of the Sunday School may perhaps act as a hindrance to what we are here advocating. But surely the faults which, in general, are the cause of poor congregational singing, can be corrected in the Sunday School without much loss of time. Every Sunday School should have some one qualified to point out defects and vested with authority to correct them. If the singing be too flat, too slow, or too fast, too rough and loud, or too low, approaching a mere murmur, here is the place to remedy the fault. Frequently only a part of the school sings while the other part is engaged in something out of harmony with even reverence. To inspire and infuse a spirit of joyous participation in song should be one of the aims of every well-regulated Sunday School. The inspiration of such a spirit will have its reflex influence on the singing by the congregation. In this way the "pretty voices of the children would come to swell the stream of sound" flowing forth from a congregation and their influence could not be other- wise than beneficial. We repeat, therefore, utilize the Sunday School. 2. Have special meetings for practice. We have rehearsals for operas, rehearsals for oratorios and cantatas, rehearsals 1 for weddings, rehearsals for entertainments, rehearsals by choirs, why not have rehearsals for con- gregational singing? Is the worshipful spirit of our congregations at so low an ebb as to be utterly indifferent to the proper rendering of so joyous a part as singing? Will our congregations refuse to assemble monthly or bi-weekly to be instructed in that which forms so large and important a part in their life as worshiping people? We do not believe it. Rather do we believe that we dote upon faults which we in no way seek to remedy. Even if only one-half or less of a congregation should honor such rehear- sals by their presence, a positive gain,, at least to that extent, would be the 36 result. At such meetings, in a judicious and discreet manner, could be pointed out such defects as particularly call for improvement. The ele- mental principles of music could be dwelt upon. The value of notes and the meaning of musical notation could be explained. A more accurate idea of pitch would also result. At such rehearsals the organ should bear a very inferior part. Thus step by step a congregation would be led onward on the march toward a higher standard of music. To such as have passed beyond the rudimentary stages and are able to read music at sight, this process would not seem tedious, because, if the right spirit be present, their compensation would be immeasurably enhanced by the increased interest and better performance of the united congregation. We confess we were somewhat surprised by the following from the pen of J. Spencer Curwen in his "Studies in Worship Music," (p. 324) : "Most attempts to improve congregational singing begin with the institution of a congregational prac- tice. What is this? It consists usually of a certain number of people who can read music, who already know what they have come to learn, and a large number who cannot read music, and who attempt on what we may call the 'do it again' method to drum into their ears a few chants and hymn-tunes to be used in Cflurch next Sunday. On the face of it this is an illogical and fruitless proceeding. What should we say of a class for reading Shakespeare, formed chiefly of people who have not learned their letters, but who hope, by hearing the others read a few passages over a great many times, to get them into their memories? Everyone sees the futility of this? After much wearisome repetition and labor we do not teach them to read Shakespeare, but to repeat a few short passages with tolerable correctness, by memory. How insignificant the result. Surely it will take less time to send these people to learn their letters, so that they may come to read Shakespeare, and all other books, independently of our help and pres- ence. Apply the illustration to singing. What we have to do is to teach people to read music : and then every chant and hymn-tune is within their reach." While we admit the force of his argument we cannot accept all his premises and deductions. He confounds and mixes what is sacred and spiritual with what is purely secular. Congregational singing is a sacred and spiritual exercise; reading Shakespeare is an intellectual fea^t. The former touches the heart ana Christian life, the latter gratifies mental capa- bilities. The former demands its exercise as far as man is able, the latter may be safely neglected. If the quotation be logically true, then, equally futile is the teaching of the Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments and Apostles' Creed to children who have not yet learned to read, — a point we cannot concede. The argument might be well taken, were secular interests merely at stake. Surely the drawling hum of one untrained singer intent on worship ana whom "the love of Christ constraineth" to employ whatever gifts he may possess, is more aceptable than his silence out of deference to the rich and sweet tones of one hundred eminently cultured in music, yet lacking the love of God in their hearts. We admit the beauty, even the desirability of a con- gregation's ability to read music, but if this cannot be accomplished, then, we would prefer the old "do it again" method to no method at all. which virtually means congregational silence. We quite agree with the writer quoted when he says, "Our purpose is not to discourage the meeting of the 37 congregation, but to make such meetings infinitely more productive by classi- fying the congregation into two portions — those who can read music and those who cannot. Those who can read form the choir, which is recruited at the close of each season from the ranks of those who have been learning how to read in the elementary class. The choir should be a large body, one por- tion of which sits together in the Church, the larger portion being distrib- uted during service among the congregation, helping by their presence the timid and wavering." 3. More frequent usage of new tunes. We know of several congrega- tions that for years were without organ, organist, or leader. The pastor acted as leader and had a repertory of about a dozen tunes which were made to fit all hymns sung. These tunes became so familiar that the singing was considered excellent. The advent of instruments in their midst and the consequent addition of new tunes produced somewhat of a lull for a time ; but the frequent use of these new tunes soon rendered them familiar and the character of the tune fitted to the spirit of the hymn produced a decided change for the better. To use an unfamiliar tune but once in three or six months and expect a congregation to sing it well is next to expecting the impossible. So long as congregations must rely upon learning tunes by ear, that long must new tunes especially come before them at brief intervals. Would the tune of Luther's "Battle-Hymn" be as familiar to German con- gregations, did they hear it but once a year on "The Festival of the Refor- mation"? W T e doubt it. A choir that learns a new tune, sings it once, and then objects to re-sing it next Sunday by reason of the fact that it was sung last Sunday, deserves, in our opinion, condemnation. 4. We need better methods for applying what we regard helpful. In- stead of having simply General Council Convocations, we should also have Conference Convocations. National movements prove of little consequence unless they are backed by local influence. Practical illustrations should be afforded our people. A series of Conference Convocations followed by less pretentious meetings in local congregations would probably achieve this pur- pose. We need more agitation, for agitation usually has a wholesome effect. If the general work of the Church received as little attention as congrega- tional singing, the Millennium would have to be ushered in without "the kingdoms of this world having become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ." We wish to note. III. SOME HINDRANCES THAT CALL FOR REMOVAL BEFORE THE DESIRED END CAN BE ATTAINED. 1. Multiplied forms of service. Thus far, in our treatment of the topic, we have purposely refrained from drawing any distinction between the chanting and hymn portions of the service, inasmuch as both belong to the subject of congregational singing. We separate them here only to draw attention to the fact that the use of different forms in the strictly liturgical part of the service is not conducive to good congregational singing. By this we mean that the form used by the Sunday School should also be the one used by the congregation. The use of different forms is apt to 38 produce confusion. What we should seek to avoid is that multiplied variety of settings for the Services and Chants for the Psalms and Canticles that have been sprung upon the Church since the Reformation, notably by the Anglican Church. Our individual preference is for the authentic Gregorian or Plain Song melodies for the Liturgy, and the historical Psalm Tones of the Gregorian system for the Psalmody. These melodies, while eminently devotional and beautiful, are simple in form and few in number, and once acquired are easily retained. We hail the day when a companion volume shall give our "Chief Service" the skillful arrangement and worshipful effect that the "Psalter and Canticles'' has given the Matin and Vesper Services. 2. An insufficient number of Church Books. This obstacle should be removed at once, if possible. To the heart of a sensitive pastor it is dis- tressing to witness ofttimes a goodly number of his people gazing at fres- coed walls or looking with idle curiosity at cobwebs which the dreamy eyes of an unobserving sexton have failed to spy. They do this, not because of the felicitous enjoyment it affords them, but, because having no Church Book, they feel they have no part in the service. W T e have all seen the some- what ludicrous spectacle of persons peering over shoulders and dodging the obstruction interposed by a rather large expanse of head-gear. ir. order to catch a glimpse of the words of the hymn. Every individual worshiper should have a Church Book, so as not to be distracted by. nor distract another. A plain and discreet statement of the case to a Church Council would often remove this hindrance. 3. The absence of tune books. We need an inexpensive book contain- ing only what is absolutely necessary for the proper rendering of the whole Service. Such a work we have in the "Church Book with Music"; but the fact is that this magnificent work is not generally used. Probably if our congregations were as musically cultured as its gifted authoress, this diffi- culty would vanish. This book is appreciated only where the musical standard of a congregation is considerably beyond the ordinary. We be- lieve the time will come when this work will receive the honor it merits, especially in its hymn-tune department. 4. Reliance upon external aids. Surpassing strange is it to know how much reliance people will place upon external influences to help them out of difficulties which they alone can remove. No sooner is a church edifice erected at present, when the congregation begins to tug gently at the golden strings of a certain man's plethoric purse in the hope that a fine, large pipe organ may fill a gaping niche in their new house of worship. The advent of such an instrument will surely remedy the defects hitherto so apparent in their congregational singing! Surely it will prove a panacea for many congregational ills! The noble instrument secured, the horizon is surveyed for a person qualified to manipulate so splendid a piece of Church furnishment. At last one is employed whose sole qualification for the office is his ability as an executant, though he may have no intelligent comprehen- sion of the inner meaning of the Services of the Church, and may even be woefully lacking in devotional, not to say Christian, feeling. Only one thing more is necessary— a quartette choir to dispense the pleasing arias of some feet-moving operas, and then— "the last state of that congregation is worse 39 than the first." We do not mean, by this caricature, to depreciate any 01 these aids; but they should only serve as helps; for just as soon as they be- come masters completely overshadowing the congregation's part, they are a detriment to the cause which they are supposed to serve and enhance. 5. Musically untrained pastors. Every pastor should have, at least to some extent, a musical education. Not necessarily an education that would fit him to play skillfully a Bach fugue or a Beethoven sonata, but a musical training sufficient to enable him to judge whether singing is good or poor, to detect defects, and intelligently discriminate between what is true "Church Music" and what is not, however pleasing. We hope the time will come when our theological seminaries will deem this fundamental musical knowledge necessary for graduation. Many other points might be touched upon ; but we believe those given, if acted upon, would help to solve the problem, "How to Secure Good Con- gregational Singing." The Festivals of the Sunday School with Reference to their Music- BY THE REV. GOMER C. REES. In approaching this subject let us bear in mind that the Sunday School is the child of the Church, and our treatment of her musically, as well as in other matters, should be in accordance with this idea. Her life is one of continuous youthfulness. Her strength numerically is confined ordinarily to such of her members as are in the earlier years of life. Her strength in many other directions is the natural result of this same fact, and in no sphere is this truer than in that of music. Children, as is universally acknowledged, are more apt than those of mature growth. They are quick to discern and appropriate what is presented to them. They are in that impressionable stage of their ex- istence when their lives are most easily molded and the impressions then given are lasting, and permanently influence their growth and development. This is pre-eminently true in the sphere of music, and therefore applies with equal force to Sunday School music. In addition to these natural qualities, with their aptness and sus- ceptibility of improvement, we see in the Sunday School the future Church. Whatever influences the Sunday School will in a greater or less degree affect the Church. The foundation, if loosely laid, will cause a corresponding instability throughout the structure. The musical seed sown in the Sunday School will be received into fertile soil and will bring forth its harvest, either of leaves or fruit, and the future Church will be the reaper. How highly necessary it is, then, that the future Church, even in its infancy and throughout the different stages of its musical growth, should receive an ever-watchful care. Proper recog- nition should be given to the qualities, abilities and needs of those with whom we have to deal, and then engaging tact should be exercised in bringing matters to a fruitful fulfillment. The musical powers of the Sunday School must be judiciously developed and their force brought to bear on the problem if we would obtain the greatest results in Church music. Our opportunities are presented to us every Sunday in the regular sessions of the school, and frequent and proper use should be made of them. Besides these, however, we have special opportunities, times when many things conduce to the best results, when the Sunday School seems to be most susceptible and receptive. These times and oppor- tunities are, as our topic indicates, "The Festivals of the Sunday School." At such times there is a certain enthusiasm which readily overcomes (41) 42 otherwise insurmountable difficulties. This enthusiasm arises perhaps from the prevailing religious thought of the festival which is commem- orated. To this is added the pleasing customs, universal or local, which surround such events. All conduces to a feeling of buoyancy, of en- thusiasm which, properly directed, becomes a strong and energetic working force. It adds zest to what under less favorable circumstances might be irksome and tedious. With such conditions existing we are able to do more and better work than at any other time. To this favorable state of affairs we add the no less favorable fact that the musical feature of the "festivals" is the largest part of the program. It is ex- pected to be thus, and is rightly looked upon as a musical service. Here we have the opportunity then, almost co-extensive with the length of the program, to advance the cause of Church music. The opportunity is certainly ample enough and our best endeavors should be bent on a judicious and tactful use of it. Beginning with the Church Year we come first to the Festival of Christmas. Our thoughts turn to the Babe of Bethlehem, to the Only Begotten of God, to the most gracious fact of the Incarnation, and we seek to incorporate our thoughts, not only in words, but also in musical forms. The grand angels' chorus inspires us to emulate it and join our voices in giving "Glory ... to God on high." And the music for this Festival should properly express this glory to God and peace toward men. It should not simply be the clumsy vehicle of words, but through its own living power and spirit, it should be ex- pressive of and embody the thoughts which it seeks to convey, and thus enhance the beauty of the entire expression. It should be joyful and bright, yet deeply devotional. An equally joyous Festival of the Sunday School is that of Easter. Yet there is a lingering tinge of sadness which, however, quickly disappears beneath the ardent glow of the truths of the Redemption and Resurrection. These facts should imbue and permeate the music in order that it might give adequate expression to the thoughts intended to be given. The Reformation Festival brings uppermost in our minds the ideas of the stern and the rugged, the mighty fortress and stronghold of faith. Here again the music should be the natural concomitant of the ideas, if possible, the natural outgrowth of the ideas, and should add an individual weight to their presentation. At Anniversary Festivals the sphere of activity becomes enlarged. It broadens and becomes more general. Here greatest latitude is pos- sible, as follows from the very nature of the case. The resources are limited only by the dictates of judicious selection. There is another season of the Church year which should be marked by a musical service, we can scarcely say a Festival, and that is thfc s?ason of Lent. The opening of this season with such a service would undoubtedly add to its solemnity throughout and we would be brought >t closely in contact with music especially appropriate to the sea- Thus we readily see the vastness of the field of musical labor in the Sunday School opened up by its Festivals. The work is too widely 43 diversified to be monotonous, and yet not so scattered as to become desultory and non-productive of good results. In making use of the opportunities thus presented to us we seek to incorporate them in a program, and here we find that our Church has amply provided for us. In our Matins and Vespers we have a form which is most admirably adapted to supply this need. Their telescopic adaptabilities allow sufficient flexibleness in such services and yet confine them within proper liturgical bounds. To those who celebrate their Festivals at an early morning hour, the Matin service furnishes a churchly and dignified setting and yet gives ample scope for diversity and extension. Here, however, we must be careful that we do not lose sight of the distinctive parts of the service, which should be kept intact. To illustrate, we mention the opening versicles: the Invitatory, either general or special, designating the thought of the Church Year ; the Venite Exultemus ; the Hymn ; the Psalm ; the Lesson; the Canticle, those given ordinarily in the Matin service, namely, the Te Deum Laudamus and the Benedictus. being worthy of much greater acceptance and usage; lastly the Prayers. The adjustable part of the service can be very readily arranged in connection with the Lessons. However, as the evening is the time usually set apart for Sunday School Festivals, we turn our attention more particularly to the Vesper service. The opening Hymn or Processional introduces the service, and again we have the opening versicles. followed by the Psalm, with or without the antiphon. then come the Lesson or Lessons. At this point the service admits of much diversity. The Rubrics say that "one or more Scripture Lessons shall be read." There is no limit to the Lessons and consequently no limit to the program except such as the nature of the case may demand. Here the Lessons may be interspersed with hymns appropriate to the Lesson or to the season of the Church Year. Here the infant class may receive due recognition in Biblical recitations and in singing carols. Here the choir may deepen the impression of the thought of the season by singing the Responsory. and may again appear in the singing of an offertory after the address. Care, however, should be taken that in the extended part of the service it does not become too long, otherwise much of the benefit and good results will be lost. The distinctive part of the closing portion of the service is introduced either by a general versicle or by one appropriate to the season of the Church Year, then the Canticle engages our attention. Here it seems to me there should be more diversity. Our Sunday Schools should become acquainted with as many Canticles and their corresponding music as are appropriate to the hour and day. In the Prayers we should also make greater use of the rich provisions of our Church Book. Whether the Litany could be sung by our Sunday Schools at a Lenten service in an edifying manner is yet an untried experiment. This is equally true of the Suffrages. Possibilities, however, are suggested which may bring forth meritorious fruit. In the Morning Suffrages for Matins and the Evening Suffrages for Vespers we have a very pleasing diversion, and their beauty is strikingly set forth by chanting the major portions. The 44 two last named prayers could be readily attained in their musical setting by any Sunday School. The Recessional ends the musical part of the service and should be carefully selected. The form of the program for the Festivals of the Sunday School hav- ing been given to us. the next thing that occupies our attention is the consideration of the musical material out of which the program is to be constructed. We will all undoubtedly agree in eradicating that flood of light, frivolous sort of music, which is so prevalent about us, which reminds us strongly of a meaning formerly attached to the word carol, namely, to dance. Many of the modern so-called carols seem to be bent on giving truth to the ancient signification of the term, for they are often better fitted for the dance than for the engendering of a worshipful mood. To fill our programs with such material would be to unite the secular with the religious. It would be more: it would be a yielding to the secular, it would be the secularization of the music of the Church, or rather the churchizing of secular music. This is a state of affair^ entirely too prevalent in the churches, perhaps not so much in our churches, yet having a certain indirect influence upon them, and there- fore must be guarded against. This style of music occupies much the same position to the Church as "popular" music does to standard secular works. Like "popular" music it is used a short time but soon becomes wearisome, nauseating. It dies a natural death from exhaustion and is quickly cast aside for some equally or perhaps less worthy musical bauble. Such carols do even more harm by vitiating the musical taste. If indulged in to any appreciable degree they are certain to have a derogatory influence, and if persisted in will eventually bring the musical taste down to their level. The higher forms of the art will then lack proper recognition. The grand old tunes will fail to enthuse, will cease, to interest, and will be relegated to the shelf of the antiquated. On the other hand our programs should give evidence of careful selection. Judicious care should be used not only in the selection of the best, but also in selecting the best adapted to the purpose. A selection in itself may be very good, but may not. on account of inadaptability, accomplish the best results. We do not mean, however, that there should be a continual catering to the popular taste, but we should seek rather to elevate their musical taste. Even if at first the selection in question should be a little beyond the ordinary comprehension, yet by teaching them to comprehend it we are simply raising them to a higher plane of appreciation and opening the way for still further de- velopment. Instead of the taste being vitiated by such treatment it is continually developed and ever brought nearer to an appreciation of the best. Of course, in defining what is good Church music we enter largely into the field of personal opinion, where no two men do in all points agree. What is good to one is mediocre to another, and what is mediocre to one is of little worth to another. Personal opinion is a variable quantity. Yet it is also true that in the highest stagey of musical ad- vancement the sphere is narrowed and there is less cause and oppor- tunity for differences. Accordingly we must give homage to those who, 45 by years of study and continuous development, have reached the heights of musical knowledge and the appreciation of the best music. To their personal opinion we must give due respect, for such opinions are the fruits of maturity and therefore have intrinsic value and are generally reliable and trustworthy. This factor enters largely into the selection of music for the Sunday School Festivals, and naturally so. The more competent the person the greater will be the value of the program. But even greater value would attach itself to such a program if it were the faithful concensus of several individuals competent to pass judgment, for the combined authority thus given would necessarily have additional weight. And in the very process of arriving at a con- sensus the best would prevail. Music for such occasions should exhibit a living power within itself and not be entirely dependent for life upon the environment in which it is placed. Music which gives evidence of such life will not need an excuse for existing. The usage of the Church is another unfailing sign of the worth of such music. Music passed along from generation to generation, perhaps for centuries, in the active worship of God's house, bears upon it the impress of life eternal and has a value which time cannot exhaust. By these and other of the best standards of Church music we should measure our selections, and by the nearness of our approach we will be able to judge of their respective merits. We do not mean to say that all such selections must necessarily be of a difficult character. They may be most simple and yet bear within them the seeds of continuous youth. Our object should be to give to the Festivals of the Sunday School the very best churchly music we can and such as will conduce to the carrying forward of the standard to a successful issue. Although these Festivals are in a large degree given over to the Sunday School, yet we must not lose sight of the other musical forces of the church, namely, the choir and congregation. The program should be arranged with a proper regard to each of these forces and the selections in each case should be representative. Not only should each force receive due recognition as an individual force, but by a combination of forces we should seek to heighten the beauty of these services, as. for example, in the antiphonal use of the Psalms. A considerate use of such combinations will give a varied and diversified effect which is both pleasing and beneficial. , Having used our best endeavors in the selection of proper and healthful musical material, we are next confronted with the practical side. First, to have it accepted by the Church, and then, by practical demonstration, to confirm the truth and wisdom of our course. The process may be slow. Objections will be raised which must be an- swered. The old cry of "too heavy," which is the popular title for a multitude of musical sins, whether real or imaginary, will ring out as lustily as ever, and part of the ballast may have to be heaved overboard. Then there must be an eradication of old errors. The influence of the light music from surrounding churches must be destroyed. And. on the positive side, there must be an instilling of a love for the best. But this love only comes with an appreciation of the good, reliable 4 6 melodies, and this appreciation is not of spontaneous development, but is ordinarily of a gradual growth. Such melodies are not appreciated at the first hearing. Take, for example, "Ein Feste Burg," which, when heard for the first time, may remind a listless hearer of the musical treasures of barbarism, yet when properly comprehended, carries the singer and hearer away with irresistible power. A like example we find in "Nun Danket Alle Gott" and many others which must be known to be appreciated. Consequently we cannot expect to arrive at hasty results. However, we must not return to the light, trifling style of music if we do not desire with a few strokes to demolish the building which we have been so careful to erect. If we continue constant at the shrine of good music the results will certainly be good. This course H points beyond the narrow limits of the Sunday School Festivals and rather looks upon them as a means to an end, not only to advance the standard of music in the Sunday School, but rather the advancement of the standard of music in the Church. Under the banner of the Sunday School Festival program many desirable things musically will find a ready acceptance in future Church services, which, introduced inde- pendently, would raise no end of objections. New hymn tunes used in these Festivals can readily be introduced into the regular Church services and should be so presented on the Sundays immediately follow- ing the Festivals. Other parts of the service, for example, the Fsalms, can in the same manner be introduced with equal success. Even the entire Vesper Service has thus gradually taken possession of churches and become a beloved service, where before was great opposition. If the Sunday School in her Festivals has received wholesome musical food, when it becomes the future Church she will demand a continuance of the wholesome fare and will be content with nothing else. She will know nothing else. Where there is rehearsing to be done it is necessary to have the program in hand some time before the Festival, in order to insure a successful presentation. If the program comes in late there necessarily follows a hustle and bustle with the final verdict, "Do the best you can.*' Certainly the program and its success deteriorates according to the tardiness of its arrival. Successful presentation is also dependent upon the interested attitude of the pastor, upon the measure of appreciation he manifests. If he is languid in the matter and can see nothing good in the program, he cannot expect his Sunday school to manifest much enthusiasm. This is true also of the superintendent who manifests sublime indifference, and perhaps may apply with even greater force to him. The teachers also have their share to do and can either detract from or advance the work. The organist must necessarily have an ap- preciative knowledge of the program to be presented, or a faithful pre- sentation is next to impossible. But to the leader or instructor of the singing is due in greatest measure the success or failure of the pre- sentation. He must enter into the spirit of the music. He must live into it and make it a part of himself. He. himself, must become en- thused and then enthuse the school with the musical ideas he desires to present. He must not be content with a general survey of the work, 47 but must give his attention to details. Yet not in such a way as to make the work a tedious, irksome drag. The rehearsals should be com- paratively short and continuous from one thing right on to the next. They should be conducted in a cheerful, active manner. Continual repetition of one number is liable to become wearisome. In such an event pass on to another number and return to the first one later, or defer it until another rehearsal. In truth, to the leader is due in a very great degree the success or failure of the program. Thus we see presented in the Sunday School Festivals a glorious opportunity for the advancement of good Church music. We have at hand a most admirable form for the program. The musical material is plentiful and should be of the very best possible under the circumstances. And then in the end the argument should be clinched with a strong, practical and successful presentation. The Vesper Service BY THE REV. C. THEODORE BENZE, B. D. The life of the Christian, says Schoeberlein, is one of continual cele- bration. The facts of redemption, the work and words of the Saviour, the life from which we have our existence in time and eternity, the love of the Father manifested in the Son, all these demand contemplation, call forth our thanksgiving and praise and move us to supplication. Yea, though one day out of the whole week is hallowed as the Lord's Day, the early Church has called all days festival days, has distinguished some of these again with special offices, and has given to each day its own honor and its own subject of celebration. It has even gone farther; it has hallowed certain hours of each day and has given them over to prayer, praise and meditation. "Forever with the Lord!. Amen, so let it be; Life from the dead is in that word, 'Tis immortality." So thought the early Christians; so, too, ought we to think. Life receives a new import and a greater significance, when around its posts and pillars are wound the garlands of ever verdant festival joy, and ever and again the strains of joyful praise arise and ever and again the clouds of incense float heavenward to the throne of the eternal Father. Then it truly becomes a life in God, and only then can we truly say that in Him we live and move and have our being. But, alas, too often the branches are cut from the vine, there is only a semblance of life, the habitation is cold and bare and silent. It was so when the Christian Church first entered into this world; it is so whenever the fire of true worship is extinguished upon the altar and is no longer carried thence, a life-giver, into the hearts of men of all sorts and conditions. If the world is conquered by the life of the Chris- tians and its influence, more than by force of argument, how important a factor is our Christian worship, which feeds and stimulates this life! What a power that worship was in the life of the early Church we can fully realize only when we consider how it uttered itself. What a time it must have been, says Armknecht, "when the Holy Ghost descended upon the blossoms of the Church's tree of life and made them fertile to bear precious seed in life, in suffering, in death! Yes, what a deeply moved time, what a powerful working of the Word, what a contrition of (49) 50 hearts, what praise of mercy, what rejoicings of faith when our ancient Liturgy, with its Intonations and Kyries, its Doxologies and Prefaces, Collects, Creeds, Te Deums, Magnificat, and Benedictus grew and shaped itself from a living center, the Word! When the public service, upon the stirring of the Holy Ghost, found utterance in prayers and psalmodies, in hymns and responsories !" IDEA. In times as these did the Church formulate and build the order which we still possess and use in our Chief Service and which forms the com- pletest and highest expression of our worship. In times as these, also, did it produce those orders which we style the Minor Services. Well has it been remarked (Herold), that the term "minor" does not do full justice to the importance of these services. They have a very important office to fulfill, and especially on the great festival days do they serve a notable purpose. They must lead the souls into the proper festival atti- tude, they must waft over hill and dale the last dying echoes of the fes- tival bells, they must give definite expression to certain shades and thoughts of the holy day. Thus, then, the day stands in its completeness, reflecting all the beauty of the festival which it celebrates, a lofty mountain, not rising in isolation from the arid plain, but surrounded on all sides by the variety of hills and forests, a delight to the beholders. But if this is pre-eminently true of the great festival days, it must be seen that every Sunday which, as the Lord's Day, is a festival day, the same truth applies, and that as it has its own particular thought, so it also needs its Minor Services to emphasize that thought and give to it the proper relations of shade and color. We believe that it is not only well to observe the Church Year, but to five in it. We know how by its arrangement the whole history of re- demption becomes a matter of our soul's experience. It does not become so, however, if we observe merely the special Introit, Collect and Lessons of the day at the Chief Service, and leave the rest to itself. There is far more than that to observe and it is brought to us in the Matins and Vespers of the day,, as well as in the Minor Services of the week. But, observing once the thought in the daily lessons of the week, receiving the full treasures in the Chief Service on Sunday, and as the evening comes watching the ruddy sunset grow paler in the West as the day's Vespers are celebrated, the soul realizes the meaning of the exclamation: "Here in the body pent Absent from Him I roam, Yet nightly pitch my moving tent A day's march nearer home." What else can be the object of our worship than to be drawn singly and collectively nearer the Father? If the Church has its great mission in its testimony, and thereby in its opposition and struggle against the world, this must appear sharply defined in her worship. For this reason Christian worship presents two distinct sides, the sacramental and the sacrificial, the objective and the subjective phase of redemption. On 5i the one hand it presents the grace of God by proclaiming the salvation of Christ in order to draw men out of the destruction of this world. On the other hand, in its sacrificial character, it cultivates prayer in a wider sense, in order to lead those who are drawn from the world to a more abounding reception and retention of this salvation. In the sacramental side of worship the believer receives, in the other he gives. He receives the Lord in the blessings of the Word and the Sacraments, he gives his soul unto him in the acts of prayer and praise. By this power of public worship the Church has gained her first great victories over the enemy, the arch-fiend, and by the same power it must arise continually to renewed combat, or else finally yield the field to the foe. This leads to the consideration of the idea underlying the Minor Services and with them the Vespers. There is a fundamental distinc- tion between the Chief Service and the Minor Services. In the former the sacramental character predominates. Its entire order has the object of imparting to the congregation the divine gifts of grace in Word and Sacrament. All its acts lead up to this fact and find their object and their importance defined by it. But the Minor Services have pre- eminently a sacrificial character. In these the congregation offers the sacrifice; it is itself, or rather, it offers the sacrifices of praising, wor- shipping, repentant, eager and devoted hearts. In this sense they are services of prayer. But our weak prayer is of no avail if it has not received the unction of the Holy Ghost, by means of the Word of God. For this reason Luther ordered that such singing should not be done with the mouth alone and without any comprehension, and that, therefore, Lessons must be ordered for daily reading. It is to be ob- served in these services that, according to the promise, the Word of the Lord is not to return unto Him void. The hearts are to be awakened and turned to Him. Or. as Armknecht further observes, the Chief Service offers the bread of life to the hungry ones and strengthens and nourishes them ; but the Minor Services must first arouse the hunger for this bread. Or, also, the Chief Sen-ice draws the hearts upward to heaven, to a life with God, but the Minor Services must lead them down into the depths of self-examination. For these reasons the Chief Service has a fixed, definite and regular order, but the Minor Services are subject to the conditions of time, circumstances and object, and may. therefore. move in a freer manner. This does not mean that they are subject to no law, however, but from the very idea which underlies them it must be seen, that they too, must follow a certain plan and that all their parts must be connected with a certain object in view, and must, therefore, have a distinct relation to each other and to the whole. If then, there is this distinction between the Chief Service and the Minor Services, we may well ask, Is there also a fundamental distinction in the underlying ideas of the order for Matins and Vespers? There is, indeed, such a distinction, though ic is not directly apparent upon casual examination. It is rather from the history of our orders of service that we can learn what was really implied, and in our examination of the history it may appear how we came to have the treasures which now 52 belong to us. But in reply to this question we must somewhat antici- pate the examination. The distinction between our orders for Matins and those for Ves- pers is rooted in the distinction made by the ancient Church in the hours of prayer and meditation. It was early the custom to celebrate eight different hours of prayer. In regard to this Loehe says succinctly : ''The eight horse are not repetitions of one and the same form, as perhaps that of Matins ; but each hora has its individual character and all together form a net compactly joined and devised to hallow and glorify the whole day. The Matins are still a part of the night. Their characteristic mark is the meditation on the divine Word, which is extensively read in this hora. The Laudes mark the wakening of the morn. When the morning comes and the birds and all of nature burst forth in song then the Laudes begin the praise of the Creator and Re- deemer. Praise of God and only praise is the mark of this hour. The Prime belongs to the real hour of the morning when man enters upon his daily tasks and duties and again enters the struggles and combats of life. This hour is marked by the prayer of petition. The Tertia (9 o'clock), Sexta (12 o'clock), and Nona (3 o'clock), hallow forenoon, noon and afternoon, have the same arrangement, the character of prayer, and with the Prime share the 119th Psalm as if during the work and the sweat of the day the soul were to be continually directed to the testimonies of the Holy Word. The Vespers look back upon the course of the day, they close it, collect the soul from its diversions, toils and cares, and finally rise to praise and thanksgiving for all protection and for all the riches of the grace of God. The Completorium looks for- ward into the night, into its terrors, the works of darkness. Now comes the real evening prayer in which the Christian commends himself into the safe hands of his Lord." It is upon this order of observance that our orders of Matins and Vespers are based. The Matins include with us all the hours of the morning and forenoon, the Vespers all of the afternoon and evening. In general we may say that, like the early Church, we observe Matins in order to petition, Vespers in order to thank. To both Services the acts of praise are common, but with this distinction, that in the Matins God is praised as the Creator. We share there in the praise of all nature, with the early beams of light, the jubilant note of the feathered songster; we remember "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job. 387). In the evening the praise is different. When the light of day departs the sunset tarries in ruddy splendor in the evening clouds and the shadows grow longer, the praise is rendered to God for the spiritual benefits of the day, the heart is ready to magnify the Lord for His mercies or to commend the soul to Him in the departing words of the aged saint. The prayer, also, is common to both Services, but in the morning it is for protection from sin and danger and for the governance of all our doings. In the quietude of evening and the gentle stillness of night it is for that peace which the world cannot give and for the deliverance from the fear of all our enemies. Thus, too, all the remaining parts of these two Services 53 have their distinct reference to the dominant idea, prepare the way for it and make it the more prominent by dwelling upon it. HISTORY. Having thus seen the distinct idea which underlies our order of Vespers as a form of service for public devotion, we may well ask how came we, as a Church, to all these observances? Have we any particular right to claim them as our possession? Nay, more, have we any par- ticular duty to observe in this respect? Is all this an inheritance which we may justly cherish and turn to legitimate uses, or is our order of Vespers an innovation of later days? Did it grow as a branch with leaves and blossoms and fruit upon the tree of our Church, or is it an extraneous growth in some way ingrafted upon it? To every intelligent Lutheran there is but one answer to all this. He need not content him- self with the general statement that whatever is has a reason for being. With our Vesper Service, as well as with all the observances and doc- trines of our Church, the reasons for being are rooted in a deep, rich soil. What we possess in all our treasures as a Church is the product of a sure and steady growth. It has its roots in early Apostolic days, nay more, its seeds come to us from Moses and the prophets ; it has been watered and sunned in the tender mercies of God, it has grown strong in resisting the stormy blasts of intolerance and persecution. So also, just as our doctrines, our usages, our hymns, our prayers have had their history and are justified by this history, so also the forms of worship which distinguish our Church are no new thing, but have been the common property of the early Christian Church and have been vindicated to the Lutheran Church by Luther and the other great reformers. While the Chief Service was built up entirely in reference to the holy mystery of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and everything in it was made subservient and conducive to its proper celebration and re- ception, the Minor Services, which are of a sacrificial nature, arose in a similar way from the acts of sacrifice daily celebrated by the chosen people. They, too, were to be, and among the early Christians really were, daily sacrifies. We read in Exod. 29:38, seq. and Num. 28:3, seq. that a continual morning and evening sacrifice was offered in the temple "for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord," and that the Lord promised "there I will meet with the children of Israel and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. . . . And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God." In this practice of morning and evening sacrifice we must recognize the origin of our Matins and Vespers. (Armknecht.) According to the tradition re- corded in the Talmud there were added to this sacrifice of the lambs and of incense, several prayers and the recitation of the commandments and the Scripture passages marked on the phylacteries. Some of these prayers have been preserved in the Talmud. Some of them were prayed by the people and were named according to the initial words. One of them called the DlStP 0^ (da pacem), is the Collect for Peace of our Vesper Service. Even the benediction, "The Lord bless thee and keep thee" (Num. 6:24), was in constant use, and the people responded by 54 saying ''Blessed be God, the Lord God of Israel, for ever and ever."' Then followed the meat and drink offering alternated by the music and the choirs, ending with the sound of the trumpets, giving the signal to the people to bow in prayer to God, until the music ended and the people returned home. These daily morning and evening sacrifices were provided with a rich liturgy, according to the Talmud, and we can easily see in them the basis upon which the early Christians built their morn- ing and evening devotions, by omitting features that were specifically Jewish and introducing such as had real Christian significance. In what manner this was originally done, we know not, but we find in the book of Acts various references to hours of prayer observed by the Apostles, e. g., Acts 1:14: "These all continued with one accord in prayer." This reference is made clearer by Acts 2:46: "And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart." From this it would appear, as is the opinion of commentators, that the Apostles in the beginning observed the Jewish times and forms of worship. However that may be, it is certain that they, too, met for daily prayer, as we see admonitions like Eph. 5:19-20 and Col. 3:16-17. "Speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart unto the Lord, giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." In the third century we find definite injunctions in the Apostolic Con- stitutions in regard to morning and evening devotions. Chapter 2:59 we read, "Command the people, oh bishop, and admonish them to as- semble in church in the morning and evening of every day; and further, do not prefer worldly pursuits to the Word of God, but assemble your- selves in the morning and evening of every day, singing and praying in the Lord's house, in the morning Ps. 63, in the evening Ps. 141." Among the Jews three hours of prayer were in vogue from the earliest times, the third was ascribed to Abraham, the sixth to Isaac, the ninth to Jacob, but among these the morning and evening hours were devoted to public worship; and the noon hour to private devotions. For the Christians it was important that our Lord's final suffering and death came at the third, sixth and ninth hour. Accordingly we are told that the Apostles were assembled for prayer in the third hour, when they received the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:15); that Peter went up upon the house-top to pray about the sixth hour (Acts 10:9); and that Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, it being the ninth hour. From these statements we are justified in the con- clusion that the Apostles observed the morning and evening prayer in the temple and devoted the noon to private devotions. In course of time these three regular hours no longer satisfied the religious wants of the Church and gradually a complete system of eight prayer hours came into use and was observed by the clergy in general and the occupants of convents and monasteries in particular. It would carry us too far to enter into a detailed explanation of this system of hours of prayer, but it must be remembered that they, too, served a certain purpose and that when our Reformers ordered our forms for Matins and Vespers, they 55 found themselves constrained to embody in them certain features of the ancient system as appears from the idea underlying our Matin and Vesper Service. Accordingly we find this order of development of the order of Vespers: In the third century: Ps. 141 for the beginning, and containing the Agnus and Nunc Dimittis, with the evening prayer: "Praise the Lord, oh ye His servants." In the fifth century: The Kyrie is added and the Agnus is omitted. In the sixth century: The Responses are added, and in Africa a sermon is preached. Under Gregory the First (604), both Matins and Vespers have the complete form which prevails to this day in the Roman Catholic Church. When finally our Lutheran Church separated from the Roman Cath- olic Church, it was by no means the intention of the Reformers to do away with the services heretofore in use or to abbreviate them. The sole rule which they proposed for their guidance was the same one which had proven so safe in the matter of doctrine, namely, to purge away all false usage and all errors that might damn the soul. Following this rule, Luther took great exception to the Mass as containing a false prin- ciple, that of a continual sacrifice of the body of the Lord; but he found nothing to object to in the ancient system of the hours, especially the Matins, Vespers and Completorium, and declared that with the exception of the order for saints' days, they contained nothing that could not be borne and abounded in words from the Scriptures. He and all the other Reformers agreed that the people stood greatly in need of daily services to acquaint themselves with the Scriptures and foster their spiritual growth. However, as in the holding of these services they saw the means for the edification of the people, they saw no need of the observance of the hours, as the people had never taken part in this, and Luther, in his sharp manner, had expressed himself strongly against "barking at empty walls." Besides, a Church whose vital principle of faith was the free grace of God could make no matter of legal observance of any such worship. Hence, Luther fixed upon the Matins and Vespers alone, combining with the former the Laudes, with the latter the Com- pletorium. In his Gottesdienst Ordnung, 1523, he says: "Such has been the custom among Christians in the days of the Apostles, and ought to be still, namely, that every morning at four or five o'clock one ought to assemble, and priests or pupils should read the lesson as is cus- tomary in the Matins, either one or two at a time or alternately, or choirs alternately." Then the minister or whoever is appointed, shall arise and give a brief exposition of the same lesson. Having then pre- scribed the order to be observed in the morning, he continues: "In the same manner meet again in the evening at five or six o'clock. And here also resume the reading of one book after the other from the Old Testa- ment, namely, the prophets, just as in the morning Moses and the his- tories. But, as the New Testament is also a [divine] book, I leave the Old Testament for the morning and the New Testament for the evening, or vice versa, and read, expound, praise, sing and pray as in the morning for an hour's time. For the object is the cultivation of God's Word that it may edify the souls and refresh them lest they grow weary." 56 The sum of Luther's directions was this, that first of all Psalms should be sung by the pupils or the priests. The selection of these is to be made weekly by the ministers, who ought also to determine the ap- propriate Antiphons and Responsories. The service is to be concluded with prayer, praise, thanksgiving in Psalms, Antiphons, Responsories and Collects. From this it will be seen that our great Reformer did not take the pains to formulate a definite and invariable order of Matins and Vespers, but that his chief concern was that it shoald con- tain some Psalms, some regular lessons, some appropriate collects. However, he laid great stress on the keeping of these services and does not worry if at first there is only a small number of participants, pro- vided only that the priests and pupils be present, especially those who are to become ministers and pastors. Only Sundays he expects a large concourse of people, adding this observation: "It is most important for plain people and the young who ought and must daily be trained and practiced in the Scriptures and the Word of God, so that they may become accustomed to the Scripture, skilled, learned in it and familiar with it, so that they may defend their faith, in time teach others and help to increase the kingdom of Christ. For their sake one must read, sing, preach, write and compose, and if there were any profit or ad- vantage in it, I would have them ring all the bells, play all the organs and sound every possible instrument." Just as eager as Luther himself were his co-laborers and the various KOO and ecclesiastical regulations of those days bear testimony to the fact that there was a great earnestness of churchly discipline, order and practice. It is not surprising that through such practices a generation was reared that never forgot the deep im- pressions thus made upon them in their childhood. They could never lose the oft-heard lessons, the Psalms and Evangelical hymns which they so frequently sang, the prayers they prayed and the catechism they recited. In these daily Minor Services lay the strength of that generation, and we need not wonder that from it came our great dogmaticians, our noble hymn-writers and the great defenders of our faith. But. though the Church possessed this power in its Services, the gradual changes of time finally proved disastrous in this particular. The Chief Service in the form preserved in our Church Book lived for gen- erations and survived even the ravages of the Thirty Years' War. The Minor Services, however, never were the property of the people as such, but rather only of the schools. So, too, our order of Vespers never obtained a firm footing in the churches, but was observed mainly in the Lutheran institutions of learning. Therein lies the chief reason why, for a time, it was practically lost to the Church, or rather buried in a napkin. Too much was made in its observance of the matter of language. For the practice of the boys the Psalms were originally chanted only in Latin. The consequence was that when Latin was no longer so universally studied nor so easily acquired, all the treasures of devotion of the Minor Services became unintelligible to the boys and no longer served their purpose. Besides, there was no master found who could transcribe the German text to the tones used for the Latin 57 singing, and as the people could not take part they were gradually crowded out. Besides, the rules of this singing, too, were finally more and more forgotten among the Lutheran clergy and those who were to instruct the young, which, in course of time, led to the abandonment of the chanting itself. Thirdly, there were no positive directions clearly defining the limits of these Services, and as Luther had left the matter to the ministers themselves, any one could arrange them to his own taste, providing he retained a resemblance to the type of ecclesiastical hours. Owing to the operation of these causes, as well as to the influ- ence of Pietism and Rationalism, in spite of the many directions of KOO, the order of Matins grew entirely into disuse, and the Vespers lingered only in stray observances of afternoon and evening services, in catechismal services, and in confessional services preparatory to the Lord's Supper. It was only in the present century, upon the revival of true Lutheran- ism in Germany, that renewed attention was given to these treasures of the Church, and the principles were studied which underlie these services. Then attempts were made to re-introduce the order of Vespers in the form of festival services and in private publications. In our own country the General Council has done much toward re- establishing the old orders of the Church, and only on the close study of the history of the Service and examination of the state in which the matter was found by the committee can we fully estimate and appreciate at their real value the enormous labors of the men who ha\e given to the Church in America the Services as she posseses them. STRUCTURE. It remains yet to examine the Vesper Service as to its structure. Let us arrange it according to the parts of which it is necessarily composed according to the order in our Church Book. The component parts there stand as follows: Versicle (with Gloria Patri), Psalm (with Gloria Patri), Lesson (with response). Sermon, Hymn, Versicle, Canticle, Prayer, Benediction. This is the bare order from which we can see the frame-work which gives the body to the whole structure. It has been observed before that the Vesper Service is mainly sacrificial, being a ser- vice of prayer, praise and thanksgiving; but that in order that our prayer may be a truly efficient one. guided by the Holy Spirit, our Service contains the offering of the Word. A glance at our analysis of the Service bears out this assertion. We see, furthermore, how evenly it is divided into the sacramental part of the Word, the sacrificial one of prayer and praise. First, the offering of the Word in Psalms, Lessons, and Address. The Versicle and Responses serve to introduce, connect, and give the proper relation of one part to another. Then comes the offer from the congregation in hymn. Canticle and prayer, with, of course, the necessary Versicles and responses. But this is merely a skeleton. We do not behold the living flesh, we cannot see the graceful movement, the animation of speech. Our Service is endowed with a life of its own. that makes it truly the expres- sion of the congregation's worship. This we will see more clearly on 58 examining the single parts that compose it. First in order stand the Versicles, or as Schoeberlein calls them, the opening antiphons. These selections were made in the earliest days of the Church. We meet them in the Order of Horae of Benedict of Nursia (529), and thence transcribed in the Breviary of Gregory the Great (604). The first, ''Oh, Lord, open Thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise," is from Ps. 51:17. The second, "Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord," Ps. 70:2. In some orders the order of arrangement varies, but both verses were used, together with the Gloria Patri, to which was added the Hallelujah. For the Passion season, when the Hallelujah, which is the expression of Easter joy, is to be omitted, many ancient Liturgies have the ascription of praise: "Praise be to Thee, O Christ, King of eternal glory." These are the Versicles for ordinary occasions, but if there is to be a festival Vesper, other Versicles may be used. It has fitly been said (Herold) that the Versicles, Responses and Antiphons are the signal calls of the festival. They are the festival banner, raised ever and anon to express boldly and briefly the principal thought of the festival. They animate the service and arouse and hold attention continually. The Psalmody following now, is the principal characteristic of the Minor Services. In the Vesper Service it follows immediately after the opening versicles. The singing of Psalms found its way into the Church service from the worship of the Temple. We know from the testimony of the Scripture, that it was very impressive, nay, even overpowering. To pass by Moses and Samuel (who cultivated this sing- ing in the schools of the prophets), we find David the master of the divine song, who introduced it into the worship of the Temple. Think of the 4,000 singers of the Lord, among them 288 masters, arranged in 24 classes, over them the three masters, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun, and over them the King himself. Think of the Levites robed in linen, singing with cymbals, psalteries, harps, and the priests with trumpets. In truth, when we read of the glorious services of the Lord, and of the magnificent arrangement of music, musicians and instruments for the proper rendering of the Psalms, we must admit that our services still fall far short of praising the Almighty as we should, and that we may well study how we may do this to greater effect. It is no wonder that the early Church continued the singing of Psalms in her services and de- votion. The New Testament bears frequent witness to the singing of Psalms. To Pliny we are indebted for the information that it was anti- phonal, and all the Church Fathers relate how highly the Church valued this manner of singing. There was a special office of precentor — he started the singing of the Psalm, and the congregation responded hypo- phonically (with the closing words of each verse) or epiphonemically (with Amen, or Hallelujah, or Gloria Patri) or antiphonally. The manner of rendering was recitative singing, all words according to the natural ac- cent, to one tone. The closing with the Gloria Patri dates from the time of Damasus (t 384). It was originally simpler in form, but was expanded, on account of the Anti-Trinitarian agitations. The singing of Psalms was universally adopted in the Lutheran Church. The number sung at Vespers was early limited by Luther to 59 three. The most usual choice was Ps. 1-109 for Matins; 110-150 (except 119) for Vespers. Before and after the Psalms an Antiphon was usually sung, which was taken from the Psalm used, from the lesson of the day, or some other text of Scripture, or sometimes by exception framed aftei a Scripture text. Luther had left the choice of Antiphons to the bishops, only warning them against monotony or too much change. Soon, however, definite changes were made, and Antiphons selected according to time of service, season of Church Year, or nature of service. The object of the Lessons was to cover the entire body of Scripture during the services of the Church Year. At the Minor Services in the Roman Church, all those parts were read that were not used in the service of the Mass. Luther took up the plan of continuous reading, beginning on one day where it had been left off the day before, recommending "quite long lessons, in order to instruct the young thoroughly." He, too, ordered that the whole Scriptures should be read, and soon made the division between the portions for the Matins and those for the Vespers. He de- parted, however, from the accustomed order in making his selection have reference not so much to the Church Year as to the days of the week, and to include the Catechism in the order of lessons. The KOO followed Luther in so far as to reserve one text for the Matins, the other for the Vespers. In regard to liturgical usage, it may be mentioned that three lessons may be read. According to our usage, the response, "Oh, Lord, have mercy upon us," with the corresponding part, "Thanks be to Thee, O God," follows every lesson except the last, and after the last may follow a responsory or hymn. According to some orders a responsory may follow every lesson. What, then, is this Responsory? It is a short sentence, consisting of two parts, the real responsory and a versus, which is so arranged that its close fits into the part of the responsory which is repeated. It is usually taken from the lesson, and states succinctly the principal thought in it, or also the thought of the day. It is named responsory mainly from the fact of its being an assent to the idea of the lesson. The respon- sories have not yet received much attention, and yet they are an important factor in the Service. They give the musical expression to fhe thought in the lesson, and really afford the modern choir the widest and most useful field of activity. The Hymn may take the place of the Responsory, and may be used after the sermon in the real sacrificial part of the service. The hymn is a song, consisting of regular versification, but it must be of an exalted character in so far that in its metre it may correspond to the measure and in its rhyme to the euphony of the thought to be celebrated. It is the office of the hymn to deepen and confirm the reception of the Divine Word that has been read. Hence, it ought to be selected with reference to the lesson preceding it. It is the immediate answer of a receptive faith. The Lord speaks, and immediately follows the response of faith. The hymn is the thanks to God for His Word, and justly so expressed first in the immediate expression of emotion as carried by music, just as later in the service in the acts of prayer. The opening hymn ought to be the most general (containing a prayer for the forgive- 6o ness of sins), best of all an invocation of the Holy Ghost. The hymn after the lesson, and the one after the sermon bears a directer reference to the festival thought itself; but the latter is not merely a song of praise; it may contain strong elements of petition, so that Loehe calls it an inspired cry for help. If there is also a closing hymn, it is to consider the blessings of redemption, the fruit of life, and the hope of eternity. The Sermon is not an integral part of the Vesper Service. It may be omitted without mutilating it. According to the custom of the Reformers, a sermon was preached at Matins and Vespers only on Sun- days, and occasional festival days during the week; but at the daily Vespers the custom was followed of adding a brief summary or review to each lesson, expounding it in the simplest and most succinct manner. Later KOO introduced the expounding of the Catechism. This began with short explanations of the Catechism for the children, and finally merged into catechetical sermons for the older members. The place of these sermons, as they had grown out of the lesson summaries, was thus natu- rally fixed between the Lessons and the Canticle. In course of time the sermon was preceded and followed by a hymn. This leads us in direct sequence to the Canticle. By the term Canticle we denote antiphonal hymns, both of the Old and New Testament, other than the Psalms. They were in early use in the Church, being found in the arrangements for daily devotion of Benedict of Nursia, and of Gregory the Great. The Lutheran Church uses all of the Canticles of the Bible, beside the Te Deum, and classes them as minor Psalms. For Vespers the same are used as of old. namely, the Magnificat as originally used, and the Nunc Dimittis, taken from the Completorium. Having an abundance to choose from, many KOO selected a different Canticle for each day, but this custom grew into disuse, and we in our order in the Church Book have the choice between the two. Like the major Psalms, the Canticles, too, may be followed by corresponding antiphons. The Magnificat is Mary's psalm of praise, from Luke 1:46-55. It was used in the Lutheran Church from the beginning, first in Latin, then in German. It was even sung to all psalm tones, but the favorite one was the tonus peregrinus, as being best known to the congregation. The Nunc Dimittis is the psalm of Simeon, Luke 2:29-32. It was used first in the Completorium, and is the most suitable expression of the praises of the congregation for the mercies of the day. The Canticles fitly introduce the acts of prayer properly so-called. The prayers after lessons and psalmody are the third chief part of the Vesper service. They are the most immediate and the clearest expres- sion of our faith in God, our sacrifices, our speech with God, our parallel to His speech with us, in the lessons. The prayers are not to be used scantily, nor briefly. It is not decent and in order to strive to hasten away from the throne of God. Where the New Testament mentions prayer, the words used are mainly in the plural: prayers, petitions, thanksgivings. As Herold remarks, the scanty and begrudging treatment of prayer, so long in vogue, has contributed not a little to the present disregard of meditation and contemplation. The Christian Church should be a praying Church. "My house is a house of prayer," says the Lord. 6i In fact, the Church has a magnificent treasure of prayer in the Collects she has prayed for centuries, some of them dating back even to the wor- ship of the Temple. It is but fitting that these should be used in our Services, and the earliest KOO recommend their use. Thus it was recommended to employ several collects in succession. Several collects are corroborative of each other. They contain one thought of prayer, always introduced by the invocation of God. Three collects are more animating than one long prayer. Of several collects the first is to be the most special, the last most general. Hence, the use of the collect for the festival, i. e., the one of the Sunday throughout the whole week. According to most general usage, which we follow, the full ending is used only with the last. The directions for them in the Church Book are too explicit to need mention here. As to the position in the Ser- vice, it may yet be remarked that as here the prayer is the culmina- tive act, it is fitly introduced by the Kyrie, which powerfully implores the mercies of God for His assistance in this act of devotion. This is followed by the Lord's Prayer, which most fully expresses our sonship, and is in turn followed by the more special petitions of the Collects. According to the rule stated before, the last collect is to be the most general, hence we use the ancient Collect for Peace, introduced by its own versicle. Versicles may, according to ancient usage, be used with any and all of the collects, but a too frequent use of them scatters the at- tention, and vitiates the objects of the prayer. The Service is closed with the Benediction, which is introduced by a festival versicle, which for our Sunday Vespers is fixed, but which may be varied on special occasions. This versicle is the last faint echo of the music of the festival day, its characteristic chord dying away in the evening stillness: "Yea, Lord, let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." The Gregorian Element in Church Music BY THE REV. LUTHER D. REED. In considering "The Gregorian Element in Church Music" we have to deal with the oldest forms of music of the Christian Church. We here include all that is earlier than the thirteenth century and very much that is later, comprising the original melodies of the Liturgy and Psalm- ody. Inasmuch as "Psalmody," a most important factor of the Gregor- ian system, forms the subject of a separate paper, our present effort practically resolves itself into a study of what we may term "The Litur- gical Music of the Church." The chant-form, as affording the means of dignified musical recita- tion, has ever been associated with common and prescribed worship, even among the most primitive peoples. Song and liturgy doubtless often come into being together. It is certainly not too much to assert that the Gregorian chant is "a projection into modern art of the altar song of Greece. Judea and Egypt." It has long been a favorite theory that it absorbed two chief elements which flowed like tributary streams from Palestine and Hellas; the Hebrew influence giving it its religious character, and the Greek art defining its form and rules. The recent investigations of the learned musical archaeologist, Gevaert. director of the Brussels Conservatory of Music, have led him to unhesitatingly as- sert that the whole Gregorian system had its origin in the forms of secular music of Roman society in the days of the Empire, which music had in turn been introduced from Greece after its conquest by Rome, B. C. 146. Whatever its earliest constituent elements, it soon developed a distinctively Christian character, and formed a holy alliance with the liturgy that has never been dissolved. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, 374- 397. is said to have collected and edited the melodies already in existence and to have clearly defined the form of the four so-called "authentic" scales or modes. The unquestioned judgment of centuries has credited the final shaping touch that gave the system its character indelebilis as the liturgical music of the Church to Gregory the Great, Pope from 590 to 604. He is said to have immeasurably developed the powers of the art by the addition of the four related or "plagal" modes in which melodies might be composed; edited and increased the number of chants, giving them permanent form in his Antiphonarium. which con- tained the ritual song for the completed cycle of the Church Year and which was fastened to the altar of St. Peter's in Rome to serve as the standard for the rendering of the Liturgy throughout the entire Church; and to have established a singing school in which he himself taught. Modern historical criticism has rather discredited the biography of (63) 6 4 Gregory, written by John the Deacon about the year 872, upon whose assertions, unsupported by any documentary or other evidence, Gregory was said to have engaged in such extensive labors in behalf of the Chant that has since borne his name. But whether it was the molding hand of Gregory, or whether he. as the most striking figure of that period, was in an uncritical age credited with the achievements of his century, the Chant and Liturgy together crystallized into more or less permanent form. Certain melodies became inseparably associated with certain words, the scales or modes were clearly determined, and efforts made to secure an intelligible and accurate musical notation and to spread the use of the melodies according to the Roman practice throughout the bounds of the Western Church. It was the strong hand of Charle- magne that gave the first great impulse toward the more extended prac- tice and uniform rendering of the Chant in the West. He was not only a patron of knowledge and the arts. but. doubtless for reasons political as well as personal a devoted son of the Church. Upon one of his several visits to Rome he was impressed with the difference between the rendering of the Liturgical Chant in the Holy City and the services with which he was familiar at home. He determined, as he said, to purify the clouded stream of Church song by a return to the fountain spring. He left two priests in Rome to be instructed, and later the Pope ^ent him two others, Peter and Romanus, with authentic copies of the Antiphon- arium of St. Peter's. Romanus was taken ill and cared for by the monks of St. Gall, and later received imperial permission to remain in this monastery and teach the true principles of the Chant in accordance with his copy of the Antiphonarium. Peter proceeded to Metz, and the two schools thus established by these monks soon developed a strong rivalry and became centers of great influence for the propagation of the Chant. Schubiger, in his ''Saengerschule St. Gallens," has given much in- teresting information concerning the supposed copy of the Antiphonarium brought by Romanus to St. Gall, as well as other early MSS. of Plain Song found in the library of the monastery. The inflections of the mel- odies are roughly indicated by arbitrary signs placed over the text and called neumes, some twenty-eight different forms of which are repre- sented in fac-simile. In these early MSS. there is no staff, not even the trace of the single line, about which the neumes were later grouped and which still later developed into the two-line, and finally the four- line staff. As will be readily understood, this species of notation was most indefinite and unsatisfactory. It could at best assist the memory by vague suggestion to recall melodies which had been previously learned by oral tradition. This fact, together with the isolation of many mon- asteries, the difficulties in the way of communication and comparison, as well as the ever growing body of Song, soon multiplied diversity of usage, which became confirmed by centuries of unbroken practice and later accurate notation into the so-called "local uses'' of the cathedrals and monasteries of Germany, Gaul and Britain. The first serious ef- fort on the part of the Roman see to remove provincial variants was made at Trent. Palestrina was entrusted with the reform of the melodies 65 and with the assistance of Guidetti accomplished very much. Local uses were., however, very generally retained. For many reasons it was often impolitic for the Pope to require certain orders, monasteries or dioceses to relinquish usages to which they were attached by centuries of tradition and to conform to the authentic text. The effort for reform and uniformity begun at Trent has indeed but been completed within the last twenty years, when the last of the "typical editions" of the Office Books of the Roman Church issued from the press.* The precise form of the melodies indicated in the "authentic'" editions is now. at least nominally, obligatory upon all churches of the Roman jurisdiction. But in fact many communities, by virtue of special dispensations granted for reasons best known to the Holy Father, are still permitted to adhere to traditional usages. Some notice of the manner in which the Reformers dealt with this great body of Liturgical Song may be of particular interest to us. The Radicals generally discarded both the historic Service and its Chant; a very few of the Reformed Orders preserved the most virile and seem- ingly ineradicable elements. The Lutherans almost invariably retained all the doctrinally pure elements in the historic Liturgy, together with their usual melodies, in some instances even continuing the choral reading of the Pericopes. Luther himself labored to preserve the old melodies and to adapt them to the remodelled Services. His Formula Missae retained both the traditional text, purified, of course, and its music. For his Deutsche Messe of 1526, with the assistance of his friend, John Walther, the musician, whom he invited to Wittenberg for that especial purpose, he arranged the old melodies to the German text. To this work Luther brought his own marvelous qualifications — thor- ough acquaintance with the contents and traditions of the Song, deep comprehension of the genius of the languages, and keen perception of the proper artistic values required in the union of text and melody. It is not to be expected that all who were responsible for the 132 inde- pendent KOO that appeared within the thirty-two years following Luther's first Service could bring the same skill to their task. Besides, * What an extensive body of song the Gregorian liturgical music of the Roman Church is appears from a notice of these authentic books and their contents, which we take from Haberl.— (Magister Choralis.) 1. Missale, containing all the Les-ons, Gospels, Prayers, etc., the Canon of the Mass, various Intonations of the Celebrant, the chants of the Preface, Pater Noster, etc. 2. Graduale, containing the portions of the Liturgy sung by the choir— the Introits, Graduals, Tracts, Alleluias, Sequences, Offertories and Communions of the entire ecclesias- tical year, and those proper to the several Festivals. 3. Pontificate, containing the several functions proper to a Bishop— confirmation, minor orders, consecration of altars and churches, etc. 4. Rituale for the Administration of the Sacraments, containing also the chants for processions, the approved litanies, burial service, etc. 5. Ceremoniale Episcoporum. 6. Antiphonarium, containing all the chants for the Services of the Hours, the Antiphons, Invitatories, Responsories, Psalm Tones, etc., as the Graduale contains the chants for the Mass. 7. Directorium Chori, which is the standard book for all intonations of the celebrant and chanters, furnishing the ground plan for the Antiphonarium, and indicating all the chants by their opening phrase and mode. 66 no form or type of Service was binding. Local conditions as well as personal preferences of the clergy were freely consulted, and the fact that in the midst of such independence and freedom both the chief parts of the Liturgy and their traditional melodies were retained, is con- vincing testimony not only to the conservative character of the Lutheran Reformation in general, but to the high esteem and love which our Reformers everywhere entertained for the historic Liturgical Music of the Church. Much of it perished with the impure text which it clothed, but the melodies to Introits, Kyrie. Gloria. Collects, Hallelujah, Creeds, Prefaces, Sanctus, Verba, Lord's Prayer. Pax and Agnus. Litany and Benediction, as well as Versicles, Antiphons, Psalms and Canticles, Re- sponsories and Benedicamus were universally retained. Personal ex- amination has assured us that more than fifty of these early KOO which we have been able to consult have given the Gregorian melodies in their characteristic notation with the text of the Liturgy. The first volume of Schoeberlein's monumental "Schatz des liturgischen Chor — und Gemein- degesangs" occupies more than 750 pages with collated forms of these old melodies as found in the Lutheran KOO of Germany of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Still other Orders direct certain parts of the Liturgy to be sung, but do not supply the notes, thus assuming a thor- ough familiarity with the traditional melodies.* Besides these numerous local KOO many works of a more general character, designed to promote the use of the Gregorian Chant in our Services, appeared during the one hundred years succeeding Luther's first German Service of 1526. Chief among these we may mention the "Psalmodia. hoc est Cantica Sacra" of Lucas Lossius. a Cantionale prepared for churches and schools and containing a most complete selection from the Misssale, Graduale and Antiphonarium of the Pre- Reformation Church. Lossius had been a pupil of Luther and Me- lanchthon. 1530-32. and for fifty years was professor at the college at Lueneburg. Melanchthon wrote a preface to his work, which first ap- peared in 1553. and ran through many later editions. It is a Lutheran liturgico-musical classic of the very highest rank, and even Romanists who would seek the original form of melodies used in Germany at that period must study it. as it antedates by more than thirty years the first authoritative collection of Rome prepared by Guidetti. The edition of 1595 is an octavo volume of more than 800 pages and is divided into four books and contains Gregorian melodies to 56 Introits. 14 Hallelujahs. 31 Sequences, 206 Antiphons and 47 Responsories. as well as different forms of the Kyrie, Gloria. Xicene Creed. Litany, Proper Prefaces, *The history of the Intr 'it will probably illus-rate the manner in which the service* of that period employed the various elements of the historic Service. Where there were schools and boy choirs the entire cycle of Introits for the whole Church Year was preserved in Latin with the usual Plain Song melodies. Where the Latin text was not retained only the Introits for Festival days were translated into German and tided. In villages the his- torical Introit frequently gave place to the congregational hymn, "Komm. hc : liger Geist," as "Allein Gott in der Hoeh sei Ehr" represented the ancient Gloria in Excelsis. And here we note the interesting fact that the congregational hymn had no plaf the old covenant in our endeavors to beautify and enrich our service of God in every way possible. A proper observance of a pure Psa :.l factor in securing this desirable qua Again, the use of a correct Psalmody is demanded by considerations of a still more practical character. One of the crying • oi the Christianity of to-day is the ignorai.ee of many of our Church members 75 in Scriptural truth and the striking want of familiarity of most of them with the text oi the Word of God. We are told that among the Orthodox Jews it is not at all extraordinary to find individuals who know the whole Psalter by heart. It used to be the commendable practice in the Sunday schools of a generation ago to encourage the memorizing of whole passages from Scripture. This practice has largely fallen into disuse. Our children are kept too busy wrestling with the ever-growing curri- culum of our public schools to find time to memorize Scripture. Yet how essential for a person's spiritual welfare is the possession of Scrip- tural truth! Where a correc*- Psalmody is practiced in the services of the Church, the worshipers learn the Psalms and Canticles of the Word of God by heart, without the exercise of conscious effort. This is an advantage seldom dwelled upon, but which in itself ought to urge us to return to the ancient and pure practice of the Church in the assiduous cultivation of a proper Psalmody. A discussion like the one which at present engages our attention would not be complete without a consideration of the practical question of the place and the manner of the employment of the Psalms in the dif- ferent services of the Church. In the Chief Service the use of Psalmody is indicated at the follow- ing places: At the Introit, the Gloria in Excelsis. between the Epistle and the Gospel, at the Offertory and the Nunc Dimittis. According to the general practice at the present time, comparatively little use is made of the possibilities for improving and beautifying our Chief Service by the application of the principles of a pure Psalmody at these places. A great enrichment thereof may be secured in this direction without de- parting in the least from the letter or the spirit of the rubrics. Ample as are the opportunities for the practice of Psalmody in our Chief Service, it is in the Minor Services, however, that the largest scope is afforded for this eminently useful and edifying practice. Where these services are held daily the whole Psalter may be gone over several times in the course of the year. Each Psalm should close with the Gloria Patri. The Psalmody should be opened and closed with an Anti- phon. which in Scriptural language usually indicates the period of the Church year and the character of the festival. The Antiphon before the Psalmody should be sung by a single voice, or by several voices in unison. At the close of the Psalmody the historical practice has been to sing it in harmony or in unison. As already indicated, according to the pure practice of the Lutheran Church, the Psalms have always been sung as they stand in the Word of God. Metrical Psalms were never popular among us. It is true our hymnals contain many free renderings of the Psalms, but they are regarded and used simply as hymns, as already made plain: and nowhere among our Lutheran writers upon Psalmody is much attention given, under this subject, to Psalms in metre. In fact, among us the concep- tion of Psalmody barely includes metrical Psalms. As already indicated above, these are very popular in some parts of the Reformed Church, and among them the singing of these metrical compositions is dignified by the term Psalmody. However, but a slight examination of their 7 6 Psalms in metre compels the conviction that nothing is gained, and a great deal is lost, by torturing the exalted language of the Psalms into the stiff and artificial measures of modern rhymed poetry. Nothing re- mains in the best of them but the thought; and the language and the metre usually impress one as cruel, cast-iron moulds into which the divine thought has been forced with a ruthlessness doing credit to a modern Procrustes. In employing the Psalms in this manner one gets simply the exalted thought of the inspired writer dressed up, travestied very frequently, in the language of an uninspired writer. We have not one whit less in any Evangelical hymn. By such a practice of Psalmody, so-called, the language of the Word is not assimilated, and one of the great advantages of a correct Psalmody is missed. Xo objection is here offered to the use of free translations in verse of any of the Psalms; but it is urged that we. as Lutheran Christians, in our Psalmody always employ the Psalms as they stand in our Bibles, without doing violence either to their exalted thought or sacred structure. In so doing we shall be in line with the historical practice of the Church, and shall be con- tinually absorbing the simple and dignified language of Holy Scripture in every part of our divine service. In the practice of Psalmody the antiphonal character of the Psalm- verse must not be violated. A superficial examination even of the structure of a Psalm-verse shows it to be composed in its first half of a versicle, to which the second half is an answer or response. It is ad- mitted by all scholars that the original manner of rendering the Psalms was by alternate choirs singing responsively. or antiphonally. the two distichs of the Psalm-verse. This antiphonal structure of the Psalm- verse is also indicated in print by particular marks, like the colon, asterisk or double-bar between its two halves. It must be admitted that many churches, in the use of the Psalms, sing them verse about. This may be said to be the later historical practice. However, it cannot be maintained successfully that it is the original practice. It does violence to the very meaning and structure of the Psalm; and we may well be proud that the historic practice of our Church has nearly always been in line with the natural structure and arrangement of the Psalms. In our present-day use of the Psalms we should make an effort to emphasize this antiphonal character of the Psalm-verse, if not by two choirs, one on each side of the church, then, at least, by such a division of the choir and the congregation in their rendering that this character of responsiveness may be strongly emphasized. Where this is neglected or ignored, the intelligent person will instinctively feel that something essential is missing; and the effectiveness of this part of the service will be materially interfered with. Another characteristic of the Psalms, which dare not be overlooked in their liturgical use. is their rhythm. The Psalms have rhythm, but not metre. Compared with metrical poetry, we might call their measure free rhythm, or rhythmic prose, which is the grandest form of poetry. In the language of another ''They and their poetic form are sacred and erable except with a violence which is sacrilege." As already eluci :s native form of the Psalm is interfered with and de- 77 stroyed in their metrical rendering in the stilted form of modern poetry. The same violence may be perpetrated by the music as well, to which the Psalm is sung. This is especially accomplished when the Anglican form of the chant is employed. This form of chant is both rhythmical and metrical, and can never in its present usual barred and measured form be properly used in connection with the Psalms, which are un- metrical and possess free rhythm. The attempt to join together what is essentially at variance and antagonistic, is never satisfactory anywhere, much less so in worship of that Being whose whole creation manifests His love of order and propriety. In Psalmody the effort has always been fruitful of artificiality, rigidity and a cut-and-dried mathematical exactness painfully at variance with the free and untrammeled flow of the stately rhythm of the poetical portions of the Word of God. The fixed rhythm of the Anglican chant, with its barred and measured music, at once designates it as unsuited for the use of the Psalms. The same objection obtains also with reference to the modern, degenerate form in which we usually find the Gregorian tones. They, too, have been com- pelled to yield their native beauty, dignity and freedom to the modern demands of our artificial and artistic style of music. There is no recourse left us then, in our search for a chant adapted to the nature and character of the Psalm-verse, than to return to the earlier and original form of Gregorian Plain Song, as used by our Church in the sixteenth century. Just as our glorious Common Service is drawn from the pure liturgies of the Reformation century, so an adequate and appropriate music for the service and its Psalmody may be secured from the same period. Doctrine, cultus and sacred music are in this respect on a common level. The pioneer work in this return to a purer and more exalted style of music has already been inaugurated for us in the labors of men like Schoeberlein, Kliefoth, Loehe, Lyra and others, who have been active in the last fifty years in that liturgical reform and return to the purer and better practices of our Church, which has been so productive of good in its influence in the past, and which promises to accomplish still greater and better things for us in the future. The use of the Gregorian Plain Song in its original, unbarred form, has many advantages, which adapt it to the use of Psalmody. Being simple melody, devoid of harmony, it is admirably adapted by its sim- plicity to the use of the ordinary congregation and makes it possible for one with but the knowledge of the rudiments of music to take a com- fortable part in the Psalmody which is such an important part of the service of the Church. It adapts itself to the free rhythm of the Psalm as no other style of music. By its use the accent need never be placed upon an unimportant and unaccented syllable, as is often the case in Anglican chant or in the modern form of the Gregorian tones. The prin- ciple that the music is the handmaid of the words "Musica ancilla verbi" may be thoroughly observed by the use of this form of chant. By making possible the observance of the free rhythm of the Psalm by the structure of the music the tiresome monotony of the ordinary chant-tone, according to which the accent always falls with sledge-hammer regularity upon the same place, is also obviated. A naturalness and 7* variety are thus introduced which are absent from the ordinary method. An understanding of the Gregorian Song, here advocated as the onl> proper chant-form for the practice of Psalmody, will also make it evi- dent that the recitation is the essential and predominant clement in the chant, and that the rest is simply an inflection and close to it. The gen- eral impression seems to be that the recitation is to be simply tolerated and that the mediation and the final are the essential parts, for the sake of which the whole exercise seems to be undertaken. As a consequence, the recitation is indecently hurried over and "gabbled" in the usual practice, in the feverish hurry to get over to the melodic parts of the chant, as if, forsooth, the melodies were the all-important part to which everything else has to be subordinated. Let it be emphatically borne in mind that the original form of the chant was the recitation of the text upon one note. The prime object was not the melody, but the expres- sion of the words of worship. The inflection and the melody in the cadences are a development naturally resulting to break up the monotony of a recitation upon one note. The music is for the text, and not the text for the music. The simple, majestic, churchly dignity and the solemn, unearthly beauty of the Gregorian tones adapt them especially to the uses of Psalmody as well as to the other ritual music of the Church. The or- dinary, figured music has a secular, every-day character which renders it inadequate to accompany the exalted Scriptural terms of our liturgy. This is felt, if not positively recognized, in the insipid chants to which canticles like the Gloria in Excelsis. the Nunc Dimittis and others are so frequently sung. This secular character is entirely lacking in Greg- orian Plain Song. It is the sacred music of the Church of all ages, and is the only kind adequate to accompany and enrich the inspired words of the Psalms, the canticles and the liturgy. In the use of Psalmody, as advocated in the course of this paper, we have the satisfaction of knowing that we are in no respect aping any other denomination; but that we are employing that which belongs to us by peculiar right. By some the Gregorian Plain Song is regarded as the peculiar possession and absolute prerogative of the Roman Catholic Church. Such innocently imagine that the Church which dares to use this ancient and beautiful form of music in her services, is on the road to Rome. As already noted, the musicians of our Church in the six- teenth century were exceedingly active in the study and use of this form of music and in the adaptation thereof to the service of the Church of the pure Gospel. Xo communion has a greater right to the treasures of the pre-Reformation Church than ours; for the Lutheran Church enjoys a pure Apostolic succession, not in the external and unbroken laying on of hands, but in an unbroken succession of saints who held the pure truth of God's Word, and gratefully accepted and appropriated what the Holy Spirit in all ages taught the Church. Since we possess, then, by a peculiar and undisputed right such a beautiful service and such an unparallelled Psalmody set to sacred mel- odies, ought we not cultivate in our churches a pure, dignified and churchly Psalmody? A great and arduous task is before us. As in the 79 rebuilding of the temple, there is a great deal of rubbish in the form of false standards and ideals of Psalm- and ritual-music not only on the part of our laity, but also of many of our clergy and teachers of Church music, many of whom, unfortunately, have drawn their musical in- spiration not from pure Lutheran, but from Reformed, sources. How- ever, after the foundations have once been reached and our people have learned to appreciate our glorious heritage of Church music as well as of doctrine and cultus, the temple of pure Church-song, echoing sweetly and solemnly with heavenly strains, will grow apace into beauty and symmetry ; and the presence of the glory of God in Word and Sacra- ment will be realized to a fuller and more blessed extent by virtue of a harmony and adaptation between doctrine, liturgy and sacred music as close as it can be attained to this side the courts of the Heavenly Temple pictured for us in the exalted language of seer and prophet. The Lutheran Choral. BY THE REV. H. D. E. SIEBOTT. For the origin of the word "choral" we must go back to the begin- ning of the seventh century. The liturgical music devised and author- ized for the cult of the Catholic Church by Pope Gregory the Great, con- sisted of two parts, the one called the Accentus, comprising all those portions which were sung by the celebrating priest, and the other, called Concentus, all the responses. As the congregation was excluded from participation in the service, the execution of this latter part was en- trusted to the choir, the choir for this purpose really being invested with a priestly or mediating character, standing between God and the congre- gation by the side of the priest, and not by any means representing the people. The part sung by this choir, and especially the longer responses, and the old sacred hymns used in the service, were called "Cantus Firmus," or, because rendered not by a single voice, but by the chorus of the choir, "Cantus Choralis," or simply "Choral." So that the name "Choral" was originally applied not to congregational singing as we understand it, but to the singing of the choir in response to the officiating priest. This Gregorian Choral was, of course, all in Latin, the language of the liturgy. Very early, however, the "Volkslied" of the Middle Ages, that is, the secular and semi-religious songs of the people, began to connect with and to influence the development of the Choral. The Cantus Choralis, though rigid and severe in its musical character, from being heard continually in the service of the Church, became familiar to the people, and its simple strains, heard from childhood up, grew into them and came to be dear to them. So that the hymns and songs of the people in the vernacular down to the time of the Reformation were vested with melodies that were, perhaps unconsciously, but nevertheless truly, built upon those familiar and sacred sounds of the sanctuary. For example, our choral, "Allein Gott in der Hoeh sei Ehr," is very clearly traced to a fragment of the Gregorian "Gloria" ("Et in terra pax hom- inibus," etc.), the sequence of notes being the same, the rhythm and ac- cent only having been changed and adapted to the new words. Our Christmas choral, "Gelobet seist Du Jesus Christ," our incomparable Easter choral,' "Christ ist erstanden," our beautiful Pentecostal choral, "Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist," were simply such sacred songs of the people in the vernacular, produced independently of the Church, and at first not used in the Church at all, but nevertheless deriving their musical character from the Gregorian Church service. (Si) 82 With the time of the Reformation and the awakening of a new religious life among the people, came also a new impulse in hymnology. Sacred songs became popular as never before. They were sung by the children on the street, the farmer behind the plough, the milkmaid in the dairy, the wife in the kitchen, the workman at his bench. This teeming religious life could no longer be restrained by the Church and condemned to silence in her public services. The people insisted upon singing their hymns during processions, upon the great festivals, and at other prominent and special times in their church life, and the Church had to yield to this pressure. Thus it happened that some of our oldest chorals, like those mentioned above, were admitted into her service by the Catholic Church at a very- early date. But within the Church of the Reformation herself, of course, these barriers had to fall completely. Justification by faith alone., the universal priesthood of all believers through their high priest. Christ Jesus, the recognition of the filial relation as the proper relation to exist between man and God, all these Reformation ideas necessarily required that even.' avenue of communication between the people and their God should be free and unobstructed. If Christians were again to feel that they were the children of God, and that they might approach the throne of grace, not through priests and saints, but directly and personally through their own faith, praying to God. even as dear children to their dear father, then who was going to forbid them to sing? — to sing, as all true chil- dren must? The Gospel, the glad tidings of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, is the true source of all sacred song. The Reformation again placed this light upon the candlestick, and it was inevitable that the song of the Church should give expression to the peace and joy which again entered men's hearts. Hence, in his letter to Spalatin in 1524, Luther writes: "I am now willing to make German psalms for the people, that is. spiritual hymns, that the Word of God through song also may dwell among the peo- ple." And he not only wrote this as his purpose, but he proceeded to carry it out with signal success. With wonderful enthusiasm the people received that first great hymn-book of the Reformation, published at Wittenberg in 1524. It contained only eight chorals, but these hymns proved to be the seed out of which a wonderful harvest came forth. They decided the character and laid down the lines of conservative de- velopment for that whole flood of sacred hymnology which poured in upon the Church of the Reformation in those stirring times. No Church on earth has such a rich treasure of choral poetry, sterling in value and sound in doctrine, as our own Lutheran Church. And her choral music is equally extensive. Dr. Zahn. in his work of six volumes on Evangel- ical Church Music, devotes two large volumes to the enumeration and critical examination of 8,806 choral melodies of our Church. The invention of the tunes of our oldest chorals has usually been ascribed to the poets themselves who wrote the words. Modern search, however, has discovered two principal sources to which almost all these melodies can be traced back. The one is that inexhaustible storehouse of Oriental and Occidental music, the Ambrosian and Gregorian Church 83 tunes of the Middle Ages; and the other is the German "Volkslied" of the twelfth and sixteenth centuries inclusive. A few examples: The Ambrosian "Te Deum" and the Ambrosian hymn, "Veni redemptor gentium," form the basis of our chorals, "Herr Gott dich loben wir," "Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland," "Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort," "Verleih' uns Frieden gnaediglich," "Christ der du bist der helle Tag." Upon the Gregorian Concentus or chants of the liturgy are built the chorals, "Allein Gott in der Hoeh sei Ehr," "O Lamm Gottes unschuldig," "Jesaja dem Propheten das geschah." And upon the old Gregorian hymns introduced into the service are based their respective translations, e .g., "Media Vita" ("Mitten wir im Leben sind mit dem Tod umfangen"), "Veni sancte spiritus" ("Komm Heiliger Geist Herre Gott"), and upon the Latin Easter Sequence, "Victimse paschali," our chorals., "Christ ist erstanden," "Christ fuhr gen Himmel," "Christ lag in Todesbanden." A few hymns also from the very beginning were sung only in the Ger- man language, such as "Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist," "Gelobet seist du Jesus Christ," "Dies sind die heiligen zehn Gebot," "Wir glau- ben all an einen Gott," "Gott der Vater wohn uns bei," "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her," "In dich hab ich gehoffet Herr," "Vater unser im Himmelreich." These formed the original stock of chorals from this source. To the other source, that of the German "Volkslied," up to the time of the Reformation, we must ascribe all other chorals to the year 1570, which cannot with certainty be traced to the former source. From the Volkslied two very important elements were taken over into the choral. The one was rhythm and the other a tendency towards major and minor tones or keys instead of the old Church tones. By rhythm is meant such a balancing of the single notes and the parts of a melody, both as to time and accent, that they are felt to constitute a unit. This element was, of course, necessarily absent in the Gregorian liturgical music, with its interrupted responsive character; it was more marked in the old Latin hymns, which were then introduced into the service, but it was very pronounced in the Volkslied. Rhythm, then, is not an artificial thing, a straight jacket, as some people seem to suppose, but it is a natural growth, in fact a necessary part of all true melody and living song. It was brought from the fresh and green forests by our forefathers and introduced into the Church's music, which was showing signs of approaching death in cold formalism. Rhythm is the life of the choral. Like the living soul in our bodies, it is that which permeates every member and every part, binds them all together, directs their various activities and functions so that they do not counteract but aid one another, all working towards one end, the accomplishment of one idea and purpose. To sing a choral rhythmically does not mean simply to vary the length of the notes. Some of our oldest and most beautiful rhythmic chorals have notes of the same time value throughout. On the other hand a choral that is composed of the greatest variety of long and short notes may be sung in such a way as to completely destroy and obliterate all sense of unity, interdependence and co-operation of the different parts. 8 4 Nor does the rhythm of a choral consist in a genera! rapid tempo. Now and then we still meet an organist or the "unrhythmic" school, who tells us that it is the easiest thing in the world to play a choral rhythmically, but that there is no beauty in it: and he will take his old choral book and play the equalized, long-note chorals in it in double- quick time! Of course, there is no beauty in it. The fact is. there is no easier way of destroying the beauty of a choral than to sing or play it too fast. The very nature of the choral, as a vehicle of expression for that which is most sacred to the congregation, distinguishes it from all other music in this respect, and forbids everything approaching to triviality. To rightly interpret the rhythm of a choral it is necessary to catch its spirit. And this cannot be done by simply regarding the choral as a piece of musical composition. The choral music and the choral text belong together. They are complements of each other, and to get a true conception of the one you must have the other also. The popular mind instinctively connects the two. Who can hear the majestic strains of a choral like "Jerusalem, du hochgebaute Stadt." or "Wachet auf. ruft uns die Stimme," without at once thinking of the words, and vice versa? The spirit of the text will also inspire the music, and the state of mind produced by the lofty sentiments of the text will dictate the proper inter- pretation and rendition of the musical composition to the thoughtful musician. Right here also is to be found the source and reason of that process of corruption and degeneration which the choral underwent in the times following the Reformation era. That fervent religious enthusiasm which brought forth the great bulk of the German choral literature and music was cooling oft and gradually dying out and giving place more and more to the spirit of Pietism on the one hand and Rationalism on the other in the eighteenth century. To neither of these tendencies was the old choral, with its rugged and sturdy religious vitality, any longer palatable. It was too harsh and objective for the Pietist, and he replaced it largely with songs of a softer, more subjective and sentimental char- acter in their text. And the Rationalist found these old chorals far too orthodox in their theology and not liberal enough for the times: con- sequently he set to work and '"doctored" the text, altering, smoothing over or removing altogether, so as to suit the religious taste of the day. The music of the old choral underwent a similar process. The intro- duction of that other element, taken over from the Volkslied into the Gregorian Church music besides rhythm, namely, the tendency towards major and minor tonality in place of the old Church tones, seems to have been the first step in the direction of modernizing Church music. In looking back over the intervening years in the history of Church music, we must see that this was a step fraught with momentous consequences. It was a movement not in the direction of the more natural, as was the introduction of rhythm, but in the direction of the artificial. And al- though in the course of time it led to the most beautiful musical cre- ations built upon the foundation of the choral, especially also with the advent and improvement of the Church organ in the line of instrumental 85 music, like the compositions of Bach and Handel; yet on the other hand it taught men to tamper with the old and venerable Church tunes, to neglect and consequently despise them, and regard them as out of date and far behind the times, or else to remodel them so as to better suit the popular taste. The collection of old chorals came to be regarded by the musicians as a sort of cabinet of antiquities, from which they would take now and then one of the old chorals to serve as a theme, as a foundation upon which to build their own musical air castles. It is easy to see that for this purpose the quantitative rhythm of the old chorals was a hindrance and had to yield; the notes were all equalized in length, so as to form a more even basis. At the same time this quantitative rhythm had also become objectionable to the congregations in their singing, and was gradually removed altogether. The trouble was that the people had grown away from the spirit and the religion of the old choral; the same reason that accounts to a large extent for the unpopularity of the choral to-day. In their religious lethargy and sentimentalism it cost the children of that time an effort to reproduce that which had come almost spontaneously from the lips of their fathers, fervent and vigorous in faith. Something easier and more comfortable was needed. And so it came about that the notes of the rhythmic choral were equalized, made of the same time length. This length grew to be such in some sections of the land that old people especially had to take breath after each note. A short pause in the sing- ing was made after every line, to be filled out by the organist with a few graceful flourishes leading over to the first note of the next line; and a longer pause after every stanza, occupied by an extensive interlude from the organ, sometimes so extensive that it was much longer than the stanza itself, and, of course, very often actually disturbing to the de- votion of the congregation, because not in harmony with the spirit of the choral, when performed by an irreligious and tactless organist. This arrangement was, however, eminently suitable, and is so to-day, for people who are half asleep in church and in their religious life. But the original rhythmic choral presupposes a lively interest in the subject of the song, a feeling that the things sung about are of the very greatest importance. This interest lacking, of course the rhythmic choral requires too much effort to sing, and becomes unpopular. But should this in- terest ever be lacking? A wide-awake spirit should always characterize the worshiper's devotion and service. And for such service the choral is peculiarly adapted. It combines the divine and the human most har- moniously. As a medium of expression for the believer in the Church service, it excludes everything worldly and profane, both in text and music, everything that is likely to offend the religious consciousness of the believer. The joy it expresses is not the hilarity and frivolity of the world, but that deep peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The sadness it at times expresses is not pessimism, melancholia, despondency or despair, but rather that "godly sorrow that worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of." As a medium of expressing the divine truth it has dignity, depth and power suitable and worthy of proclaiming the mysteries of godliness. This, especially, is the sphere of the choral. It is to fill 86 the place of the Hymn in the Church service. A true Hymn is uot the expression of our subjective life of faith, our feelings and religious im- pulses, but the proclamation and magnification of the great facts of our salvation as revealed in the Gospel. Here is where the choral, in its ancient simplicity, solid massiveness, dignity and yet thorough hearti- ness and warm .life, is indispensable in our service. The choral is also specially adapted for congregational singing in that it is easy of execution and practicable for a large body of earnest men. Yea, the real beauty of a choral is apparent only when rendered by a mass of people. There is an irresistible power which carries along and merges every individual in a large congregation singing with earnest- ness and enthusiasm one of those old rhythmic chorals. They were not made to be sung by a quartette of trained voices from the choir loft, but by the whole congregation of men, women and children. Neither were they made for any particular age in life. Because of the Word of God they contain, they are suitable for old and young. They are edu- cational in character and will appeal at all times to the best impulses in the worshiper, and aid him in rising above the sensual and the worldly. Even the music of the choral partakes of this characteristic; those old rhythmic tunes will not cloy the taste like the sweetish melodies that are often used in place of them, but they will "wear well." Here also is seen the great difference between the choral and that mass of questionable material which has usurped its place in our times in many churches. The former, because it preaches the Divine Word, is on the side of God, lifting man up to a higher level, educating him in the highest and best sense of the word; the latter is on the side of man, stooping down to his level, catering to his transient appetites, seeking only pop- ularity, with rarely a higher aim than to entertain and to please. This displacement or adaptation of the choral to the taste of the time* is simply one of the many applications of a wrong principle in church work, with the consequent sad result. The Church in all her oper- ations and activities should be characterized by a firmness and stability which are rooted and grounded in the Word of God. This does not imply stagnation, but means true progress. If in all things the Church take the Word of God as the sole rule and guide, it will mean that the steps she takes will not need to be retraced because of an error in cal- culation at the start, even though it seem that progress is not made very rapidly. In church music, and especially in the matter of congregational singing, let us apply the correct principle, the infallible rule and guide. Let us take notice of the musical inclinations of the times and the popu- lar taste, to be sure, but let us not be guided by them. These are not the guides, but rather the things to be guided. Even the music of the Church should be educational and corrective. Music will be that, if she remain the handmaid of religion, for religion, that is, the Word of God, is the great educational and corrective force on earth. Let the Lutheran Church in this sense prosecute a conservative reformation in the sphere of Church music and she will aid the cause of true progress. Let the important and the decisive questions for the pastor and organist in every case be, not: Is this tune or meter pretty? Is it popular? Do the people 87 like to sing it? Is it suitable for old people? Is it suitable for chil- dren? Is it old or is it modern? Is it elaborate or is it simple? But these: What is the religious sentiment and doctrine of the text? Is this song sound in its theology? Does it agree with God's Word in every particular? Does the music suit this element of Divine truth contained in the hymn; is it a fitting dress? Examined in this way, no one will fail soon to see the great value and great beauty of our old chorals, he will learn to love them and to use them as invaluable aids in his own spiritual life and that of the Church at large. The same considerations that lead our theologians back to the works of the fathers of the Reformation, and our liturgists to the liturgies of those times, will lead the thoughtful Lutheran Church musician back to that old and ever new treasure of our Church, the German Rhythmic Choral. Anglican Church Music BY THE REV. J. F. OHL, MUS. DOC. The Church of England, though in its musical development like the Church of Germany, often influenced from without, can nevertheless justly lay claim to a school of music of its own. The foundation of this school was laid soon after the Reformation and was due directly to the encouragement given to musical art by English royalty. Under Henry VIII., Edward VI. and Elizabeth, the remodeled Cathedral-service received the most generous and noble musical treatment in a style altogether worthy of the best traditions of pure Church music. The composers of the Reformation period were familiar with the best forms of Roman Catholic Church music, espe- cially with the works of the then dominant Belgian or Flemish school of composers, whose great representatives were Dufay, Ockenheim, Des Pres, Willaert and Orlando Lassus. "Indeed the middle of the six- teenth century," says an eminent authority,* "presents at once as re- spectable an array of fine composers, familiar with all the musical forms both sacred and secular, as then existed — one capable of taking a dis- tinguished rank among the masters of other European nations ; while at the same time to them belonged the honor of having given their country a school of music in many respects as original as it was profound, and, con- sidered in all its importance, the most remarkable effort in musical art which the English nation can boast of." The principal Church composers of this period were Christopher Tye (c. 1500-1560), John Merbecke (1-523- 1585), Thomas Tallis (1529- 1585), William Byrd (1543-1623), Richard Farrant (d. 1580), and Or- lando Gibbons (1583-1625), who is sometimes called the "English Pales- trina." Of these Merbecke did for the Prayer Book what Walther helped to do for Luther's German Mass; he gave it its first Plain So»g setting, a setting subsequently harmonized by Tallis and still in use. These composers, with a complete mastery of the arts of counter- point, and knowing how to use most effectively many voices in com- bination, wrote in the purely vocal style then in vogue, on the basis of the ecclesiastical keys, but with much more beauty of expression and less pedantry than often marked the Flemish school. In this respect they approached the clear, devotional style of Palestrina. Rockstro thus char- acterizes their efforts: "Tye's compositions are massive and full of sober dignity. Tallis, best known by his beautiful Responses and Lit- any, was one of the most learned, as well as the most graceful com- *Ritter : Music in England, p. 26. (89) 90 posers of the age. . . . His Anthems and his Hymns are as remark- able for their beauty of expression as for their technical perfection. Byrd's compositions are less remarkable for the grace, though not for the dignity of their style, than those of his master, Tallis. Farrant, on the contrary, cultivated the charms of expression with never-failing success; and it is deeply to be regretted that but very few of his com- positions have been preserved to us. Orlando Gibbons, the last great luminary of the period, yielded to none of his predecessors, either in dignity or grace. He maintained the traditions of the sixteenth cen- tury intact, until his death in 1625; and has left us much of the finest Cathedral music we possess. "* The development of English Church music received a serious check at the hands of the Puritans. In their wild fanaticism they dispersed choirs, destroyed organs and office books, condemned sacred art as an inspiration from the Evil One, and tolerated only the singing of metrical Psalms in unison after the Genevan fashion. This vandalism however ceased with the Restoration. On his accession Charles II. at once reorganized the choir of the Chapel Royal on a grander scale than before and committed its management to Captain Henry Cooke, who had been a chorister in the chapel of Charles I. Among the boys of the new choir were three who afterwards became distinguished com posers and leaders of the new English style, to wit. Pelham Humphrey. Michael Wise, and John Blow. In 1664 Humphrey was. at the king's expense and in accordance with the king's musical taste, sent to the Continent to pursue his studies chiefly under Lulli. at Paris. And this marks the transition in English Church music from the old style, based on the Church modes, to the new style that came with the modern major and minor scales and the introduction of the chord of the dom- inant seventh and of the perfect cadence. It was about this time that the Italian opera, with its arias, and the increasing attention paid to instrumental music, began powerfully to affect Church music every- where : and "the influence of the now universally popular dramatic music." says Ritter, "banished from the composer's mind the tradition of a strict Church style. Thus the forms of the opera gradually crept into the mass. hymn, psalm, etc." Of this lighter style of Church music Charles had become especially fond during his exile on the Continent. It is therefore not surprising to find that with the Restoration a new and livelier style of Church music was introduced, abounding in brilliant solo passages and often accompanied by orchestral instruments. This style reached its greatest perfection in Henry Purcell (165S-1695). who had likewise been one of Cooke's choristers, and who is regarded as England's greatest musical genius. The traditions of the Restoration school of composers were continued by Clark. Croft, Weldon, Greene, Boyce. and others. "The compositions of this period. 5 ' says Dr. E. G. Monk, "are mostly distinguished by novelty of plan and detail, careful and expres- sive treatment ot text, daring harmonies and flowing ease of voice parts; while occasionally the very depths of pathos seem to have been sounded." ♦History of Music, pp. 80, 81. 9i And Ritter remarks that in spite of the secular and rather frivolous material with which the composers of the Restoration period had to build up the new forms in order to please their royal protector, "their works present so many fine qualities and are less in conflict with the traditions of a true Church style than might have been expected from the influence of their worldly surroundings." After Boyce, whose works, especially his Full Anthems, are among the best that the English Church has produced, another change took place. There were few original composers, but a host of adapters, who. as Barrett says, "did much mischief by fostering a taste for the insip- idly pretty in Church music in the place of the worthy, the noble, and the devotional." The one notable exception was Jonathan Battishill, whose compositions for the Church are in many respects unsurpassed. A new and productive period — the modern — began with Thomas Attwood, a pupil of Mozart, and prominent as an organist and com- poser from 1787 to his death, in 1838. Among the large number of composers of this period Samuel Sebastian Wesley and Sir John Goss deserve the most conspicuous place for the fine quality of their work. Others well known are Dykes, Hopkins, Ouseley, Stainer, Smart, Gar- rett, Macfarren, Elvey, Calkin, Tours and the two Monks. Probably the greatest fault of many of the more recent composers is a certain nervous striving after dramatic effects. Let us now consider somewhat in detail the musical constituents of the English Cathedral-service. a. The Chant. The English Church, like the German, at the Reformation retained the Gregorian tones for the Psalms and Canticles. The first notated Prayer Book, by John Merbecke, 1550, is an adaptation of the ancient Plain Song to the English words. During the time of the Common- wealth the service, with its traditional music, fell away; but within a year after the Restoration, in 1661, Edward Lowe already published his "Short Directions for the Performance of the Cathedral-Service," in which the eight tones and nearly all of their endings are given according to the Roman Antiphonary; and in 1664 a similar work appeared, edited by James Clifford, Minor Canon of St. Paul's, London. But, as we have already seen, the period of the Restoration brought with it a taste for lighter music, and this could not fail to influence the chant. Composers in the new style began to write chants of their own, which, like the Gregorian, comprised two members — the first consisting of a Reciting Note and Mediation, the second of a Reciting Note and Cadence, but without an Intonation at the beginning of the chant, as in the Gregorian. Some of these chants by the earlier composers are dignified compositions, answering almost every requirement of a proper Church style; but, as under the influence of the French and Italian schools the conceptions regarding Church music gradually changed, and the desire for variety and pretty melodies became constantly more pronounced, the chant too often ceased to be stately and dignified recitative, as it always should be, and became a florid, weak and insipid tune. This was especially 92 true of the so-called double chants, the use of which is always to be deprecated. Nevertheless, among the vast number of Anglican chants, old and new, there are many to which even the most pronounced Gregorianist cannot object. I now have in mind those single chants that, like the Gregorian, move in a limited and easy compass and preserve as much as possible the solemn character and manly vigor of the Gregorian tones. The question might even be raised whether in English churches these are not in some respects better adapted for congregational use than the Gregorian melodies, that is, when the latter are sung according to the traditional method, which, beyond question, is the syllabic. Whether the average congregation can unite in this mode of chanting is doubtful; and yet the Psalm should not be given exclusively to the choir. But when Anglicans are used a difficulty arises in connection with the Antiphon. The music of the Antiphons as we now have it, is always based on the tone to which the Psalm or Canticle that follows is to be sung.; and perhaps others have been as unfavorably impressed as I have been to hear a choir sail boldly from a dignified Gregorian Antiphon into a chant of totally different character and construction. If Anglicans be used I give it as my judgment that the Antiphon had as a rule better be omitted. As regards the music of the Responses the statement might here be in place that the old English is still the best. What Merbecke and Tallis did in this respect has not yet been surpassed or even equalled in the English Church, and both based their work on the Gregorian Plain Song. The endeavor to make sweet, sensuous tunes out of Re- sponses is a perversion to which we are unfortunately obliged to listen altogether too often in our churches. The nearer all the Responses con- form to the recitative character of Plain Song, and the fewer abrupt key changes and chromatic harmonies, the better. b. The Anthem. Another product of the Anglican Church and the artistic culmina- tion of its Cathedral-service is the Anthem. The Anthem is for the choir — in the English churches always a well-trained chorus-choir. Its words are as a rule taken from the Scriptures, very often from the Psalms, though sometimes the Collects and other portions of the Prayer Book are also used. When the Canticles and the Communion Office are treated in Anthem fashion, the settings are technically called "Services/' According to the form of the music, Anthems are divided into full, verse, and solo. Full Anthems consist entirely of chorus, with or with- out instrumental accompaniment. In Verse Anthems, solos, duets and trios hold the prominent place, with little or no chorus work. Some- times a Full Anthem has a subordinate middle verse movement in four parts to be sung only by one side of the choir. The character of the Solo Anthem is indicated by its title. This form, however, always con- cludes with a short chorus. During the first or Motet Period, i. e., from the time of the Reform- ation to about the death of Gibbons or a little later, most of the Anthems are full, and do not need an instrumental accompaniment; in 93 fact, are much more effective without it. The Verse and Solo Anthems originated with the Restoration — the period of the development of the aria and instrumental music, and of French and Italian influence. From this time forward the instrumental accompaniment assumed increasing importance. The organ part became almost indispensable, and elaborate orchestral parts were often added. "In the Anthems of the more mod- ern period," says an English writer, " the organ is exalted almost to the dignity of a solo instrument, many Anthems being written less for vocal than for instrumental effect. The variety of stops, improved mechanism of the organ, and the advanced skill of cathedral organists form a combination too tempting to the composer, who is, in most cases, himself an organist. The tendency of most of the music written for the organ is to treat it as an imitation of an orchestra; this im- proper use of the instrument is influencing the character of the Anthems of the present day; and, unless composers are wise in time, the Church music of the latter part of the nineteenth will be as feeble and as useless to future generations as that of the latter part of the eighteenth century." The Anthems and "Services" of Calkin and Tours are a conspicuous illustration of this sort of writing. But whatever may be the shortcomings of given periods in the his- tory of English Church music, we must not be blind to the fact that in the long list of Anthems and "Services" from Tallis, Byrd and Gib- bons down to Wesley, Goss and others of the present century, there are many of surpassing excellence and beauty. Some of the compositions of the first period are equal to the very best productions of the masters in the true Church style in other lands. Thus "Bow Down Thine Ear," and "Sing Joyfully," by Byrd; and "Hosanna to the Son of David," "Lift Up Your Heads," "O, Clap Your Hands Together," and "Al- mighty and Everlasting God," by Gibbons, are pronounced "master- pieces of vocal writing, which can never grow out of date." And though after the Restoration the character of Church music changed, yet many composers since then have written in a style altogether worthy of the Church, combining in their works much of the solid strength and dignity of the older music with the melodic grace and harmonic beauty of modern forms. Thus not to have Blow's "I Beheld and Lo!" Croft's "God is Gone Up," Boyce's "By the Waters of Babylon," Battis- hill's "Call to Remembrance," for seven voices, Goss' "O Give Thanks," and many other compositions of equal merit would be a distinct loss to Church music. To what extent we can use this music in the services of our Church is perhaps a question. In the Lutheran orders there is no place for the Anthem in the English sense, except it be between the Lessons in the Morning Service at the place of the ancient Gradual, or after the last Lesson in Matins and Vespers where the Responsory is introduced, which is specifically meant for the choir. Nevertheless, however much we emphasize the principle of congregational worship, we do no violence to a correct liturgical practice when we recognize the artistic element by the introduction of polyphonic music through the medium of a well-trained chorus-choir. This, indeed, was a part of the Lutheran 94 conception of worship from the beginning; and thus came into being the motets of Walther, Senfel, Eccard, Hassler and others. But the choir must never assume an independent or autocratic position; and whatever it does to enrich the service, it must do in the spirit of devout worship and to assist devotion. If, therefore, an Anthem be sung, the words must suit the day and occasion, and the music must invariably be of a kind appropriate to the house of God. Such Anthems for the entire Church year it is not difficult to find in the large stock of Anglican music; but let organists and choir-masters have enough acquaintance with the genuine Church music of the. past to know how to separate the wheat from the chaff in making their selections. c. The Hymn Tune. Some time ago, in another paper read in this place, an effort was made to trace the evolution of the congregational Hymn Tune. It was there shown that early English Psalmody was to an extent influenced by Germany but much more by Geneva. The early tunes are therefore massive and imposing. Coming to the period of the English Glee, say from about 1750 to 1830, the tunes produced are found to be less strong and more flowing in style. The modern tune, with few exceptions, is in the free style, often reminding one of the part-song, and not infre- quently abounding in chromatic progressions. Though perhaps none of the English tunes are comparable with the melodies from the classical period of Lutheran Church song, having as a rule a totally different character, yet many of them are so infinitely superior to the light and sentimental tunes and adaptations so often heard in churches using the English language, and have such a noble dignity of their own, that we make no mistake in recommending their use. But here again intimate acquaintance with the true Church style and with the old treasures of Church song is absolutely necessary in order to choose wisely. Summarizing, we would say that Anglican music, especially since the Restoration, has a character of its own, which it is perhaps difficult to define in precise terms. Though no longer in the strict ecclesiastical style of a former period, and judged by this standard perhaps inferior to the compositions of the Elizabethan epoch, yet it cannot in its best examples be said to be modern in the sense of secular music, for it is not secular. Even the Verse and Solo Anthem that new influences extracted from the pens of composers, and which, according to the correct conceptions of public worship, should be used most sparingly, did not always degenerate to the low and vulgar level that might be sup- posed; whilst the "Services" and Full Anthems of the best composers often rise to a noble grandeur and a height of devotional fervor and artistic beauty that at once stamps them as the productions of men who realized that they wrote for the Church and not for the stage. In this respect there is, for instance, a vast difference between the full English Cathedral-service and the brilliant but secular and oft-times noisy masses of a Haydn and a Mozart, who, with all their mighty genius in other departments, did not know how to write Church music, or cared not to do so. . ; } 95 There is then no doubt that in the English school we may find much that accords with the best traditions of our Church and that we can use to good advantage in our services. As Luther did not hesitate to ap- propriate the motets of the Flemish master Des Pres, the melodies of the Bohemian Brethren, the Plain Song of the Catholic Church, and even the Volkslied; and as the Anglican Church is for so many of its good things indebted to us, we may with equal propriety add to our own good stock some of its treasures of sacred song. But once more the caution: Study the old, that you may know what to take and what to leave of that which is more modern.