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Cornell University Library 
 ML 286.R61 1890 
 
 Music In England 
 
 3 1924 022 282 473 
 
\B Cornell University 
 M Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022282473 
 
Professor Ritter's Works. 
 
 MUSIC IN ENGLAND, l2mo, $1.50. 
 MUSIC IN AMERICA. New Edition. I2nna, $2.00. 
 MANUAL OF MUSICAL HISTORY. From the Epoch of 
 Ancient Greece to our Present Time. l2mo, net 75 cts. 
 
MUSIC IN ENGLAND 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. FRfiDfiRIC LOUIS RITTER 
 
 DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC AT VASSAK COLLEGE; AXTTHOK OF "MUSIC 
 IN AMERICA," "the STUDENT'S HISTORY OF MUSIC," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1890 
 
Copyright, 1883, by 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. 
 
TO 
 
 Jfanng. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 When I determined to write the history of musical develop- 
 ment in the United States, I found, that in order to enable my 
 readers to understand the peculiar beginnings and first growth 
 of that development, an insight into the history of musical 
 culture in England was desirable. I therefore concluded to 
 introduce the history of music in America, by that of the imme- 
 diately preceding period in England. Thus my two books, 
 " Music in England " and " Music in America," complete each 
 other logically. 
 
 My reasons for restricting my study of " Music in England," 
 principally to the consideration of what regards the original, 
 productive side of English music, are fully explained in the 
 course of the work itself. 
 
 The idea laid down in the first chapter, " The English Ballad 
 and the Gregorian Chant," etc., I claim as novel. The phil- 
 osophical conclusions expressed therein seem to me of much 
 importance regarding the development of musical art in Eng- 
 land; and, whatever the art-historical merits of these views 
 may be, I have never yet seen the subject treated from this 
 point of view in any other musical work. 
 
 As the question of appropriate church-music is still warmly 
 discussed by different members of the principal denominations, 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 and especially by English and American clergymen,' I believe 
 that an impartial historical exposition of the fundamental rea- 
 sons that have led different churches to accept or reject this 
 or that form of liturgical music, will be welcome to many read- 
 ers, and may possibly contribute towards removing the un- 
 reasonable prejudices entertained by many church-members 
 against music as an art : jnost of these prejudices are based on 
 inherited traditional misunderstanding, or complete ignorance 
 of the subject in question. 
 
 It has been my aim, in writing this work, to do justice to the 
 English musical spirit as embodied both in the works of Eng- 
 lish original composers, and the natural musico-artistic aspira- 
 tions of that people : the result of this endeavor I leave to the 
 appreciation of my readers. 
 
 FRJ^DERIC LOUIS RITTER. 
 
 September, 1883. 
 
 ' Last month, at a convention of Presbyterian ministers held at Pittsburg, 
 Fenn,, musical practice, especially organ-playing in church, received a good deal of 
 condemnation, " The organ must be put out of church, or else it will put us out," 
 exclaimed one of those unmusical clergymen. Had I a voice in the matter, I 
 would second the clergyman's proposition, and put both the organ and singing out 
 of church, and await the results of the operation : I fully believe that after a 
 little while organ and singing would be restored to their old places. (See " Psalm- 
 ody " and chap. xi. of this work.) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The English Ballad and the Gregorian Chant in their 
 
 Relation to National Taste 3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Early English Contrapuntists 22 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Composers of the Elizabethan Epoch .... 30 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Decline of Musical Art under Puritan Rule ... 44 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Revival of Musical Culture during the Restoration . 64 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Music in the Roman-Catholic Church 84 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Music in the Lutheran Church 96 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Music in the Genevan (Calvinist) Church . . . .104 
 
 vii 
 
viii Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The English Cathedral Service 113 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Engt.ish Psalmody 127 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Attitude of our Modern Churches toward Music as 
 
 an Art 146 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 An Historical Summary of Opinions regarding Musical 
 yesthetics, the nature and function of music, as ex- 
 PRESSED BY English Philosophers And Musical Writ- 
 ers. — Christopher Simpson, T. Addison, A. Malcolm . 153 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 From Charles Avison to Lord Kames . . . . .169 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 From Lord Kames to Dr. W. Crotch 194 
 
 MUSICAL EXAMPLES. 
 
 ( To be found at the end of this volume.) 
 
 I. English Dance-Tune from the Early Part of the 
 
 Fourteenth Century 214 
 
 II. Song of the Battle of Agincourt, 1415 . . .215 
 
 III. O Rosa Bella, by John Dunstable . . . .217 
 
 IV. Old Catholic Hymn 221 
 
 V. Luther's Hymn, " Ein' veste Burg," harmonized by 
 
 L. OsiANDER 222 
 
 VI. Psalm CXVIII., by Louis Bourgeois . . . .223 
 
 VII. Psalm CXXX., harmonized by C. Goudimel . . 224 
 
 VIII. Psalm XXV, harmonized by C. Le Jeune . . . 225 
 
 IX. Psalm CXXX., harmonized by J. Dowland . . . 226 
 
 X. Psalm CXXX., harmonized by Ravenscroft . . 227 
 
 XI. Psalm CXXX., harmonized by Playford . . .228 
 
MUSIC IN ENGLAND. 
 
MUSIC IN ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ENGLISH BALLAD AND THE GREGORIAN CHANT IN 
 THEIR RELATION TO NATIONAL TASTE. 
 
 The history of musical development in England is 
 to the art student, both highly interesting and instruc- 
 tive. How are we to explain why a nation that has 
 reached such pre-eminence in dramatic and lyrical 
 poetry, has occupied rather a subordinate place in its 
 original musical efforts, when compared with the labors 
 of the Italians, the Germans, the French j and that in 
 the form which is most closely related to the drama, 
 — the opera, — English musicians never have gone far- 
 ther than to imitate, with more or less ability and 
 success, the works of Continental composers ? Some 
 Englishmen have been endowed with fine talent, even 
 genius, for music. The English are fond of music, 
 and spend large sums in the interest of operatic enter- 
 tainments given by the first living artists; and the 
 works of the first masters of instrumental music find 
 a deserved recognition at the hands of English musical 
 connoisseurs. 
 
 In the following pages I shall examine England's 
 
 3 
 
4 Music in England. 
 
 claim to the possession of a school of music, and state 
 my views regarding the shortcomings of a national 
 English musical development, compared with that of 
 the above-mentioned nations. 
 
 "The English are not a musical people, and the English are 
 not an artistic people. But the English are more artistic than 
 musical ; that is to say, they have produced better artists than 
 musicians. A country is not musical or artistic when you can 
 get its people to look at pictures, or listen to music, but when 
 its people are themselves composers and artists. It cannot be 
 affirmed that Englishmen are, or ever were, either one or the 
 other. . . . Music in England has always been an exotic; and 
 whenever the exotic seed has escaped, and grown wild on English 
 soil, the result has not been a stable and continuous growth. The 
 Reformation music was all Italian and French ; the Restoration 
 music, half French, half German. No one will deny that Tallis, 
 Farrant, Byrd, in church-music; Morley, Ward, Wilbye, in the 
 madrigal, — made a most original use of their materials : but the 
 materials were foreign, for all that. At the Restoration, Pelham 
 Humphreys, called by Pepys ' an absolute monsieur,' is as really 
 French as Sir Sterndale Bennett is really German. Purcell, the 
 Mozart of his time, was largely French ; although he seemed to 
 strike great tap-roots into the older Elizabethan period, just as 
 Mendelssohn struck them deep into S. Bach. But all these men 
 have one thing in common, — they were composers in England: 
 they were not English composers. They did not write for the 
 people : the people did not care for their music. The music of 
 the people was ballads : the music of the people is still ballads. 
 Our national music vibrates between 'When other lips,' and 
 ' Champagne Charley.' " 
 
 The above passage is taken from the work of a mod- 
 ern English writer, Mr. Haweis's "Music and Morals." 
 The author, a musical amateur of fine culture, has had 
 ample opportunity to study the innate characteristic 
 taste of his countrymen, and possesses, at the same 
 time, enough independence of mind to give utterance 
 
English Ballad and Gregorian Chant. 5 
 
 to his opinions. Although the above-quoted passage 
 may, in its general estimate of English musical aspira- 
 tion, be on the whole correct, yet that part of it which 
 refers to the fine composers of the Elizabethan period, 
 however, when compared with the historical progress 
 music has won in other countries, in order eventually 
 to form national schools or characteristic styles, is 
 somewhat unjust, and, considered from a philosophico- 
 historical standpoint, drawn in too narrow a spirit. 
 
 History tells us that the French may claim the credit 
 of having, if not absolutely invented, yet first greatly 
 advanced, the art of harmonic construction, — counter- 
 point ; that the Netherlanders, the Gallo-Belgians, how- 
 ever, were the first to make a more artistic use of the 
 new material; that these became eventually the teachers 
 of the Italians, and also influenced early German con- 
 trapuntists to an eminent degree. But the Italians, 
 once masters of the arts of those Northern contra- 
 puntists, became afterwards, in their turn, teachers and 
 models for all Europe. All the important forms of 
 modern musical art, both vocal and instrumental, took 
 root in Italian soil ; and some of these forms were car- 
 ried, by means of Italian inventiveness and ingenuity, 
 to a high degree of perfection. With regard to the 
 mere outward material employed, Festa, Palestrina, 
 Gabrieli, etc., as well as Tye, Tallis, and Byrd, may 
 thus be counted among the Netherlanders. Though 
 the material which was at the disposition of the com- 
 posers of this epoch was in every country the same, 
 the deeper spirit which enlivened this material, evin- 
 cing the individual intensity of the respective compo- 
 ser's inner life as formed by an intimate connection with 
 the people from whom he sprung, and whose aspirations 
 
6 Music in England. 
 
 in all their characteristics are consequently his own 
 also, stamped the works of the different schools at this 
 epoch with sufficiently distinct marks of nationality. 
 The modern French and the Germans received at the 
 hands of the Italians those forms which lay at the root 
 of modern musical art development. The event which, 
 more than any other, was the means of giving Italian 
 musical cultivation such prominence all over Europe, 
 was the invention of the musical drama, the opera. In 
 France a desire was awakened to transplant the new 
 form to the native stage ; and the at first rather awk- 
 ward imitation eventually became the foundation of the 
 form of a national lyrical drama, constructed in accord- 
 ance with the spirit of French dramatic art, and in 
 harmony with French musical taste, as distinguished 
 from that of the Italians. The material is Italian, but 
 the form of the French opera is in many essential parts 
 different from the Italian. In Germany the same 
 course with regard to the different forms of instru- 
 mental music, as well as the musical drama, down to 
 Richard Wagner, may be traced. But these nations, 
 the French and the Germans, were in the course of 
 time dissatisfied with slavishly copying their Italian 
 models, no matter how effective these models may have 
 proven for the time being: they changed, enlarged, 
 curtailed, ventured to give a new mode of expression to 
 this part, or condemned, from their aesthetic point of 
 view, with critical fervor, such other parts as in the 
 Italian art practice appeared to them illogical or untrue 
 to nature. Thus they gradually transformed that which 
 was at first a foreign material into one wholly in ac- 
 cordance with their own mode of feeling and expres- 
 sion ; or the material, though seemingly often the same, 
 
English Ballad and Gregorian Chant. 7 
 
 was filled with contents entirely in harmony with their 
 own peculiar mood and subjective emotional experience. 
 Thus, while struggling to gain mastery over the ma- 
 terial of the Italians, they discovered the individual 
 powers of their own genius ; and, once on the track of 
 this great discovery, an innate national egotism and 
 natural enthusiasm for art, and the necessary persever- 
 ance, gave them faith in their own powers and labors ; 
 and finally they were enabled to stamp the productions 
 of their art aspirations with an individual national 
 imprint. 
 
 Now let us study the historical progress of musical 
 development in England, in order to enable us to judge 
 whether that which its composers have accomplished in 
 the higher walks of musical production was the result 
 of a similar process of evolution, or mere imitation as 
 suggested by the labors of other nations that have had 
 a musical history. 
 
 Two fundamental elements enter into the musical 
 cultivation of a nation, — the sacred and the secular.^ 
 Both may stand apart, each pursuing its way independ- 
 ently of the other ; or they may borrow certain qualities 
 from one another, and approach each other closely. 
 Let us first consider the secular element. 
 
 The ancient inhabitants of the British Isles loved 
 music ; and many were the minstrels who cheered, by 
 means of their songs and instrumental playing, the 
 frequent festivities that took place under the roof of 
 the princely palace, as well as under the tent on the 
 battle-field. Many of these songs, Irish, Welsh, Scotch, 
 have come down to us ; and their great originality of 
 
 ■ Considered not from an abstract philosophical point of view, but rather from 
 thai of tradition or conventional growth. 
 
8 Music in England. 
 
 melody, and sweetness of expression, are recognized by 
 every one who has any taste for the fresh, naifve, simple 
 beauty which renders the songs of the people so attract- 
 ive and touching, and which stamps them with everlast- 
 ing youth. "The minstrels," says Percy, "were the 
 successors of the ancient bards, who under different 
 names were admired and revered, from the earliest 
 ages, among the people of Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and 
 the North, and indeed by almost all the first inhabitants 
 of Europe, whether of Celtic or Gothic race, but by 
 none more than by our own Teutonic ancestors, par- 
 ticularly by all Danish tribes. Among these they were 
 distinguished by the name of Scalds, a word which 
 denotes ' smoothers and polishers of language.' The 
 origin of their art was attributed to Odin, or Wodin, — 
 the father of their gods, — and the professors of it were 
 held in the highest estimation. Their skill was consid- 
 ered something divine ; their persons were considered 
 sacred; their attendance was solicited by kings, and 
 they were everywhere loaded with honors and rewards." 
 The fact that the minstrels also were held in great rev- 
 erence by the English people, the descendants of the 
 Britons, Danes, and Saxons, goes to prove that poetry 
 and song were highly enjoyed and esteemed in Eng- 
 land. It is therefore very natural that the profession 
 of minstrelsy found many disciples, and that many, out 
 of idleness and from an inclination for vagabondism, 
 entered the ranks of that profession. "This profession, 
 which misery, libertinism, and the vagabond life of this 
 sort of people have much decried, required, however, 
 a multiplicity of attainments and of talents, which one 
 would at this day have some difficulty to find re-united, 
 and we have more reason to be astonished at them in 
 
English Ballad and X^regorian Chant. 9 
 
 those days of ignorance ; for besides all the songs old 
 and new, besides the current anecdotes, the tales, the 
 fabliaux, which they piqued themselves on knowing, 
 besides the romances of the time which it behooved 
 them to know and to possess in part, they would 
 declaim, sing, compose music, play on several instru- 
 ments, and accompany themselves. Frequently even 
 they were authors, and themselves made the poems they 
 uttered.' The harp seems to have been the favorite 
 instrument among the Anglo-Saxons, as well as the 
 Britons and other Northern nations. By the laws of 
 Wales, a harp was one of the three things that were 
 necessary to constitute a gentleman or a freeman ; and 
 none could pretend to that character who did not pos- 
 sess one of these favorite instruments, or could not play 
 on it. To prevent slaves from pretending to be gentle- 
 men, it was expressly forbidden to teach or to permit 
 them ^ to play upon the harp ; and none but the king, 
 the king's musicians, and gentlemen, were allowed to 
 have harps in their possession. A gentleman's harp 
 was not liable to be seized for debt, because the want 
 of it would have degraded him from his rank, and 
 reduced him to that of a slave.^ The minstrels, who 
 continued to flourish until the sixteenth century, 
 enjoyed, in the course of their existence, many privi- 
 leges. They had a code of laws of their own, as well 
 as an appropriate costume. Their favor with the kings 
 and the nobles, their patrons, fluctuated according to 
 the mood of these self-willed princes, or according to the 
 temporary benefit their powerful patrons might have 
 been able to gain from them. Under the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, an act was passed by which " min- 
 
 ' See Chappell : Popular Music of the Olden Time, 1-3. ' Chappell, 1-5. 
 
lo Music in England. 
 
 strels, wandering abroad," were considered as " rogues, 
 vagabonds, and sturdy beggars," and were liable to be 
 punished as such. This act was no doubt instrumental 
 in extinguishing the profession of minstrelsy, which 
 had flourished during many centuries in England, and 
 in the hands of which the cultivation of secular music 
 lay almost entirely. There is no doubt that in England, 
 during the reign of the minstrels, secular music, ballads 
 and dance-tunes, were held in far greater estimation, and 
 cultivated more universally, than sacred music, of which 
 the Gregoriatt chant was the representative. The first 
 was the music, par excellence, of the people : the other, 
 hierarchical in character and practice, was the official 
 music of the Church. Those ballads and dance-tunes 
 bear no resemblance whatever to the Gregorian chants : 
 their whole formal appearance, in a melodic and an 
 harmonic sense, is widely different from that of the 
 Gregorian melody. The min*strels, clever performers 
 on the different instruments then in use, seemed to 
 have invented their melodies in accordance with the 
 mechanism of these instruments. Numerous passages 
 appear where the intervals of different chords are given 
 in a melodic succession, — the chords are broken. The 
 tonalities which lie at the root of the ballads, the 
 dance-tunes, are the modern major and minor keys. 
 The ecclesiastical modes are ignored: the minstrels' 
 could not make use of them ; they were too complicated 
 in their construction to become accessible to the prac- 
 tice of the unsteady, ever-wandering minstrel, who in- 
 vented his tunes on the road. He had no inclination, 
 neither was he pedant enough, to grapple with the 
 ponderous rules of the ecclesiastical keys. I will give 
 here, as an interesting specimen of secular music, a 
 
English Ballad and Gregorian Chant. 1 1 
 
 dance-tune of this early epoch, not later than 1300. 
 The tonality of the piece is our modern major key (it 
 stands here in the key of F-major). It consists of 
 three parts ; each part has nine measures, that is, a 
 phrase of four bars corresponding to a phrase of five 
 bars. The piece was undoubtedly composed independ- 
 ently of vocal music : it is eminently suitable to an 
 instrument. (Ex. I.) 
 
 Chaucer, in his works, never omits an opportunity of 
 alluding to the general use of music in his time. The 
 number of musical instruments which he has named is, 
 considering this early epoch, a large one. There are 
 the harp, psaltery, fiddle, bagpipe, flute, trumpet, rote, 
 rebec, gittern, lute, organ, hautboy, horn, and shep- 
 herd's pipe. (See his Canterbury Tales.) 
 
 Thus we see that England, in its early historical 
 times, was, with regard to its ballads and instrumental 
 music, in advance of other European nations. But, 
 strange to relate, the form of this music was in the course 
 of the next centuries, and even up to our time, scarcely 
 affected by the more artistic forms of the great musi- 
 cal development that commenced, towards the end of 
 the fifteenth century, to make its power felt, not alone 
 on the Continent, but in England also. The ballad and 
 dance-tune complemented each other from the very start, 
 and have since remained inseparable companions, ig- 
 noring all other art-influence from whatever source it 
 might come. But the ballad entered the church, and, 
 later, the opera-house, scarcely disguised by the sacred 
 or dramatic meaning of the words, and, as we shall see, 
 not to the advantage of sacred and dramatic forms. 
 
 The ballad — of slender melodious cut, a distinct, 
 simple, often prosaic rhythm, of a sweet, naive, and at 
 
12 Music in England. 
 
 times rather serious and sentimental expression, resting 
 on the most simple harmonic basis, the tonic and domi- 
 nant, sometimes on the mere outlines of harmonic ac- 
 companiment, careful never to interfere, by means of 
 " too much music," with the clear and distinct enuncia- 
 tion of the words — remained true to its nature wherever 
 it appeared. It never rose above the comprehension 
 of the people : its meagre musical matter, often mere 
 declamation, did not prevent the people from catching 
 the meaning of the words. The art of the learned con- 
 trapuntist found no place there. The ballad-writer al- 
 lowed only a highly transparent layer of musical matter 
 to be used in connection with his verses, — generally 
 one note for evey syllable. He never indulged in a 
 free, swinging cantilena, the melodic expression of a rich 
 musical imagination. 
 
 Now let us consider the sacred element of English 
 musical culture. 
 
 The Christian apostles who, in the sixth century, 
 went to the British Islands as missionaries and preach- 
 ers of the new religion, founded churches and monas- 
 teries, and also established the peculiar form of the 
 liturgy as adopted and practised by the leading 
 Church of the Occidental Christians, — the Church of 
 Rome. The Roman ecclesiastical music, the Grego 
 rian chant, was thus early taught in different parts of 
 the British Islands by monks who had studied its 
 form and practice at Rome. Bede tells us, that, in 
 680, John, precentor of St. Peter's in Rome, was com- 
 missioned by Pope Agatho to instruct the monks of 
 Weremouth in the art of singing, and particularly to 
 acquaint them with the Roman manner of performing 
 the festivals throughout the year. "And. such was the 
 
English Ballad and Gregorian Chant. 13 
 
 reputation of his skill," says Bede, "that the masters 
 of music from all the other monasteries of the North 
 came to hear him, and prevailed on him to open schools 
 for the teaching of music in other places of the king- 
 dom of Northumberland." ' 
 
 From the Saxon annals we learn, that in the reign 
 of Egbert (800), music, as well as the other liberal arts, 
 began to flourish in England. Organs were introduced 
 in churches and monasteries in the year 981. The 
 double organ in Winchester Cathedral had four hun- 
 dred pipes, and required two organists. It was in- 
 tended to be heard all over Winchester, in honor of 
 St. Peter, to whom the cathedral was dedicated. The 
 monks and the minstrels were thus the first teachers 
 of music of the English people. It seems, however, 
 safe to admit that these latter, with their ballads, exer- 
 cised more influence on the people's musical taste than 
 the former with their Gregorian chant. The minstrels 
 belonged to the ranks of the people : " they sung the 
 joys, love, and woes of the people, before the Christian 
 missionaries established monasteries and churches, — 
 long before the " Kyrie Eleison " was heard in the 
 sanctuaries of English cathedrals. The minstrels' 
 melodies even seem to have early found their way to 
 the Church. William of Malmesbury tells us, that 
 when Thomas, the first Norman archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, who- was very fond of music, and devoted much 
 time to its study, heard any of the minstrels sing a 
 tune which pleased him, he adopted it, and formed it 
 for the use of the Church. This example given by 
 Archbishop Thomas was imitated by others, and of 
 course it could not fail to happen that minstrel tunes 
 
 ' See Hawkins, History of Music, i. 371. 
 
14 Music in England. 
 
 corrupted and in many cases superseded the Gregorian 
 chant. 
 
 Now, it is an historical fact that those nations, which, 
 in the course of centuries of musical practice, have 
 succeeded in establishing, in accordance with their 
 own mood of feeling and expression, national schools 
 of music, have based, though unconsciously, the culti- 
 vation of this art on the pre-eminent practice of the 
 Gregorian chant, invented and formed according to 
 the rules of Greek musical theory. This practice is not 
 to be attributed to a premeditated choice, but rather 
 to a habit acquired through the Church ; for during the 
 middle ages the Church was the supreme source from 
 which the people of the Continent received all the food 
 of intellectual life. The secular element, the people's- 
 song, also enters, though sparingly, and then rather as 
 a bridge in order to smooth the path between the 
 people's own naitve emotions, and the more rigorously 
 religious element as represented by the Gregorian 
 chant. It happened even that this latter, in the mouth 
 of the people, often had to sacrifice many of its stern 
 and orthodox versions, to re-appear afterwards as peo- 
 ple's-songs. Thus Le Boeuf in his " Traite Historique 
 et Pratique sur le Chant Ecclesiastique," ' gives several 
 chants as sung in some French cathedrals, which are 
 no doubt variations and transformations of old Grego- 
 rian chants, and which in their present appearance 
 have more resemblance to secular airs. Hoffmann von 
 Fallersleben, in his "Geschichte des deutschen Kirch- 
 enliedes," ^ also gives many interesting historical facts 
 as to the manner by which the German people changed, 
 in order to suit their own understanding, many portions 
 ' Chap. vii. = p. 9, 
 
English Ballad and Gregorian Chant. 15 
 
 of the Gregorian melodies, especially the " Kyrie Elei- 
 son." ' We thus perceive a continual interchange of 
 the strictly religious and strictly secular elements. 
 The former often lent some of its nobler impulses to 
 the other; while the latter, by infusing some of its 
 naive charms into the other, made it in many cases 
 more accessible to the simple minds of the people. 
 This irresistible desire on the part of the people to 
 change the strictly orthodox forms of the sacred melo- 
 dies and chants, in order to suit its own means and 
 powers of singing, received again and again the rebuke 
 of the ecclesiastical authorities. In many cases these 
 latter were, however, not strong enough to build a 
 wall of sufficient tenacity to protect the sacred chant 
 in its intended purity : they were often forced to a 
 compromise, — adapting the people's version, even 
 some of its secular melodies, to sacred words. Thus 
 the people's natural desire and inclination to change, 
 to transform, or to create, found an outlet, as well as 
 a noble basis to build upon ; and the impulse for musi- 
 cal inventiveness, serving as a vehicle for emotional 
 expression, was excited and fostered to an eminent 
 degree. And thus it came to pass that those nations 
 — the Italians, the French, the Germans — who were 
 greatly active in this respect, are enabled to boast 
 to-day of a national school of music sprung from the 
 same fructifying root, the Gregorian melody, but each 
 one branching out according to the peculiar soil that 
 has given it nourishment, and the atmosphere that 
 gave it breathing-room. 
 
 The amalgamation of the two musical elements, the 
 sacred and the secular, does not seem to have taken 
 
 ' S&e also chapter on Church Music. 
 
1 6 Music in England. 
 
 place to such a degree in the early part of musical 
 practice in England. Whatever the cause may have 
 been, an insurmountable wall seems to have existed 
 between the Gregorian chant and the people's music. 
 As far as the musical documents which are at my 
 disposal show, there is very little resemblance to be 
 found b)etween the form and tonalities of the original 
 Gregorian melody, and the minstrel's, or people's, mel- 
 ody. Many of the Irish people's-songs, however, are 
 based upon the Gregorian tonalities. Mr. Chappell," 
 in order to answer the question, " what kind of music 
 the old English ballads were," thinks we may be able 
 to discover their form and character in old hymns to 
 Latin words, some of which have more "tune" in 
 them than would be expected, and that they are our 
 earliest existing means of forming a judgment. " It 
 was not mere natural song with indefinable sounds, 
 but with regulated notes upon the diatonic scales." 
 And in another place our author is still more emphatic 
 in his assertion that the real source of English national 
 music is not the Gregorian chant. Stafford Smith^ 
 asserts that English early melodies, including those of 
 Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, are no doubt derived 
 from the minstrels ; and that they have sprung from 
 the minstrels' practice of descanting, or singing extem- 
 pore, on the plain-song of the Church. In opposition 
 to this view, Chappell thinks that " our old fiddlers and 
 pipers certainly took simple grounds or bases, but I 
 doubt very much that they were derived ff om the 
 Church. There may be accidental resemblances be- 
 tween their plain-song or ground, and the plain-song of 
 the Church ; but the feelings so naturally revolt against 
 
 ' Popular Music of the Olden Time, " Introduction to Musica Antiqua. 
 
English Ballad and Gregorian Chant. 17 
 
 taking sacred muSifc, and applying it to secular pur- 
 poses, that I have been ujiable to trace a single instance 
 of a popular air derived from stick a source. ... If any 
 of the ancient church hymns should be found to resem- 
 ble secular music, it is, in all probability, because 
 they were originally secular tunes ; for we can trace 
 the clerical practice of writing hymns to airs sung by 
 minstrels, in every century from the time of William 
 the Conqueror to the Reformation, and the system has 
 continued to our present time, not only in England, 
 but also abroad. The minstrels were far in advance 
 of church-music, and no melody was to be obtained 
 at that source." Fetis asserts that even long after the 
 Conquest, on great festivals, minstrels were employed 
 as church-singers. It is true, minstrels were engaged 
 in the halls of monasteries ; but I doubt whether they 
 were allowed, even if able, to sing in church during 
 holy office. That the clergy, like the minstrels, made 
 use of ballads for instruction, as well as political pur- 
 poses, is proved by the following fact. Aldhelm, the 
 Saxon bishop of Sherborne, in order to secure the 
 attention of his rude neighbors, was wont to stand 
 on a bridge, and to sing his religious instructions to 
 them' in the form of ballads. Among the devices at 
 the coronation banquet of Henry VI. -(1420) were, in 
 the first course, a subtlety of St. Edward and Sti 
 Louis, in coat armor, holding between them a fiigure 
 like Henry, similarly armed, and standing with a ballad 
 under his feet ; in the second, a device of the Emperor 
 Sigismohd and King Henry V., arrayed in mantles of 
 Garter, and a figure like Henry VI. kneeling before 
 them with, a ballad against the Lollards ; and, in the 
 third, one of Our Lady, sitting with her Child in her 
 
1 8 Music in England. 
 
 lap, and holding a crown in her hand, St. George and 
 St. Denis kneeling on either side, presenting to her 
 King Henry with a ballad in his hand.^ These subtle- 
 ties were probably devised by the clergy. In France, 
 in Italy, in Germany, the mottoes for such an occasion 
 surely would have been selected from the sacred song- 
 book, — the Gregorian melodies. 
 
 Most of the early Italian, French, and German peo- 
 ple's-songs are undoubtedly formed under the influence 
 of the Gregorian melodies, the sentences, the hymns. 
 The early French and Flemish contrapuntists were at- 
 tracted towards these melodies, and apparently found lit- 
 tle trouble in adapting them as cantusfirmus, or themes 
 for their ingeniously constructed masses. Tonality, 
 melodic form, which lay at the root of these secular 
 songs, were naturally related to the ecclesiastical modes 
 which governed the Gregorian. Even the first English 
 contrapuntists selected Italian or French chansons for 
 their contrapuntal constructions.* The songs of the 
 English minstrels, in a great measure suggested by, 
 and formed according to, the prevalent use of instru- 
 mental music, so diligently cultivated in the British 
 Islands, would have proved unmanageable, being in 
 form and character diametrically opposed to the eccle- 
 siastical modes and construction. Therefore, as far as 
 I am able to judge, the peculiar art-practice of the 
 Gallo-Belgian contrapuntists seems not to have been 
 much cultivated by their English colleagues. It is 
 true, the practice of writing church-music on themes 
 of the Gregorian chant was familiar to the early Eng- 
 lish contrapuntists ; even melodies resembling secular 
 
 ' Cliappell : Popular Music of the Olden Times, i. 40. 
 » See Dunstable's Ro=a Bella. (Ex. HI.) 
 
English Ballad and Gregorian Chant. 19 
 
 tunes appear as tenor : but these melodies seem to be 
 of French origin, English musicians having received 
 the practice from their French neighbors. The origi- 
 nal English people's-song and the Gregorian chant run 
 along side by side, like two distinct streams whose 
 waters never mingle. To this circumstance, no doubt, 
 must be attributed the comparatively small part English 
 musicians took, during the Reformation, in the creating 
 of new hymn-tunes, based upon Gregorian melodies, 
 as Luther and his musical advisers have done. The 
 English hymn-tune writers, when left to their own 
 resources, sailed with full sails into the ballad-tunes, 
 and threw the Gregorian melodies, as an unmanageable 
 ballast, overboard, and with them all that grandeur, 
 solemnity, nobleness of form, and eminently sacred 
 expression, which are unmistakably characteristic marks 
 of the original Gregorian chants, as well as of those 
 sacred Protestant melodies derived from them. When 
 Marbeck arranged the chants to the Common Prayer- 
 Book, he reduced the old Gregorian melodies to their 
 simplest musical expression ; all melodic flourishes 
 were cut off, so that nothing should remain but pure 
 musical declamation. He almost brought them to a 
 level with the form of the ballad. Of those many 
 notes sung to one syllable, which occur at the close of 
 some Gregorian chants, and which were called "jubi- 
 lees," St. Augustine says "their object is to paint the 
 fervor of affections, the glow of the heart, excessive 
 joy, inner cheerfulness, emotional qualities which words 
 cannot express." The purely Gregorian melody has 
 apparently been regarded by the English people as a 
 foreign element, only tolerated as the prerogative of 
 the Latin liturgy : it never struck deep roots in English 
 
20 Music in England. 
 
 i>' 
 
 soil. During that important epoch of the Eh'zabethan 
 time, when English church-music reached so high a 
 standard, the secular "nng (thr madrigal)_was_d££iii:: 
 
 edly the favnril-p fnrm r.f l-lir^ pnmpnrnr The Church 
 
 compositions often have the appearance of having been 
 written as a mere religious duty : the madrigals sound 
 as_jfjscrittetnfflder the natural Impnfi^^ joyfu l, happ y 
 fp^iing Th""" impart a certain impression of restraint : 
 these flow naturally, like the song of the bird. The 
 ballad with its natural charms influenced it, and helped 
 to smooth the often a\3ik*an}~corners ol Hie eccles 
 GvggtifQi Vpyg^ »ftiil^ more awkward when coupled with 
 the light-footed English madrigal. Many of these 
 madrigals endeavor to emancipate themselves from the 
 burdensome rules of the ecclesiastical modes : our mod- 
 ern tonalities, tonic, and dominant, peep through many 
 bars. The madrigal thus often sails under false colors, 
 having all the characteristicis of the modern part-song. 
 
 This keeping-asunder of the two musical factors — 
 the sacred, as originally represented by the Gregorian 
 chant, and the secular as represented by the balTad — 
 is, according to my opinion, of great importance with 
 regard to the study of English musical histpry. May 
 we not attribute to this continual estrangement of the 
 above two fundamental musical elements, that unsteadi- 
 ness, that hesitation, prevalent in the course of English 
 musical development, as compared with that of their 
 Continental neighbors ? Even in our day the disciples 
 of English church-music are divided into two camps : 
 one side strongly advocates the adoption of the Gre- 
 gorian chants ; the other, with just as much determina- 
 tion, rejects them as contrary to English musical taste. 
 In this respect, English musical taste, a reflection of 
 
English Ballad and Gregorian Chant. 21 
 
 the emotional life of the people, has proved as conserva- 
 tive as the people themselves. The ballad, the only 
 original musical creation belonging to the English, 
 seldom grows different, never changes much. It has 
 originated no higher forms, but has often had a deterio- 
 rating influence on the cultivation of the borrowed 
 fornis. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH CONTRAPUNTISTS. 
 
 Let us now study more closely the artistic labors of 
 the English professional composers. 
 
 England took an early part in the discovery, practice, 
 and perfection of harmony ; for music, as a science, 
 found encouragement in Britain at an early epoch. 
 King Alfred the Great founded, in 886, a professorship 
 at Oxford for the cultivation of musical science. Nu- 
 merous are the treatises written by early English writ- 
 ers on the science of harmony and other matters having 
 relation to musical practice. I will name some of these 
 writers of musical tracts : W. Odington, Robert de 
 Handlo. These tracts prove that English literary men 
 were wide awake with regard to musical practice and 
 theory. The well-known canon, — "rota" as it is 
 called, — "Sumeris a cumen in," written about 1223, 
 and one of the oldest documents of secular music in 
 contrapuntal form, is a proof that at this early epoch 
 harmonic art must have made great progress in Eng- 
 land.' This " rota," considered from a purely musical 
 point of view, is one of the most remarkable composi- 
 tions of this epoch. The melody, in the form of a ballad, 
 is pleasing and easily flowing; the harmony full, and 
 at times sounding very effective ; the consecutive fifths 
 
 ' See Burney : General History of Mnsir, ii, 407, 
 
The Early English Contrapuntists. 23 
 
 which occur in the course of the canon were, at that 
 time, not yet prohibited. The form of the canon, 
 " Sumer is a cumen in," seems to justify what Giraldus 
 Cambrensis, about 1185, said of the manner of singing 
 of the old Britons : " In the northern parts of Britain, 
 beyond the Humber and on the borders of Yorkshire, 
 the people there inhabiting make use of a kind of sym- 
 phonic harmony in singing, but with only two differ- 
 ences or varieties of tones or voices. In this kind of 
 modulation, one person sings the under part in a low 
 voice, while another sings the upper in a voice equally 
 soft and pleasing. This they do, not so much by art as 
 by a habit, which long practice has rendered almost 
 natural ; and this method of singing is become so preva- 
 lent amongst these people, that hardly any melody is 
 accustomed to be uttered simply, or otherwise than 
 variously, or in this twofold manner.' It is possible 
 that this popular manner of singing in two parts exer- 
 cised some influence on the contrapuntal practice of 
 those monks who presided over the musical service in 
 the Church ; the art of counterpoint resting then almost 
 exclusively in the hands of the monks. 
 
 That excellent musical historian, the late Cbusse- 
 maker, has established the fact, that the invention of 
 the art of sounding one or two additional parts to a 
 given melody, be it a Gregorian chant or a secular 
 melody, must be attributed to the French. The Neth- 
 erlanders received this practice from their French neigh- 
 bors, and brought it to a high perfection. Whether 
 the early English musicians came in contact with the 
 rising school of the Gallo-Belgians, history fails to tell 
 us ; but is it not admissible that the French practice of 
 
 ' Hawkins's H. of M., vol. i. p. 408. 
 
24 Music in England. 
 
 descant, as well as tjie peculiar manner of writing an 
 additional part to a given melody, became prevalent in 
 England as derived from French monks, and especially 
 since the invasion and conquest of Britain by the Nor- 
 mans under William the Conqueror, 1066? Warton, 
 in his " History of English Poetry," says, — 
 
 " England at length, in the beginning of the eleventh century, 
 received from the Normans the rudiments of that civilization which 
 it has preserved to the present time. The Normans were a people 
 who had acquired ideas of splendor and refinement from their 
 residence in France ; and the , gallantries of their feudal system 
 introduced new magnificence and elegance among our rough, un- 
 polished ancestors. The Conqueror's army was composed of the 
 flower of the Norman nobility, who, sharing allotments of land in 
 different parts of the new territory, diffused a general knowledge 
 of various improvements entirely unknown in the most flourishing 
 eras of the Saxon government, and gave a more refined turn to 
 the manners, even, of the provincial inhabitants. That they 
 brought with them the arts, may yet be seen by the castles and 
 churches which they built on a more extensive and stately plan. 
 Literature, which had been reduced to the most abject conditions, 
 appeared with new lustre, in consequence of this important 
 revolution.'' 
 
 But even long before the Conquest, the French lan- 
 guage and French manners were esteemed among 
 the Anglo-Saxons as the most pohte accomplishments. 
 That musical cultivation as practised in France, and 
 especially the French manner of descant, thus found its 
 way to Britain, can be accepted as a certain fact. 
 
 The tract by an English writer of the thirteenth 
 century, lately republished by Coussemaker,' gives im- 
 portant imformation with regard to the oldest French 
 contrapuntists, and says, " There lived good singers in 
 England, and they sung sweetly ; such as masters Jo- 
 
 ■ L'Aftharmonique an XII. et XIII. SiMes. 
 
The Early English Contrapuntists. 25 
 
 hannes Filius Dei, Maklebit of Winchester, and Blake- 
 smit at the court of Henry II." John Fornset, a 
 monk of Reading, who is said to have composed the 
 above-mentioned canon, " Sumer is a cumen in," belongs 
 to the same epoch.' There is no doubt that a lively in- 
 terchange of thought existed between those pld French 
 and English contrapuntists. The Netherlanders, how- 
 ever, eventually gained the supremacy in musical mat- 
 ters ; and in comparing the progress of musical develop- 
 ment in England with that of the Netherlanders, the 
 assertion that these latter by far surpassed, the English 
 is proved by a document of English composition, the 
 song on the battle of Agincourt, 1415. This piece is 
 even far. inferior, in contrapuntal, treatment and melo- 
 dic charm, to the canon " Sumer is a cumen in : " it is 
 coarse and awkward. Recent discoveries made by G. 
 Morelot, of manuscript compositions by English musiT 
 cians who wrote at the, beginning of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, convey a more favorable idea of English musical 
 savoir-faire ; and Dunstable seems to have occupied 
 the first place among these. The celebrated musical 
 theorist Tinctoris, who lived in Naples about 1476, and 
 was the author of the first musical dictionary, had so 
 high an opinion of Dunstable, that he even attributed 
 to him the important discovery of counterpoint. This, 
 however, was not the case. Morelot transcribed one 
 of Dunstable's compositions (" O Rosa Bella ") : this 
 piece gives proof that English musicians were able to 
 do far better than such crude harmonization as the song 
 of " Agincourt " shows. (Ex. II. and III.) 
 
 Towards the latter part of the fifteenth century and 
 on to the middle of the sixteenth, considerable prog- 
 ress may be perceived in the handling of counterpoint : 
 
 ' See Chappell, 1-21. 
 
26 Music in England. 
 
 and the compositions of those English masters who 
 lived at this epoch — such as Fairfax, Dygon, Shepard, 
 Thorne, and others — give evidence of more melodic 
 freedom in the treatment of the different parts; the 
 harmonic material is also handled with more facility. 
 These English masters show themselves well acquaint- 
 ed with the subtle laws of the canon, the ecclesiastical 
 modes, and other points of musical science as then 
 taught and cultivated on the Continent. But, what- 
 ever the merits of those early English composers may 
 be, their Netherlandish contemporaries present superior 
 qualities in many respects : their mastery of the intri- 
 cate arts of counterpoint was greater, the different 
 parts of harmonic construction flowed more easily, and 
 they have here and there attained a charm of expres- 
 sion yet missed in the efforts of the English masters 
 of this epoch. 
 
 The work so well achieved* by the above-mentioned 
 English musicians bore its good fruits ; and, whatever 
 shortcomings their efforts still presented, they laid a 
 solid foundation upon which an art cultivation, yet un- 
 disturbed by hindering outward causes, found an ample 
 and convenient field for higher development. Indeed, 
 the middle of the sixteenth century presents at once as 
 respectable an array of fine composers, familiar with 
 all the musical forms both sacred and secular, as then 
 existed, — one capable of taking a distinguished 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, considered in all 
 its importance, the most remarkable effort in musical art 
 which the English nation can boast of. It was, however, 
 
The Early English Contrapuntists. 27 
 
 a happy circumstance in the interest of the successful 
 development of this school of musical art, that Henry 
 VIII. and his children loved and personally cultivated 
 music. We know that during all this epoch the arts, 
 and especially music, found their patrons at the courts 
 of princes, and in the sanctuaries of cathedrals and mon- 
 asteries. When discouraged at these high places, the 
 arts lived a miserable existence, or sunk into insignifi- 
 cance. With less appreciation of noble music, and less 
 firmness of character to defend its interests, Henry 
 VIII. and his children would have been induced to 
 banish music altogether from every cathedral as well 
 as from the court, as those gloomy, hot-headed, and — 
 with regard to the arts — intolerant Puritans endeav- 
 ored to do. The work so well begun by the above- 
 mentioned English composers, and now so full of 
 promise, would thus have been smothered and undone ; 
 and the unfortunate state of musical affairs existing 
 during the Revolution and Restoration would have 
 commenced a century earlier, and all that England 
 could have had to exhibit to-day, of its past musical 
 culture, would have been but the remains and frag- 
 ments of a highly promising beginning. Compara- 
 tively little enough is left of the works of the masters 
 before the Reformation ; and Hawkins justly complains 
 "that the general havoc and devastation, the disper- 
 sion of books and manuscripts, which followed the dis- 
 solution of monasteries, and the little care taken to 
 preserve that which it was foreseen would shortly 
 become of no use, will account for the difficulty of 
 recovering any compositions of singular excellence 
 previous to the time of the Reformation." Consider- 
 ing the hatred the Puritans gntertained against music, 
 
28 Music in England. 
 
 it is astonishing that so many works of the glorious 
 epoch of the Elizabethan time have escaped annihila- 
 tion. 
 
 All the accounts relating to Henry VIII.'s early life 
 accord in describing him as gifted and adorned, with 
 mental accomplishments of all sorts; and his love for 
 music, as well as his efficiency as a performer on differ- 
 ent instruments, are especially remarked upon. Seyeral 
 of Henry's compositions still exist. One for three 
 voices, "Quam pulchra," gives proof of the king's 
 knowledge of the rules of counterpoint ; but it pos- 
 sesses , no special excellence with regard to inventive- 
 ness, form, or expression. , The charming anthem in 
 Boyce's collection, " O Lord, the Maker, of all things," 
 attributed to King Henry's pen, is the work of ,W. 
 Mundy. That an art so diligently cultivated and hon- 
 ored by the king and the court must have been held in 
 great repute, and practised silccessfuUy by many people 
 in England, is to be accepted as a natural consequence : 
 indeed, frequent is the testimony given by foreigners 
 who visited England during this time, in regard to the 
 fine musical taste and accomplishments of the Emglish. 
 The renowned Erasmus among others, speaking, of 
 them, said "They challenge the prerogative of hav- 
 ing the most handsome women, of keeping the best 
 table, and being most accomplished in the skill of 
 music, of any people." The English cathedral-service, 
 as first established by Henry VHI., — remodelled, of 
 course, on the basis of the Roman-Catholic liturgy, and 
 eventually fixed in more permanent order under the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, — called forth, with regard to 
 its musical arrangement, a practice eminently English 
 in its character, and, at the same time, musical art- 
 
The Early English Contrapuntists. 29 
 
 forms, which, when compared with those of other 
 nations, have just claims to be considered national. 
 These art-forms possess a decidedly individual and 
 original stamp. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE COMPOSERS OF THE ELIZABETHAN EPOCH. 
 
 The English church composers who made their mark 
 under the reign of Henry VHI. and his immediate suc- 
 cessors, and vfho had grown up under the influence of 
 the traditions and art practice of the Roman Church, 
 entered their new field well prepared : their past ex- 
 perience eminently fitted them to put into execution 
 the new ideas required by those changes the English 
 Church saw fit to introduce into its choral service. We 
 know that the liturgical arrangement of the Catholic 
 service was very advantageous to the higher develop- 
 ment of music ; and after it enjoyed the privilege of 
 being intimately associated with those religious exer- 
 cises and symbols of the Church, as called forth by 
 Christian faith, it deepened its ideal contents, and in 
 the course of centuries was enabled to create, as vehi- 
 cle for these contents, new art-forms unknown to the 
 old civilized nations, — the Egyptians, the Jews, the 
 Greeks, the Romans. The English Church (Episcopal) 
 preserved in its service more of the features of the 
 Catholic liturgy than any other Protestant church : 
 English organists consequently found ample oppor- 
 tunities to satisfy their aspirations as composers of 
 sacred music. I shall speak of this liturgical arrange- 
 ment in another chapter, and shall restrict myself here 
 
 3° 
 
The Composers of the Elizabethan Epoch. 3 1 
 
 to mentioning the most famous of those masters who 
 first endowed the English cathedral-service with works 
 worthy of the high object they were written for. But 
 they did not compose only for the Church : they also 
 wrote many charming, highly original madrigals as well 
 as instrumental pieces, these two secular musical styles 
 being then greatly cultivated in Old England. 
 
 Dr. Christopher Tye may be regarded as the first 
 really fine English composer : I shall therefore let him 
 open that important epoch of English musical art. Dr. 
 Tye, born at Westminster and brought up in the 
 Chapel Royal, was the preceptor of Prince Edward, and 
 probably of the other children of King Henry VIII. 
 In the year 1545 he was admitted to the degree of 
 Doctor of Music in Cambridge ; in 1 548, was appointed 
 a member of the University of Oxford. In the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth he was organist of the Chapel Royal. 
 Dr.. Tye, like all the English musicians who lived at 
 this epoch when Catholics and Reformers struggled 
 for supremacy in State and Church, had to set music 
 to Latin words for Henry VIII. and Queen Mary, and to 
 English versions for Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth. 
 Tye was a man of considerable literary acquirements. 
 He undertook to render into English verse the whole 
 Acts of the Apostles, with a view of setting them after- 
 wards to music. The first fourteen chapters were 
 printed in 1553. Though occasionally sung in the 
 Chapel Royal of Edward VL, the undertaking did not 
 prove very successful : Dr. Tye therefore concluded 
 not to proceed any farther in a task that did not 
 promise to answer his expectations. "Dr. Tye," says 
 an old English author, "was a peevish and humour- 
 some man, especially in his latter days; and sometimes 
 
32 Music in Englandi 
 
 playing on the organ in, the chapel of Queen Elizabeth, 
 which contained much music, but. little dehght to the 
 ear, she would send the verger to tell him that, he 
 played out of tune, whereupon he would send word 
 that her Majesty's ears were out. of tune." Dr. Tye's 
 church compositions are, with regard to harmonic (con- 
 trapuntal) treatmerit, estimable works, and. are, though 
 somewhat dry, conceived in, a, truly sacred spirit : they 
 are good specimens of this English .school of. music. 
 The next, master to be mentioned is — 
 
 ,y^^« J/a^*^<:/^ (Merbecke), born about 1523. He was 
 a contrapuntist of no mean order, and stands in the same 
 relation to the musical porti^on of the. service of the 
 English Church, as John Walter, the friend of Luther, 
 stands with regard to that of the German Lutheran 
 Church. In 153 1 he became a chorister, and some time 
 afterwards organist, in St. George's Chapel at Windsor ; 
 and ,spent his early life in the practice of the organ, 
 upon which instrument he is said to ..have possessed 
 great skill. Having secretly favored the Reformation, 
 he, with some others, was apprehended, put on trial, and 
 condemned to be burnt. Marbeck was a man of mild 
 disposition ; and having behaved, in an upright, out- 
 spoken manner during his trial, he obtained the king's 
 pardon, through the intervention of Sir Humphrey 
 Foster, who probably respected him also on account of 
 his great musical abilities. Having thus escaped 
 martyrdom, Marbeck devoted hiniself, chiefly to his 
 musical profession. In 1550, he published the "Booke 
 of Common Prayer," of which I shall speak in another 
 place. Of his elaborate church compositions, few are 
 known now ; yet, judging from specimens Hawkins and 
 Burney give of Marbeck's works, he deserves an honor- 
 able place among his able contemporaries. 
 
The Composers of the Elizabethan Epoch. 33 
 
 Thomas Tallis was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal 
 under Henry VIII., Edvyard VI-. arid Queen Mary, and 
 organist under Queen EHzabeth.^ Tallis, as a composer, 
 occupies an exalted rank among the celebrated Eng- 
 lish masters of this epoch, and as .,a learned' contra- 
 puntist compares favorably /writh his great neighbors the 
 Netherlanders. The style, form, and harmonic treat- 
 ment of his church compositions are, of course, those 
 universally adhered to by the contrapuntists of this 
 time. The voice parts of his motets and anthems flow 
 with great melodic freedom: the harmonies are pure, 
 and used in an effective manner. The general senti- 
 ment, as called forth by the words he set to music, is 
 often given with happy effects, while the formal treat- 
 ment of his motets evinces much originality. Some of 
 Tallis's finest efforts are to be found in th? "Cantiones 
 Sacrse," a collection of motets and hymns Tijrhich he 
 published in 1575, jointly with his distinguished pupil 
 Byrd. Burney, who inserted two of these compositions 
 by Tallis in his History of Music, took occasion to say, 
 " If foreigners should ever deign to look into my book, it 
 is my wish, for the honor of our nation, they;Should see, 
 that, long before the works and reputation of Palestrina 
 had circulated throughout Europe, we had choral music 
 of our own, which for gravity of style, purity of har- 
 mony, ingenuity of design, and clear and masterly con- 
 texture, was equal to the best productions of that truly 
 venerable master." Burney's patriotism carried him 
 here a little too far. In the first place, he entirely over- 
 looked the great school of the Netherlanders, celebrated 
 some time before Palestrina wrote ; and then, the skill 
 and talent of Tallis granted, the inner expression and 
 beauty which give life to the works of the Italian com- 
 
34 Music in England. 
 
 poser by far surpass the compositions of the English- 
 man. In Palestrina's works we find the "_;> ne sais 
 quoi" so abundant that Tallis's best efforts sound, when 
 compared with Palestrina's, somewhat monotonous and 
 cold. Burney was severe on Orlandus Lassus, when 
 he had occasion to compare his works with those of 
 Palestrina ; ' and yet Lassus is much deeper and richer 
 than Tallis. This worthy English composer has his 
 own great merits, he can afford to stand on these ; but 
 do not place him in a false position by such a danger- 
 ous comparison as that attempted by Burney. English 
 writers on music, ancient and modern, are, however, 
 very fond of the phrase, when speaking of the works of 
 English composers, " equal to the best of the compos- 
 ers of the Continent," and similar expressions. Why 
 not judge the art-productions of their countrymen from 
 an independent point of view .' English art has its own 
 right, or raison ditre: why should Englishmen discard 
 their own ideal with regard to music, and find it neces- 
 sary to compare the works of their composers with 
 those of the favorite foreign masters, in order to pro- 
 cure recognition for them .? To say, " equal to the best 
 of the Italian or the German composers," gives one the 
 impression that the writer has doubts in his own mind 
 with regard to the merits of his countryman ; and, in 
 his efforts to strengthen himself in his opinion, he 
 often insults his protigi. This appeal to the foreigner 
 does not in the least dispose the latter to recognize the 
 works of English composers. Judge the English com- 
 poser from an English standpoint, whether it accords 
 with the Italian, the German or French, or not. The 
 English are a nation by themselves : let them have an 
 
 ' Biiiney, H. of M., iii. 314. 
 
The Composers of the Elizabethan Epoch. 35 
 
 art of their own — but founded on original principles 
 of expression and beauty, and not on imitation merely. 
 
 The great service Marbeck rendered to the Enghsh 
 Church by means of his arrangement of the plain-song 
 for the use of the Common Prayer-Book has been men- 
 tioned in another place. Tallis's merit, with regard 
 to the choral service of English cathedral-music, is not 
 less important ; for it was he who first set music to 
 the English words of the several parts of the liturgy 
 which were accepted to be used during church-service, 
 not in simple plain-song as Marbeck did, but in rich 
 harmonic construction, to be sung by a well-schooled 
 chorus. Tallis based his treatment of the service on 
 the old melodies of the Gregorian chant. He, besides 
 church vocal music, wrote pieces for the organ and the 
 virginals ; and, like the ingenious Netherlanders, he 
 left specimens of mere contrapuntal combinations, the 
 general trait of the composers of this epoch. Burney 
 gives a lengthy description of a song for forty parts by 
 Tallis ; who, in this instance, gave proof of being a 
 good mathematician, but a bad poet. Tallis died in 
 1585. 
 
 One of the most famous masters of this epoch of 
 English musical development was William Bird (Byrd), 
 probably born about 1538. He was the son of a musi- 
 cian, and a pupil of Tallis. In 156.3 he was chosen 
 organist of the cathedral of Lincoln, succeeding the 
 composer Robert Parsons, who was accidentally drowned 
 at Newark-upon-Trent. It appears, according to the 
 title of " Cantiones Sacrse," which Bird and Tallis 
 published in 1575, that both artists were not only gen- 
 tlemen of the Chapel Royal, but organists to Queen 
 Elizabeth. Bird died in 1623, universally honored and 
 
36 Music in England. 
 
 respected. Bird, as a cofitrapuntist, was unsurpassed 
 by any other composer of his time. His sacred com- 
 positions are written in a pure and elegant style, im- 
 bued at the same time with a noble expression, fie 
 possessed such mastery over the forms cultivated at 
 his time, that the most complicated ones flowed with 
 the greatest ease and freedom from his pen. Having 
 been one of the greatest organists, and performers on 
 the virginals, then living, he naturally composed numer- 
 ous works for the virginals as well as for the organ, 
 such as fugues, fancies, pavanes, gaillards, and varia- 
 tions on popular songs. These compositions are, on 
 the whole, rather dry exercises : a few, however, aside 
 from their historical interest, still possess some charm ; 
 and several of them, such as the "Carman's Whistle," 
 have been revived on the programmes of modern pian- 
 ists. Bird, in these instrumental pieces, often broke 
 through the rather narrow limits of the old ecclesiasti- 
 cal modes. The modern tonalities, the major and the 
 minor modes, are used in many places with certainty 
 and good effect : this is probably due to the character of 
 the secular ballads, which ignored the old modes. The 
 variations, "The Carman's Whistle," give pi-oof of great 
 ingenuity in the treatment of the theme, in their har- 
 monization which may be pronounced almost modern, 
 in the running passages which contrast with the theme 
 very effectively. The fine canon " Non nobis Domine," 
 which has. become a great favorite with English glee- 
 clubs, seems to have been composed by Bird, though 
 his authorship was for a time disputed. Bird composed 
 masses, motets, psalms, ' sacred and secular songs, for 
 three and more voices, besides many instrumental pieces 
 as mentioned above. 
 
The Composers of the Elizabethan Epoch. 37 
 
 Bird was held in great reverence by his English con- 
 temporaries, partly for his excellence as a composer, 
 partly fpr his refined taste and gentle disposition. 
 "Of Bird's moral character and natural disposition," 
 justly says Burney, "there can, pel-haps, be no testi- 
 mony more favorable, or less subject to suspicion, 
 than those of riva,l professors, with whom he appears 
 to have lived during a long life with cordiality and 
 friendship. And of the goodness of his heart, it is to 
 me no trivial proof, that he loved and was beloved by 
 his master Tallis, and his scholar Morley; who from 
 their intimate connection with him must-have seen him 
 in robe de chambre, and been spectators of all the opera- 
 tions of temper, in the opposite situations of subjec- 
 tion and dominion." 
 
 To the preface of one of his sets of " Psalms, Son^ 
 nets, and Songs, etc.,". the reasons are given, in a very 
 interesting and characteristic style, why every one 
 should learn to sing : — 
 
 " 1st, It is a knowledge easely taught, and quikly learned where 
 there is a good master and an apt scholar. 
 
 " 2d, The' exercise of singing is delightful to Nature and good 
 to preserve the health of man. 
 
 " 3d, It doth strengthen all parts of the breast and doth open 
 the pipes. 
 
 ■' 4th, It is a singular good remedie for a stuttering and a stam- 
 mering in the speech. 
 
 " 5th, It is the best means to procure a perfect pronuncia:tion, 
 and to make a good orator. 
 
 "6th, It is the onlyway to' know where Nature has bestowed 
 a good voice ; which gift is so rare as there is not one among a 
 thousand that hath it; and in many that excellent gift is lost, 
 because they want art to express nature. 
 
 "7th, There is not any musike of instruments whatever com- 
 parable to that which is made of the voyces of men ; where the- 
 voyces are good, and the same well sorted and ordered. 
 
38 Music in England. 
 
 " 8th, The better the voyce is, the meeter it is to honour and 
 serve God therewith ; and the voyce of man is chiefly to be em- 
 ployed to that ende." 
 
 " Omnis Spiritus laiidet Dominum. 
 Since singing is so good a thing, 
 I wish all men would learn to sing." 
 
 Bird's distinguished pupil, Thomas Morley, born in 
 1563, was a prolific composer, and an eminent writer 
 on musical theory. In 1588 he obtained the degree 
 of Bachelor of Music, and became connected with the 
 Chapel Royal in 1592. He seems to have died in 1604. 
 Morley composed some church-music, and much secular 
 music, in the form then popular with English as well as 
 Continental composers. His madrigals, ballets, canzo- 
 nets, must have been liked much by music-lovers : some 
 of these were even published in Germany with German 
 words. Of his church-music, the Burial Service, as 
 published in Boyce's Collection of Church Music, seems 
 to be the only piece now in use. This Burial Service 
 was the first in this form composed to English words. 
 He also wrote pieces for the virginals and the lute. 
 
 Morley was a clever and polished harmonist ; and 
 though much influenced in his style of composing by 
 his master, the celebrated Bird, he yet knew how to 
 value the works of the Italians, and studied them dili- 
 gently. Burney and Hawkins do not credit him with 
 much originality of inventiveness ; but if we compare 
 his charming madrigals, ballets, and canzonets with 
 those of his contemporaries, he is well able, with regard 
 to melodic flow, effective disposition of motivi, and ar- 
 tistic treatment of contrapuntal means, to hold his own 
 ground advantageously. 
 
 Morley's work, "A Plaine and Easie Introduction to 
 
The Composers of the Elizabethan Epoch. 39 
 
 Practical Music," published in London in 1597, was 
 justly popular at his time. It is divided into three 
 parts : the first teaching to sing ; the second treating 
 of descant ; and the third, of composing or setting of 
 songs. The book is in every way an interesting one : 
 the style is quaint and characteristic. Judging by the 
 preface, Morley must have had some enemies among 
 his colleagues ; and here is the way in which he meets 
 those who might possibly not agree with his rules and 
 manner of teaching. After having explained his reasons 
 for writing the book, he says, — 
 
 " But seeing in these latter daies, and doting age of the world, 
 there is nothing more subject to calomnie and backbiting than that 
 which is most true and right ; and that as there will be many who 
 will enter into the reading of my book for their instruction : so, I 
 doubt not but diverse also will reade it not so much for any pleas- 
 ure or profit they looke for in it, as to find something whereat to 
 repine or take occasion to backbiting; such men I warn, that if in 
 friendship they will (either publikely or privately) make me ac- 
 quainted with anything in the booke which either they like not or 
 understand ; I will only be content to give them a reason (and if I 
 cannot, to turn to their opinion), but also think myself highly be- 
 holden to them. But if any man, either upon malice, or for osten- 
 tation of his own knowledge or ignorance (as who is more bold 
 than blind Bayard ?) do either in huggermugger or openly calum- 
 nie that which he either understandeth not, or then maliciously 
 wresteth to his own sense, he shall find that I have a tongue also 
 and that he snarleth at one who will bite again, because I have 
 said nothing without reason, at least, confirmed by the authorities 
 of the best both scholars and practitioners." 
 
 I have only space to mention briefly a few of the 
 principal contemporaries of the above masters : such 
 as Robert White and Richard Farrant, both fine com- 
 posers of church-music; Dr. yohn Bull (1563-1628), a 
 
40 Music in England. 
 
 renowned performer on the organ and the virginals, for 
 which instruments he composed many pieces (he also 
 wrote works for the church-service. It seems that Dr. 
 Bull was looked upon by many of his contemporaries 
 as a musical wonder. His instrumental pieces, apart 
 from their historical interest, are of little artistic value 
 now : they are full of dry, meaningless passages) ; El- 
 way Be-vin, a skilful harmonist and an estimable writer 
 of church-music (Bevin is the author of "A Briefe and 
 Short Introduction to the Art of Musicke," published in 
 1613. The book taught the rules for the construction 
 of all kinds of canon, and was held in great esteem by 
 musicians) ; jFohn Dowland {1S62-161S), a, famous per- 
 former on the lute, and composer of many charming 
 madrigals and part-songs (Dowland visited the principal 
 cities of the Continent as a virtuoso lutenist, and per- 
 formed with great applause . before kings and princes. 
 Dowland was in every sense a great favorite. He also 
 harmonized several church-tunes for Este's and Ra- 
 venscroft's editionslof Psalters). Among these niay be 
 counted the sweet singers of the many elegant, charm- 
 ing madrigals this English school can boast of: John 
 Bennetyijohn Wilbey, Thomas Wee Ikes, Thomas Bateson, 
 jFohn Farmer, Ward, Ford, Mundy, Milton the father of 
 the great poet, and Orlando Gilrdons (i 583-1625), distin- 
 guished by his church compositions, as well as by his 
 secular works, both vocal and instrumental. Gibbons,, if 
 not the greatest of English composers of all this epoch, 
 may certainly be regarded as equal to the best of them. 
 His works are distinguished by elegant melodic design, 
 richness and purity of harmony, great original inven- 
 tiveness, and a clear, masterly treatment of contrapuntal 
 forms. Though Gibbons still roots in the art-practice 
 
The Composers of the Elizabethan Epoch. 41 
 
 of Tallis and Bird, yet many parts of his harmonic mate- 
 rial, regarding tonality and modulation, point already to 
 the advent of a new manner and style of composition, 
 brought on, especially in Italy, by the new dramatic 
 forms of music, — the opera. Gibbons, standing on 
 the threshold of a coming epoch, closes the old one, in 
 every way, in a noble, glorious manner. He had suc- 
 cessors, but none equalled him. Considered from the 
 musical point 6f view of his time, he successfully mas- 
 tered all the forms of composition then in cultivation. 
 An untimely death cut him off in the midst of his 
 labors. 
 
 In summing up the artistic results of this great epoch 
 of English musical cultivation, and in comparing the 
 labors of the above-mentioned composers with those of 
 Continental masters, we find that the principles of con- 
 struction, form, and style, in a melodic as well as in 
 a harmonic sense, lying at the root of their works, are 
 the same as- those of the Netherlanders, the French, 
 the Italians. The ecclesiastical- keys, so subtly con- 
 structed on the basis of the old Gregorian modes ; the 
 arts of counterpoint, from the simplest form to the 
 most complicated ; the manner of combining the differ- 
 ent classes of the human voice for peculiar phonetic 
 effects, in orderto serve as a vehicle for musical expres- 
 sion, —all these things were, in a high degree, familiar 
 to English composers. Although the above masters 
 gave undoubted proof of an individuality of their own, 
 and of much originality, especially in the treatment 
 of secular forms, such as the madrigal, the part-song, 
 and instrumental pieces, yet their manner of using the 
 tone-material cannot be pronounced a peculiarly origi- 
 nal one. They did not open new roads, or invent new 
 
42 Music in England. 
 
 forms ; neither did they influence, in any material way, 
 the advent of the new epoch, based upon the almost 
 exclusive use of the two modern tonalities, the major 
 and the minor, as, among others, the Netherlanders 
 Lassus and Cyprian de Rore, and the Italians Gabrieli 
 and Monteverde have done. They, on the whole, fol- 
 lowed faithfully the lead of the Continental composers 
 with whose works they became acquainted. Though 
 some of the English musicians who travelled on the 
 Continent, such as Dowland, Bull, and others, found 
 deserved recognition for their skill as performers, yet 
 a comparatively small proportion of the compositions 
 of the above English masters seem to have been known 
 and republished by Italian, Flemish, and German musi- 
 cians and music-publishers. To this may be attributed 
 the scant notice taken by old Continental writers on 
 music of the works of the English masters, — a neglect 
 which, in the course of time, contributed much towards 
 a general underrating of the real merit of the works of 
 these excellent English musicians. 
 
 We are all acquainted with the history of Queen 
 Elizabeth's glorious reign. Not alone did successful 
 commerce and great political power testify to the en- 
 ergy, political prudence, foresight, and strength of a 
 great nation, but successful cultivation of the arts and 
 sciences in different forms contributed largely to en- 
 hance the glory of this memorable epoch ; and music, 
 honored and revered in its masters, readily lent its own 
 splendor to an illustrious surrounding. Queen Eliza- 
 beth was, as far as we know, a personal friend of her 
 chapel-masters ; and that king of human intellectual 
 power, Shakspeare, was the admiring friend of the 
 charming singer Dowland, and wrote many a sweet 
 
The Composers of the Elizabethan Epoch. 43 
 
 verse in praise of the lovely art. Is it, then, a wonder 
 that, under such favorable aspects, musical art was able 
 to keep such a high place in England, and to accom- 
 plish so much ? But the Puritans, in their attacks on 
 religious and political abuses, as experienced under the 
 reigns of Elizabeth's successors, were so blinded by 
 fanaticism, that they confounded the cultivation of 
 peaceful art with the sacrilegious works of the demon ; 
 and by destroying the ingenious labors of their nation's 
 genius by persecuting and banishing the artists, they 
 blighted and destroyed one of the greatest glories of 
 the nation, ^ a blow from which England has not yet 
 entirely recovered. 
 
 " Art in its various forms of display, genius in its diversified 
 modes of exhibition, are tiie sources of a nation's wealtli and 
 greatness. Tiie labors of the poet, the sculptor, the painter, the 
 architect, the musician, are but exemplifications of like talent, and 
 demonstrations of similar intellectual power; and their excellence 
 is the standard by which we measure the rank and stature of a 
 nation. Yet this is a truth to which many will give only a partial 
 assent. They assign a subordinate rank, not only to the labors of 
 a single artist, but to an entire region of art which they have never 
 happened to study, and to which they are therefore unable to apply 
 the test of criticism. It was said by a competent judge, that Pur- 
 cell is as much the pride of England as Shakspeare, Milton, New- 
 ton. This assertion such persons would doubt, if not disbelieve : 
 they would wonder to see a musician thus associated. But their 
 wonder would cease if they were able to read and understand what 
 he wrote. They would then discern the same self-sustained power, 
 the same creative fancy, the same bright and original thought, the 
 same intellectual vigor, in his productions, as in those of the poet 
 and philosopher. Every work of genius forms a part of that foun- 
 dation on which a nation's character, station, and form are created ; 
 and their preservation is as much to its interests as it ought to be 
 its pride." ' 
 
 ' The English Cath.dral Service, p. 66. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DECLINE OF MUSICAL ART UNDER PURITAN RULE. 
 
 Until the ascension of the Stuarts to the throne of 
 England, music, as an art as well as a popular enter- 
 tainment, was universally cultivated and greatly en- 
 joyed by all the different classes of the English people. 
 It seems that at the time of ^Elizabeth, " not only was it 
 a necessary qualification for ladies and gentlemen, but 
 even the city of London advertised the musical abilities 
 of boys educated in Bridewel] and Christ's Hospital, as 
 a mode of recommending them as servants, appren- 
 tices, and husbandmen. Tinkers sung catches ; milk- 
 maids sung ballads ; carters whistled ,; each trade, and 
 even beggars, had their special songs. The bass-vial 
 hung in the drawing-room for the amusement of wait- 
 ing visitors ; and the lute, cithern, and virginals, for the 
 amusement of waiting ^customers, were the necessary - 
 furniture of the barber-shop. They had music at din- 
 ner, music at supper, music at weddings, music at 
 funerals, music at night, music at dawn, music at work, 
 music at play. He who felt not, in some degree, its 
 soothing influence, was viewed as a morose, unmusical 
 being, whose converse ought to be shunned, and re- 
 garded with suspicion and distrust." ' Thus music, the 
 social art par excellence, prospered, and contributed 
 
 » Chappell, i. 98. 
 44 
 
Decline of Musical Art under j Puritan Rule. 45 
 
 much . towards the happiness of a people rendered 
 strong . and flourishing, both in its commercial enter- 
 prises as well as in its political organization, by a 
 government faithful to the nation's interest, and ener- 
 getic in maintaining order among opposing parties. 
 With the arrival of the Stuarts, commenced the great 
 parliamentary and religious struggles between the 
 different sects and parties, finally ending in ' a cruel 
 civil war which devastated many parts of the kingdom. 
 The cultivation of peaceful arts was suddenly arrested ; 
 and from this deadly stagnation musical culture, con- 
 sidered in the light of- a national art-development, 
 which under preceding reigns had made such great 
 strides, was afterwards unable to regain its former 
 significance and strength. We meet, in the course of 
 the following epoch, a few men of decided original 
 genius, and much power of inventiveness*; but instead 
 of being able to rely on a high degree of art-culture 
 among their nation, they were foixed, in order to satisfy 
 their ideal aim as artists, to look among the works of 
 foreign masters for models. They often reached their 
 models, but after their death there were none strong 
 and profound • enough to take up the work so far 
 achieved in as hopeful and promising a manner. Thus 
 it came, that, after Orlando Gibbons's death, English 
 musical development went on in an aimless way. The 
 people seemed to care little for its composers : the rich 
 aristocracy, if they wanted music, imported foreign 
 artists, and thought little of their own. There is no 
 doubt that the great revolutionary conflict, which sent 
 the king to the scaffold, and unmercifully banished all 
 art-culture from the Church, public places, and home, 
 smothered, for the time being, all artistic desire and 
 
46 Music in England. 
 
 aspiration. But, on the other hand, if music had 
 taken deep root in the nature of the English people, it 
 could not have failed to break out again in all its 
 natural force and abundance as soon as peace had 
 brought back leisure and toleration. We may point to 
 another nation whose sufferings, during a long period, 
 were most heart-rending, — Germany during the Thirty 
 Years' War : yet so deeply was music rooted in the 
 breast of her children, that, in spite of all obstacles, 
 they cultivated and found solace in the practice of 
 sacred song ; and, after peace was restored, a race of 
 skilful and profound organists were already at hand, 
 who had preserved the art-traditions of former and 
 happier times, and who laid the solid foundation of a 
 German school of music of which Bach and Handel 
 were the two great representatives. 
 
 It is, of course, not absolutely necessary that a 
 nation should be musical in "order to be great; but it 
 cannot be. denied that some links in a nation's greatness 
 will be missing if the natural sense for art is absent. 
 All that the reign of James I. presented of musical 
 glory was an inheritance from the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth. The whimsical, gloomy, yet learned King 
 James, though unmusical, thought it advisable to 
 assign music-teachers to his children. He seems to 
 have given little encouragement to musical culture. 
 During the whole of his reign, musical cultivation was 
 "so little regarded by any of those in whose power 
 alone were the means of encouragement to be found, 
 that professors complained, and not without reason, 
 that the science was destitute of patronage, and was 
 fast declining from the state which it had not long 
 before attained.' King Charles I., when a young 
 
 ' Musical Biography,!. 112. 
 
Decline of Musical Art under Puritan Rule. 47 
 
 prince, received lessons on the viol da gamba, from an 
 English musician who lived long in Italy, where he 
 changed his name Coper into the more euphonious one 
 of Coperario. Charles I. seems to have made consider- 
 able progress on the viol. Playford, in his " Introduc- 
 tion to the Skill of Music," speaks of him in the 
 following way : — 
 
 " Nor was his late sacred Majesty and blessed Martyr, King 
 Charles the First, behind any of his predecessors in the love and 
 promotion of the science, especially in the service of the Almighty 
 God, \yhich with much zeal he would hear reverently performed ; 
 and often appointed the service and anthem himself, being by his 
 knowledge in music a competent judge therein ; and could play 
 his part exactly well on the Bass-Viol, especially of those incom- 
 parable phantasies of Mr. Coperario to the Organ." 
 
 On his ascension to the throne, the Italian N. Laniere 
 was appointed master of the king's music. But the 
 deadly politico-religious strife in which Charles became 
 entangled with his nation, and which finally ended 
 in his own destruction, did not leave him time to culti- 
 vate the arts, and especially music, towards which he 
 seemed very partially disposed. Burney says,' — 
 
 "At his private concerts he is said to have condescended to 
 honour with his notice several of his musical servants, who had the 
 good fortune to be frequently in his presence, and to gratify them 
 in a way the most flattering and agreeable to every artist of great 
 talents, with smiles and approbation, when either their productions 
 or performance afforded him pleasure." 
 
 At the advent of the civil war, English musical cul- 
 ture received a disastrous blow. The Puritans and 
 Dissenters confounded music with Popery : it was con- 
 
 « H. of M., iii. 361. 
 
48 Music in England. 
 
 demned as one of the frivolous arts of the Antichrist ; 
 and therefore it was banished, not alone from church 
 service, but also from the family circle. The musicians 
 and composers of the Chapel Royal were persecuted and 
 dispersed. All the music-books that fell in the way of 
 the unmusical reformers were torn up and destroyed, 
 the organs taken down. Cromwell, however, seems to 
 have had some taste for music. John Kingston, a 
 pupil of Orlando Gibbons, was even appointed as his 
 private organist. All the music which Cromwell's fol- 
 lowers tolerated was the singing of a few simple psalm- 
 tunes. It was not until the return of Charles II. that 
 music was allowed to make its re-appearance in the 
 Church and public life. Charles II., who during the dic- 
 tatorship of Cromwell, had spent some time at the court 
 of France, where he acquired a taste for French music, 
 upon his return to England established, in imitation 
 of Louis XIV., a band commonly called the "fout-and- 
 twenty fiddlers." Antony Wood says, — 
 
 "Before the Restauration of King Charles II., and especially 
 after, Viols began to be out of fashion, and only Violins were used, 
 as Treble- Violin, Tenor and Bass Violin ; and the King, according 
 to the French mode, would have twenty-four violins playing before 
 him, while he was at meales, as being more airie and brisk than 
 Viols." 
 
 The following extract from a writer contemporary of 
 Charles II. may convey an idea of the king's musical 
 taste : — 
 
 " One of his Majestie's chaplains preach'd, after which, instead 
 of the antient grave, and solemn wind musiq accompanying the 
 organ, was introduced a concert of twenty-four Violins between 
 every pause, after the French fantastical light way, better suiting 
 a tavern or playhouse than a church." ' 
 
 ' Roger North, Memoirs of Miisick, 98. 
 
Decline of Musical Art under Puritan Rule. 49 
 
 Charles II. had a slight knowledge of music. He 
 understood the notes, and sung, to use an expression 
 of one who had often sung with him, "a plump bass;" 
 but it nowhere appears that he considered music in 
 any other light than as an incentive to mirth. The 
 king's taste, and consequently the court's also, being 
 partial to French music, English composers, in order 
 to please their patrons, wrote in imitation of Lully's 
 style: later the Italians superseded the French, then 
 every thing had to be in the Italian style. Thus mu- 
 sical development in England, having lost all national 
 importance, began to waver between this or that foreign 
 influence. 
 
 The favorite entertainments of the court of James I. 
 were masques and interludes, a sort of dramatic plays 
 interspersed with music. We know that towards the 
 end of the sixteenth century, the musical drama — 
 the opera — was invented in Italy. The recitativo and 
 the air became the principal elements of the opera. By 
 means of this new form, as well as by the development 
 of instrumental music, the old ecclesiastical modes were 
 superseded by our modern major and minor tonalities. 
 According to Hawkins, it was Laniere and Coperario 
 who first made use in England of the new Italian mu- 
 sico-lyrical style. Laniere, born in Italy in 1568, came 
 to England in the early part of his life. James I. 
 chose him as music-teacher to his children. He was, 
 at the same time, a good painter and engraver. 
 
 " During the reign of James I., the household musicians, those 
 of the chapel, and many others of eminence, whom the patronage 
 of Elizabeth had produced, were neglected, and very little of the 
 royal favor was extended to any besides Lanifere and Coperario. 
 And for this it will be difficult to assign a reason : the one was an 
 
^o Music in England. 
 
 Italian by birth ; and the other had lived in Italy till his style, and 
 even his name, were so Italianized that he was in general taken 
 for a native of that country : these men brought into England the 
 style Recitativo, which had then lately been invented by Jacopo 
 Peri and Giulio Caccini, and improved by Claudio Monteverde." • 
 
 The masques as performed at the court of James I. 
 may be considered as the precursors of the opera in 
 England. They were in spoken dialogue, sometimes 
 in recitative, performed on a stage ornamented by 
 machinery, dresses, and decorations, and were always 
 interspersed with music, both instrumental and vocal. 
 The chief writers of these entertainments were Ben 
 Jonson, John Daniel, and Dr. Campion. The composers 
 were Alfonso Ferabosco, Nicholas Laniere, Thomas 
 Lupo, Nathaniel Giles. Judging from those specimens 
 of these composers' airs which have come under my ob- 
 servation, they are neither well-formed airs nor reci- 
 tatives, but a mixture of songjphrases and attempts at 
 musical declamation. Here and there the form of the 
 piece was merely that of the old ballad. In a melodic 
 sense they stand below the English ballad of this 
 epoch : they are a weak imitation of Peri's and Caccini's 
 style, but cannot be compared with Monteverde's dra- 
 matic efforts. 
 
 The most successful and prolific English composer 
 of masques was Henry Lawes, a pupil of Coperario. 
 To him fell the honor of setting . Milton's charming 
 poem, the Masque of Comus, to music. Milton thought 
 highly of Lawes, as the following lines he addressed 
 to him testify : — 
 
 "Harry, whose tuneful and well measured song 
 First taught our Enghsh music how to span 
 Words with just note and accent, not to scan 
 With Midas' ears, committing short and long." 
 ' Hawkins's H. of M , iii. 38. 
 
Decline of Musical Art under Puritan Rule. 5 1 
 
 Lawes seems to have been, in general, the favorite 
 English composer at this epoch : " the best poets of 
 his time were ambitious of having their verses set to 
 music by this admirable artist." ' Though posterity 
 has failed to confirm the favorable opinion of his con- 
 temporary admirers, yet there is much in the artistic 
 labors of the composer Lawes that merits commenda- 
 tion. He had studied the new manner of the Italians 
 very carefully, and endeavored, as much as lay in his 
 power, to make use of his experience in the setting of 
 the poems, which are generally selected with good 
 taste. His declamation is generally truthful ; and his 
 efforts at musical expression, as indicated by the words, 
 are very often happy. His imagination was not rich, 
 his melodic inventiveness was confined, his dramatic 
 vein rather weak : it lacked fire and intensity. As a 
 harmonist, Lawes does not take a high rank : his efforts 
 in this direction have often an amateurish look. Lawes 
 seems to have had no mean opinion of himself. In 
 the introduction to his first book of " Ayres and Dia- 
 logues," published in 1653, he takes occasion to give 
 his countrymen a sharp^ rebuke for their partiality to 
 Italian music. 
 
 " Wise men have observed our generation so giddy, that what- 
 soever is native, be it never so excellent, must lose its taste, 
 because themselves have lost theirs. . . Without depressing the 
 hpnor of other countries, I may say our own nation hath had, and 
 yet hath, as able musicians as any in Europe. . . . There are 
 knowing persons who have been long bred in those worthily 
 admired parts of Europe, who ascribe more to us than we to 
 ourselves; and able musicians, returning from travel, do wonder 
 to see us so thirsty for foreigners." 
 
 ' Burney, P. pf M-, ijj. 392- 
 
52 Music in England. 
 
 Thus we see, that, from the time the Italian musi- 
 cian began to appear, in England, it became impossible 
 for the English musician to dislodge him. At first the 
 English composer considered it an honor to be able to 
 write successfully according to the Italian manner. But 
 in the course of time this Italian influence in musical 
 matters became a barrier too strong for the English 
 musician to overcome. Being forced, by the predilec- 
 tion of his English patrons for Italian melody, to deny 
 his own individuality, and to imitate-the Italian models 
 in order to please, he was never afterwards able to 
 throw off the Italian tutelage. The English composer, 
 ever anxious to come up to his master-models, was 
 gradually taught to underrate that which in his pro- 
 ductions had a decided English look. An Italian brush 
 and an Italian file were always kept close at hand to 
 smooth down an expression here that betrayed its 
 sturdy English origin, or a seiitence there that had too 
 much Saxon blood in its veins. Thus the English 
 musician lost confidence in his own talent and powers : 
 becoming at an early epoch, by force of circumstances, 
 a slavish imitator of a foreign art expression, he only 
 succeeded in reproducing certain marks of the outside 
 form, and always fell short of that original aesthetic 
 expression which lay at the foundation of the model 
 work. The two elements, the English and the Italian, 
 so vastly different in their innate nature, like water 
 and oil, never mingled satisfactorily^ It was as much 
 a vain effort of the Englishman to write bona-fide Ital- 
 ian arias, as it was impossible for the Italian to write 
 true English ballads. On one side, the Italian aria 
 became burdened with a too prosaic expression : on the 
 other hand, the ballad was bedecked with an abundance 
 
Decline of Musical Art under Puritan Rule. 53 
 
 of fantastical ornaments that made it appear frivolous, 
 if not ludicrous. Hence that double-faced style of the 
 modern English ballad. 
 
 Those Englishmen who patronized music, witnessing 
 the failure of the English composer to beat the Ital- 
 ians on their field, lost confidence in their countryman, 
 who, though he had fairly tried to metamorphose him- 
 self into an Italian songster, was compelled to be satis- 
 fied with the grains. that here and there fell from the 
 well-supplied Italian table. Being discouraged by his 
 own people, he became more and more timid and uncer- 
 tain in his artistic endeavor : what he attempted to do 
 was surpassed by the foreigner, and what he could have 
 done very well was underrated by his people and never 
 wanted. The Englishman of culture became too rich 
 to take the trouble to create and sing his own songs. 
 Music, in his eyes, was a pleasing means of passing the 
 time ; and as he could afford to buy it where it could 
 display its greatest charms, he bought it, and cared lit- 
 tle whether it was Italian, French, or German — pro- 
 vided only that it was not English. 
 
 Another English composer, superior to Lawes with 
 regard to knowledge and skill, was Matthew Lockt 
 Though bred among the traditions of English cathedral- 
 music, in the composition of which he displayed great 
 skill and ingenuity, yet, like other composers of this 
 epoch, he enlisted among those, who wrote for the stage. 
 Burney ' thinks that Lock was the first to furnish the 
 English stage with music " in which a spark of genius 
 was discoverable ; and who was, indeed, the best secu- 
 lar composer our country could boast till the time of 
 Purcell." Lock, on account of his reputalion, was en- 
 
 ■ H. of M., iii. 420. 
 
54 Music in England. 
 
 gaged to compose music for the public entry of King 
 Charles II. In 1656 he published " Little Consort of 
 three parts, containing Pavans, Ayres, Corantes, Sara- 
 bands." In the preface to these pieces, Lock, who 
 must have felt the injustice of seeing foreign musicians 
 preferred to the English ones, takes occasion to censure 
 those who hanker after foreign music. Among the 
 pieces for the stage for which Lock composed instru- 
 mental music, we find the "Tempest," as altered by 
 Dryden. But the music to "Macbeth," which passes 
 for having been composed by Lock, is the composition 
 of Richard Leveridge, and was performed for the first 
 time Jan. 25, 1704, Lock, towards the latter part of 
 his life, became a Roman Catholic, and died in 1677. 
 R. North ' says of this composer, that he " was the 
 most considerable master of musick after Jenkins fell 
 off. He was organist at Somei'set hous chappell as 
 long as he lived, but the Italian masters, that served 
 there, did not approve of his manner of play, but must 
 be attended by more polite hands ; and one while one 
 Sabinico, and afterwards Sig. Baptisto Draghi used the 
 great organ, and Lock (who must not be turned out of 
 his place, nor the execution) had a small chamber organ 
 by, on which he performed with them the same services. 
 In musick he had a robust vein, and many of his com- 
 positions went about; he set most of the psalmes to 
 musick in parts ; for the use of some virtuoso ladyes 
 in the city ; and he composed a magnifick consort in 4 
 parts after the old style, which was the last of the kind 
 that hath been made. . . . He conformed at last to the 
 modes of his time, and fell into the theatricall way, 
 and composed to the semioperas divers pieces of vocall 
 
 ' Memoirs of Musick, p. 95, 
 
Decline of Musical Art under Puritan Rule. 55 
 
 and instrumental! entertainment, with very good suc- 
 cess ; and then gave way to divine Purcell, and others, 
 that were coming full sail into the superiority of the 
 musicall faculty." 
 
 Although the masques bear some resemblance to 
 opera, it is curious, that, in spite of the popularity 
 which the Italian opera form gained even outside of 
 Italy, the English composers never ventured to trans- 
 plant that lyrico-dramatic form to their own country, 
 and reconstruct or metamorphose it according to the 
 genius of their own language. They studied the 
 " dramma per musica," iraitdLtQA. some parts of it, but 
 failed, either from timidity, incapacity, or from want of 
 encouragement, to take the decisive step, in order to 
 transform the masques into a real musico-lyrical drama. 
 The name of " opera " has often been used erroneously 
 in connection with plays written for the purpose of 
 offering an opportunity to introduce instrumental in- 
 terludes and songs. 
 
 Theatrical performances, interspersed with music, 
 were very much cultivated, and encouraged by King 
 Charles II., who, while staying at the court of France, 
 acquired a great predilection for French taste in amuse- 
 ments. French opera was performed at the English 
 court in 1672. Cambert, whom Lully had superseded 
 in Paris, came to London, and succeeded in having his 
 opera "Pomona" performed at court, and, it seems, 
 in the original (French) language ; but it met with in- 
 different success. In 1674 his "Ariadne," translated 
 into English, was represented. I am unable to deduce 
 from English writers on the subject what the success 
 of "Ariadne" amounted to. Chouquet ' says, "Cambert 
 
 ' Histoire de la Musique dramatique en France, p. 103. 
 
56 Music in England. - 
 
 was forced to go to England, where he produceid . his 
 'Ariadne ' with applause." Cambert's efforts seem 
 to have excited no emulation among his English col- 
 leagues. They went on writing music- to plays, and 
 masques as before. It appears that English audiences 
 were still more anxious to catch the sense of the words, 
 when accompanied with music, than the .French. A 
 florid melody or a rich harmony was not appreciated 
 by them if the words were in the least obscured, by 
 such musical means. Music was only tolerated as a 
 kind of highly transparent tonal gauze over the words. 
 The general English public did not find any satisfac- 
 tion in purely musical expression: they rendered, it 
 subordinate to the literary meaning of the words. 
 
 Instrumental music, as practised by minstrels, was 
 early cultivatied in England. In a previous chapter I 
 have given a specimen of an old instrumental piece. 
 But pieces set according to the rules of counterpoint, 
 and based upon the forms of vocal music, are the prod- 
 uct of the contrapuntists who lived in the second 
 half of the sixteenth century. These English musi- 
 cians, like those of the Continent, composed madrigals 
 to be .sung, as well as played by different instruments. 
 Among others, the celebrated lutenist Dowland pub- 
 lished, in 1597, "The first book of Songes or Ayres 
 of foure parts with Tablature for the Lute. So made 
 that all the parts together, or either of them severally 
 may be sung to the Lute, Orpherian, or Viol de 
 Garaba." But gradually the instruments learned to 
 depend on their own resources, and form parts inde- 
 pendent of those of vocal music. Instrumental pieces 
 called fancies, fantasias, etc., began to be written ; and 
 Robert White, a composer of fine church-music, is 
 
Decline of Musical Art under Puritan Rule. 5 7 
 
 pointed out as probably the first English composer 
 who made use of the title "fancies." The form of 
 these fancies, however, does not much vary from that 
 of the madrigal (canzon). Chr. Simpson, in his ," Com- 
 pendium of Practical Musick," says, — , 
 
 " The chief and most excellent, for Art and Contrivance, are 
 Fancies, of 6, 5, 4 and 3 Parts, intended commonly for Viols. In 
 this sort of Musick the Composer (being not hmited to words) 
 doth employ all his Art and Invention solely about the bringing in 
 and carrying on of Fuges. . . . When' he has tryed all the several 
 ways- which he thinks fit to be used therein ; he takes some other 
 Point, and does the like with it, or else, for variety, introduces 
 some chromatic Notes, with Bindings and Intermixtures of Dis- 
 cords ; or, falls into some lighter Humour like a Madrigal, or what 
 else his own fancy shall lead him to ; but still concluding with 
 something which hath Art and Excellency in it. 
 
 "Of this sort youttiay see many Compositions made heretofore 
 in England by Alfonso Ferabosco, Coperario, Lupo, White, Ward, 
 Mico, Dr. Golman, and many more how successful. Also by Mr. 
 Jenkins, Mr. Lock, and divers other excellent men, Doctors and 
 Batchelors in Musick, yet living. This kind of Musick, (the more 
 is the pity) is now much neglected by reason of the scarcity of 
 Auditors that understand it : their Ears bemg better acquainted 
 and more delighted with light and airy Musick. . . . You need 
 not seek Outlandish Authors, especially for Instrumental Musick; 
 no Nation (in my opinion) being equal to the English in that way ; 
 as well for their excellent, as their various and numerous Consorts 
 of 3, 4, 5 and 6 Parts, made properly for Instruments ; of all which 
 (as I said) Fancies are the Chief." 
 
 From this last passage of the above quotation, it may 
 be seen that English composers, for a time, stood high 
 in the estimation of their English colleagues. North ' 
 says to the same effect, — 
 
 " And as alterations with endeavor to advance are continually 
 
 ■ M. of M., p. 73. 
 
58 Music in England. 
 
 prefered, so the Italian masters, who alwais did, or ought to lead 
 the van in musick, printed pieces, they called Fantazias, wherein 
 was air and variety enough ; and afterwards these were imitated 
 by the English, who worlcing more elaborately, improved upon 
 their patterne, which gave occasion to an observation, that in 
 vocall, the Italians, and in the instrumental! musick the English 
 excelled." 
 
 Still more outspoken, in this regard, is Mr. Lock. I 
 quote the following passage from his preface to his 
 "Little Consort of three Parts, 1656:" — 
 
 " And for those Mountebanks of wit, who think it necessary to 
 disparage all they met with of their own country-men's, because 
 there have been and are some excellent things done by strangers, 
 I shall make to tell them (and I hope my known experience in this 
 science will enforce them to confess me a competent Judge) that I 
 never saw yet any Forrain Instrumental Compositions (a few 
 French Corants excepted) worthy an Englishman's transcribing." 
 
 These musicians and writers, smarting under the 
 neglect and injustice English composers then already 
 experienced at the hands of their countrymen, went, 
 however, a little too far in their condemnation of 
 "Forrain Instrumental Compositions." While Enghsh 
 composers were still busy writing their " Fancies " and 
 " Little Consorts," Italian composers had already made 
 an effective use of the violin in conjunction with viols, 
 and by this had gained a greater compass and more bril- 
 liancy for their works : while, at the same time, the mod- 
 ern instrumental form, the sonata, had already received 
 at their hands a more careful and effective development ; 
 witness some of the instrumental pieces by Allegri, 
 Merulo, Neri, Legrenzi, and others. The Italians, 
 then, as the Hon. R. North said, "did lead the van in 
 musick," and remained for a long time masters of the 
 situation. 
 
Decline of Musical Art under Puritan Rule. 59 
 
 Let us now examine the construction, character, and 
 expression of the fancies of some of the best English 
 composers of this epoch, such as O. Gibbons, M. Lock, 
 and Jenkins. When Chr. Simpson wrote his "Com- 
 pendium," Orlando Gibbons's fancies must have been 
 already forgotten, or considered antiquated : otherwise 
 that writer, who mentioned so many English composers 
 of instrumental music, could not have failed to men- 
 tion the celebrated Orlando also. The form of Gib- 
 bons's " Fancies in three Parts," ' is that of the madrigal 
 and motet. The parts follow each other in fugue or 
 canon style. The compass of each part is similar to 
 that of vocal music. The composer is still hanging on 
 the leading-strings of vocal music as then written : only 
 here and there the instruments attempt passages some- 
 what different from vocal ones, and more in accordance 
 with the technique of the viols. There is little trace 
 yet of a predominant motivo, serving as fundamental 
 thought to the movement : a group of motivi is worked 
 out, and afterwards chased and superseded by the ar- 
 rival of a new group. The " cantare e sonare" still 
 haunts the composer. The instruments, though strug- 
 gling for a freer individual life, still walk on the stilts 
 borrowed from vocal music. The tonality is still gov- 
 erned by the old ecclesiastical modes, which lend to the 
 musical expression an archaic quaintness which has a 
 strange effect upon modern ears. But, in spite of all 
 these qualities, there is much life in the different parts, 
 and continual motion characterizes every fancy. Those 
 acquainted with Gibbons's vocal pieces will discover in 
 these fancies a peculiar charm common to all of this 
 excellent composer's works. To Burney's refined ears, 
 these pieces sounded "utterly contemptible." 
 
 " Edited by Rimbault for the Musical Antiquarian Society. 
 
6o Music in England. 
 
 An Englishman who really had genius for instru- 
 mental music was John Jenkins, born in 1592. He 
 composed numerous works, and enjoyed a great repu- 
 tation during his life. Besides vocal pieces, he wrote 
 principally for the lute and viols. The violin was at 
 first not considered fit for artistic music by the English 
 composer : it was left to the vulgar hands of the peasant 
 fiddlers to play to their dances. But the importance 
 which ' the violin gained with Italian composers and 
 violinists began to influence English musicians ; and 
 Jenkins, in 1660, published twelve sonatas for two vio- 
 lins and a bass, with a thorough-bass for the organ or 
 theorbo. Thus the Italian form of the sonata also 
 served as model to English composers, and the old 
 form of fancies was gradually discarded. Jenkins, in 
 his fancies and sonatas, exhibits a true instrumental 
 style. The motivi, especially in ^ the sonatas, are in- 
 vented in accordance with the technique and charac- 
 ter of stringed instruments : the different parts move 
 with freedom and ease ; the melodic element, as con- 
 genial to stringed instruments, is graceful and fluent. 
 The tonality, though showing here and there yet a 
 reminiscence of the old ecclesiastical modes, is modern 
 in its coloring. The chromatic element, as used in 
 relation to modern major' and minor modes, already 
 plays a conspicuous rdle, and is often used with great 
 ingenuity. North ' says of Jenkins, ■ — 
 
 " His Fancys were ful of ayry points : graves, triplas, and other 
 variety, and his lesser pieces imitated the dulcer of the Lute-les- 
 sons, of which he composed multitudes; and all that he did until 
 his declyning age, was lively, decided, and (if I. may be credited) 
 cappriccioso. And of this kind there was horsloads of his works, 
 
 ■ M. of M., 88. 
 
Decline of Musical Art under Puritan. Rule. 6 1 
 
 which were dispersed, about, and very few Game together-into the 
 same hands ; but the private musick in England was, in great 
 measure supplyed by him ; and they were courted, becaus his style 
 was new, and (for the time) difficult, for he could hardly forbear 
 divisions and some of his consorts was too full of them. And if 
 that, as modern caprice will have it, be a recommendation, his 
 compositions \iiranted it not; but this is further to be said of him, 
 that being an g.ccomplishe,d,, master of the viol, all. ,hi,s jnoveiiients 
 lay fair for the, hand and were not so jiajrd as seemed. . . . It will 
 be asked how it can consisit that the musick of, Mr. Jenkins, if it 
 were such as here is pretended, should be so much layed aside, or 
 rather, contemned as it is, when the art is thought to be arrived at 
 a perfection. , This would, be, harder tQ answer, if it were not a 
 great truth, .^|icl notorious, that every age since Apollo, did pot say 
 the same thing of thpmusigkof their time. , F,or nothing is more 
 fg,shion than musickj no^not cloathes, or language, either of which 
 is made a, derision to after times. . . . This (Mr. Jenkins') style is 
 thought to be slow, heavy, moving from concord to concord, and 
 consequently dull. And I graat that he was. obnoxious to an 
 excess the english were, and I believe yet are obnoxious too — 
 and.that is perpetually moving up and downe, without ,much salta- 
 lipn and bfittering as the Italians use." , 
 
 The Italian musicians were all along dangerous neigh- 
 bors to the English eomposers. Among ihe. English 
 instrumental eomposers of this time, Jenkins was the 
 most important. Though he did not live to see the new 
 forms reach a higher development, he nevertheless was 
 progressive enough to try his hand at them ; and his 
 efforts in the new direction were highly praiseworthy. 
 Orlando Gibbons and John Jenkins may be considered 
 as the representative composers of a form of English 
 instrumental music — the contrapuntal fancy— ^ which 
 formed an interesting episode in original English mu- 
 sical production. 
 
 The political- and; religious events which agitated 
 England during the greater part< of the seventeenth 
 
62 Music in England. 
 
 century did not afford the successors of O. Gibbons 
 the necessary repose and leisure for the practice of a 
 difficult art. To this insecure and harassing state of 
 things, may be added the new reforms which Italian 
 composers began to introduce after the invention of 
 the opera. The modern tonalities that began to super- 
 sede the ecclesiastical keys impressed upon the forms 
 of music new character and new aesthetic meaning. 
 English musicians could not afford to ignore the re- 
 forms and inventions hailing from Italy. The English 
 composer, conservative by nature, battled bravely with 
 the Italians, and was at first slow in accepting the 
 Italian style ; but he eventually had to give way to his 
 more brilliant antagonist, especially because musical 
 audiences began to side with the foreigner. Then not 
 alone secular music, but church-music also, became 
 transformed. 
 
 The principal English church-composers of this epoch 
 were Childs, Batten, Rogers, Lawes, and Lock. Wil- 
 liam Childs, a pupil of E. Bevin, still roots in the 
 l)ractice of the musicians of the Elizabethan age. He 
 conscientiously strove to walk in the path of his great 
 predecessors, and his works for the Church still pre- 
 sent many of the good qualities to be found in the com- 
 positions of his great models. He was little influenced 
 by the new reforms. His works; as to be found in 
 Boyce's collection, are written entirely in harmony with 
 the old traditions of the English church-composers. 
 The harmonic construction is rather rich, the modula- 
 tions are simple, but effective, the melodic flow of the 
 parts is natural and easy. The compositions of Batten 
 and Rogers are useful contributions to the stock of 
 English church-music : they do not exhibit much in- 
 
Decline of Musical Art under Puritan Rule. 63 
 
 ventive power, or great depth of harmonic treatment. 
 William Lawes, a brother of Henry Lawes, an indus- 
 trious composer of fancies, devoted some of his efforts 
 to church-music. Boyce gives an anthem by this com- 
 poser, which Burney pronounces the "best and most 
 solid of Lawes's compositions." The form of the an- 
 them presents certain points of style which later Eng- 
 lish composers adopted. Lawes's anthem is composed 
 of short phrases, loosely connected. The themes are 
 not original. The modulations are based on the mod- 
 ern keys, and some passages are rather effective ; but 
 the work lacks unity of style and compactness. The 
 dialogue of the masques has been transferred to the 
 anthem. The periods do not follow each other in an 
 easy, natural way : they sound " cut up," hung together 
 as by an effort. Matthew Lock's anthem, "Lord," etc., 
 is composed in a similar form ; but. Lock's mastery 
 having been greater, every thing is done with more 
 art. The declamation is more forcible, and the differ- 
 ent parts follow each other with more life and design. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 REVIVAL OF MUSICAL CULTURE DURING THE RESTORATION. 
 
 After the Restoration the Royal Chapel had to be 
 reconstructed, a choir formed, organists re-engaged, and 
 instructors found in order to train efificient church- 
 singers. It was, however, at lirst a difScult task to 
 arrive at a satisfactory re-organization. During the 
 rebellion choirs and organists had been dispersed and 
 silenced. King Charles II. appointed Capt. Cooke as 
 instructor and master of ^le children, of the Chapel 
 Royal. Capt. Cooke had received his musical educa- 
 tion in King Charles I.'s chapel. When the war of 
 the rebellion broke out, Cooke joined the king's army, 
 and received the commission of captain. His appoint- 
 ment in the Chapel Royal by Charles II. was probably 
 due to his fidelity to the king's house, and probably 
 also, as Antony Wood said, " that he was esteemed the 
 best musician of his time : " there was a great scarcity 
 of able musicians then. And if it is true that the 
 growing talent of his pupil Pelham Humphrey caused 
 him such mental anxiety that "he died with great dis- 
 content," he must have been aware of his shortcomings, 
 and afraid of being superseded by his pupil. Cooke 
 was a dry, unimaginative composer ; and, says Burney, 
 "if we judge of that by his few seculp.r compositions 
 dispersed in the collections of the time, he was little 
 64 
 
Revival of Musical Culture. 65 
 
 fitted for the high office to which he was appointed at 
 the Restoration." His reputation as a musician seemed 
 to have rested more on the score of his singing than 
 on that of his talent as a composer. He was, probably, 
 well enough qualified to instruct and discipline the 
 young growth of English musicians confided to his 
 care : and in this he was favored by luck ; for, among 
 the children of the Royal Chapel, several boys full of 
 talent happened to become his pupils, and afterwards 
 distinguished composers. Whether these young artists 
 owed much of their knowledge to their first musical 
 instructor, Gapt Cooke, history has failed to tell us : 
 certain it is, however, that the subsequent fame of these 
 pupils of the Royal Chapel saved the name of the 
 musical captain from sinking into oblivion. Among 
 these young English musicians were Humphrey, Wise, 
 and Blow. The boy Henry Purcell also was under 
 Capt. Cooke's tuition from his sixth year to his four- 
 teenth. I have already had occasion to mention that 
 Charles II.'s musical taste was for French music. It 
 is therefore not astonishing that the king, who seemed 
 to have taken great interest in the promising talents of 
 those boys, pointed out to them the masters and the 
 works he wished them to study and imitate. One of 
 these boys, — perhaps the most talented of them, — 
 Pelhain Humphrey, was therefore sent to Paris to pur- 
 sue his studies under Lully. This lyrico-dramatic com- 
 poser's influence in musical matters, at the court of 
 Louis XIV., was boundless. All this must have greatly 
 impressed such a receptive and easily excitable mind 
 as that of the young English musician. The splendor 
 of Lully's musico-dramatic representations, as directed 
 by the arbitrary composer himself, must have made 
 
66 Music in England. 
 
 all that young Humphrey had experienced of English 
 musical life appear indifferent and crude. Under the 
 influence of Lully's instructive and artistic guidance, 
 Humphrey made rapid progress ; and it seems but nat- 
 ural that the young artist, enjoying the privilege of 
 such great advantages, began to entertain a high opin- 
 ion of his own powers. He soon felt himself superior 
 to his old master Cooke, in knowledge and artistic pres- 
 tige ; and after his return to England was surely looked 
 up to by his former companions. At the same time he 
 seems to have been a favorite with King Charles H. 
 Pepys in his Diary' says (Nov. 15, 1667), — 
 
 " Home, and there I find, as I expected, Mr. Caesar and little 
 Pelham Humphrey, lately returned from France, and is an absolute 
 Monsieur, as full of form and confidence and vanity, and dispar- 
 ages everything, and everybody's skill but his own. But to hear 
 how he laughs at all the king'j musick here, as Blagrove and 
 others, that they cannot keep time, nor understand anything ; and 
 the Grebus [Grabu, an obscure French musician], the Frenchman, 
 the king's master of musick, how he understands nothing, nor can 
 play on any instrument, and so cannot compose ; and that he will 
 give him a lift out his place; and be and the king are mighty 
 great." 
 
 After the death of Capt. Cooke, in 1672, Humphrey 
 was appointed master of the children, — a position he 
 did not enjoy long; for two years after, 1674, when only 
 twenty-seven years old, death cut short a career which 
 commenced in such a promising and brilliant manner. 
 
 Humphrey possessed fine qualities as a composer. 
 There is much sweetness and charm in his melodies ; 
 his harmonic treatment, as well as the expressive dec- 
 lamation of the words he set to music, give proof of 
 
 • See Dr. F. Huffer's article in the Musical Times. 
 
Revival of Musical Culture. 67 
 
 a highly artistic, intelligent mind. Young Humphrey, 
 full of activity, trusting in his own powers, gifted with 
 melodic inventiveness, and desirous to please his royal 
 protector, busily composed in the forms and style of his 
 French models. As the English at' that time had no 
 opera librettos to set to music, Humphrey transferred 
 Lully's style to the setting of his anthems. He felt 
 the power in him to achieve something eminent, and 
 endeavored to discard the old English manner of com- 
 posing. In his verse anthems he made the solo voices 
 declaim and sing, as Lully made the heroes and hero- 
 ines of his operas declaim and sing. Even the chorus 
 is dramatized : there is life and vivid expression every- 
 where. Had Pelham Humphrey had the chance to set 
 a good dramatic libretto to music, according to Lully's 
 form, he surely would have enriched the English stage 
 with an important work, and his influence in this direc- 
 tion would have been, perchance, highly important, and 
 of great bearing on English secular musical develop- 
 ment. He had the material of a dramatic composer in 
 him. The form of the anthem, as employed by young 
 Humphrey, must not be regarded as entirely his own 
 work, however : previous efforts in this direction by 
 W. Lawes, M. Lock, his master Cooke, and others, pre- 
 pared the transformation of this most important form 
 of English church-music ; and surely Humphrey, while 
 under the tuition of Capt. Cooke, became acquainted 
 with the church compositions of his immediate prede- 
 cessors. He thus added to his former experiences his 
 new ones gained while studying under Lully, and was 
 enabled to contribute considerably towards giving the 
 anthem that modern form with which we are now 
 acquainted.' 
 
 ' See also p. 124. 
 
68 Music in England. 
 
 Michael Wise was one of the most talented boys of 
 the Chapel Royal, and a pupil of Capt. Cooke. He 
 became distinguished as organist, and composer of an- 
 thems. Charles II. must have thought much of Wise, 
 for in a progress the king once made, he appointed 
 Wise as one of his suite. By this appointment, the 
 young organist had the privilege of playing at what- 
 ever church the king visited. It is said that on one 
 of these occasions he presumed to begin his volun- 
 tary before the preacher had finished his sermon. This 
 indiscreet behavior drew upon him the king's displeas- 
 ure, and caused his suspension. It seems that this 
 young growth of English chapelmasters knew how to 
 appreciate their own value : they were not to be out- 
 done by the foreigner; they boldly kept their own, 
 though often indiscreet and forward in their manner. 
 They found recognition, and through this acquired con- 
 fidence in their own powers. This musician's compo- 
 sitions evince much originality of inventiveness, sweet 
 pathos, and fine expression. He stands on his own 
 feet, whatever influence his fellow-student Humphrey 
 might have exercised on him; and, judging from his 
 character, he was not the man blindly to accept as 
 model a composer who was his schoolmate. His style 
 is in conformity with that then forming by means of 
 the labors of indigenous and foreign composers. 
 
 Another of the distinguished musicians. Dr. John 
 Blow, was also a pupil of Capt. Cooke. He received 
 some instruction from Hingston, who had been domes- 
 tic organist to the Protector; and from Dr. Christo- 
 pher Gibbons, a talented organist, and son of the great 
 Orlando Gibbons. Blow succeeded Humphrey as mas- 
 ter of the children. In 1685 he was nominated one of 
 
Revival of Musical Culture. 69 
 
 the private musicians of James II. Upon the decease 
 of H. Purcell, he became organist of Westminster 
 Abbey, and some time later was appointed composer 
 to the king. He died in 1708. 
 
 Blow was a prolific composer of church-music as well 
 as of secular music. His greatest strength lies in his 
 choruses, which exhibit much power and boldness. 
 The cantilena in his songs is often awkward and de- 
 void of grace. Burney, in his History of Music,' has 
 upbraided Dr. Blow on account of his inaccuracies in 
 modulation and harmonic treatment. " It does not ap- 
 pear that Purcell, whom he did himself the honor to 
 call his scholar, or Crofts or Clark, his pupils, ever 
 threw notes about at random, in his manner, or insulted 
 the ear with lawless discords which no concord can 
 render tolerable," fumes the learned purist and histo- 
 rian. Blow was a very voluminous composer, and at 
 times may not have been careful enough in the work- 
 ing-out of his compositions : but as a harmonist he is 
 entirely modern, and even bold and original; and the 
 musical student will agree with Dr. Boyce, who, in his 
 excellent collection of English church - music, makes 
 especial mention of Blow's " success in cultivating an 
 uncommon talent for modulation." Dr. Burney does 
 not at all agree with Dr. Boyce's judgment. He 
 thought he knew better how to make use of a correct 
 and smoothly written harmony; for he took pains to 
 impress his savoir-faire as a harmonist upon the read- 
 er's attention, by publishing, in the third volume of 
 his History of Music, the leathery exefcise he wrote 
 when he took the degree of Doctor of Music. 
 
 Dr. Blow's secular songs were published in 1700, in a 
 folio volume, under the title of ".Amphion Anglicus." 
 
 ' Vol. iii. p. 448. 
 
70 Music in England. 
 
 Pelham Humphrey marks the beginning of another 
 truly eminent, too short, period in the history of Eng- 
 lish music. He and his comrades prove, that, with the 
 right encouragement and advantageous opportunity, 
 the English musician was able to keep his own place in 
 the ranks of creative composers. The ground they 
 unconsciously prepared was even fertile enough to pro- 
 duce the great Henry Purcell. Had these musicians 
 been looked down upon by the court, and their works 
 and labors underrated and ignored, we may take it for 
 granted that Purcell, in spite of his genius, would not 
 have gained the importance he did as a national com- 
 poser. Even the greatest genius must have opportu- 
 nity and room to grow, and be backed by a certain 
 national encouragement and appreciation. He may not 
 be understood and appreciated* by his contemporaries, 
 in his whole significance and depth ; but a certain 
 amount of national space must be allowed to him to 
 expand among the rest of his brethren, otherwise he 
 will be smothered in the bud. This was, no doubt, the 
 case with many highly gifted English musicians, among 
 the successors of the above composers. Lessing's say- 
 ing, that Raphael would have been the great painter he 
 was, even if he had been born without arms, is true 
 only in the abstract : the genius, or man of remarkable 
 talent, has concrete meaning for us only through his 
 works ; we are able to understand him only by the con- 
 templation and study of his creations. Pelham Hum- 
 phrey, after his return from France, and upheld by the 
 king's favor, re-appeared among his young comrades 
 with much prestige. His influence on their own efforts 
 in composition was also, no doubt, of a reformatory 
 character ; for he had had the good luck to receive per- 
 
Revival of Musical Culture. 71 
 
 sonal advice from the great LuUy, whom King Charles 
 II. surely regarded as the greatest living composer. 
 We may imagine that a lively emulation existed among 
 the young men ; that they watched each other's efforts 
 with great interest ; that every one of them endeavored 
 to discover something new and original, be it in a me- 
 lodic or a harmonic sense : and the king, as far as his 
 blas^ Majesty could, seems to have taken some inter- 
 est in the labors of his young composers. That Wise 
 and Blow followed Humphrey's style slavishly, is, judg- 
 ing from the character and form of their works, not 
 admissible. Italian masters, and especially Carissimi, 
 seem to have been diligently studied by them. 
 
 Hawkins tells us,' that King Charles admired a little 
 duet of Carissimi to the words "Dite o Cielo," and 
 asked Blow if he could* imitate it. Blow modestly an- 
 swered that he would tiy ; and composed, in the same 
 measure and the same key, that fine song, " Go, per- 
 jured man." The song is No. 25 in "Amphion :" it is 
 with an accompaniment for two violins, with a thorough- 
 bass. Although Charles II.'s musical taste was not 
 of the serious kind, yet the encouragement he gave 
 to his young composers was beneficial. Dr. Tudway 
 and other English critics judged Humphrey, Wise, and 
 Blow too harshly, for indulging the king's French taste 
 " so far as to introduce theatrical corants and dancing 
 movements into their anthems. Even the great Purcell 
 is not exempt from this charge ; and many of his finest 
 anthems are disfigured by fiddling symphonies, invented 
 only to tickle the ears of the wretched Charles." It 
 must indeed excite our admiration, when we consider 
 the youth and apparent inexperience of these young 
 
 « H. and P. of M., iv. 488. 
 
72 Music in England. 
 
 English composers, and find, that, in spite of the secular 
 and rather frivolous material with which they 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 contradiction with the traditions of a 
 true church-style than might have been expected from 
 the influence of their worldly surroundings. The natu- 
 rally solid and healthy character and type of their tal- 
 ent lifted them safely over the breakers, where others 
 less gifted, and less sure of foot, would have succumbed 
 and sunk into complete oblivion. Hawkins ^ very justly 
 says, — 
 
 " The advantages were very great which music derived from the 
 studies of these men : they improved and refined upon the old 
 church-style, and formed a new one, which was at once both ele- 
 gant and solemn ; and from the many excellent compositions of 
 the musicians of King Charles II,'s reign, now extant, it may be 
 questioned whether the principles of harmony, or the science 
 of practical composition, were ever better understood than in his 
 time ; the composers for the Church appearing to have been 
 possessed of every degree of knowledge necessary to the perfec- 
 tion of art." 
 
 But in studying closely the works of the above com- 
 posers, one gains the impression that many portions of 
 their anthems seem to have been composed in great 
 haste, — especially the chorus parts, which very often 
 seem to be merely short sketches. The chorus parts 
 have, no doubt, been often sacrificed in the interest of 
 the long, spun-out solo verses. The king probably did 
 not care for the chorus; thus the solos received the 
 " lion's share " of the composition. The character of 
 many of these anthems is aphoristic : sentences after 
 
 ' H. of M., iv. 430. 
 
Revival of Musical Culture. 
 
 /o 
 
 sentences follow each other, without any inner aesthetic 
 connection and relation ; the different periods do not 
 grow logically out of a preceding germ, they are stran- 
 gers to each other ; and, a similar formula of closing 
 cadences and of passing modulations occurring continu- 
 ally, a certain degree of monotony becomes prevalent, 
 — a depressing effect which the most careful declama- 
 tion and refined melodic expression are not able to 
 obviate. Had these composers put more importance in 
 the part the chorus ought to take in church-music, 
 especially in larger form, many of these defects would 
 have been avoided, and the aesthetic expression and 
 beauty would have been increased. 
 
 In the labors of Henry Purcell, this new but short 
 and highly promising epoch of English musical art 
 found its climax. Indeed, Purcell may be pronounced, 
 every thing considered, the greatest musical genius 
 England has ever produced. He was born in 1658, and 
 grew up under the direct influence of the musicians 
 and composers of the Royal Chapel of Charles II. 
 Captain Cooke, Pelham Humphrey, and Dr. Blow seem 
 to have bedn his teachers. He belonged to a musical 
 family : both his father Henry and his uncle Thomas 
 Purcell were gentlemen of the Royal Chapel, and had 
 some reputation as composers of church -music and 
 songs. Young Purcell, by means of his great talent 
 and early acquirement of the principles of composition, 
 was able to write estimable works for the Church while 
 yet a choir-boy. At the age of eighteen he was ap- 
 pointed organist of Westminster Abbey, and a few years 
 later he was chosen to fill one of the three places of 
 organist to the Royal Chapel ; but his premature deatli 
 in 1 095, at the age of thirty-seven only, deprived Eng- 
 
74 Music in England. 
 
 land of a powerful musical mind, whose efforts, if truly 
 recognized, might have given English musical develop- 
 ment a highly original and national direction, at an 
 epoch when foreign art influences began to creep in, 
 and finally superseded and almost totally suppressed all 
 original national art aspiration. 
 
 Purcell, cultivating the different forms made use 
 of at this time in England, was successful as a com- 
 poser of church-music and secular songs, as well as in 
 the dramatic and instrumental styles. In his anthems, 
 services, etc., he, in general, adhered to the manner 
 and form of treatment employed by Humphrey, Wise, 
 and Blow. But by means of greater genius, and of 
 early acquired facility in the handling of the material, 
 his style became more original, more natural, more 
 graceful, and consequently more effective. Many of 
 his choruses are in form and contents classical. His 
 best efforts in this direction ire only surpassed by 
 those of Handel ; and the great predecessor closely 
 approaches, at times, the greater successor. Purcell, 
 however, was not satisfied to walk solely in the track 
 of his immediate English predecessors and contempo- 
 raries. His taste and natural aspirations led. him, as 
 they will every broad-minded artist, to study, as much 
 as opportunity allowed him, the works of other mas- 
 ters, and especially those of the great Italian com- 
 posers, whose superiority in melodic form and style he 
 undoubtedly learned to appreciate. " Music," said he, 
 " is yet but in its nonage, a forward child, which gives 
 hope of what it may be hereafter in England, when 
 the masters of it shall find more encouragement. 'Tis 
 now learning Italian, which is its best master, and 
 studying a little French air, to give it somewhat more 
 
Revival of Musical Culture. 75 
 
 gayety and fashion. Thus, being farther from the sun, 
 we are of later growth than our neighbor countries, 
 and must be content to shake off our barbarity by 
 degrees." This great modesty on .the part of so great 
 a genius and accomplished composer is really touch- 
 ing and highly instructive : it also proves that the 
 advising fingers of English musical patrons must have 
 always been pointing towards some models beyond 
 the sea. " Imitate those, and then we shall indorse 
 your attempts," must have continually sounded in the 
 English composers' ears, until these began to believe it 
 to be so, and acted accordingly. Of course, one nation 
 learns from another : that, more successful in original 
 art production, will invariably furnish models to this, 
 less skilful ; this will at first be a mere crude imitator, 
 but it must possess the inner power of changing, trans- 
 forming the foreign material into one that eventually 
 will receive a new stamp expressive of its own national 
 individuality and emotional characteristic aesthetic con- 
 ception. These natural national qualities, belonging to 
 each productive nation, have not hitherto been recog- 
 nized, appreciated, or discovered by the English, in the 
 case of their own composers : hence the comparatively 
 little influence English composers have exercised on 
 musical development in their own country. 
 
 Though Purcell endeavored to fashion his recita- 
 tives and his arias after the Italian models, he did not 
 succeed entirely in his attempts to become Italianized. 
 His genius was of too original an English type to ab- 
 negate its birthright. His works in the above direc- 
 tion, though highly dramatic and expressive, lack the 
 smoothness, finish, and plasticity of form, of the Italian 
 products. The vocality of the melodic passages often 
 
76 Music in England. 
 
 sounds heavy. Long-winded passages often interrupt 
 the effective declamatory portions of a recitative, or 
 disfigure the exquisite naturalness and na'fve simplicity 
 of an air. That pedantic practice, so freely made use 
 of by the composers of his time, — viz., of composing 
 over a ground-bass, consisting of a group of notes fill- 
 ing a couple of bars of an air, or song, — was also dili- 
 gently cultivated by Purcell. 
 
 Although his pieces written in this manner present 
 many very ingenious points, and give proof of his 
 great mastery over the melodic and harmonic material, 
 yet, in the interest of a free and original inventiveness, 
 it is to be regretted that he thought it necessary to 
 adhere to it so often. His fancy and imagination 
 seemed at times, when a more independent and a 
 bolder progression was required, to be kept down by 
 voluntary but unnecessary fetters. It is therefore, in 
 many respects, a pity, that, in accordance with this 
 narrow professional habit, he did not emancipate him- 
 self entirely from these pedantic bonds, an art-practice 
 only interesting and useful to the student of thorough- 
 bass. 
 
 But, at the same time, we must not forget, that, great 
 as Purcell's genius must strike every one who studies 
 his work, unbiased by national prejudices, he lived at 
 an epoch when his country was just emerging from a 
 time of religious and political contest, when musical art 
 was banished from the court and the Church, then its 
 two main-stays. There was no national art tradition or 
 style upon which he could build : the majority of Eng- 
 lish people rejected musical culture altogether. Those 
 characteristic national traits belonging to his people 
 had not had time to crystallize into new original art- 
 
Revival of Musical Culture. 'j'j 
 
 expression, based upon aesthetic forms called forth by 
 the spirit of a new time. If in his works we often miss 
 uniformity of style and clearness of form, it must be 
 attributed to the inadequate opportunities for study he 
 had when he began his career as a composer. Though 
 a genius stands above his time, yet he must first learn 
 how to master that which his time presents at its best : 
 before he is able to mould his own original thoughts, 
 he must learn to cast that mould from the material he 
 finds around him. 
 
 That which lends Purcell's works an irresistible 
 charm — their healthy contents, though seemingly at 
 times rather crude and awkward, when considered 
 superficially — is just the very essence of the manly, 
 strong, upright English music, often heroic and pas- 
 sionate, yet not destitute of sweetness and tender 
 pathos. Purcell's music is a faithful emotional inter- 
 pretation of the English poetical matter he chose to 
 unite to his tone-forms, whether taken from Holy Writ, 
 or the poetical efforts of Dryden, or an adaptation of a 
 Shakspeare creation. His musical treatment of his 
 native language is as faithful as it is artistically true : 
 he composed his songs and choruses in close accord- 
 ance with the spirit of the English language. It is not 
 an awkward adaptation of Italianized melodic phrases 
 to English words: the music essentially grew out of 
 the words. In its absolute melodic formation the Ital- 
 ian and English elements did not mingle with artistic 
 smoothness : the periods are not always marked with 
 sufficient clearness by means of distinct cadences. The 
 rhythm of his motivos is energetic and well pronounced. 
 The vigor, power, life, richness, emotional depth of his 
 choruses, surpass any thing that English musical art 
 
78 Music in England. 
 
 has to show ; and only the great Anglo-German Handel 
 has surpassed Purcell in his choruses, which were, ap- 
 parently, often formed after the model of Purcell's crea- 
 tions. There is no doubt that Purcell possessed all the 
 necessary qualities of an eminent dramatic composer ; 
 and, had he been favored by outward circumstances, he 
 surely would have been able to lay the foundation of 
 a form of musical drama, just as nationally English, as 
 Lully and his successors were enabled to do with regard 
 to the French opera, and as Keyser for a time suc- 
 ceeded in doing at Hamburg with regard to a German 
 opera. We have seen above, that attempts to introduce 
 the Italian opera-form, as well as the French, were 
 made, but without securing for either a lasting exist- 
 ence. Purcell's first efforts at composing an opera 
 seem to have come about in a very accidental way. 
 We know that his occupation was that of an organist 
 and church-composer, and his studies were necessarily 
 directed to that end. There is no doubt that he was 
 also attracted by the different musico-dramatic perform- 
 ances which took place at the court of Charles H. A 
 musician of Purcell's stamp, young, and easily impressed 
 by every thing that surrounded him, who in many of his 
 anthems, written when quite young, showed the hand 
 of a dramatic composer, was certain to succeed -in the 
 operatic style when once embarked in it. His first 
 operatic attempt, "Dido and .(Eneas," was written when 
 he was only seventeen years old. Hawkins gives the 
 following account of the occurrence : ' — 
 
 " One Mr. Josias Priest, a celebrated dancing-master, and a com- 
 poser of stage dances, kept a boarding-scliool for young gentle- 
 women in Leicester-fields ; and the nature of his profession inclining 
 
 ' H. of M., iv. 499. 
 
Revival of Musical Culture. 79 
 
 liim to dramatic representations, he got Tate to write, and Purcell 
 to set to music, a little drama called ' Dido and iEneas.' Purcell was 
 then of the age of nineteen [seventeen]; but the music of this 
 opera had so little appearance of a puerile essay, that there was 
 scarce a musician in England who would not have thought it an 
 honour to have been the author of it. The exhibition of this little 
 piece by the young gentlewomen of the school, to a select audience 
 of their parents and friends, was attended with general applause, 
 no small part whereof was considered as the due of Purcell." 
 
 The form of the piece was that of the Italian opera. 
 The dialogue is throughout in recitative style, inter- 
 spersed with songs, duets, and choruses. In his later 
 dramatic works, he almost entirely discarded the reci- 
 tative. These works are half operas, half plays. The 
 independent pieces that are to be found in these works 
 are very often characteristic in expression, and highly 
 dramatic : but there is no attempt at a musical delinea- 
 tion of dramatic characters ; the dramatic expression is 
 a general one. The poet Dryden has given, in the 
 preface to " Albion and Albionus," an admirable defini- 
 tion of the construction of an opera, or musical drama, 
 as it was then, no doubt, looked upon by composers : — 
 
 " An opera is a poetical tale, or fiction, represented by vocal or 
 instrumental music, adorned with scenes, machines, and dancing. 
 The supposed persons of this musical drama are generally super- 
 natural, as gods and goddesses, and heroes, which at least are 
 descended from them, and in due time are to be adopted into their 
 number. The subject therefore, being extended beyond the limits 
 of human nature, admits that sort of marvellous and surprising 
 conduct which is rejected in other plays. Human impossibilities 
 are to be received, as they are in faith ; because, where gods are 
 introduced, a supreme power is to be understood, and second 
 causes are out of doors; yet propriety is to be observed even 
 here. The gods are all to manage their peculiar provinces ; and 
 what was attributed by the heathens to one power ought not to 
 
8o Music in England. 
 
 be performed by another. If the persons represented were to 
 speak on the stage, it would follow of necessity, that the expres- 
 sion should be lofty, figurative, and majestical : but the nature of 
 an opera denies the frequent use of these poetical ornaments ; for 
 vocal music, though it often admits of loftiness of sound, yet 
 always exacts a melodious sweetness ; or, to distinguish yet more 
 justly, the recitative part of an opera requires a more masculine 
 beauty of expression and sound ; the airs must abound in the soft- 
 ness and variety of numbers; their principal intention being to 
 please the hearing, rather than to gratify the understanding." ' 
 
 Purcell's " Dido and ^neas " is composed entirely 
 in accordance with the above remarks. It is curious 
 that Purcell, after so successful a first attempt, should 
 have been satisfied with furnishing merely introductory 
 symphonies, songs, and choruses interspersed between 
 the dialogues of a play. With the collaboration of a 
 poet like Dryden, he might have been able to create 
 an opera-form entirely in accerdance with English musi- 
 cal taste, and the spirit of English dramatic art. Dry- 
 den, however, seems at first not to have thought very 
 favorably of Purcell's powers, since he chose (probably 
 also by desire of King Charles II.) the French musi- 
 cian Grabut to set " Albion and Albionus " to music. 
 Grabut belonged to the king's band, of which he was 
 appointed master after Cambert's death. Dryden, 
 however, at a later time, seems to have found out that 
 Purcell was a superior composer to Grabut. 
 
 This was the great opportunity for England to lay a 
 deep foundation for an original musical drama. The 
 poet Dryden and the composer Purcell had all the re- 
 quired qualities to create- it. Dryden, as we have seen 
 above, thoroughly understood the form and meaning of 
 
 ' Burney, H. of M., iv. 190. 
 
Revival of Musical Culture. 8 1 
 
 the opera, as constructed by the Italians : but, since the 
 writer of an opera-libretto was then considered the ser- 
 vant of the composer of the music, it was laying con- 
 straint on his poetical powers to write words for music ; 
 and in his plays, where music entered, he always felt 
 best at home in those parts in which he could follow 
 the " rules of poetry in the sound and cadences of the 
 words." A composer of such decided character, and 
 clearness of purpose, as Lully, was needed in order to 
 influence such a versatile poet. Purcell was either too 
 modest in his relations with Dryden, or he had no fixed, 
 clear understanding of the ideal life and inner nature 
 of the musico-lyrical drama. As a composer he ranks 
 higher than Lully and his immediate successors ; but 
 what he. lacked most was such a constant protector as 
 stood by the side of Lully, — a Louis XIV. 
 
 The attempts of some modern English writers on 
 music to pronounce the plays to which Purcell fur- 
 nished overtures, symphonies, songs, and choruses, as 
 the true English lyrical drama, may pass faute de mieux; 
 but, looked at with the eyes of an unbiased judge, I 
 think the English have deserved a better fate than has 
 been theirs in regard to a national opera. 
 
 Some years after Purcell's death, the Italian opera 
 gained a sure footing on English soil, and began to 
 reign supreme until the present time. I find it super- 
 fluous to add any thing here to what I have already 
 said in another place on English operatic affairs.* 
 Whatever the friends of English musical art may try 
 to prove regarding the existence of a true English 
 drama, the discouraging fact remains, that English com- 
 posers, since the beginning of the reign of the Italian 
 
 * students' H. of M., chap, viii. 
 
82 Music ill England. 
 
 i>' 
 
 opera in London, have not been able to shake off the 
 fetters of that all-powerful branch of musical art : they 
 were even obliged, in order to gain a hearing from 
 their own people, to bend down, and pay homage to 
 the brilliant, graceful, dazzling, sense-enchanting Italian 
 form. 
 
 Henry Purcell marks the point of culmination of 
 this second important epoch of English musical devel- 
 opment. It was a period full of struggle, discourage- 
 ment, and renewed efforts and hope. In the labors of 
 Purcell the English musical spirit had once more suc- 
 ceeded in gathering all the best qualities of its powers. 
 But the great original germs to be found in Purcell's 
 works have not been utilized by the musicians of his 
 own people, in such a way as to build up a new, strong, 
 lasting English school of music. The best his success- 
 ors proved themselves able to do was to write con- 
 ventional church-music, and slavishly to follow, in their 
 forms of secular music, in the steps of the all-powerful 
 foreigners. There were among them men of consider- 
 able talent and great theoretical and practical knowl- 
 edge and skill ; but, unfortunately, none have appeared 
 possessing sufficient strength of genius and powerful 
 artistic character, necessary to conquer lost ground 
 from the foreign musicians firmly settled in England. 
 Nay, it even came to pass that the able efforts of native 
 artists were often totally overlooked by English musi- 
 cal amateurs ; and foreigners, inferior in talent and 
 practical skill, were often allowed to occupy places of 
 honor. 
 
 However, in one branch of musical production — and 
 one that will occupy our attention in another part of 
 this book — English musicians were quite prolific. 
 
Revival of Musical Culture. 83 
 
 though very often weak and insipid, and therefore they 
 helped to depreciate musical art to a great degree : I 
 mean, by writing, adapting, and compiling psalm and 
 hymn tunes. This musical branch, of doubtful artistic 
 character, served, as we shall see, for a long time as 
 the model of true music to a new, rising nation, the 
 descendants of the English ; and was the occasion of 
 creating,, in the new country, a musical atmosphere and 
 literature, often childish and ludicrous in its artistic 
 pretensions, and often unscrupulous and unprincipled 
 in regard to "adaptation." The "Yankee psalm-tune 
 smiter," however, learned the business from the musi- 
 cal sinners of the mother-country : he simply improved 
 upon it. The influence exercised by English musical 
 matters on the rise and growth of musical culture in 
 America was all-powerful up to the introduction of 
 Italian opera in New York, and remained partially so 
 until the American Civil War. 
 
 The history of musical development in England after 
 the epoch of Purcell is, on the whole, only a narrative 
 of the doings of great and small foreign musicians who 
 have visited London up to our time ; but, however inter- 
 esting such a historical review might be, it is not the 
 object of this work to follow it. Many of its points 
 will be touched upon, as far as they have influenced 
 music in America, and also in the chapter treating of 
 church-music and psalmody. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MUSIC IN THE ROMAN-CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Our music in general owes a great debt to the 
 Church, and especially to the Roman-Catholic Church. 
 The germs of many of our great forms may be traced 
 back to that source, while many works of stupendous 
 conception, grandeur, and deeply sacred expression, 
 were suggested to the . great masters by the inspi- 
 ration they received from the Catholic Church. The 
 time of the great reformation in religious matters also 
 exercised a great influence on the cultivation of music. 
 Sometimes this influence proved advantageous, some- 
 times detrimental, to musical growth. But gradually 
 confusion regarding the right use of music during 
 divine service began to reign supreme ; and now, in the 
 whole range of modern musical art-forms, the historico- 
 critical treatment and appreciation of none is so beset 
 with contradiction, and perplexity in general, as that of 
 church-music. Every religious sect thinks it necessary, 
 in order to work out its own salvation, to have its 
 own peculiar views and theory with regard to the 
 proper manner of singing in church, and the form of 
 song to be admitted for such practice. This practice, 
 in most cases, does not rest on the broad basis of art, 
 as the vehicle for sesthetical beauty and expression 
 suggested by religious feeling and riles, but on that 
 84 
 
Music in the Roman- Catholic Church. 85 
 
 of prosaic usefulness and narrow conventional fitness. 
 Most of the English Protestant sects, like the followers 
 of Calvin, have considered true musical aims, though 
 asserted in ever so modest a manner, and the product of 
 artistic endeavor, as a dangerous element, full of worldly 
 temptations to the soul that allowed itself to be influ- 
 enced, and great music as a bewitching siren, the worthy 
 companion of Antichrist, and as such to be banished, 
 not alone from holy places, but also from the home of 
 the true Christian. 
 
 Since that memorable epoch when Constantine the 
 Great (323) decreed that the Christian religion should 
 be the chief religion of the whole Roman Empire, 
 music, though early recognized as the inseparable 
 handmaid of religion, has caused the heads of Church 
 government the deepest concern. Of a more liquid, 
 restless nature thah the positive word, it has ever evaded 
 all attempts at compressing it, for any length of time, 
 within the narrow limits of a stereotyped form, like a 
 religious dogma. Incommensurable in self-reproduc- 
 tion, and of endless motion like the sea, music, if not 
 watched with the greatest care, often would, like rich, 
 rank, tropical creeping plants, overreach and smother 
 the liturgical text ; when, its office should have been to 
 lend its deepest emotional charms, not as an independ- 
 ent mistress, but as a sympathetic, modest companion. 
 It is therefore not astonishing to find it recorded, that, 
 in all ages, men of a sober orthodox turn of mind, if 
 not inclined to banish the seemingly unruly element 
 altogether from the sanctuary, yet have always been 
 desirous to reduce it, at any rate, to its most simple 
 forms of expression. 
 
 The singing of hymns has at all times found such 
 
86 Music in England. 
 
 favor with the people, that it was recommended, during 
 the first centuries of the establishment of the Chris- 
 tian religion, by all those apostles and missionaries 
 who were most active in the conversion of the hea- 
 then to the new religion. Indeed, the singing of a 
 beautiful hymn seems to have proved, in many cases, 
 a most effective means of impressing the unruly, bar- 
 barous tribes with the beauty and efficiency of the new 
 religion. The irresistible charm of tone-material found 
 its way to the emotional nature of the crude man, and 
 touched it as by magic, long before mere speech, even 
 that most glowing with religious enthusiasm, could 
 affect the understanding of the uneducated, unprepared 
 mind of the barbarian. Arius, who, in the beginning 
 of the fourth century, attempted to form a religious 
 sect in accordance with his views of the Christian doc- 
 trines, must have been well aware of the power of 
 melody. The hymns he composed for the use of his 
 followers found the more favor with the people, as they 
 were sung to well-sounding melodies, and especially 
 during processions which the Arians organized in the 
 streets of Constantinople. It was in vain that the 
 Council of Laodicea prohibited the singing of such 
 songs during holy service ; in vain, that some bishops, 
 in order to weaken the influence of the Arian hymns, 
 thought it necessary to write orthodox hymns. At last 
 St. Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, in order to 
 counteract the effect and influence of the Arian man- 
 ner of singing hymns, found it advisable to compose, 
 if possible, still finer ones, and to have them sung dur- 
 ing processions, which he also thought necessary to 
 organize ; thus stealing the thunder of his adversaries.' 
 
 ■ Kocli, Geschichte des Kirchenliedes und Kirchengesangs, second edition, 
 
 vol. i. p. 12. 
 
Music in the Roman- Catholic Church. 87 
 
 St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who truly appreciated 
 the efficacy of melody when nobly associated with the 
 words of a hymn, selected among the melodies of the 
 Greek Christians such as he thought fit, and introduced 
 them in the church of Milan. But, in thus admitting the 
 musical practice of the Greeks, St. Ambrose's principal 
 endeavor was to exclude all that he found to have too 
 much affinity with secular song, and to admit only such 
 forms of singing as were capable of interpreting the 
 spirit of the hymn in a simple, noble, dignified manner. 
 If we judge of this manner of singing, during divine 
 service, by what the strict and orthodox St. Augustine 
 reports of it, it must have been of much power, and 
 exercised a great emotional influence on its hearers. 
 "How I wept, O God," says St. Augustine, "deeply 
 touched by the hymns and songs of praise, as uttered 
 by the voices of thy sweetly singing congregation ! The 
 voices flowed in at my ears, truth was distilled in my 
 heart, and the affection of piety overflowed in sweet 
 tears of joy." The mere reading, even the most effec- 
 tive, could not have produced such an outburst of pious 
 feelings. In the course of the next century, however, 
 the Ambrosian song gradually lost its primitive purity : 
 secular elements crept in, and greatly disfigured its 
 meaning and form. Towards the beginning of the 
 seventh century, St. Gregory re-organized and estab- 
 lished the musical part of the liturgy according to the 
 higher demands of a richer and more powerful church. 
 He fixed the forms of melodies and chants, and hoped 
 .to have them accepted and preserved by all the other 
 Catholic churches, in a pure and unaltered manner. 
 But the fact that he had a copy of the Antiphonarium, 
 as prepared under his direction, chained to the altar of 
 
88 Music in England. 
 
 St. Peter, in order that other churches might be able to 
 correct the church chants when corrupted by the un- 
 skilful use of their singers, proves that the great pope 
 understood the changeableness of human nature in 
 matters of church-music. Indeed, his apprehension was 
 j Listified ; for, although the Gregorian chant could serve 
 as a solid basis to church-music, yet, in some churches 
 of . Italy and France, it was often so disfigured by varia- 
 tions and frivolous ornaments, that it was difficult to 
 extricate the original melody from the luxuriant over- 
 growth; The Gregoriata song, however, is art-song al- 
 ready. Although still monody, yet it is based upon 
 certain rules and fixed tonalities, constructed according 
 to the theory of the old Greek music. To execute the 
 Gregorian chant in all its intended purity and liturgical 
 significance, well-trained singers are required. It is 
 not people's song, but ecclesiastical song ; it formed an 
 integrant part of holy service, of which the priest was 
 the intierpreter. The people, the cojigregation, stood 
 towards it in a passive way ; and, according to the hier- 
 archical arrangement of the Roman Church, the text 
 which the Gregorian melody had to interpret was — as 
 it still is — in the Latin tongue. The Gregorian chant 
 formed a highly effective and impressive part in the 
 rich ceremonial construction of the service of the Ro- 
 man-Catholic Church : the faithful interpreter of those 
 different emotions of sacred life, as taught by the new 
 religion, it struck deep roots in the new church, and 
 thus became a fitting foundation for our modern musi- 
 cal art, the direct outcome of the deeper and richer 
 emotional spirit awakened by the teachings of Christ 
 and his inspired followers. In the course of the next 
 centuries after St. Gregory, a new factor began to im- 
 
Music in the Roman -Catholic Church. 89 
 
 press its influence on the form of church-music, — 
 harmony, or the art of sounding several tones in a 
 simultaneous manner, according to certain rules. These 
 rules, like those that at first regulated the melodious 
 progression of Gregorian monody, owed their origin to 
 the old Greek musical theorists. Harmonized music, 
 though at first coarse and clumsy, soon engaged the 
 ingenuity and inventiveness of church-singers ; and, 
 with the ardent desire of mastering the intricate ma- 
 terial of the new art, our mediaeval singers lighted on 
 many a fantastical form, so that the Gregorian chant 
 was soon smothered under the rank richness of the 
 new harmonic and melodic ornaments. In France, 
 church-singers forgot themselves to such a degree that 
 they took frivolous secular songs as an harmonious sec- 
 ond to the Gregorian melody.^ The grafting of the 
 secular element upon the sacred was, when considered 
 from the standpoint of religious fitness and propriety, 
 entirely out of place, and in diametrical opposition to 
 the spirit that should preside over sacred things and oc- 
 cupations : yet in an art sense, as history has proved, it 
 was of immense influence on the creation and growth 
 of the clivers forms of modern musical cultivation, based 
 upon harmonic development. Church-music was then 
 exclusively in the hands of the priests : all the innova- 
 tions introduced into church practice were thus the 
 work of the monks. We often see these natural guard- 
 ians of the liturgical art vie with the troubadours and 
 other mundane strolling musicians of these times, \\\ 
 the production of secular songs. These often found 
 their way from the hall of the monastery to the church. 
 All these things, in the course of centuries, created con- 
 
 ' Ritter, Student's History of Music. 
 
go Music in England. 
 
 fusion, and instead of rendering church-music more 
 dignified, more impressive, succeeded in exciting the 
 displeasure and even disgust of those who wished to 
 hear, according to the old traditions, the Gregorian 
 chant in its former grandeur, simplicity, and purity. 
 The church-singers, busy and indefatigable in the use 
 of the new arts of counterpoint, thought more of theil 
 beloved descant and fauxbonrdon than of the old, sim- 
 pie, monotonous Gregorian chant, and the sacred mean- 
 ing of the liturgical text they had to sing. The Church, 
 wishing to put an end to the growing confusion caused 
 by the new contrapuntal artificialities, resolved to ban- 
 ish them from its sanctuary. Thus Pope John XXII. 
 issued a decree in which he reminded the clergy of the 
 proper manner in which true church-singmg should be 
 regulated ; and, speaking of the disciples of the new 
 school, he says, "Those who were captivated with it, 
 attending to the new notes and new measures of the 
 disciples of the new school, would rather have their ears 
 tickled with semibreves and minims, and such frivolous 
 inventions, than hear the ancient ecclesiastical chant." 
 But this ordinance proved powerless to stay the new 
 spirit that pushed the disciples of the new art onward 
 to further inventions. The Pope was forced, neverthe- 
 less, to tolerate the harmonic treatment of some parts 
 of church-song, though in a most simple way. The 
 old musicians, on the road to the creation and develop- 
 ment of a new art, had not yet learned to understand 
 and consider this new element in all its importance and 
 effectiveness. Every new form discovered had at once 
 to serve the nearest purpose. The sense of aesthetical 
 discernment and artistic propriety slumbered yet. This 
 was to be gained only after centuries of experimentaliz- 
 
Music in the Roman -Catholic Church. 91 
 
 ing. The Pope, the councils of highest dignitaries of 
 the Church, all uniting to condemn the encroachments 
 of the new art, and at the same time anxious to pre- 
 serve the Gregorian chant in its true form and true 
 sacred meaning, — in short, as the hierarchical musical 
 ^xi par excellence, — were powerless to stem the mighty 
 stream of harmonic form that impressed a new life on 
 music. This new art-form was founded and grew strong 
 on the basis of the most sacred element of the liturgy, 
 ^the Gregorian chant; and by means of the skill and 
 inventiveness of those inspired minds, the great mas- 
 ters of the sixteenth century, it imparted to that very 
 element a power and intensity of true sacred expres- 
 sion, an ideal meaning far more effective and touching 
 than that it possessed in its simple and slender garb. 
 Then music became fit and ample enough to fill those 
 mighty arches of heavenward-reaching Gothic domes. 
 The minds that created those domes, as the ideal of the 
 architectural aspirations of the Germanic tribes that 
 had embraced the Christian religion, created and per- 
 fected also the tone-material based upon the art of har- 
 monic construction. Like the Gothic architect, so the 
 Christian composer conceived an art-form a:nd art-prac- 
 tice entirely different from those of the ancient world 
 as represented by Greek art. The rules of the new 
 tonal art were as complicated, subtle, and ingenious as 
 those of Gothic architecture, and very often just as fan- 
 tastical if not grotesque. 
 
 There is no doubt that the new sacred musical crea- 
 tions, when connected with the pompous rites of the 
 Catholic service, proved eminently impressive and cap- 
 tivating to the religious mind. But it was now, to a 
 great extent, "art for art's sake," interpreting the 
 
9^ Music in England. 
 
 sacred words according to its own laws, in order to 
 satisfy botli the composer's sense of sesthetical beauty, 
 and his endeavor for deep, sacred, emotional expression. 
 Nay ! in those old church compositions there occur 
 portions of musical construction, where the tone-mate- 
 rial seems to drop the positive word, and soar on its 
 own purity of musical expression to the ideal heights 
 of a heavenly atmosphere. Music learned to speak its 
 own divine language ; the soul seemed to float on the 
 ethereal waves of divine dreams,, anticipating that rest 
 and glory in paradise which is the end of the longing 
 of Christian pilgrims. Music, like all the arts, traces 
 its first artistic beginning to its connection with the 
 religious life of man. On the basis of this sacred 
 emanation of the human soul, music gained strength 
 and nobleness of aim, which, in the course of its first 
 attempts at formal embodiment, prevented it from be- 
 coming superficial and vulgar ; and thus, tracing its 
 origin to religion, it also deposited on the altar of this 
 elevated goddess the first ripe fruits of its artistic exist- 
 ence. 
 
 But in order to have the masses, motets, psalms, 
 hymns, etc., as set by the composers of the fifteenth, 
 sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, sung during di- 
 vine service in the artistic manner conceived by those 
 masters, well-trained choirs and singe/s were needed ; 
 for, as long as the Roman-Catholic religion was supreme 
 everywhere, the people participated in the liturgical 
 service as recipients, not as actors. Thus Catholic 
 church-music, the growth of Christian emotional life, 
 displayed its own richness and life wholly in accordance 
 with surrounding religious ceremonies ; lending, at the 
 same time, an ideal splendor and religious expression to 
 
Music in the Roman -Catholic Church. 93 
 
 these ceremonies, unknown to the temple-service of the 
 old civilized nations. 
 
 The first great epoch, one of the most important, 
 one of the most remarkable, in the history of. music, 
 IS that of the development of the different forms of 
 sacred music. Among these, the mass {inissa solemnis, 
 missa brevis, mis sa pro defunctis) occupies the foremost 
 rank. The form of the mass, which gradually grew up 
 by the side of, and in accordance with, the form and 
 idea of the sacred rites as organized and accepted by 
 the rising Roman-Catholic Church, became the great 
 central point of Christian musical expression, the em- 
 bodiment of the rich and beautiful liturgy of a great 
 church ; it gained the importance of an ideal sacred 
 drama, representmg, for the edification of devout Chris- 
 tians, the sentiments of adoration, faith, hope, elevated 
 joy and happiness, entire submission to the will of a 
 forgiving Father, humble prayers for strength and help 
 so needful in the hours of adversity, sorrow, and death ; 
 and also, in an ideal sense, that mysterious symbol of 
 the sacrifice of Christ, in order to remind the penitent 
 Christian of that divine act, when the Son of God suf- 
 fered death for the sins of man, and became the Saviour 
 of despairmg and disheartened humanity. Thus the. 
 mass, considered in its highest ideal conception, he-, 
 came the musical vehicle of the noblest religious feel- 
 ing and emotions of Catholic congregations ; all the 
 different forms, from the simplest Gregorian chant, as 
 first intoned in the early Church, up to the richest, 
 most complicated contrapuntal structures, were, in the 
 course of centuries, made subservient to a great relir 
 gious ideal. Although the text of the mass is simple, 
 and, comparatively speaking, comprises only a few Latin 
 
94 Music in England. 
 
 sentences, yet so deep and rich are its musico-emo- 
 tional suggestions and religious sentiments — lending 
 expression and power to every individual shade of feel- 
 ing — that it seems almost inexhaustible. Who can 
 enumerate the vast number of masses written in all 
 styles, all forms, since harmonic art first gained artistic 
 merit under the hands of William Dufay (beginning of 
 the fifteenth century), up to the great Missa Solem- 
 nis (Graner Festmesse) by Franz Liszt ? A Catholic 
 author, M. J. D'Ortigue, speaking of the ceremony of 
 the mass as performed in simple Gregorian chant, 
 says, — 
 
 "According to our opinion, a mass in plain-song, with its divers 
 parts, the procession, and grave chants, interspersed by long silent 
 pauses winch accompany it in its majestically measured steps 
 around the nave; the Inlroit, which during certain ceremonies 
 was three times repeated, and which is followed by a psalm-versicle 
 and the Gloria Patrij the Kyrie,*\\\t. orisons of the priest; the 
 Gloria, the chant of the epistle by the sub-deacon; the Gradual, 
 followed by the Alleluia and the Tracts the Prose, if the festival 
 gives occasion to its use ; the chanting of the gospel by the dea- 
 con ; the Credo, which formerly was chanted simultaneously and 
 alternately by the two choirs, or rather by the whole congregation, 
 since it was the confession of faith, the universal s3mbol, the 
 adherence to the catholic dogma by all the faithful ; the Offerto- 
 rium, sung by the choir; the Preface, a magnificent chant, pre- 
 ceded by an imposing dialogue between the voice of the priest and 
 the voices of the people ; the Sanctus, the Pater, by the celebrant ; 
 the Agiius Dei, by the choir; the Communio and Post- Com munio, 
 also by the choir ; the last orison by the celebrant ; and the Ite, 
 ffiissa est, by the deacon, — nil these form an admirable, harmoni- 
 ous ensemble, and — why not use the expression? — an elevated 
 spectacle, where the beauty of the ceremonies, the significance of 
 the rites, the measure of the motion, the arrangement of the ac- 
 tion, added to the richness of the ornaments, the magnificence of 
 the costumes, the thousand lights in the sanctuary, the grandeur 
 
Music in the Roman- Catholic Church. 95 
 
 of the edifice, the perfumes of incense, the strong accents of the 
 melodies, unite in one sublime scene.'' 
 
 And around the form of the mass, smaller ones, in 
 their way not less beautiful and effective, are grouped ; 
 such as the motet, the psalm, the hymn, the Stabat 
 Mater, the Te Deum, the Lamentations, etc., — every 
 one expressing new shades of religious emotion and 
 feeling. No other church is so rich in noble and appro- 
 priate sacred musical works as the Roman-Catholic. 
 But it also must, unfortunately, be said, that in no 
 other church have a pure, sacred taste and propriety 
 been so often and so flagrantly sinned against as in 
 the Catholic Church. Time and time again were light, 
 frivolous, insipid, if not immoral strains, substituted for 
 the truly religiously inspired efforts of those composers 
 who devoted the best gifts of their genius to the service 
 of God. (Ex. IV,) 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MUSIC IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 When the desire for religious freedom and simpler 
 religious rites, more in accordance with the practice of 
 the first disciples of Christ's teachings, began to move 
 many an earnest mind, in Germany, to struggle for the 
 possession of these principles, music was again claimed 
 as a handmaid to religion. But in order to reach the 
 people, and to afford the congregations that united 
 under the leadership of the Reformists an opportunity 
 of joining with their voices in the singing of hymns and 
 psalms, music had to descend from its high pedestal, 
 and to become, as in the first centuries of Christian 
 religion, again the naive, simple, sacred people's-song. 
 It was not banished from the new Church, but it was 
 made to take a more subordinate position : the words 
 of the hymn were not to be obscured by a too rich 
 display of harmonic (contrapuntal) arts. It was to be 
 again purely melodious, the spontaneous outburst of 
 the religious feeling of the mass of the people. The 
 Latin, the hierarchical language of the Church, was 
 sanctioned and tenaciously upheld for the use of the 
 liturgical part of the CathoHc divine service. The 
 people of Germanic races were, of course, unacquainted 
 with that language : the part they were able to take 
 in the service of these liturgical rites was, therefore, 
 96 
 
Music in the Lutheran Church. 97 
 
 very small : they witnessed the outside ceremonies, but 
 a closer understanding of their spiritual meaning was 
 hidden from them. A silent presence was all that 
 was required from the congregations : they might pray 
 silently and sing in their hearts, but only the priest 
 could be allowed to intone sacred songs, and thus to 
 influence and elevate the assembled people. In Ger- 
 many the people were only allowed to sing, at certain 
 festivals, the short Kyrie Eleison, "Lord, have mercy 
 upon us ; " in the course of time this short sentence 
 became the burden of different sacred as well as secular 
 people's-songs, and even of the song of soldiers going 
 to battle. Once in a great while we find recorded in 
 history, that some large-minded, earnest, pious monk 
 made attempts at explaining to the ignorant people the 
 meaning of religious practice as founded on Holy Writ : 
 we even find that efforts were made to translate some 
 psalms or hymns into the people's language, in order to 
 satisfy their religious longing, and to attract them more 
 earnestly to the Church by awakening their interest by 
 means of an active, intelligent co-operation. But all 
 these attempts remained without fruit. The Roman 
 hierarchy did not wish to have the form of religious 
 service changed by means of any outside element ; and 
 thus the people were excluded, as before, from any 
 active participation in the musical part of the service. 
 But the people created their own sacred songs, on 
 the very basis of the Gregorian melodies, and these 
 songs were sung at processions and festivals outside 
 of the Church. Thus the spiritual life of men, though 
 shackled for a time, will eventually work out its own 
 existence, and gain freedom in unforeseen directions ; 
 for there is no doubt that the religious sentiments laid 
 
98 Music in England. 
 
 down in these early German sacred songs prepared the 
 people to receive and understand the religious mission 
 of the first Reformers. Many of the sacred songs, that 
 owe their origin to the darkest days of the times before 
 the great Reformation, afterwards became favorites with 
 the Protestants, and served as models even to Luther 
 and his collaborators. 
 
 Liither loved music dearly, and cultivated it at home 
 as a means of recreation and as an element of artistic 
 edification. In his youth, while a poor student, he 
 sung — as was then the custom in Germany — motets 
 and part-songs, in company with his schoolmates, be- 
 fore the houses of the rich, in order to earn money. 
 He was also a good performer on the flute and the 
 lute. "I am not of the opinion," said he, "that 
 through the gospel all arts should • be banished and 
 driven away, as some zealots want to make us believe ; 
 but I wish to see all arts, especially music, in the 
 service of Him who gave and created them." In his 
 transformation of the Roman liturgical service into one 
 he judged better fitted for the German churches, he 
 proceeded with great caution and moderation. He did 
 not at once banish every part of the Latin mass. In 
 his arrangement of the German liturgical service he 
 admitted the greater part of the Latin mass ; and the 
 songs for certain festival-days were to be sung in Latin, 
 until a sufficient number of arrangements with German 
 words could be acquired. "We are still," said he, "at 
 the beginning of the great work, therefore every thing 
 that belongs to it is not yet prepared." And in order 
 to provide the new Protestant churches with suitable 
 hymns, he not only translated and paraphrased some of 
 the most beautiful old Latin hymns, but also wrote new 
 
Music in the Lutheran Church. 99 
 
 ones, and, at the same time, asked others to contribute 
 sacred songs, in order to promote the welfare of the new 
 religious movement. The German followers of Luther's 
 teachings received these new songs with great avidity : 
 they were no more excluded from the immediate exer- 
 cise of the liturgical service. The chants of the priest 
 were now uttered in a language familiar to them : the 
 hymns that now formed part of this service appealed 
 to their religious understanding in suitable sacred word 
 and tone. The Protestant Christian found in those 
 songs edification, consolation, and that inner moral 
 strength so necessary in those times of trial and per- 
 secution. These Protestant hymns, like true songs of 
 liberty, flew from mouth to mouth, thus preparing the 
 way for the re-conquered gospel, so long forbidden to 
 those for whom it was intended. So great were the 
 power and influence of the hymns of the new Protest- 
 ant churches in Germany, that the Catholic Church 
 found it advisable to adopt some of them, or to arrange 
 new hymn-books for the use of its own congregations. 
 The great epoch of the Reformation opened a new and 
 vast horizon to the human spirit, which now greeted, in 
 the most exalted tones, the light that chased the great 
 darkness which had hung so heavily over the nations. 
 
 Many of the tunes of the new Protestant Church 
 were derived, with appropriate changes, from the great 
 stock of the Catholic liturgy, the Gregorian chants and 
 melodies ; others were popular people's-songs, of which 
 the words even were paraphrased, and included in the 
 hymnal. Luther is credited with the composing of a 
 few hymn-tunes. The composer John Walter, whose 
 counsels in musical matters the great reformer often 
 asked, gives the following characteristic account of a 
 
loo Music in England, 
 
 meeting he had with Luther, with regard to the ar- 
 rangement of the German mass. 
 
 " I know and testify [says Walter] that the holy man Luther, 
 who was the prophet and Apostle of the German nation, loved 
 music with great reverence. I past with him many a sweet hour 
 in singing, and I often saw the dear man, while singing, growing 
 of so frolicsome and cheerful a mind ; and he was not to be tired 
 of singing, and he knew how to speak of music in such a beautiful 
 manner. Forty years ago, at the time he endeavored to establish 
 the German mass, he invited Conrad Rupp and myself, to come to 
 Wittenberg, in order to discuss with us the form of the choral- 
 [church-song] to be adopted ; he then even sung to me, and asked 
 my advice about, the notes he had set himself to the Epistles, the 
 Gospels, and to the words of the Holy Communion. He kept me 
 with him at Wittenberg three whole weeks, in order to write the 
 tunes to several Gospels and Epistles, until the first German mass 
 could be sung in the church. I had to listen attentively, and then 
 to take a copy of this first German mass, and present it, at the 
 doctor's request, to the Elector of Torgau. At the same time, he 
 ordered the setting of simple hymn-tunes for the use of youth and 
 to be sung during vespers, which, at this time, had been done away 
 with in many places ; he also requested Latin hymns, antiphonals, 
 and responsartos to be composed for those poor students who 
 were obliged to sing, for their daily bread, before the houses of 
 the rich, and he was not pleased to have them sing only German 
 songs. Those, therefore, who wish to banish all Latin Christian 
 hymns, and who think it not to be good Lutheran or evangelical 
 art to sing Latin choruses in church, are not to be commended 
 or justified. Again, it will be unjust to sing nothing but Latin 
 hymns ; for the congregation, the common people, will derive no 
 benefit from this. The spiritual German, pure, old Lutheran 
 hymns and psalms are therefore best fitted for the common people, 
 while the Latin songs behoove for the practice of the youth and 
 learned." 
 
 The Protestant Church, however, did not accept the 
 form of the mass as used in the Catholic Church : 
 
Music in the Lutheran Church. loi 
 
 only the Kyrie and Gloria, as missa brevis, are sung in 
 some of the larger city churches.' 
 
 The German Protestant hymn-tune — the choral, as 
 it is called — grew out of the Gregorian melody. But 
 by means of accepting, at the same time, many of the 
 popular melodies of the secular as well as of the sacred 
 people's-songs, a new enlivening element entered into 
 it. That Luther appreciated the beauty of the Grego- 
 rian chant, the many fine melodies he derived from that 
 rich source prove. But in studying the wants of the 
 people, whom he endeavored to make the principal 
 participators in the Protestant service, he found that 
 the most effective form of the hymn-tune already ex- 
 isted. He carefully gathered and arranged for church 
 use those melodies, secular and sacred, which through 
 past years had become dear to the people. These 
 melodies, when associated with the earnest, powerful, 
 deeply religious sentiment of Luther's German hymns, 
 proved a mighty means in the hands of the Reformers. 
 Although Luther intended these melodies to be sung 
 in unison, yet he was too much of an artistic tempera- 
 ment to exclude all harmonic art. He was very fond 
 of the motets as composed by Josquin des Pr^s, Senile, 
 and others : it was therefore with his approval, if not 
 at his suggestion, that early Protestant composers ar- 
 ranged the choral melodies as part-songs, and even 
 transformed them into the form of motets. The chorus 
 was not yet banished from the Church, though its co- 
 operation during church-service was a subordinate one. 
 While the congregation sung the melody in unison, the 
 chorus accompanied it in the form of a richer but ap- 
 propriate harmonic development. The former manner 
 
 ' See Bach's Four Masses, published by the Bach-Gesellschatt. 
 
I02 Music in England. 
 
 of placing the principal melody, as a cantus firmus, in 
 the tenor, was still adhered to by the first Protestant 
 Church composers ; but in this way the melody did not 
 stand out in all its distinctness, and thus often created 
 confusion. Later composers assigned it to the highest, 
 and in a melodic sense more dominant part, — the so- 
 prano. Though we shall find that even the German 
 choral, of an effective, majestic rhythm at first, lost 
 much of this enlivening element, and notes of equal 
 length follow each other in a clumsy, monotonous rhyth- 
 mical progression, yet these beautiful old sacred melo- 
 dies possess a charm and a grandeur unreached by any 
 modern effort. With the advent of the Reformation, 
 as headed by Luther, German sacred musical cultiva- 
 tion received a powerful impulse. The leaders of the 
 Lutheran churches were not afraid that music, as an 
 art, would interfere with their religious work : they 
 understood its spiritual meaning, and allotted it an 
 appropriate place in the Church as a sacred people's- 
 song, exciting at the same time the inventiveness of the 
 composer, to create new. melodies, or to make the old 
 melody the enlivening motif oi rich harmonic structural 
 development. The result of this broad-minded appre- 
 ciation of music, as a sacred art, may be seen in its 
 glory in the works of Eccard, H. Schiitz, J. S. Bach, 
 and Handel. Thus these German Reformists, by their 
 wise encouragement of music, laid the foundation of a 
 great original German school ; and thus said Luther in 
 praise of music : — 
 
 " When natural music [simple people's-rousic] is polished and 
 rendered effective by means of art, then one sees and recognizes, 
 with deep admiration, God's great and perfect wisdom revealed 
 in his wonderful work, Musica, \n which that, above all, appears 
 
Music in the Lutheran Church. 103 
 
 peculiar and remarkable, when one sings a simple tune as tenor [or 
 canius firmus\, while three, four, or five other vocal parts move and 
 skip around this simple tune, in a joyful mood, and with manyfold 
 sound, embellishing and beautifying it in a most charming manner : 
 dancmg, as it were, in heavenly sport, meeting and greeting each 
 other heartily and beautifully. The one who is not moved by such 
 an art-work resembles a coarse log, and does not deserve to hear 
 such lovely music, but the wild incoherent braying of the choral, 
 or the, song of dogs and swine." 
 
 We know Luther was very outspoken. (Ex. V.) 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MUSIC IN THE GENEVAN (CALVINIST) CHURCH. 
 
 In the church-service of the Calvinists, music be- 
 came reduced to its most simple form of expression. 
 The tunes which Calvin adapted to be sung to the 
 metrical translations or arrangements of the psalms 
 are also partly formed in imitation of the form of some 
 Gregorian melodies, and partly derived from people's- 
 melodies. But according to the more rigid and ex- 
 clusive sense that became prevalent in the Calvinistic 
 Church, with regard to art jn general, these psalm- 
 tunes, once accepted, were not to be changed, neither 
 were new melodies allowed to be set to the psalms. 
 The historical facts concerning the psalter of the 
 Calvinists are the following : C16ment Marot, a French 
 poet of great merit, and at the same time highly ad- 
 mired for his elegant secular poems, was induced by the 
 learned Vatable to versify the psalms. Vatable, pro- 
 fessor at the newly founded Royal College at Paris, 
 explained the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. 
 Marot, greatly assisted by Vatable, at first translated 
 thirty of the psalms, which he published at Paris in 
 1542 : these he dedicated to Francis I. Marot, however, 
 did not follow the order in which the psalms stand in 
 the Bible : he simply translated and versified those that 
 struck his fancy. These metrical arrangements were 
 104 
 
Mtisic in the Genevan (Calvinist) Chtii^ch. 105 
 
 much admired by Francis I. and his court, and became 
 very popular. The Crown Prince Henry (afterwards 
 Henry H.) was passionately fond of singing these 
 psalm§. He often had musicians to accompany him 
 with the lute, the viol, the flute, and the spinet ; and 
 any person coming to see him had to join with him in 
 singing. All sorts of popular tunes were adapted to 
 Marot's versification of the psalms. Prince Henry sung 
 to the forty-second ("As the hart pants") a hunting air; 
 Diane de Poitiers, the one hundred and thirtieth to a 
 dance-tune ; the Crown Princess, Catherine de Medicis, 
 chose the sixth psalm, and united it to the air of a 
 comic song ; Anthony of Navarre adapted to his favor- 
 ite, the forty-third, the air of a people's-dance. 
 
 Marot, soon after the publication of the above thirty 
 psalms, found it prudent to leave the French court : 
 he was suspected of being an adherent to the Reform- 
 ists' teachings. From Paris he went to Geneva, where, 
 probably at the suggestion and with the encourage- 
 ment of the great reformer Calvin himself, he versified 
 twenty more (that is, nineteen psalms and the canticle 
 of Simeon). Thus the number of psalms was brought 
 to fifty; which appeared in print in 1543, with a dedi- 
 cation by Marot to the ladies of France. Another 
 edition of these psalms, prepared for the use of the 
 Genevan Church, appeared a few weeks before the 
 above, accompanied with a remarkable preface by Cal- 
 vin, on church-song: I shall afterwards give some parts 
 of it. The following year Marot died. 
 
 After Marot's death, Theodore de Bfeze, Calvin's 
 friend, and professor of Greek at Lausanne, was in- 
 duced to translate and versify the remaining hundred 
 psalms ; and in 1560 appeared the complete psalter, as 
 
io6 Music m Enslct^d- 
 
 'A' 
 
 translated by Clement Marot and Th. de Beze, under 
 the title, "Les Pseaumes de David mis en rime fran- 
 goise par Clement Marot et Theodore de Beze." This 
 version of the psalter, Calvin adopted as the congre- 
 gational sacred song-book of the reformed (Calvinis- 
 tic) church. The tunes to be sung to these psalms 
 were, according to Calvin's strict views with regard to 
 church-music, in single parts, unison : and to the musi- 
 cian William Franc has been attributed the merit of 
 having either composed or arranged them ; this, as we 
 shall see, was an error. William Franc (Le Franc), 
 who until recently was considered a native of Stras- 
 bourg, hailed from Rouen, and settled at Geneva in 
 1 541, where he opened a music-school. He was also 
 connected with the Church, as precentor of St. Peter. 
 In 1545 he left Geneva on account of the small salary 
 (one hundred florins) awarded him by the city council 
 for his labors, and settled in Lausanne. Here he came 
 in contact with Th. de Beze, who probably engaged him 
 to set melodies to his versification of the psalms. In 
 1565 Franc published an edition of the psalms sung at 
 the church of Lausanne. In the preface to this edition 
 Franc says, " I have chosen the best songs already in 
 use in this as well as in other reformed churches. Re- 
 garding those psalms lately translated, and which were 
 sung to the melodies of the first psalms, I have, accord- 
 ing to my little knowledge, adapted a melody to each." 
 Thus some of the tunes, as sung at Lausanne, were 
 arranged by Franc, and differed from those as sung 
 at Geneva. But in course of time the melodies, as 
 accepted by the Genevan Church, superseded those as 
 sung at Lausanne ; and with this Franc's tunes disap- 
 peared. It has lately been proved' that the psalm-tunes 
 
 ' Douen, Clement Marot et le Psautier Huguenot. 
 
Music in the Genevan ( Calvinist) Church. 107 
 
 which are known as those of the reformed church, and 
 harmonized by Goudimel, were erroneously attributed 
 to W. Franc. He has no claims to any one of them. 
 The finest and largest number of those tunes were ar- 
 ranged and adapted by another French musician, Louis 
 Bourgeois; and the rest, by Maitre Pierre, who was 
 Bourgeois' successor at Geneva. Louis Bourgeois was 
 born at Paris at the beginning of the sixteenth century. 
 In 1541 he followed Calvin; and in 1545, after Franc's 
 removal from that city, he was appointed precentor of 
 St. Peter's. At first he seemed to give great satisfac- 
 tion ; since the city council accorded him the right of a 
 citizen, as well as other small privileges. But some 
 time later the council, at the request of Bourgeois to 
 raise his salary, refused to do so, although Calvin him- 
 self interceded in the interest of the poor singer ; and 
 the council, at the reiteration of Bourgeois' demand, put 
 him in prison under the charge of having changed the 
 tunes of several psalms without a license. The tunes, 
 for the introduction of which Bourgeois was put in 
 prison, are some of the finest in the Genevan Psalter. 
 Bourgeois was an able contrapuntist. He harmo- 
 nized many of the psalm-tunes ; but when endeavoring 
 to introduce them into the Church, Calvin and the 
 other members of the church government were strictly 
 opposed to it. Calvin, as we shall see hereafter, 
 emphatically prohibited part-singing from church-ser- 
 vice. Bourgeois, disgusted at this inartistic, narrow 
 tendency on the part of the Genevan Church, left 
 Geneva in 1557, and returned to Paris, where he dis- 
 appeared. He arranged and partly composed eighty- 
 three melodies ; and MaJtre Pierre, forty. The tune of 
 the " Old Hundredth" is due to Bourgeois, who adapted 
 
io8 Music in England. 
 
 it from a popular air of the fifteenth century. The 
 tune in the Genevan Psalter is set to the one hundred 
 and thirty-fourth psalm. The four-part harmonization, 
 as now universally sung in this country, is based on 
 T. Playford's three-part arrangement, as first found in 
 his "The Whole Booke of Psalms," of which I shall 
 speak hereafter. 
 
 The Genevan Psalter, as versified by Marot and de 
 B^ze, and sung to the tunes as arranged by Bourgeois 
 and Pierre, became afterwards the liturgical song-book 
 of the Reformed churches. The version of Marot and 
 de Beze had, in course of time, gradually to give way to 
 the more modern literary requirements and views of the 
 French Reformed church ; but the tunes have mostly 
 remained. Nearly all the divers translations in other 
 tongues have been made in order to enable them to be 
 sung with those French tunes. At present, however, 
 even these noble melodies have mostly been discarded, 
 and replaced by the weak, sentimental fabrications of 
 half-educated music-teachers and organists. Conserva- 
 tism in this case would have been far preferable to a 
 change which destroyed something that was noble 
 and appropriate. Marot's versified translation of the 
 psalms, which had become so popular in France, as 
 soon as Calvin had adopted them for a part of his 
 church-service were strictly prohibited by the French 
 Catholic clergy ; and the singing of these psalms ex- 
 posed those who indulged in it to the suspicion of 
 leaning towards the heretical teachings of the Genevan 
 Reformers, and afterwards to relentless persecution. 
 But the prohibition on the part of the Catholic Church 
 was the means of making the singing of Marot's psalms 
 still more popular with the Reformists, and to attract 
 to their c"hurch a great many proselytes. 
 
Music in the Genevan ( Calvinist) Church. 109 
 
 Calvin's views regarding church-music, as expressed 
 in the above-mentioned preface to an edition of Marot's 
 versification of some of the psalms, are the follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 "Prayer has a double meaning, — petition in a narrow sense, 
 and song. St. Paul, moved by the Holy Spirit, recommends both ; 
 and jaoth were at all times practised in the Church. The power of 
 music to awaken spiritual joys is well known. Of all gifts with 
 which the Creator has blessed man, to serve him as a recreation 
 and comfort, music may be regarded as the first, or at least one of 
 the most elevated. It possesses a mysterious power of moving the 
 heart ; but as it is capable of doing this in an evil as well as in a 
 good way, one has to take great care not to profane this precious 
 gift of God by means of misusing it, for then it changes into a 
 mortal, soul-destroying, nay, a diabolical poison. With regard to 
 singing, two things must be observed, — the subject-mktter and the 
 melody. One must be careful to see that the first of these be not 
 alone harmless, but also holy ; that it be the means of inviting to 
 prayer in praise of God, and that, in seeing his world, we be moved 
 to love, to'fear, to honor, to magnify him. Now, according to St. 
 Augustinus, one cannot sing that which is worthy of God unless 
 we have first received it from him. Therefore one cannot find 
 more worthy songs than the psalms of David, which the Holy 
 Spirit has revealed to the singer. We may be sure, in singing 
 these, that God himself put the words in our mouths, and that he 
 is singing in us, as it were, to magnify his glory." 
 
 Thus we see that Calvin understood the power of 
 music very well, and that he knew well how to appre- 
 ciate its importance in connection with divine service. 
 But in his apprehension of having too rich a display of 
 musical art, liable to confute the desired distinctness 
 and understanding of the sense of the psalms to be 
 sung, he simplified and fixed its forms ; and the tunes, 
 like the words of the psalms, were to remain unchange- 
 able. This exclusive preference for the psalter exclud- 
 
no Music in England. 
 
 ed, of course, all attempts at composing new hymn- 
 tunes. This stern adherence to the psalms and tunes 
 once accepted as belonging to sacred worship, after- 
 wards guarded the Reformed church against the intro- 
 duction of frivolous and meaningless ballad and operatic 
 tunes. 
 
 In the Genevan Psalter there are less tunes than 
 psalms: several of these are to be sung to the same 
 melody. Calvin insisted on congregational singing. 
 " Those songs and melodies," says he, " which are com- 
 posed for the mere pleasure of the ear, and all they 
 call ornamented music and songs for four parts, do not 
 behoove the majesty of the Church, and cannot fail 
 greatly to displease God." But in spite of this narrow 
 view, artistic ingenuity was not. to be entirely excluded. 
 French composers, such as Philibert, Jambe-le-Fer, 
 Bourgeois, Goudimel, Claudin Le Jeune, enriched the 
 psalm-tunes with harmonic art. Bourgeois published 
 in 1561, at Lyons, eighty-three of the psalms set to 
 four, five, and six parts. The labors of Goudimel and 
 Claudin Le Jeune were of great importance. 
 
 Claude Goudimel, born about 1510 in the neighbor- 
 hood of Besangon, became one of the finest contrapunt- 
 ists of the Gallo-Belgian school. In 1540 he went to 
 Rome, where he established a music-school : Palestrina, 
 among others, was one of his pupils. About 1555 he 
 established himself in Paris, where he became convert- 
 ed to the Reformed church. He was killed at Lyons, 
 St. Bartholomew's Night, Aug. 14, 1572, and his corpse 
 thrown into the Rh6ne. Besides masses, motets, and 
 chansons, he published in 1565 the complete psalter of 
 Marot and de Beze, with the tunes as accepted by the 
 Genevan Church, and set by him for four voices. The 
 
Music in the Genevan (Cahinist) Church. 
 
 Ill 
 
 tune, according to the general custom of the time, is 
 assigned to the tenor, with the exception of a dozen 
 melodies that appear in the soprano. The harmonic 
 arrangement is, in general, simply homophonous, that 
 is, note against note ; only here and there the close of 
 a strophe is marked by a suspension. Goudimel says 
 himself, regarding this part-setting of the psalm-tunes, 
 " In this little volume we have added three parts to the 
 melody of the psalms, not for the purpose to have them 
 sung in church, but for the enjoyment of God at home." 
 Calvin, as we have seen above, would not have allowed 
 such an arrangement to be used during church-service. 
 Goudimel's four-part arrangement became very popular, 
 so much so that later historians credited him also with 
 the creating of the tunes. Marot and de Beze' psalms 
 appeared in 1573 at Leipzig, translated into German by 
 Ambrosius Lobwasser, with the melodies as harmonized 
 by Goudimel : this translation with its tunes also found 
 its way into the Dutch reformed churches. 
 
 The other most important harmonization of the tunes 
 of the Calvinistic psalter is the work of Claudin Le 
 Jeune of Valenciennes, one of the ablest French com- 
 posers of this epoch. Claudin's harmonization was 
 published by his sister C^cilie in 1601, the year after 
 his death : this arrangement is in simple counterpoint 
 for four voices, and some twelve for five voices. Le 
 Jeune's setting of the psalm-tunes had much success. 
 Though other composers tried their hands at the har- 
 monization of the psalm-tunes, Goudimel's and Claudin 
 Le Jeune's settings were considered as models. These 
 two contrapuntists have since been held up by histo- 
 rians as the most prominent composers — the classics 
 — of the Huguenot Church. (Ex. VI., VII., VIII.) 
 
1 1 2 Music in England. 
 
 Note. — The following two editions of the Genevan Psalter in 
 my possession are not mentioned, either in Bovet's bibliography 
 of "Histoire du Psautier des Eglises Rdformdes," or in that of 
 Douen's " Clement Marot et le Psautier Huguenot." 
 
 " Las Psaumes de David, mis en rime frangoise, par Clement 
 Marot et Thdodore de Beze. A Amsterdam, chez Henri Des- 
 bordes, dans le Kalverstraat, M.DC.XCIX." 
 
 " Les Psaumes de David, k quatre parties. Mis en Vers frangois, 
 revus & approuvez par les V^ndrables Classes du Pays de Vaud, 
 & augmentds, des Cantiques Sacrez. Pour les Principales Solem- 
 nitez des Chretiens, & sur divers autres sujets. Avec une nouvelle 
 instruction pour apprendre facilement la Musique des Psaumes. 
 A Berne, dans I'Imprimerie de L. L. E. E., M.DCC.XXI." 
 
 The four-part setting of the above edition is transposed, and 
 accords with that of Sulzberger. 
 
 The spiritual songs of my Sulzberger, ed. 1767, are entirely 
 different from those of the original Genevan Psalter. 
 
 Dr. Rimbault says somewhere, that an original edition of Goudi- 
 mel's four-part setting was bought by an American book-collector. 
 Although I have made many inquiries in order to discover the 
 possessor of this extremely scarfce edition, I have, so far, not suc- 
 ceeded. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE ENGLISH CATHEDRAL-SERVICE. 
 
 After having thus reviewed musical practice as 
 adopted by the three leading religious denominations 
 of the Continent, — viz., the Roman-Catholic, the Lu- 
 theran, the Reformed, — and having also examined the 
 principles which led the different churches to intro- 
 duce, according to the form of their liturgy, a rich or 
 a simple form of sacred song, let us now turn our 
 attention to the cultivation of sacred song as adopted 
 by the different religious denominations of England, 
 As these English churches were all at first more or 
 less influenced by Continental church practice, we 
 therefore shall find that they had many views, regard- 
 ing church-music, in common with those of the Conti- 
 nental churches. And since these different European 
 churches — the English as well as those of the Conti- 
 nent — are represented in the United States, this his- 
 torical review \vill enable us to appreciate the artistic 
 aim and merit of the musical practice of those Ameri- 
 can churches; the form of the liturgy of each respective 
 American church having been copied from some Euro- 
 pean model. 
 
 We know that before the Reformation there was 
 only one church, and the musical liturgy was of course, 
 in every country, of the same form. With the Refor- 
 m's 
 
114 Music in England. 
 
 mation, the unity of the Church was split into different 
 denominations, every one admitting into its liturgy such 
 changes as were agreeable to the views of its govern- 
 ment. In England the Reformation began to take 
 hold during the reign of Henry VIII. Whatever the 
 motives may have been that induced Henry VIII. to 
 bring about a rupture with the Church of Rome, music 
 in the English Church during his reign underwent no 
 material changes, except that in some parts of the 
 service the English language was substituted for the 
 Latin. Henry himself lent his assistance to this end, 
 and is said to have translated certain prayers, litanies, 
 and processions. The alterations which were made in 
 the mass were so inconsiderable and slight that there 
 was, at first, no need of reprinting either the missals, 
 breviaries, or other offices. It seemed, that, at the 
 king's desire. Archbishop Cjanmer himself first adjust- 
 ed the translation of a litany to a chant. He says, — 
 
 •• The judgment I refer wholly to your Majesty, and after your 
 Highness has corrected it, if your Grace commends to me devout 
 and solemn note to be made thereunto (as is to the procession 
 which your Majesty has already set forth in English), I trust it will 
 much excite and stir the hearts of all men to devotion and gladness. 
 But, in my opinion, the song that shall be made thereunto would 
 not be full of notes, but, as near as may be, for every syllable a 
 note, so that it may be sung distinctly and devoutly. . . . Where- 
 fore I have travail'd to make the verses in English, and have put 
 the Latin note into the same. Nevertheless, those that be cunnmg 
 in singing can make a much more solemn note thereto. I made 
 them only for a proof, to see how English would do in a Song.'' 
 
 However, among the English clergy, opinion was 
 sharply divided with regard to church -music. While 
 some recommended that "the sober, discreet, and de- 
 vout singing, music, and playing with organs, used in 
 
The English Cathedral- Service. 115 
 
 the Church in the service of God, are ordained to move 
 and stir the people to the sweetness of God's word, 
 the which is there sung ; and by the sweet harmony, 
 both to excite them to prayer and devotion, and also to 
 put them in remembrance of the heavenly triumphant 
 Church, where is everlasting joy, continual laud and 
 praise to God," — lathers, like the clergy of the Lower 
 House in the province of Canterbury, protested against 
 the " Fautes and Abuses " of religion, and declared 
 that " synging and saying of mass, matins, or even- 
 song, is but rorying, howling, whystlyng, mummying, 
 conjurying, and jugelyng, and the playing at the organs 
 a foolish vanitie." Thus the conflict with regard to 
 the musical liturgy in the English Church was fairly 
 opened, and the fierce struggle lasted over a century. 
 Henry VHI. and his children protected, with all their 
 royal authority and power, a choral service that issued 
 from the former Catholic service ; while the Dissenters 
 and the Puritans would not be satisfied until every 
 thing in music, bearing the least resemblance to the 
 " popisch service," was entirely swept away. 
 
 The constitution of the choral (cathedral) service of 
 the Episcopal Church of England requires an efficient 
 choir of men and boys. 
 
 "We ordain and appoint [says a statute prescribed by the com- 
 mand of Henry VIII.] that those six priests, whom we call Minor 
 Canons, as also the six Laick Clercks, and also the Deacon and 
 Sub-Deacon, all of whom we have constituted daily to celebrate 
 the praise of God in our church, be, as much as may be, learned, 
 of good name, and honest conversation, and, lastly, that th§y be 
 men of judgement in singing, which shall be approved of those 
 who well understand the art of music in the same church." 
 
 A precentor, to whom the superintendence of the 
 
ii6 Music in England. 
 
 principal part of the church-service belonged, was ap- 
 pointed. 
 
 "We decree and ordain [says a statute], that, out of the Minor 
 Canons, one elder or more eminent than the rest be chosen Pre- 
 centor, whose oiHce it shall be skilfully to direct the singing-men 
 in the church, and as a guide to lead them by previous teaching, 
 that their singing be not discordant. Him the rest shall obey." 
 
 Thus the precentor examined and superintended the 
 chanters, fixed the service of the anthem for the week, 
 and was responsible for the appointment of the choir- 
 boys. On the greater festivals he intoned or com- 
 menced the church hymns. That important religious 
 office, of regulating the church-music, was regarded, as 
 it ought to be, worthy the personal superintendence of 
 one of the chief dignitaries, who himself took part in 
 its performance. These offices, created in the interest 
 of a worthy musical celebration of the cathedral-ser- 
 vice, were distinctly and especially endowed. The mem- 
 bers of the choirs had houses and lands of their own, 
 set apart for their special and perpetual use. Great 
 care was taken to have the choir-boys not alone well 
 trained in singing, but to give them, as far as possible, a 
 classical education, in order to enable them, as men, to 
 assume a becoming station in the holy brotherhood 
 to which they belonged. Thus the Church of England, 
 while retaining a choral service worthy the demands 
 of a noble liturgy, wisely intended to have the clergy 
 take a conspicuous part in its musical performance. 
 To this end a considerable degree of musical proficien- 
 cy ■\yas demanded of every member of the cathedral. 
 Every lover of real church-music will find this provision 
 an admirable and reasonable one ; for as long as music, 
 be it in ever so subordinate a form, is accepted as part 
 
The English Cathedral-Service. 117 
 
 of divine service, the person who, by means of his 
 sacred office, is thus intimately connected with the 
 appropriate regulations of church-service, ought to be 
 able to possess the necessary understanding and knowl- 
 edge of all the parts belonging to the liturgy. A 
 knowledge of the subject will however show, that, not- 
 withstanding the original intention of the founders of 
 the English choral service, the clergy, sometimes out 
 of indifference and ignorance, sometimes out of jealousy 
 and egotism, allowed a sacred institution, which was 
 once the just pride of a great church, to deteriorate in 
 a miserable manner. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, who loved splendor, and was deep- 
 ly attached to the existing form of the choral service, 
 sustained it with all her authority, and endeavored to 
 render it more efficient. She even took peremptory 
 means in order to secure choir-boys with good voices. 
 Here is a warrant sent out by her : — 
 
 "Whereas our Castle of Windsor hath of old been well fur- 
 nished with singing men and children, — We, willing it should not 
 be of less reputation in our days, but rather augmented and 
 encreased, declare that no singing men or boys shall be taken out 
 of said Chapel by virtue of any commission, not even for our 
 household chapel. And we give power to the bearer of this, to 
 take any singing men or boys from any chapel, our own household 
 and St. Paul's only excepted. Given at Westminster, the 8th day 
 of -March in the second year of our reign. ,, elizaBETH R." 
 
 In her injunctions to the clergy, in which she de- 
 clares her resolution to uphold the use of music during 
 church-service, the following passage occurs : — 
 
 " She also willeth and commendeth, that there may be a modest 
 and distinct song, so used m all parts of common prayers of the 
 church, that the same may be plainly understood, as if it were 
 
1 1 8 Music in England. 
 
 without singing, and yet, nevertheless, for the comforting of such 
 as dehght in musick, it may be permitted, that in the beginning or 
 end of common prayer, either morning or evening, there may be 
 sung an hymn, or such like song, to the praise of Almighty God, 
 in the best melody and musick that may conveniently b'e devised, 
 having respect that the sentence of the hymn may be perceived 
 or understood." 
 
 There is no doubt that the conflict regarding the 
 admittance of choral music (cathedral-service) for divine 
 worship was obstinate and fierce ; and a sovereign less 
 firm in purpose, and decided in action, might have been 
 forced to accept the narrow views concerning music 
 entertained by the great body of English Puritans, and 
 the dignity and splendor of the English choral service 
 would have been a thing of the past. Cartwright says 
 (to quote one of the most violent opponents of the 
 cathedral-service), — 
 
 " It hath no edification, according to the rule of the Apostle, 
 but only confusion. They toss the psalms to and fro like tennis- 
 balls. As for organs and curious singing, though they be proper for 
 the Popish dens (by which I mean the Catholic church), yet some 
 others must have them also. The queen's chapel, which should' be 
 a spectacle of Christian reformation, is rather a pattern of all 
 kinds of superstition." 
 
 In a pamphlet published in 1556, and widely circu- 
 lated, entitled "A Request of all True Christians to 
 the Houses of Parliament," it is prayed, among other 
 petitions offered up in a like spirit, " that all cathedral 
 churches be put down, where the service of God is 
 grievously abused by piping upon organs, singing, and 
 trowling of psalms from side to side, with the squeak- 
 ing of chanting choristers disguised (like all the rest) 
 in white surplices ; some in corner caps and silly copes. 
 
The English Cathedral- Service. 119 
 
 imitating the manner and fashion of Antichrist, the 
 Pope, that man of sin, with all his other rable of mis- 
 creants and shovelings." Queen Elizabeth's endeavors 
 to secure the cathedral-service a permanent form and 
 existence as a national church were successful, not- 
 withstanding the clamors of the many enemies of 
 church-music that opposed her. Although in immi- 
 nent danger of being done away with entirely during 
 the great revolution, the choral service re-appeared, re- 
 organized on its original basis. If, at a later time, it 
 sunk from its former significance and splendor, it was 
 not at the hands of its Puritanic enemies, but at the 
 hands of those whose sacred duty it was to protect 
 it against an unpardonable depreciation of its sacred 
 character and meaning. Happily, England possessed, 
 at this time, able composers, essentially fit to mould 
 the new musical parts required by the liturgical form 
 of the cathedral-service, as organized and established 
 during the reigns of Henry VHL, Edward VI., and 
 Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 " The same mental power and intellectual energy, which were 
 so abundantly displayed in a variety of forms during this epoch, 
 appeared conspicuously in its music. The splendid and ample 
 choir of the Chapel Royal was the school in which the musical 
 talent of the age was chiefly matured. To Tallis and Tye, the 
 English fathers of the art, were speedily and successfully added 
 Byrd, Farrant, Morley, Bull, Weelkes; Kirby, Farmer, Dowland, 
 Bateson, Gibbons. These masters enriched the land from north 
 to south, from east to west, with the products of their genius and 
 industry. The race of voiceless and incompetent clergymen and 
 priests was not then known ; everywhere the choirs were filled 
 with singers. Composers had leisure to write, for they had a com- 
 petent maintenance : they had inclination to compose, for they 
 loved their art." ■ 
 
 ' The English Cathedral-Service. 
 
I20 Music in England. 
 
 On this reasonable, and, indeed, only feasible basis, 
 rested the choral service of the English cathedrals: 
 on this basis, indubitable historical facts prove it must 
 again be built, in order to come near its former gran- 
 deur and sacred liturgical meaning. The right and 
 effective solution of the question of appropriate church- 
 music, which agitates our Episcopal churches, can only 
 be solved by accepting the principles of those who first 
 organized the musical part of the liturgy. Mere senti- 
 mental exclamations with regard to the ideal beauty 
 and efiScacy of church-music, or poetical wishes pre- 
 sented in journals devoted to the affairs of the Church, 
 will not help our clergymen out of the dilemma. En- 
 ergetic action, based upon former experience, as well 
 as an efficient understanding, is needful, and will alone 
 prove successful in the end. 
 
 Now let us enumerate the opportunities, which, in 
 the English cathedral-service, are offered to the com- 
 poser, in order to be able to adorn it by means of his 
 art, considered, of course, only in the light of religious 
 fitness, and according to sacred traditions. But, in tra- 
 cing the origin of the English choral service, I have 
 been not a little astonished to find that even the most 
 reliable, and apparently most sincere, of English Prot- 
 estant writers oh this subject, endeavor to ignore, not- 
 withstanding all positive historical facts, the principal 
 source of their musical liturgy. Now, in spite of all 
 religious animosity, opposition, and hatred, it cannot 
 be denied that all church-music (of the Occidental 
 churches), from the simple chant to the most elaborate 
 form of choral song, is invariably derived from the musi- 
 cal liturgy of the Roman-Catholic Church. From what- 
 ever source, anterior to its universal reign, the Roman 
 
The English Cathedral- Service. 121 
 
 Church may have received certain chants and hymns, 
 we have absolutely no musical documents of such chants 
 but those as formed and adopted by the heads of the 
 Roman-Catholic Church. Some of these chants are said 
 to be of Hebrew, others of Greek, origin. The broad- 
 minded artist, whatever his religious belief and feeling 
 may be, cahnot afford, in order to gratify his religious 
 predilections, to darken the principal source of modern 
 musical art. To mention only two of the most meri- 
 torious writers on English musical liturgy, we find that 
 both Latrobe and Jebb have endeavored to prove, with 
 all the force of their rhetoric, that the English cathedral- 
 service is a direct continuation of the Jewish liturgy. 
 Says Latrobe,' — 
 
 " By a comparison of the specimens of the alternate chant, 
 which abound in our liturgy, with the choral practice of the 
 Jews and early Christians, the mind is struck with the numerous 
 coincidences existing between them, — all demonstrative of the 
 high regard paid to antiquity, and the care with which its monu- 
 ments have been preserved. The cathedral chanting of the 
 Church of England possesses almost every characteristic of the 
 Jewish music, and varies only in its enriching the meagre sim- 
 plicity of the ancient mode from the abounding stores of modern 
 harmony." 
 
 Dr. Jebb even thinks,^ " that, when we find that the 
 monologue of the Grecian drama was recited in a musi- 
 cal tone, we may surely believe that their practice was 
 also taken from the Jews, among whom it subsists to 
 the present day." Why not accept, as more plausible, 
 that the Jews, as well as the Greeks, received their 
 first musical notions from the Egyptians .? for both of 
 
 ' The Music of the Church. 
 
 ' The Choral Service of the United Church of England and Ireland. 
 
122 Music in England. 
 
 these nations went first to school in Egypt. Now, in 
 spite 'A the constant efforts of many Protestant clergy- 
 men to give us a graphic picture of Jewish music, we 
 know infinitely little of its real practice. It is supposed 
 to have been antiphonal, and that certain musical in- 
 struments were used during service; but history fails 
 to tell us in what manner, neither is it possible to point 
 out with certainty a specimen of such a chant or mel- 
 ody as may have been used in the temple of Jerusalem. 
 All the theory of Jewish temple-music rests on an illu- 
 sion. The English cathedral-service is a continuation, 
 more or less changed in certain parts, of the Roman- 
 Catholic liturgy as established in England before the 
 Reformation : its musical form and significance can be 
 explained only on the basis of the liturgical musical 
 practice of the Roman Church. David and his prede- 
 cessors and successors had very little influence on it. 
 The followers of Christ found their adherents among 
 Jews and Gentiles : some of their former habits were 
 often tolerated, or had to be used in a Christian sense, 
 in order to attract others to the new religion. I have 
 shown above, that even St. Chrysostom had to employ 
 the same means as his opponents the Arians, in order 
 to augment and keep his flock together. The Jews 
 had, then, not much influence on the Graeco-Roman 
 people. And why should it be thought more impor- 
 tant or more desirable to be the successors of a Jewish 
 liturgical custoni than of a Christian one ? Historical 
 facts cannot very well be set aside arbitrarily in order 
 to gratify religious antagonism. 
 
 Next to the musical liturgy of the Roman-Catholic 
 Church, the English cathedral-service is the richest 
 in a musical sense. Ample provision was made, at an 
 
The English Cathedral- Service. 123 
 
 early epoch, for retaining as much of this sacred art 
 (church-music) as might be a comfort and edification to 
 the people. The principal feature of this — as well as 
 of the Catholic service — is that sort of metrical song, 
 called the chant, which forms the principal basis of the 
 whole performance. These chants for the English 
 Church were first arranged by Marbeck, who in 1550 
 published the "Booke of Common Prayer," containing 
 the order of Morning and Evening Prayer, together 
 with the oiifice of the Holy Communion and the Burial 
 Service. The music of Marbeck's Prayer-Book is sim- 
 ply plain-song, as selected from, or in imitation of, the 
 Latin service-book. Some old Gregorian melodies and 
 chants were simplified, and adapted to the English 
 words of the liturgy, so that one note only came to be 
 set for each syllable.' To all appearance, it was Mar- 
 beck's principal endeavor, as much as his task would 
 allow him, to preserve or to imitate the tonal character- 
 istics of the old Gregorian melodies and chants, and to 
 gain, at the same time, an agreeable simplicity of form, 
 and a desirable distinctness for congregational use. 
 Marbeck has fulfilled his task so satisfactorily, that his 
 "Booke of Common Prayer" still keeps its place in 
 the service of English Episcopal churches. One of the 
 ornaments, in a musical sense, of the English service, 
 is the anthem : though other portions, like the Te 
 Deum, Jubilate, Magnificat, etc., also received the care- 
 ful attention of English church composers, to the an- 
 them they seem to have devoted the best of their 
 efforts. I have mentioned, in another place, the first 
 great composers of anthems, as well as the close rela- 
 tion in which this form of English sacred music stands 
 
 ' See Kirabault's edition of Marbeck's book. 
 
124 Music in England. 
 
 to the motet.' In fact, the form of the anthem grew 
 out of the motet : the anthems of the composers before 
 the Rebelhon were motets. In the course of time the 
 form of the anthem changed considerably : in some 
 instances it assumed the importance of the sacred can- 
 tata, like some by Purcell and Handel. The different 
 species of anthems are the full, the verse, the solo 
 anthem. 
 
 "The full antlienis are divided into two kinds, — those properly 
 so called, which consist of chorus alone, and the full anthem 
 with verses : these verses, however, which form a very subordi- 
 nate part of the compositions, do not consist of solos or duets, 
 but for the most part of four parts, to be sung by one side of 
 the choir. In the verse anthem, the solos, duets, and trios have the 
 prominent place. The style of the modern verse anthem did not 
 become general in England till the time of the Restoration, though' 
 there are several by Gibbons of this character." ^ 
 
 The anthem is generally set to verses of the Psalms, 
 or other portions of the Scriptures. The anthems have 
 an accompaniment, either for the organ or the orchestra 
 (small or large). It is in the anthems that the English 
 musical spirit found one of its most artistic modes of 
 expression ; and the anthem is, on the whole, the most 
 original style of English sacred music, the divers forms 
 of which were the product of the ingenuity of English 
 composers. To be sure, a great many weak, insipid 
 fabrications, bearing the titles of anthems, have been 
 published. But considering the great number of fine 
 anthems, composed for all the different occasions the 
 divine service of the English Church demands, — from 
 Tye to our present composers, — we cannot understand 
 the reason that prompts English organists to "adapt" 
 
 ' Ritter's History of Music, 2d ed. = Jebb, The Choral Service. 
 
7 he English Cathedral- Service, 135 
 
 the music of the works of foreign masters to the Eng- 
 lish words of the liturgy, and arrange them as anthems. 
 It is this mania of adapting and arranging, which, as I 
 have already pointed out in another part of this book, 
 has done great injury to English original productive- 
 ness. It accustomed the mind of musicians to easy, 
 going work ; and, instead of inciting it to creativeness- 
 it promoted indifference and barrenness. This predi- 
 lection for adapting and arranging musical forms, 
 which, at the outset, are destined to an entirely differ- 
 ent aesthetic purpose, early found its way into the New- 
 England colonies, and for along time played sad havoc 
 with the finest works of the great masters. But this 
 was not the only harm it did to musical culture : it also 
 gave undue importance to a business which had a rather 
 demoralizing effect on the understanding, appreciation, 
 and growth of real musical art ; it retarded and con- 
 fused the judgment and taste of musicians and amateurs 
 regarding the aesthetic value and meaning of the differ- 
 ent structural forms. Such inartistic products — the 
 "arranged " and "adapted " pieces — formed for a long 
 time the main stock of the American music-dealer. 
 
 The anthem, the full service, and other liturgical 
 pieces, written by English church composers, belong 
 eminently to the English cathedral-service, for the sole 
 use of which they were first invented and formed ; and 
 these forms claim, with right, an originality entirely in 
 harmony with the traditions of the English Episcopal 
 Church. The full service, as first composed by Tallis, 
 was, no doubt, suggested by the form of the mass. But 
 the different parts which enter into the form of a full 
 service, such as the Te Deum, Benedictus, Kyrie Elei- 
 son, Nicene Creed, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis, do 
 
126 Music in En^rland. 
 
 A ' 
 
 not receive such an elaborate development as the differ- 
 ent parts of the mass. The contrapuntal treatment of 
 the different movements of the full service is simpler 
 than that of the mass ; and even the anthem, the form 
 of which is dictated by practical liturgical use, presents 
 too limited a space for effective fugual development : 
 yet some masters, like Blow and Purcell, introduced in 
 their services very ingenious but short imitations and 
 canons. The liturgical arrangement of the choral ser- 
 vice cannot fail to impress, in the most favorable man- 
 ner, the mind of a composer to whom musical art, in all 
 its forms, is a matter of deep concern. An admirable 
 inner unity connects the whole structure, admitting, at 
 the same time, a desirable variety. It presents many 
 fine opportunities for exercising the powers and imagi- 
 nation of a true church composer. And the admirable 
 works of the composers of the Elizabethan age, as well 
 as those of later English makers, — works upon which 
 the stamp of classicism is imprinted, and which form 
 the principal stock of the English national school of 
 music, — give ample proof of what a true composer 
 might do, when encouraged and appreciated by those 
 whose business it ought to be to see that holy places 
 are adorned by musical art-works, sacred in conception 
 and meaning. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ENGLISH PSALMODY. 
 
 In England the metrical version of the Psalms be- 
 came as much a favorite with the people as with the 
 Calvinists. The singing of such psalms in public be- 
 came customary among the Reformers, and could not 
 fail to find its way into the churches. The English 
 manner of versifying the psalms was, no doubt, due to 
 an imitation of Marot's efforts. The metrical version, 
 universally accepted by the English Reformers, is the 
 " Whole Booke of Psalms, with apt notes to sing them 
 withal," being the joint production of Sternhold and 
 Hopkins, and which first appeared in print in 1562. 
 These "apt notes," or church-tunes, were, as in the 
 Genevan Psalter, simple melodies to be sung in unison. 
 The whole number of tunes was forty, so that for sev- 
 eral psalms the same tune had to be sung. Some of 
 these melodies were taken from the Lutheran hymn- 
 book and the Calvinist psalter: others seem to be of 
 English, Scotch, and Welsh origin ; they were probably 
 people's ballad-tunes. 
 
 A year after (in 1563) the publication of Sternhold 
 and Hopkins's " Booke of Psalmes," John Day put forth 
 the whole book of Psalms, the melodies harmonized 
 into " four partes, which may be sang to al musical in- 
 struments, set forth for the encrease of virtue, and abol- 
 
 127 
 
128 Music in England. 
 
 ishyng of other vayne and triflyng ballads." This was 
 again printed in 1655, but without any material change. 
 The four-part arrangement of these tunes was executed 
 by such composers as William Parsons, Richard Brimle, 
 Thomas Causton, Nicholas Southerton, John Hake, 
 Richard Edwards, and Thomas Tallis. In 1579 John 
 Day published "The Psalmes of David in English 
 Meter, with notes for four partes set unto them by 
 Guilielmo Damon ; " a second edition of this appeared 
 in 1591. A far more important publication of the 
 psalms with the "church-tunes" harmonized for four 
 parts is the one issued in 1592 by Thomas Este, "The 
 Whole Booke of Psalmes : with their Wonted Tunes, 
 as they are song in Churches, composed into foure 
 parts. All which are so placed that foure may sing, 
 each one, a several parte in this booke. Wherein the 
 Church tunes are carefully corrected, and thereilnto 
 added other short tunes usiJklly song in London, and 
 other places of the Realme, etc., etc." The harmoniza- 
 tion is in simple counterpoint; the "tune" is in the 
 tenor, according to the general manner prevailing on 
 the Continent at this epoch. This publication contains 
 fifty-seven tunes, exclusive of those of the spiritual 
 songs and hymns. To several psalms the same tune 
 was adapted. That particular manner of distinguishing 
 hymn-tunes by names, such as " St. Ann's," " Dundee," 
 etc., used in English and Scotch "tune-books," seems 
 to have originated with Este: Hawkins and Burney, 
 and many other writers, have erroneously attributed 
 this custom to Ravenscroft. Este's "Psalm-book" 
 went through several editions. (Ex. IX.) In 1615 
 appeared Andrew Hart's " Scotch Psalter," containing 
 only the simple melodies : this was republished in 1635, 
 
English Psalmody. 129 
 
 with the tunes harmonized into four parts. But the 
 principal harmonized psalter, next to Este's, was Rav- 
 enscroft's publication, issued in 1621, — "The Whole 
 Boolce of Psalmes : with the Hymnes, Evangelicall, and 
 Songs spirituall. Composed into 4 parts by sundry 
 Authors, to such severall Tunes, as have beene and are 
 usually sung in England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, 
 Italy, France, and the Netherlands ; never as yet before 
 in one volume published, etc." Thomas Ravenscroft 
 was not alone a fine composer and skilful contrapuntist, 
 but also a man of learning. He published many works 
 which seem to have been held in high esteem by his 
 countrymen. Among the "sundry authors," Ravens- 
 croft's coadjutors, we find some of the finest masters of 
 his time. Here is the list of these authors : Thomas 
 Tallis, John Dowland, Thomas Morley, Giles Farnaby, 
 Thomas Tomkins, John Tomkins, Martin Peirson, Wil- 
 liam Parsons, Edmund Hooper, George Kirby, Edward 
 Blancks, Richard Allison, John Farmer, Michael Cav- 
 endish, John Bennet, Robert Palmer, Simon Stubbs, 
 William Harrison, John Milton, William Crawford, 
 Thomas Ravenscroft, William Cobbold, Edward John- 
 son, John Ward. England was then not wanting in 
 learned, able composers. 
 
 The total number of distinct tunes — including the 
 hymns and spiritual songs — contained in this psalter 
 was ninety-eight. Some of the tunes are repeated and 
 harmonized in various ways by different masters. The 
 harmonization is set according to the rules of the ec- 
 clesiastical modes, then the universally accepted style. 
 The parts, although written in simple counterpoint, gen- 
 erally note against note, flow in a free, melodious man- 
 ner. To perform these part-settings in an appropriate 
 
130 Music in England. 
 
 style, experienced choir-singers were needed; and, ac- 
 cording to the best information we possess regarding 
 English musical matters at this epoch, such singers 
 were then to be found in every church-choir. Probably 
 Ravenscroft's as well as Este's publications of harmon- 
 izeif " church-tunes " were brought out with a view to 
 home practice, as substitutes for the secular ballads 
 and glees set to profane and often very vulgar verses. 
 Ravenscroft's " Booke of Psalmes " passed, in the course 
 of time, through several editions. (Ex. X.) 
 
 During the Revolution, psalmody, considered in the 
 sense of church-music, did not experience, at the hands 
 of the unmusical Puritans, any additions worthy to be 
 mentioned. The old tunes were sung unisono, in the 
 crudest and most inharmonious manner ; and any at- 
 tempt "to make music" was, no doubt, sternly re- 
 pressed. 
 
 In 1 67 1, when the former ability to sing at sight — 
 an ability on which the educated Englishman of the 
 Elizabethan time could with justice pride himself — 
 was seldom to be met with, John Playford published a 
 selection of the most familiar psalm-tunes, harmonized 
 in a very simple manner, for four parts, and for men's 
 voices only ; the " tune " being still allotted to the tenor, 
 the parts above this being the counter-tenor and the 
 alto. But the new style of assigning the "tune" to 
 the upper voice, as universally introduced in the prac- 
 tice of modern hymn-singing, assigning the melody a 
 place less liable to create confusion during congrega- 
 tional singing, must have decided Playford to issue, in 
 1677, a new arrangement of the psalm-tunes, in which 
 the melody was allotted to the soprano. But experience 
 must have taught Playford that the most simple form 
 
English Psalmody. 131 
 
 of harmonization only could be of any practical use to 
 his countrymen. His new arrangement of the " church- 
 tunes " was written for three voices, and aimed at noth- 
 ing beyond the veriest commonplace harmonies, which, 
 in fact, were in keeping with the author's savoir-faire 
 as a harmonist. (Ex. XI.) Playford's contribution to 
 psalmody had, as we shall see, a great influence on the 
 awakening of musical taste among New-England psalm- 
 singers. From his musical publications the first Ameri- 
 can "Introductions to Singing" were gathered. The 
 great agitation that was aroused, especially by the Dis- 
 senters, against every kind of musical practice during 
 divine service, exercised a still greater influence on the 
 clergymen of the different churches than on musicians. 
 These, as long as there was a royal court, found employ- 
 ment for the practice of their art, and especially in the 
 great, rich metropolis of the kingdom, London. True, 
 the interregnum of the Puritans put something of a 
 stop to the musician's profession ; but with the return 
 of the royal family, music and musicians re-appeared, 
 to resume their interrupted work. Those among the 
 Reformists who had included in their programme the 
 extirpation of music, succeeded so well that their pa- 
 rishioners entertained a deep prejudice against every 
 thing musical. In some parts of the country, this pre- 
 judice assumed the proportions of a fanatical hatred of 
 music to such a degree that even the simple psalm-tune 
 was entirely dropped, and the people became as un- 
 musical as if they had been uncivilized barbarians. 
 
 The pulpit-battles between those English ministers 
 who favored psalmody and the playing of organs in 
 church, and those who were opposed to such practice, 
 were indeed very lively : sermons written and delivered 
 
132 Music in England. 
 
 in the interest of singing in church called forth ser- 
 mons condemning it altogether. This agitation against 
 an elaborate divine musical service began with the Ref- 
 ormation. I could fill many pages with records of con- 
 flicting views of friends and enemies of church-music, 
 as expressed by English writers, both secular and cleri- 
 cal, since the Reformation began to influence English 
 churches. One side, in numerous articles, books, pam- 
 phlets, and sermons, ransacked the Bible to prove that 
 vocal as well as instrumental music is recommended, 
 and even prescribed and sanctioned, by laws emanating 
 from the holy inspirations of godly men ; while the 
 other, basing its arguments on the same formidable 
 authority, endeavored to prove that music, even in the 
 most rudimentary style, is distasteful to the Creator. 
 The following quotation, taken from a sermon published 
 a few years before the great Rebellion, will give us a 
 glimpse into the vexed question. The sermon is en- 
 titled, — 
 
 " The Wel-Tuned Cymbali. Or A Vindication of the modern 
 Harmony and Ornaments in our Churches. Against the Murmur- 
 ings of their discontented Opposers. A Sermon occasionally 
 preached at the Dedication of an Organ lately set up at Benton, in 
 Sommerset. By Humphrey Sydenham, London, 1637." 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Sydenham took for his text the six- 
 teenth verse of the fifty-ninth psalm, — "I will sing of 
 thy power, yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy, in the 
 morning, because thou hast been my defence and my 
 refuge in the day of my trouble." After having ex- 
 plained the meaning of the text, and put forth a justifi. 
 cation of the use of music in church, our author goes 
 on to say : — 
 
English Psalmody. 133 
 
 "Whosoever were the Author, whatsoever the time, whence- 
 soever the example of beginning this custome of the Church of 
 Christ, the practice was not less ancient than devout, nor devout 
 than warrantable, having had acquaintance with the world since 
 the first times of the Gospel above twelve hundred years, even by 
 the consent and account of those who have sifted the Antiquitie 
 and manner of it to the Branne, not so much to know as to 
 deprave ; and yet at last are enforc'd tacitely to assent, that all 
 Christian Churches have received it, the best and wisest of- God's 
 Governors applauded it ; and therefore not only without blemish 
 or inconvenience, but with some addition of lustre and majesty to 
 God's service, as having power to elevate our devotion more 
 swiftly towards Heaven ; to depresse and trample under foot (for 
 the present) all extravagant and corrupter thoughts, rowzing and 
 releeving those spirits which are drooping and even languishing 
 in a solitary and sullen, and (oftentimes) a despairing heaviness ; 
 nay, the very Houmor that bruizes and beats into devotion those 
 depositions which wUl not be otherwise supjaled and made tender, 
 but by power and virtue of those sounds, which can first ravish 
 affections, and then dissolve to the heart." 
 
 But the author finds, that, in spite of this beautiful 
 virtue of music, "there are some ears so nice and curi- 
 ous (I know not whether through weakness or affecta- 
 tion), to which this Harmony in the Church is no more 
 passable than a Saw or a Harrow, which, instead of 
 streaking, draggs and tortures them." And speaking 
 of another class of people, he says, — 
 
 "There are amongst us some anti-harmonicall snarles, which 
 esteeme those bellowings in the Church (for so they bruitishly 
 phras'd them) no better than a windie devotion, as if it cool'd the 
 fervor of their zeale, damp'd the motions of the Spirit, clogg'd 
 the wheeles of firy chariot, mounting towards Heaven ; choak'd the 
 livelihood and quiknesses of those raptures which on a sudden 
 they ejaculate ; when if they would wipe off a little those wilfull 
 scales, which hang upon their eyes, they cou'd not but see the ad- 
 mirable virtues and effects which melody hath wrought even in that 
 
134 Music in England. 
 
 part of man, which is not sacred. Insomuch, that both Philos- 
 ophers and Divines have jump'd in one fancie, that the soul is not 
 only naturally har?nonicall, but Harmony itself. And indeed, 
 the whole course of nature is but a Harmony j the order of supe- 
 rior and inferior things, a melodious Consort; Heaven and Earth, 
 the great Diapason j both Churches, a double Quire of Hosannahs 
 and Hallelujahs J the world is the great Trumpeter of Divine 
 Glory, suave canticum, as St. Bernard hath it, a sweet Song ; a 
 golden Verse ; as if in Art and Consent both, it resembled both 
 a Verse and a Song. Seeing, then, that the whole course of natuie 
 is but a Song, or a kinde of singing, a melodious concentation both 
 of the Creator and the Creature : how can we conceive them to be 
 lesse than prodigies, who, as if they distasted this generall har- 
 mony, revile that particular and more sacred in our Churches, not 
 considering what wonderfuU effects and consequences Musicke 
 hath wrought both in expelling of eveil spirits, and calling-on of 
 Good?" 
 
 Sydenham was an enthusiastic, sincere admirer of 
 music. He attributed to it a great spiritual influence. 
 
 " Elisha, when he was to prophecie before the kings of Judah 
 and Samaria, call'd for a Musician, and as he play'd, the Spirit of 
 God fell upon him. And yet 'tis not a thing so strange as cus- 
 tomary with God to work miracoulous effects by creatures, which 
 have no power to themselves to worke them, or only a weake 
 resemblance. What virtue was then in a few Rammeshorns that 
 they should flat the walls of Jericho ? or in Gideon's Trumpets that 
 they should chase a whole Hoste of Midianites ? Digitus Dei hie, 
 the finger of God is there, and this finger oftentimes runnes witli 
 the hand of the Musician." 
 
 The raising of the "passions of the minde," by means 
 of harmony, and why "the proportionable and equal 
 disposition of sounds and voices, the tremblings, vibra- 
 tions, and artificiall curlings of the ayre, the Substance 
 of all Musicke, should so strongly set passions aloft, so 
 mightily raise our affections as they doe," find an 
 
English Psalmody. 135 
 
 explanation in the following "foure manners of formes 
 of motion : " — 
 
 " The first is sympathy, a naturall correspondence and relation 
 between our divine parts and harmony, for such is the nature of 
 our soules, that Musicke hath a certaine proportionable Sympathie 
 with them, as our tastes have with such varieties and dainties, or 
 smelling with such diversities of odours." . . . 
 
 " The second, Prudentise, God's generall providence, which, 
 when those sounds affect the eare, produceth a certain spirituall 
 qualitie in the soule, stirring up some passions or other, according 
 to the varietie of sounds or voycs." . . . 
 
 " The third, more open and sensible, is sonus ipse, the very sound 
 itselve, which is nothing else but an artificiall shaking and quaver- 
 ing of the ayre, which passeth through the eare, and by them into 
 the heart; and there it beateth and tickleth it in such sort, that 
 it is moved with semblable passions, like a calm water ruiBed with 
 a gale of wind : For, as the heart is most delicate and tender ; so 
 most sensible of the least impressions that are conjecturable ; and 
 it seems that Musicke in those Cells, plays with the animall and 
 vital spirits, the only goades of passion, so that, although we lay 
 altogether aside the consideration of Ditty and Matter, the very 
 murmure of sounds rightly modulated and carried through the 
 porches of our eares to those spirituall roomes within, is by a 
 native vigour more than ordinarily powerfuU, both to remove and 
 moderate all affections." . . . 
 
 " The fourth, Multiplicitas objectorum, for as all other senses 
 have an admirable multiplicitie of objects which delight them, so 
 hath tlie eare : And as it is impossible to expresse the varietie of 
 delights or distastes which we perceive by, and receive in them, so 
 here varietie of sounds diversificate passions, stirring up in the 
 heart many sorts of joy or sadness, according to the nature of the 
 Tune, or temper or qualitie of the receiver. And doubtless in 
 Harmony v/e may discover the misticke portraitures both of Vice 
 and Virtue, and the mind thus taken with resemblances, falls often 
 in love with the things themselves, insomuch that there is nothing 
 more betraying us to sensuality, than some kind of Musicke ; than 
 other, none more advancing unto God. And therefore there must 
 be a discreet caution had, that it be grave and sober, and not over- 
 
136 Music in England. 
 
 wanton'd with curiosities or descant. . . . The over-carving and 
 mincing of the ayre either by ostentation or curiositie of art, lulls 
 too much the outward sense, and leaves the spirituall faculties un- 
 touched, whereas a sober mediocritie and grave mixture of Tune 
 and Ditty rocks the very soule, carries it into extacies, and for a 
 time seems to cleave and sunder it from the body, elevating the 
 heart inexpressably, and resembling in some proportions those 
 Hallelujahs above, the Quire and unity which is in Heaven." . . . 
 
 Sydenham said admirable things in vindication of 
 music as a sacred art. He even endeavored, in order 
 to strengthen his position, to enter into the spirit and 
 nature of music by the aid of philosophical analysis. 
 Notice the manner with which he draws a distinct line 
 of demarcation between secular and sacred styles and 
 practice. But such efforts did not convince the enemies 
 of art : musical culture was, in their eyes, doomed ; it 
 was banished. After the Restoration, people had for- 
 gotten that they had voices to sing with : they had 
 acquired such an antipathy towards the exercise of this 
 beautiful natural gift, that the singing of the simplest 
 psalm-tune became an arduous task. The more liberal 
 and cultured clergymen began to deplore this state of 
 musical incapacity throughout the country churches. 
 An important part of divine service had sunk so low 
 that in many cases it seemed more desirable to have it 
 cease altogether : the mode of singing the psalm-tunes 
 had become a horror to sensitive ears. Those clergy- 
 men determined to find a remedy for the great evil. 
 They began to fight the disease from the pulpit, in 
 the lecture-room, in private conversation. Their ser- 
 mons on " Singing in Church," on " Psalmody," were 
 published, so that other congregations besides their 
 own would be reached and influenced. Some clergy- 
 men, possessing tolerably good musical knowledge wrote 
 
English Psalmody. 137 
 
 essays on psalm-singing, endeavoring to prove, by 
 every word to be found in the Bible relating to 
 music in divine worship, that the singing of psalms, 
 hymns, and spiritual songs was a sacred duty of Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 Among the designs devised by clergymen, in order 
 to uphold the " late Attempts that were set on foot to 
 teach the Art, and encourage the Practice," weekly lec- 
 tures were delivered in the interest of church-singing. 
 Such a course of lectures was published in London in 
 1 708, entitled " Practical Discourses of Singing in the 
 Worship of God : Preach'd at the Friday Lecture in 
 Eastcheap." The little volume before me contains six 
 such sermons, treating, i. "Of the Nature of the 
 Duty of Singing ; 2. Arguments to prove the Obliga- 
 tion of the Duty ; 3. Of the Excellence of Singing ; 
 4. Objections against Singing considered ; 5. Direc- 
 tions for the right Performance of the Duty of Sing- 
 ing; 6. Exhortation to Singing." The whole field of 
 psalmody was touched upon in these essays. All those 
 efforts greatly promoted a love for psalm-singing. But 
 it would take too much space to quote from all these 
 sermons : I shall restrict myself to the following charac- 
 teristic passage relating to our subject. Mr. Waller, in 
 his "Essay for Promoting Psalmody" (London, 1710), 
 says in the preface, — 
 
 "To see this fairest Daughter of Devotion (Psalmody) and 
 Darling of Protestants beyond the sea, so slighted amongst us, is 
 not for our Credit ; Our great Decay in Piety and Growth in pro- 
 faneness having been imputed, by Eminent Divines (in no small 
 Measure) to our Neglect of, and bad performance, in Psalmody." 
 
 In chap, ii., " Of the Usefulness and Good Effects 
 
138 Music in England. 
 
 of Psalmody," our author attributes to the use of psalm- 
 singing most miraculous effects. 
 
 " Divine Musick commenced with the Creation, and in succeed- 
 ing Ages has been honored with Signals of Divine Approbation : 
 The Israelites sang in the Wilderness, and the Water-Spring 
 Open'd; The Priests and Levites sang Praise in the Temple, and 
 the Glory of the Lord fiU'd the House ; Jehosaphat march'd his 
 Army singing, and return'd Triumphant, his enemies having slain 
 one another. ... In later and corrupted Times of Christianity, 
 She was (in part Measure) Psalm sung into Reformation : Nor has 
 any Thing more conduc'd to fix the Reform'd Religion. 
 
 " If you ask what Wonder this Charmer has wrought in Our own 
 Age and Country, we have Instances that (under so general a Cor- 
 ruption of Manners and Deluge of Profaneness) may pass, if not 
 for Miracles, yet at least subservient to the great Design of Mira- 
 cles, viz., the Advancement of Piety, where she has any Footing 
 left, the Revival of Religion where she seem'd to be expir'd. But 
 this, indeed, must be understood where Psalmody herself has been 
 Reviv'd and Improv'd to some Degree.'' 
 
 Now, Mr. Waller, in support of his position regarding 
 the good effects of psalmody, cites the experiences of 
 some divines with their congregations, where psalmody 
 was at a distressingly low state. One says that in his 
 "Country Parish, the Young Men that us'd to loiter 
 in the Church- Yard, or Saunter about the Neighbouring 
 Grounds, and not come into the Church, 'till the Divine 
 Service was over, upon his ordering a Psalm to be sung 
 before Prayers began, they came flocking into the 
 Church, when, by this Means, he had 'em present both 
 at Prayers and Preaching." Besides this moral influence 
 psalm-singing thus exercised, another great good was 
 promoted by it : " That through the Fondness of People 
 for Psalm-singing, many have recover'd their Religion, 
 which they had almost forgot, and many have learn'd 
 
English Psalmody. 139 
 
 to Read, for the sake of Singing Psalms, where it has 
 been practis'd to some Advantage in the Performance." 
 Thus, the once so much despised art of music now exer- 
 cised the important function of an educator. Congre- 
 gations only took to the psalms when they were offered 
 in company with singing. The simple reading of those 
 psalms alone had no attraction for the people. 
 
 Another minister tells his experience with his con- 
 gregation as follows : — 
 
 " When I first came to ray Parish, I found, to my great Grief, 
 the people very Ignorant and Irreligious; the Place of Divine 
 Worship indecently kept; the Publick Service neither understood, 
 nor attended ; the Ministration of the Lord's Supper supported 
 only by the Piety of three or four Communicants, and the Divine- 
 Ordinance of Singing Psalms almost Iain aside. Now, whilst I 
 considered by what means I might redress this General Neglect 
 of Religion, I was of Opinion, that the setting up of such a Reli- 
 gious society, as I had known in the city of London, would be 
 very proper, but I fear'd it would be impracticable in the Country; 
 so that at first, I began to teach three or four Youths the Skill of 
 Singing Psalms orderly, and according to Rules, which greatly 
 tended, through the Grace of God, to awaken their Affections 
 towards Religion, and to give them a Relish for it. The Improve- 
 ment of These in Psalm-singing, being soon observ'd by Others, 
 many Young Men desir'd to be admitted to the same Instruc- 
 tion, which being granted, and the Number of them encreasing 
 dayly" . . . 
 
 The farmers of another parish were won over to 
 religion by the same " Gracious Artifice. At the ring- 
 ing of the Bell they would leave their ploughs, and come 
 to Church. Those who could not come, without ex- 
 traordinary Inconvenience, would take the same signal 
 of the Bell, to sing in the Field a Psalm or Hymn to 
 their Creator or Redeemer." It was observed, that in 
 
140 Music in England. 
 
 "Churches where Psalms are best and oftenest sung, 
 those Churches are always best filled." Many minis- 
 ters of to-day pass through the same experience. 
 
 Dr. Charles Hickman, in " A Sermon preached Nov. 
 22, 169S, being the Anniversary Feast of the Lovers of 
 Musick " (text, Ps. c. i) very pertinently and beautifully 
 remarks, — 
 
 " And here I am to prove the Decency, and Usefulness of 
 Musick, in the solemnities of our Religious Worship. Only, by 
 the way, we must needs complain of Hardship, which the Pervers- 
 ness of this Age has put upon us, in requiring us to prove a thing, 
 so manifest that there is nothing in nature more manifest to prove 
 it by. 
 
 " That God is to be worship'd with solem Musick, is so an- 
 cient, and so universal an Opinion, that it may well be look'd upon 
 as one of the prime Notions of a Rational Soul, one of the funda- 
 mental Laws of Nature, which, like the Worship of God itself, we 
 receive not by Institution, but by Instinct; it was not inculcated 
 in us by Education, but we suck'd it in at our very Birth, or rather 
 it was Infus'd into us at our Creation. 
 
 " Indeed, there never was any Land so barbarous, or any People 
 so polite (except some few Pretenders in these last, and worst of 
 times), but have always approached their Gods with the solemnity 
 of Musick, and expresst their Devotion with a Song ; and wherever 
 Musick goes out of fashion, there we may boldly pronounce, that 
 Devotion also is growing out of Date. . . . 
 
 "We talk much of a rational way of Worship; and 'tis fit, 
 indeed, that Reason should direct the Way, but Worship itself is 
 an Act, not of our Reason but our Affections. 'Tis the Worship 
 of an exalted Love ; the out-goings of an inflam'd Desire ; the 
 breathings of a pious Soul in the Extasies of his Joy and Admi- 
 ration. 
 
 "These are the noble Springs of our Devotion, the lively Ele- 
 ments that compose our Worship ; and these are Tendernesses of 
 our Nature, that lie not in the Head but in the Heart of Man ; and 
 these lie too deep to be reached, and too fine to be wrought upon 
 by so gross a Faculty as Reason is. 
 
English Psalmody. 141 
 
 " But there is a Power in Musick that can reach them all, and 
 touch them to the very quick: There is such a Charm in ■well-com- 
 posed, well-animated Sound, as musters up all our Passions, and 
 commands all our Affections to pay Homage to it ; and no sen- 
 sible Soul can withstand the Summons. 
 
 " The Philosopher, with his Gravity, may talk of our Passions, 
 but never Move them, the Orator, with his Address, may Move, 
 but never please them, and the Poet, with his Accuracy, may 
 please, but yet not Commend them : all these Artists operate upon 
 our Hearts, but at a Distance, only the Musician gets within us, 
 and manages our Passions with an Arbitrary Power. When the 
 Lute and Harp are touched with a skillful hand, it strikes upon the 
 very Soul of Man, and by an immediate Sympathy, I had almost 
 said, by a immediate Contact, makes the Heart-Strings leap for 
 Joy. 
 
 " Nay, this is a Charm, that works not only upon our Affections, 
 but upon our Understanding too ; enlivens the Head, as well as the 
 Heart, of Man, and opens our Ears, and our Eyes at once. When 
 our Thoughts are involved in the dregs of Matter, and our Minds 
 are obscured with the drowsiness and heaviness of Sense ; Musick 
 rouses up our Soul, and puts our Thoughts in motion ; our very 
 Reason awakens rifjith the Lute and the Harpj and the Song, like 
 some Divine Inspiration, calls up all our brighter Faculties to 
 discharge their Office." 
 
 , I have read many a page treating of the ideal mean- 
 ing and function of music ; but I have read nothing 
 that establishes the emotional and intellectual parts 
 of musical art, in my estimation, more correctly than 
 Dr. Hickman's sermon, delivered at a time when the 
 cultivation of music was at a low ebb, and assthetic 
 investigation regarding the art was not yet thought of. 
 The following passage may well be commended to min- 
 isters of the gospel and church composers : — 
 
 " So instrumental is Musick [enthusiastically says our author] 
 to all the uses of Religion, that it looks as if there could be no 
 Religion without it. 'Tis a pleasure to the greatest Saint; and has 
 
142 , Music in England. 
 
 an Influence upon the gravest Prophet ; 'tis an Employment for 
 a blessed Angel and an Entertainment to God himself. 'Tis the 
 life of Heaven, and the Joy of all the ends of the Earth. In a 
 word, 'tis so Humane an Excellency, that 'tis an Offence against 
 Nature to suj.press it; and so Divine an Accomplishment, that 
 'tis almost Blasphemy to disparage it. 
 
 " I do not say with the Heathen Poet that God loves not those, 
 who have not Musick; not with the Jewish Doctors, that the 
 Spirit of God rest not upon a Melancholy Soul ; but this we say, 
 that a melodious Constitution of Mind is one of the greatest 
 Policities of our Natures and one of the Kindest Gifts of God,, 
 and therefore we ought to praise him for it, and to praise him with 
 it too." 
 
 Thus psalmody, the outgrowth of the Reformation, 
 assumed immense importance in England, and after- 
 wards in New England. In the eyes of the Puritans, 
 on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the metrical ar- 
 rangement of the Psalms, set to a plain adaptation of 
 some simple melody, v/as all, that was judged necessary 
 in poetical and musical art. Burney, who detested 
 psalmody as performed in English parish churches, 
 was nevertheless forced to admit that 
 
 " The history of psalmody during these times is not only the 
 history of music, but of the Reformation, in some parts of Europe 
 where little else was to be heard, except these lamentable strains. 
 . . . Indeed, Christians of all denominations now thought, that, 
 by such metrical and musical devotion, they were performing a 
 pious and salutary work; and, because it was amusing and de- 
 lightful to themselves, that nothing could be more acceptable to 
 the Divinity than these void effusions." ' 
 
 In Germany psalpiody (das Kirchenlied, or der Choral) 
 created a new school of music. Protestant organists 
 and composers based some of their finest contrapuntal 
 
 ' H. of M., vol. iii. p. 61. 
 
English Psalmody. 143 
 
 settings upon the hymn-tunes. The richness and great 
 variety in melodic form, the inexhaustible suggestions 
 for harmonic and contrapuntal treatment, which the 
 choral offered to earnest and skilful Protestant church 
 composers, may be seen in the numerous sacred can- 
 tatas and organ-pieces written by German composers. 
 The choral is such an everlasting source of inspiration, 
 that even our ablest contemporary composers continu- 
 ally turn to it to gather new harvest. In England the 
 same good results, in the interest of sacred music, 
 might have been derived from psalmody, had not a 
 misplaced fanaticism existed against music as an art. 
 When psalmody was first introduced into English 
 churches, skilful contrapuntists, as we have seen, 
 endeavored to set agreeable, often clever and effective, 
 four-part arrangements to these tunes. As long as 
 there were, among the people, a number of persons 
 able to perform those part-settings, musical taste, in a 
 great degree, found expression and relief in those har- 
 monies. But at length, when all such musical accom- 
 plishment was banished, and when, through childish 
 bigotry, the simple psalm-tune was looked upon in the 
 same light as the consecrated verse of the Bible, then 
 even those four-part arrangements became obsolete ; 
 and the singing of the psalms gradually became a tire- 
 some performance. 
 
 Although the history of English psalmody offers 
 some interesting points, — it having been the only music 
 the great majority of a great nation had enjoyed and 
 cultivated for many years, — yet musical art derived 
 directly from it very little advantage. It seems, that, 
 after the Restoration, the English church composer was 
 not attracted by the psalm-tunes : he did not find in 
 
144 Music in England. 
 
 them any inspiration or practical suggestions to further 
 his art, either in a melodic or an harmonic sense. All 
 that he did, if the occasion demanded it, was to add 
 a new tune to the already large stock, or he allowed 
 himself to be induced to "adapt " some other composer's 
 pretty melody to a metrical psalm or hymn. Thus, the 
 art of composition did not grow on the basis of the 
 English psalm-tunes, as it did on that of the Protestant 
 choral, or the Gregorian melody. The psalm-tune went 
 borrowing its scant melodic and harmonic forms from 
 the ballad, the opera, and instrumental music. Dr. 
 Blow's " Lesson " on the Old Hundredth is the only 
 attempt (and not a very deep one) I can recollect, in 
 which a hymn-tune (and not an English one either) 
 was used for contrapuntal treatment. 
 
 The only important side of the practice of psalmody 
 is, that, though it had sunk to a very low state, it 
 yet remained the people's iftusic ; though it became a 
 rough, uncouth people's-song, it still stood a few degrees 
 higher than the common, vulgar ballad-tune. Out of 
 the root of the musically so much degraded psalmody, 
 a new musical culture finally sprang; not alone in 
 England, but also in New England. The crude manner 
 of singing in church called forth a re-action in the 
 interest of a desirable improvement in the style of divine 
 song. Though the Puritans seem to have lost, for a 
 time, all true sense and appreciation of refining, enno- 
 bling art, yet as their other intellectual qualities went 
 on improving, and, in the course of time, became broader 
 and more liberal, in regard to religious and social habits, 
 their consciousness of the need and desirability of 
 "decent" singing during divine service was also awak- 
 ened. With this first step in the direction of "decent" 
 
English Psalmody. 145 
 
 singing in church, musical culture also gradually gained 
 a surer foot-hold ; and, as we shall see, the consequence 
 of the revival of musical cultivation was a more general 
 diffusion of music among the nation at large. 
 
 Psalmody was, for a time, considered, especially by 
 the later growth of "American psalm-tune teachers," 
 a very difiBcult and complicated branch of musical art. 
 Essay upon essay, manual upon manual, were written, 
 compiled, and published, in order to initiate the mem- 
 bers of congregations into the mysteries of psalmody. 
 But in order to unriddle these mysteries, no more pro- 
 found science than the understanding of the merely 
 rudimentary rules of musical grammar was needed. 
 Thus in "An Introduction to Psalmody, wherein the 
 Principles of that Divine Art are explained, in a Method 
 so Easy and Familiar as to be understood by any Com- 
 mon Capacity" (London, 1737), we find the following 
 heads of subject-matter: "i. Of the Scale, or Gamut; 
 2. Of the Notes, and their Pauses ; 3. Of Flats and 
 Sharps, and other Marks; 4. Of the Concords" (dis- 
 cords are not explained : they were not wanted in sweet 
 psalmody); "5. Of the proper Naming of the Notes, 
 called Solfaing of a Tune; 6. Of the Air, Tone, or 
 Key; 7. Of the Graces used in Singing." Some of 
 the "psalm-tune teachers" added, to these, rules of 
 prosody, of expression, of the right deportment during 
 the act of singing, and divers theories regarding con- 
 gregational singing. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF OUR MODERN CHURCHES TOWARD MUSIC 
 AS AN ART. 
 
 The intimate ideal relation between religion and art 
 is granted by most aestheticians. Religion makes use of 
 the different arts for ideal emotional purposes : the arts, 
 which grew up, as history proves, on the basis of the 
 religious sentiment of man, were thus endowed with 
 a noble spiritual life. Among the arts, an honorable 
 place in the Christian Church (as we have seen in the 
 foregoing chapters) was early assigned to music ; and 
 music was recognized, by the different churches, as an 
 agency of religious expression in man. But music, 
 being an art, naturally endeavored to create for itself 
 adequate art-forms, in order to express its own idea of 
 the sublime and beautiful. Our modern music first 
 found the rudimentary types of the sacred art-forms in 
 the liturgical songs of the Catholic Church, — the Grego- 
 rian chants. Music, ascending thus to the higher region 
 of art, consequently needed its own carefully educated 
 and trained agents, in order to render those art-forms 
 in an equally artistic audible representation. These 
 agents are choir-singers and instrumentalists (organists 
 and orchestral players). Though music and poetry are 
 the only arts in which the people's production, the so- 
 called folk's-poesy and folk-song, were at all accepted as 
 146 
 
The Attitude of our Modern Churches. 147 
 
 possessing certain aesthetic qualities of expression and 
 form, yet this popular side of music, though charming 
 in the people's-song, became a great hinderance to the 
 higher development of sacred art itself ; for it assumed, 
 in the churches of many Protestant denominations, an 
 importance contrary to all reasonable idea of tone-art 
 cultivation, even in its simplest forms. 
 
 Musical art, as I have shown, enters conspicuously 
 into the construction of the service of the Roman- 
 Catholic Church : with the inspired word as text, the 
 inspired tone is harmoniously associated, in order to 
 reveal to the faithful the mysteries of religion. There- 
 fore we generally find the Catholic priest the friend of 
 the composer, and some of the greatest church com- 
 posers were monks and priests. The Catholic service, 
 considered in its unity, rightly excludes congregational 
 singing. By the introduction of this latter element, 
 that ideal religious unity of the liturgy, consecrated 
 by centuries of practice, would be broken ; and, con- 
 sidered from the point of view of Catholic worship, 
 little would be gained by the introduction of a crude 
 art element. The different attempts made in this direc- 
 tion have always proved failures, and were finally aban- 
 doned as impracticable. However, at our present epoch, 
 as I have mentioned above, the musical portion of 
 divine service in most Catholic churches has sunk to a 
 very low standard of taste. Fev/ of the immortal works 
 with which the great Catholic composers of past times 
 adorned their church are now sung: flippant operatic 
 arrangements have usurped their place. 
 
 In the Protestant churches, the word, the text, as 
 appealing eminently to the mind, is the supreme agent 
 of religious worship : the tone, in its art-development, 
 
148 Music in England. 
 
 is accepted only in a subordinate form, if not rejected 
 altogether. We have seen that the English cathedral- 
 service retained more of the tone-art than any other 
 Protestant church : the higher musical art-forms enter 
 into it conspicuously, and form an effective aesthetical 
 counterbalance to congregational song. In this country 
 (America) few churches, however, are able to keep up 
 the choral service in its intended purity ; and the indis- 
 pensable choirs and efficient organists are sadly want- 
 ing. The Protestant clergyman, in general, has not 
 much sympathy with music as a sacred art : nay, he 
 often considers it an indispensable intruder, and would 
 gladly banish it altogether, but for those few psalm- 
 tunes in which the congregation delights. But congre- 
 gational singing cannot be classed among the higher 
 art-forms of church-music ; and musicians who, aside 
 from all questions of religious faith and piety, recom- 
 mend congregational singing as the only bona-fide 
 church-music, possess, indeed, little understanding and 
 appreciation of music as ati art. Protestants do not 
 admit art as in any way needful during religious wor- 
 ship ; they expressly guard against all encroachments of 
 art, and tolerate only a small portion of art expression 
 during divine service : hence congregational singing. 
 Congregational singing, however, is infinitely prefera- 
 ble to the pretentious, vulgar attempts of a choir, het- 
 erogeneously scraped together, that so often harrow 
 the feelings of a victimized audience ; nay, even pref- 
 erable to the operatic performances of the fashionable 
 quartet : for congregational singing, though crude and 
 uncouth, may still possess a certain degree of religious 
 enthusiasm and inspiration, especially if the tunes 
 are, as in the German Lutheran and the Calvinistic 
 
The Attitude of our Modern Churches. 149 
 
 churches, those old, grand, noble melodies, composed 
 and arranged in the time of a truly religious move- 
 ment. 
 
 Chufch-music, in the sense of appropriate art-music, 
 has therefore no future with regard to Protestant 
 churches. Certain hymn or psalm tunes became, by 
 hook or crook, popular with this or that congregation, 
 and remained so until, with a new generation, addi- 
 tional tunes crept in. Thus congregational music is 
 mere people's-music, and will probably remain so. 
 And since the Protestant (the so-called dissenting) 
 churches do not accept music, except simple psalmody, 
 as a part of their liturgy, the composer's art does not 
 find a place there. The efforts of this or that well- 
 meaning organist, to introduce, in some part of the 
 simple liturgical arrangement of the Protestant divine 
 service, an anthem or motet, is praiseworthy enough, 
 but has really no place there. It is an arbitrary graft- 
 ing of musical elements on something which does not 
 call for it, and is therefore illogical and aimless. Even 
 the contrapuntal organ preludium or postludium could 
 be dispensed with, without injury to the meaning and 
 unity of the Protestant liturgy. The Quakers discard 
 even the simple psalm-tune. Music, as an art, has, 
 therefore, nothing to gain from such practice ; and the 
 Protestant churches, rejecting the higher forms of 
 music, thus give proof that their religious rites do not 
 call for an ideal musical expression. 
 
 It is therefore nonsense, to ask a congregation com- 
 posed of the most heterogeneous elements as regards 
 natural musical ability, to observe a nice, distinct, ex- 
 pressive enunciation of the words, to produce tone in 
 an artistic way, to breathe according to the rules of 
 
150 Music in England. 
 
 the artistic- singer, to do justice to the rhythm, or a 
 nice intonation, as some would-be reformers of church- 
 music would like them to do. To render justice to 
 such demands, a good degree of art-education is needed; 
 and we are not yet arrived at that art-millennium in 
 which every church-member is an accomplished singer. 
 Congregational music is therefore only an art-germ in 
 its most primitive state : it cannot grow and expand, 
 for the reason, that, in accordance with the narrow 
 views of Protestant churches regarding musical practice 
 during divine service, a rich, elaborate aesthetic devel- 
 opment of art-forms may be detrimental to the idea 
 and practice of piety. Even these once healthy, strong 
 germs (congregational hymn-tunes) seem to wither and 
 die out ; for in what other way may we explain the ab- 
 normal, incongruous custom of borrowing new melodies 
 for church use from secular musical forms, even from 
 some whose purport, even iif a worldly sense, is one 
 of questionable propriety.' In the German Lutheran 
 Church, the organist, who is generally a thorough har- 
 monist, constructs his preludes, etc., out of the motivi 
 of the choral, or the sacred people's-song, which in this 
 instance is thus raised into the regions of an art-form. 
 The hymn-tune of the English and American Protestant 
 churches lacks, as I have pointed out above, even this 
 inspiring quality. Most organists, like the proverbial 
 hymn-tune "manufacturers," find it more convenient, 
 and apparently more to their taste, to select from among 
 secular instrumental or vocal compositions such pieces 
 as they need in order to " play the congregation in or 
 out of church;" or, if they be, unluckily, possessed 
 by ideas of original improvisation, the light-footed valse 
 tempo, or the strongly rhythmical " thunder and light- 
 
The Attitude of our Modern Churches. 151 
 
 ning Marciale," will lift the unsuspecting congregation 
 out of their pews. 
 
 True art, in any form, ought. to have a sacred signifi- 
 cation for the man who devotes his life to it. You can- 
 not attain it without great sacrifices of time and money. 
 Therefore church-music, as an art-product; cannot be 
 established without competent leaders, choirs, and organ- 
 ists ; but to ask from these agents such devotion to 
 their task as to render this task efi&cient in a truly 
 sacred and artistic manner, you must first provide for 
 them, in order to give them the necessary leisure for 
 arduous study. As long as churches are not prepared 
 to make sufficient provision for such work, true church- 
 music will vegetate, and lead a miserable existence ; 
 fluctuating between the ignorance and arrogance of the 
 busy amateur, and the musical ravings of the half-edu- 
 cated and undisciplined organist and choir-leader. 
 
 Music, as an art, now enjoys an independent ideal 
 existence; it does not need the assistance of the church 
 in order to promote its farther development : but still 
 the question arises. Can church-service in our day 
 afford to dispense with the inspiring help of music ? 
 It does not seem so. But in order to reconquer, in an 
 effective manner, the benefits of this beautiful art, let 
 the churches first rise to an ideal religious-art stand- 
 ard; let a consciously needed progress replace that 
 which now languishes in stagnation; let the beauties 
 of a deeply religious emotional sentiment, as represented 
 by music, blend harmoniously with the inspired word : 
 and in accordance with the larger, more liberal views 
 of modern times, art and religion, depending on each 
 other in sisterly love, complementing each other beauti- 
 fully as it was destined from the beginning of things, 
 
152 Music in England. 
 
 will, in the fullest sense, render the temple of religious 
 worship the temple of the Creator, — the Creator of 
 all things ; of art also, .let us remember, as well as of 
 religion. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 AN HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF OPINIONS REGARDING MUSI- 
 CAL .ESTHETICS, THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF MUSIC, 
 AS EXPRESSED BY ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS AND MUSI- 
 CAL WRITERS. CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON, T. ADDISON, 
 
 A. MALCOLM. 
 
 At the time that English dissenters made war upon 
 music, the friends of the lovely art were mostly to be 
 found among the clergy and the members of the Estab- 
 lished (Episcopal) Church, who firmly advocated its use 
 during divine service. But these admirers of music, 
 as a branch of sacred art, had to do with prosaic, coldly 
 reasoning opponents : they had to conjure up all the 
 resources and power of rhetoric in order to make their 
 defence of music effective and telling. They, above all, 
 based their arguments on those passages of the Bible 
 which allude to musical practice as common among the 
 ancient Jews and early Christians ; they proved, on the 
 testimony of the historical growth of Christian customs 
 and institutions, that music, in one form or another, 
 always was to be found near the altar of Christian 
 religion ; and, in order to vindicate music from the 
 injurious accusation that it exercised a demoralizing 
 effect upon the mind and soul of Christians, they even 
 endeavored to penetrate more critically and philosophi- 
 cally into the intellectual and emotional nature of music. 
 Music, as to its moral effects upon the mind, was com- 
 pared with the other arts. 
 
 153 
 
154 Music in England. 
 
 The writings of acknowledged Greek theorists and 
 philosophers were also studied and commented on : the 
 opinions of the " Fathers of the Church " were quoted, 
 and held up as convincing proofs. Thus it came to 
 pass, that early in the seventeenth century English men 
 of letters, and above all clergymen, were induced to 
 touch upon many questions of musical aesthetics, and 
 helped to open the road to a more philosophical estima- 
 tion of musical art' 
 
 Professional musicians, bent solely on the acquirement 
 of theoretical and practical skill and knowledge, did 
 not trouble themselves much about philosophical inves- 
 tigations regarding the nature of music. They enjoyed 
 and created musical works according to the standard 
 rules of harmony and counterpoint, and their individual 
 taste and talent. Thus the treatises on thorough-bass, 
 written by practical musicians, gave little more than 
 the indispensable rules for harmony and counterpoint. 
 Very justly says W. Mason,^ — 
 
 " In these the Masters of it have criticised their predecessors 
 and contemporaries, but only as Grammarians have criticised 
 Grammarians : either for trespassing on the rules laid down by 
 the old Masters, for modulation and harmony; or for breaking, 
 like Priscian's, Guide's head." 
 
 True, in thorough-bass the composer found the most 
 indispensable rules for furthering his art of composition ; 
 thorough-bass was for a long while the musician's only 
 code of aesthetics. The German philosopher Herbart 
 even went so far as to consider thorough-bass the, com- 
 paratively, most complete part of aesthetics ; and, in the 
 interest of progressive science, he even expressed a wish 
 
 ' See Psalmody. * Essays on English Church-music, York, 1795. 
 
Historical Summary. 155 
 
 to see the other arts in the possession of a similar 
 sesthetic code, or thorough-bass.' 
 
 But the meagre sesthetic results gained from the 
 study of the two separate methods, the merely specu- 
 lative and often sentimental one, ignoring the practical 
 side of the art, and that based solely on thorough-bass, 
 proved, that, in order to advance real appreciation and 
 understanding of music's aesthetic nature, both sides 
 of the question had to be consulted and studied : thus 
 the musician and the philosopher were gradually obliged 
 to unite their separate efforts, and to meet on one com- 
 mon ground in order to advance the science of a broader 
 and more philosophical musical criticism. The progress 
 of intellectual culture, together with the new scientific 
 discoveries made regarding musical theory, would no 
 longer allow the musician to stand solely on his thorough- 
 bass. Musical art, being every year more universally 
 practised, began to permeate daily life ; and intellectual 
 life, in its turn, began to reflect its strengthening influ- 
 ence on art. As time went on, the intelligent, progres- 
 sive musician could no longer resist this recurring, 
 varied, and rich interchange of the different intellectual 
 and aesthetic currents proceeding from life and art. 
 The too closely absorbing, incessant music-making, with 
 little mind-strengthening background, threatened to 
 gradually weaken the character and spirit of art, to 
 render it shallow, and to stifle the creative mind in its 
 further efforts to discover new paths, new forms ; for 
 conventionalism and conservatism are death to art, and 
 especially to music, whose life-blood is progress. Hence 
 the progressive musician will receive many an inspiring 
 suggestion from a broad-minded, liberal, intelligent, 
 
 ' Lotze, Geschichte der Aesthetik, p. 462. 
 
156 Music in England. 
 
 honest, musical criticism, based upon healthy aesthetic 
 laws, common to all arts ; since all the arts form, in an 
 ideal sense, one complex unity. 
 
 Again, many essential points in the historical devel- 
 opment of musical culture in general will be more clearly 
 understood, with the help of the light that aesthetic 
 criticism has so far been able to throw on them. And, 
 according to my understanding and experience, our 
 present musical culture in America is more the result 
 of purely intellectual labor and process, than that of 
 natural national art -instinct. Reasoning minds had 
 first to clear from the road great prejudices against the 
 cultivation of art, before musical practice, as an art, 
 could be freely indulged in. Dormant aesthetic, emO' 
 tional life, as influenced by music, had first to be called 
 into existence and cognition by means of the appliance 
 of the reasoning power of the mind ; taking, as starting, 
 point, the merely rudimentary aesthetic laws, as first 
 revealed through religious agency. Appearing, then 
 as a moral attribute and efficient help to religious work, 
 the germs of those aesthetic ' laws were tolerated ; thej 
 gradually struck deeper roots into the awakening emo 
 tional life of the people ; and, with the expansion of a 
 more enlightened and a freer social state in the nation, 
 musical art also grew and expanded, finally ramifying 
 in all directions. 
 
 I have considered a review of the historical growth 
 of the philosophy — or rather aesthetics — of music in 
 the mother-country, a great help in order to render the 
 tendency of American musical culture clearer and more 
 
 ' Though the modern expression " sesthetic " is not used by these old writers, 
 instead of "taste," I shall use it as more expressive of the idea of the beautiful 
 in musical forms. 
 
Historical Summary. 157 
 
 comprehensive ; for, up to our time, the form and spirit 
 of English musical criticism has influenced American 
 musical critics and professional musicians, almost exclu- 
 sively. 
 
 This review of English philosophico-musical inves- 
 tigation does not claim to be a complete history of the 
 subject in question here. I shall only consider those 
 authors whose writings have had a decided influence on 
 the growth of English musical criticism, and who have 
 endeavored thus to throw some light on certain musical 
 questions. For, it is an historical fact, some of the 
 musical essays written by English writers during the 
 latter part of the last century, attracted more attention 
 from the intelligent writers of the Continent than the 
 practical compositions of English professional musicians 
 received. These latter were almost entirely ignored ; 
 while the others were even translated into French and 
 German, called forth favorable comments, and were 
 diligently studied. They became the means of sug- 
 gesting new thought, and promoted new philosophical 
 investigations. It almost looked as if the Englishman 
 had more head than heart for music. 
 
 Those fables regarding the wonderful power music 
 is said to have had in raising all kinds of passions, and 
 in producing many mysterious effects upon the hearer, 
 as reported by ancient Greek and Roman writers, were 
 quoted and largely commented on, again and again, by 
 nearly every English writer who found occasion to say 
 something about music, up to the beginning of this 
 century. Many learned men (though perhaps poor 
 musicians) believed in those fabulous reports, regarding 
 the power of music, with truly touching natveti ; and, 
 failing to find modern music producing similar effects, 
 
158 Music in England. 
 
 they condemned it as a degenerate, weak offspring. 
 Thus Sir William Temple asks, — 
 
 " What has become of the Charms of Musick, by which Men 
 and Beasts were so frequently inchanted, and their very Natures 
 changed, by which the Passions of Men were raised to the greatest 
 Height and Violence, and then as suddenly appeased, so as they 
 might be justly said to be turned into Lions and Lambs, into 
 Wolves or into Harts, by the Power and Charms of this admirable 
 Art?" 
 
 Modern music, being of a rather peaceful character 
 regarding its relations to "men and beasts," was de- 
 spised by Sir W. Temple, and other admirers of ancient 
 art. Musicians, though not sharing the credulity of 
 amateurs of the above stamp, nevertheless admitted 
 that music could "raise the passions," and upon this 
 point they seemed unanimous in their opinion. Thus, 
 among others, Christopher Simpson says,' — 
 
 " Musick, in its divine, as well as civil use and application, doth 
 not seem to be inferior to other sciences either for Art, Excellency, 
 or Intricacy. Whether we consider it in its Theory or Mathe- 
 matick Part ... Or in its Practick Part ... Or in its Active, 
 Mechanick Part which midwifes and brings forth those Sounds; 
 either by the excellent Modulation of the Voice, or by the exquisite 
 dexterity of the Hand upon some Instrument, and thereby presents 
 them to the Ear and Understanding; making such Impressions 
 upon our Minds and Spirits, as produce those strange and admira- 
 ble effects, recorded in History, and known by Experience." 
 
 When the composer had to set music to words, he 
 seemed not to have had any doubts about the means 
 to be employed in order to "raise those different pas- 
 sions." He then could rely on some apparently rational 
 rules, or conventional means and traditions. Thus the 
 above writer says, — 
 
 ' See Compendium of Practical Musick. 
 
Historical Summary. 159 
 
 "When you compose Musick to Words, your chief endeavor 
 must be, that your Notes aptly express the Sense and Humour of 
 them. If they be Grave and Serious let your Musick be such also : 
 If Light, Pleasant, or Lively, your Musick likewise must be suita- 
 ble to them. Any Passion of Love, Sorrow, Anguish, and the like, 
 is aptly expressed by Chromatick Notes and Bindings. Anger, 
 Courage, Revenge, etc., require a more strenuous and stirring 
 movement. Cruel, Bitter, Harsh, may be expressed with a Dis- 
 cord ; which, nevertheless, must be brought off according to the 
 Rules of Composition. High, Above, Heaven, Ascend ; as like- 
 wise their Contrairies, Low, Deep, Down, Hell, Descend, may be 
 expressed by the Example of the Hand ; which points upward 
 when we speak of the one, and downward when we mention the 
 other; the contrary to which would be absurd." 
 
 For the above aesthetic operation, the composer knew 
 how to select, from the matter his thorough-bass gave 
 him, those ingredients that would form the necessary- 
 compound ; but when he endeavored to compose for 
 instruments alone — absolute music — he was not quite 
 so sure about what kind of passions were to be ex- 
 pressed by this or that melodic or harmonic passage. 
 
 " In this kind of Musick [says Simpson], the Composer (being 
 not limited to words) doth imploy all his Art and Invention solely 
 about the bringing in and carrying on of those Fuges according 
 to the Order and Method formerly shewed. . . . When he has 
 tryed all the several ways which he thinks fit to be used therein ; 
 he takes some other Point, and 'does the like with it : or else, for 
 variety, introduces some Chromatick Notes, with Bindings and 
 Intermixtures of Discords ; or, falls into some lighter Humour like 
 a Madrigal, or what else his own fancy shall lead him to : but still 
 concluding with something which hath Art and Excellency." 
 
 When the composer had to set words to music, our 
 author recommends " Chromatick Notes and Bindings if 
 Love, Sorrow, Anguish and the like" had to be ex- 
 pressed. With regard to instrumental music, such notes 
 
i6o Music in England. 
 
 are introduced in order to produce variety. Thus, the 
 same kind of passages were intended to express, in 
 one case, definite sentiments or " passions," and, in the 
 other, to serve merely as aesthetic effects within formal 
 structure. This dualistic estimate of the nature and 
 effect of music exercised a confusing influence on 
 most of the writers whom I shall quote in the follow- 
 ing pages. 
 
 In England instrumental music was then not of a 
 very high order, though the composer of such pieces 
 delighted in exhibiting the resources of his savoir-faire ; 
 and, as we have seen in a preceding chapter, he knew 
 well how to "prick down" his lively dance-tunes and 
 " Fancies." When instrumental music began to eman- 
 cipate itself from vocal music, the different slow and 
 fast dance-tunes were the most cultivated instrumental 
 forms. The plastic meaning of the different figures 
 which composed this or tliat particular dance, — the 
 emotional mood, the r2sult of the time and motion, 
 which influenced the countenance and movements of 
 the dancers, — all these could, in a rather explicit man^ 
 ner, serve as a guide to the composer, endeavoring to 
 assign to every particular form of dance the power of 
 expressing, by means of rhythm, melody, and harmony, 
 a distinct sentiment, or trying to raise distinct passions. 
 The old masters, speaking of the different forms of the 
 dances, characterized them accordingly. So, among 
 others, Morley, in his " Plaine and Easey Introduction," 
 says,' — 
 
 " The next in gravity and goodness unto this is called pavane, 
 a kinde of staide musicke. . . . The Gailliard is a lighter and more 
 stirring kinde of Musicke than the pavane. . . . The Aleman is a 
 
 ' p. i8i. 
 
Historical Summary, Etc. i6i 
 
 more heavie dance than this (fitlie representing the nature of the 
 people, whose name it carrieth) so that no extraordinarie motions 
 are used in dancing it, etc." 
 
 Though some English musicians were very industri- 
 ous and successful in the cultivation and composing of 
 instrumental pieces, this form was considered by many 
 English writers, and even professional musicians, far ■ 
 inferior to the meaning and nature of vocal music. In- 
 strumental music was of too vague an expression to 
 interest the English mind, supremely inclined towards 
 the investigation and understanding of concrete mat- 
 ter. The word, promoting distinctness of thought, was 
 necessary to them in order to find in music any explicit 
 emotional meaning, or some supposed quality of pas- 
 sion. On the strength of this faithful interpreter, the 
 word, they accepted the tone-element, and classified it, 
 as to its emotional or sentimental expression, according 
 to the rules of poetry, prosody, rhetoric, elocution, etc. 
 Morley and Simpson, experienced masters, gave the 
 composer great latitude wherein to exercise his free 
 imagination as an inventor of musical forms ; but either 
 the imagination of the majority of English composers 
 was not rich, fanciful, and intense enough to do justice 
 to higher demands regarding the creation of great in- 
 strumental forms, or else it inclined too much to that 
 which is plausible and clear in expression, — the com- 
 poser requiring the definite meaning of the word in 
 order to excite and lead bis fancy to the fashioning 
 of complex structural forms. This equivocal position 
 towards, and aesthetic estimation of, music as an inde- 
 pendent art, is to be noticed in all the musical writings 
 of English authors. They almost invariably endeavor to 
 lay down rules for the aesthetic (critical) understanding 
 
1 62 Music in England. 
 
 and appreciation of forms as used in vocal music; but 
 their aesthetics generally break down when the treat- 
 ment of absolute music, instrumental music, is required. 
 So Addison in "The Spectator" is in a great dilemma 
 about the merits of absolute music. He acknowledges 
 that the "Italians have a genius for music above the 
 ' English : the English have a genius for other perform- 
 ances of a much higher nature, and capable of giving 
 the mind a much nobler entertainment." Music, with- 
 out the explaining help of words, appears to him a 
 rather dangerous element. He is afraid of its influence 
 upon the ears. Says he, — 
 
 " Music is certainly a very agreeable entertainment ; but if it 
 would take the entire possession of our ears, if it would make us 
 incapable of hearing sense, if it would exclude arts that have a 
 much greater tendency to the refinement of human nature, I must 
 confess I would allow it no better quarter than Plato has done, 
 who banishes it out of his commonwealth," 
 
 But if the so dangerous art be wedded to fine words, 
 then " The Spectator " thinks the sting of demoralizing 
 the ear with bewitching melody will be taken out of it ; 
 and in that case music may be used to improve virtue. 
 Thus, expressing a wish to have the style of church- 
 music improved, " The Spectator " says, — 
 
 "Our composers have one very great incitement to it. They 
 are sure to meet with excellent words, and at the same time a 
 wonderful variety of them. There is no passion that is not finely 
 expressed in those parts in the inspired writings which are proper 
 for divine songs and anthems. . . . Since we have therefore such 
 a treasury of words, so beautiful in themselves, and so proper for 
 the air of music, I cannot but wonder that persons of distinction 
 should give so little attention and encouragement to that kind of 
 music which would have its foundation in reason, and which would 
 improve our virtue in proportion as it raises delight." 
 
Historical Summary, Etc. 163 
 
 The Englishman of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries was pre-eminently a religious (church-) man ; 
 and yet, on the whole, he seems to have had very little 
 natural sympathy for the fine arts, among which I clas- 
 sify music. This latter, however, gained a certain pre- 
 eminence above the other arts; since it was considered 
 the handmaid of religion, and to it was gradually as- 
 signed the moral importance of promoting religious 
 devotion. 
 
 "The first and chief Use of Musick [says Playford] is for 
 the Service and Praise of God, whose Gift it is. The second Use 
 is for the Solace of Men, which, as it is agreeable to Nature, so 
 is allowed by God as a Temporal Blessing to recreate and cheer 
 Men after long study and weary Labour in their Vocation." 
 
 And Chr. Simpson uses the following simile : — 
 
 "AH Sounds that can possibly be joined at once together in 
 Musical Concordance, are still but the reiterated Harmony of 
 Three; a Significant Emblem of that Supreme and Incomprehen- 
 sible Trinity, Three in One, governing and disposing the whole 
 machine of the World, with all its included Parts, in a perfect 
 Harmony ; for in the Harmony of Sounds there is some great hid- 
 den Mystery above what hath been yet discovered." 
 
 This simile seems to have struck those American 
 psalm-tune teachers into whose hands it found its way ; 
 for again and again we find music explained by them 
 as a "perfect harmony, the emblem of Trinity." Some 
 enlarged on this moral dogma at such length that the 
 idea of music disappeared entirely, and only the Trinity 
 was left, even without "concords and discords" to sus- 
 tain it. 
 
 But music was also used in connection with secular 
 amusements : its strains enlivened the darice, and were 
 welcomed at theatrical performances. It is this secu- 
 
164 Music in England. 
 
 lar use of music which caused pious Englishmen the 
 greatest concern. Firmly believing that instrumental 
 music could be made the agency of rousing all kinds 
 of passions, good and evil, the dreadful consequences 
 which resulted from frequenting dancing-halls and 
 theatres were partly placed to the account of music. 
 
 ?.■■ 
 
 "We find, [says a writer] that in Heaven there is Musick and 
 
 Hallelujah Sung. I believe it is an helper both' to Good and Evil, 
 
 and will therefore honour it when it moves to Virtue, and shall 
 
 beware of it when it would flatter into Vice." 
 
 An ethical, moral force was thus instinctively at- 
 tributed to music. It had gained this distinction by 
 means of its early association with religious things and 
 practice : this moral principle, which grew out of con- 
 ventional use, was finally accepted as the basis upon 
 which music rested, and according to which it was 
 eventually judged, rejected, or accepted. Instrumental 
 (absolute) music, however, gradually began to enlist the 
 attention of the English musician, as much as that of 
 vocal music. Its forms and effects even received some 
 share of the philosopher's investigation. Some writ- 
 ers, in order to refute the often-repeated, stereotyped 
 affirmation, that ancient (Greek) music was superior to 
 modern music, held instrumental music up as an art 
 far superior to any thing the ancients could do or had 
 dreamed of. So, among others, A. Malcolm published, 
 in 1730, "A Treatise of Musick, Speculative, Practical, 
 and Historical, containing an Explanation of the Philo- 
 sophical and Rational Grounds and Principles thereof ; 
 The Nature and Office of the Scale of Musick ; The 
 Whole Art of writing Notes; and the General Rules 
 of Composition. With A Particular Account of the 
 
Historical Summary, Etc. 165 
 
 Antient Musick, and a Comparison thereof with the 
 Modern." 
 
 Malc^olm's treatise may be considered an attempt at 
 a system of musical aesthetics. Every part of musical 
 art and science, as in practice then, is investigated. 
 Our author goes beyond the scope of the professional 
 musician's thorough-bass. He does not wish to teach 
 the musical student the rules of harmony and counter- 
 point, but rather to throw light upon the philosophical 
 (aesthetic) nature of music. 
 
 With regard to the chapter treating of harmony and 
 counterpoint, the concrete parts of musical composi- 
 tion, Malcolm is in the same perplexed position as a 
 great modern German aesthetician, Th. F. Vischer. " A 
 Friend " communicated that to him, as he did not trust 
 his own judgment in making extracts from the differ- 
 ent writers whom he consulted on the subject, and ar- 
 ranging such a compound as would answer his design, 
 without which there would have been a " Blank " in his 
 work. The speculative part of his treatise, Malcolm 
 claims as his own. A number of views, especially re- 
 garding absolute music, might have been expressed, 
 but for the antiquated style, by some of our modern 
 writers, who find in music little more than mere pleas- 
 urable effects produced upon the nervous system. 
 Malcolm does not admit that the " raising of passions " 
 is music's province : to him it is "A Science of Sounds 
 whose End is Pleasure." I here quote those passages 
 of his book that bear on the above question : ■ — 
 
 " I have already observed [says he] that the principal end the 
 Antients proposed in their Musick, was to move the passions ; and 
 
 < A part of Malcolm's treatise was republished in one of the earliest American 
 musical journals. 
 
1 66 Music in England. 
 
 to this purpose poetry was a necessary Ingredient. We have no 
 dispute about the Power of poetical compositions to affect the 
 Heart, and move the Passions, by such a strong and lively Repre- 
 sentation of their proper Objects, as that noble Art is capable of : 
 The Poetry of the Antients we own is admirable, and their Verses 
 being sung with harmonious Cadences and Modulations, by a 
 clear, sweet Voice, supported by the agreeable Sound of some 
 instrument in such a manner that the Hearer understood every 
 Word that was said, which was all delivered with a proper Action, 
 that is. Pronunciation and Gesture suitable to, or expressive of, 
 the Subject, as we also suppose the Kind of Verses, and the 
 Modulation applied to it was ; taking their vocal Musick in this 
 View, we make no doubt that it had admirable Effects in exciting 
 Love, Pity, Anger, Grief, or any thing else the Poet had a Mind to. 
 But then they must be allowed to affirm, — we pretend to have the 
 Experience of it, — that the modern Musick, taking it in the same 
 Sense, has all these Effects. . . . Our Poets are capable to ex- 
 press any moving story in a very pathetick Manner: Our Musi- 
 cians, too, know how to apply a suitable Modulation and Rhythmus : 
 And we have those who can put the Whole in Execution ; so that 
 the Heart capable of being moved will be forced to own the won- 
 derful Power of Modern Musick." 
 
 Malcolm is very sceptical as to those wonderful 
 things the ancients are said to have accomplished by 
 means of their music. 
 
 " But still there are wonders [says he], to have been performed 
 by the ancient Musick, which we can produce nothing like ; such 
 as those amazing Transports of Mind, and hurrying of Men from 
 one Passion to another, all on a sudden, like the moving of a 
 Machine, of which we have so many Examples in History. . . . 
 What an improvement in the knowledge of pure Harmony has been 
 made, since the Introduction of modern Symphonies? Here it is. 
 that the Mind is ravished with the Agreement of Things seemingly 
 contrary to one another. We have here a kind of Imitation of the 
 Works of Nature, whose different Things are wonderfully joyned 
 in one harmonious Unity : and as some things appear at first View 
 the furthest removed from Symmetry and Order, which from the 
 
Historical Summary, Etc, 167 
 
 Course of Things we learn to be absolutely necessary for the Per- 
 fection and Beauty of the Whole ; so Discords, being artfully mixed 
 with Concords, make a more perfect Composition which surprises 
 with Delight. If the Mind is naturally pleased with perceiving 
 Order and Proportion, with comparing several Things together, in 
 discerning in the midst of a seeming Confusion, the most perfect 
 and exact Disposition and united Agreement; then the modern 
 Concerts must undoubtedly be allowed to be Entertainments 
 worthy of our Natures : And with the Harmony of the Whole we 
 must consider the surprising Variety of Air, which the modern 
 Constitutions and Modes of Time or Rhythmus afford ; by which, 
 in our instrumental Performances, the Sense and Imagination are 
 so niiglitily charmed. Now, this is an Application of Musick to 
 a quite different Purpose from that of moving Passion : But is it 
 reasonable on that Account, to call it idle and insignificant, as some 
 do, who I therefore suspect are ignorant of it? It was certainly 
 a noble Use of Musick to make it subservient to Morality and 
 Virtue ; and if we apply it less that way, I believe 'tis we have less 
 Need of such Allurements to our Duty : But whatever be the 
 Reason of this, 'tis enough to the present argument, that our Musick 
 is at least not inferior to the Ancient in the pathetick Kind : And 
 if it be not a low and unworthy Thing for us to be pleased with 
 Proportion and Harmony, in which there is properly an intellectual 
 Beauty, then it must be considered, that it must be confessed, that 
 the modern Musick is more perfect than the Ancient. But why 
 must the moving of particular Passions be the only Use of 
 Musick .''... We must observe again, that there is scarce any 
 Piece of Melody that has not some general Influence upon the 
 Heart ; and by being more sprightly or heavy in its Movements, 
 will have different Effects ; tho' it is not designed to excite any 
 particular Passion, and can only be said in general to give Pleasure, 
 and recreate the Mind. . . . We have Compositions fitted alto- 
 gether for Instruments : the Design whereof is not so much to ' 
 move the Passions, as to entertain the Mind and please the Fancy 
 with a Variety of Harmony and Rhythmus, the principal Effect 
 and Admiration." 
 
 The same ground Malcolm takes with regard to vocal 
 music. Rhythm, in the music of the ancients, was con- 
 
1 68 Music in England. 
 
 sidered as the all-powerful agent : in fact, the whole 
 effect of music was ascribed to it by ancient writers. 
 Malcolm, while acknowledging that " Rhythmus gives 
 life to Musick," thinks it exaggerated to " make it the 
 whole." 
 
 " I rather reckon the Words and Sense of what's sung, the 
 principal Ingredient ; and the other a noble Servant to them, for 
 raising and keeping up the Attention, because of the natural Pleas- 
 ure annexed to these Sensations. 'Tis very true, that there is a 
 Connection betwixt certain Passions, which we call Motions of 
 the Mind, and certain Motions of our Bodies ; and when by any 
 external Motion these can be imitated and excited, no doubt we 
 shall be much moved ; and the Mind by that Influence, becomes 
 either gay, soft, brisk, or drowsy : But hov/ any particular Pas- 
 sion can be excited without such lively Representation of its 
 proper Object, as only Words afford, is not very intelligible; at 
 least this appears to me the most just and effectual way." 
 
 Malcolm, in his definition of the effects of music, 
 occupies almost the same ground as our contemporary 
 writer R. Grant White. The former, however, lived 
 more than a century ago. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHARLES AVISON, D. BROWN, JAMES HARRIS, DANIEL 
 WEBB, JAMES BEATTIE, JOHN TRYDELL, EDMUND 
 BURKE. 
 
 Malcolm's views, regarding the function of music, 
 are eminently modern : not mucii progress has been 
 made beyond him, regarding fundamental principles. 
 Philosophers and musical critics have since been di- 
 vided into two parties : one assigning to music, both 
 vocal and instrumental, the power of representing defi- 
 nite sentiments and even thoughts ; the other rejecting 
 this power, either altogether, or, according to certain 
 circumstances, recognizing it Only partially. The fight, 
 regarding this aesthetic side of musical art, was gener- 
 ally indulged in by men of letters, who, in the course 
 of their philosophical investigations of the poetic arts, 
 found that music, in certain cases, exercised quite an 
 important influence on those arts. The professional 
 musician, the composer, did not trouble himself much 
 about these theories : he was convinced that musical 
 forms are not empty shells, made of well-sounding tone- 
 material ; he believed that music can express more than 
 mere well-arranged pleasing melodies and harmonies. 
 Having no doubt respecting this power of music, he 
 went on creating work after work, leaving to others the 
 task of explaining the mysteries of his art. However, 
 
 169 
 
170 Music in England. 
 
 here and there one of the profession rose, endeavoring 
 to explain those deeper aesthetic problems, as revealed 
 by the aid of a more practical insight into the workings 
 of the art. Such was Charles Avison, who published in 
 London, in 1752, his "Essay on Musical Expression." 
 The work, when it first appeared, caused quite a stir 
 among English musicians and writers on music ; partly 
 on account of its ^aajz-philosophical statements, and 
 partly on account of the author's strictures on Handel,- 
 whom he took occasion to criticise as having sinned, in 
 some of his finest works, against good taste. Avison, 
 a pupil of Geminiani, placed his master's and Marcello's 
 works above those of Handel. The English musician 
 being an admiring disciple of the Italian masters, his 
 musical criticism was a reflex of the Italian art view 
 and practice. Music is to Avison an art, that, above 
 all, expresses pleasure, and whose function is to work 
 on the serene side of the passions. This theory was 
 exactly in harmony with the Italian art ideal. Handel's 
 ideal was not confined to the one-sided art of giving 
 mere pleasure, and working on the serene side of the 
 passions : he felt that he possessed the power to " rouse 
 and stir all the different passions" by means of music. 
 He did not fall far short of his attempt. 
 
 " If we view this Art in its Foundation [says Avison], we shall 
 find that by the Constitution of Man it is of mighty Efficacy in 
 working both on his Imagination and his Passions. The Force of 
 Harmony or Melody alone, is wonderful on the Imagination. A 
 full Chord struck, or a beautiful Succession of single Sounds pro- 
 duced, is no less ravishing to the Ear, than just Symmetry or 
 exquisite Colours to the Eye. 
 
 " The Capacity of receiving Pleasure from these musical Sounds, 
 is, in Fact, a peculiar and internal Sense ; but of a much more 
 refined Nature than the external Senses: For in the Pleasures 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. 171 
 
 arising from our internal Sense of Harmony, there is no prior 
 Uneasiness necessary, in order to our tasting them in their full 
 Perfection ; neither is the Employment of them attended either 
 with Langour or Disgust. It is this peculiar and essential Prop- 
 erty, to divest the Soul of every unquiet Passion, to pour in upon 
 our Mind a silent and serene Joy, beyond the Power of Words to 
 express, and to fix the Heart in a rational, benevolent, and happy 
 Tranquillity. 
 
 " But though this be the natural Effect of Melody or Harmony 
 on the Imagination, when simply considered : yet when to these 
 is added the Force of Musical Expression, the Effect is greatly in- 
 creased ; for then they assume the Power of exciting all the most 
 agreeable Passions of the Soul. The Force of Sound in alarming 
 the Passions is prodigious. Thus, the Noise of Thunder, the 
 Shouts of War, the Uproar of an enraged Ocean, strike us with 
 Terror : So again, there are certaiji Sounds natural to Joy, others 
 to Grief or Despondency, others to Tenderness and Love ; and by 
 hearing those, we naturally sympathize with those who either enjoy 
 or suffer. Thus Music, either by imitating these various Sounds in 
 due Subordination to the Laws of Air or Harmony, or by any 
 other Method of Association, bringing the Objects of our Pas- 
 sions before us (especially when these Objects are determined, and 
 made as it were visible, and intimately present to the Imagination 
 by the Help of Words) does naturally raise a Variety of Passions 
 in the human Breast, similar to the Sounds which are expressed : 
 And thus by the Musician's Art we are often carried into the Fury 
 of a Battle, or a Tempest, we are by turns elated with Joy, or sunk 
 in pleasing Sorrow, roused to Courage or quelled by grateful Ter- 
 rors, melted into Pity, Tenderness, and Love, or transported to the 
 Region of Bliss, in an Extasy of divine Praise.'' 
 
 This "Method of Association," by means of which 
 Avison endeavors to explain the power of music, was 
 the subject of a fuller philosophical investigation in the 
 hands of a subsequent author, Alison. Avison, how- 
 ever, in order to fix the "Variety of Passions raised," in 
 a more definite way, had to fall back upon the " Help 
 of Words" in order to present those "Objects to the 
 
172 Music in England. 
 
 Imagination : " absolute music could not impress such 
 vivid, and "as it were visible," pictures upon the 
 imagination. 
 
 Avison is of opinion, that the peculiar aesthetic quality 
 of music is to raise "sociable and happy Passions, and 
 to subdue the contrary ones." He thinks that music's 
 province is to affect only one set of affections of the 
 mind, and not every one. 
 
 " I would appeal [says he] to any Man, whether ever he found 
 himself urged to Acts of Selfishness, Cruelty, Treachery, Revenge, 
 or Malevolence, by the Power of musical Sounds } Or if he ever 
 found Jealousy, Suspicion, or Ingratitude, engendered in his Breast, 
 either from Harmony or Discords ? I believe no instance of this 
 Nature can be alleged with Truth." 
 
 Even if music should urge the " Passions " to an 
 excess, and be then pernicious in its effects, still " Pas- 
 sions" thus raised, "though they may be misled, or 
 excessive, are of the benevoltent and social kind, and in 
 their Intent at least disinterested and noble." Thus 
 terror may be raised by musical expression ; and though 
 the impression may be something terrible to the imagi- 
 nation, yet we instantaneously perceive that the danger 
 is only imaginary, and then " The Sense of our Secu- 
 rity mixes itself with the terrible Impression, and melts 
 it into delight." So grief, having something of the 
 social kind for its foundation, is often attended with a 
 kind of sensation which may with truth be called pleas- 
 ing. Our author naturally comes to the conclusion, that, 
 since " It is the natural Effect of Air or Harmony to throw 
 the Mind into a pleasurable State," passions the most 
 natural and agreeable to that happy state will only have 
 fair play; but "Affections, such as Anger, Revenge, 
 Jealousy, and Hatred are always attended with Anxiety 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. 173 
 
 and Pain ; whereas all the various Modifications of Love, 
 whether human or divine, are but so many kinds of im- 
 mediate Happiness." Hence Avison concludes that it 
 is the imperious business of music to promote this latter : 
 " Every Species of musical Sound must tend to dispel 
 the malevolent Passions, because they zxc painful ; and 
 nourish those which are benevolent, because they are 
 pleasing." 
 
 Professor Bain says, " In fine art, every thing disagreef- 
 able is meant to be excluded " {Mental Science, p. 296, 
 American edition). 
 
 Avison warns the composer to be careful how he 
 makes use of " Imitation," or what we moderns call 
 tone- painting. He says that musical expression is 
 " such a Concurrence of Air and Harmony, as affects us 
 most strongly with Passions or Affections which the 
 Poet intends to raise." But our author makes it rather 
 difficult for the composer to reach this end: he does 
 not wish him to " dwell on particular Words in the way 
 of Imitation, but to comprehend the Poet's general 
 Drift, or Intention, and on this to form his Airs and 
 Harmony either by Imitation (so far as Imitation be 
 proper to this End) or by any other Means." But if the 
 composer cannot suppress his attempt at raising the 
 " Passions by Imitation," he must do it in "a temperate 
 and chastised manner :" otherwise, instead of bringing 
 the "Object before the Hearer, he may be induced to 
 form a comparison between the Object and the Sound, 
 and then his attention will be turned on the Composer's 
 Art, which must effectually check the Passions." If 
 the composer's art is to raise the passions, as we have 
 been told before, then it is difficult to understand how 
 in another instance it will be instrumental in checking 
 
174 Music in England. 
 
 them. It will be a decided gain in the interest of 
 "Air and Harmony," if the composer's art be strong 
 enough to turn the listener's attention to his composi- 
 tion, though the " Object of Imitation " may suffer by 
 this process. Or is the composer expected to arrange 
 his " Air and Harmony " in such a manner as to admin- 
 ister a certain dose for the raising of one kind of pas- 
 sion, and another dose for another kind } Avison ought 
 to have given the composer an aesthetic manual, based 
 on his theory, giving directions how many grains of a 
 particular " Air and Harmony " it takes to raise this 
 particular passion, and how many that other.' 
 
 The following passage of Avison's treatise is one of 
 those which our American psalm-tune teachers have 
 copied and commented on again and again. It was, in 
 fact, the dogma of their whole musical aesthetics. Avi- 
 son says, — 
 
 • 
 
 " The Power of Music in this Respect (that is, if Imitation is of 
 a temperate and chastised kind) is parallel to the Power of Elo- 
 quence : if it works at all, it must work in a secret and unsuspected 
 manner. In either Case, a pompous display of art will destroy its 
 own Intentions. . . . Musical Expression is that which gives rise 
 to the Pathetic in every other Art, an unaffected Strain of Nature 
 and Simplicity" 
 
 Handel's art, therefore, was, in Avison's eyes, of 
 too pompous and artificial a nature : besides, he made 
 too frequent use of that sort of " Imitation" which Avi- 
 son wished to exclude from musical composition. The 
 American psalm-tune composer was more faithful to 
 
 ' A recent writer, Mr. Ernst Pauer, has endeavored to do this in The Ele- 
 ments of the Beautiful in Music : on p. 20 of the book, speaking of the expression 
 of the intervals and the different major and minor keys, an antiquated, sentimental, 
 would-be aisthetic theory is revived, and explained at great length. See also Marx' 
 Gluck und (lie Opcr, and Hand's Aesthetik der Tonkunst 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. 175 
 
 Avison's aesthetic law. He always worked in a "se- 
 cret" and, too often, "unsuspected way." He never 
 was guilty of a too "pompous display of art." He knew 
 much of the " Power of Eloquence," and little of that 
 of music. Avison, in reminding the performer of his 
 duties, says, " For, as Musical Expression in the Com- 
 poser, is succeeding in the Attempt to express some 
 Particular Action (the word taken in the most extensive 
 sense), so in the Performer, it is to do a Composition 
 Justice, by playing it in a Taste and Stile so exactly 
 corresponding with the Intention of the composer as to 
 preserve and illustrate all the Beauties of his Work." 
 But, in order to accomplish his artistic task, the per- 
 former must avoid a mere exhibition of technical accom- 
 plishment. Avison had, no doubt, in his mind the belief 
 that music was powerful, in a general sense, in the rais- 
 ing of the passions ; but he was not quite decided 
 whether to consider music as an imitative art, or not. 
 
 In a subsequent work he proposed to publish, he gave 
 the following division of the different styles of musical 
 expression : — 
 
 The Grand ; The Beautiful ; The Pathetic. 
 
 Under these several denominations he distinguished 
 as follows : — 
 
 The Sublime; The Cheerful; The Devout; 
 
 The Joyous; The Serene; The Plaintive; 
 
 The Learned ; The Pastoral ; The Sorrowful. 
 
 These different aesthetic divisions of styles, the author 
 intended to illustrate by specimens taken from the 
 psalms of Marcello. Instrumental music, absolute mu- 
 sic, was not thought of in this instance. 
 
176 Music in England. 
 
 A similar scheme, as we shall see, though much modi- 
 fied and improved on, was afterwards carried out by 
 Dr. Crotch. Avison, although, in a speculative, philo- 
 sophical way, not sufficiently equipped to carry out his 
 ideas, gave, nevertheless, many aesthetic suggestions 
 which eventually led other writers to further investiga- 
 tions on this subject. 
 
 But, until the beginning of this century, nearly all 
 those aesthetic speculations which bore on music were 
 made on the basis of poetry. In Italy, in France, in 
 Germany, as well as in England, essay after essay ap- 
 peared explaining the musical qualities of the different 
 styles of poetry, giving the poet advice how to arrange 
 his poems (verses) destined to be set to music, teaching 
 the musician how to. apply his art in order to illustrate 
 the poem adequately, and to "raise the passions," as 
 intended by the poet's production. It was not till after 
 the great achievements in mstrumental music by the 
 German school as represented by Haydn, Mozart, and 
 Beethoven, that musicians, and writers on music, began 
 to make serious attempts to classify and explain the 
 different styles of instrumental music, and to lay down 
 the principles of an aesthetic appreciation of the great 
 instrumental forms. Some writers even went so far as 
 to regard absolute music as a corruption of taste. Thus 
 Dr. Brown, in 1763, published a "Dissertation on the 
 Rise, Union, and Power, the Progression, Separation, 
 and Corruption of Poetry and Music." 
 
 It would lead me too far to examine all the author's 
 assertions regarding the subject in question here. I 
 shall limit myself to quoting the strange results Dr. 
 Brown arrived at in the course of his investigations. 
 He, like many writers of his time, considered the poetry 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. I'j'j 
 
 and music of the ancients as the great models. The 
 cause of the separation of poetry and music he explains 
 thus : — 
 
 "As the modern Poetry become often unfit for music, so from 
 a singular cause the Separation was confirmed, and Music in its 
 P'orm became often unfit for Poetry. . . . For, now, instrumental 
 music, having assumed a new and more inviting Form, and being 
 ennobled by the principles of a complex and varied Harmony, was 
 introduced as being of itself a compleat Science, independent of 
 Poetry and Song. This gave it an artificial and labored Turn ; 
 while the Composer went in Quest of curious Harmonies, Dis- 
 cords, Resolutions, Fugues and Canons ; and prided himself (like 
 the Poet) in a pompous Display of Art, to the Neglect of Expres- 
 sion and true Pathos." 
 
 The author complains that this rise of modern music* 
 was instrumental in accomplishing its unfortunate sepa- 
 ration from "Poetry, Legislation and Morals," — a sepa- 
 ration which grieved the author much ; and the ultimate 
 aim of his dissertation is to point out the proper means 
 to recover the lost ground, and to bring about a " Re- 
 Union of Poetry and Music," ' in order that these arts 
 may be again as powerful and effectual as they were in 
 old Greece. But since, in our modern times, "the 
 Legislator's and Bard's character cannot again be gen- 
 erally and fully united," Dr. Brown wishes, above all, 
 that this union of poetry and music " be brought about 
 in the interest of Church Service." "It stands [this 
 union] intimately connected with all the sublime Truths, 
 the great and affecting Events of our Religion, which, 
 when thus exhibited by the united Powers of Poem and 
 Song, call forth all the noblest Emotions of the human 
 Soul ; and exalt it to the highest Pitch of Elevation that 
 our mortal Condition will admit." But, in order to 
 
 ' Wagner's theory. 
 
178 Music in England. 
 
 facilitate this process of " Re-Union " of the two sister 
 arts, Dr. Brown urges the establishment of "a Poetic 
 and Musical Academy, for the more effectual Re-Union 
 of those two Arts, and their better Direction to their 
 highest Ends." Our author thinks that such an insti- 
 tution would be of great importance, since music and 
 poetry have exercised "on every Nation of the Earth" 
 a refined or a corrupted influence. " So universal and 
 powerful are their Effects on the Passions of the Soul, 
 that perhaps no Period of human Nature can be assigned 
 (at least, the Writer knows of none) in which they have 
 not been either salutary ox pernicious : In which they 
 have not either tended to promote and confirm Religion, 
 Virtue, and public Happiness ; or been the Instruments 
 of Licentiousness and public Ruin." Though this is 
 paying a great compliment to the power of music, yet it 
 is an exaggeration. If one of the two arts had ever 
 such an influence over the passions of men as to cause 
 " Licentiousness and public Ruin," surely music was 
 not the guilty party. The whole mischief must be laid 
 at the door of poetry, who unscrupulously, and proba- 
 bly on false pretences, dragged her sister art along, 
 afterwards heaping all the blame on her defenceless 
 companion ; for she is without those rhetorical means 
 that poetry possesses in order to defend herself effectu- 
 ally against sophistry and double-entendre. 
 
 Brown's curious dissertation weighed heavily upon 
 those of our American psalm-tune teachers who became 
 acquainted with its contents. French and German 
 writers of the last century even, quoted Brown on cer- 
 tain points as an authority. The purely musical part 
 of the " Dissertation " is principally based on Avison's 
 above-mentioned essay. 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. 179 
 
 In 1744 yames Harris published three treatises, the 
 second of which, "Music, Painting, and Poetry," only 
 concerns us here. According to the generally accepted 
 aesthetic views of that time, the three arts were con- 
 sidered as imitative arts. But our author, in the course 
 of his philosophical reasoning, comes to the conclusion 
 that "Musical Imitation, at best, is but an imperfect 
 thing," and that it derives its efficacy from another 
 source than imitation. He finds that — 
 
 "There are various Affections which may be raised by the 
 Power of Music. There are Sounds to make us cheerful, or sadj 
 martial or tenders and so of almost every Affection, which we 
 feel. . . . There is a reciprocal Operation between our Affections, 
 and our Ideas; so that, by a sort of natural Sympathy, certain 
 Ideas necessarily tend to raise in us certain Affections ; and those 
 Affections, by a sort of Counter-Operation, to raise the same Ideas. 
 Thus Ideas derived from Funerals, Tortures, Murders, and the 
 like, naturally generate the Affection of Melancholy. And when, 
 by any physical Causes, that Affection happens to prevail, it as 
 naturally generates the same doleful Ideas." 
 
 But in order to produce this " Counter-Operation of 
 Affections and Ideas," the closest union of the two arts, 
 poetry and music, is required; for our author consid- 
 ers music as " the most powerful Ally to Poetry. . . . 
 Poetry expresses Ideas. The Ideas therefore of Poetry 
 must needs make the most sensible Impression, when 
 the Affections peculiar to them are already excited by 
 Music. For here a double Force is made to co-operate 
 to one End. A Poet, thus assisted, finds not an Audi- 
 ence in a Temper, averse to the Genius of his Poem, 
 or perhaps at best under a cool Indifference; but by 
 the Preludes, Symphonies, and concurrent Operation of 
 the Music, in all its Parts, roused into these very Affec- 
 tions which he would most desire." Thus the " Power 
 
i8o Music in England. 
 
 of Music consists not in Imitation, and the raising of 
 Ideas ; but in the raising of Affections to which Ideas 
 correspond. . , . Music, passing to the Mind thro' the 
 Organ of the Ear, can imitate only by Sounds and 
 Motions." Our author thinks that by the means of 
 such reasoning the objection may be solved which is 
 raised against the singing of poetry (as in opera, orato- 
 rio, etc.) ; namely, that it displays a " Want of Prob- 
 ability and Resemblance to Nature." With one who 
 has no musical ear, such objections may have weight. 
 But to the lover of music, good poetry justly set to 
 music is a source of great delight ; for by " the Air 
 of music, the several Ideas of the Poem are enforced " 
 and imparted to the listener's imagination with strength 
 and grandeur. "We cannot surely btit confess, that 
 he is a Gainer in the Exchange, when he barters the 
 want of a single Probability, that of Pronunciation (a 
 thing merely arbitrary and Very indifferent), for a noble 
 Heightening of Affections which are suitable to the 
 Occasion, and enable him to enter into the Subject with 
 double Energy and Enjoyment." Hence the author 
 considers it "evident, that those two Arts can never 
 be so powerful singly, as when they are properly united. 
 For Poetry, when alone, must be necessarily forced to 
 waste many of its richest Ideas, in the mere raising 
 of Affections, when, to have been properly relished, it 
 should have found those" Affections in their highest 
 Energies. And Music, when alone, can only raise 
 Affections which soon languish and decay, if not main- 
 tained and fed by the nutritive Images of 'Poetry." 
 
 Harris's essay exercised great influence on English 
 literary men, who paid some attention to music. Even 
 musicians, who devoted more thinking than they gen- 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. i8i 
 
 erally do to the ideal side of their art, looked upon 
 Harris as a philosophical authority; and, there is no 
 doubt about it, our author has put forth many an in- 
 teresting, suggestive thought, regarding the function 
 and power of music. 
 
 In 1769 Daniel Webb published "Observations on 
 the Correspondence between Poetry and Music." Here, 
 again, music is judged in its intimate relation with 
 poetry : its independent position is touched upon merely 
 in a casual way. 
 
 Webb considers music as an imitative art. He does 
 not blindly accept the old fables concerning the power 
 of music, but makes an attempt to seek for the psycho- 
 logical reasons that may govern the aesthetic functions 
 of music. He opens thus : — 
 
 " Though the influence of music over our passions is very gen- 
 erally felt and acknowledged; though its laws are universally the 
 same, its effects in many instances constant and uniform, — yet we 
 find ourselves embarrassed, in our attempts to reason on this sub- 
 ject, by the difliculty which attends the forming a clear idea of any 
 natural relation between sound and sentiment." 
 
 The author says that those who think to elude this 
 difificulty by attributing the influence of sound on pas- 
 sion to the habit of associating certain ideas with cer- 
 tain sounds, have no plausible principle on their side. 
 Webb now considers the material effect of sound upon 
 our nervous system, in order to find a solution to the 
 question how far music is capable of influencing our 
 passions (emotions) ? In this attempt at a physiological 
 investigation of the phenomenon, he anticipates some 
 of our modern physiologists. 
 
 ^' All musical sounds are divided into acute and grave : the 
 acute spring from strong, the grave from weaker, vibrations. No 
 
1 82 Music in England. 
 
 sound, therefore, can act as a single impression, since we cannot 
 have a feeling of it but in consequence of a succession of impres- 
 sions. Should it appear that our passions act in like manner by 
 successive impressions, or that they affect us on a principle simi- 
 lar to that which is deduced from the analysis of sounds, we might 
 then hope to become masters of the desired secret, and to dis- 
 cover, so far as such things are discoverable, the nature of the 
 relation between sound and sentiment. 
 
 "As we have no direct nor immediate knowledge of the me- 
 chanical operations of the passions, we endeavor to form some 
 conception of them from the manner in which we find ourselves 
 affected by them. Thus we say, that love softens, melts, insinu- 
 ates ; anger quickens, stimulates, inflames ; pride expands, exalts ; 
 sorrow dejects, relaxes : of all which ideas, we are to observe, that 
 they are different modifications of motion, so applied as best to 
 correspond with our feelings of each particular passion. From 
 whence, as well as from their known audible effects, there is just 
 reason to presume that the passions, according to their several 
 natures, do produce certain proper and distinctive motions in the 
 refined and subtle parts of the human body. . . . And the mind, 
 under particular affections, excites certain vibrations in the nerves, 
 and impresses certain movements on the animal spirits. . . . 
 
 " I shall suppose that it is in the nature of music to excite simi- 
 lar vibrations, to communicate similar movements to the nerves 
 and spirits. For, if music owes its being to motion, and if pas- 
 sion cannot well be conceived to exist without it, we have a right 
 to conclude that the agreement of music with passion can have 
 no other origin than a coincidence of movements." 
 
 Hence the author comes to the conclusion that 
 
 "When musical sounds produce in us the same sensations 
 which accompany the impressions of any one particular passion, 
 then the music is said to be in unison with that passion ; and the 
 mind must, from a similitude in their effects, have a lively feeling 
 of an affinity in their operations." 
 
 On the basis of this reasoning, Webb establishes the 
 following points regarding the effects of music on the 
 human mind ; — 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. 183 
 
 " That, in music, we are transported by sudden transitions, by 
 an impetuous reiteration of impressions. 
 
 " That we are delighted by a placid sensation of lengthened 
 tones, which dwell on the same, and insinuate themselves into our 
 utmost feelings. 
 
 " That a growth or climax in sounds exalts and dilates the spir- 
 its, and is therefore a constant source of the sublime. 
 
 " If an ascent of notes be in accord with the sublime, then 
 their descent must be in unison with these passions which depress 
 the spirits." 
 
 In order to establish a correspondence between musi- 
 cal impressions and the passions, Webb adniits that the 
 following four classes will cover the ground : — 
 
 " If they agitate the nerves with violence, the spirits are hur- 
 ried into the movements of anger, courage, indignation, and the 
 like. 
 
 " The more gentle and placid vibrations shall be in unison 
 with love, friendship, and benevolence." 
 
 " If the spirits are exalted and dilated, they raise into accord 
 with pride, glory, and emulation. 
 
 " If the nerves are relaxed, the spirits subside into the languid 
 movements of sorrow." 
 
 On the theory of this classification our author finds 
 it evident, — 
 
 " That music cannot, of itself, specify any particular passion, 
 since the movements of every class must be in accord with all the 
 passions of that class." 
 
 And, speaking of the effect of absolute music, he 
 finds that 
 
 " On hearing an overture by Jomelli, or a concerto by Gemi- 
 niani, we are, in turn, transported, exalted, delighted : the impetu- 
 ous, the sublime, the tender, take possession of the sense at the 
 -will of the composer. In these moments, it must be confessed, 
 we have no determinate idea of any agreement or imitation ; and 
 
1 84 Music in England. 
 
 the reason of this is, that we have no fixed idea of the passion to 
 which this agreement is to be referred." 
 
 Here is a critical statement which forms the basis 
 of the views of many of our best sestheticians, in whose 
 estimation music expresses or affects emotion in a 
 general sense, but no particular sentiment or feeling. 
 In order to fix such definite passion, the musician needs 
 the help of words in order to throw sufficient light into 
 the undecided shadows of merely emotional impressions. 
 Thus Webb, in his way, says, — 
 
 " But let eloquence co-operate with music, and specify the 
 motive of each particular impression, while we feel an agreement 
 in the sound and motion with the sentiment : song takes posses- 
 sion of the soul, and general impressions become specific indi- 
 cations of the manners and passions.'' 
 
 After his investigation of the different "passionsj" 
 and their relation to each other, Webb reaches the same 
 results as Avison ; namely, that music can have no con- 
 nection with those passions which are painful by their 
 nature, neither can it unite with our other passions when 
 they become painful by their excess. Hence our author 
 concludes that the effect of music upon our nature is 
 a moral one. 
 
 " The movements of music being in a continued opposition to 
 all those impressions which tend either to disorder or disgrace 
 our nature, may we not reasonably presume that they were des- 
 tined to act in aid of the moral sense, to regulate the measures and 
 proportions of our affections, and, by counteracting the passions 
 in their extremes, to render them the instruments of virtue, and 
 the embellishments of character ? " 
 
 Our author, considering music, in certain instances, 
 as an imitative art, gives the following explanation in 
 the interest of his theory : — 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. 185 
 
 " Music becomes imitative, when it so proportions the enforce- 
 ment or diminution of sound to the force or weakness of the pas- 
 sions, that the soul answers, as in an echo, to the just measure of 
 the impression." 
 
 He then finds an analogy of psychological effects be- 
 tween the raising of one kind of passion into another, 
 — for instance, from sorrow to pride, and vice versa, — 
 and the forte and piano in music ; that is to say, in the 
 gradual swelling or decreasing of the sounds, the spirits 
 are thrown into a similar kind of movement. I will 
 close my review of the aesthetic theory of this intelli- 
 gent writer, with the following quotation, comparing 
 the psychological effect of the three arts : — 
 
 " It is the province of music, to catch the movements of passion 
 as they spring from the soul ; painting waits until they rise into 
 action, or determine in character : but poetry, as she possesses the 
 advantages of both, so she enters at will into the province of 
 either, and her imitations embrace at once the movement and the 
 effect." 
 
 Most writers of this epoch looked upon music as an 
 imitative art. With this view they followed the reason- 
 ings of some old Greek authors, and especially Aristotle. 
 In France, M. Batteux published, in 1753, "Les beaux 
 arts rdduits a un meme principe," a book in which the 
 author endeavored to prove that music, like the other 
 arts, imitates some objects (sounds and movements) in 
 nature. Batteux' system had a wide influence on the 
 literary art world ; and J. J. Rousseau, among others, 
 sided with him. In his " Dictionnaire de Musique," 
 articles " Imitation " and " Musique," he designates 
 music as an imitative art. Batteux' and Rousseau's 
 views were also accepted by many English literary men. 
 Although these philosophers and writers knew very 
 
1 86 Music in England. 
 
 little of the real nature and practice of Greek music, 
 their estimation of this art (one of the members of all 
 the arts), as held and cultivated by the Greeks, was 
 accepted by modern writers as an infallible authority, 
 since the Greeks were, in other respects, such great 
 artists. The Greek principle, regarding the nature and 
 function of music, was so universally accepted, that a 
 noted English write'r, James Beattie, who, in his "An 
 Essay on Poetry and Music as they affect the Mind " 
 (London, 1763), did not consider music as one of the 
 imitative arts, thought it necessary to excuse himself 
 for setting forth such a novel view. He says, ancient 
 music might possibly have been an imitative art ; but 
 as we know so little of the ancient practice, he is not 
 able to judge : he is treating of modern music. 
 
 " Nor do I mean any disresjject to music, when I would strik^ 
 it off the list of imitative arts. I allow it to be a fine art, and to 
 have a great influence on the human soul ; I grant, that, by its 
 power of raising a variety of agreeable emotions in the hearer, it 
 proves its relation to poetry, and it never appears to the best ad- 
 vantage but with poetry for its iaterpreter ; and I am satisfied, 
 that, though musical genius may subsist without poetical taste, 
 yet these two talents united accomplish nobler effects than either 
 could do singly.' I acknowledge, too, that the principles and 
 essential rules of this art are as really founded in nature, as those 
 of poetry and painting. But when I am asked, what part of nature 
 is imitated in any good picture or poem, I find I can give a defi- 
 nite answer : whereas, when I am asked, what part of nature is 
 imitated in Handel's ' Water-music,' for instance, or in Corelli's 
 Eighth Concerto, or in any particular English or Scotch tune, I find 
 I can give no definite answer, — though, no doubt, I might say. 
 some plausible things ; or perhaps, after much refinement, be able 
 to show that music may, by one shift or other, be made an imita- 
 tive art,, provided you allow me to give any meaning I please to the 
 word imitative^'' 
 
 ' R. Wagner's theory fore-shadowed. 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. 187 
 
 This last passage can be applied, with great justice, 
 to that fantastic method of modern aesthetic musical, 
 criticism which is so repeatedly applied — and very? 
 often injuriously — to the finer aesthetic understanding 
 of the works of our great instrumental composers, a 
 method promoting a weak sentimentalism in lieu of 
 true and healthy art sentiment and appreciation. Be^t- 
 tie justly remarks, — 
 
 "Sounds in themselves can imitate nothing directly but sounds, 
 nor, in their motion, any thing but motion." But the natural 
 sounds and motions that music is allowed to imitate are but few. 
 For, first, they must all be consistent with the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of the art, and not repugnant either in melody or harmony. 
 . . . Besides, the end of all genuine music is, to introduce into 
 the human mind certain affections or susceptibilities of affections. 
 Now, all the affections over which music has any power are of 
 the agreeable kind; and therefore, in this art no imitations of 
 natural sound or motion, but such as tend to inspire agreeable 
 affections, ought ever to find a place." 
 
 Our author, on the strength of this theory regarding 
 the agreeable affections over which music has £iny 
 power, allows the composer to imitate, if he has any 
 occasion to do so artistically, "the song of certain 
 birds, the murmurs of a stream, the shouts of multi- 
 tudes_, the tumult of a storm, the roar of thunder, a 
 chime of bells, — these sounds being connected with 
 agreeable or sublime affections ; " but " the crowing of 
 cocks, the barking of dogs, the mewing of cats, the 
 grunting of swine, the gobbling of geese, the cackling 
 of a hen, the braying of an ass, the creaking of a saw, 
 or the rumbling of a cart-wheel, would render the best 
 music ridiculous. The movement of a dance may be 
 imitated, or the stately pace of an embattled legion; 
 
 ' See Haiislick, Das Musikalisch Schcine. 
 
1 88 Music in England. 
 
 but the hobble of a trotting-horse would be intolera- 
 ble. (This latter has been done by R. Wagner, in 
 his famous " Walkurenritt ; " Mendelssohn, in his over, 
 ture to " The Midsummer Night's Dream," found musi- 
 cal effects suggestive of the " braying of an ass.") But 
 Beattie rightly attributes " part of the pleasure, both of 
 melody and harmony," to the composer's art, "to the 
 very nature of the notes that compose it." " Music is 
 imitative when it readily puts one in mind of the thing 
 imitated." But if an explanation is necessary, and if, 
 after all, we find it difficult to recognize any exact 
 similitude between the strain and the object intended 
 to be imitated, then our author classifies it with those 
 pictures which cannot be recognized without a label 
 in the mouth of the agent, " This is a lion ; this is a 
 horse," etc. Beattie justly remarks here, that between 
 imitation in music, and imitation in painting, there is 
 an essential difference : "a bad picture is always a bad^ 
 imitation of nature, and a good picture is necessarily a 
 good imitation ; but music may be exactly imitative and 
 yet intolerably bad, or not at all imitative and yet per- 
 fectly good." 
 
 With regard to the expression of instrumental music 
 (or music in general), Beattie follows Avison's reason- 
 ings. In vocal music, the expression is revealed by the 
 poetry; in instrumental music, it is ambiguous. Ex- 
 pression, or pathos, is pronounced to be the chief quality 
 of music. 
 
 " Imitation without expression is nothing ; imitation detrimental 
 to expression is faulty. ... If, then, the highest excellence may 
 be attained in instrumental music without imitation, and if even 
 in vocal music imitation have only a secondary merit, it must fol- 
 low, that the imitation of nature is not essential to this art." 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. 189 
 
 Beattie thinks that there is " some relation, at least, 
 or analogy if not similitude, between certain musical 
 sounds and mental affections. Soft music may be con- 
 sidered as analogous to gentle emotions ; and loud 
 music, if its tones are sweet and not too rapid, to sub- 
 lime ones ; and a quick succession of noisy notes, like 
 those we hear from a drum, seems to have relation to 
 hurry and impetuosity of passions." He therefore 
 attributes to music moral effects. But he regards 
 poetry as the most immediate and most accurate inter- 
 preter of music. 
 
 "Without this auxih'ary, a piece of the best music, heard for 
 the first time, might be said to mean something, but we should 
 not be able to say wliat. It might incline the heart to sensibility; 
 but poetry, or language, would be necessary to improve that sensi- 
 bility into real emotion, by fixing the fancy upon some definite and 
 affecting ideas.'' 
 
 The author, therefore, advocates simplicity in musi- 
 cal construction, so that the words of a song we listen 
 to may be distinctly understood; for "from instru- 
 mental music we expect something more, and from 
 vocal music a great deal more, than mere sweetness of 
 sound." Beattie's book excited the deepest attention 
 of English writers on aesthetic subjects, and called 
 forth many warm discussions. But its influence on the 
 cultivation of music, as one of the fine arts, was a good 
 one. Even on the Continent, Beattie's views were com- 
 mented on, and partially accepted. A French transla- 
 tion of the "Essay" appeared in Paris in 1796 {An /^, 
 de la Republique). It contributed much towards a 
 philosophical investigation of music as a new art, 
 distinct from that of ancient music in its aspiration, 
 material, and aesthetic forms. 
 
I go Music in England. 
 
 Although Beattie, on account of his unwillingness to 
 separate music from poetry, could not cut himself loosg 
 from the ancient, tradition which borrowed the raising 
 of definite passions, affections, sentiments, from poetry, 
 and attributed this to music as its bona-fide aesthetic 
 function, yet he, in some other respects, marks a prog- 
 ress beyond his predecessors. 
 
 I will quote a passage from the Rev. yohn TrydeWs 
 "Two Essays on the Theory and Practice of Music" 
 published in 1766 (Dublin). The author issued these 
 essays in order to " render composition more practica- 
 ble" than it was at his time among his countrymen. 
 
 " If the scarcity of Composers among us [he says] be owing 
 to the want of knowledge of the Practice : then it may be hoped an 
 attempt towards a regular Introduction, and clear Method in our 
 own Language, may help to supply that defect; since tlie encourage- 
 ment we shew to the works and performance of foreigners is evi- 
 dent and constant testimony how much we love and admire the 
 Art. . . . And will it not in Reason follow that we arrive to as 
 competent knowledge of it, as those who are the reputed Masters 
 and Teachers." 
 
 But, this said en passant, the passages which concern 
 us here are the following; some parts of which, as I 
 shall point out, resemble the views of some recent 
 writers. The author's reasoning regarding articulate 
 sounds is ingenious and suggestive. 
 
 " I cannot omit in this place making an observation on musical 
 Sounds, and the great superiority they naturally have over articu- 
 late ones in expressing the sense. 
 
 " Articulate Sounds express the Sense by Consent. It being evi- 
 dent, that an articulate Sound hath not naturally the least connexion 
 with the Idea it represents ; otherwise there could have been but 
 one language. 
 
 " This arbitrary compact then, ascertaining the significancy and 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. 191 
 
 propriety of articulate Sounds, is the foundation of the. diversity of 
 Languages which have prevailed in the world. Whereas musical 
 Sounds do of themselves, that is to say, merely by the Sound, sug- 
 gest our Idea. Chiefly those of the Passions, as Desire, Aversion, 
 Joy, Sorrow, and the like. And this they do by their acuteness or 
 gravity ; by Chromatic Notes, or half tones, which belong not to the 
 Harmony of the Key.' 
 
 " These last peculiarities express the violence or abruptness of 
 Passion when they ascend, and weakness and despondency when 
 they fall. The changes or abatements of the Passion are discov- 
 ered by the crowding of quick Notes, or by the sudden transition 
 into Slow. 
 
 " Lastly, the flat (minor) and sharp (major) Keys have their pecul- 
 iar and proper Objects. The first being expressive of very plaintive 
 and tender Sentiment: the sharp third discerning Joy and Eleva- 
 tion of Mind.2 
 
 " Neither is there any sudden transition or movement of the Pas- 
 sion which cannot be transferred by Art, and copied by Musical 
 Sounds. For the deplaciiig of the flat and sharp thirds out of the 
 natural Series, by new Semitones introduced, hath this effect. All 
 this, and much more, will be evident to any one who will consider 
 the Sounds which the human voice expresses on the breaking out 
 of any Passion, before words can find way." 3 
 
 To these views regarding certain aesthetic musical 
 qualities as expressed by one artistic Irish author, a sIht 
 cere admirer and connoisseur of music, I will add a few 
 sentences regarding musical beauty, taken from the work 
 of a more famous Irish writer : I mean Ed. Burke s essay 
 "On the Sublime and the Beautiful" (1756). Burke's 
 " philosophical inquiry " attracted great attention on its 
 
 ' Lussy in chap, vi., " De rAccenttiation Pathfitiqnc," of his Traite de I'Expres- 
 sion Miisicalc, develops the same ideas at great length. 
 
 ^ Pauer, Marx, Hand, Schubart (Ideen zu einer Aesthetik' der Tonkimst), 
 Bombet (the Lives of Haydn and Mozart, with notes by Gardiner), advocate the 
 same theory. 
 
 3 Dr. Fr. Hiiffer, in "The Music of the Future," speaking of a Liszt song, 
 expresses his sesthetic criticism in a manner very similar to the above passage. 
 
192 Music in England. 
 
 appearance, not alone in England, but also on the Conti- 
 nent, and excited such celebrated philosophers as Les- 
 sing and Moses Mendelssohn to further investigations. 
 Burke's ideas regarding the beautiful in music are weak 
 and amateurish echoes of Avison's essay, and other 
 views popular at that time. They do not indicate any 
 traces of original philosophical investigation on the 
 part of Burke : he seems to have known little of musi- 
 cal practice, or of musical art in general. 
 
 " The eye is not the only organ of sensation by which sublime 
 passions may be produced. Sounds have a great power in these 
 as in most other passions. Excessive loudness alone is sufficient 
 to overpower the soul, to suspend its action, and to fill it with 
 terror. The noise of vast cataracts, raging storms, thunder, or 
 artillery awakes a great and awful sensation in the mind, though 
 we can observe no nicety or artifice in those sorts of music. The 
 shouting of multitudes has a similar effect ; and, by the sole 
 strength of the sound, so amazes and confounds the imagination, 
 that, in this staggering and hurry of the mind, the best-established 
 temper can scarcely forbear being borne down, and joining in the 
 common cry and common resolution of the crowd." 
 
 These " sorts of music," however, are not music. It 
 is not the province, neither is it in the power, of musi- 
 cal art to copy or express such physical effects of un- 
 bounded nature, even if sound lies at the root of those 
 natural occurrences. 
 
 " The beautiful in music [says Burke] will not bear that loud- 
 ness and strength of sounds which may be used to raise other 
 passions ; nor notes which are shrill or harsh or deep : it agrees 
 best with such as are clear, even, smooth, and weak. The second 
 is, that great variety, and quick transitions from one measure or 
 tone to another, are contrary to the genius of the beautiful in 
 music. Such transitions often excite mirth, or other sudden and 
 tumultuous passions ; but not that sinking, that melting, that Ian- 
 
Avison, Brown, Harris, Webb, Etc. 193 
 
 guor, which is the characteristical effect of the beautiful as it 
 regards every sense. The passion excited by beauty is in fact 
 nearer to a species of melancholy than to jollity and mirth. The 
 infinite variety of the affections of the soul will suggest, to a good 
 head and skilful ear, a variety of such sounds as are fitted to raise 
 them." 
 
 Burke's " beautiful in music " is, on the whole, a very 
 melancholic, languid thing. No wonder that the sturdy, 
 strong English mind did not feel attracted by such a 
 weak, vapid art. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 LORD KAMES, JOHN HAWKINS, CHARLES BURNEY, ARCHI- 
 BALD ALISON, W. CROTCH. 
 
 Of greater aesthetic importance, and pointing at the 
 same time to more modern philosophical views, are the 
 remarks regarding music expressed by the Scotch au- 
 thor, Lord Karnes, in his "Elements of Criticism," 
 published in 1762.' He says, "It must be premised, 
 that no disg,greeable combination of sounds is entitled 
 to the name of music ; for all music is I'esolvable into 
 melody and harmony, which imply agreeableness in 
 their very conception." And yet, on further thought, 
 he admits that " sounds may be so contrived as to pro- 
 duce horror, and several other painful feelings, which 
 in a tragedy, or in an opera, may be introduced with 
 advantage to accompany the representation of a dis- 
 social or disagreeable passion." The author, however, 
 is disinclined to call a combination of sounds thus 
 employed, music. As to the psychological power of 
 music. Lord Kames claims that "it is beyond the 
 power of music to raise a passion or a sentiment ; but 
 it is in the power of music to raise emotions similar to 
 what are raised by sentiments expressed in words pro- 
 nounced with propriety and grace." He terms such 
 music " sentimental." On the basis of this our author 
 
 ' Republished in New York in 1846. 
 194 
 
Karnes, Hawkins, Burney, Alison, Crotch. 195 
 
 naturally comes to the conclusion, that, when musig is 
 wedded to words, the intimate connection of sense and 
 spund rejects dissimilar emotions, those especially, that 
 are opposite. " Similar emotions produced by the sense 
 and the sound go naturally into union, and at the 
 same time are concordant or harmonious ; but dissimi- 
 lar emotions, forced into union by these causes inti- 
 mately connected, obscure each other, and are also 
 unpleasant by discordance." Hence music, being in- 
 tended to accompany words, ought to be expressive of 
 the sentiment that they convey. 
 
 But " as music in all its various tones ought to be 
 agreeable, it never can be concordant with any compo- 
 sition in language expressing a disagreeable passion, or 
 describing a disagreeable object : for here the emotions 
 ra.ised by the sense and the sound are not only dissimi- 
 lar, but opposite ; and such emotions, forced into union, 
 always produce an unpleasant mixture. Music, accord- 
 ingly, is a very improper companion for sentiments of 
 malice, cruelty, envy, peevishness, or of any other dis- 
 social passion. . . . Music associates finely with poems 
 that tend to inspire pleasant emotions, such as cheer- 
 fulness, mirth, jollity, sympathy, joy, sympathetic pain, 
 love, tenderness, concern, anxiety, pain of absence, 
 hope, fear. Melancholy music is suited to slight grief ; 
 but deep grief, which refuses all consolation, rejects, for 
 that reason, even melancholy music." 
 
 Of instrumental music our author contents himself to 
 reason, that, " having no connection with words, it may 
 be agreeable without relation to any sentiment. Har- 
 mony, properly so called, though delightful when in per- 
 fection, has no relation to sentiment ; and we often find 
 melody without the least tincture of it." 
 
196 Music in England. 
 
 Lord Kames claims that " music has a commanding 
 influence over the mind, especially in connection with 
 words." ' Our author even goes as far as to say, that 
 " music, having at command a great variety of emotions, 
 may, like many objects of sight, be made to promote 
 luxury and effeminacy. . . . But, with respect to its 
 pure and refined pleasures, music goes hand in hand 
 with gardening and architecture, her sister arts, in 
 humanizing and polishing the mind ; of which none can 
 doubt who have felt the charms of music." 
 
 Lord Kames makes the following sensible remarks, 
 speaking of the fitting use of music between the acts 
 of a play. Since the audience at a play need a reason- 
 able respite between every act, he recommends a chorus, 
 or instrumental music, as the best means to "preserve 
 alive the impressions made upon an audience," and also 
 
 to "prepare their hearts finely for the new impressions." 
 
 * 
 
 "What objections [.says lie] can there lie against music between 
 the acts, vocal or instrumental, adapted to the object? The 
 music after an act should commence in the tone of the preceding 
 passion, and be gradually varied till it accord with the tone of the 
 passion that is to succeed in the next act. The music and the 
 representation would both of them be gainers by this conjunction ; 
 ■which will thus appear. Music that accords with the present tone 
 of mind is, on that account, doubly agreeable ; and, accordingly, 
 though music singly has not the power to raise a passion, it tends 
 greatly to support a passion already raised.^ Farther, music pre- 
 pares us for the passion that follows, by making cheerful, tender, 
 melancholy, or animated impressions, as the subject requires. . . . 
 In this manner, music and representation support each other de- 
 lightfully : the impression made upon the audience by the rejSre- 
 sentation is a fine preparation for the music that succeeds, and 
 the impression made by the music is a fine preparation for the rep- 
 resentation that succeeds." 
 
 • Herbert Spencer attributes a similar power to music ' The Italics are my own. 
 
Karnes, Hawkins, Burney, Alison, Crotch. 197 
 
 Some modern musicians and writers on music have 
 advocated the same views, regarding appropriate music 
 between the acts of a play ; but none of these has sug- 
 gested any thing more pertinent, more sesthetic, than 
 Lord Kames. If theatrical managers knew more about 
 music ; if leaders of theatrical orchestras possessed a 
 broader, more intelligent understanding of the ideal 
 mission and power of their art, this vexed question 
 regarding " appropriate music between the acts " could 
 be easily solved on the very basis of the above old 
 Scotch author's views. 
 
 The different opinions regarding the nature and func- 
 tion of music, as expressed by the foregoing authors, 
 were, according to individual taste and conception, 
 followed up by two meritorious English historians. Sir 
 yohn Hawkins and Dr. Charles Burney. 
 
 Hawkins, in his definition of the effects of music, 
 and the pleasure this art administers to the imaginative 
 fancy, leans towards James Harris's views, as expressed 
 in his treatise quoted above. Hawkins says, "Music 
 operates upon the mind by the power of that harmony 
 which results from the concord of sounds, and excites 
 in the mind those ideas which correspond with our 
 tenderest and most delightful affections." Our author 
 finds, that " in music there is little beyond itself to 
 which we need, or indeed can, refer to heighten its 
 charms ; " though he admits that music may excite a 
 certain degree of charm " where imitation is intended, 
 as in the songs of birds, or in the expression of those 
 various inflections of the voice which accompany pas- 
 sion, or exclamation, weeping, laughing, and other of 
 the human affections, the sound and the thing signi- 
 fied." *But, on the whole, "there are few things in 
 
198 Music in England. 
 
 nature which music is capable of imitating ; and those 
 are of a kind so uninteresting that we may venture to 
 pronounce, that, as its principles are founded in geo- 
 metrical truth, and seem to result from some general 
 and universal law of nature, so its excellence is intrin- 
 sic, absolute, and inherent." Hawkins, consequently, 
 establishes his musical criticism on the basis of these 
 principles. 
 
 Dr. Burney, in the third volume of his "General His- 
 tory of Music," gives an " Essay on Musical Criticism," 
 in which he sets forth the agsthetic principles that led 
 him in judging and appreciating different musical art- 
 works. He says that music may be defined as the art 
 of pleasing by a succession and combination of agree- 
 able spunds. "There is a tranquil pleasure, short of 
 rapture, to be acquired from music, in which intellect 
 and sensation are equally concerned." The analysis of 
 this pleasure is the subject' of the above essay. 
 
 A true critic's qualifications must be those of " having 
 a clear and precise idea of the constituent parts of a 
 good composition, and of the principal excellencies of 
 perfect execution. . . . Thus, if a complete musical com- 
 position of different movements were analyzed, it would 
 perhaps be found to consist of some of the following 
 ingredients : melody, harmony, modulation, invention, 
 grandeur, fire, pathos, taste, grace, and expression ; while 
 the executive part would require neatness, accent, 
 energy, spirit, feeling, and in a vocal performer or in- 
 strumental, where the tone depends on the player, power, 
 clearness, sweetness, brilliancy of execution in quick 
 movements, and touching expression in slow." 
 
 Burney's critic, examining the different styles of music, 
 would be required to observe the following standard in 
 judging. 
 
Karnes, Hawkins, Burney, Alison, Crotch. 199 
 
 " In church music, whether jubilation, humility, sorrow, or con- 
 trition are to be expressed, the words will enable the critic to judge ; 
 but of the degree of dignity, gravity, force, and originality of the 
 composition, few but professors can judge in detail, though all of 
 the general effect. 
 
 " In hearing dramatic music, little attention is pointed by the 
 audience to any thing but the airs and powers of the principal 
 singers. And yet, if the character, passion, and importance of each 
 personage in the piece is not distinctly marked and supported ; if 
 the airs are not contrasted with each other, and the parts of every 
 singer in the same scene specially different in measure, compass, 
 time, and style, — the composer is not a complete master of his pro- 
 fession. 
 
 " In chamber music, such as cantatas, single songs, solos, trios, 
 quartets, concertos, and symphonies of few parts, the composer has 
 less exercise for reflection and intellect and the power of pleasing 
 in detached pieces of melody, harmony, natural modulation, and in- 
 genuity of contrivance, fewer restraints, and fewer occasions for 
 grand and striking effects, and expression of the passions, than in 
 a connected composition for the church or the stage.'' 
 
 At the time Burney wrote this, instrumental music 
 was yet in its infancy. 
 
 Of the nature of music, considered as the result of 
 physiological and psychological investigation, Burney 
 has nothing to say, except that he repeats the old re- 
 ceived notions of its effects on the passions. " Music is 
 a language that can accommodate its accents and tones 
 to any human sensation and passion. . . . It is in itself 
 an innocent art ; is so far from corrupting the mind, that, 
 with its grave and decorous strains, it can calm the pas- 
 sions, and render the heart more fit for spiritual and 
 pious purposes. " But this moral end will be more easily 
 reached when music " is united with the language and 
 the precepts of religion." The American psalm-tune 
 teachers, who considered Burney's essay the gospel of 
 
200 Music in England. 
 
 musical criticism, laid great stress on this last sentence. 
 But, in spite of their faith in the English historian's crit- 
 ical judgment, they entertained great doubts as to music 
 being in itself an innocent art, and far from corrupting 
 the mind. One of the strong points of their musical 
 morals (not criticism) was, that music, without the puri- 
 fying action of religious words united with it, is a dan- 
 gerous art, and very apt to lead the soul of the harmless 
 listener astray. They never attempted to compose 
 absolute music. 
 
 Burney, from his aesthetic point of view, lays even 
 greater stress on the performer's art, both vocal and 
 instrumental, than upon that of the composer. " It was 
 formerly more easy [he thinks] to compose than to play 
 an adagio, which generally consisted of a few notes that 
 were left to the task and abilities of the performer ; but, 
 as the composer seldom found his ideas fulfilled by the 
 player, adagios are now made more chantant and inter- 
 esting in themselves, and the performer is less put to 
 the torture for embellishment." We see all along, that 
 Burney appreciated above all the mere mechanical out- 
 side of the composer's art, which consisted in the com- 
 bining of agreeable sounds to please the ear : pathos, 
 variety of expression, and taste, the more inherent, 
 aesthetic qualities, were to be supplied by the performer, 
 who, it was expected, had to draw these indispensable 
 qualities from his own soul ; the composer being asked 
 simply to furnish pleasing melodies, new, not too rich, 
 harmonies, natural modulations, ingenious, but not too 
 complicated contrivances, and plenty of opportunities 
 for those indispensable florid embellishments. 
 
 Burney's principles of musical criticism served for a 
 long while as the standard, by means of which compo- 
 
Karnes, Hawkins, Burney, Alison, Crotch. 201 
 
 sitions were" judged by English critics. The above- 
 mentioned essay was even translated into German and 
 French. It was an sesthetic code, principally based 
 upon the rules of thorough-bass. The form of a compo- 
 sition was measured by the yard borrowed from the 
 executive performer : the work had to fit his powers ; 
 otherwise it was condemned as impracticable, and devoid 
 of true musical qualities. This shallow, one-sided, 
 aesthetic manner of criticism is, as we shall see later 
 on, still the modus operandi among American writers on 
 music, who are not able to shake off this antiquated in- 
 heritance from the mother country. 
 
 Now let us turn to the pages of a work by a philoso- 
 pher, Archibald Alison's " Essays on the Nature and 
 Principles of Taste," 1790. The author's theory is 
 based on an analysis of the emotions of sublimity and 
 beauty. Regarding the aesthetic functions of music, 
 he starts from a consideration of the nature of simple 
 sounds. "I. Sounds that occur in inanimate nature. 
 2. The notes of animals. 3. The tones of the human 
 voice." But only those sounds which are associated 
 with some other qualities are productive the of emo- 
 tions of sublimity and beauty. Thus, — 
 
 " I. All sounds in general are sublime which are associated 
 with ideas of danger: such as the howling of a storm, the mur- 
 muring of an earthquake, the report of artillery, the explosion of 
 thunder, etc. 
 
 " 2. All sounds are in general sublime which are associated 
 with ideas of great power or might : such as the noise of a torrent, 
 the fall of a cataract, the uproar of tempest, the explosion of gun- 
 powder, the dashing of the waves, etc. 
 
 " 3. All sounds are sublime which are associated with ideas of 
 majesty or solemnity or deep melancholy or any other strong 
 emotion : such as the sound of the trumpet, and all other war- 
 
202 Music in England. 
 
 like instruments, the note of the organ, the sound of the curfew, 
 the tolling of the passing bell, etc." 
 
 The author then enumerates the associated sounds 
 that are productive of emotions of beauty ; he classifies 
 the notes of the animals, which, according to the fero- 
 city or gentleness of the animal, generate emotions of 
 sublimity or beauty. 
 
 " There is a similar sublimity or beauty felt in particular notes 
 or tones of the human voice. Such sounds are beautiful or sub- 
 lime, only as they express passions or affections which excite our 
 sympathy." 
 
 Thus the sublimity and beauty of simple sounds arise 
 from those qualities with which they are connected, 
 and of which they are the signs of expression ; " and 
 no sounds in themselves are fitted, by the constitution 
 of our nature, to produce these emotions." 
 
 " Loud sound \s connected with the idea of power and danger. 
 . . . Low sound has a contrary expression, and is connected with 
 ideas of weakness, gentleness, and delicacy. . . . Grave sound is 
 connected with ideas of moderation, dignity, solemnity. . . . Acute 
 sound is expressive of pain or fear or surprise. Long' or length- 
 ened sound, and short and abrupt sound, increasing and decreasing 
 sound, impart, according to the meaning of the respective expres- 
 sion, additional effect to the first considered quality." 
 
 Alison next endeavors to apply these considerations 
 to compound sound, or music. 
 
 " Sounds are capable of being united by certain laws, and of 
 forming a whole. To such a composition of sounds, we give the 
 name of ' music,' — an art confessedly of great power in producing 
 emotions, both of sublimity and beauty, and the source of one of 
 the finest and purest pleasures. of which our nature is susceptible." 
 
 But Alison asserts that this pleasure music imparts 
 is to be looked for in the idea of association, that the 
 
Karnes, Hawkins, Burney, Alison, Crotch. 203 
 
 character of a composition is marked by the nature of ' 
 the key, and the nature of progress. 
 
 "The key or fundamental tone of every composition, from its 
 relation to the human voice, is naturally expressive to us of these 
 qualities or affections of mind which are signified by such sounds. 
 . . . The time of musical composition is also expressive of various 
 affecting or interesting qualities. In all ages quick time, or rapid 
 succession of sounds, has been appropriated to the expression of 
 mirth and gayety ; slow time, or a slow succession of sounds, to 
 the expression of melancholy or sadness. All passions or affec- 
 tions of any intermediate nature, between these extremes, may be 
 expressed by the different gradations of such movements." 
 
 Regarding the key or fundamental tone of a com- 
 position, Alison ascribes to every key the power of 
 expressing related characteristic emotions. And then 
 music, by means of the variety of related sounds, govr 
 erned by. the prevailing key .productive of a certain 
 emotion, acquires a greater variety of expression, indcr 
 pendent of the imitation of the passions expressed by 
 the human voice. Then, " musical expression is in 
 itself superior even to the expression of language ; and 
 were the passions or affections which it can express as 
 definite or particular as those which can be communi- 
 cated by words, it may well be doubted, whether there 
 is any composition of words which could so powerfully 
 affect us as such a composition of sounds." Vocal 
 music is therefore pronounced as not only "the most 
 expressive species of composition, but the only one 
 which affects the mind of uninstructed men." 
 
 When Alison endeavors to analyze absolute music 
 (instrumental compositions) his theory of association, 
 as to what it ought to express, becomes embarrassed. 
 " A song or an air leads us always to think of the sen- 
 timent," as expressed by the accompanying words, —^ 
 
204 Music in England. 
 
 "An overture or a concerto disposes us to think of the com- 
 poser. It is a work in which much invention, much judgment, and 
 much taste may be displayed." 
 
 The composer of such a work, however, is not the 
 only object that occupies the attention of the Hstener; 
 in addition to the above qualities of an instrumental 
 composition, there are to be considered the judgment, 
 the taste, the expression, of the performer. Even if 
 the expression of music is overlooked, the merits of the 
 composer and the performer are never forgotten. Alison 
 is of the opinion, that, whatever the criticism of a 
 piece of music may be, even when expressed by those 
 who are well acquainted with the principles of compo- 
 sition, it will be resultant of the idea of " some pleasing 
 and interesting association." 
 
 Alison places expression in music as its highest 
 quality. "Beauty or sublimity of music arises from 
 the qualities which it expresses, and not from the means 
 by which they are expressed." A true musical critic, 
 in order to get at the root of the aesthetic qualities 
 of a composition, will, above all, carefully examine the 
 means employed in the interest of the structural form 
 of such composition. Musical beauty is the result of 
 the means at the disposal of the composer, and not 
 that of some pleasing and interesting association. Some 
 of our present sestheticians and musical critics are still 
 partisans of Alison's principle of association.' 
 
 Our next step will again lead us to a work by a pro- 
 fessional musician, — " Substance of Several Courses of 
 Lectures on Music," by W. Crotch, Mus. D., London, 
 
 ' Although Alison's Essays were republished in New York in 1830, 1 have boen 
 unable to discover, in the expressions of American musical writers of that time, 
 whether any influence was exercised by the Scotch author. 
 
Kames, Hawkins, Burney, Alison, Crotch. 205 
 
 1831. In the chapter "On Musical Expression" the 
 author says, regarding the function and nature of music, 
 that, "in extolling the descriptive powers of our art, 
 many writers have exceeded the truth by making it capa- 
 ble of what it really cannot achieve. . . . The union of 
 poetry (making vocal music) has been one fruitful source 
 of these exaggerations. Praise due to poetry alone has 
 thus been bestowed on music. Let the poetry cease 
 altogether, or be in an unknown tongue ; and then see 
 whether music can build the walls of a city, or civilize 
 a savage nation. Music has been called the language 
 of nature, but it is a very improper language : it is all 
 adjective and no substantive. It may represent certain 
 qualities in objects, or raise similar affections in the 
 mind to what these objects raise; but it cannot deline- 
 ate the objects themselves. It conveys no image, it 
 cannot even discriminate very accurately between the 
 affections it does command. It may speak of some- 
 thing serene, joyous, wild, tender, grave, melancholy, 
 troubled, agitated, or pathetic ; but, without poetry lends 
 her aid, we remain ignorant of what that thing may 
 be." 
 
 The author, in illustration of the above opinion, ana- 
 lyzes some of the material the composer employs in the 
 forming of his work. He says, — 
 
 " Pain and pleasure are awakened by the use of minor and 
 major keys, of their appropriate concords and discords, and of 
 the chromatic and diatonic scale. The major key, resting mainly 
 upon major triads, is more a part of nature than the minor key, 
 which is therefore less agreeable : its minor third seems, like the 
 string which sounds it, to have been relaxed and depressed from 
 the more agreeable and natural major third. The chromatic scale, 
 composed of semitones, and abounding in discords containing 
 minor and extreme fiat and sharp intervals, approaches nearer the 
 
2o6 Music in England. 
 
 cries and bowlings of men or animals in distress, to the whistling 
 of the wind, and to other confused and indistinct noises, than the 
 diatonic scale, which contains fewer semitones and farther apart. 
 The major key, when unincumbered with chromatic passages, is a 
 great source of calm satisfaction to the mind : it causes serenity." 
 
 He thinks, however, that " much also depends upon 
 the manner of performing any passage. 
 
 " Clearness of harmony likewise conduces to serenity : the 
 attention is less fatigued than by what is complicated and unintel- 
 ligible. Symmetrical rhythm, in moderate time, also conduces to 
 the same effect. By increasing the velocity, joy and delight are 
 kindled. Long, accented notes, with short, unaccented ones fol- 
 lowing, convey the idea of firmness and majesty. Very slow notes 
 belong to sublimity, and very rapid ones to ornament. Broken 
 and varied measure is properly used for indecision. . . . The 
 poignancy of grief in the minor mode is much increased by the 
 agitated rhythm, rendering that confused, or mysteriously grand, 
 which in the uniform measure would only have been melancholy." 
 
 Though this seems to»be the natural reason for using 
 the major and minor keys, in order to portray psycho- 
 logical events, yet the author is compelled to own that 
 these keys are not always thus employed. The experi- 
 ence gained from the study of the works of the great 
 masters proves that in their larger compositions they 
 often set words in the minor key that seem to require 
 the major key, and vice versa. They were, no doubt, 
 led to this for the sake of the needful contrast. A num- 
 ber of successive pieces in one mode would have proved 
 fatiguing. The composer used his tone-material in the 
 sense the painter uses his colors, to produce symmetry, 
 harmony, and variety of contrasts ; though, in some cases, 
 tone-forms may be employed as symbols of occurrences 
 in nature. Such is that passage in Haydn's "Creation," 
 which intends to portray the sudden appearance of the 
 sun. 
 
Karnes, Hawkins, Burney, Alison, Crotch. 207 
 
 " Light, created suddenly, or gradually increasing, though only 
 perceptible by the sight, may be expressed in music, or, more cor- 
 rectly, the suddenness or graduation of some sort of increase ; for 
 light cannot be represented, much less the sun." 
 
 Dr. Crotch does not approve of those imitations, 
 even when indulged in by eminent composers, such as 
 frogs leaping, arrows flying, a rainbow, a lamp in a high 
 tower, the depths of the sea, the flight of an eagle, 
 great whales, crawling worms, tigers howling, the paces 
 of the stag and horse, flakes of snow, forked lightning, 
 a dog running over the fields, etc. In these cases he 
 finds that the composer has exceeded the true limits 
 of musical expression. However, the author concedes 
 that another species of musical imitation is occasionally 
 used with great success, — "the imitation of sounds, 
 whether those are unmusical, as the thunder, cannon, 
 birds, the roar or murmur of waters, the cries of dis- 
 tress or pain, the whistling of wind ; or those which are 
 musical, as the tolling or ringing of bells." But he 
 does not accept the idea of association which some 
 writers attach to the tone of certain instruments, find- 
 ing the flute and oboe to convey the impression of pasto- 
 ral life ; the trumpet, military ; the organ, the church. 
 The character of these three styles — the pastoral, the 
 military, and sacred — depends as much on the nature 
 (form) of the music as on that of the instrument. 
 
 " Musical expression is, then, more limited in its powers than 
 is perhaps generally imagined. Music cannot, like painting, seize 
 on a particular action, and represent, with minuteness, all its parts. 
 Like poetry, her imitation is very inferior to painting. Without 
 the aid of music, poetry is necessarily forced to waste many of her 
 richest ideas in attempting to raise the affections ; which, when 
 united to music, she finds raised already. Without the aid of 
 
2o8 Music in England. 
 
 poetry, music can awaken the affections by lier magic influence, 
 producing at her will, and that instantly, serenity, complacency, 
 pleasure, delight, ecstasy, melancholy, woe, pain, terror, and dis- 
 traction. And when poetry would speak of the thunder-storm, the 
 battle, the howl of pain, the warbling of birds, the roar of the winds 
 or wa,ves, the breath of zephyr or the murmuring stream, the sol- 
 emn curfew or the merry peal of bells, music can by her imitations 
 increase, almost infinitely, the enjoyment of the description.'' 
 
 These are the views of a thoroughly educated, prac- 
 tical musician, who, being well acquainted with the 
 master-works of all ages up to his time, was not in- 
 duced, by a sentimental fear that he might jeopardize 
 the position of music as an art, to assign his art powers 
 she has not the adequate means of clearly expressing. 
 The ideal functions of absolute music and accompanied 
 music, vocal music, are critically considered with the 
 help of personal experience and practice. 
 
 Dr. Crotch, in order to classify the different shades 
 of musical taste dictated by the divers manners in 
 which the emotions are affected, and operate upon the 
 mind, accepts three styles, — "the sublime, the beautiful, 
 and the ornamental." He says, in vindication of this 
 theory, that there are in music, as in the other arts,, 
 certain styles which are more or less valuable in propor- 
 tion to the mental labor employed in their formation.. 
 He is, especially in his aesthetic reasoning regarding the 
 different styles, under the influence of Sir Joshua Rey- 
 nolds. 
 
 The three styles are sometimes found distinct, though 
 seldom so, and sometimes combined. In the practice 
 of art, two, or even all three, are often blended for 
 higher aesthetic, artistic purposes ; and thus are formed 
 subordinate styles, expressing the most different shades 
 of emotional life. Dr. Crotch, in order to practically 
 
Karnes, Hawkins, Burney, Alison, Crotch. 209 
 
 illustrate his theory, analyzes the works of all schools, 
 the purely national, the folk-songs, as well as the pro- 
 ductions of the masters of composition. This is the 
 only true way to throw light on the difficult subject. 
 
 Here I close my review of the interesting subject 
 treated in the preceding three chapters. The tempta- 
 tion was great to incorporate with this portion of my 
 book the highly suggestive views regarding the origin 
 and function of music, as expressed by those great 
 thinkers, Herbert Spencer and Darwin; and also the 
 results of James Sully 's excellent aesthetic investiga- 
 tions, partly based on the above-mentioned philoso- 
 phers' ideas, and partly on those of eminent modern 
 German aestheticians and physicists. But this would 
 have drawn me too far away from my original plan; 
 viz., to consider the works of those writers on music 
 who exercised a decided influence on the former de- 
 velopment of English musical criticism. 
 
 All those authors mentioned in the preceding chap- 
 ters have, in general, only investigated a small portion 
 of musical art, — the nature of music, and its moral 
 effect upon the listener. They have all seemed to accept 
 as a fact, that music, being the vehicle of the expres- 
 sion of the inner life of mafi, ought to present to the 
 hearer something more than merfely cleverly arranged 
 musical forms^ But, by ignoring the aesthetic laws 
 that govern the different fornis,^ they seldom make 
 mention: of structural forms, -r- their reasonings fell 
 short of the proposed end, and rernained embedded in 
 a one-sided theory, inadequate to do justice to the sub- 
 ject. By the sole help of metaphysical analysis, they 
 endeavored to throw light on a complex art : they over- 
 looked the purely aesthetic side of musical forms, and 
 
2IO Music in England. 
 
 in many instances overrated the moral side or effect. 
 They all admitted, with more or less confidence, a 
 spiritual or ethical force lying above or beyond structu- 
 ral forms. To generalize and classify these forms was 
 not thought of by these English writers : this method 
 of judging the aesthetic qualities of a musical art-work 
 is, however, a modern one, and became of more general 
 importance when musical aesthetics began to form a 
 branch of general art philosophy. But the existence 
 of the science of musical aesthetics is of so recent a 
 date that many points in its formation are still in a 
 somewhat chaotic state. This new science is mostly 
 due to German philosophical investigation and thought. 
 
 All the above-mentioned English writers' remarks 
 regarding the nature of music have originated with 
 English methods of criticism and considerations of 
 taste, principally based on the old Greek writers. Ob- 
 serve, therefore, the long struggle experienced by those 
 writers in order to get rid of the Greek theory, which 
 considered music as an imitative art. 
 
 It, however, must be placed to the credit of these old 
 English writers on "taste," that they were so broad 
 minded as to incorporate the consideration of music 
 into their writings at all, long before German philoso- 
 phers took the trouble of giving any thought to the 
 raison d'itre of music as an art ; and many of their 
 remarks have not yet lost their justness of meaning 
 and fundamental truth. Their labors have been, in 
 many directions, fruitful in suggesting further reason- 
 ing and new thoughts. Some of those writers, such as 
 Beattie, had the good sense to rank music among the 
 fine arts, at a time when the majority of Englishmen 
 still looked upon it as a mere pastime to while away 
 
Karnes, Hawkins, Burney, Alison, Crotch. 211 
 
 an idle hour. The earnest considerations the above 
 writers devoted to music had also the result of raising 
 the art in the estimation of their countrymen. 
 
 German music has, in our days, almost completely 
 superseded Italian music in London. German aestbetic 
 views and criticism are assuming great importance in 
 the English journals that devote some space to musical 
 affairs. The works of prominent German writers on 
 musical biography, history, and aesthetics are trans- 
 lated and published in London. English musicians 
 are receiving more earnest encouragement, and exhibit 
 great activity and serious efforts, with regard to a 
 higher art-standard. We may expect that a new Eng- 
 lish school of music will, to all appearance, finally 
 emerge from our present transition period. 
 
MUSICAL EXAMPLES. 
 
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INDEX. 
 
 Adaptations, deteriorating influence of, 83, 
 124. 
 
 Addison, J. (" The Spectator"), 162. 
 
 Aldhelm, the Saxon bishoft, 17. 
 
 Alfred the Great, founds a musical prdessor- 
 ship at Oxford, 22. 
 
 Alison's " Essays on Taste," aox, 
 
 Avison, Ch., ''Essay on Musical Expres- 
 sion," 170.1 
 
 Ambrose, Saint, 87. 
 
 Anthem, the, 123. 
 
 Anus, 86. 
 
 Bach, 46, 
 
 Ballad, the, 10, zx. - ' 
 
 Bateson, Th., 40. 
 
 Batten, 62. 
 
 Batteux, 1S3. 
 
 Beattie's "Essay on Poetry and Music," 
 
 j86. 
 Bede, Z2. 
 Bennet, J., 40. 
 Bevin, Elway, 40. 
 Bgze, Theodore de, 105. 
 Bird, W., 5, 33, 35, 38, 4»- 
 Bird, W., reasons why every one should 
 
 learn to smg, 37. 
 Bird, W., variations on "The Carman's 
 
 Whistle," 36, 
 Blakesmit, 25. 
 Blow, Dr. John, 65, 68> 71. 
 Book of Common Prayer, 33, 
 Bourgeois, Louis, 107, 110. 
 Brown's Dissertation, 176.' 
 Bull, Dr. John, 39, 43. 
 Burke, on the Sublime and Beautiful, 191. 
 Bumey, 33, 37» 47; 53j ^9* i4«' 
 Bumey, theory of musical criticism, 198. 
 
 Calinn, 104. 
 
 Calvin, views on church-music, 109. 
 
 Calvin, on congregational singing, xzo, 
 
 Cambert, 55. 
 
 Cathedral service, 28, 35, 115. 
 
 Cartwright, 118. 
 
 Chant, 133. 
 
 Chappell, 16. 
 
 Charles I., 46, 64. 
 
 Charles II., 48, 55, 64. 
 
 Chaucer, ix. 
 
 Childs, 62. 
 
 Cooke (Capt,), 64, 67, 
 
 Congregational singing, 149. 
 
 Coperario, 47, 49. 
 
 Coussemaker, 23, 24. 
 
 Cranmer (Archbishop), XX4. 
 
 Cromwell, 48. 
 
 Crotch, Lectures on Music, 204. 
 
 Dance-tunes, 10,: 11. 
 
 Day's Psalter, 127. 
 
 Dei, J. F., 25. 
 
 Dowland, 40, 43, 56. 
 
 Dryden's deiimUon of the opera, 79. 
 
 Dunstable, 25. 
 
 Dygon, 26. 
 
 Elizabeth (Queen), 9, 28, 32, 42, 46, 117. 
 Erasmus, 28, 
 Este's Psalter, 128. 
 
 Estimation of the composers of the Eliza- 
 bethan epoch, 41. 
 
 Fairfax, 26. 
 
 Fallersleben, Hoffmann von, 14. 
 Fancies, fantasias, 56. 
 Farmer, 40. 
 
 229 
 
230 
 
 Index, 
 
 Farrant, 39. 
 
 Ferabosco, 50. 
 
 F^tis, 17. 
 
 First complete French psalter, xo6. 
 
 First metrical translation of the psalms 
 
 (French), 103, 
 Ford, 40. 
 Fomsete, 25. 
 Franc (LeFranc), 106. 
 Full service, 125. 
 
 Gabrieli, 42. 
 
 Gibbons, Ch., 68. 
 
 Gibbons, O., 40, 45, 48, 
 
 Gibbons, O., as an instrumental composer, 
 
 59- 
 Goudimel, no. 
 Grabut, 80. 
 Gregory the Great, 87. 
 Gregorian chant, xo, 12, 14, 19, 88, 146. 
 
 Handel, 46, 74. 
 Handio, 22. 
 Harp, 9. 
 
 Harris, three treatises, 179. 
 Hart's Scotch Psalter, 12S. 
 Haweis, Music and Morals, 4. 
 Hawkins, 27, 72, 197. 
 Henry VIII., 27, 28, 114. 
 Hickman's sermon, 140. 
 Hingston, 48, 68. 
 Humphrey, 64, 65, 70. 
 
 Instrumental music, 56, 160. 
 Italian influence, 52, 82. 
 
 Jambe-le-fer, no. 
 James I., 46, 49. 
 Jebb, Dr., X2i, 
 Jenkins, 59, 60, 
 Jeune, Claude le, xio. 
 John, XXII. (Pope), 90. 
 
 Karnes' " Elements of Criticism/' 194. 
 
 Lani&re, 47, 49. 
 Lassus, 34. 
 Lawes, H., 50, 62. 
 Lawes, W., 63, 67. 
 Le Boeuf, 14. 
 Lobwasser, zix. 
 
 Lock, M., 53, 58, 59, 62, 67. 
 
 Low state of English church-music, 136. 
 
 LuUy, 49, 55, 6s, 71, 8x. 
 
 Lupo, 50. 
 
 Luther, 98. 
 
 Madrigal, 20. 
 
 Maklebit, 25. 
 
 Malcolm's " Treatise on Music/' 164. 
 
 Marbeck, 19, 32, 35. 
 
 Marot, 104. 
 
 Masques, 49, 55. 
 
 Mass, 93. 
 
 Milton (the fa&er), 40. 
 
 Milton (the poet), 50. 
 
 Minstrels, 7. 
 
 Monteverde, 42, 50* 
 
 Morelot, 25. 
 
 Morley, 37, 38, 160, z6z. 
 
 Mundy, 28, 40, 
 
 National schools of music, 6, 14. 
 North, on iancies, 57. 
 North, on Jenkins, 61. 
 
 Odington, 22. 
 
 Organs in England, 13. 
 
 Origin of Protestant hymn-tunes, 99. 
 
 Falestrina, 33. 
 Fepys on Humphrey, 66. 
 Percy, 8. 
 Flayford, 47, X63. 
 Flayford's psalter, 130. 
 Purcell, H., 65, 70, 73. 
 Purcell, H., as an opera-composer, 78. 
 Purcell, H. (the father), 73, 
 Purcell, Th., 73, 
 
 Puritan opposition to the cathedralrservice, 
 47. 
 
 Ravenscroft^s psalter, 129. 
 Rogers, 62. 
 Rore, C!yprian de, 42. 
 Rousseau, J. J., 185. 
 
 Sacred and secular elements in music, 7, 
 
 20. 
 Scaldsi 8. 
 Shakspeare, 42. 
 Shepard, 26. 
 
Index. 
 
 231 
 
 Simpson, Ch., 56, 59, 158, x6x, 163. 
 Simpson, Ch., on fancies, 57. 
 Smith, Stafiford, x6. 
 Sonata, 60. 
 
 Song of the hattle of Agincourt, 25. 
 Stemhold and Hopkins, 127. 
 " Sumer is a cumen in,'* 22. 
 Sydenham's sermon, 132. 
 
 Tallis, 5, 33, 37, 41. 
 Temple, Sir William, 15S. 
 Tinctoris, 25. 
 Thomas, Archbishop, 13. 
 
 Thome, 26, 
 
 Trydell's Two Essays on Music, igo. 
 
 Tye, 5, 31. 
 
 Waller's Psalmody,, 137. 
 
 Walter, J., 32, gg. 
 
 Ward, 40. 
 
 Warton, 24. 
 
 Webb's " Poetry and Music," 181. 
 
 Weelkes, 40. 
 
 White, 3g, 56. 
 
 Wilbey, 40. 
 
 Wise, 64, 68.