FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/churchteOOcrow 937 THE ! w CHURCH CHOIRMASTER: A CRITICAL GUIDE MUSICAL ILLUSTRATION OF THE ORDER FOR DAILY PRAYER. BY JOHN CROWD Y. LONDON: RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO-PLACE ; NOVELLO AND CO., G9, DEAN-STREET, SOHO. Oxford: RmxcToxs, High-street. Cambridge: Rivingtons, Trinity-street. 1864. LONDON: PRINTED BY W. ODHAMS, 5, BURLEIGH-STREET. The following short treatise on the Musical Illustration of the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer of the English Church is a reprint, with altera- tions and additions, of a series of papers contributed to the Musical Standard. Communications for the Author may be addressed to the care of either of the Publishers. INDEX. Absolution, The ... Ambrosian Te Deum Amens Anglican Chant, its Failure „ „ its Proper Use Anthems Antiphonal Chanting Antithesis, Verbal and Musical ... " Audible Voice," In an ... PAGE 20 63 17, 21, 22, 75 36 86 87 32 33 22 Beecher, Henry Ward, on Intoning Benedicite, The Benedictus, The Boy Choristers, Voices of 11 64 65 25 Cantate Domino, The Canticles, The Chanting „ a New Form of Chants, Double „ Anglican „ Gregorian Chant-Form, History of the Chanting Hymns Chant Services Choral Services classified Collects, The 68, 102 59 27 55, 101 81 36, 86 28, 37 44 84 63 90 75 INDEX. Confession, The ... Congregational Rights „ Singing Creed, The Apostles' „ „ Athanasian PAGE 13 21, 64, 68 77 69 71 Bens Misereatur, The Discipline, Choral Double Chants ... Drawling 68 20, 82, 83 31 78, 79 Ecclesiastical Seasons, Provision for Illustrating English Prose, Peculiarities of ... Entries, Orchestral ... Entry of the Organ Exhortation, The ... ... Ferial Service, A Festal ,, „ Flat, Getting 98 99 14 Getting Flat, Remedy for Gloria Patri, The Gregorian Chants Grouping Verses ... Harmony, Reservation of Ilelmore's " Plain Song" ... „ " Psalter Noted " High Church Musical Predilectious Hymnals, Musical Hymns „ Chanting „ before the Order for Morning or Evening Pray< 15 25 28, 37 106 15 15 28 30 86 77 84 INDEX. iii PAGE Hymn-Tune Notation 77, 79 Ictus Metricus 35 Interludes 83 Intoning necessary to a Musical Service 6 „ its Devotional Propriety 7 " Jackson in F " ... ... 63 Jubilant Music 68 Jubilate, The 65 Kyrie Eleison, The Lessons, Reading the „ Intoning the " Light Music " Lord's Prayer, The "Loud Voice," With a ... Magnificat, The ... Manuals of Pointing Monotonic Recitation Nunc Dimittis, The Octave Passages for Voices Opening Sentences, The ... „ Voluntary „ Organ, Entry of Organ Voluntary Parallelism in the Psalms * Pointing" impossible ... „ Syllabic „ Manuals of ... 6 59 68, 88 21, 75 22 67 35 52 68 26 5 4 23 4 33 34 28 36, 39 INDEX. PAGE Psalms, The 39 " Pointing," Devices for 35 Psalms, Devotional use of the ... 47 „ Musical Treatment of the 29, 52 Psalters, Pointed 35 Recitation, New Form of 101 „ Directions for 19 „ Monotonic 52 Reservation of Harmony 15 Revival, the Gregorian ... 28 Scheme of Choral Services 94, 98 Sentences, The Opening 5 "Services" 59, GO Single Anglican Chant, The IOC, Stops to be observed in Recitation 19 Taste, Individual 88 Te Deum, The 39, 59 Theological Music 29 Unison, or Octave, Passages 2G Unison Singing ... ... 91, 97 Venite, The 57 Verse Parts in " Services " 63 Versicles, The 75 Voluntary, Opening 4 „ Closing 97 THE CHURCH CHOIRMASTER ON THE MUSICAL ILLUSTRATION OF THE ORDER FOR DAILY PRAYER. In discussing and deciding upon any point re- lating to the employment of music in conjunction with words, it must be considered an inexorable canon of taste that the music used should be, if possible, such as shall tend to develop, and under no circumstances such as shall tend to obscure, the meaning of the words to which it may be set. This rule, which, in musical compositions joined to secular words, is a first condition of artistic excellence, is, in music set to sacred words, a demand enforced also by religious reverence. No consideration of mere pleasantness should be allowed to weigh, in matters affecting religious music, against the consideration of devotional fit- ness. The words are prescribed; the business of the church musician is to employ music so as to make the pleasure to the ear which lies at the command of his art a means of bringing home to the worshipper the force and meaning B 2 THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE. of the formularies. In the following remarks, therefore, the first consideration, if not the only one, in discussing different methods of dealing musically wkh the- Church- Service, will be the fitness or unfitness of the musical treatment to ex- press the true significance of the several forms of words which constitute the sacred office. As compared with the importance which attaches to devotional fitness, no great weight ought, in my opinion, to be given to tradition, precedent, or custom. The progress made in music of late years has been so great that it cannot be considered pre- sumptuous to reconsider any point in the light of modern knowledge, irrespective of what may have been ancient practice. Custom, of course, has its legitimate weight. If, for instance, the abstract reasons for and against a particular practice be equal, it will be prudent to let custom turn the balance. But bad practices so easily grow up, and customs are so often merely the results of unthink- ing acquiescence, that the ever-ready allegation, "It always has been so," should never be taken, by the inquirer after truth, as a plea in bar of apply- ing to a practice the test of principle. In the first suggestion which I have to submit for consideration will be found an instance of my con- THE EXHORTATION. O elusions being at variance with general practice. The point I allude to is the treatment in a choral service of the Exhortation, which form of words comes at the beginning of the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer, and which it is the custom, in churches where the service is choral, for the officiat- ing minister to enunciate in monotone. Now, the Exhortation is no part of the service, properly so called ; but is an introductory address made by the minister to the assembled people, setting forth the reasons for their joining in the office which is about to commence. If the terms of this exhor- tation were left to the discretion of the minister, as in the case of a sermon — which is only a longer and more general exhortation — no minister would think of putting his remarks into monotone, any more than he would of putting his sermon into monotone. Long familiarity with the language of the Prayer-book, it is to be feared, has made both priest and people insensible to the significance of this introduction to the service ; or it would scarcely be felt fitting to recite it musically. Its true nature being a short preliminary sermon, it should be spoken to the congregation, in the same manner as the sermon which, in a subsequent part of the service, is delivered from the pulpit. This, moreover, would give a peculiar solemnity to the Confession, as the occasion of the first notes of vocal music heard in the service. b2 4 THE OPENING VOLUNTARY. The treatment of the Exhortation in a musical service having thus been defined, it will be con- venient to revert to a few points which really come before it in order, and, first of all, to the Organ Voluntary. Organ music is so wide a field that to lay down principles for selecting a Voluntary is almost to undertake an exposition of the principles of music in general. One thing, however, seems clear: the commencing Voluntary should be quiet and undemonstrative, calm and passionless, not active or joyous; in view of the fact that it is a musical introduction to be immediately followed by humble confession and prayer, and only remotely to be followed by either the general praise which finds a place in every day's service, or the more special praise which may presently be embodied in an anthem appropriate to the character of the day. The Order for Common Prayer is an office with a logical development, as will be shown hereafter ; and that development should not be anticipated in the opening Voluntary. Every day's prayers begin in the same form ; it is at a much later period of the service that the special character of the day is defined — namely, at the first collect. In connection with this point something may properly be said respecting a custom which, years ago, was common enough, but is less so now — the singing of a hymn before the commencement of the THE OPENING SENTENCES. O service. This practice is entirely opposed to the logical sequence of the various parts of the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer, in which Con- fession takes the first place, Absolution the next, then Prayer, and, fourthly, Praise. To sing a hymn the first thing is to mar the design of the sacred office, and, in particular, to stultify the significance of the Exhortation. This practice used to be a common one in services which would be called Low Church ; of late years it has been affected chiefly by the High Church clergy. The only reason it is done is, in my opinion, because it is pretty. In the eyes of a man who looks beyond the next line in his Prayer-book, and sees the office as a whole, it is a deformity. Immediately after the Voluntary which usually precedes a choral service, the minister commences to enunciate the Opening Sentences. These are short passages of Scripture, some of which are decla- ratory, one or two hortatory, and a few, if taken in their verbal meaning, intercessory. It would appear, however, that they are prescribed in this place not as language for the direct use of the worshipper, but as a Scriptural basis for the Exhortation which immediately follows : they are, in fact, some of the " sundry places " in which " the Scripture moveth us to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins O THE LESSONS. and wickedness." It is not intended, for instance, that the reading of the sentence, " Hide Thy face from my sins," should be a definite offering up of prayer ; for, if so, where is the significance of the exhortation to prayer which immediately follows? These introductory sentences are rather to be looked upon in the light of short Lessons, or, as the word literally means, "readings;" and, if they be so, the same treatment is proper for them as for the longer "Lessons" — the chapters from the Bible which come at a later part of the service. The Lessons are now almost (if not quite) universally read in the natural voice ; and it appears to me that these Sen- tences should be preached, not monotoned, the use of the monotone being reserved for those forms of words in which the minister, either with or without the congregation, addresses God. The service, as a form of prayer, begins at the Confession. Before proceeding to consider further the various methods of musically treating the forms of words which constitute the Order for daily prayer, I would take the opportunity of observing that no musical service can be worthily so called, or is even tolerable, in which the minister's part is not musically rendered as well as that of the people. Without intonation by the priest there can be no artistic unity in the service; the chain which links THE PRIESTS PART. 7 the whole together is absent, and the office becomes, musically, a thing of shreds and patches. Unless the priest intones, no parts of the service should be musically rendered except those in which he has no share. The sound of a minister leading in an un- musical voice, and a choir following in music, is ignoble and vexing to the ear of any worshipper whose devotion could be supposed to be stimulated by music. As regards the devotional propriety of intoning addresses to God, few, I imagine, of those who are capable of entering into a musical service at all will question it. The practice has, however, been fre- quently attacked : it is not long ago that a clergy- man* publicly defined it as ' ; a device of Satan to divert the soul from the meaning and real object of the prayers by amusing it with sound instead of sense;" and fortified his objection to it by asking whether if suddenly placed in the Divine presence any man would make use of a musical prayer. Such an objection to intoning prayer proceeds from two misapprehensions; the one theological, the other artistic. The theological mistake is an incorrect apprecia- tion of the position of a minister of the English * JJey. J. W- Brooks, of Nottingham, in a local paper. 8 MUSICAL PRAYER. Church when performing divine service. The very word minister, which is applied to the officiating priest in the Prayer-book, implies that in offering up prayer to God in church the priest is acting not for himself, but as the representative — the "minister" at the court of God — of an assembled congregation. This being so, it is not to be assumed that, in going through the Church Service, the priest is performing an act at all identical with private prayer. The priest has no right, in reading the service, to express his own private and special emotions and desires ; his office is not to preach the prayers, but to offer them to God in a reverent and undemonstrative manner, as the embodiment of the voice of the congregation. The individual feeling of the priest has no more right to intrude itself than has that of any member of the laity present. Now, intoning is a most effectual means of curbing the expression of private emotion by the minister ; it absolutely prevents any individual colouring being given to the aggregate act of worship, and it has therefore a distinct theological value. There must be, however, an equally decided artistic misapprehension in the mind of any man who can suppose intoning to be "a device of Satan to amuse the soul with sound instead of sense." No person with a capacity for taking in musical expression could ever imagine that reading upon an almost INTONING PRAYER. 9 unvaried monotone could have a diverting effect. A monotone is about as attracting or distracting to the ear as a straight line or a dead level would be to the eye : there is nothing in it to excite attention ; it is colourless. It takes two notes to make any musical expression at all, and a great many more than two to make a musical expression of sufficient definiteness to be capable of attracting or distract- ing. Of course it would be foolish to deny that to people entirely unaccustomed to music a recitation in monotone may, at first hearing, seem odd. But to suppose that there is diversion in a monotone is, to those who are capable of appreciating musical sound, a joke. Criticisms of the kind I am considering are in truth reflections of a man's own personal inability to enter into musical expression. Such objectors should remember that if they cannot appreciate the use of music in worship themselves, there is a large and growing majority to whose public devotions musical prayers are no hindrance, but, on the con- trary, a great assistance. There are people who, when the swelling chords of the versicles are chanted by the choir, can implore God to grant them His salvation, to mercifully hear them when they call upon Him, and to take not His Holy Spirit from them, — not only without being distracted by the sounds, but in a more heartfelt manner than they 10 UNMUSICAL CHRISTIANS. could were the prayers to be preached even by Bellew himself. It would be easy, in truth, to retort upon those who object to musical prayers by asking whether it is not at least equally distracting to the reverent worshipper whom God has endowed with an ear for music, to have the prayers declaimed in that unnatural and demonstrative manner which prevails for the most part in churches where music is not admitted. Even in these cases the minister inevitably falls into a form of intonation — a kind of conventional sing-song : the difference being that in a musical service the form of intonation is defined and pleasant, in the non-musical service it is inde- finite and unpleasant. I can readily grant that there are many to whom music is a strange language. Its power, like the flux of the glass-stainer, to liquefy and carry with it deep into the soul the colours of religious emotion ; its power to fuse the words of our liturgy in the mind of the worshipper into a glowing act of joyous adoration ; its power to raise the heart to heaven, borne up on a stream of song, but hardly heeding its presence ; its capability of being used without dis- tracting the thoughts any more than the spontaneous act of breathing prevents the concentration of the mind of the minister upon his own portion of the sacred office ; — all these things are unintelligible to many on account of a deficiency in their physical HENRY WARD BEECHER ON INTONING. 1 I organisation. In order, however, that such persons may be convinced, not that they are wrong in rejecting music for their own use, but how entirely they differ from others in capacity to use it, I will quote what an eminent American preacher, — a man, as will be seen by the extract, entirely free from any prepossession on the subject, — has said in describing the choral service of the Church of England. Henry Ward Beecher, the famous preacher of New York, it seems had never heard a choral service till he came to England. In his own chapel, doubtless, it was the practice to sing hymns ; in England, however, he heard not only hymns sung, but prayers intoned. He says — " I am so ignorant of the Church Service that I " cannot call the various parts by their right names ; " but the portions which most affected me were the " prayers and responses which the choir sang. I *' had never heard any part of a supplication — a " direct prayer, chanted by a choir ; and it seemed " as though I heard not with my ear, but with my " soul. I was dissolved — my whole being seemed "to me like an incense wafted gratefully toward " God. The Divine presence rose before me in " wondrous majesty, but of ineffable gentleness and " goodness, and I could not stay away from more " familiar approach, but seemed irresistibly, yet " gently, drawn toward God. My soul, then thou 12 HENRY WARD BEECHER ON INTONING. " didst magnify the Lord, and rejoice in the God of "thy salvation! And then came to my mind the "many exultations of the Psalms of David, and " never before were the expressions and figures so "noble and so necessary to express what I felt. I " had risen, it seemed to me, so high as to be where " David was when his soul conceived the things " which he wrote. Throughout the service, and it was "an hour and a quarter long, whenever an 'Amen' " occurred it was given by the choir, accompanied "by the organ and the congregation. Oh! that swell "and solemn cadence rings in my ear yet! Not "once, not a single time did it occur in that service "from beginning to end, without bringing tears " from my eyes. I stood like a shrub in a spring " morning — every leaf covered with dew- — and " every breeze shook down some drops. I trembled " so much at times, that I was obliged to sit down. " Oh! when in the prayers — breathed forth in strains " of sweet, simple, solemn music — the love of " Christ was recognised, how I longed then to give " utterance to what that love seemed to me! There "was a moment in which the heavens seemed " opened to me, and I saw the glory of God! All " the earth seemed to me a storehouse of images, " made to set forth the Redeemer, and I could " scarcely be still from crying out. I never knew, I " never dreamed before, of what heart there was in " that word A men. Every time it swelled forth THE CONFESSION. 13 "and died away solemnly, not my lips, not my " mind, but my whole being said — Saviour, so let it " be. I cannot tell how much I was affected. I " had never had such a trance of worship, and I " shall never have such another view until I gain « The Gate." Such is the testimonial of a man who had " never heard a prayer chanted " to the devotional value of musical supplication. The natural speaking voice having been used by the minister in the Sentences and the Exhortation, musical recitation will first appear at the Confession, in which form of words the minister and people first address the Deity, and with which, speaking strictly, Morning or Evening Prayer commences. There are several existing ways of musically treat- ing the Confession. All are simple, as it is imperative they should be, since every person in the congrega- tion is bound to join in confessing his sins. In some churches (1) the minister recites in monotone, and is followed closely by the choir in each sentence after he has uttered its first few words; in others (2) the minister is allowed to complete each sen- tence, which the choir then repeat ; in some (3) a monotone is sustained throughout by all the choir in unison ; in others (4) one. two, or (5) all of the 14 GETTING FLAT. sentences, as well as the Amen, are harmonised, either with or without deviation from the monotone in the treble part. Taking now the above five methods of reciting the Confession in their order, let us consider the reasons for or against each. As regards choice between Nos. 1 and 2, both appear to fulfil the direction contained in the last words of the Ex- hortation — "saying after me." But it is to be noted, as a matter of practice, that a choir will more easily be kept from getting flat in the reci- tation if No. 2 is adopted, than it will with No. 1. And this is an important consideration. Not one church choir in ten gets through the recitation of the Confession, its very first task, faultlessly. A gradual and painful flattening, to the extent of a whole tone or more of difference between the pitch at the end and that at the commencement — the descent being rendered still more painful by the vain endeavours of some of the voices to keep up the rest — is one of the commonest pieces of musical torture to which a worshipper at choral services is subjected. Careful and constant training will of course conquer this difficulty ; but in the large numbers of church choirs where very frequent practice cannot be had, relief will generally follow, with but little trouble, from the adoption of method No. 2 instead of No. 1. The best way of teaching RESERVATION OF HARMONY. 15 toys not to get flat in monotonic recitation is to practice them constantly in reciting to a sustained note on the organ, not loud enough for them to hear except at the end of each sentence. Method No. 3 is that adopted in Helmore's "Manual of Plain Song;" and the object of ex- cluding harmony altogether from the Confession is, I imagine, to give a peculiar significance to its first introduction at the response, "And our mouth shall show forth Thy praise/' Whether there is sufficient to be said in favour of the devotional fitness of this idea is a question. If harmony is to be reserved at all, it seems to me more fitting either that it should appear immediately after the Absolution, at the point where the people are considered to be. relieved from the oppressive sense of their sins — that is to say, at the Lord's Prayer, — or that it should be reserved still longer, so as to appear first at the point where the people rise from their knees and assume the attitude, and utter the words, of praise — that is to say, at the Gloria Patri. The words of the response at which harmony is first introduced by Helmore, "And our mouth shall show forth Thy praise," are not of a decidedly jubilant character; they are but the ex- pression of a desire or promise to praise; and the Tersicles which immediately follow — "0 God, make 16 RESERVATION OF HARMONY. speed to save us;" u O Lord, make haste to help us," are prayers of people in distress. The congre- gation rise, and praise commences, at the Gloria Patri; and, if harmony is to be reserved, it would be more fitting to reserve it for marking the com- mencement of praise. It may be questioned, certainly, whether there is any great propriety in reserving harmony at all. The absence of harmony doubtless produces a jejune effect which is not inconsistent with the expression of penitence ; but it would be equally consistent with a true artistic treatment of this part of the church service that the transition from penitence to praise, from kneeling to standing, should be marked by a change in the character of the harmony, not by the introduction of harmony for the first time. Without, therefore, prescribing or condemning the introduction of harmony into the service at the outset, let us pass on to consider the rest of the above-named methods of reciting the Confession, the differences between which are in the use they make of harmony. No. 4, in which one or two sentences are brought out into relief, by being made the subject of isolated chords, preceded and followed by unisonous monotonic recitation, is artistically objectionable. To harmonise one or two sentences out of ten or twelve is to give the one or two a musical prominence over the rest, which, in this HARMONY BY STARTS. IT case, does not appear to be called for. It is im- possible to believe that this usage arises out of any thoughtful design calculated to enhance the signi- ficance of the words. An apology sometimes made for it is that it enables the voices to find their bear- ings, and defines the key. But this is a totally inadequate reason for the adoption of a practice which violates devotional fitness, and of which, to say the least, the effect is incongruous. No such objection applies, however, to harmonising the Amen, which is a distinct and emphatic word, solemnly reaffirming what has just been recited, and, as such, may properly be "picked out" with the colour afforded by harmony. The Confession, in fact — unless harmony be excluded till the con- gregation rise to their feet — should either be recited in monotone, with a harmonised Amen, or be harmonised throughout. The latter alternative is adopted in that method (No. o above) which is known as the " Leeds use," and which consists of the repetition, at the penultimate of each sentence, of an inferior semitonic inflection in the treble part, harmonised by the other voices. I do not think this use possesses much dignity ; nor that it is specially expressive of the devotional feeling proper to the form of words : to my mind it is a little puerile. Supposing it decided not to reserve harmony, there is a question between (at least) two ways of c 18 THE AMEN. harmonising the Amen. One ordinary method is monotonic in the treble part, with the chord of the subdominant to the first syllable, and of the tonic to the second. This is about equally prevalent with another method, in which the trebles sing the first syllable to the leading seventh of the reciting note, and the second syllable to the reciting note itself. The first method is certainly consistent in its musical expression with a feeling of humble penitence ; the second I have read described as being expressive of assent. I am disposed to consider that, though it is not to be held that musical language is so definite as to justify us in saying that the first actually ex- presses humility, and that the second is actually indi- cative of assent, yet the first is more consistent with the expression of humble penitence than the second. The first, therefore, seems preferable in this place. Taking, however, all things into consideration, I think we shall be making the best of our musical resources, and doing most to enhance by music the significance of the office of Daily Prayer, if we employ no harmony in the Confession at all, re- serving its first introduction (an effect by no means to be thrown away) for a later point. Before passing on to another portion of the service, I will here take an opportunity of making CHORAL RECITATION. 19 a few remarks on Choral Recitation. It is a very common fault with choirs to take no pains with such portions of the service as the Confession or Creed, even when the anthem, the hymn, or even the chant, get the most careful attention. No one, of course, will deliberately say that this is excus- able; nevertheless, in practice, few choirmasters are found who insist upon careful recitation. As a rule, those portions of the service which are recited in monotone are taken too fast ; that is to say, faster than is compatible with distinctness. Many clergy- men and organists, who are content to prolong the duration of the service very considerably by the use of an elaborate anthem or setting of the canticles, grow impatient, and begin to talk of the evils of " dragging," when a sufficient slowness to ensure distinct enunciation is insisted upon in reciting the Creed, Confession, or Lord's Prayer. In many choirs these parts of the service are literally gabbled : if the minister were to read the prayers at an equal pace, and with equal indistinctness, half the congregation would leave the church in disgust. At the same time, it has a bad effect to recite more slowly than necessary. The right pace is that which is only just slow enough to ensure distinctness. Stops should be carefully kept, so that wherever even a comma occurs (with certain easily-perceived exceptions) there shall be a momentary, but com- plete, cessation of sound. The effect produced by c2 20 THE ABSOLUTION. this is especially good where there is a large body of voices; and it has a considerable tendency to keep the choir together. Let it be always re- collected that recitation is not singing, and that in recitation no syllable should be sustained ; parti- cularly should the habit be avoided of drawling out the last syllable of each sentence. Let the words be pronounced sharply and decisively. There is no fear of over-distinctness. What sounds positively abrupt in the chancel will be no more than distinct in the nave. There is an indescribable charm about a multitudinous recitation, if it be simultaneous, deliberate, and distinct ; but if it want unity and sharpness, or be hurried, it becomes simply a sound to make the hearer uncomfortable. The choir should not run after each other like a street mob, but should march together, with a prompt and yet a steady tread, like a well-trained company of in- fantry. There is nothing more contemptible than a disorderly crowd, running hither and thither; no spectacle more noble than the sight of a host of men marching forward in a disciplined and united mass. In order to decide upon the musical treatment of the Absolution, it is hardly necessary to do more than define its rhetorical import. The Absolution of the English Order for Morning and Evening Prayer is a solemn and authoritative declaration by the minister THE LORDS PRAilu. 21 that Almighty God "pardoneth and absolveth all those that truly repent and unfeignedly believe His Holy Gospel." It is a sacred proclamation for the information and comfort of the assembled congrega- tion, who remain upon their knees, while the minister rises to deliver it. While there can be no more fitting musical vehicle for the delivery of this form of words than a monotone, its significance is certainly enhanced by the practice which is pursued at many churches of raising the pitch of the voice one tone at its commencement. The minister should also be especially careful to adopt a distinct and emphatic delivery of the words. The same Amen may properly be sung by the choir as used after the Confession, but of course at the new pitch. As regards the exact method of musically dealing with the Lord's Prayer, if harmony be reserved for introduction at the transition in the service from prayer to praise, of course there can be no reason- able choice but a monotonic recitation, including the Amen. There exist, in the Mechlin Gradual and elsewhere, unison settings of the Lord's Prayer which are not monotonic; but the claims of the congregation to join in the prayer, at least on this occasion, appear to me so peremptory that no method except monotonic recitation is properly allowable. If harmony has been already admitted, the observa- 22 tions made as to the treatment of the Confession under similar circumstances will apply here also. Do not let chords break out irregularly and unmean- ingly at the last sentence, " For ever and ever," for the mere sake of feeling for the key. Recite on plainly to the end of the words " ever aoid ever ;" and, after such a short but complete cessation of all sound as shall be consistent with the full stop in the sense, let the harmonised Amen follow, using the monotonic form already described. For the Amen at the end of the Lord's Prayer is not an expression of the people's assent to a prayer which the minister has offered, but a solemn summary of the w r hole of its petitions in one reaffirming word, "Amen" — so may it be. It is customary in many churches at the Lord's Prayer to lower the pitch of recitation ; to take, for instance, G natural as the reciting note for the Abso- lution, and E natural for the Lord's Prayer. In judging of the propriety of any change of pitch at this point, it ought to be remembered that, by the rubric, the Lord's Prayer is especially directed to be said, at this place, " in an audible voice ;" and in two other rubrics in the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer the direction is, "with a loud voice." In this instance it is probable that "audible" means "loud;" and, if it be so, it may be questioned whether a fall in the recitation ENTRY OF THE ORGAN. 23 note to E natural will be conducive to a proper obedience to the rubric. I am inclined to think, on the whole, that a change of pitch at this place is not desirable. We reach now a point at which, in most musical services, the organ makes its entry. Students and composers of music will understand me when I say that the first entiy, or the re-entry after a long absence from the score, of a particular instrument, voice, or section of the choir or orchestra, carries with it an effect which is capable of being turned to much purpose. Who does not know the beauty produced in a well-balanced and carefully designed orchestral piece when, after (say) an opening by the quiet and unpretending strings, the composer brings upon the stage the grotesque bassoon, the quaintly plaintive hautboy, and the querulous clarionette? And when these, in their turn, have marched past, leaving us again to our more constant and less eccentric companions the stringed instruments, what an effect is presently pro- duced by the summons to the front of the hitherto unheard horns and trumpets, a hurried recall of the dismissed company of " wood," the opening of opera- tions by the percussion instruments, and the united rush of all the glorious band in an impetuous full finale I 24 ENTRY OF HARMONY. In church music, from which at present custom excludes the orchestra, we have not all these resources of musical entry and exit, but we have two opportunities of the kind — the first introduction of vocal harmony, and the first entry of the organ. I have already stated that it did not appear to me, from a careful study of the construction and signi- ficance of this part of the Prayer-book, that the opportunity selected in most choral services for the first introduction of vocal harmony — that is, at the response, "And our mouth shall show forth Thy praise" — was well chosen. For the same reason, it appears to me that the entry of the organ commonly made by sounding a note before the minister's ver- sicle, " O Lord, open Thou our lips," is not entirely well placed. It has been already pointed out that the definite transition from prayer to praise in the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer takes place after these versicles, where the rubric runs — " Here, all standing up, the priest shall say, ' Glory be to the Father,' &c." This point, I would submit for consideration, would be the most fitting place for the entry of the organ, and, unless vocal harmonies have been used from the first, of full vocal harmony. The treatment of the versicles, if harmony is reserved till the Gloria Patri, must therefore be unisonous. I do not know, however, that there is any special reason why it should also be monotonic. THE GLOEIA PATRI. 25 The congregation has now passed out of the stage of humble penitence, and is preparing to engage in praise ; the music may very properly now begin to move away from a monotone. At the same time I see no peculiar fitness in that solemn fall of a fifth (say from G to C) which usually occurs in choral services at this point. The effect is much too great for the occasion. As I have already remarked, the words " O Lord, open Thou our lips," demand no emphatic change. The fall from G to C moreover (and it is sometimes from F to B flat) very often brings minister and choir to an unpleasantly low note, the voices of boy choristers, especially, being very often of a most disagreeable quality at this low pitch. It appears to me, therefore, both uncalled for and inconvenient to make this solemn descent at a point so little significant. At the Gloria Patri, as has more than once been noticed, occurs the transition from prayer to praise ; and here accordingly I propose that the organ shall make its entry, and unisonous recitation give place to full vocal harmony. A few joyous chords of preparation from the organ while the people rise to their feet would be both significant and convenient — significant as a signal for the outburst of praise, and convenient as a guide to the pitch of the voice of the minister, whose enunciation of the first half of the Gloria Patri should be followed by the singing 26 UNISON. of the second half in full vocal harmony, the organ accompanying. In a similar way would be treated the invitation " Praise ye the Lord," and the re- sponse "The Lord's name be praised." This latter it is customary in many choral services to sing in unison. The effect supposed to be gained by this is an expression of heartiness. I never could detect, however, that the result was at all corresponding to the intention. Unless a chorus is of overwhelming power, an octave passage has but an insignificant effect; it sounds in fact much thinner, and much less robust than the enunciation by the same voices -of a passage in four parts. Octave passages for voices have their own special effect, but it is a mis- take to think that that effect is to convey the idea of a crushing unanimity, unless the chorus is one of very considerable proportions. ON CHANTING. The one peculiar feature of church music is chanting. It is on this subject too, chiefly, that church musical parties differ; not in opinion — for very little thought has ever been expended on the matter — but in practice. The great Oxford Church movement roused men's attention to ecclesiastical music amongst other branches of ecclesiology ; and when, a quarter of a century or more ago, Gothic architecture all at once found itself a popular study at Oxford, and undergraduates suddenly took up with a taste for travelling about rubbing brasses, those young men of the High Church party who were of a musical turn (not to say some who were not but fancied they were) took up with square notes and four-line staves. Those who may chance to have heard daily service performed in a little lancetted church in the clayey village of Littlemore, near Oxford, about the year 1846, can realise, as perhaps no other persons can, how grotesque were the first attempts at a revival in ecclesiastical chant- ing. In this chapel about that time, once or twice every day, might have been heard the church service performed chorally by two clergymen and a body of schoolboy choristers, in the presence of a dozen or 28 THE GREGORIAN REVIVAL. so of worshippers. The Psalms were chanted by the clergymen, to whom nature had denied the gift of good voices, and by choristers with a strong pro- vincial twang in their pronunciation, to Gregorian chants, with syllabic pointing. I was a boy when I chanced to hear one of these services ; and though, as may be easily believed, my ear for musical rhythm could not have been very acute, or my brain very keenly alive to such delicate matters as emphasis and accent, I never think of that chant- ing to this day without experiencing a feeling which is something between an inclination to laugh and an inclination to shudder. The murder there and then done on the English language, the torture to which the words of the Psalms were put, impressed such an unpleasantly vivid ear-picture upon my boyish brain that twenty years have not effaced it. Such was the first crude form of the High Church revival as applied to ecclesiastical chanting. Such a sacrifice of religious art at the shrine of archaeology did not of course last long ; the resusci- tation of Gregorian chants was accepted ; but even the mediaeval madness of that day was not sufficient to block up men's ears to the egregious absurdity of syllabic pointing. Gregorians were eventually adapted to the words of the Psalms by Mr. Helmore, with so much judgment and taste, combined with the necessary antiquarianism, that his book at once THE GREGORIAN REVIVAL. 29 took its place as the standard Psalter of revived Church Music, and syllabic pointing died in its infancy, as it deserved. Mr. Helmore's labours, however, though tasteful and judicious, were not so much inspired by the spirit of art as inflated by the dusty ghost of antiquarianism. The demand of the day was for the antique ; not for the good, except in so far that it was thought, or rather thoughtlessly assumed, that the antique and the good were synony- mous. Mr. Helmore supplied the article required, and it was eagerly accepted. But it was not musicians who took up Gregorian Chants. That many real musicians fell in with the demand for them is true ; it is also true that many ecclesiological amateurs made themselves musicians, and brought with them into the ranks of the pro- fession their quasi-theological admiration for the newly-revived system of chanting; but musicians, as such, did not accept the revival. To this day, I believe it may safely be said, not a note of Gregorian Chanting has ever been heard in any one of our cathedrals. Its revival was a fancy, having no founda- tion in principles of art ; it has not therefore travelled beyond the limits of the particular theological school with which it originated. The musical treatment of the Psalms in fact may be said to be regulated in the English Church by the theological bias which rules in each particular parish, very few, if any, of those SO THE GREGORIAN REVIVAL. concerned in the regulation of the music, taking the essential difference between a Gregorian and an Anglican Chant into account in their adoption of a style of Chanting. It is with a conviction that this is an unhealthy state of things, and that it is time modern art- thought should take the subject in hand for con- sideration irrespective of anything but art-truth, that I propose to examine the existing systems of ecclesiastical recitation. If I were asked to make a statement of my theological views I should probably make one which would approach very closely to what is held by the High Church party of the Church of England ; but for the musical fancies of that party I have no sympathy. The course they have taken with respect to ecclesiastical music I hold to be that of sentimental girls rather than that of knowing and thinking men. Perhaps it was natural at the outset of the Church revival to dish up Gregorian music as sauce to a revived doctrine and discipline; but surely we have long outgrown the necessity for nursing Church doctrines with mediaeval music. Such music is entitled to compete, doubtless, for the honour of being made useful in the service of the Church, but its claims to a place in advance of what its bare art-merits give it can only be founded in the fancy of its advocates. I believe that the green- house culture of Gregorian music — for it will not DOUBLE CHANTS. 31 grow in the open air of the world of art — does posi- tive harm to the progress of Church principles. It gives our services an air of unreality, which is especially objectionable to the English mind; and it disqualifies the Church, so far as concerns that feature which is peculiar to her music, from being the patron of progress. Ajtj^yjas well be dead as be incessantly masquerading in the costume of the past. If use in the natural seats of musical authority belonging to the English Church, the cathedrals, were sufficient to enforce acquiescence and imitation, the Psalms in every English choral service would be sung to Anglican Double Chants. Let us consider then, first, what are the nature and merits of the Double Chant. At the commencement of this book it was laid down as an axiom that, in all vocal music to be employed in divine worship, the first indispensable condition is that its expression should be at least consistent with, if not auxiliary to, the sense of the words. To use music which is repug- nant in its rhythmical expression to the rhetorical expression of the words with which it is linked is, in any music, an offence against taste ; in sacred music it is also an offence against religious propriety. Now the rhythmical expression of a double chant may be defined as follows : — Opening ; Half- cadence : Re-opening ; Cadence. 32 DOUBLE CHANTS. To constitute, therefore, a correspondence be- tween the rhythmical expression of a double chant and the sense of the words to which it is sung, the 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th, oth and 6th, and any other two even and odd verses of a Psalm, should bear a rhetorical relation to each other such as might be described in the same words as I have used to describe the Double Chant. That is to say, there should be no complete pause in the sense at the end of any odd verse of the Psalms ; and there should be always a complete pause in the sense at the end of every even verse. Now, the construction of the Psalms, except here and there by accident, does not answer to this defi- nition. Whatever, therefore, may be the musical beauty of double chants, it is impossible to be blind to the fact that they are repugnant to the proper ex- pression of the words to which they are meant to be used. They couple verses together between which there is a full stop in the sense ; and they place a full musical stop between verses where the sense runs on. In short, one simple fact is sufficient to condemn their use — the sense of the Psalms does not run in couplets. How double chants have gained such large ac- ceptance it is easy to see. They are, shortly defined, an expression of antiphonalism : the music of the DOUBLE CIIANTS. 33 first half, sung by one side of the choir, is echoed, reflected, contrasted, or compared by the perform- ance of the second half on the other side of the choir. This musical antithesis is tickling to the ear; it has much the same effect as rhyme in poetry. The Decani propound a little melodic sub- ject, leaving it open to be taken up; the Cantoris respond by taking it up, echoing it, and bringing it to a cadence. The same musical figure is repeated ; again and again the chant rises and falls; Decani toss it over to Cantoris, and Cantoris throw it back to Decani ; and presently both sides of the choir unite in a full Gloria Patri. But it is only by a complete forgetfulness of the words that this effect can be acquiesced in by the hearer. For while this pleasant rhythmical alternation is going on in the music, the sense of the words is running an entirely different course; concluding where the chant is at its middle, continuing when the chant is at its end, and never, except by chance, coinciding with the marked antithesis of the music. There is very frequently an antithesis or parallelism in the words of the Psalms; but instead of being between one verse and the next, it is always, where it can be traced, between the first half and the second half of the same verse. So obvious is this that it has lately been proposed, instead of assigning a whole verse of a Psalm to one side of the choir, and the next to the other, that the first half of each verse should be 34 ''pointing" impossible. sung by one side, and the second half as a response by the other side. There are objections to this practice ; and a conclusive one is that the rhetorical relation of the two halves of a verse to each other which this method of chanting implies is by no means universal, though frequent. The practice would falsify the meaning of the words nearly as often as it would enforce it. But besides being thus plainly unsuited to their purpose, Double Chants have, in common with Single Chants, another incurable defect. After devoting very great attention to the subject of "pointing" the Psalms, and reading many prefaces to pointed Psalters, I have arrived at the conclusion that "pointing" the Psalms for Anglican Chants in such a manner as to produce a tolerable coincidence of the musical with the verbal accent, except at the cost of inelegancies as bad as a false accent or wrong emphasis, in an impossibility. To discuss and prove this assertion is needless : the pointers may be safely left to devour each other. Scarcely a month goes by without the issue of a new manual of Psalms pointed for chanting by some one who is dissatisfied, and that justly, with all previous efforts. Instead, however, of these continual attempts resulting in improvement, they have only produced diversity. Hardly two manuals will be found to agree in the division of words through six identical verses of a POINTED PSALTERS. 35 Psalm. If all the pointed Psalters which have been issued during the last ten years were brought to- gether into a room, the mere mass of them would be sufficient to prove my assertion. If not, an in- spection of the insides of a few would more than suffice. The most extraordinary and complicated devices have been resorted to by the sanguine editors of these manuals ; straight bars, waved bars, decimal points, acute accents, circumflex accents, italics, hyphens, and " small caps" have been pressed into the service ; every little square box of the com- positor's case has been ransacked ; and some pointers have even gone so far as to devise symbols previously unknown to typography, all in the delusive hope of wedging up prose English into verse. For such, in plain truth, is what is meant by "pointing." To go properly to an English Chant, words must have a regular metrical ictus. Now and then, of course, prose words may be coaxed into metrical rhythm without being mangled beyond recognition, but it is only now and then. How men can have continued their efforts so long to accomplish what is so plainly an impossibility, seems wonderful ; and can only be accounted for by the fact that very few musicians are scholars, and very few scholars are musicians. In no language, probably, are the accented syllables pronounced with a greater ictus, or the unaccented syllables spoken with less emphasis, than in English. It is essentially a non-flexible tongue. Only one d 2 36 POINTED PSALTERS. syllable of the longest English word commonly re- ceives a deliberate stress, and not one of the rest of its syllables will bear an accent. Chopping up prose English words into bars, or what is the same, metrical feet, is accordingly attended with special inelegancies ; in fact, I must repeat, the result is in- tolerable. One of the latest writers on pointing has become so despondent of success in dragooning the rebellious prose into rhythm, that he proposes to alter the words of some of the most obstinate verses of the Canticles, so as to make them capable of being pointed! What an admission of the utter failure of Anglican Chant music! I have no doubt there will be numerous objec- tors to the proposition that a satisfactory pointed Psalter is impossible. All I can say is solvitur ambulando. Let a Psalter appear which shall meet with general acceptance: at present there is no such book. The best evidence of this is that the press is teeming with new ones every month ; the chief difference between these innumerable pro- ductions being in the variety of conclusions which the editors come to in "pointing" any particular clause of words, as to which is the least of two or three inelegancies, one or other of which is inevitable. Passing on to the consideration of Gregorian Chants, it must be admitted that there is this THE GREGORIAN CHANT. 37 important difference between them and Anglicans:, that most of the former have an extremely indefinite musical expression, an absence of regular rhythm, and an uncertain accent. They were composed before bars were known, before the human ear had learned to appreciate harmonic cadences, and before the skill of the composer had invented melodic antithesis. Consequently they possess a great flexi- bility, and are capable, to a great extent, of bend- ing to the requirements of the words with which they may be used, in respect of accent, time, and emphasis. I have no hesitation, therefore, in saying that of the existing forms of ecclesiastical recitation the Gregorian Chant is the least unsuited to its purpose. You may play with the time or the accent of a Gregorian, you may accent it one way in one verse, and another way in the next; you may lengthen or shorten many of its notes at pleasure; and the result is that there is scarcely a verse in the Psalms which may not be sung to Gregorian Chants, when the singer is used to them, and has learned to treat them as elastic, without false accent or false emphasis. Anglican Chants, owing to their close and decisive rhythm, cannot be treated as elastic. When there is a con- test between the verbal accent and the musical accent in Anglican Chants, the musical accent gets the victory ; in Gregorian Chants the musical accent is so weak that the words gain the victory. Up to 38 DEFECTS OF THE CHANT-FORM. a certain point, then, Gregorian Chants satisfy the requirements of a musical vehicle for the recitation of the Psalms. But, besides the "pointing" difficulty, it appears to me that, in another respect, the existing system of ecclesiastical recitation is radically defective. Just as double chants, by their construction, para- graph the Psalms off into couplets, so do single chants, whether Anglican or Gregorian, by apply- ing one little musical phrase to every verse of words, prevent the option of associating or dis- sociating verses, which is constantly necessary for properly expressing the sense. Existing systems of chanting provide, in fact, no adequate means for the illustration of constantly varying language. If you start with a chant which is suited in its expression to the meaning of the first few verses of a Psalm, you can scarcely proceed six verses without becoming aware of the necessity for a change in the character of the music. In some Psalters this is attempted to be provided for by a change, in a few of the long Psalms, from the major to the minor form of the same chant ; a little may also be done towards providing for a correspondence between words and music by variations in the execution from loud to soft, and from soft to loud ; a few passages may be distinguished by being sung in unison. But these powers are lamentably inadequate. Tbey are DEFECTS OF THE CHANT-FORM. 39 such as no musical artist would be contented with as a means of properly illustrating secular words of equal variety. The Psalms are full of psychological change ; sudden and almost passionate transitions ; as strongly human in one sense as they are divine in another. To be bound to the repetition of one, or, at most, of two, phrases of music in reciting them is inconsistent with any really artistic treatment of the language. In setting music to words, as soon as you move from a monotone you assume the responsibility of adapting your music to suit the sense. If you do not recognise this obligation, your music must be object- less and impertinent. There can, indeed, scarcely be a doubt as to this obligation upon the artist in music. Even editors of pointed Psalters, the most callous of artists (if artists they can be called), are occasionally impelled, as I have already noticed, after prescribing a musical phrase at the top of a Psalm, to change it from the major to the minor mode at some specially glaring change of the sense. No one, however, so far as I can ascertain, has had the courage to carry the artistic obligation beyond this timid step, except in providing music for the Te Deum; in which case composers have gone a little further by setting the words to two or three different chants, thus recognising the obliga- tion, but very inadequately and clumsily fulfilling it, 40 DEFECTS OF THE CHANT-FORM. I, for my part, see no possibility of evading the obligation to suit the music to the words, either in this part of the Church service or any other. I would therefore propose, as an inevitable conclu- sion, if we are to treat sacred words with the same respect as we pay to secular, not only to discard all existing, but all possible, forms of ecclesiastical recitation, in so far as by "form" may be meant an unchangeable musical phrase, set at the beginning of a Psalm, and intended for use to each of its verses. How can it be honest art to set the same chant to the first verse of the 130th Psalm, and to its last verse? — to the words, "Out of the deep have I called unto Thee," and to the words, "He shall redeem Israel from all his sins"? How can it be conscientious art to ask, "Why art thou so dis- quieted, O my soul"? in the same notes as to say, " I will yet give Him thanks, for He is the light of my countenance and my God"? How can a thought- ful musician justify singing a verse ending with a comma, and the sense incomplete, to the same phrase as is used for (say) the very last verse of the same Psalm? Would Mendelssohn have treated words so? Would Mozart allow Don Giovanni's amours to be recited in music showing such a reckless disregard of the language? Is the silliest of ballads open to such charges of utter insincerity? The ecclesiastical chant system of the present day DEFECTS OF THE CHANT-FORM. 41 is radically defective. It is soulless and meaning- less, a form without life, an automaton which can only perform certain clumsy motions. A more miserable piece of false art could not easily be con- ceived. It could not exist if those who are able to appreciate musical expression were to think of the sense of the words as they chant, or if those who think earnestly of the sense of the words were capable of appreciating the expression of the music. No wonder that the great composers never made chants. How could a man who wrote everything for a purpose construct a melody for miscellaneous application to all the varieties of expression to be found even in one Psalm? How could an earnest artist in music produce, as a vehicle for words, a phrase without any object except what is embodied in its length and shape? To compare art-work in sound with art-work in colour, the existing method of assigning music to the Psalms is as if, the outline of a figure- picture having been drawn by an artist, in black and white only, another person, on pretence of colouring it, should divide it into a series of small squares; and then, being aware that colours look best when arranged in a certain juxtaposition, that he should proceed to colour the sketch, square by square, in such manner as would best please the eye, 42 DEFECTS OF THE CHANT-FORM. in total disregard of the outlined figures underneath. The artist's outline, in this case, would be about as fairly treated as are the words of the Psalms by being set to chants. The outline of the picture might be discerned through the colour, and the words may be heard through the music of a chant ; but to say that the music is illustrative of the words in the one case, would be as absurd as to say that the colour illustrated the outlined design in the other. The artist's drawing could only be under- stood in the one case by forgetting the colour plastered over it, and in the other case the sacred words of the Psalms can only be appreciated by ignoring the music with which they are sung. Out of church such art, or rather such sin against art, would not be tolerated. The musician who should venture to treat secular words as the sacred words of Scripture are treated by the ecclesias- tical musician, would meet with contempt too thorough to need expression. It is true that ballads and part-songs often repeat one melody to two or more verses of words; but this is only where the verses have a parallelism which makes the music suited to one equally suited to the rest. If there be a decided change in the words (say) of the last verse of a ballad or part- song, the composer varies the music to suit the DEFECTS OF THE CHANT-FORM. 43 change. It is only in ecclesiastical music where, though the words are of infinite importance, music is every day assigned to them utterly regardless of its power to express them. There are a few Psalms, certainly, of homogene- ous logical texture, containing no marked transitions in the sense ; but these are the exceptions. The vast majority contain one or more marked changes of tone in the meaning, and have some verses more, and some less, closely linked together. No little musical form chanted to every verse throughout can be an appropriate vehicle for the Psalms. Why, some one will ask, has not the inadequacy of the existing form of Chanting been discovered before? How is it that the present system has grown up, and obtained universal currency? I reply, Through the thoughtlessness of musicians. Through the divorce of the musical from the theolo- gical function. From the fact that mere musicians have been allowed to construct church music. Be- cause those whose vocation it is to study the words of the Liturgy seldom study music ; and those whose vocation it is to study music seldom study the words of the Liturgy. No man should aspire to write even a Psalm-tune or Chant without some knowledge of liturgical theology. 44 GROWTH OF THE CHANT-FORM. If we trace the history of Chanting, we shall see plainly that the cause which has been operating upon ecclesiastical recitation music from the begin- ning and has produced its successive changes of form, is nothing more or less than a forgetfulness of the demands of the words, and an unreflecting indulgence of a love of sweet sounds. From the nature of the case there has been no actual chronicle of the various stages in the growth of the chant system. The process of development was of course gradual as the growth of an oak, and no one could stand by and register its progress, because each stage of develop- ment took a longer time than the age of one man, and the change therefore took place imperceptibly. As the full-grown tree, however, possesses, to the eye of the careful observer, traces of the plan of development which it has passed through, so may the growth of the ecclesiastical chant be traced with tolerable certainty by a close inspection. It scarcely, I suppose, admits of reasonable doubt that the first form of ecclesiastical musical recitation would be monotonic. If, however, this does not appear self-evident, an examination of the structure of the Gregorian tones, which constitute the oldest recorded chant-form, will be convincing. In these the reciting note of each section is invariably the same; in other words, Gregorian tones are monotonic recitation, with initial, middle, and ter- GROWTH OF THE CHANT-FORM. 45 rainal inflections. These variations from the monotone at the middle and end of each verse of words — at first, doubtless, arbitrary and irregular — were after a time reduced by some one (it is usual to say Pope Gregory) to a system, and became the "G-regorian Tones." In the course of years time was defined, accent regularised, and harmony discovered ; and musicians, possessed of knowledge on all these three points, began to think that they could improve and add to the stock of the little musical things called chants. So they made new ones according to the newly established mechanism of musical art, with bars, regular ictus, and harmony : moreover, having now entirely lost sight of monotonic recitation, there appeared to them no reason why the reciting note should not be varied in the same chant as well as other portions of the formula : in short, composers framed the single Anglican. In so doing they got better music, speaking absolutely, but there can be no doubt that every step — barring, accenting, and harmonising — rendered the chant-form less pliable, less capable of bending to the requirements of words, which indeed were entirely left out of the question in making the change. As a consequence, next, of the regularisatioo of the accent and time of music, melodic rhythm 46 GROWTH OP THE CHANT-FORM. developed itself; and musicians began vaguely to conceive that melodic echo-figure, of which eight bars of a modern polka exhibit the most concentrated form. It followed almost as a matter of course, in a short time, that musicians, again reckless of the words, applied the echo idea to chants, and constructed a formula, of which the latter half was the more or less varied imitation of the former. Intent only on producing a pretty musical conceit, the inventors of Double Chants did not think of asking themselves whether the sense of the Psalms ran in couplets, so as to coincide with their couplets of music; they framed a pleasing musical figure, and were content. Thus, by a process of which every stage was the result of a forgetfulness of its true use, and a desire to make it a more perfect musical thing rather than a thing more suited for its purpose, has ecclesiastical recitation been developed into that form which is commonly called the Double Chant. From the unfettered monotone, without accent or time except what the words imparted, it has grown into a com- pact, rigid, musical passage, often possessing con- siderable expression, but inasmuch as expression implies definite character, always failing in adapta- bility to words of which the expression is constantly varying. The result to-day is, that instead of chant- music being a fit vehicle for the presentation of the sacred words, it is nearer the truth to say that in DEVOTIONAL USE OF THE PSALMS. 47 choral service as conducted in our cathedrals the mauled and mangled words are made to serve for the bandying to and fro across the chancel of a pretty and epigrammatic passage of music. Like a Pro- crustean bed, the Modern Chant demands that every- thing shall be cut short or stretched out to fit it ; the words must be now rolled out thin, now made to go with a hop and a skip ; an emphatic syllable must be left in the shade to suit its exigencies, or an unemphatic one brought into most uncomfortable prominence ; till at length the fact is — and all of us would see it, if use had not deadened our percep- tions, — that the chanting of the present day is nothing but musical toying with the sacred words of Scripture. What, then, is the proper way of treating the Psalms in a choral service? Before answering this question let us consider what is the exact nature of the devotional act prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer by the allotment of a daily portion of the Psalms to be said or sung. It will not probably b i isputed, as a matter of history, that the one pressing idea in the minds of the compilers of the English Book of Common Prayer was making people acquainted with the Bible in the vulgar tongue. If there should be any doubt on this point, it will certainly be removed by a perusal of that 48 DEVOTIONAL USE OF THE PSALMS. seldom-noticed piece of composition the Preface to the Prayer-book. Under the heading " Concerning the Service of the Church," we read as follows : — "For they" [the ancient Fathers] "so ordered the " matter, that all the whole Bible (or the greatest " part thereof) should be read over once every year ; " intending thereby, that the clergy, and especially " such as were ministers in the congregation, should " (by often reading, and meditation in God's Word) " be stirred up to godliness themselves, and be more " able to exhort others by wholesome doctrine, and " to confute them that were adversaries to the truth ; " and further, that the people (by daily hearing of " Holy Scripture read in the church) might con- " tinually profit more and more in the knowledge of " God, and be the more inflamed with the love of " His true religion. "But these many years passed, this godly and " decent order of the ancient Fathers hath been so kk altered, broken, and neglected, by planting in un- " certain stories, and legends, with multitude of " responds, verses, vain repetitions, commemora- " tions, and synodals, that commonly when any " Book of the Bible was begun, after three or " four chapters were read out, all the rest were " unread And moreover, whereas St. Paul " would have such language spoken to the people in " the church, as they might understand, and have DEVOTIONAL USE OF THE PSALMS. 49 "profit by hearing the same; the service in this *' Church of England these many years hath been " read in Latin to the people, which they understand " not; so that they have heard with their ears only, " and their heart, spirit, and mind have not been " edified thereby. And furthermore, notwithstand- " ing that the ancient Fathers have divided the " Psalms into seven portions, whereof every one " was called a Nocturn: now of late time a few of " them have been daily said, and the rest utterly " omitted These inconveniences therefore " considered, here is set forth such an Order, where- " by the same shall be redressed." From this it will plainly be seen how overwhelm- ing a grievance it was in the minds of the compilers of the Prayer-book that the Scripture was not com- pletely read through to the people. In order to ensure a general knowledge of the Scriptures, they did two things. In the first place they assigned Lessons in such manner that the Bible should be read through during divine service every year ; and, in the second place, they divided the Psalms into thirty parts, and ordered one of these parts to be said or sung in church every day of the month. The saying or singing of the Psalms in church, then, is not to be considered as an act of praise or prayer, but as a reading of the Word of God. That any member of the congregation may adopt the E 50 DEVOTIONAL USE OP THE PSALMS. words of a Psalm, as they are read, for his own, is of course unobjectionable; but this is not the purpose for which they are placed in the Prayer- book. It would, in truth, be impossible that every worshipper should identify himself with the con- stantly varying meaning of the Psalms in the same sense as he is evidently expected by the Church to identify himself with, when he joins in, or says "Amen" to, direct addresses to the Deity, such as the Confession or the Lord's Prayer. In the Ex- hortation, which serves as a general introduction to the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer, there are four duties named as obligatory upon the con- gregation — first, to confess their sins; secondly, to render thanks; thirdly, to "hear His most Holy Word;" and, fourthly, to "ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul." The first of these duties — confession — is distinctly provided for in the opening of the service ; the third is provided for by the reading of the Psalms and the Lessons; the second and fourth in various other portions of the office. That this view of the proper devotional position of the Psalms in the English Church Service will appear novel to some persons I have no doubt. Very few persons trouble themselves to think about the matter. But to any one who doubts the correctness of my view, I will only say, reflect a moment upon DEVOTIONAL USE OF THE PSALMS. 51 the corollaries of any other theory. The popular unthinking idea is, I know, that the Psalms are hymns of praise for the direct use of the congrega- tion. In speaking or writing of them, indeed, people hardly ever recognise the fact that most of them are not hymns of praise at all. Scarcely one-third of the Book of Psalms consists of praise. Some Psalms are entirely penitential ; complaint, prayer, religious reflection, and even calls for punishment of enemies, are interspersed continually ; so that a man must be nothing short of a psychological acrobat . to adapt his devotional feelings so as to realise, or think he realises, their constant and frequently abrupt changes in his own person. And to suppose that a whole congregation is intended to go simul- taneously through a series of devotional gymnastics by adopting and feeling the various phases of the language as it comes on upon a particular day of the month is nothing short of absurd. Their duty is to read, mark, and learn from it, not to adopt it. Most persons, I believe, and especially those who attend divine service very frequently, go through the Psalms in a sort of pious dream, and scarcely stop to realise what they are saying. If they did, they could not fail to become conscious that the language is not prescribed to them for direct use as prayer and praise. Such, then, being the nature and theological e2 o2 MUSICAL TREATMENT OF THE PSALMS. position of the Prayer-book Psalms, it appears to me that so far as devotional considerations go, the church musician is not strictly called upon to touch them at all, any more than he is called upon to provide for the musical recitation of the Lessons. Devotional propriety would be satisfied by the read- ing of the Psalms in the same way as the other parts of Scripture are read, that is to say in the natural voice. Remembering, however, that the Psalms were originally poems, and for the most part expressly intended for musical treatment, we can hardly object to their being musically treated in our own Church service, provided the treatment be such as will illustrate and render them forcible, or at least such as shall not maul their language and obscure their meaning. Nothing, in my opinion, could more completely do the latter than the exist- ing chant-forms, which maul the language by cramp- ing it into quasi-metrical bonds, and obscure the meaning by entirely ignoring every change in the sense. There appears to me, at present, only one existing way of properly dealing musically with the Psalms, a way which is often adopted, though not probably from any appreciation of its appropriateness, and that is reading them in monotone. The attribute of monotonic recitation which MONOTOXIC RECITATION. 53 renders its use so unobjectionable is its negative character : a monotone has no musical expression, and therefore cannot interfere with the expression of the words recited. To produce a musical expres- sion at least two sounds must be submitted to the ear, either simultaneously or in close sequence. When simultaneously presented they are a chord or discord ; when presented in close sequence they are melody. One sound alone expresses nothing. It challenges no contrast or comparison ; and therefore calls into action no function of the brain ; it affects the ear only. It is purely negative — not negative in the sense of contradicting, but in the sense of not asserting. Monotonic recitation is more expression- j less than reading in the ordinary voice, for ordinary reading always carries with it some sort of colouring proceeding from the reader, and is composed, indeed, of many musical notes, blended and run into each other by a rapid succession of glides. The) monotone is the best possible form for congrega- tional devotion, because it extinguishes individual expression of feeling, and so attains absolute unity. At the same time, though it is powerless to give colour or expression to words, it is equally power- less to destroy their own proper force. " O Lord, open Thou our lips," has its own meaning, pure and simple, if enunciated in monotone; if read by a single voice in non-musical sounds it is adulterated by the individual feeling of the reader. In the same 54 PROPOSED NEW CHANT-FORM. way to read the Psalms in monotone is the most perfect possible method of leaving the words to them- selves. To monotone them is therefore a practice artistically sound, and being easy, is a safe escape from the intolerable inelegancies of the existing systems of chanting. Nor is the general effect of iiood monotonic recitation by any means to be despised. If choirs would only pay proper atten- tion to it, making the performance a distinct, unisonous, and emphatic recitation, not a mere slip- shod utterance, I am persuaded that it would attain much more frequent use than at present. Not only would congregations approve it because of its sim- plicity and perspicuity, but the choir themselves would find it more interesting than appears at first sight. It is generally practised now as a makeshift where chanting cannot be undertaken : if well done by a large body of voices I am much mistaken if the effect would not be so forcible and beautiful as to induce many of the thinking clergy to discard in its favour the pleasing absurdity which in the present day goes by the name of Chanting. But that ecclesiastical musicians are to rest con- tent with the monotone as a musical vehicle for the recitation of the Psalms, I do not say. The lyrical nature of this part of Holy Writ gives it almost a peremptory claim to a more elaborate musical treat- ment. Accordingly, I propose to lay before my PROPOSED NEW CHANT-FORM. 00 readers a sketch of a Chant-system of a new kind, by which I conceive it possible, not only to do no violence to, but also to assist the meaning of, the language of the prose Psalms. It is strange that in an age so little prone to be bound by mere custom as this, no attempt has yet been made by musicians to improve the little musical formula called a Chant. Hundreds of adventurers in ecclesiology occupy themselves in trying to coax the words into the shape required by the music ; how is it that no one has thought of modifying the form of the music to make it suitable for use to words? That in the latter direction lies the path of progress in ecclesiastical music there can be no reasonable doubt. I have already shown that the obligation which lies upon the musical artist to provide for the musical expression of changes of sense will prevent any really illustrative kind of chanting from taking the shape of a fixed melody : it remains to consider how we shall get rid of the difficulties of pointing. After making many experiments, I am satisfied that the only way of doing this is by adopting a chant- form in which inflection is reduced to a minimum. An inflection consisting of a single note in any one limb of a chant is the utmost that the language will bear without injury to emphasis or accent. The 56 PROPOSED NEW CHANT-FORM. only case, under the existing system of chanting, in which you may be quite sure you can point a phrase correctly, is where you have to deal with a Gregorian chant which has only two notes in its first section, say G natural and A natural. The kind of chant I would propose, therefore, will never have more than one note besides the recitation, either in the former or latter half of the verse. I do not propose to con- fine the composer to any sequence of notes, but on the contrary to throw upon him the duty of in some measure illustrating the words by occasional changes both in the treble part and in the harmony. The nature, however, of my plan, which I beg of my readers to take only as a necessarily rough idea, will be better understood from examination of the speci- men than from lengthened verbal explanation. The specimen, with full description, will be found at the end of the volume. ON THE MUSICAL ILLUSTRATION OF THE ORDER FOR DAILY PRAYER (CONTINUED). Immediately after the versicles "Praise ye the Lord," "The Lord's name be praised," comes the form of words provided by the Church for imme- diate obedience to the exhortation contained in them. The Venite is an anthem selected from the Psalms. There is a popular impression among church-goers that the Venite is a sort of introduction to the Psalms, and that the Psalms are praise. I have already shown that the reading of the Psalms is not of this character, but a devotional act similar to reading the Lessons. The Venite, and the Glorias which follow each Psalm, are the occasions for praise. The rubric before the Venite says that it is not to be used on Easter Day, when " another anthem" is appointed. The "other anthem" is the triumphant series of extracts, commencing " Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast." What this jubilant hymn is for Easter, the Venite is for ordinary days — an anthem. Its bidding form, "O come, let us sing," is a mere Hebraism, and does not imply that the song of praise is to follow. This form of words demands, 58 THE "VENITE." therefore, a treatment which shall give it a promi- nent place in the Service. In some shape or other, the Venite should be set to joyous music. But, as the Venite is one of the chief opportunities for direct congregational praise, the music used for it ought never to be so elaborate as to prevent participa- tion by those of the congregation who can sing. Reserving the objections which I have expressed to all the existing methods of chanting, I should say that nothing could so well suit the Venite as a joyous chant, which should be boldly and briskly executed. It cannot, however, be properly treated with an Anglican Chant, single or double. A double chant paragraphs it into couplets, which the sense will not bear; and in the "pointing" for either the single or double Anglican chant-form, crudities are inevit- able. Many of the Gregorian Chants, however, go well enough to the Venite, and several settings of this anthem may be found in Mr. Helmore's books, with which no one, who does not object to Gregorian music altogether, could reasonably be dissatisfied. There is, however, a change of sense at the verse " To-day, if ye will hear his voice," which cannot be illustrated without a change of music ; for a more abrupt transition could hardly occur. A Recitation for the Venite, after the form of chanting which is illustrated in the Appendix to this book, might be THE "te deum." 59 constructed to illustrate this change, and such a setting is one of the little works which I have it in my mind to undertake and to publish at some future period. Meanwhile I see no entirely satisfactory way of musically illustrating the Venite short of a word-by-word setting, a "service" in short ; and this, though appropriate enough in an artistic light, might in a theological sense be possibly considered objec- tionable, as too elaborate to admit of the general body of the worshippers joining in words which are eminently the property of the congregation. The next point in order is the First Lesson. I see no objection to the (all but, if not quite) universal practice of the minister reading the Lessons in his ordinary speaking voice. As they are not addresses to the congregation, there would be no impropriety in reading them in monotone ; but neither, so far as I see, is there any significance in doing so. In one edition of the Prayer-book, a copy of which I have, it is directed that the Lessons be read in " a plain tune." This direction was, however, left out in sub- sequent editions. The Lessons are each followed by prose hymns, or Canticles: after the First Lesson comes the Te Deum. There is no mistaking the nature of this portion of 60 THE "TE DEUM." the service; it is a hymn of praise, the most direct and emphatic in the whole Liturgy. It calls there- fore for a prominent treatment, with jubilant music. For the Te Deum, for several reasons, a chant is peculiarly unsuited. Nothing could be more gro- tesquely incorrect than singing it to a double chant ; by so doing, verses must be coupled and disconnected in utter disregard of the grammatical sense. More- over, the pointing which the use of an Anglican chant, single or double, involves, is simply intoler- able, owing to the shortness of the verses. A Gregorian chant with a short ending would enable us to avoid the worst of the pointing ; but, as with the Psalms, no chant can satisfactorily illustrate the words of the Te Deum, because the rhetorical pauses between the various verses are so different, while a chant presents the same cadence to every verse of words. If, for instance, we use, as is done every Sunday, an Anglican single chant, possessing the ordinary conclusive cadence, we get a full stop in the expression of the music at the end of the verse, "To Thee cherubim and seraphim: continually do cry ;" whereas, in the sense, there is absolutely no pause between the concluding words of this and the commencing words of the next verse. If para- graphed according to sense, some paragraphs of the Te Deum would embrace one, some two, some three, some four or more of the verses. To sing the Te Deum to a single chant, and be comfortable in THE "TE DEUM." 61 Lis mind, the singer must either forget the sense of the words, which does not come to a pause at the end of each verse, or ignore the expression of the music, which does. Perhaps the most glaring crime which is ever perpetrated in church music is the singing of the Te Deum to a Quadruple Chant ; a form of treating it not by any means uncommon. Before allowing the Te Deum to be sung to the monstrosity called a Quadruple Chant, let me ask the choirmaster or clergyman to look at his Prayer-book, and divide off the words of the sacred hymn into sections of four verses each. This is what a quadruple chant will do; and the first result will be to place a musical full-stop at the end of the verse, "To Thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry" — thus, at the outset, stultifying the words. The next musical full-stop, i.e. end of the quadruple chant, will occur between the verse, "Thine honourable, true, and only Son," and the verse, "Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter : " the result being to separate the emphatic acknowledgment of the First and Second Persons of the Trinity from the similar and linked-on acknowledgment of the Third Person. This is simply intolerable; nay, very little short of wicked, amounting, as it does, to a use of music which palpably obscures the sense of words addressed to the Deity. 62 CHANT SERVICES. To do existing ecclesiastical musicians justice, it must be admitted that they seem to be in some degree awake to the incongruity of singing the Te Deum to chants. The favourite way of escape is a " Chant Service." If the Chant Service, however, is but a string of single chants, as some are, the approximation towards a proper illustration of the words is but small. A conclusive musical cadence comes down upon the end of every verse, whether conclusive or inconclusive in sense ; and only at one or two of the greatest changes in the meaning is a transition made in the music, by the introduction of a new chant. The compiler of a Chant Service must go much further than the mere linking together of two or three ordinary chants, if he thinks really to illustrate the Te Deum. He must so adapt his chants that there shall be no musical cadence where there is not a stop in the grammatical sense of the words, while at every concluding clause in the words he must have a conclusion in the rhythm of the music, and for every fresh opening of the sense of the words a fresh opening of the melody. When he has thus fitted chant-fragments to the irregularities of the Te Deum, he will find that his "Chant Service" has very little of the simplicity of the chant- form left, and is, in fact, a mongrel com- position, entirely void of artistic character, an I avoiding none of the "pointing" difficulties which beset the chant-form. VERSE PARTS. 63 In my opinion there exists at present but one satisfactory way of dealing musically with the Te Deum, and that is singing it to a word-by-word setting, commonly called a Service. Of these there are plenty extant, which by no means inadequately illustrate the words : even Jackson in F, superficial as it is, is a conscientious setting, in which, though it is poor throughout, nearly every change of har- mony and every cadence is significant and appro- priate. Jackson, in fact, realised the words for which he was composing music ; and I would rather hear the Te Deum sung to his service, poor as it is, than to an Anglican chant. Nor is a Gregorian much better for the purpose, for it is a miserable pretence at music which assigns to the widely vary- ing sentences of this great hymn the same unvary- ing succession of characterless sounds. There is a Gregorian, or quasi-Gregorian, setting, called "the Ambrosian Te Deum" to which none of these objec- tions apply; in fact, it corresponds in everything except style with the more modern " service " set- tings already spoken of. It seems doubtful whether, strictly speaking, we ought to sing the Te Deum to a Service any part of which is "verse." A "verse" part supposes the silence of the congregation, and it seems hardly right to impose silence on any person present when the form of words is a direct ascription of praise to God, 64 THE "benedicite." the most emphatic and complete in the whole office. Some persons may be of opinion, perhaps, that the congregation may, without impropriety, be left occasionally to sing by deputy, since they may follow the singing with their thoughts, while by their occasional silence they give an opportunity for a more beautiful artistic rendering of praise to God than could be achieved if they insisted, throughout the hymn, upon their extreme congregational rights. But that any setting of the Te Deum should be for the most part "full," no person will probably deny. The Benedicite is a prose hymn of an exceptionally uniform construction, the latter half of every verse of the words being the same. This peculiarity creates a very favourable opportunity for the employ- ment of a chant ; which, whether single, double, or even quadruple, would do no violence, as regards melodic expression, to the words, consisting as they do of verses which may be linked in couples, or threes, or fours, or not linked at all, without impropriety. The perpetually recurring words, " Praise Him, and magnify Him for ever," present, however, one of the most difficult passages for pointing to a rhythmical phrase of music which can well be conceived. There are but two emphases in the latter part of the sentence (as marked), and these are at an inconvenient distance from each other. No ordinarv chant will go to the "benedictus" and "jubilate." 65 words without false emphasis. There is a form of chant, written specially for this hymn, called in a book in which I have seen it, " the Roman Chant." In this form the words " Praise Him and magnify Him for ever " are set syllabically. This setting does not, however, avoid a false emphasis ; it places a stress on the second " Him," which is obviously improper. But as the musical phrase in this " Roman Chant " is a longer one than the second limb of an ordinary Anglican Chant, the ictus musicus is in some degree weaker than if it were only as long; so that the result is almost toler- able. It is, however, hardly possible to avoid the conclusion that here, as everywhere else, when applied to prose words, the existing chant-forms are defective. After the Second Lesson in the Morning Service come the two Canticles, Benedictus and Jubilate. Little need be said respecting these, except that, occupying a prominent place, they may fairly receive an elaborate treatment. A " service," in my opinion, best expresses their significance. A Jubilate service should perhaps not admit verse parts, since the words are plainly the property of the congregation. On the other hand, the Bene- dictus is a hymn of no special significance in the mouth of a congregation, the words being applicable F 66 THE "benedictus." only to the circumstances of its origin — the birth of St. John the Baptist (read Luke i.). It consists of the words in which Zacharias, the Jewish priest, expressed his joy at the birth of a " messenger before the face " of the coming Messiah ; apostrophising the infant John — " And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest ; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare His ways." Obviously, the congregation cannot make these words their own ; and the use of the hymn in this place can therefore only be looked upon in the light of a recitation of a significant and memorable pas- sage of Scripture for edification and spiritual delec- tation. It is not a hymn of praise for the congre- gation to address to God, like the Te Deum. I see therefore no reason why the Benedictus should not be sung to elaborate music, by the choir, to the exclusion of all participation by the congregation. The congregation perform all the religious duty which is required of them by the nature of the hymn in listening; though of course there is no reason against their assisting to recite it, if con- venient. Unfortunately, the church composers have neglected the Benedictus, and there exist few special settings of the words, the cathedral writers generally preferring the Jubilate. Treatment of the Benedictus by chants is particu- larly inappropriate. The sense of this canticle runs THE EVENING CANTICLES. 67 on, without a complete stop, for several verses ; a single chant would plant a full stop at the end of each verse, a double chant would set up a fictitious pairing of the verses, both forms, as usual, stultify- ing the words. A Gregorian chant, if of inconclu- sive rhythm, as most of them are, would travel without inconsistency to the end of the verse which is terminated by the first full stop, but would here fail to express the closing of the sense, and its reopening with a transition at the next verse, " And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest." In fact, the existing chant systems break down here once more. Turning now to the Canticles provided for Even- ing Prayer, I would observe that what has been said of the significance of using the Benedictus in the Prayer-book applies to the Magnificat, which also consists of words directly applicable only to the circumstances of its origin, and not capable of being adopted as their own by the congregation. It is, as the rubric immediately before it in the Prayer- book recites, "The Song of the Blessed Virgin Mary." No member of a congregation can say that from henceforth all generations shall call him blessed, or have the presumption to exult in his own behalf in the triumphant language of the Mother of Christ. Its use in the Church service is therefore F 2 08 " SERVICES." a commemorative recitation. Accordingly, as in the case of the Benedictus, there can be no impro- priety in presenting it to the ears of the congrega- tion in the most elaborate musical shape, provided always that the music shall be such as not to obscure, but rather to develop, the meaning of the words. Exactly similar is the nature of the Nunc Dimittis. On the other hand, the Cantate Domino and the Deus miserealur are Psalms, of which the language is suited for actual adoption by the wor- shipper. These latter, therefore, have a claim to be so treated that the congregation may not be pre- cluded from joining in their performance. In spite of the discountenance of the archaic school of ecclesiastical musicians, I am disposed to think that the settings by the English cathedral composers of the Canticles — " services," as they are commonly called — though many of them are very defective in detail, show, in their general tone, not far from a true appreciation of the significance of the use of these extracts from Scripture in the " Order for Morning and Evening Prayer." To say that the music of these services is "light," is, after all, only a disparaging way of saying that it is jubilant ; and jubilant it should be to suit the words. It is too much the tendency of the English religious mind, as it is of the English social mind, to be but sadly joyful. There is in our churches but little THE APOSTLES' CREED. 69 fear of any one forgetting his own dignity in praising God. Choirs and congregations seem to be con- tinually fearful lest they should be too demonstra- tive : praise and prayer go on, in most services, at the same dead level, and a little "lightness" in the Jubilate or Magnificat is resented by a certain school of musical ecclesiologists as sternly as if it were attempted to set jubilant music to the Litany. Such a view is the result of a half study — or of no study at all — of the true character of the several forms of words which constitute our office. A thorough in- vestigation of the significance of the various parts of the Prayer-book with reference to its musical illustration leads rather to the conclusion that it is not only excusable, but imperative, to have for the Canticles music of the most joyous character, always guarding against vulgarity or irreverence. How many of our cathedral "services" fulfil these re- quirements, and how many do not, would be a long task to determine; but I imagine that by far the greater half of such music will pass the test of a judgment founded on artistic principles, and not on individual taste. The next form of words in the service is the Apostles' Creed — a solemn declaration of belief to be made by all present. Its nature demands a simple treatment, such as will prevent no one from joining 70 THE apostles' creed. in its words ; and there is probably no more proper way of dealing with it than the usual one of mono- tonic recitation. It is curious to observe how custom, apparently without reason, has sanctioned the use of elaborate music for the Nicene Creed, while it is never at- tempted, so far as is within my knowledge, to go beyond a monotone in the Apostles' Creed. One would say that what is good for the former is good for the latter. I incline to think that it is hardly right to sing either creed. In the Roman Church they go so far, as everybody who knows mass- music is aware, as to set portions of the Nicene Creed to solo music, duets, &c, as well as to chorus ; but. then the theory of the Roman mass is that it is performed for, not by, the congregation. They have, for the most part, to listen. Ought not the directly opposite theory of the English Church to exclude elaborate music to the Nicene Creed? If not, we might also venture upon elaborate music for the Apostles' Creed. In whatever way they be treated, however, the nature of the Creeds demands for them the most emphatic, deliberate, and perspicuous enunciation. The words of these forms embody the most solemn decisions and definitions of the Church, and it is lamentable to notice the rapid and disorderly way THE ATHANASIAN CREED. 71 in which they are nearly always recited. Men go through the service in a sort of pious dream, look- ing grave and feeling vaguely devotional, but taking little trouble to throw themselves into the spirit of each portion of the office as it arises: and the con- sequence is that the recitation of the Creed, and other equally sacred forms of words, is too often allowed to degenerate into a promiscuous chattering. On certain days is prescribed, instead of the Apostles' Creed, the Creed of St. Athanasius. This, being divided into verses, is generally chanted ; but is seldom, even where Anglican chants are de rigueur, recited to the ordinary Anglican, but to a very simple form, only just deviating from the monotonic. Now if cathedral chanting is reduced to a sheer absurdity anywhere, it is in the case of this form of words. Though the first limb of the simple chant generally used for this creed is monotonic, and consequently would, if not interfered with, allow of a free recita- tion of the words, with their natural accent and emphasis, musicians must needs lay it out in bars, and thus, apparently of sheer perversity, but really of mere thoughtlessness, subject the words to the inconvenience of a regular alternating ictus musicus. The result, in a form of words which perhaps will less bear a mistaken ictus than any other that was ever constructed, is a number of senseless — I 72 THE ATHANASIAN CREED. might almost say wicked — false emphases. Mark, for instance, this pointing, which I take from the first manual I have at hand : — "The Father uncreate, the Son | uncre | ate : and the Holy Ghost uncre | ate." The music in this example contrasts, as plainly as musical rhythm can speak, the second "uncreate" with the first, and the third with the two former. The first "uncreate" is pronounced as in speaking, the second is laid out to musical time, the third is the subject, in the chant commonly used for this creed, of a change of tone. Similar false emphases occur in the next two verses, namely : — "The Father incomprehensible, the Son in|com- prelhensible: and the Holy Ghost incomprelhen- sible : "The Father eternal, the | Son e|ternal: and the Holy Ghost e|ternal." This sort of dealing with sacred language could only have arisen, as I have before remarked, with respect to other portions of the musical service, from utter obliviousness of the meaning of the words. It is a disgrace to church musicians. I do not think choirmasters have ever desecrated 73 the Athanasian Creed by cutting it up into couplets for the use of a Double Chant. It comes so seldom, comparatively, that little attention has ever been given to providing for it a variety of treatment. The one method in use is, as I have shown, bad; and the safest course is to recite it solemnly and deliberately in monotone. After the Creed comes the Kyrie Eleison. All musicians know with what wonderful, and often masterly, elaboration the three sentences (I might say, the three words) of which this prayer consists in Greek have been set to music by the writers of masses for the Roman Church. In our English service it is seldom sung to anything more elaborate than a slightly inflected recitation, harmonised in the minor mode. The usual form, however, simple as it is, is not satisfactory. I do not wish to have a more elaborate treatment; but it can hardly be contested that the usual forms of reciting these words involve a false emphasis. The true emphasis is as follows : — " Lord, have mercy upon us. " Christ, have mercy upon us. " Lord, have mercy upon us." Now if, as is usual, these sentences be chanted 74 "kyrie eleison." with an inflection upon the two last syllables of each line, the effect is to make the emphasis fall thus : — " Lord, have mercy upore us. " Christ, have mercy upon us. "Lord, have mercy upon us." Sometimes the Kyrie is chanted in another way : the priest, or choir, monotones the first sentence, the choir monotones the second, and the third is sung by the choir with an inflection, the last "upon us" being alone honoured and emphasised with a har- monic resolution. This is simply absurd. It implies, in its musical expression, that the last "upon us" is something to be contrasted with the other two. I would recommend, as at any rate unobjection- able, that safe resource — the monotone. If all three sentences be taken by the choir, as is sometimes done, let all three be simply and distinctly recited by the trebles on the recitation note already estab- lished ; let the first sentence be harmonised by the other voices with the notes of the common chord (say G B D); let the chord of the second sentence be that of the subdominant (say C E G); and let the third sentence, which is a repetition of the first in its words, be also a repetition of the first in its music. If any choirmaster will try the effect of this, with his mind alive to the sense of the words, as well as his ear open to the expression of the THE COLLECTS. 75 music, I think he will not willingly revert to the form which is generally used. I do not, of course, say that other correct settings may not be devised, or do not already exist. The recurrence of the Lord's Prayer at this point calls for no remark beyond what I have made upon it before, except that, vocal harmonies being now, of course, in full possession of the scene, the Amen must be harmonised. The Versicles which follow the Lord's Prayer are sung to various musical forms ; those most com- monly used do not, so far as I see, present any point for objection. In the first sentence, "0 Lord, show Thy mercy upon us," it would be better, I think, for the priest to fall the minor third at the word "mercy," instead of suspending the descent to the penultimate syllable. But, on the whole, I should say there is no other portion of a choral service where the music generally in use so completely suits and expresses the meaning of the words. The Collects, of course, the minister will read in monotone. As regards the music to be used by the choir for the Amens, I would prefer for all three the 76 THE AMENS. ordinary form, of which the treble part is (say) F sharp followed by G. Tallis has provided varying music for the three Amens. There is no great point in this, though it is perhaps more pleasing to the ear to have variety. It appears to me, however, that even in the musical treatment of the Amens we have an opportunity of assisting the signification of the formularies. All the collects but one appointed for the concluding part of the daily office are prayers. One is a thanksgiving. It seems fitting, therefore, that the Amen at the end of the General Thanksgiving should be joyous, and not merely acquiescent. The change might be expressed by using after the Thanksgiving an Amen in which the trebles should take higher notes than before and after. Thus, if G natural has been the reciting note, let there be used for the Amen to the Thanksgiving the same two chords as to the previous Amens, but let the trebles take the notes A and B ; the altos F sharp and G ; the tenors D D, the bass remaining as before ; and let this Amen be sung forte, all the rest being rather piano than otherwise. HYMNS AND ANTHEMS. On the question of selecting Hymn-music I shall say little, for no two persons will ever precisely agree where to draw the limit between sacred mirth and secular. The rejection of church music on account of lightness must be left to individual dis- cretion. For although there is music so plainly unadapted for sacred use that all persons able to take in its musical expression would reject it with- out hesitation, there is a vast quantity of music written for the Church on which no such unanimous decision would ever be given. One obvious fallacy appears to me to prevail respecting hymn-music — the notion, namely, that extreme simplicity is desirable, as affording an opportunity to the congregation to join in the sing- ing. Under the pressure of this superficial notion, some hymn compilers have actually turned triple- time tunes into common time ; and many collectors and editors have rigidly expunged anything like a slurred passage, regardless of spoiling the character of the melody. To imagine that this kind of deal- ing with psalmody promotes congregational singing 78 HYMN-SINGING. is a mistake. Anybody who can sing at all can sing any psalm or hymn-tune that ever was written; and to cut off from a tune every little piece of airi- ness tends not so much to enable the congregation to sing as to prevent them from feeling the slightest inclination to do so. The more melodious the air, the more likely are the congregation to join in it. More discouragement to congregational singing has been caused by " simplifying " hymn-tunes than by introducing florid ones: indifference, rather than incapacity, keeps the nave unvocal. There is another prevalent fault — not, however, so prevalent, at least in London, as formerly. Con- gregations who are not sent to sleep standing by simplicity, are lulled into drowsy indifference by drawling. Instead of being sung as any other piece of music would be, psalm-tunes have grown to be considered passages of music with an ad libitum commencement and ending of every line; calling for no decision or unity of execution; and thus become spiritless in performance, even when not spiritless in their essence. They crawl, in some churches, at such a slow pace, that before the end comes, the beginning — nay, even the middle — has passed out of the cognisance of the ear ; so that if they possess either rhythmical contrast or harmonic antithesis, it is lost. To take in the whole at once becomes impossible; and the ear, if it finds any HYMN-SINGING. 79 occupation at all in listening, must be satisfied with the contrast of two or three chords at most, for no one could keep in view more than half a line of the drowsy performance at one time. If you would encourage congregational singing, reform the execu- tion of psalmody, and first — Keep time. There is no other way of ensuring unity of execution. Have no ad libitum notes ; for where there is no conductor to beat time, " ad libitum " means at the varying wills of every indi- vidual singer. If any device could prevent unity of execution, it would be the assumption that the first and last notes of every line of a hymn-tune are of indefinite length, and that everybody is to wait for everybody else to commence the next line. In only one kind of tune is there the least difficulty about keeping strict time. The common measures require no pause whatever in the flow of the melody, and " go " admirably to a rigid beat of one, two, three, four, in a bar, from first to last, pro- vided always that the melody be taken at a mode- rate pace — not at the intemperate rate, and in the chopping style, which some churches have adopted in revenge upon the old drawling style. All short measures, and all peculiar measures, which have ever come under my notice (unless wrongly printed, which they very often are), will bear singing in the same way: if not, their composers ought to have 80 HYMN NOTATION. written them, as in the case of all other music, exactly as they are to be sung. With regard to the more ordinary metres, it would be well if composers and compilers of tunes would come to a common understanding as to the best way of expressing them in notes and bars. For much of the slovenli- ness of hymn-singing editors of musical hymnals are responsible. The task of compiling these produc- tions seems seldom to fall into the hands of persons endowed with ordinary editorial love of method and exactness. We shall never get satisfactory hymn- singing till it be understood that a hymn-tune, like any other music, should be written as it is meant to be sung, and sung as it is written. Slackening the time at the end of each line is a mere weakness, worse than useless. It is only habit which causes a craving for this continual pausing ; no one thinks of dealing thus with musical settings of secular metrical words. If the practice were adopted in sing- ing a ballad it would elicit for the performer derisive pity. The following appear to me to be the obvious methods of putting tunes into notes: — Common Metres in Common Time should be written in bars containing each four minims or their equiva- lent, the first bar falling between the first and second notes, and the last note of the second and fourth lines being made dotted semibreves or semi- breves followed by a minim rest. This naturally HYMN-TUNE RHYTHM. 81 provides, not for a pause at the end of each line, which the words do not demand, but for a break in the middle of the stanza, which in ninety-nine verses out of a hundred the sense does demand. A double bar in the middle of a common metre tune may be allowed, but is of no use, and only tends to nourish the notion that, where it occurs, the singers are to suspend the flow of the time, and wait for each other to begin afresh. Double bars at the end of every line are unnecessary, at all events. Common Metre Tunes in Triple Time will, of course, be written with three minims, or their equivalent, in each bar. I see no reason for preferring common time for common metres: a triple time tune presents no difficulty whatever, and can be sung through in strict time without the shadow of an impropriety. As in the first case, a double bar may be placed in the middle, but is not of any use. Short Measure Tunes in Common Time should be written four minims, or equivalent, in a bar, and sung ad tempo: there is no difficulty in so doing. A double bar in the middle, if preferred as an orna- ment, may be used ; but is quite unnecessary. Short Measure Tunes in Triple Time, being written three minims, or equivalent, in a bar, present no obstacle to singing strictly in time. G 82 CHOIR DISCIPLINE. Long Measures in Common Time. — Here occurs a difficulty. A pause of some sort is demanded in the middle of a long measure stanza by the sense ; the music therefore must give it. If sung as usually written, the music will not give the break de- manded by the sense. I propose in the case of long metres to write a pause over the last note of the second line. To write that note as a dotted semibreve would mar the regular rhythm of the tune, making one of its melodic limbs consist (if written two minims in the bar) of an uneven number of bars ; while if it were written (like com- mon and short metres in common time) four minims in a bar, the barring would be entirely thrown out. A pause is a recognised way of delaying a note without disturbing the form of the rhythm, and if it were understood on all sides that the pause in this case is to be considered of the value of a dotted semibreve, there would be no difficulty. These rules are minute, and may seem too minute ; but unity is absolutely necessary to good singing, and unity can only be secured by definiteness. In drilling a squad of recruits you do not leave each man to load and fire just as he pleases, but you divide the action into five or six motions, giving even the biting the paper cartridge, and the knock- ing off the old percussion-cap, its definite place. The result, after sufficient practice, is perfect simul- INTERLUDES. 83 taneousness of action. In many things a choir may be likened to a company of infantry ; and in my experience of choirs I have never seen one of which the chief fault was not imperfection of discipline in little matters. Men have good voices, and skill to read music — perhaps can sing their own part to per- fection — but they forget that something more is necessary to make the chorus effective, and that is, that upon all those little points where variation is possible, there should be a well-defined common understanding. To suppose that you can take your part well in a chorus or hymn because you have a good voice, and are perfectly au fait at reading intervals, is as unreasonable as to suppose that, because you can ride well to hounds, or fire a dead shot at a bird, you could take your place in the ranks of a dragoon regiment, or with the rifle skir- mishers at the next Easter Monday review. Is it necessary to say anything about Interludes between verses of hymns ? I almost fear that it is, for it is not more than two years ago that I heard the penultimate and the final verse of a hymn at a church service in London separated by a silly piece of instrumental trifling upon the organ. If the organist had played an interlude between each verse I could have forgiven him ; but in that case even I should have stipulated that the phrase played should have G 2 84 CHANTING HYMNS. some perceptible relationship to the tune, instead of being, as it was, a playful and objectless excursion up the keyboard and back. But to play something between one pair of verses and not between the others was a silly impertinence. At churches where they do this, I notice that the organist always, after concluding his little frolic, which must necessarily distract every ear from devotion, pulls out his loudest stop, regardless of words, and then off starts the choir, their lungs perceptibly refreshed by the short rest they have had ; and the hymn winds up with the greatest possible eclat. No matter that the last verse calls for no such distinctive treatment ; no matter if it be linked closely in sense to the penul- timate ; the little piece of voluntary frippery is intro- duced, the words, as is but too often the case, being the last thing of which any notice is taken. It is lime that we saw the end of this trifling, — the oil spring no less of artistic ignorance than of devo- tional indifference. For the recitation of hymns the use of Chants — the hopeless unfitness of which for the Psalms has been elsewhere demonstrated — has of late come into practice. Nothing could be less objectionable than this practice. In the words of hymns we have all ready to hand the metrical feet and regular ictus into which so many vain efforts have been made to drill CHANTING HYMNS. So the prose Psalms. Any metre with syllables alter- nately accented and unaccented will go to a chant. Chants are especially suitable for hymns of great length, as they only detain the words half the time they would be kept by a tune. Many hymns are shortened in hymnals, which might have been given entire with advantage to their meaning, and in jus- tice to their authors, but for a fear of their occupy- ing too long a time in singing: such hymns might be given at length, and by being sung to a chant, would only occupy the same time as they do in a shortened form sung to a tune. As to the musical effect of chanting hymns, it is undeniably beautiful. Hymns in triple rhythm, such as "My soul praise the Lord ; speak good of His name,'' or " Brightest and best of the sons of the morning," will not go satisfactorily to chants. Perhaps the best metre for chanting is that of which the hymn commencing u Soon shall the evening star with silver ray " is an example. Long measures go well; common and short measures have hardly enough length of line, but cannot be reasonably objected to; the form exemplified in " Jerusalem the Golden" travels finely to the beautiful Tonus Peregrinus. One point, however, should be attended to. If there be an abrupt change in the complexion of the sense at any verse, the chant may require to be changed. Some- times it may be sufficient to satisfy artistic propriety if the change be merely from loud to soft, or from 86 NOTED HYMNALS. soft to loud. A change from the major to the minor form of a changeable chant may also sometimes be demanded. As a rule, however, hymns — unlike the prose Psalms — are nearly homogeneous, or at least free from sudden and unprepared transitions, and do not call for actual alteration of notes as between verse and verse. So metrical, indeed, in every sense, are most hymns, that they present a most complete contrast to the prose Psalms; and Anglican Chants, utterly irreconcilable with an honest musical illustration of the latter, are in every respect in their places as music to the former. I hope to see the day when the present form of chant shall never be heard except to metrical words, for which alone it is fit. Those who love the Anglican Chant, either for its musical prettiness, or for old association's sake, ought to rejoice that there exists for it so comfortable a place of retirement. I hope that the existence of this use for them may reconcile their admirers to the inevitable conclusion that they are worse than useless where they are at present. Before dismissing the subject of hymns, I would desire to enter a gentle protest against the present practice of adopting a book of tunes as a sort of supplementary Prayer-book, and abiding by the book, be the tunes good or bad. I think it may be taken as agreed by church musicians that there is ANTHEMS. 87 no one book of tunes which can be unreservedly recommended for exclusive adoption. I think, too, it may be added that there never will be. Copy- right prevents most collections giving some of the best tunes; and even if it did not, there is and should be a constant growth of new and good hymn- music. The adoption of a musical hymnal fetters choice, and thus prevents progress. It may be said that it is well to have a book which contains the music, on account of the congregation. So far, how- ever, as I have ever seen, the congregational use of music-books is very rare indeed ; moreover, any person in the congregation who is sufficiently acquainted with music to use a music-book would find no difficulty in following and joining in a new tune. The healthiest condition is, I think, for the choirmaster to make his own collection, or at least not to be precluded from changes of and additions to his repertoire. Choice of an Anthem — so far, at least, as the music is concerned — is not a matter lightly to give advice about, because tastes are so different, and (as I said respecting hymn-music) no one will ever be able to draw a line which all will acknowledge between sacred and secular styles of composition. I think myself that the tendency in the Church of England is to be much too particular in discarding 88 ANTHEMS. demonstrative church music. If we mean joy, we ought to express it: grave music is good if the words be grave; but why should we set joyous words to laborious holding notes, and be so mor- bidly afraid of a little lightness? There is an old rule which, if it were adopted by those concerned in church music, would save much unfounded dogmatism and exclusiveness, De gustibus non disputandum. It is, indeed, useless arguing about matters of taste, because they are dependent upon individual likings, and not upon any general prin- ciple. There is, moreover, a corollary to the good old rule which I should like to see established, and that is, " Do not be intolerant of the tastes of others." If taste is a matter which will not bear argument, and is not built upon reason but liking, we ought not to erect our own tastes into principles, and, thinking we have got orthodoxy in a ring-fence, exclude everything from use in church except what we like ourselves. Our own little arbitrary boun- daries in art are \evj well to set up in our own drawing-rooms ; but no man has a right to regulate matters pertaining to public worship by private likes and dislikes which cannot be borne out by artistic principles. It does not follow because you or I do not like a tune or an anthem that it will not be approved by others equally capable of judging with ourselves; nor will what we approve always meet ANTHEMS. 89 with similar approbation from others. The selection of music for use in the church service ought to go upon a more solid foundation. If a choirmaster or precentor, instead of asking himself, " Do I like this or that anthem?" were to ask, "Does this anthem correctly and forcibly illustrate its words?" there would be less of that mistaken exclusiveness which too often characterises the management of church choirs. We much want in church music a little catholicity. CHORAL SERVICES CLASSIFIED. The observations made in the foregoing pages are based on the presumption that there is available for the rendering of the service an efficient body of singers, an organ, and an organist ; and also without reference to the question how much music it may be deemed advisable, for other reasons than the possi- bility of executing it, to introduce into the services of any particular church. It is obvious, however, that there exist, first, numerous churches for which no choir competent to sustain an elaborate choral service can be obtained ; secondly, churches in which the minister is not musical; and, thirdly, churches where, for various reasons, an elaborate choral ser- vice is not deemed expedient, even if the material be obtainable. It may therefore be useful to those who have the direction of music in church if I sketch out a scheme of choral services, more or less elaborate, for adoption according to circumstances, defining the relative claims of the various formu- laries to preferential musical treatment, in case the illustration of all cannot be attempted. The simplest possible musical service, I suppose, would be one in which the only words sung should CHORAL SERVICES CLASSIFIED. 91 be the metrical hymn or hymns. There is no parish in England probably where this would either be con- sidered objectionable, or found impracticable. At any rate, wherever the clergyman has a school, it ought to be practicable to have a choir capable of singing hymns well, if not much more. School- masters are most of them able now-a-days to teach boys sufficient for a service of this kind. Indeed, the task of teaching boys to sing by note (always supposing some natural aptitude in the pupil) is quite as easy, with modern manuals, as teaching them to read print. It is a mistake, in even the simplest service, to exclude harmony. Unison singing of hymns is not practically, though it is theoretically, a step in the direction of simplicity. Let the melody be well sus- tained, and no man, woman, or child in the church will be "put out" by the addition of harmony. The musical powers of those who sing by ear are strangely underrated by some persons in regulating the use of music in church. In one case, of which I have been credibly informed, the incumbent be- lieves so firmly that harmony prevents people sing- ing, that he makes the organist play, as well as the choir sing, the melody of hymns in octaves! I do not believe that a single person the more, sinus on account of the absence of either vocal harmonies by the choir, or instrumental harmonies by the organ. 92 CHORAL SERVICES CLASSIFIED. Uneducated ears hardly take cognisance of anything but the treble part of a hymn or chant : no harmony disturbs them if they can hear " the air." It seems, therefore, a gratuitous piece of bad taste to exclude harmony where it can be had. There are, moreover, in most congregations, at least a few people who know a little of part-singing, and enjoy putting in their little bit of bass or tenor. Unison singing has its artistic use, and a little of it comes in with fine effect occasionally, as composers very well know; but to make a service entirely unisonous, with a view to simplicity, is, I am convinced, a mistake. After the hymns, it will probably be agreed that the next best claim to musical treatment would be possessed, in the Order for Daily Prayer, by the Venite, the Canticles after the Lessons, and the Glorias after the Psalms; these forms being the most prominently joyous portions of the service. Between their claim, and that of the Psalms, to be musically illustrated, there is a distinct boundary. I have already shown that the Venite, Canticles, and Gloria Patri are forms expressly provided for the fulfilment of the duty of praise, while the daily portions of the Psalms are prescribed as readings from Scripture. A musical service, therefore, in which the Canticles and Gloria Patri are chanted, and the Psalms read in the ordinary voice, is a perfectly proper one. If the choir and organ be CHORAL SERVICES CLASSIFIED. 93 excellent, the same forms of words might be treated with the more elaborate music called " services," and an anthem might be used instead of a hymn. The next step in musical elaboration would, I suppose, be to apply music to the Psalms, either by reciting them in monotone, antiphonally, (singing the Gloria Patji,) or by adopting some system of chant- ing them. The claim of the Psalms to musical treatment, however, is very generally exaggerated. Up to this stage of elaboration the service would not require a musical priest; but it is scarcely possible to go further in a proper musical illustra- tion of the service without a minister who can intone ; because for the choir to sing a response to a versicle delivered by the priest in the ordinary speaking voice produces an effect which any musi- cian of taste would consider worse than no attempt to apply music to them at all. The next class of service in order of elaborate- ness would be one in which no music would be used till the transition from prayer to praise, namely, at the Gloria Patri, at which point the organ should enter, and both priest and choir begin to sing. In this service I would cease the music after the second canticle, reading the Creed, the Versicles, and the Amens ; in fact, making only those portions of the 94 CHORAL SERVICES CLASSIFIED. service which express praise the subject of musical treatment. Up to this point musical supplication has not been included. The next form of service I would pro- pose should include the application of music to prayer; the priest commencing to intone at the Confession, and continuing to intone, except in the Lessons, throughout the office. This last service would represent the maximum of musical illustration, so far as regards quantity of singing; but of course in all these programmes more or less elaborate music may be used to the same form of words, according to taste and circum- stances. Another degree of musical elaborateness may also be attained by singing the Creed, and using the organ, when once it has entered, to accompany everything sung; but it is doubtful whether under any circumstances these two last features add any beauty to the service. The following, then, would be a scheme of musical services in order of artistic elaborateness, regulated by the comparative claims of the various forms of words : — No. I. Hymns only to be sung, the rest of the service read in the ordinary voice. Organ to accompany CHORAL SERVICES CLASSIFIED. 95 the hymns, and play a closing voluntary, if desired; but not to play a preliminary voluntary, which would imply a more elaborate use of music in the service itself. No. II. Hymns to be sung, Canticles and Gloria Patri to be chanted. Everything else to be read. Organ to accompany all the music, and an opening volun- tary may be added. No. III. Hymns or an anthem to be sung, Canticles chanted or sung to a "service," the Gloria Patri chanted, and the Psalms to be recited in monotone, in sides, or chanted. Organ to accompany all but the mono- tonic recitation. Opening and closing voluntaries. No. IV. Office to be read up to the point where the people rise to their feet ; organ to enter with a few chords while they rise ; priest to intone the Gloria Patri. and choir to follow by singing the second half, organ accompanying. The rest as in No. III. Music to cease at the end of the second canticle, the Creed and everything after it, except the hymn, being read. No. V. , Musical recitation to commence at the Confession; choir to withhold harmony as long as the congrcga- 96 CHORAL SERVICES CLASSIFIED. tion remain upon their knees ; then as in No. IV., but music is to continue to the end of the service, the Creed, Versicles, and Amens being sung or chanted. Besides the restrictions caused by want of choral resources, or by other circumstances, such as the disinclination of a congregation, or the musical inefficiency of the priest, there is another matter which, where music is carefully used to develop the significance of the church service, must be attended to by the choirmaster ; that is, modifying the music to suit the character of the ecclesiastical seasons. In most churches this is done to a certain extent; some difference is made, for instance, in the music used in Lent and that used at Easter. It is not, of course, the business of the choirmaster or organist to determine in what degree the difference between Fast and Feast should be impressed upon the music ; but it is important that he should have correct ideas of the way to carry out distinctions where desired by those who regulate the theological tone of the services. There is a marvellous power at the com- mand of a choirmaster in this direction ; and, if I may speak from experience, nothing can well be more interesting than the administration of music in a church where ths choirmaster is called upon to take into account at each service how best he may adapt his music to suit the ecclesiastical nature of CHORAL SERVICES CLASSIFIED. V< the occasion. In such services it is that the office of choirmaster reaches its highest and most interest- ing development. Wherever the choir is efficient there is no more solemn effect for a ferial or fast-day musical service than monotonic recitation, without harmony or organ accompaniment, with an ancient melody, sung in unison, for the hymn. To make such a service effective, however, a choir must be in good training ; there is so little in it to stimulate the ear and so much to fatigue the voice. Nor is it well to attempt this service with a scanty choir ; much of its effect depends upon the number of voices taking part in it. A small choir shouting and exerting themselves are mistaken if they think they can pro- duce the smallest part of the effect which would result from the addition of other voices. A shade less grandly solemn, perhaps, is a service in which the voices respond and recite in unison, but not entirely in monotone, following, in fact, for the responses and versicles, the treble part of the music used on other days with harmony. The entry of the organ into either of these services is not to be desired. No voluntary should either precede or follow such a service. A festal service, on the other hand, should be opened with a quiet prelude, and be made to go off triumphantly with a joyous voluntary as the congregation disperse. H 98 CHORAL SERVICES CLASSIFIED. Another obvious means of bringing the music to Dear upon the ecclesiastical character of the season is the selection of* hymns and anthems. This, how- ever, depends really upon the selection of words, which is the business of the clergyman, not of the choirmaster. It is not well to carry this modification of music too far. For instance, if the day be sufficiently festal to make it proper that the Canticles, or the Psalms, or both, should be chanted, it is absurd to do what is frequently done, choose chants in a minor key, although the Psalms for the day may be jubilant, because it is the season of Lent. If the Canticles or Psalms be chanted at all, they should be chanted to music which is appropriate to the words ; if it be desired to mark a ferial day, the way to do it is not to chant but to monotone or sing without harmony ; to withdraw, in fact, some part of the more elaborate appliances of the musical art ; not to contradict joyful words by thrusting upon them sad music because the day is not festal. I sub- join a scheme of musical services designed to suit the nature of the ecclesiastical seasons : — I. Solemn Ferial Service. (Say Good Friday.) Monotone in unison all the service, beginning at the Confession. No organ. Hymn unisonous, but not monotonic — say an ancient church melody CHORAL SERVICES CLASSIFIED. 99 II. Ordinary Ferial Service. (Say any Friday.) Recite the Versicles, &c, in unison, all the voices singing the treble part; monotone Canticles and Psalms ; sing Gloria Patri and hymn in unison. No organ. (Or it may be advisable, if the hymn-tune be a modern one. to admit vocal harmony, and the organ, for the hymn only.) III. Ordinary Festival Service. (Say any Sunday.) Play an opening voluntary ; read Sentences and Exhortation ; monotone the Confession, and till the people rise to their feet use no harmony ; enter the organ and vocal harmony at the Gloria Patri; chant Venite and Psalms ; chant Canticles, or sing them to "services;" recite Creed in monotone without organ ; the rest in vocal harmony, without organ, except in the hymn and anthem. Closing voluntary. IV. High Festival Service. (Say Christmas Day.) Treat the words with vocal harmonies from the first, but let the organ first enter at the same point as in No. 3; chant Venite and Psalms; sing Can- ticles to "services ;" sing or recite the Creed, with organ ; continue organ throughout the service, except with the Litany ; have an anthem, and a joyous voluntary at conclusion. u 2 100 CHORAL SERVICES CLASSIFIED. In making the above remarks, it is not intended, of course, to give more than a general guide ; and many modifications will probably suggest themselves in practice, or force themselves upon the choir- master by circumstances. Moreover, the degree in which the ecclesiastical seasons are to be marked in the music at any church is not primarily a matter for the choirmaster but for the clergyman. The choirmaster who is called upon to carry out such an interesting use of music will, however, find it advan- tageous to study carefully the ecclesiastical calendar, although he may not be the person actually respon- sible for the degree of attention which is to be paid to the calendar in the regulation of the music. SPECIMEN OF A PROPOSED NEW FORM OF ECCLESIASTICAL RECITATION. The following is a specimen of a new method of setting prose words for chanting which has already been referred to in the body of this work. Doubtless the difficulty of introducing any novelty is great, even if the novelty be plainly an improve- ment. I am, however, not without hope that there is sufficient courage and earnestness amongst those who have the direction of church music to make it probable that many, if they think my plan an improvement, will bring it into use. In order that they may judge of it, I have inserted a specimen here ; and in order that those who approve it may be able (if willing) to bring it into use, I have published a Eecitation Service for Evening Prayer after this form, at Messrs. Kovello and Co.'s, 69, Dean-street, Soho ; and at the office of the Musical Standard, 102, Fleet-street, London. Similar settings of the other canticles I hope to provide shortly. irt fflantate Domino 2 g^^pg^S BgdE Full, y I 5 s^ Dec,

- -e - ZZ2 <^>_ Can., ere*. . -^ , 5 6 r^ — ^=w: Full, / . • . . Can., / =8= F i gs c»»., / i — es ^ Dec, £> 10 ^ Can., c/-f*. ^ Dec, / li Gloria Patri. ^Pf^ggrfl rj ^ Full, / PT i Amen. g -y^ziu^y i A XT ATE DOMINO. 1. O sing unto the Lord a new song : for he hath done marvellous things. 2. With his own right hand, and with his holy arm : hath he gotten himself the victory. 3. The Lord declared his solvation : his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. 4. He hath remembered his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel : and all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God. 5. Shew yourselves joyful unto the Lord, all ye lands : sing, rejoice, and give thanks. 6. Praise the Lord upon the harp ; sing to the harp with a psalm of thanksgiving. 7. With trumpets also and shawms : shew yourselves joyful before the Lord the King. 8. Let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is : the round world, and they that dwell therein. 9. Let the floods clap their hands, — and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord : for he cometh to judge the earth. 10. With righteousness shall he judge the world : and the people with equity. Glory be to the Father, — and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost ; As it was in the beginning, is noiv : and ever shall be, — world without end. Amen. OBSERVATIONS AND DIRECTIONS. This setting of the Cantate Domino may be described as consisting of a series of short chants, each verse having its own chant-phrase provided for it. By adopting a form of chant having only one note in the inflection, the difficulty of " pointing " without false accent or emphasis is obviated: by having a continuous series of musical phrases, instead of constantly repeating one phrase, a power is gained of adapting the musical cadences to the sense of the words. The following rules will afford the necessary guidance for using the music : — 1. For each half verse of words is provided a recitation note and an inflect. Those words of each half verse which are printed in ordinary type are to be recited to the first or recitation note ; the words in italics to the second note or inflect. 2. The recitation should be deliberate and dis- tinct, and at every stop in the words the voices should make a momentary pause. 3. Where the words to be recited in any half verse consist of two clauses, it will occasionally be A NEW CHANT-FORM. 105 found that two recitation notes (minims) have been given in the music, and the sentence divided into two sections by a dash ( — ). In such cases the first clause of the word3, up to the dash, is to be recited to the first minim, and the second clause, up to the italics, to the second minim. By this means will be obtained a change of chord during the recitation of long verses; an effect peculiar to this form of chanting, and of great beauty. See verse 9 of the Cantate and the two verses of the Gloria Patri. 4. A pause placed over a double bar indicates that the next verse is not to be taken up close upon the heels of its predecessor ; it indicates in faet a slight pause in the march of the chanting. (The pauses in the music correspond to the grouping of the verses in the text.) Beyond these rules no directions are necessary but those which apply to all chanting. It will be useful, however, to remind the choir of one of these. Chanting, as a rule, is much too fast. The recita- tion is too often a promiscuous scramble, the choir pulling up at the end of the reciting note, and then, after shaking themselves together, making a simul- taneous dash at the inflection. No chanting can be good where this is done. All the words are of equal importance, and the recitation should proceed at the pace of ordinary careful reading. 106 A NEW CHANT-FORM. I need scarcely point out to any intelligent observer the capability which this form of chanting (which I propose to call "Recitation") possesses of being adapted to suit the frequent variations of the words of the Psalms. In the first place, it admits of a grouping of the verses according to their natural connection. The verses of the Cantate Domino, for instance, naturally fall into four groups — viz., verses 1 and 2 ; verses 3 and 4 ; verses 5, 6, and 7 ; and verses 8, 9, and 10. A double chant would disturb this grouping, which is absolutely necessary to a correct expression of the sense of the words. A single chant would fail to group at all, but apply the same phrase of music to all verses alike. By the Recitation system the musical cadences are regulated so as to link together or dissociate the verses as the sense requires. The music may be made to close and reopen at any cor- responding change of the sense. The importance of this power of adaptation as a means of musically expressing the meaning of the words can scarcely be over-stated. For changes in the sentiment of the words, as from exultation to prayer, or the contrary, instances of which are so common in the Psalms, the com- poser has at his command, in the Recitation form, the power of change of key, or of pitch, without any limits but those imposed by the laws of music. At any point in the Psalm or Canticle he may make A NEW CIIANT-FOIIM. 107 what change he pleases ; and since he has resting upon him the duty of composing a phrase of music for each separate verse, it will be his own fault if lie should fail to illustrate the sentiment of the words. I do not, of course, claim for this form of chanting any elaborate musical beauty ; what I do claim for it is the beauty of fitness. At the same time I am disposed to think that the effect of this kind of chant- ing, well and distinctly executed by the voices, and with tastefully chosen variations of stop and power in the organ accompaniment, will be highly satis- factory to those who hear not only with the ear but with the understanding also ; whose mind takes in at the same time both the music and the words to which it is set. I shall be glad, of course, to have the opinions of any qualified readers on the matter ; meaning by "qualified readers" those who, as well as being qualified by knowledge of music, have read and understood the objections I have set forth against the existing chant-system. One thing I would respectfully deprecate, — any criticism founded merely upon the novelty of the idea. Everything must be new once, and if English church musicians in the present day can elaborate a really intellectual and artistic system of ecclesiastical recitation, it will not be the most contemptible of the art-pro- ductions of the century. Price 6d., postage extra, A RECITATION SERVICE for EVEN- ING PRAYER, being the CANTATE DOMINO, and DEUS MISEREATUR, set to Chant-Music of a nevr form, whereby the Difficulties of " Pointing " are obviated. By JOHN CROWDY. London: Novello and Co., 69, Dean-street, Soho. Also at the Musical Standard Office, 102, Fleet-street, E.C. Price 3d. postage extra, "THE VOICE THAT BREATH'D O'ER EDEN." Wedding Hymn, set to Four-part Music. By JOHN CROWDY. London: Novello and Co., 69, Dean-street, Soho; and 35, Poultry. Price 3d., postage extra, "JESU, LOVER OF MY SOUL/' Motett for use as an Anthem. By JOHN CROWDY. London: Novello and Co., 69, Dean-street, Soho; and 35, Poultry. Price 3d. , postage extra, "SUN OF MY SOUL." Evening Hymn; . set to Four-part Music. By JOHN CROWDY. London: Novello and Co., 69, Dean-street, Soho, and 35, Poultry. [A dvertisement] . 102, Fleet-street, E.C., Has been established as a journal calculated to meet the wants of the professional musician, and the musical amateur in all that relates to the Musical Art, sacred or secular. The Musical Standard is conducted in a spirit of entire independence of any interest but that of the art which it represents and its professors, and while all really important musical events of the day are faithfully reported, the aim of its conductors is rather to make the periodical of permanent value and interest than to occupy space in chronicling matters of small and merely passing importance for the gratification of individual subscribers. A steady demand for back numbers (some of which are entirely out of print) has proved to the conductors that their efforts in this direction have made the paper of more than temporary value. 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