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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/21722-8.txt b/21722-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dbb40e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/21722-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1745 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of +Hymn-Singing, by Robert Bridges + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of Hymn-Singing + +Author: Robert Bridges + +Release Date: June 6, 2007 [EBook #21722] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-SINGING *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson (This file was produced from +images generously made available by The Internet +Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + +A +Practical Discourse on some +Principles of Hymn-Singing +By Robert Bridges +1901 + + +_Price, One Shilling, net_ + + +A +Practical Discourse on some +Principles of Hymn-Singing +By Robert Bridges + +Reprinted from the Journal of +Theological Studies, October, 1899 + +Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 50 & 51 Broad Street +London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. +1901 + +The Author's thanks are due to the Editors of the Journal of Theological +Studies, and to the Publishers, Messrs. Macmillan, for permission to +reprint. + + +A +PRACTICAL DISCOURSE +ON SOME +PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-SINGING + +What St. Augustin says of the emotion which he felt on hearing the music +in the Portian basilica at Milan in the year 386 has always seemed to me +a good illustration of the relativity of musical expression; I mean how +much more its ethical significance depends on the musical experience of +the hearer, than on any special accomplishment or intrinsic development +of the art. Knowing of what kind that music must have been and how few +resources of expression it can have had,--being rudimental in form, +without suggestion of harmony, and in its performance unskilful, its +probably nasal voice-production unmodified by any accompaniment,--one +marvels at his description, + + 'What tears I shed at Thy hymns and canticles, how acutely was my soul + stirred by the voices and sweet music of Thy Church! As those voices + entered my ears, truth distilled in my heart, and thence divine + affection welled up in a flood, in tears o'erflowing, and happy was I + in those tears[1].' + +St. Augustin appears to have witnessed the beginnings of the great music +of the Western Church. It was the year of his baptism when, he tells us, +singing was introduced at Milan to cheer the Catholics who had shut +themselves up in the basilica with their bishop, to defend him from the +imperial violence: + + 'It was then instituted that psalms and hymns should be sung, after the + manner of the Eastern Churches, lest the folk in the weariness of their + grief should altogether lose heart: and from that day to this the + custom has been retained; many, nay, nearly all Thy flocks, in all + regions of the world, following the example[2].' + +What great emotional power St. Augustin attributed to ecclesiastical +music, and of what importance he thought it, may be seen in the tenth +book of the _Confessions_: he is there examining himself under the heads +of the senses, and after the sense of smell, his chapter on the sense of +hearing is as follows: + + 'The lust of the ears entangled and enslaved me more firmly, but Thou + hast loosened and set me free. But even now I confess that I do yield a + very little to the beauty of those sounds which are animated by Thy + eloquence, when sung with a sweet and practised voice; not, indeed, so + far that I am limed and cannot fly off at pleasure[3]: and yield though + I do, yet these sweet sounds, joined with the divine words which are + their life, cannot be admitted to my heart save to a place of some + dignity, and I hesitate to give them one as lofty as their claim[4]. + + 'For sometimes I seem to myself to be allowing them undue honour, when + I feel that our minds are really moved to a warmer devotion and more + ardent piety by the holy words themselves when they are so sung than + when they are not so sung; and when I recognize that all the various + moods of our spirit have their proper tones in speech and song, by + which they are, through I know not what secret familiarity, excited. + But the mere sensuous delight, to which it is not fitting to resign the + mind to be enervated thereby, often deceives me, whenever (that is) the + delight of the senses does not so accompany the reason as to be + cheerfully in submission thereto, but, having been admitted only for + reason's sake, then even attempts to go before and to lead. Thus I sin + without knowing, but afterwards I know. + + 'Then awhile, from too immoderate caution against this deception, I err + on the side of too great severity; and sometimes go so far as to wish + that all the melody of the sweet chants which are used in the Davidian + psalter were utterly banished from my ears, and from the ears of the + Church; and that way seems to me safer which I remember often to have + heard told of Athanasius, archbishop of Alexandria, that he would have + the lector of the psalm intone it with but a slight modulation of + voice, so as to be more like one reading than one singing. And yet, + when I remember my tears, which I shed at the hearing of the song of + Thy Church in the first days of my recovered faith, and that now I + still feel the same emotion, and am moved not by the singing but by + what is sung, when it is sung with a liquid voice and in the most + fitting "modulation," then (I say) I acknowledge again the great + utility of the institution. + + 'Thus I fluctuate between the peril of sensuous pleasure and the proof + of wholesomeness, and am more inclined (though I would not offer an + irrevocable judgement) to approve of the use of singing in the Church, + that, by the pleasure of the ear, weaker minds may rise to the emotion + of piety. Yet when it happens to me to be more moved by the music than + by the words that are sung I confess that I have sinned (poenaliter + peccare), and it is then that I would rather not hear the singer[5].' + +What would St. Augustin have said could he have heard Mozart's Requiem, +or been present at some Roman Catholic cathedral where an +eighteenth-century mass was performed, a woman hired from the Opera-House +whooping the _Benedictus_ from the western gallery? + +It is possible that such music would not have had any ethical +significance to him, bad or good. Augustin lived before what we reckon +the very beginnings of modern music, with nothing to entice and delight +his ears in the choir but the simplest ecclesiastical chant and hymn-tune +sung in unison. We are accustomed to an almost over-elaborated art, +which, having won powers of expression in all directions, has so +squandered them that they are of little value: and we may confidently say +that the emotional power of our church music is not so great as that +described by him 1,500 years ago. In fact if we feel at all out of +sympathy with Augustin's words, it is because he seems to over-estimate +the danger of the emotion[6]. + +There is something very strange and surprising in this state of things, +this contrast between the primitive Church with its few simple melodies +that ravished the educated hearer, and our own full-blown institution +with its hymn-book of some 600 tunes, which when it is opened fills the +sensitive worshipper with dismay, so that there are persons who would +rather not go inside a church than subject themselves to the trial. + +What is the matter? What is it that is wrong with our hymnody? Even where +there is not such rooted disgust as I have implied, there is a growing +conviction that some reform is needed in words or music, or both. + +Assuming that the chief blame lies with the music (as, I think, might +easily be proved), I propose to discuss the question of the music of our +hymnody, and I shall proceed on the basis of St. Augustin's principles: I +am sure that they would be endorsed by any pious church-goer who had +considered the subject, and they may be fairly formulated thus, _The +music must express the words or sense: it should not attract too much +attention to itself: it should be dignified: and its reason and use is to +heighten religious emotion._ + +One point calls for distinction: Augustin speaks of his emotion on +_hearing_ the hymns and canticles; he writes as if he had had no more +thought of taking part in the music himself, than we have of joining in +the anthem at a cathedral; and this might lead to a misunderstanding; for +there is no doubt that these hymns were sung by the people: the story is +that the very soldiers who were sent to blockade the basilica, happening +to be themselves catholics, joined their voices in the stanzas which St. +Ambrose had specially composed to disconcert the Arian enemy. + +The ecstasy of listening to music, and the enthusiasm of a crowd who are +all singing or shouting the same hymn or song are emotions of quite +different nature and value. Now, neglecting the rare conditions under +which these emotions may be combined, we shall, as we are speaking of +hymns, be concerned chiefly with the latter kind, for all will agree that +hymns are that part of the Church music in which it is most desirable +that the congregation should join: and I believe that there would be less +difference in practice if it were at all easy to obtain good +congregational singing, or even anything that is worthy of the name. It +seems perhaps a pity that nature should have arranged that where the +people are musical (as Augustin appears to have been) they would rather +listen, and where they are unmusical they would all rather sing. + +Speaking therefore of congregational hymn-singing, and conceding, as I +think we must, that the essential use of such music is to heighten +emotion, then, this emotional quality being the _sine qua non_ (the music +being of no use without it), it follows that it is the primary +consideration. If we are to have music at all, it must be such as will +raise or heighten emotion; and to define this we must ask, _Whose +emotion?_ and _What kind of emotion?_ + +Let us take this latter question first, and inquire what emotions it is +usual, proper, or possible to express by congregational singing of hymns. +William Law, in his _Serious Call_, has an interesting, I may say +amusing, chapter on the duty of all to sing, whether they have any turn +or inclination for it or no. All should sing, he says, even though they +dislike doing so; and I think that what he affirms of private devotion +applies with greater force to public worship. It should satisfy the most +ardent advocate of congregational singing, and it goes certainly to the +root of the matter. + + 'It is so right and beneficial to devotion, has so much effect upon our + hearts, that it may be insisted on as a common rule for all persons; + ... for singing is as much the proper use of a psalm as devout + supplication is the proper use of a form of prayer: and a psalm only + read is very much like a prayer that is only looked over.... If you + were to tell a person that has such a song, that he need not sing it, + that it was sufficient to peruse it, he would wonder what you meant, + ... as if you were to tell him that he should only look at his food, to + see whether it was good, but need not eat it.... You will perhaps say + that singing is a particular talent, that belongs only to particular + people, and that you have neither voice nor ear for music. + + 'If you had said that singing is a general talent, and that people + differ in that as they do in all other things, you had said something + much truer. + + 'For how vastly people differ in the talent of thinking, which is not + only common to all men, but seems to be the very essence of human + nature: ... yet no one desires to be excused from thought because he + has not this talent in any fine degree.... + + 'If a person were to forbear praying because he had an odd tone in his + voice, he would have as good an excuse as he that forbears from singing + psalms because he has but little management of his voice.... + + 'These songs make a sense (of) delight in God they awaken holy + devotion: they teach how to ask: they kindle a holy flame.... + + 'Singing is the natural effect of JOY in the heart, ... and it is also + the natural means of raising EMOTIONS OF JOY in the mind: such JOY AND + THANKFULNESS to God as is the highest perfection of a divine and holy + life.' + +Now though I cannot feel the force of all Law's arguments nor easily +bring myself to believe that a person who dislikes singing, and has no +ear for music, will readily find any comfortable assistance to his +private devotion from making efforts to hit off the notes of the scale; +yet I feel that Law's position is in the main sound, and that he has +correctly specified the emotion most proper to that kind of uncultured +singing which he describes: and though congregational psalm-singing +necessarily involves a greater musical capacity than that assumed in +Law's extreme case, and may therefore have a wider field, yet we may +begin by laying down that JOY, PRAISE, and THANKSGIVING give us the first +main head of what is proper to be expressed, and we may extend this head +by adding ADORATION and perhaps the involved emotions of AWE and PEACE +and even the attitude of CONTEMPLATION. + +In such a subject as the classification of emotions as they may be +expressed by music of one kind or another, it is plainly impossible to +make any definite tabulation with which all would agree. The very names +of the emotions will, to different minds, call up different associations +of feeling. If any agreement could be arrived at, it would be at the +expense of distinction; and all that I can expect is to have my +distinctions understood, and in the main agreed with. And as I am most +ready to grant to the reader his right to a different opinion on any +detail, I beg of him the same toleration, and that he will rather try to +follow my meaning than dwell on discrepancies which may be due to a fault +of expression, or to a difference of meaning which he and I may attach to +the same word. + +With this apology in preamble, I will attempt to make some classification +of emotions as they seem to me to be the possible basis for musical +expression in congregational singing. + +We have already one class: I would add a second, to include all the hymns +which exhibit the simple attitude of PRAYER. + +A third class I would put under the head of FAITH. Examples of this class +will no doubt often cross with those of the first class, but they will +specify themselves as CELEBRATIONS of events of various COMMEMORATION, +introducing a distinct form, namely NARRATION, which is a very proper and +effective form for general praise. + +Also this section will include all the hymns of BROTHERHOOD and +FELLOWSHIP, and of SPIRITUAL CONFLICT, with the correlative _invitatory_ +and _exhortatory_ songs, as modified by what will be said later. + +Also, lastly, under this same head of Faith, the DOCTRINAL hymns, and +professions of creed whether sectarian or otherwise, which, if the +definition be taken widely, make a large and popular class, well +exemplified by the German hymns of the Reformation, or by those of our +Wesleyan revival; strong with the united feeling of a small body, +asserting itself in the face of opposition: concerning which we will not +speak further, except to recall the fact that this kind of enthusiasm was +not absent from the causes which first introduced hymns into the Western +Church. + +I believe that this is a pretty full list of all the attitudes of mind +that can be properly expressed by congregational singing; and if we turn +to other emotions which are made the subject of church hymns, we shall, I +think, see that they are all of them liable to suffer damage by being +entrusted to the rough handling of general vociferation. + +Such will be all hymns of DIVINE AFFECTION and YEARNING; all LAMENTS and +CONSOLATIONS; all descriptions of spiritual conditions which imply +personal experience and feeling, as ABASEMENT, HUMILIATION, CONTRITION, +REPENTANCE, RESIGNATION, SELF-DEVOTION, CONVICTION, and SATISFACTION. + +Here I feel that many readers will be inclined to dissent from what I +say, and as I shall not again recur to Law, I should like, in order to +show my meaning, to call up his extreme example of an unmusical person +singing in private devotion. If one pictures such a case as he supposes, +is it not clear, whether one imagines oneself the actor or the unwilling +auditor, that while such an exhibition of joy might perhaps pass, yet a +similar incompetent attempt to express any of the last-named emotions +would be only ridiculous? But between this single worshipper and the +congregation the incompetence seems to me only a question of degree; +while in the far more considerable respect of the sincerity of the +feeling in the hearts of those expressing it, Law's singer has every +advantage; indeed no objection on this score can be raised to him. But +now suppose for a moment that he has _not_ the emotion at heart +corresponding to his attempt at song, and I think the differentiation of +motives for congregational singing will seem justifiable. + +All these last-named emotions,--which I have taken from congregational +hymn-books,--and I suppose there may be more of them,--call for delicacy +of treatment. A Lamentation, for instance, which might seem at first +sight as if it would gain force by volume, will, if it is realistic or +clumsy, become unmanly, almost so as to be ridiculous, and certainly +depressing to the spirit rather than purifying. In fact while many of the +subjects require beautiful expression, they are also more properly used +when offered as inspiring ideals; and to assume them to be of common +attainment or experience is to degrade them from their supreme sanctity. +But in thus ruling them unfit for general singing one must distinguish +large miscellaneous congregations from small united bodies, in which a +more intimate emotion may be natural: and as there is no exact line of +distinction here, so there is no objection to the occasional and partial +intrusion of some of these more intimate subjects into congregational +hymns. + +To this first question then, as to what emotions are fit to be expressed +by congregational music, the answer appears to be that the more general +the singing, the more general and simple should be the emotion and that +the universally fitting themes are those of simple praise, prayer, or +faith: and we might inquire whether one fault of our modern hymn-books +may not be their attempt to supply congregational music to unfitting +themes. + +To the next question, _Whose emotion_ is this congregational music to +excite or heighten? the answer is plain: It is the average man, or one +rather below the average, the uneducated, as St. Augustin says the +weaker, mind and that in England is, at least artistically, a narrow mind +and a vulgar being. And it may of course be alleged that the music in our +hymn-books which is intolerable to the more sensitive minds was not put +there for them, but would justify itself in its supposed fitness for the +lower classes. 'What use,' the pastor would say to one who, on the ground +of tradition advocated the employment of the old plain-song and the +Ambrosian melodies, 'What use to seek to attract such people as those in +my cure with the ancient outlandish and stiff melodies that pleased folk +a thousand years ago, and which I cannot pretend to like myself?' Or if +his friend is a modern musician, who is urging him to have nothing in his +church but what would satisfy the highest artistic sense of the day, his +answer is the same: he will tell you that it would be casting pearls +before swine; and that unless the music is 'tuney' and 'catchy' the +people will not take to it. And we cannot hastily dismiss these practical +objections. The very Ambrosian music which is now so strange to modern +ears was doubtless, when St. Ambrose introduced it, much akin to the +secular music of the day, if it was not directly borrowed from it: and +the history of hymn-music is a history of the adaptations of profane +successes in the art to the uses of the Church. Nor do I see that it can +ever be otherwise, for the highest music demands a supernatural material; +so that it would seem an equal folly for musicians to neglect the unique +opportunity which religion offers them, and for religion to refuse the +best productions of human art. And we must also remember that the art of +the time, whether it be bad or good, has a much more living relation to +the generation which is producing it, and exerts a more powerful +influence upon it, than the art of any time that is past and gone. It is +the same in all aspects of life: it is the book of the day, the hero or +statesman of the hour, the newest hope, the latest flash of scientific +light, which attracts the people. And it must be, on the face of it, true +that any artist who becomes widely popular must have hit off, 'I know not +by what secret familiarity,' the exact fashion or caprice of the current +taste of his own generation. + +And this is so true that it must be admitted that it is not always the +uneducated man only whose taste is hit off. In the obituary notices of +such men as Gladstone and Tennyson the gossip will inform us, rightly or +wrongly, that their 'favourite hymn[7]' was, not one of the great +masterpieces of the world,--which, alas, it is only too likely that in +their long lives they never heard,--but some tune of the day: as if in +the minds of men whose lives appealed strongly to their age there must be +something delicately responsive to the exact ripple of the common taste +and fashion of their generation. + +All this makes a strong case: and it would seem, since our hymn-music is +to stir the emotions of the vulgar, that it must itself be both vulgar +and modern; and that, in the interest of the weaker mind, we must +renounce all ancient tradition and the maxims of art, in order to be in +touch with the music-halls. + +This is impossibly absurd; and unless there is some flaw in our argument, +the fault must lie in the premisses; we have omitted some necessary +qualification. + +The qualification which we neglected is this, that _the music must be +dignified_, and suitable to the meaning; and we should only have wasted +words in ignoring what we knew all along, if we had not, by so doing, +brought this qualification into its vital prominence, and at the same +time exposed the position of those who neglect it, and the real reason of +the mean condition of our church music. + +The use of undignified music for sacred purposes may perhaps be justified +in exceptional cases, which must be left to the judgement of those who +consider all things lawful that they may save some. But if from the +mission service this licence should creep into the special service, and +then invade every act of public worship, it must be met with an edict of +unscrupulous exclusion. Not that it can be truly described as thus having +crept in in our time. It is always creeping, it has flourished in special +habitats for four or five hundred years, and before then there is the +history of Palestrina's great reform of like abuses. If in our time in +England we differ in any respect for the worse, it is rather in the +universal prevalence of a mild form of the degradation, which is perhaps +more degrading than the occasional exceptional abuses of a more flagrant +kind, which cannot hide their scandal but bring their own condemnation. + +There is indeed no extreme from which this abuse has shrunk; perhaps the +worst form of it is the setting of sacred hymns to popular airs, which +are associated in the minds of the singers with secular, or even comic +and amatory words[8]: of which it is impossible to give examples, because +the extreme instances are blasphemies unfit to be quoted; and it is only +these which could convey an adequate idea of the licence[9] The essence +of the practice appears to be the production of a familiar excitement, +with the intention of diverting it into a religious channel. + +But, even in the absence of secular or profane association, +congregational singing, when provoked by undignified music, such as may +be found in plenty in our modern hymn-books, may be maintained without +the presence of religious feeling, out of mere high spirits, or as we +say, 'in fun,' and may easily give rise to mockery. I have witnessed +examples enough in proof of this, but if I gave them it might be thought +that I wished to amuse profane readers[10]. And though such extreme +disasters may be exceptional outbursts, yet they are always but just +beneath the surface, and are the inevitable outcome of the use of +unworthy means. The cause of such a choice of means must be either an +artistic incapacity to distinguish, or a want of faith in the power of +religious emotion when unaided by profane adjuncts. What would St. +Augustin have ruled here, or thought of the confusion of ideas, which, +being satisfied with any expression, mistakes one emotion for another? + +The practical question now arises. We know the need; how is it to be +supplied? We require music which will reach the emotions of uneducated +people, and in which they will delight to join, and in which it shall be +easy to join: and it must be dignified and not secular. If we condemn and +reject the music which the professional church-musicians have supplied +with some popular success to meet the need, what is there to take its +place? Of what music is our hymn-book to be constructed, which shall be +at once dignified, sacred, and popular? + +The answer is very simple: it is this, _Dignified Melody_. Good melody is +never out of fashion; and as it is by all confession the seal of high +musical genius, so it is that form of music which is universally +intelligible and in the best sense popular; and we have a rich legacy of +it. What we want is that our hymn-books should contain a collection of +the best ecclesiastical and sacred hymn-melodies, and _nothing but +these_, instead of having but a modicum of these, for the most part +mauled and illset, among a crowd of contributions of an altogether +inferior kind; the whole collection being often such that if an +ill-natured critic were to assert that the compilers had degraded and +limited the old music in order to set off their own, it would be +difficult to meet him with a logical refutation. + +The shortest and most practical way of treating this subject will be to +give some account of the sources from which the music of such a hymn-book +as I propose would be drawn. I will take these in their chronological +order. First in order of time are the Plain-song melodies. + +I have already stated the ordinary objection to these tunes, that they +are stiff and out of date. Now it may be likely enough that they will +never be so universally popular in our country as the fine melodies +invented on the modern harmonic system, yet the idea that they are not +popular in character, and that modern people will not sing them, is a +mistake; there is plenty of evidence on this point. Nor must we judge +them by the incompetent, and I confess somewhat revolting aspect in which +they were offered to us by the Anglo-gregorianists of thirty years ago, a +presentment which has gone far to ruin their reputation; they are better +understood now, and may be heard here and there sung as they should be. +They are of great artistic merit and beauty; and instead of considering +them _a priori_ as uncongenial on the ground of antiquity, we should +rather be thinking of them that they were invented at a time when unison +singing was cultivated in the highest perfection, so much so that a large +number of these tunes are, on account of their elaborate and advanced +rhythm, not only far above the most intelligent taste of the minds with +which we have to deal, but are also so difficult of execution that there +are few trained choirs in the country that could render them well. To the +simpler tunes, however, these objections do not apply: in fact there are +only two objections that can be urged against them, and both of these +will be found on examination to be advantages. + +The first objection is that they are not in the modern scale. Now as this +objection is only felt by persons who have cramped their musical +intelligence by an insufficient technical education, and cannot believe +that music is music unless they are modulating in and out of some key by +means of a sharp seventh;--and as the nature of the ecclesiastical modes +is too long a subject, and too abstruse for a paper of this sort, even if +I were competent to discuss it;--I shall therefore content myself by +stating that the ecclesiastical modes have, for melodic purposes (which +is all that we are considering), advantages over the modern scale, by +which they are so surpassed in harmonic opportunities. Even such a +thoroughgoing admirer of the modern system as Sir Hubert Parry writes on +this subject, that it 'is now quite obvious that for melodic purposes +such modes as the Doric and Phrygian were infinitely (_sic_) preferable +to the Ionic,' i.e. to our modern major keys[11]. And it will be evident +to every one how much music has of late years sought its charm in modal +forms, under the guise of national character. + +The second objection is their free rhythm. They are not written in barred +time, and cannot without injury be reduced to it. + +As this question affects also other classes of hymns, I will here say all +that I have to say, or have space to say, about the rhythm of hymn-tunes; +confining my remarks generally to the proper dignified rhythms. + +In all modern musical grammars it is stated that there are virtually only +two kinds of time. The time-beat goes either by twos or some multiple of +two, or by threes or some multiple of three, and the accent recurs at +regular intervals of time, and is marked by dividing off the music into +bars of equal length. Nothing is more important for a beginner to learn, +and yet from the point of view of rhythm nothing could be more +inadequate. _Rhythm is infinite._ These regular times are no doubt the +most important fundamental entities of it, and may even lie +undiscoverably at the root of all varieties of rhythm whatsoever, and +further they may be the only possible or permissible rhythms for a modern +composer to use, but yet the absolute dominion which they now enjoy over +all music lies rather in their practical necessity and convenience (since +it is only by attending to them that the elaboration of modern harmonic +music is possible), than in the undesirability (in itself) or unmusical +character of melody which ignores them. In the matter of hymn-melodies an +unbarred rhythm has very decided advantages over a barred rhythm. In the +former the melody has its own way, and dances at liberty with the voice +and sense; in barred time it has its accents squared out beforehand, and +makes steadily for its predetermined beat, plumping down, as one may say, +on the first note of every bar whether it will or no. Sing to any one a +Plain-song melody, _Ad coenam Agni_ for instance, once or twice, and then +Croft's 148th Psalm[12]. Croft will be undeniably fine and impressive, +but he provokes a smile: his tune is like a diagram beside a flower. + +Now in this matter of rhythm our hymn-book compilers, since the +seventeenth century, have done us a vast injury. They have reduced all +hymns to the common times. Their procedure was, I suppose, dictated by +some argument such as this: 'The people must have what they can +understand: they only understand the simple two and three time: _ergo_ we +must reduce all the tunes to these measures.' Or again, 'It will be +easier for them to have all the tunes as much alike as possible: +therefore let us make them all alike, and write them all in equal +minims.' + +Both these ideas are absolutely wrong. A hymn-tune, which they hastily +assume to be the commonest and lowest form of music, actually possesses +liberties coveted by other music[13]. It is a short melody, committed to +memory, and frequently repeated: there is no reason why it should submit +to any of the time-conveniences of orchestral music: there is no reason +why its rhythm should not be completely free; nor is there any _a priori_ +necessity why any one tune should be exactly like another in rhythm. It +will be learned by the ear (most often in childhood), be known and loved +for its own sake, and blended in the heart with the words which interpret +it: and this advantage was instinctively felt by those of our early +church composers who, already understanding something of the value of +barred music, yet deliberately avoided cramping the rhythms of their +hymn-tunes by too great subservience to it[14]. One of the first duties +therefore which we owe to hymn-melodies is the restoration of their free +and original rhythms, keeping them as varied as possible: the Plain-song +melodies must be left unbarred and be taught as free rhythms, and all +other fine tunes which are worth using should be preserved in their +original rhythm; because free rhythm is better, and its variety is good, +and because the attraction of a hymn-melody lies in its individual +character and expression, and not at all in its time-likeness to other +tunes. This last idea has been a chief cause in the degradation of our +hymns. + +I may conclude then that the best of these simpler Plain-song tunes are +very fit for congregational use. They should be offered as pure melody in +free rhythm and sung in unison: their accompaniment must not be entrusted +to a modern grammarian. It is well also to use most of them in their +English form, the _Old Sarum Use_ as it is called; which happily +preserves to us a national tradition, in the opinion of some experts +older and more correct than any known on the continent; and if the +differences in our English version are not due to purity of tradition, +they will have another and almost greater interest, as venerable records +of the genius of our national taste. These Plain-song tunes have probably +a long future before them; since, apart from their merit, they are +indissolubly associated with the most ancient Latin hymns, some of which +are the very best hymns of the Church. + +The next class of tunes[15] is that of the Reformation hymns, English, +French, and German, dating from about 1550 to some way on in the +seventeenth century. The chief English group is known as _Sternhold and +Hopkins' Psalter_, which was mostly of eight-line tunes. This book was +virtually put together in Geneva about 1560, and antiquarians make much +of it. If stripped, however, of its stolen plumes and later additions it +is really an almost worthless affair, the true history of it being as +follows. A French musician named Louis Bourgeois, whom Calvin brought +with him to Geneva in 1541, turned out to be an extraordinary genius in +melody; he remained at Geneva about fifteen years, and in that time +compiled a Psalter of eighty-five tunes, almost all of which are of great +merit, and many of the very highest excellence. The splendour of his +work, which was merely appreciated as useful at the time, was soon +obscured, for immediately on his leaving Geneva, the French Psalter was +completed by inferior hands, whose work, being mixed in with his, lowered +the average of the whole book enormously, and Bourgeois' work was never +distinguished until, quite lately, the period of his office was +investigated and compared with the succeeding editions of his book. Now +the English refugees compiled their 'Sternhold and Hopkins' at Geneva, in +imitation of the French, during the time of Bourgeois' residence, and +took over a number of the French tunes; though they _mauled these most +unmercifully_ to bring them down to the measure of their doggerel psalms, +yet even after this barbarous treatment Bourgeois' spoilt tunes were +still far better than what they made for themselves, and sufficient not +only to float their book into credit, but to kindle the confused +enthusiasm of subsequent English antiquarians, whose blind leadership has +had some half-hearted following. But if these French tunes, and those +which are pieced in imitation of Bourgeois, be extracted from this +English Psalter, then, with one or two exceptions, there will remain +hardly anything of value[16]. + +To leave the English tunes for a moment and continue the subject, we +shall practically exhaust the French branch of this class by saying that +our duty by them is to use a great number of Bourgeois' tunes, _restoring +their original form_. They are masterpieces which have remained popular +on the continent from the first; thoroughly congenial to our national +taste, and the best that can be imagined for solemn congregational +singing of the kind which we might expect in England. The difficulty is +the same that beset the old original psalter-makers, i.e. to find words +to suit their varied measures. But this must be done[17]. These tunes in +dignity, solemnity, pathos, and melodic solidity leave nothing to desire. + +The English eight-line tunes of Sternhold and Hopkins we may then, with +one or two exceptions, dismiss to neglect; but among the four-line +'common' tunes which gradually ousted them, there are about a dozen of +high merit: these being popular still at the present day require no +notice, except to 32 insist that they should be well harmonized in the +manner of their date, and generally have the long initials and finals of +all their lines observed. They are much finer than any one would guess +from their usual dull presentment. Their manner, as loved and praised by +Burns, is excellent, and there is no call to alter it[18]. + +Contemporary with this group there is a legacy of a dozen and more fine +tunes composed by Tallis and Orlando Gibbons, the neglect or treatment of +which is equally disgraceful to all concerned. + +As for the German tunes of the Reformation, attempts to introduce the +German church-chorales into anything like general use in England have +never, so far as I know, been successful, owing, I suppose, to a +difference in the melodic sense of the two nations. But some few of them +are really popular, and more would be if they were properly presented +with suitable words; and it should not be a difficult task to provide +words even more suitable and kind than the original German, which seldom +observes an intelligent, dignified and consistent mood. These chorales +should be sung very slow indeed, and will admit of much accompaniment. +Bach's settings, when not too elaborate or of impossible compass in the +parts, may be well used where the choir is numerically strong. He has +made these chorales peculiarly his own, and, in accepting his +interpretation of them, we are only acquiescing in a universal judgement, +while we make an exception in favour of genius; for as a general rule +(which will of course apply to those chorales which we do not use in +Bach's version), all the music of this Reformation period must be +harmonized strictly in the vocal counterpoint which prevailed at the end +of the sixteenth century; since that is not only its proper musical +interpretation, but it is also the ecclesiastical style _par excellence_, +the field of which may reasonably be extended, but by no means +contracted. It is suitable both for simple and elaborate settings, for +hymns of praise or of the more intimate ideal emotions, and in a resonant +building a choir of six voices can produce complete effects with it. The +broad, sonorous swell of its harmonious intervals floods the air with +peaceful power, very unlike the broken sea of Bach's chromatics, which, +to produce anything like an equal effect of sound, needs to be powerfully +excited. + +It is necessary to insist strongly on one caution, viz. that grammar is +not style, and settings which avoid modernisms are not for that reason a +fair presentation of the old manner. Nothing is less like a fine work of +art than its incompetent imitation. And this practically exhausts, as far +as I am aware, the material which this period provides. + +The next class will be made up of our Restoration hymns, by Jeremy Clark, +Croft, and others who added to the succeeding editions of the metrical +Psalms. If there are not many in this class, yet the few are good; and +Clark must be regarded as the inventor of the modern English hymn-tune, +regarded, that is, as a pure melody in the scale with harmonic +interpretation of instrumental rather than true vocal suggestion. His +tunes are pathetic, melodious, and of truly national and popular +character, the best of them almost unaccountably free from the +indefinable secular taint that such qualities are apt to introduce, and +which the bad following of his example did very quickly introduce in the +hands of less sensitive artists. They are suitable for evening services. + +After this time there followed in England, in the wake of Handel, a +degradation of style which is now completely discredited. Diatonic flow, +with tediously orthodox modulation, overburdened with conventional +graces, describe these innumerable and indistinguishable productions. And +just as the old tunes were related to the motets and madrigals, so are +these to the verse-anthems and glees of their time. These weak ditties, +in the admired manner of Lord Mornington, were typically performed by the +genteel pupils of the local musician, who, gathered round him beneath the +laughing cherubs of the organ case, warbled by abundant candlelight to +their respectful audience with a graceful execution that rivalled the +weekday performances of _Celia's Arbour_ and the _Spotted Snakes_. Good +tunes may be written at any time, for style is independent of fashion; +but there are very few exceptions to the complete and unregretted +disappearance of all the tunes of this date. + +We have then nothing left for us to do but to review the material which +the revival of music in the last fifty years has given us in the way of +hymns. + +This last group divides naturally into two main heads; first the +restoration of old hymns of all kinds, with their plain, severer manner, +in reaction against the abused graces; and secondly the appearance of a +vast quantity of new hymns. + +Concerning the restoration of the old hymns, we cannot be too grateful to +those who pointed the right way, and, according to their knowledge and +the opportunities of the taste of their day, did the best that they +could. But, as our remarks under the heads of Plain-song and Reformation +hymns will show, this knowledge, taste, and opportunity were +insufficient, and all their work requires to be done afresh. + +We are therefore left to the examination of the modern hymns. In place of +this somewhat invidious task, I propose to make a few remarks on the +general question of the introduction of modern harmony into +ecclesiastical music, with reference of course to hymns only. It cannot +escape the attention of any one that the modern church music has for one +chief differentiation the profuse employment of pathetic chords, the +effect of which is often disastrous to the feelings. + +Comparing a modern hymn-tune in this style with some fine setting of an +old tune in the diatonic ecclesiastical manner, one might attribute the +superiority of the old music entirely to its harmonic system; but I think +this would be wrong. + +It is a characteristic of all early art to be _impersonal_[19]. As long +as an art is growing, artists are engaged in rivalry to develop the new +inventions in a scientific manner, and individual personality is not +called out. With the exhaustion of the means in the attainment of +perfection a new stage is reached, in which individual expression is +prominent, and seems to take the place of the scientific impersonal +interest which aimed at nothing but beauty: so that the chief distinction +between early and late art is that the former is impersonal, the latter +personal. + +Turning now to the subject of ecclesiastical music, and comparing thus +Palestrina with Beethoven or Mozart, is it not at once apparent that +Palestrina has this distinct advantage, namely, that he seems not to +interfere at all with, or add anything to, the sacred words? His early +musical art is impersonal, what the musicians call 'pure music'; and if +he is setting the phrases of the Liturgy or Holy Scriptures, we are not +aware of any adjunct; it seems rather as if the sacred words had suddenly +become musical. Not so with Mozart or Beethoven; we may prefer their +music, but it has interfered with the sacred words, it has, in fact, +added a personality. + +It must of course be conceded that this gives a very strong if not +logically an almost unassailable position to those who would confine +sacred music to the ecclesiastical style. But it seems to me ridiculous +to suppose that genius cannot use all good means with reserve and +dignity; and if the modern church music will not stand comparison in +respect of dignity and solemnity with the old, the fault must rather lie +in the manner in which the new means are used, than in the means +themselves; nor would I myself concede that there is no place in church +for music which is tinged with a human personality; I should be rather +inclined to reckon the great musicians among the prophets, and to +sympathize with any one who might prefer the personality of Beethoven (as +revealed in his works) to that of a good many canonized seers. What is +logical is that we should be careful as to what personality we admit, and +see that the modern means are used with reserve. + +Now if we examine our modern hymn-tunes, do we find any sign of that +reserve of means which we should expect of genius, or any style which we +could attribute to the personality of a genius? Let any one in doubt try +the following experiment: copy out some 'favourite tune' in the 'admired +manner' of the present day, and show it to some musician who may happen +not to know it, and ask him if it is not by Brahms; then see how he will +receive any further remarks that you may make to him on the subject of +music. + +These new tunes are in fact, for the most part, the indistinguishable +products of a school given over to certain mannerisms, and might be +produced _ad libitum_, as indeed they are; just as were the tunes of the +Lord Mornington school before described: and though the composers and +compilers of these modern tunes would be the first to deride the exploded +fashion, their own fashion is more foolish, and promises to be as +fugitive[20]. + +I have said very little in this essay on the words of hymns. I will +venture to add one or two judgements here. _First_, that in the +Plain-song period, words and music seem pretty equal and well matched. +_Secondly_, that in the Reformation period, and for some time onwards, +the musicians did far better than the sacred poets, and have left us a +remainder of admirable music, for which it is our duty to find words. +_Thirdly_, that the excuse which some musicians have offered for the +sentimentality of their modern tunes, namely, that the words are so +sentimental, is not without point as a criticism of modern hymn-words, +but is of no value whatever as a defence of their practice. The +interpretative power of music is exceedingly great, and can force almost +any words (as far as their sentiment is concerned) into a good channel. + +And if music be introduced at all into public worship it must be most +jealously and scrupulously guarded. It is a confusion of thought to +suppose that because--as St. Augustin would tell us--it is not a vital +matter to religion whether it employ music or not, therefore it can be of +little consequence what sort of music is used: and the attitude of +indifference towards it, which has seemed to me to be almost a point of +correct ecclesiastical manners, must be the expression of a convinced +despair, which, in the present state of things, need not surprise. Devout +persons are naturally afraid of secular ideals, and shrink from the +notion of art intruding into the sanctuary; and, especially if they have +never learned music, they will share St. Augustin's jealousy of it; and +it is the more difficult to remove their objections, when what they are +innocently suffering in the name of art curdles the artist's blood with +horror, and keeps him away from church. The artist too, to whom we might +look for help, is the _rara avis in terris_, and, in regard to his +sympathy with the clergy, would often be thought by them to deserve the +rest of the hexameter; but it is really to his credit that he is loth to +meddle with church music. Its social vexations, its eye to the market, +its truckling to vulgar taste and ready subservience to a dominant +fashion, which can never (except under the rarest combination of +circumstances) be good;--all this is more than enough to hold him off. +Where then is the appeal? _Quis custodiet_? + +The unwillingness of the clergy[21] to know anything about music might be +got over if the music could be set on a proper basis; and in the present +lack of authority and avowed principles, it would be well if such of our +cathedral precentors and organists as have the matter at heart would +consult and work together with the purpose of instructing pastors and +people by the exhibition of what is good. This is what we might expect of +our religious musical foundations, which are justifying the standing +condemnation of utilitarian economists so long as the stipendiaries are +content indolently to follow the fortuitous traditions of the books that +lie in the choir, supplemented by the penny-a-sheet music of the common +shops. In the Universities, too, it should be impossible for an +undergraduate not to gain acquaintance with good ecclesiastical music, +and this is not ensured by an occasional rare performance of half a dozen +old masterpieces which are preserved in heartless compliment to +antiquity. It is to such bodies that we must first look for help and +guidance to give our church music artistic importance: for let no one +think that the church can put the artistic question on one side. There is +no escape from art; art is only the best that man can do, and his second, +third, fourth or fifth best are only worse efforts in the same direction, +and in proportion as they fall short of the best the more plainly betray +their artificiality. To refuse the best for the sake of something +inferior of the same kind can never be a policy; it is rather an +uncorrected bad habit, that can only be excused by ignorance; and +ignorance on the question of music is every day becoming less excusable; +and the growing interest and intelligence which all classes are now +showing should force on religion a better appreciation of her most potent +ally. Music being the universal expression of the mysterious and +supernatural, the best that man has ever attained to, is capable of +uniting in common devotion minds that are only separated by creeds, and +it comforts our hope with a brighter promise of unity than any logic +offers. And if we consider and ask ourselves what sort of music we should +wish to hear on entering a church, we should surely, in describing our +ideal, say first of all that it must be something different from what is +heard elsewhere; that it should be a sacred music, devoted to its +purpose, a music whose peace should still passion, whose dignity should +strengthen our faith, whose unquestioned beauty should find a home in our +hearts, to cheer us in life and death; a music worthy of the fair temples +in which we meet, and of the holy words of our liturgy; a music whose +expression of the mystery of things unseen never allowed any trifling +motive to ruffle the sanctity of its reserve. What power for good such a +music would have! + +Now such a music our Church has got, and does not use; we are content to +have our hymn-manuals stuffed with the sort of music which, merging the +distinction between sacred and profane, seems designed to make the +worldly man feel at home, rather than to reveal to him something of the +life beyond his knowledge; compositions full of cheap emotional effects +and bad experiments made to be cast aside, the works of the purveyors of +marketable fashion, always pleased with themselves, and always to be +derided by the succeeding generation. + + +Example is better than precept; and my own venture as a compiler of a +hymn-book has made it possible for me to say much that otherwise I should +not have said. In _The Yattendon Hymnal_, printed by Mr. Horace Hart at +the Clarendon Press, Oxford, and to be had of Mr. Frowde, price 20_s._, +will be found a hundred hymns with their music, chosen for a village +choir. The music in this book will show what sort of a hymnal might be +made on my principles, while the notes at the end of the volume will +illustrate almost every point in this essay which requires illustration, +besides many others. As a complement to this essay and for advertisement +of the Hymnal I here give the prefaces of that book, which are as +follows:-- + + +[1]_Confess._ ix. 6. + +[2]_Ibid._ ix. 7. + +[3]This is perhaps rather a quality proper to the sensation. + +[4]'Et vix eis praebeo congruentem [locum].' which might only mean 'I + cannot find the right place for them.' + +[5]_Confess._ x. 13. + +[6]St. Augustin does not allow that a vague emotion can be religious; it + must be directed. Few would agree to this. + +[7]I assume 'favourite hymn' to mean a sung hymn. The interest of the + record must lie in its being of a heightened emotion of the same kind + as that described by St. Augustin in his own case, _What tears I shed_, + &c. + +[8]It was not an uncommon practice on the Continent (say from 1540 to + 1840), to print books of hymns to be sung to the current secular airs; + and the names or first lines of these airs were set above the + hymn-words as the musical direction. M. Douen, in his _Clément Marot et + le Psautier Huguenot_, vol. i, ch. 22, has given an account of some of + these books; and any one who wishes to follow this branch of the + subject may read his chapter. He does not notice the later Italian + _Laude Spirituali_, which might have supplied incredible monsters to + his museum. + +[9]Besides, the main fault of these books, from which we should have to + quote, is the _association_ of the music, and this is really an + accident, the question before us being the _character_ of the music; so + that we should require musical illustration, for though the common + distinction between sacred and secular music is in the main just, yet + the line cannot be drawn at the original intention, or historical + origin of the music: the true differentiation lies in the character of + the music, the associated sentiment being liable to change. If we were + to banish from our hymn-books all the tunes which we know to have a + secular origin, we should have to part with some of the most sacred and + solemn compositions; and where would the purist obtain any assurance + that the tunes which he retained had a better title? In the sixteenth + century, when so many fine hymn-melodies were written, a musician was + working in the approved manner if he adapted a secular melody, or at + least borrowed a well-known opening phrase: and since the melodies of + that time were composed mainly in conjunct movement, such initial + similarities were unavoidable; for one may safely say that it very soon + became impossible, under such restrictions, to invent a good opening + phrase which had not been used before. The secular airs, too, of that + time were often as fit for sacred as profane use; and if I had to find + a worthy melody for a good new hymn, I should seek more hopefully among + them than in the sacred music of our own century. + +[10]I may give the following experience without offence. When I was an + undergraduate there was a song from a comic opera by Offenbach so much + in favour as to be _de rigueur_ at festive meetings. Now there was at + the same time a counterpart of this song popular at evensong in the + churches: it was sung to 'Hark, hark, my soul.' I believe it is called + _L'encens des fleurs_. They seemed to me both equally nauseating: it + was certainly an accident that determined which should be sung at + worship and which at wine. + +[11]_The Art of Music_, by C Hubert H. Parry. London, 1893, 1st edit. p. + 48. + +[12]And give Croft the advantage of his original rhythm, not the + mis-statement in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, No. 414. + +[13]It would be very damaging to my desire to convince, if I should seem + to deny that the mistaken practice of these hymn-book compilers was + based on the solid ground of secular common-sense. If anything is true + of rhythm it is this, that the common mind likes common rhythms, such + as the march or waltz, whereas elaboration of rhythm appeals to a + trained mind or artistic faculty. I should say that the popularity of + common rhythms is due to the shortness of human life, and that if men + were to live to be 300 years old they would weary of the sort of music + which Robert Browning describes so well-- + + 'There 's no keeping one's haunches still, + There 's no such pleasure in life.' + + But hymn-melodies must not be put on that level. It is desirable to + have in church something different from what goes on outside, and (as I + say in the text) a hymn-tune need not appeal to the lowest + understanding on first hearing. The simple free rhythms, too, are + perfectly natural; they were free-born. + +[14]I need only instance Orlando Gibbons' tune called 'Angels.' The + original is a most ingenious combination of rhythms; and its masterly + beauty could not be guessed from the inane form into which it is + degraded in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, No. 8. + +[15]I omit, for want of space, mention of the late Plain-song melodies + (which would give a good many excellent tunes); and, for want of + knowledge, the Italian tunes. + +[16]Comparing the English with the French Genevan Psalter, I do not think + my judgement is too severe on our own. It had a few fine tunes original + to it; best of all the cxxxvii (degraded in _Hymns Ancient and + Modern_). This is of such exceptional beauty that I believe it must + have been written by Bourgeois for Whittingham. Next perhaps is lxxvii + (called 81st in _H. A. M._), the original of which, in Day, 1566, is a + fine tune, degraded already in Este, 1592, which version _H. A. M._ + follows: it is said to have come from Geneva. Besides these, xxv and + xliv, which are the only other tunes from this source in _H. A. M._, + are very favourable examples, and I do not think that they will rescue + the book. Nor can I believe that these old English D.C.M. tunes were + ever much used. They are too much alike for many of them to have been + committed to memory, while all the editions which I happen to have seen + are full of misprints, and the four-line tunes which drove them out + were early in the field, and increased rapidly. + +[17]When one turns the pages of that most depressing of all books ever + compiled by the groaning creature, Julian's hymn-dictionary, and sees + the thousands of carefully tabulated English hymns, by far the greater + number of them not only pitiable as efforts of human intelligence, but + absolutely worthless as vocal material for melodic treatment, one + wishes that all this effort had been directed to supply a real want. E. + g. the two Wesleys between them wrote thirteen octavo volumes, of some + 400 pages each, full of closely printed hymns. One must wish that + Charles Wesley at least (who showed in a few instances how well he + could do) had, instead of reeling off all this stuff, concentrated his + efforts to produce only what should be worthy of his talents and useful + to posterity. + +[18]If old tunes are modernized out of a fine rhythm, a curious result + would be likely to come about; viz. that modern tunes might be written + in the old rhythm for the sake of novelty, while the old were being + sung in the more modern way for the sake of uniformity. + +[19]This fact is of course generally recognized. The explanation in the + text is one which was elaborately illustrated by the Slade Professor at + Oxford, in his last course of lectures on painting. + +[20]There is one point which I cannot pass over. It has become the + practice in modern books to put marks of musical expression to the + words, directing the congregation when to sing loud or soft. This + implies a habit of congregational performance the description of which + would make a companion picture to the organ gallery of 1830. It seems + to me a practice of inconceivable degradation: one asks in trembling if + it is to be extended to the Psalms. It is just as if the congregation + were school-children singing to please a musical inspector, and he a + stupid one. + +[21]It must be due to unwillingness that comparatively so few of our + clergy can take their part in the service when it is musical. Village + schoolmasters tell me that two hours a week is sufficient in a few + months to bring all the children up to a standard of time and tune and + reading at sight that would suffice a minor canon. + + +PREFACE TO THE +YATTENDON HYMNAL + +Among the old melodies which it is the chief object of this book to + restore to use, some will be found which will be quite new to the + public, while others will be familiar though in a somewhat different + form; and since the sources whence all the tunes are taken are well + known, and have been already largely drawn upon by the compilers of + Psalters and Hymnals, any melody which is new in this book may be + considered as having been hitherto overlooked or rejected, while in the + alternative case it is to be understood that the original cast of the + melody has at some former time been altered (frequently to suit the + English common metre to which it was not at first conformable), and is + now restored. + +The plain-song tunes, of which an account is given in the preface to the +notes, and the few other old tunes which do not fall into either of the +two above-mentioned classes, were included for the sake of their +settings. + +With respect to the vocal settings in four parts it may be said that, in +the numerous cases in which such settings were not added by the composer +of the melody, the editors have done their best to supply the want in a +suitable manner, and with some attempt towards the particular qualities +of workmanship upon which much of the beauty of the old vocal +counterpoint depends; and this latter aim has also governed the +composition of the six tunes not derived from old sources which have been +included in the work. + +This book is offered in no antiquarian spirit. The greater number of +these old tunes are, without question, of an excellence which sets them +above either the enhancement or the ruin of Time, and at present when so +much attention is given to music it is to be desired that such +masterpieces should not be hidden away from the public, or only put forth +in a corrupt and degraded form. The excellence of a nation in music can +have no other basis than the education and practice of the people; and +the quality of the music which is most universally sung must largely +determine the public taste for good or ill. + +Since such information as might be looked for in an introduction is given +in the notes at the end of the volume, there is nothing to add here but a +list of the sources and composers in order of date, which should in the +eyes of musicians go far to justify this attempt. + + +SYNOPSIS OF THE MUSIC IN ORDER OF DATE + +PLAIN-SONG MELODIES, + Sarum use, nine, Nos. 29. 30. 31. 32. 47. 48. 49. 75. 86. + Ambrosian, two, Nos. 91. 100. + Later plain-song, two, Nos. 44. 45. +HEINRICH ISAAC, 1490, one tune, Nos. 82 & 83. +From the Strasbourg Psalter, before 1540, two, Nos. 37. 72. +German of same date, one, No. 16. +LOUIS BOURGEOIS, 1550, thirteen, Nos. 3. 19. 20. 27. 58. 64. 67. 70. 74. + 77. 79 & 80. 88. 99 & see 66 & 84. +CHRISTOPHER TYE, 1550, one, No. 15. +From Crespin's Psalters, circ. 1560, three, Nos. 41. 84. 89. +THOMAS TALLIS, 1560, seven, Nos. 2. 14. 54 & 55. 59. 68. 78. 98. +From the French Genevan Psalter, after 1560, one, No. 92. +A setting by CLAUDE GOUDIMEL, 1565, No. 88. +English, 16th cent, four, Nos. 39. 53. 66. 87. +Two settings by GEO. KIRBY, 1592, Nos. 39. 53. +A setting by J. Farmer, 1592, No. 87. +A setting by Rd. ALLISON, 1599, No. 84. +Italian, 16th cent., one, No. 1. +HANS LEONHARD HASSLER, 1600, one, No. 62. +THOS. CAMPION, 1613, one, No. 36. +ORLANDO GIBBONS, 1623, eight, Nos. 23. 24. 25. 28. 35. 38. 56. 94. +HENRY LAWES, 1638, one, No. 73. +JOHANN CRUEGER, 1640, four, Nos. 41. 57. 93. 97. +English & Scotch, 1600-1650, seven, Nos. 10. 40. 50. 51. 60. 63. 71. +German, 17th cent, two, Nos. 69. 90. +JEREMY CLARK, 1700, nine, Nos. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 21. 61. 81. 95. +WILLIAM CROFT, 1710, four, Nos. 34. 43. 52. 76. +English, 18th cent., four, Nos. 12. 26. 33. 65. +J.S.BACH, eight settings, mostly of earlier melodies, Nos. 13. 57. 62. + 80. 83. 85. 90. 97. +Seven new tunes by H. E. W., Nos. 4. 11. 17. 18. 22. 46. 96. + + +NOTE + +'The seven tunes by Tallis are all transcripts of his original four-part +compositions. Only two of these tunes are in the common books; one of +them "The Ordinal" is always reset, the other "Canon," which is usually +sung to Bp. Ken's evening hymn, is completely altered, the canon being +put in a different position and the harmony changed. This tune is I +believe correctly edited for the first time in the Y. H. and it is now +thus sung at Wells Cathedral. + +'Of the eight tunes by Orlando Gibbons, two only (and these altered both +in rhythm and harmony) appear in the common books. All Gibbons' tunes are +given in the Y. H. with his own bass, the inner parts being supplied. + +'There is a complete list of the music in the word-book of the Yattendon +Hymnal, which is published by Mr. Blackwell of Broad Street, Oxford, and +may be bought for 1_s._ 6_d._' + + +THE +PREFACE TO THE NOTES + +The origin of this book was my attempt, when precentor of a village +choir, to provide better settings of the hymns than those in use. + +When I gave up my office, I printed the first twenty-five hymns for the +convenience of the choir, and also for the sake of the tunes by Jeremy +Clark, which I had been at some pains to restore, and for the +preservation of the tunes composed on our behalf by Professor Wooldridge. + +My choice of music had so far been limited to tunes, for which suitable +words were to be found in _Hymns Ancient & Modern_; but by the time that +these first tunes were printed, I determined to continue the book free of +this restriction, and, from whatever source, to provide words for tunes +which I had hitherto been unable to use. I then became aware of a real +cause for the absence of most of these tunes from the common hymnals: +_there were no words of any kind to which they could be sung_. Having +already translated some of the old Latin hymns for their proper melodies, +I was thence led on to the more difficult task of supplying the greater +need of these other tunes; the result being that over forty of these +hundred hymns have english words newly written by myself. Almost all of +these new hymns are in some sense translations, for even where an +original hymn could not be followed in its entirety, as an old Latin hymn +generally may be, there was usually a foundation to begin upon, and I +never failed to find the music conditioning, dictating, or inspiring the +remainder. I did not willingly engage in this, nor until I had searched +word-books of all kinds; a fruitless labour, unless for the hope begotten +thereof that my practice in versifying and my love for music may together +have created something of at least relative value. + +The unusual method which I was constrained to follow, that is of writing +words to suit existing music, has its advantages. In some cases, as will +be seen in the notes to the hymns, the musician, out of despair or even +contempt for the doggrel offered to him, has composed a fine tune quite +independent of the words to which it was dedicated[22], and such tunes +have been silent ever since they were composed: while even when a melody +has been actually inspired by a particular hymn, the attention of the +composer to the first stanza has not infrequently set up a hirmos, or at +least a musical scheme of feeling, which, not having been in the mind of +the writer of the words, is not carried out in his other stanzas[23]: +indeed, as every one must have observed, the words of hymns have too +often been written with insufficient attention to the conditions which a +repetition of any music to every stanza must impose. To get rid of such +discrepancies between words and music is advantageous to both, and +although this treatment cannot of course be applied to english +hymns,--which it is not allowable to alter, except in cases of glaring +unfitness or absurdity, such as would if uncorrected cause the neglect of +a good hymn[24],--yet, where the hymn has to be translated from a foreign +language, some reconstruction is generally inevitable, and it can follow +no better aim than that of the mutual enforcement of words and music. And +the words owe a courtesy to the music; for if a balance be struck between +the words and music of hymns, it will be found to be heavily in favour of +the musicians, whose fine work has been unscrupulously altered and +reduced to dullness by english compilers, with the object of conforming +it in rhythm to words that are unworthy of any music whatever. The chief +offenders here are the protestant reformers, whose metrical psalms, which +the melodies were tortured to fit, exhibit greater futility than one +would look for even in men who could thus wantonly spoil fine music[25]. + +The form and size of the book were determined by the type, chosen because +it was the only one that I could find of any beauty; and I wished that my +book should in this respect give an example, and be worthy both of the +music and its sacred use[26]. Moreover a book from which two or three +singers can read is more convenient in the choir than a multiplicity of +small books; and the music being in full score, its intention cannot be +mistaken: for it must be understood that most of these tunes are set in +the manner proper for voices, but unsuitable for the piano or other keyed +instrument; and the book is intended to encourage unaccompanied singing. +A choir that cannot sing unaccompanied cannot sing at all; and this is +not an uncommon condition in our churches, where choirs with varying +success accompany the organ. A proper manner of sustained singing, and +the true artistic pleasure that should govern it, will never be obtained +until these conditions are reversed. + +There is one novelty which I am responsible for introducing, namely the +four-part vocal settings of certain early plain-song melodies. The later +plain-song tunes, such as No. 44, are, I suppose[27], as fit for this +treatment as any other tunes of the same date; but in the case of the +earlier melodies, which were composed before the invention of any +complete system of harmony, it is generally agreed that they should be +sung in unison, in fact the more elaborate of them cannot be sung +otherwise. To give four-part settings of any of these early tunes calls +therefore for an explanation, which I will give as briefly as possible. + +When these tunes are sung, they are usually accompanied, and this implies +a harmonic treatment. Now the best harmonic treatment which they can have +is the Palestrinal, because that was the earliest complete system, and +therefore the nearest to their time, and also because we may rely on the +truth of its interpretation of the modes for the reason that Palestrina +had never heard any music that was not modal. A modern musician, if he +attempts to go back beyond Palestrina, must draw on his imagination, and +while his aim must be to produce something artistically and technically +less perfect than Palestrina's system, his work, when it is done, will +carry neither authority nor conviction. + +If then we take Palestrina's harmonic interpretation of the modes, it +seems to me that there can be no objection to giving vocal parts to the +simpler hymns. If it is preferred to sing them in unison, the modal +settings will be a guide to the accompanist. But it is my opinion that +such settings as I offer will really please, and they may possibly do +something to bring these tunes, which have a unique, unmatchable beauty, +into favour with choirs that dislike the effort and waste of unison +singing. These settings offer no difficulty of execution all; _that is +necessary is that the under voices should know the melody_: and though +this is not generally thought requisite in a modern hymn, it is asking +nothing extra of a choir that would sing the plain-song tunes; for even +if they are sung in unison, they must first be known by heart (otherwise +their rhythmical freedom, which defies notation, and is indispensable to +their beauty, cannot be approached), and when once a choir has got thus +far, the under parts, being phrased with the melody, will easily follow +it. An explanation of the notation of these settings is given in the note +to Hymn 29. Congregational singing of hymns is much to be desired; but, +though difficult to obtain, it is not permissible to provoke it by +undignified music. Its only sound musical basis is good melody: good +melodies should therefore be offered to the people, such as it has been +the object of this book to bring together; and they should have as much +freedom and variety of rhythm as possible. If some of the good melodies +are, owing to their wide compass or other difficulty, unfit for +congregational singing, this is an advantage; because neither are all +hymn-words equally suitable. Most of the words in this book are suitable +for congregational singing; some are not. A hymn-book which is intended +entirely for congregational use must be faulty in one of two ways; either +it will offer for congregational singing hymns whose sacred and intimate +character is profaned by such a treatment, or it will have to omit some +of the most beautiful hymns in the language: but congregations differ +much, not only with regard to the music in which they are capable of +joining, but also as to the sort of words which best express their +religious emotion. + + +In the following notes the left-hand side of the page is given to the +words, the right to the music of each hymn: in the latter column will be +found full information as to the text of the music, the source whence it +is derived, &c., together with a careful account of every departure that +has been made from the originals. It is hoped that this will not only be +of general interest, but that it may inspire confidence in the text of +the book, and ensure the reception which its authority demands. For the +text of the music, and all the statements in the notes, I am responsible; +excepting those portions of the notes which are therein assigned to their +proper authorities, and in these I am responsible for the correctness of +the quotations and references, in which I have done my best to secure +accuracy. I owe much to the kindness of Mr. W. Barclay Squire at the +British Museum; I have also to thank Mr. Godfrey Arkwright for the loan +of some rare books, and Dr. Chas. Wood of Cambridge for two settings and +occasional reading of music proofs; in which latter task I gratefully +record the help of Mr. J. S. Liddle and Dr. Percy Buck. To Mr. Miles +Birket Foster I owe the three trios by Jeremy Clark, and to the Revs. W. +H. Frere and G. H. Palmer the text of the plain-song melodies, and the +information concerning them which is given in the following notes: it is +due to the generosity with which they put their learning and judgement at +my disposal that I am able to offer these tunes with the same confidence +as the rest of the book. Professor Wooldridge, having co-operated with me +throughout, has allowed his name to appear on the title page. + + +[22]No. 28 is a good example of this. See also No. 98. + +[23]No. 57 is a good example. The line _Du bist mein, und ich bin dein_, + corresponds in stanza 2 with _Wenn die Welt in Trümmer fallt_, and in + stanza 4 with _Elend, Noth, Kreuz, Schmach und Tod_. Again in No. 77 + the opening phrase, _Mon Dieu, mon Dieu_, of the twenty-second psalm + needs music which conditions the other stanzas severely. Again the weak + apologetic latter half of the German hymn _Herzliebster Jesu_, No. 42, + is irreconcilably out of the key with the pathetic grief of the + beginning. Cases in which caesuras and grammatical breaks are + inconsistent are numberless. + +[24]See note to Hymn 90. Other english hymns altered for practical + purposes in this book are Nos. 19, 35, 51, last verse of 52, 66, 94, + and 96. + +[25]I give illustrations of these words in notes to Hymns 27, 54, 58, 63, + 68, 84, and 98. + +[26]The cheapness is not the direct cause of the ugliness of our common + hymn-books, nor is their ugliness the cause of their cheapness. If many + copies of a book are sold, they can be sold cheaply; if only a few, + then the initial expense, which is much the same whether the book be + beautiful or ugly, must be shared between those few buyers and the + author. But thus it comes about indirectly for cheapness to be the + cause of meanness and ugliness, because in a larger market there is + greater indifference to artistic excellence of all kinds, and from + habit a preference for what is inferior. In a large edition this book + could be sold as cheaply as another. + +[27]I state here once for all that in musical matters I offer my opinion + with becoming humility. + + + +ADVERTISEMENT + + +THE YATTENDON HYMNAL. + +Edited by Robert Bridges and Professor H. Ellis Wooldridge. Containing + 100 hymns and 4 voice-parts. Printed at the Oxford University Press, + 1899. May be obtained of Henry Frowde, Oxford Warehouse, Amen Corner, + London, E.C., or through any bookseller. Price, 4to boards, 1. A few + copies of the Folio, price 4, are still to be had. + + +THE WORD-BOOK OF THE +YATTENDON HYMNAL, + +Which contains a full list of the music, and is called, + +_THE SMALL HYMN-BOOK,_ + +may be had of B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, or through any +bookseller. Price 1_s._ 6_d._ + + +Oxford: Horace Hart, Printer to the University + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Practical Discourse on Some +Principles of Hymn-Singing, by Robert Bridges + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-SINGING *** + +***** This file should be named 21722-8.txt or 21722-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/7/2/21722/ + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson (This file was produced from +images generously made available by The Internet +Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/21722-8.zip b/21722-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2d97d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/21722-8.zip diff --git a/21722-h.zip b/21722-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..17eb596 --- /dev/null +++ b/21722-h.zip diff --git a/21722-h/21722-h.htm b/21722-h/21722-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ec4e17 --- /dev/null +++ b/21722-h/21722-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2168 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> + <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of Hymn-Singing, by Robert Bridges</title> + <style type="text/css"> + body { margin-left:5%; margin-right:5%; } + h1, h2, h3, h4, .center { text-align:center; clear:right; } + h3 { font-style:italic; } + table { clear:right; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; } + .sn { text-align:left; vertical-align:top; } + .snt { padding-bottom:1em; text-align:justify; } + p, blockquote { text-align:justify; } + em { margin-left:0em; text-align:right; float:right; } + em { display: block; } + .l0, .t, .t2, .t3, .t5 { margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } + .t, .fndef .t { margin-left:1em; } + .t2, .fndef .t2 { margin-left:2em; } + .t3 { margin-left:3em; } + .t5 { margin-left:5em; } + poem, div.poem { display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; font-size:100%; margin-top:1em; } + verse, div.verse { display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; font-size:100%; } + blockquote, .bq { font-size:85%; } + note { font-size:85%; color:red; } + l {display:block; } + sc, .sc { font-variant:small-caps; } + .fndef p { font-size:100%; margin-left:0em; text-indent:0em; } + div.fndef { margin-left:1em; text-indent:-1em; text-align:justify; font-size:80%; margin-top:1em; } + a sup { font-size:60%; } + .pb { text-align:right; float:right; font-size:70%; + margin-left:3em; margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:.5em; + display:inline; } + dt { text-align:justify; margin-left:2em; text-indent: -2em; } + dd { text-align:justify; margin-left:3em; text-indent: -2em; } + </style> +<!-- +--> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of +Hymn-Singing, by Robert Bridges + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of Hymn-Singing + +Author: Robert Bridges + +Release Date: June 6, 2007 [EBook #21722] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-SINGING *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson (This file was produced from +images generously made available by The Internet +Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="titlepg"> +<span class="pb" id="pg_i">[i]</span> +<table> +<tr><td> </td><td> +<table border="1"> +<tr><td><h1><small>A</small> +<br />Practical Discourse on some +<br />Principles of Hymn-Singing +<br />By Robert Bridges +<br /> +<br /><small>1901</small></h1> +</td></tr></table> +</td><td> </td></tr></table> +<p class="center"><i>Price, One Shilling, net</i></p> +<span class="pb" id="pg_ii">[ii]</span> +<h2>A +<br />Practical Discourse on some +<br />Principles of Hymn-Singing +<br />By Robert Bridges</h2> +<p class="center">Reprinted from the Journal of +<br />Theological Studies, October, 1899</p> +<p class="center">Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 50 & 51 Broad Street +<br />London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. +<br />1901</p> +<p><small>The Author's thanks are due to the Editors of the +Journal of Theological Studies, and to the Publishers, +Messrs. Macmillan, for permission to reprint.</small></p> +<span class="pb" id="pg_1">[1]</span> +</div> +<div class="body"> +<h2>A +<br />PRACTICAL DISCOURSE +<br /><small>ON SOME</small> +<br />PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-SINGING</h2> +<p>What St. Augustin says of the emotion which +he felt on hearing the music in the Portian basilica +at Milan in the year 386 has always seemed to +me a good illustration of the relativity of musical +expression; I mean how much more its ethical +significance depends on the musical experience of +the hearer, than on any special accomplishment +or intrinsic development of the art. Knowing of +what kind that music must have been and how few +resources of expression it can have had,--being +rudimental in form, without suggestion of harmony, +and in its performance unskilful, its probably nasal +voice-production unmodified by any accompaniment,--one +marvels at his description,</p> +<p class="bq">'What tears I shed at Thy hymns and canticles, +how acutely was my soul stirred by the voices and +<span class="pb" id="pg_2">[2]</span> +sweet music of Thy Church! As those voices entered +my ears, truth distilled in my heart, and thence +divine affection welled up in a flood, in tears +o'erflowing, and happy was I in those tears<a id="fr_1" href="#fn_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>.'</p> +<p>St. Augustin appears to have witnessed the beginnings +of the great music of the Western Church. +It was the year of his baptism when, he tells us, +singing was introduced at Milan to cheer the +Catholics who had shut themselves up in the +basilica with their bishop, to defend him from +the imperial violence:</p> +<p class="bq">'It was then instituted that psalms and hymns should +be sung, after the manner of the Eastern Churches, +lest the folk in the weariness of their grief should +altogether lose heart: and from that day to this the +custom has been retained; many, nay, nearly all +Thy flocks, in all regions of the world, following the +example<a id="fr_2" href="#fn_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a>.'</p> +<p>What great emotional power St. Augustin attributed +to ecclesiastical music, and of what importance +he thought it, may be seen in the tenth book of the +<i>Confessions</i>: he is there examining himself under +the heads of the senses, and after the sense of smell, +his chapter on the sense of hearing is as follows:</p> +<p class="bq">'The lust of the ears entangled and enslaved me +<span class="pb" id="pg_3">[3]</span> +more firmly, but Thou hast loosened and set me free. +But even now I confess that I do yield a very little +to the beauty of those sounds which are animated +by Thy eloquence, when sung with a sweet and +practised voice; not, indeed, so far that I am limed +and cannot fly off at +pleasure<a id="fr_3" href="#fn_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>: +and yield though +I do, yet these sweet sounds, joined with the divine +words which are their life, cannot be admitted to +my heart save to a place of some dignity, and +I hesitate to give them one as lofty as their +claim<a id="fr_4" href="#fn_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a>.</p> +<p class="bq">'For sometimes I seem to myself to be allowing +them undue honour, when I feel that our minds +are really moved to a warmer devotion and more +ardent piety by the holy words themselves when +they are so sung than when they are not so sung; +and when I recognize that all the various moods +of our spirit have their proper tones in speech +and song, by which they are, through I know not +what secret familiarity, excited. But the mere +sensuous delight, to which it is not fitting to resign +the mind to be enervated thereby, often deceives +me, whenever (that is) the delight of the senses does +not so accompany the reason as to be cheerfully in +submission thereto, but, having been admitted only +for reason's sake, then even attempts to go before +and to lead. Thus I sin without knowing, but afterwards +I know.</p> +<span class="pb" id="pg_4">[4]</span> +<p class="bq">'Then awhile, from too immoderate caution against +this deception, I err on the side of too great severity; +and sometimes go so far as to wish that all the +melody of the sweet chants which are used in the +Davidian psalter were utterly banished from my ears, +and from the ears of the Church; and that way +seems to me safer which I remember often to have +heard told of Athanasius, archbishop of Alexandria, +that he would have the lector of the psalm intone +it with but a slight modulation of voice, so as to +be more like one reading than one singing. And +yet, when I remember my tears, which I shed at the +hearing of the song of Thy Church in the first days +of my recovered faith, and that now I still feel the +same emotion, and am moved not by the singing +but by what is sung, when it is sung with a liquid +voice and in the most fitting "modulation," then +(I say) I acknowledge again the great utility of the +institution.</p> +<p class="bq">'Thus I fluctuate between the peril of sensuous +pleasure and the proof of wholesomeness, and am +more inclined (though I would not offer an irrevocable +judgement) to approve of the use of singing +in the Church, that, by the pleasure of the ear, +weaker minds may rise to the emotion of piety. +Yet when it happens to me to be more moved by +the music than by the words that are sung I confess +that I have sinned (poenaliter peccare), and +it is then that I would rather not hear the +singer<a id="fr_5" href="#fn_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a>.'</p> +<span class="pb" id="pg_5">[5]</span> +<p>What would St. Augustin have said could he have +heard Mozart's Requiem, or been present at some +Roman Catholic cathedral where an eighteenth-century +mass was performed, a woman hired from +the Opera-House whooping the <i>Benedictus</i> from the +western gallery?</p> +<p>It is possible that such music would not have +had any ethical significance to him, bad or good. +Augustin lived before what we reckon the very +beginnings of modern music, with nothing to entice +and delight his ears in the choir but the simplest +ecclesiastical chant and hymn-tune sung in unison. +We are accustomed to an almost over-elaborated art, +which, having won powers of expression in all +directions, has so squandered them that they are of +little value: and we may confidently say that the +emotional power of our church music is not so great +as that described by him 1,500 years ago. In fact if +we feel at all out of sympathy with Augustin's words, +it is because he seems to over-estimate the danger +of the emotion<a id="fr_6" href="#fn_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a>.</p> +<p>There is something very strange and surprising +in this state of things, this contrast between the +primitive Church with its few simple melodies that +<span class="pb" id="pg_6">[6]</span> +ravished the educated hearer, and our own full-blown +institution with its hymn-book of some 600 tunes, +which when it is opened fills the sensitive worshipper +with dismay, so that there are persons who would +rather not go inside a church than subject themselves +to the trial.</p> +<p>What is the matter? What is it that is wrong +with our hymnody? Even where there is not such +rooted disgust as I have implied, there is a growing +conviction that some reform is needed in words +or music, or both.</p> +<p>Assuming that the chief blame lies with the music +(as, I think, might easily be proved), I propose to +discuss the question of the music of our hymnody, +and I shall proceed on the basis of St. Augustin's +principles: I am sure that they would be endorsed by +any pious church-goer who had considered the subject, +and they may be fairly formulated thus, <i>The +music must express the words or sense: it should not +attract too much attention to itself: it should be +dignified: and its reason and use is to heighten religious +emotion.</i></p> +<p>One point calls for distinction: Augustin speaks +of his emotion on <i>hearing</i> the hymns and canticles; +he writes as if he had had no more thought of taking +part in the music himself, than we have of joining +in the anthem at a cathedral; and this might lead +<span class="pb" id="pg_7">[7]</span> +to a misunderstanding; for there is no doubt that +these hymns were sung by the people: the story +is that the very soldiers who were sent to blockade +the basilica, happening to be themselves catholics, +joined their voices in the stanzas which St. Ambrose +had specially composed to disconcert the Arian enemy.</p> +<p>The ecstasy of listening to music, and the enthusiasm +of a crowd who are all singing or shouting the +same hymn or song are emotions of quite different +nature and value. Now, neglecting the rare conditions +under which these emotions may be combined, we +shall, as we are speaking of hymns, be concerned +chiefly with the latter kind, for all will agree that +hymns are that part of the Church music in which +it is most desirable that the congregation should +join: and I believe that there would be less difference +in practice if it were at all easy to obtain good +congregational singing, or even anything that is worthy +of the name. It seems perhaps a pity that nature +should have arranged that where the people are +musical (as Augustin appears to have been) they +would rather listen, and where they are unmusical +they would all rather sing.</p> +<p>Speaking therefore of congregational hymn-singing, +and conceding, as I think we must, that the essential +use of such music is to heighten emotion, then, this +emotional quality being the <i>sine qua non</i> +(the music +<span class="pb" id="pg_8">[8]</span> +being of no use without it), it follows that it is the +primary consideration. If we are to have music at +all, it must be such as will raise or heighten emotion; +and to define this we must ask, <i>Whose emotion?</i> and +<i>What kind of emotion?</i></p> +<p>Let us take this latter question first, and inquire +what emotions it is usual, proper, or possible to +express by congregational singing of hymns. William +Law, in his <i>Serious Call</i>, has an interesting, +I may say amusing, chapter on the duty of all to sing, +whether they have any turn or inclination for it +or no. All should sing, he says, even though they +dislike doing so; and I think that what he affirms of +private devotion applies with greater force to public +worship. It should satisfy the most ardent advocate +of congregational singing, and it goes certainly to +the root of the matter.</p> +<p class="bq">'It is so right and beneficial to devotion, has so +much effect upon our hearts, that it may be insisted +on as a common rule for all persons; ... for singing +is as much the proper use of a psalm as devout +supplication is the proper use of a form of prayer: +and a psalm only read is very much like a prayer that +is only looked over.... If you were to tell a +person that has such a song, that he need not sing +it, that it was sufficient to peruse it, he would wonder +what you meant, ... as if you were to tell him +<span class="pb" id="pg_9">[9]</span> +that he should only look at his food, to see whether +it was good, but need not eat it.... You will +perhaps say that singing is a particular talent, that +belongs only to particular people, and that you have +neither voice nor ear for music.</p> +<p class="bq">'If you had said that singing is a general talent, +and that people differ in that as they do in all other +things, you had said something much truer.</p> +<p class="bq">'For how vastly people differ in the talent of +thinking, which is not only common to all men, but +seems to be the very essence of human nature: ... +yet no one desires to be excused from thought +because he has not this talent in any fine degree....</p> +<p class="bq">'If a person were to forbear praying because he +had an odd tone in his voice, he would have as good +an excuse as he that forbears from singing psalms +because he has but little management of his voice....</p> +<p class="bq">'These songs make a sense (of) delight in God +they awaken holy devotion: they teach how to ask: +they kindle a holy flame....</p> +<p class="bq">'Singing is the natural effect of <small>JOY</small> in the heart, ... +and it is also the natural means of raising <small>EMOTIONS OF +JOY</small> in the mind: such <small>JOY AND THANKFULNESS</small> to God +as is the highest perfection of a divine and holy life.'</p> +<p>Now though I cannot feel the force of all Law's +arguments nor easily bring myself to believe that +a person who dislikes singing, and has no ear for +music, will readily find any comfortable assistance +to his private devotion from making efforts to hit +<span class="pb" id="pg_10">[10]</span> +off the notes of the scale; yet I feel that Law's +position is in the main sound, and that he has +correctly specified the emotion most proper to that +kind of uncultured singing which he describes: and +though congregational psalm-singing necessarily +involves a greater musical capacity than that assumed +in Law's extreme case, and may therefore have a +wider field, yet we may begin by laying down that +<small>JOY</small>, <small>PRAISE</small>, and <small>THANKSGIVING</small> +give us the first main +head of what is proper to be expressed, and we may +extend this head by adding <small>ADORATION</small> and perhaps +the involved emotions of <small>AWE</small> and <small>PEACE</small> and even +the attitude of <small>CONTEMPLATION</small>.</p> +<p>In such a subject as the classification of emotions +as they may be expressed by music of one kind or +another, it is plainly impossible to make any definite +tabulation with which all would agree. The very +names of the emotions will, to different minds, +call up different associations of feeling. If any +agreement could be arrived at, it would be at the +expense of distinction; and all that I can expect +is to have my distinctions understood, and in the +main agreed with. And as I am most ready to +grant to the reader his right to a different opinion +on any detail, I beg of him the same toleration, and +that he will rather try to follow my meaning than +dwell on discrepancies which may be due to a fault +<span class="pb" id="pg_11">[11]</span> +of expression, or to a difference of meaning which +he and I may attach to the same word.</p> +<p>With this apology in preamble, I will attempt to +make some classification of emotions as they seem +to me to be the possible basis for musical expression +in congregational singing.</p> +<p>We have already one class: I would add a second, +to include all the hymns which exhibit the simple +attitude of <small>PRAYER</small>.</p> +<p>A third class I would put under the head of +<small>FAITH</small>. Examples of this class will no doubt often +cross with those of the first class, but they will +specify themselves as <small>CELEBRATIONS</small> of events of +various <small>COMMEMORATION</small>, introducing a distinct form, +namely <small>NARRATION</small>, which is a very proper and +effective form for general praise.</p> +<p>Also this section will include all the hymns of +<small>BROTHERHOOD</small> and <small>FELLOWSHIP</small>, +and of <small>SPIRITUAL CONFLICT</small>, with the +correlative <i>invitatory</i> and <i>exhortatory</i> +songs, as modified by what will be said later.</p> +<p>Also, lastly, under this same head of Faith, the +<small>DOCTRINAL</small> hymns, and professions of creed whether +sectarian or otherwise, which, if the definition be +taken widely, make a large and popular class, well +exemplified by the German hymns of the Reformation, +or by those of our Wesleyan revival; strong +with the united feeling of a small body, asserting +<span class="pb" id="pg_12">[12]</span> +itself in the face of opposition: concerning which +we will not speak further, except to recall the fact +that this kind of enthusiasm was not absent from the +causes which first introduced hymns into the Western +Church.</p> +<p>I believe that this is a pretty full list of all the +attitudes of mind that can be properly expressed by +congregational singing; and if we turn to other +emotions which are made the subject of church +hymns, we shall, I think, see that they are all of +them liable to suffer damage by being entrusted to +the rough handling of general vociferation.</p> +<p>Such will be all hymns of <small>DIVINE AFFECTION</small> and +<small>YEARNING</small>; all <small>LAMENTS</small> and +<small>CONSOLATIONS</small>; all descriptions of spiritual +conditions which imply personal experience and feeling, +as <small>ABASEMENT, HUMILIATION, +CONTRITION, REPENTANCE, RESIGNATION, SELF-DEVOTION, +CONVICTION</small>, and <small>SATISFACTION</small>.</p> +<p>Here I feel that many readers will be inclined to +dissent from what I say, and as I shall not again recur +to Law, I should like, in order to show my meaning, +to call up his extreme example of an unmusical +person singing in private devotion. If one pictures +such a case as he supposes, is it not clear, whether +one imagines oneself the actor or the unwilling +auditor, that while such an exhibition of joy might +perhaps pass, yet a similar incompetent attempt to +<span class="pb" id="pg_13">[13]</span> +express any of the last-named emotions would be +only ridiculous? But between this single worshipper +and the congregation the incompetence seems to me +only a question of degree; while in the far more +considerable respect of the sincerity of the feeling +in the hearts of those expressing it, Law's singer +has every advantage; indeed no objection on this +score can be raised to him. But now suppose for +a moment that he has <i>not</i> the emotion at heart +corresponding to his attempt at song, and I think +the differentiation of motives for congregational +singing will seem justifiable.</p> +<p>All these last-named emotions,--which I have taken +from congregational hymn-books,--and I suppose +there may be more of them,--call for delicacy of +treatment. A Lamentation, for instance, which +might seem at first sight as if it would gain force +by volume, will, if it is realistic or clumsy, become +unmanly, almost so as to be ridiculous, and certainly +depressing to the spirit rather than purifying. In +fact while many of the subjects require beautiful +expression, they are also more properly used when +offered as inspiring ideals; and to assume them to +be of common attainment or experience is to degrade +them from their supreme sanctity. But in thus +ruling them unfit for general singing one must +distinguish large miscellaneous congregations from +<span class="pb" id="pg_14">[14]</span> +small united bodies, in which a more intimate emotion +may be natural: and as there is no exact line +of distinction here, so there is no objection to +the occasional and partial intrusion of some of +these more intimate subjects into congregational +hymns.</p> +<p>To this first question then, as to what emotions +are fit to be expressed by congregational music, the +answer appears to be that the more general the +singing, the more general and simple should be +the emotion and that the universally fitting themes +are those of simple praise, prayer, or faith: and +we might inquire whether one fault of our modern +hymn-books may not be their attempt to supply +congregational music to unfitting themes.</p> +<p>To the next question, <i>Whose emotion</i> is this +congregational music to excite or heighten? the answer +is plain: It is the average man, or one rather below +the average, the uneducated, as St. Augustin says +the weaker, mind and that in England is, at least +artistically, a narrow mind and a vulgar being. +And it may of course be alleged that the music in our +hymn-books which is intolerable to the more sensitive +minds was not put there for them, but would justify +itself in its supposed fitness for the lower classes. +'What use,' the pastor would say to one who, on the +ground of tradition advocated the employment of +<span class="pb" id="pg_15">[15]</span> +the old plain-song and the Ambrosian melodies, +'What use to seek to attract such people as those in +my cure with the ancient outlandish and stiff melodies +that pleased folk a thousand years ago, and which +I cannot pretend to like myself?' Or if his friend is a +modern musician, who is urging him to have nothing +in his church but what would satisfy the highest +artistic sense of the day, his answer is the same: +he will tell you that it would be casting pearls before +swine; and that unless the music is 'tuney' and +'catchy' the people will not take to it. And we +cannot hastily dismiss these practical objections. +The very Ambrosian music which is now so strange +to modern ears was doubtless, when St. Ambrose +introduced it, much akin to the secular music of the +day, if it was not directly borrowed from it: and +the history of hymn-music is a history of the adaptations +of profane successes in the art to the uses of the +Church. Nor do I see that it can ever be otherwise, +for the highest music demands a supernatural material; +so that it would seem an equal folly for musicians +to neglect the unique opportunity which religion +offers them, and for religion to refuse the best +productions of human art. And we must also remember +that the art of the time, whether it be bad or good, +has a much more living relation to the generation +which is producing it, and exerts a more powerful +<span class="pb" id="pg_16">[16]</span> +influence upon it, than the art of any time that is +past and gone. It is the same in all aspects of life: +it is the book of the day, the hero or statesman of +the hour, the newest hope, the latest flash of scientific +light, which attracts the people. And it must be, +on the face of it, true that any artist who becomes +widely popular must have hit off, 'I know not by +what secret familiarity,' the exact fashion or caprice +of the current taste of his own generation.</p> +<p>And this is so true that it must be admitted that +it is not always the uneducated man only whose +taste is hit off. In the obituary notices of such +men as Gladstone and Tennyson the gossip will +inform us, rightly or wrongly, that their 'favourite +hymn<a id="fr_7" href="#fn_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a>' +was, not one of the great masterpieces of +the world,--which, alas, it is only too likely that +in their long lives they never heard,--but some +tune of the day: as if in the minds of men whose +lives appealed strongly to their age there must be +something delicately responsive to the exact ripple +of the common taste and fashion of their generation.</p> +<p>All this makes a strong case: and it would seem, +since our hymn-music is to stir the emotions of the +<span class="pb" id="pg_17">[17]</span> +vulgar, that it must itself be both vulgar and modern; +and that, in the interest of the weaker mind, we +must renounce all ancient tradition and the maxims +of art, in order to be in touch with the music-halls.</p> +<p>This is impossibly absurd; and unless there is +some flaw in our argument, the fault must lie in +the premisses; we have omitted some necessary +qualification.</p> +<p>The qualification which we neglected is this, that +<i>the music must be dignified</i>, and suitable to the meaning; +and we should only have wasted words in ignoring +what we knew all along, if we had not, by so doing, +brought this qualification into its vital prominence, +and at the same time exposed the position of those +who neglect it, and the real reason of the mean +condition of our church music.</p> +<p>The use of undignified music for sacred purposes +may perhaps be justified in exceptional cases, which +must be left to the judgement of those who consider +all things lawful that they may save some. But if +from the mission service this licence should creep +into the special service, and then invade every act +of public worship, it must be met with an edict of +unscrupulous exclusion. Not that it can be truly +described as thus having crept in in our time. It is +always creeping, it has flourished in special habitats +for four or five hundred years, and before then there +<span class="pb" id="pg_18">[18]</span> +is the history of Palestrina's great reform of like +abuses. If in our time in England we differ in any +respect for the worse, it is rather in the universal +prevalence of a mild form of the degradation, which +is perhaps more degrading than the occasional exceptional +abuses of a more flagrant kind, which cannot +hide their scandal but bring their own condemnation.</p> +<p>There is indeed no extreme from which this abuse +has shrunk; perhaps the worst form of it is the +setting of sacred hymns to popular airs, which are +associated in the minds of the singers with secular, +or even comic and amatory words<a id="fr_8" href="#fn_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a>: of which it is +impossible to give examples, because the extreme +instances are blasphemies unfit to be quoted; and it +is only these which could convey an adequate idea of +the licence<a id="fr_9" href="#fn_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> +The essence of the practice appears to +<span class="pb" id="pg_19">[19]</span> +be the production of a familiar excitement, with the +intention of diverting it into a religious channel.</p> +<p>But, even in the absence of secular or profane +association, congregational singing, when provoked +by undignified music, such as may be found in plenty +in our modern hymn-books, may be maintained +without the presence of religious feeling, out of mere +<span class="pb" id="pg_20">[20]</span> +high spirits, or as we say, 'in fun,' and may easily +give rise to mockery. I have witnessed examples +enough in proof of this, but if I gave them it might +be thought that I wished to amuse profane readers<a id="fr_10" href="#fn_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a>. +And though such extreme disasters may be exceptional +outbursts, yet they are always but just beneath +the surface, and are the inevitable outcome of the +use of unworthy means. The cause of such a choice +of means must be either an artistic incapacity to +distinguish, or a want of faith in the power of +religious emotion when unaided by profane adjuncts. +What would St. Augustin have ruled here, or thought +of the confusion of ideas, which, being satisfied with +any expression, mistakes one emotion for another?</p> +<p>The practical question now arises. We know the +need; how is it to be supplied? We require music +which will reach the emotions of uneducated people, +and in which they will delight to join, and in which +<span class="pb" id="pg_21">[21]</span> +it shall be easy to join: and it must be dignified and +not secular. If we condemn and reject the music +which the professional church-musicians have supplied +with some popular success to meet the need, what +is there to take its place? Of what music is our +hymn-book to be constructed, which shall be at once +dignified, sacred, and popular?</p> +<p>The answer is very simple: it is this, <i>Dignified +Melody</i>. Good melody is never out of fashion; and +as it is by all confession the seal of high musical +genius, so it is that form of music which is universally +intelligible and in the best sense popular; and we +have a rich legacy of it. What we want is that our +hymn-books should contain a collection of the best +ecclesiastical and sacred hymn-melodies, and <i>nothing +but these</i>, instead of having but a modicum of these, +for the most part mauled and illset, among a crowd of +contributions of an altogether inferior kind; the whole +collection being often such that if an ill-natured critic +were to assert that the compilers had degraded and +limited the old music in order to set off their own, it +would be difficult to meet him with a logical +refutation.</p> +<p>The shortest and most practical way of treating +this subject will be to give some account of the +sources from which the music of such a hymn-book +as I propose would be drawn. I will take +<span class="pb" id="pg_22">[22]</span> +these in their chronological order. First in order of +time are the Plain-song melodies.</p> +<p>I have already stated the ordinary objection to these +tunes, that they are stiff and out of date. Now it +may be likely enough that they will never be so +universally popular in our country as the fine melodies +invented on the modern harmonic system, yet the +idea that they are not popular in character, and that +modern people will not sing them, is a mistake; +there is plenty of evidence on this point. Nor must +we judge them by the incompetent, and I confess +somewhat revolting aspect in which they were offered +to us by the Anglo-gregorianists of thirty years ago, +a presentment which has gone far to ruin their +reputation; they are better understood now, and may +be heard here and there sung as they should be. +They are of great artistic merit and beauty; and +instead of considering them <i>a priori</i> as uncongenial +on the ground of antiquity, we should rather be +thinking of them that they were invented at a time +when unison singing was cultivated in the highest +perfection, so much so that a large number of these +tunes are, on account of their elaborate and advanced +rhythm, not only far above the most intelligent taste +of the minds with which we have to deal, but are +also so difficult of execution that there are few trained +choirs in the country that could render them well. +<span class="pb" id="pg_23">[23]</span> +To the simpler tunes, however, these objections do +not apply: in fact there are only two objections that +can be urged against them, and both of these will be +found on examination to be advantages.</p> +<p>The first objection is that they are not in the +modern scale. Now as this objection is only felt by +persons who have cramped their musical intelligence +by an insufficient technical education, and cannot +believe that music is music unless they are modulating +in and out of some key by means of a sharp seventh;--and +as the nature of the ecclesiastical modes is too +long a subject, and too abstruse for a paper of this +sort, even if I were competent to discuss it;--I shall +therefore content myself by stating that the ecclesiastical +modes have, for melodic purposes (which is all +that we are considering), advantages over the modern +scale, by which they are so surpassed in harmonic +opportunities. Even such a thoroughgoing admirer +of the modern system as Sir Hubert Parry writes on +this subject, that it 'is now quite obvious that for +melodic purposes such modes as the Doric and +Phrygian were infinitely (<i>sic</i>) preferable to the Ionic,' +i.e. to our modern major keys<a id="fr_11" href="#fn_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a>. And it will be +evident to every one how much music has of late +<span class="pb" id="pg_24">[24]</span> +years sought its charm in modal forms, under the +guise of national character.</p> +<p>The second objection is their free rhythm. They +are not written in barred time, and cannot without +injury be reduced to it.</p> +<p>As this question affects also other classes of hymns, +I will here say all that I have to say, or have space +to say, about the rhythm of hymn-tunes; confining +my remarks generally to the proper dignified rhythms.</p> +<p>In all modern musical grammars it is stated that +there are virtually only two kinds of time. The +time-beat goes either by twos or some multiple of +two, or by threes or some multiple of three, and the +accent recurs at regular intervals of time, and is +marked by dividing off the music into bars of equal +length. Nothing is more important for a beginner +to learn, and yet from the point of view of rhythm +nothing could be more inadequate. <i>Rhythm is infinite.</i> +These regular times are no doubt the most +important fundamental entities of it, and may even +lie undiscoverably at the root of all varieties of +rhythm whatsoever, and further they may be the +only possible or permissible rhythms for a modern +composer to use, but yet the absolute dominion +which they now enjoy over all music lies rather in +their practical necessity and convenience (since it is +only by attending to them that the elaboration of +<span class="pb" id="pg_25">[25]</span> +modern harmonic music is possible), than in the +undesirability (in itself) or unmusical character of +melody which ignores them. In the matter of hymn-melodies +an unbarred rhythm has very decided +advantages over a barred rhythm. In the former +the melody has its own way, and dances at liberty +with the voice and sense; in barred time it has its +accents squared out beforehand, and makes steadily +for its predetermined beat, plumping down, as one +may say, on the first note of every bar whether it +will or no. Sing to any one a Plain-song melody, +<i>Ad coenam Agni</i> for instance, once or twice, and +then Croft's 148th Psalm<a id="fr_12" href="#fn_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a>. Croft will be undeniably +fine and impressive, but he provokes a smile: his +tune is like a diagram beside a flower.</p> +<p>Now in this matter of rhythm our hymn-book +compilers, since the seventeenth century, have done +us a vast injury. They have reduced all hymns to +the common times. Their procedure was, I suppose, +dictated by some argument such as this: 'The +people must have what they can understand: they +only understand the simple two and three time: +<i>ergo</i> we must reduce all the tunes to these measures.' +Or again, 'It will be easier for them to have all the +<span class="pb" id="pg_26">[26]</span> +tunes as much alike as possible: therefore let us make +them all alike, and write them all in equal minims.'</p> +<p>Both these ideas are absolutely wrong. A hymn-tune, +which they hastily assume to be the commonest +and lowest form of music, actually possesses liberties +coveted by other music<a id="fr_13" href="#fn_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a>. It is a short melody, +committed to memory, and frequently repeated: +there is no reason why it should submit to any of +the time-conveniences of orchestral music: there +is no reason why its rhythm should not be completely +free; nor is there any <i>a priori</i> necessity why +<span class="pb" id="pg_27">[27]</span> +any one tune should be exactly like another in rhythm. +It will be learned by the ear (most often in childhood), +be known and loved for its own sake, and +blended in the heart with the words which interpret +it: and this advantage was instinctively felt by +those of our early church composers who, already +understanding something of the value of barred +music, yet deliberately avoided cramping the rhythms +of their hymn-tunes by too great subservience to it<a id="fr_14" href="#fn_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>. +One of the first duties therefore which we owe to +hymn-melodies is the restoration of their free and +original rhythms, keeping them as varied as possible: +the Plain-song melodies must be left unbarred and +be taught as free rhythms, and all other fine tunes +which are worth using should be preserved in their +original rhythm; because free rhythm is better, and +its variety is good, and because the attraction of +a hymn-melody lies in its individual character and +expression, and not at all in its time-likeness to +other tunes. This last idea has been a chief cause +in the degradation of our hymns.</p> +<p>I may conclude then that the best of these simpler +<span class="pb" id="pg_28">[28]</span> +Plain-song tunes are very fit for congregational use. +They should be offered as pure melody in free rhythm +and sung in unison: their accompaniment must +not be entrusted to a modern grammarian. It is +well also to use most of them in their English form, +the <i>Old Sarum Use</i> as it is called; which happily +preserves to us a national tradition, in the opinion +of some experts older and more correct than any +known on the continent; and if the differences in +our English version are not due to purity of tradition, +they will have another and almost greater interest, as +venerable records of the genius of our national taste. +These Plain-song tunes have probably a long future before +them; since, apart from their merit, they are indissolubly +associated with the most ancient Latin hymns, +some of which are the very best hymns of the Church.</p> +<p>The next class of tunes<a id="fr_15" href="#fn_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> +is that of the <span class="sc">Reformation</span> +hymns, English, French, and German, dating from +about 1550 to some way on in the seventeenth century. +The chief English group is known as <i>Sternhold and +Hopkins' Psalter</i>, which was mostly of eight-line +tunes. This book was virtually put together in +Geneva about 1560, and antiquarians make much +of it. If stripped, however, of its stolen plumes and +<span class="pb" id="pg_29">[29]</span> +later additions it is really an almost worthless affair, +the true history of it being as follows. A French +musician named Louis Bourgeois, whom Calvin +brought with him to Geneva in 1541, turned out +to be an extraordinary genius in melody; he remained +at Geneva about fifteen years, and in that +time compiled a Psalter of eighty-five tunes, almost +all of which are of great merit, and many of the +very highest excellence. The splendour of his work, +which was merely appreciated as useful at the time, +was soon obscured, for immediately on his leaving +Geneva, the French Psalter was completed by inferior +hands, whose work, being mixed in with his, lowered +the average of the whole book enormously, and +Bourgeois' work was never distinguished until, +quite lately, the period of his office was investigated +and compared with the succeeding editions of his +book. Now the English refugees compiled their +'Sternhold and Hopkins' at Geneva, in imitation +of the French, during the time of Bourgeois' residence, +and took over a number of the French tunes; +though they <i>mauled these most unmercifully</i> to bring +them down to the measure of their doggerel psalms, +yet even after this barbarous treatment Bourgeois' +spoilt tunes were still far better than what they +made for themselves, and sufficient not only to float +their book into credit, but to kindle the confused +<span class="pb" id="pg_30">[30]</span> +enthusiasm of subsequent English antiquarians, whose +blind leadership has had some half-hearted following. +But if these French tunes, and those which are +pieced in imitation of Bourgeois, be extracted from +this English Psalter, then, with one or two exceptions, +there will remain hardly anything of value<a id="fr_16" href="#fn_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a>.</p> +<p>To leave the English tunes for a moment and +continue the subject, we shall practically exhaust +the French branch of this class by saying that our +duty by them is to use a great number of Bourgeois' +tunes, <i>restoring their original form</i>. They are +masterpieces +<span class="pb" id="pg_31">[31]</span> +which have remained popular on the continent +from the first; thoroughly congenial to our national +taste, and the best that can be imagined for solemn +congregational singing of the kind which we might +expect in England. The difficulty is the same that +beset the old original psalter-makers, i.e. to find +words to suit their varied measures. But this must +be done<a id="fr_17" href="#fn_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a>. These tunes in dignity, solemnity, pathos, +and melodic solidity leave nothing to desire.</p> +<p>The English eight-line tunes of Sternhold and +Hopkins we may then, with one or two exceptions, +dismiss to neglect; but among the four-line 'common' +tunes which gradually ousted them, there are +about a dozen of high merit: these being popular +still at the present day require no notice, except to +<span class="pb" id="pg_32">[32]</span> +32 +insist that they should be well harmonized in the +manner of their date, and generally have the long +initials and finals of all their lines observed. They +are much finer than any one would guess from their +usual dull presentment. Their manner, as loved +and praised by Burns, is excellent, and there is no +call to alter it<a id="fr_18" href="#fn_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a>.</p> +<p>Contemporary with this group there is a legacy of +a dozen and more fine tunes composed by Tallis and +Orlando Gibbons, the neglect or treatment of which +is equally disgraceful to all concerned.</p> +<p>As for the German tunes of the Reformation, +attempts to introduce the German church-chorales +into anything like general use in England have +never, so far as I know, been successful, owing, +I suppose, to a difference in the melodic sense of the +two nations. But some few of them are really +popular, and more would be if they were properly +presented with suitable words; and it should not be +a difficult task to provide words even more suitable +and kind than the original German, which seldom +observes an intelligent, dignified and consistent +<span class="pb" id="pg_33">[33]</span> +mood. These chorales should be sung very slow +indeed, and will admit of much accompaniment. +Bach's settings, when not too elaborate or of +impossible compass in the parts, may be well used +where the choir is numerically strong. He has made +these chorales peculiarly his own, and, in accepting +his interpretation of them, we are only acquiescing +in a universal judgement, while we make an exception +in favour of genius; for as a general rule (which will +of course apply to those chorales which we do not +use in Bach's version), all the music of this +Reformation period must be harmonized strictly in the +vocal counterpoint which prevailed at the end of the +sixteenth century; since that is not only its proper +musical interpretation, but it is also the ecclesiastical +style <i>par excellence</i>, the field of which may reasonably +be extended, but by no means contracted. It is +suitable both for simple and elaborate settings, for +hymns of praise or of the more intimate ideal +emotions, and in a resonant building a choir of six +voices can produce complete effects with it. The +broad, sonorous swell of its harmonious intervals +floods the air with peaceful power, very unlike the +broken sea of Bach's chromatics, which, to produce +anything like an equal effect of sound, needs to be +powerfully excited.</p> +<p>It is necessary to insist strongly on one caution, +<span class="pb" id="pg_34">[34]</span> +viz. that grammar is not style, and settings which +avoid modernisms are not for that reason a fair +presentation of the old manner. Nothing is less +like a fine work of art than its incompetent imitation. +And this practically exhausts, as far as I am aware, +the material which this period provides.</p> +<p>The next class will be made up of our <span class="sc">Restoration</span> +hymns, by Jeremy Clark, Croft, and others who +added to the succeeding editions of the metrical +Psalms. If there are not many in this class, yet the +few are good; and Clark must be regarded as the +inventor of the modern English hymn-tune, regarded, +that is, as a pure melody in the scale with harmonic +interpretation of instrumental rather than true vocal +suggestion. His tunes are pathetic, melodious, and +of truly national and popular character, the best of +them almost unaccountably free from the indefinable +secular taint that such qualities are apt to introduce, +and which the bad following of his example did very +quickly introduce in the hands of less sensitive +artists. They are suitable for evening services.</p> +<p>After this time there followed in England, in the +wake of Handel, a degradation of style which is now +completely discredited. Diatonic flow, with tediously +orthodox modulation, overburdened with conventional +graces, describe these innumerable and indistinguishable +productions. And just as the old tunes were +<span class="pb" id="pg_35">[35]</span> +related to the motets and madrigals, so are these to +the verse-anthems and glees of their time. These +weak ditties, in the admired manner of Lord +Mornington, were typically performed by the genteel +pupils of the local musician, who, gathered round +him beneath the laughing cherubs of the organ case, +warbled by abundant candlelight to their respectful +audience with a graceful execution that rivalled the +weekday performances of <i>Celia's Arbour</i> and the +<i>Spotted Snakes</i>. Good tunes may be written at any +time, for style is independent of fashion; but there +are very few exceptions to the complete and unregretted +disappearance of all the tunes of this date.</p> +<p>We have then nothing left for us to do but to +review the material which the revival of music in +the last fifty years has given us in the way of hymns.</p> +<p>This last group divides naturally into two main +heads; first the restoration of old hymns of all kinds, +with their plain, severer manner, in reaction against +the abused graces; and secondly the appearance of +a vast quantity of new hymns.</p> +<p>Concerning the restoration of the old hymns, we +cannot be too grateful to those who pointed the right +way, and, according to their knowledge and the +opportunities of the taste of their day, did the best +that they could. But, as our remarks under the +<span class="pb" id="pg_36">[36]</span> +heads of Plain-song and Reformation hymns will +show, this knowledge, taste, and opportunity were +insufficient, and all their work requires to be done +afresh.</p> +<p>We are therefore left to the examination of the +modern hymns. In place of this somewhat invidious +task, I propose to make a few remarks on the general +question of the introduction of modern harmony +into ecclesiastical music, with reference of course to +hymns only. It cannot escape the attention of any +one that the modern church music has for one chief +differentiation the profuse employment of pathetic +chords, the effect of which is often disastrous to the +feelings.</p> +<p>Comparing a modern hymn-tune in this style with +some fine setting of an old tune in the diatonic +ecclesiastical manner, one might attribute the +superiority of the old music entirely to its harmonic +system; but I think this would be wrong.</p> +<p>It is a characteristic of all early art to be +<i>impersonal</i><a id="fr_19" href="#fn_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a>. +As long as an art is growing, artists are engaged in +rivalry to develop the new inventions in a scientific +manner, and individual personality is not called out. +<span class="pb" id="pg_37">[37]</span> +With the exhaustion of the means in the attainment +of perfection a new stage is reached, in which +individual expression is prominent, and seems to +take the place of the scientific impersonal interest +which aimed at nothing but beauty: so that the chief +distinction between early and late art is that the +former is impersonal, the latter personal.</p> +<p>Turning now to the subject of ecclesiastical music, +and comparing thus Palestrina with Beethoven or +Mozart, is it not at once apparent that Palestrina +has this distinct advantage, namely, that he seems +not to interfere at all with, or add anything to, the +sacred words? His early musical art is impersonal, +what the musicians call 'pure music'; and if he is +setting the phrases of the Liturgy or Holy Scriptures, +we are not aware of any adjunct; it seems rather as +if the sacred words had suddenly become musical. +Not so with Mozart or Beethoven; we may prefer +their music, but it has interfered with the sacred +words, it has, in fact, added a personality.</p> +<p>It must of course be conceded that this gives a +very strong if not logically an almost unassailable +position to those who would confine sacred music +to the ecclesiastical style. But it seems to me +ridiculous to suppose that genius cannot use all good +means with reserve and dignity; and if the modern +church music will not stand comparison in respect +<span class="pb" id="pg_38">[38]</span> +of dignity and solemnity with the old, the fault must +rather lie in the manner in which the new means are +used, than in the means themselves; nor would I +myself concede that there is no place in church for +music which is tinged with a human personality; +I should be rather inclined to reckon the great +musicians among the prophets, and to sympathize +with any one who might prefer the personality of +Beethoven (as revealed in his works) to that of a +good many canonized seers. What is logical is that +we should be careful as to what personality we admit, +and see that the modern means are used with +reserve.</p> +<p>Now if we examine our modern hymn-tunes, do +we find any sign of that reserve of means which we +should expect of genius, or any style which we could +attribute to the personality of a genius? Let any +one in doubt try the following experiment: copy out +some 'favourite tune' in the 'admired manner' of +the present day, and show it to some musician who +may happen not to know it, and ask him if it is not +by Brahms; then see how he will receive any further +remarks that you may make to him on the subject of +music.</p> +<p>These new tunes are in fact, for the most part, the +indistinguishable products of a school given over to +certain mannerisms, and might be produced <i>ad libitum</i>, +<span class="pb" id="pg_39">[39]</span> +as indeed they are; just as were the tunes +of the Lord Mornington school before described: +and though the composers and compilers of these +modern tunes would be the first to deride the exploded +fashion, their own fashion is more foolish, and +promises to be as fugitive<a id="fr_20" href="#fn_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a>.</p> +<p>I have said very little in this essay on the words +of hymns. I will venture to add one or two judgements +here. <i>First</i>, that in the Plain-song period, +words and music seem pretty equal and well matched. +<i>Secondly</i>, that in the Reformation period, and for +some time onwards, the musicians did far better +than the sacred poets, and have left us a remainder +of admirable music, for which it is our duty to find +words. <i>Thirdly</i>, that the excuse which some musicians +have offered for the sentimentality of their modern +tunes, namely, that the words are so sentimental, +is not without point as a criticism of modern hymn-words, +<span class="pb" id="pg_40">[40]</span> +but is of no value whatever as a defence +of their practice. The interpretative power of music +is exceedingly great, and can force almost any words +(as far as their sentiment is concerned) into a good +channel.</p> +<p>And if music be introduced at all into public +worship it must be most jealously and scrupulously +guarded. It is a confusion of thought to suppose +that because--as St. Augustin would tell us--it is +not a vital matter to religion whether it employ +music or not, therefore it can be of little consequence +what sort of music is used: and the attitude of +indifference towards it, which has seemed to me +to be almost a point of correct ecclesiastical manners, +must be the expression of a convinced despair, which, +in the present state of things, need not surprise. +Devout persons are naturally afraid of secular ideals, +and shrink from the notion of art intruding into +the sanctuary; and, especially if they have never +learned music, they will share St. Augustin's jealousy +of it; and it is the more difficult to remove their +objections, when what they are innocently suffering +in the name of art curdles the artist's blood with +horror, and keeps him away from church. The artist +too, to whom we might look for help, is the <i>rara +avis in terris</i>, and, in regard to his sympathy with +the clergy, would often be thought by them to deserve +<span class="pb" id="pg_41">[41]</span> +the rest of the hexameter; but it is really to his +credit that he is loth to meddle with church music. +Its social vexations, its eye to the market, its +truckling to vulgar taste and ready subservience +to a dominant fashion, which can never (except +under the rarest combination of circumstances) be +good;--all this is more than enough to hold +him off. Where then is the appeal? <i>Quis custodiet</i>?</p> +<p>The unwillingness of the clergy<a id="fr_21" href="#fn_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> +to know anything +about music might be got over if the music +could be set on a proper basis; and in the present +lack of authority and avowed principles, it would +be well if such of our cathedral precentors and +organists as have the matter at heart would consult +and work together with the purpose of instructing +pastors and people by the exhibition of what is good. +This is what we might expect of our religious musical +foundations, which are justifying the standing +condemnation of utilitarian economists so long as the +stipendiaries are content indolently to follow the +<span class="pb" id="pg_42">[42]</span> +fortuitous traditions of the books that lie in the choir, +supplemented by the penny-a-sheet music of the +common shops. In the Universities, too, it should +be impossible for an undergraduate not to gain +acquaintance with good ecclesiastical music, and this +is not ensured by an occasional rare performance +of half a dozen old masterpieces which are preserved +in heartless compliment to antiquity. It is to such +bodies that we must first look for help and guidance +to give our church music artistic importance: for +let no one think that the church can put the artistic +question on one side. There is no escape from art; +art is only the best that man can do, and his second, +third, fourth or fifth best are only worse efforts in +the same direction, and in proportion as they fall +short of the best the more plainly betray their +artificiality. To refuse the best for the sake of +something inferior of the same kind can never be a policy; +it is rather an uncorrected bad habit, that can only +be excused by ignorance; and ignorance on the +question of music is every day becoming less excusable; +and the growing interest and intelligence +which all classes are now showing should force on +religion a better appreciation of her most potent +ally. Music being the universal expression of the +mysterious and supernatural, the best that man has +ever attained to, is capable of uniting in common +<span class="pb" id="pg_43">[43]</span> +devotion minds that are only separated by creeds, +and it comforts our hope with a brighter promise +of unity than any logic offers. And if we consider +and ask ourselves what sort of music we should wish +to hear on entering a church, we should surely, in +describing our ideal, say first of all that it must be +something different from what is heard elsewhere; +that it should be a sacred music, devoted to its +purpose, a music whose peace should still passion, +whose dignity should strengthen our faith, whose +unquestioned beauty should find a home in our +hearts, to cheer us in life and death; a music +worthy of the fair temples in which we meet, and +of the holy words of our liturgy; a music whose +expression of the mystery of things unseen never +allowed any trifling motive to ruffle the sanctity +of its reserve. What power for good such a music +would have!</p> +<p>Now such a music our Church has got, and does +not use; we are content to have our hymn-manuals +stuffed with the sort of music which, merging the +distinction between sacred and profane, seems designed +to make the worldly man feel at home, +rather than to reveal to him something of the life +beyond his knowledge; compositions full of cheap +emotional effects and bad experiments made to be +cast aside, the works of the purveyors of marketable +<span class="pb" id="pg_44">[44]</span> +fashion, always pleased with themselves, and always +to be derided by the succeeding generation.</p> +<hr /> +<p>Example is better than precept; and my own +venture as a compiler of a hymn-book has made it +possible for me to say much that otherwise I should +not have said. In <i>The Yattendon Hymnal</i>, printed +by Mr. Horace Hart at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, +and to be had of Mr. Frowde, price 20<i>s.</i>, will be +found a hundred hymns with their music, chosen for +a village choir. The music in this book will show +what sort of a hymnal might be made on my +principles, while the notes at the end of the volume +will illustrate almost every point in this essay which +requires illustration, besides many others. As a +complement to this essay and for advertisement of +the Hymnal I here give the prefaces of that book, +which are as follows:--</p> +<div class="fnblock"> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_1" href="#fr_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a><i>Confess.</i> ix. 6. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_2" href="#fr_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a><i>Ibid.</i> ix. 7. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_3" href="#fr_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>This is perhaps rather a quality proper to the sensation. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_4" href="#fr_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a>'Et vix eis praebeo congruentem [locum].' +which might only mean 'I cannot find the right +place for them.' +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_5" href="#fr_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a><i>Confess.</i> x. 13. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_6" href="#fr_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a>St. Augustin does not allow that a vague emotion can +be religious; it must be directed. Few would agree to +this. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_7" href="#fr_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a>I assume 'favourite hymn' to mean a sung hymn. +The interest of the record must lie in its being of a +heightened emotion of the same kind as that described by +St. Augustin in his own case, <i>What tears I shed</i>, &c. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_8" href="#fr_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a>It was not an uncommon practice on the Continent +(say from 1540 to 1840), to print books of hymns to be +sung to the current secular airs; and the names or first +lines of these airs were set above the hymn-words as the +musical direction. M. Douen, in his <i>Clément Marot et le +Psautier Huguenot</i>, vol. i, ch. 22, has given an account of +some of these books; and any one who wishes to follow +this branch of the subject may read his chapter. He does +not notice the later Italian <i>Laude Spirituali</i>, +which might +have supplied incredible monsters to his museum. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_9" href="#fr_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a>Besides, the main fault of these books, from which we +should have to quote, is the <i>association</i> of the music, and +this is really an accident, the question before us being the +<i>character</i> of the music; so that we should require musical +illustration, for though the common distinction between +sacred and secular music is in the main just, yet the line +cannot be drawn at the original intention, or historical +origin of the music: the true differentiation lies in the +character of the music, the associated sentiment being +liable to change. If we were to banish from our hymn-books +all the tunes which we know to have a secular +origin, we should have to part with some of the most +sacred and solemn compositions; and where would the +purist obtain any assurance that the tunes which he retained +had a better title? In the sixteenth century, when so many +fine hymn-melodies were written, a musician was working +in the approved manner if he adapted a secular melody, or +at least borrowed a well-known opening phrase: and since +the melodies of that time were composed mainly in conjunct +movement, such initial similarities were unavoidable; +for one may safely say that it very soon became impossible, +under such restrictions, to invent a good opening phrase +which had not been used before. The secular airs, too, of +that time were often as fit for sacred as profane use; and +if I had to find a worthy melody for a good new hymn, +I should seek more hopefully among them than in the +sacred music of our own century. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_10" href="#fr_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a>I +may give the following experience without offence. +When I was an undergraduate there was a song from +a comic opera by Offenbach so much in favour as to be <i>de +rigueur</i> at festive meetings. Now there was at the same +time a counterpart of this song popular at evensong in the +churches: it was sung to 'Hark, hark, my soul.' I believe +it is called <i>L'encens des fleurs</i>. They seemed to me both +equally nauseating: it was certainly an accident that +determined which should be sung at worship and which at +wine. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_11" href="#fr_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a><i>The Art of Music</i>, by C Hubert H. Parry. London, +1893, 1st edit. p. 48. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_12" href="#fr_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a>And give Croft the advantage of his original rhythm, +not the mis-statement in <i>Hymns Ancient and Modern</i>, +No. 414. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_13" href="#fr_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a>It would be very damaging to my desire to convince, +if I should seem to deny that the mistaken practice of these +hymn-book compilers was based on the solid ground of +secular common-sense. If anything is true of rhythm it +is this, that the common mind likes common rhythms, +such as the march or waltz, whereas elaboration of rhythm +appeals to a trained mind or artistic faculty. I should say +that the popularity of common rhythms is due to the shortness +of human life, and that if men were to live to be 300 +years old they would weary of the sort of music which +Robert Browning describes so well-- + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t">'There 's no keeping one's haunches still,</p> +<p class="t">There 's no such pleasure in life.'</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>But hymn-melodies must not be put on that level. It is +desirable to have in church something different from what +goes on outside, and (as I say in the text) a hymn-tune +need not appeal to the lowest understanding on first hearing. +The simple free rhythms, too, are perfectly natural; they +were free-born.</p> +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_14" href="#fr_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>I +need only instance Orlando Gibbons' tune called +'Angels.' The original is a most ingenious combination of +rhythms; and its masterly beauty could not be guessed +from the inane form into which it is degraded in <i>Hymns +Ancient and Modern</i>, No. 8. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_15" href="#fr_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a>I omit, for want of space, +mention of the late Plain-song +melodies (which would give a good many excellent +tunes); and, for want of knowledge, the Italian tunes. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_16" href="#fr_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a>Comparing +the English with the French Genevan +Psalter, I do not think my judgement is too severe on our +own. It had a few fine tunes original to it; best of all +the cxxxvii (degraded in <i>Hymns Ancient and Modern</i>). This +is of such exceptional beauty that I believe it must have +been written by Bourgeois for Whittingham. Next perhaps +is lxxvii (called 81st in <i>H. A. M.</i>), the original of which, +in Day, 1566, is a fine tune, degraded already in Este, +1592, which version <i>H. A. M.</i> follows: it is said to have +come from Geneva. Besides these, xxv and xliv, which +are the only other tunes from this source in <i>H. A. M.</i>, are +very favourable examples, and I do not think that they +will rescue the book. Nor can I believe that these old +English D.C.M. tunes were ever much used. They are +too much alike for many of them to have been committed +to memory, while all the editions which I happen to have +seen are full of misprints, and the four-line tunes which +drove them out were early in the field, and increased +rapidly. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_17" href="#fr_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a>When one turns the pages of that most +depressing of all books ever compiled by the groaning +creature, Julian's hymn-dictionary, and sees the +thousands of carefully tabulated English hymns, +by far the greater number of them not only pitiable +as efforts of human intelligence, but absolutely +worthless as vocal material for melodic treatment, +one wishes that all this effort had been directed to supply +a real want. E. g. the two Wesleys between them wrote +thirteen octavo volumes, of some 400 pages each, full of +closely printed hymns. One must wish that Charles +Wesley at least (who showed in a few instances how well +he could do) had, instead of reeling off all this stuff, concentrated +his efforts to produce only what should be worthy of his talents and +useful to posterity. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_18" href="#fr_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a>If old tunes are modernized out of a fine rhythm, a +curious result would be likely to come about; viz. that +modern tunes might be written in the old rhythm for the +sake of novelty, while the old were being sung in the more +modern way for the sake of uniformity. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_19" href="#fr_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a>This fact is of course generally recognized. The +explanation in the text is one which was elaborately +illustrated by the Slade Professor at Oxford, in his last +course of lectures on painting. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_20" href="#fr_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a>There is one point +which I cannot pass over. It has +become the practice in modern books to put marks of +musical expression to the words, directing the congregation +when to sing loud or soft. This implies a habit of +congregational performance the description of which would +make a companion picture to the organ gallery of 1830. It +seems to me a practice of inconceivable degradation: one +asks in trembling if it is to be extended to the Psalms. +It is just as if the congregation were school-children singing +to please a musical inspector, and he a stupid one. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_21" href="#fr_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a>It must be due to +unwillingness that comparatively so few of our clergy +can take their part in the service when it +is musical. Village schoolmasters tell me that two hours +a week is sufficient in a few months to bring all the +children up to a standard of time and tune and reading +at sight that would suffice a minor canon. +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="tunelist"> +<div class="pb" id="pg_45">[45]</div> +<h3>PREFACE TO THE +<br />YATTENDON HYMNAL</h3> +<p>Among the old melodies which it is the chief object +of this book to restore to use, some will be found +which will be quite new to the public, while others +will be familiar though in a somewhat different form; +and since the sources whence all the tunes are taken +are well known, and have been already largely drawn +upon by the compilers of Psalters and Hymnals, any +melody which is new in this book may be considered +as having been hitherto overlooked or rejected, while +in the alternative case it is to be understood that the +original cast of the melody has at some former time +been altered (frequently to suit the English common +metre to which it was not at first conformable), and +is now restored.</p> +<p>The plain-song tunes, of which an account is given +in the preface to the notes, and the few other old +tunes which do not fall into either of the two +<span class="pb" id="pg_46">[46]</span> +above-mentioned classes, were included for the sake of +their settings.</p> +<p>With respect to the vocal settings in four parts +it may be said that, in the numerous cases in which +such settings were not added by the composer of the +melody, the editors have done their best to supply +the want in a suitable manner, and with some +attempt towards the particular qualities of workmanship +upon which much of the beauty of the old vocal +counterpoint depends; and this latter aim has also +governed the composition of the six tunes not derived +from old sources which have been included in the +work.</p> +<p>This book is offered in no antiquarian spirit. The +greater number of these old tunes are, without question, +of an excellence which sets them above either +the enhancement or the ruin of Time, and at present +when so much attention is given to music it is to be +desired that such masterpieces should not be hidden +away from the public, or only put forth in a corrupt +and degraded form. The excellence of a nation in +music can have no other basis than the education +and practice of the people; and the quality of the +music which is most universally sung must largely +determine the public taste for good or ill.</p> +<p>Since such information as might be looked for in +an introduction is given in the notes at the end of +<span class="pb" id="pg_47">[47]</span> +the volume, there is nothing to add here but a list +of the sources and composers in order of date, which +should in the eyes of musicians go far to justify this +attempt.</p> +<h3>SYNOPSIS OF THE MUSIC IN ORDER OF DATE</h3> +<dl> +<dt>PLAIN-SONG MELODIES,</dt> +<dd>Sarum use, nine, Nos. 29. 30. 31. 32. 47. 48. 49. 75. 86.</dd> +<dd>Ambrosian, two, Nos. 91. 100.</dd> +<dd>Later plain-song, two, Nos. 44. 45.</dd> +<dt>HEINRICH ISAAC, 1490, one tune, Nos. 82 & 83.</dt> +<dt>From the Strasbourg Psalter, before 1540, two, Nos. 37. 72.</dt> +<dt>German of same date, one, No. 16.</dt> +<dt>LOUIS BOURGEOIS, 1550, thirteen, Nos. 3. 19. 20. 27. 58. 64. 67. 70. 74. 77. 79 & 80. 88. 99 & see 66 & 84.</dt> +<dt>CHRISTOPHER TYE, 1550, one, No. 15.</dt> +<dt>From Crespin's Psalters, circ. 1560, three, Nos. 41. 84. 89.</dt> +<dt>THOMAS TALLIS, 1560, seven, Nos. 2. 14. 54 & 55. 59. 68. 78. 98. +<span class="pb" id="pg_48">[48]</span></dt> +<dt>From the French Genevan Psalter, after 1560, one, No. 92.</dt> +<dt>A setting by CLAUDE GOUDIMEL, 1565, No. 88.</dt> +<dt>English, 16th cent, four, Nos. 39. 53. 66. 87.</dt> +<dt>Two settings by GEO. KIRBY, 1592, Nos. 39. 53.</dt> +<dt>A setting by J. Farmer, 1592, No. 87.</dt> +<dt>A setting by Rd. ALLISON, 1599, No. 84.</dt> +<dt>Italian, 16th cent., one, No. 1.</dt> +<dt>HANS LEONHARD HASSLER, 1600, one, No. 62.</dt> +<dt>THOS. CAMPION, 1613, one, No. 36.</dt> +<dt>ORLANDO GIBBONS, 1623, eight, Nos. 23. 24. 25. 28. 35. 38. 56. 94.</dt> +<dt>HENRY LAWES, 1638, one, No. 73.</dt> +<dt>JOHANN CRUEGER, 1640, four, Nos. 41. 57. 93. 97.</dt> +<dt>English & Scotch, 1600-1650, seven, Nos. 10. 40. 50. 51. 60. 63. 71.</dt> +<dt>German, 17th cent, two, Nos. 69. 90.</dt> +<dt>JEREMY CLARK, 1700, nine, Nos. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 21. 61. 81. 95.</dt> +<dt>WILLIAM CROFT, 1710, four, Nos. 34. 43. 52. 76.</dt> +<dt>English, 18th cent., four, Nos. 12. 26. 33. 65.</dt> +<dt>J. S. BACH, eight settings, mostly of earlier melodies, Nos. 13. 57. 62. 80. 83. 85. 90. 97.</dt> +<dt>Seven new tunes by H. E. W., Nos. 4. 11. 17. 18. 22. 46. 96.</dt> +</dl> +<span class="pb" id="pg_49">[49]</span> +<h3>NOTE</h3> +<p>'The seven tunes by Tallis are all transcripts of +his original four-part compositions. Only two of +these tunes are in the common books; one of them +"The Ordinal" is always reset, the other "Canon," +which is usually sung to Bp. Ken's evening hymn, +is completely altered, the canon being put in a +different position and the harmony changed. This tune +is I believe correctly edited for the first time in the +Y. H. and it is now thus sung at Wells Cathedral.</p> +<p>'Of the eight tunes by Orlando Gibbons, two only +(and these altered both in rhythm and harmony) +appear in the common books. All Gibbons' tunes +are given in the Y. H. with his own bass, the inner +parts being supplied.</p> +<p>'There is a complete list of the music in the word-book +of the Yattendon Hymnal, which is published +by Mr. Blackwell of Broad Street, Oxford, and may +be bought for 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>'</p> +<span class="pb" id="pg_50">[50]</span> +</div> +<div class="body"> +<h3>THE +<br />PREFACE TO THE NOTES</h3> +<p>The origin of this book was my attempt, when +precentor of a village choir, to provide better settings +of the hymns than those in use.</p> +<p>When I gave up my office, I printed the first +twenty-five hymns for the convenience of the choir, +and also for the sake of the tunes by Jeremy Clark, +which I had been at some pains to restore, and for +the preservation of the tunes composed on our behalf +by Professor Wooldridge.</p> +<p>My choice of music had so far been limited to +tunes, for which suitable words were to be found in +<i>Hymns Ancient & Modern</i>; but by the time that these +first tunes were printed, I determined to continue +the book free of this restriction, and, from whatever +source, to provide words for tunes which I had hitherto +been unable to use. I then became aware of a real +cause for the absence of most of these tunes from +the common hymnals: <i>there were no words of any kind +to which they could be sung</i>. Having already translated +<span class="pb" id="pg_51">[51]</span> +some of the old Latin hymns for their proper melodies, +I was thence led on to the more difficult task +of supplying the greater need of these other tunes; +the result being that over forty of these hundred +hymns have english words newly written by myself. +Almost all of these new hymns are in some sense +translations, for even where an original hymn could +not be followed in its entirety, as an old Latin hymn +generally may be, there was usually a foundation to +begin upon, and I never failed to find the music +conditioning, dictating, or inspiring the remainder. +I did not willingly engage in this, nor until I had +searched word-books of all kinds; a fruitless labour, +unless for the hope begotten thereof that my practice +in versifying and my love for music may together +have created something of at least relative value.</p> +<p>The unusual method which I was constrained to +follow, that is of writing words to suit existing music, +has its advantages. In some cases, as will be seen in +the notes to the hymns, the musician, out of despair +or even contempt for the doggrel offered to him, +has composed a fine tune quite independent of the +words to which it was dedicated<a id="fr_22" href="#fn_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a>, and such tunes +have been silent ever since they were composed: +while even when a melody has been actually inspired +<span class="pb" id="pg_52">[52]</span> +by a particular hymn, the attention of the composer +to the first stanza has not infrequently set up a hirmos, +or at least a musical scheme of feeling, which, +not having been in the mind of the writer of the +words, is not carried out in his other stanzas<a id="fr_23" href="#fn_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a>: +indeed, as every one must have observed, the words +of hymns have too often been written with insufficient +attention to the conditions which a repetition of any +music to every stanza must impose. To get rid of +such discrepancies between words and music is +advantageous to both, and although this treatment +cannot of course be applied to english hymns,--which +it is not allowable to alter, except in cases of glaring +unfitness or absurdity, such as would if uncorrected +cause the neglect of a good hymn<a id="fr_24" href="#fn_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a>,--yet, where the +<span class="pb" id="pg_53">[53]</span> +hymn has to be translated from a foreign language, +some reconstruction is generally inevitable, and it +can follow no better aim than that of the mutual +enforcement of words and music. And the words +owe a courtesy to the music; for if a balance be +struck between the words and music of hymns, it will +be found to be heavily in favour of the musicians, +whose fine work has been unscrupulously altered and +reduced to dullness by english compilers, with the +object of conforming it in rhythm to words that are +unworthy of any music whatever. The chief offenders +here are the protestant reformers, whose metrical +psalms, which the melodies were tortured to fit, +exhibit greater futility than one would look for even +in men who could thus wantonly spoil fine music<a id="fr_25" href="#fn_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a>.</p> +<p>The form and size of the book were determined +by the type, chosen because it was the only one that +I could find of any beauty; and I wished that my +book should in this respect give an example, and be +worthy both of the music and its sacred use<a id="fr_26" href="#fn_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a>. Moreover +<span class="pb" id="pg_54">[54]</span> +a book from which two or three singers can +read is more convenient in the choir than a multiplicity +of small books; and the music being in full +score, its intention cannot be mistaken: for it must +be understood that most of these tunes are set in the +manner proper for voices, but unsuitable for the piano +or other keyed instrument; and the book is intended +to encourage unaccompanied singing. A choir that +cannot sing unaccompanied cannot sing at all; and +this is not an uncommon condition in our churches, +where choirs with varying success accompany the +organ. A proper manner of sustained singing, and +the true artistic pleasure that should govern it, will +never be obtained until these conditions are reversed.</p> +<p>There is one novelty which I am responsible for +introducing, namely the four-part vocal settings of +certain early plain-song melodies. The later plain-song +tunes, such as No. 44, are, I suppose<a id="fr_27" href="#fn_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a>, as fit +for this treatment as any other tunes of the same +date; but in the case of the earlier melodies, which +<span class="pb" id="pg_55">[55]</span> +were composed before the invention of any complete +system of harmony, it is generally agreed that they +should be sung in unison, in fact the more elaborate +of them cannot be sung otherwise. To give four-part +settings of any of these early tunes calls therefore +for an explanation, which I will give as briefly as +possible.</p> +<p>When these tunes are sung, they are usually accompanied, +and this implies a harmonic treatment. +Now the best harmonic treatment which they can +have is the Palestrinal, because that was the earliest +complete system, and therefore the nearest to their +time, and also because we may rely on the truth of +its interpretation of the modes for the reason that +Palestrina had never heard any music that was not +modal. A modern musician, if he attempts to go +back beyond Palestrina, must draw on his imagination, +and while his aim must be to produce something +artistically and technically less perfect than +Palestrina's system, his work, when it is done, will +carry neither authority nor conviction.</p> +<p>If then we take Palestrina's harmonic interpretation +of the modes, it seems to me that there can be no +objection to giving vocal parts to the simpler hymns. +If it is preferred to sing them in unison, the modal +settings will be a guide to the accompanist. But it +is my opinion that such settings as I offer will really +<span class="pb" id="pg_56">[56]</span> +please, and they may possibly do something to bring +these tunes, which have a unique, unmatchable beauty, +into favour with choirs that dislike the effort and +waste of unison singing. These settings offer no +difficulty of execution all; <i>that is necessary is that the +under voices should know the melody</i>: and though this +is not generally thought requisite in a modern hymn, +it is asking nothing extra of a choir that would sing +the plain-song tunes; for even if they are sung in +unison, they must first be known by heart (otherwise +their rhythmical freedom, which defies notation, and +is indispensable to their beauty, cannot be approached), +and when once a choir has got thus far, the under +parts, being phrased with the melody, will easily +follow it. An explanation of the notation of these +settings is given in the note to Hymn 29. Congregational +singing of hymns is much to be desired; +but, though difficult to obtain, it is not permissible +to provoke it by undignified music. Its only sound +musical basis is good melody: good melodies should +therefore be offered to the people, such as it has been +the object of this book to bring together; and they +should have as much freedom and variety of rhythm +as possible. If some of the good melodies are, owing +to their wide compass or other difficulty, unfit for +congregational singing, this is an advantage; because +neither are all hymn-words equally suitable. Most +<span class="pb" id="pg_57">[57]</span> +of the words in this book are suitable for congregational +singing; some are not. A hymn-book which +is intended entirely for congregational use must be +faulty in one of two ways; either it will offer for +congregational singing hymns whose sacred and intimate +character is profaned by such a treatment, or +it will have to omit some of the most beautiful hymns +in the language: but congregations differ much, not +only with regard to the music in which they are +capable of joining, but also as to the sort of words +which best express their religious emotion.</p> +<hr /> +<p>In the following notes the left-hand side of the +page is given to the words, the right to the music +of each hymn: in the latter column will be found +full information as to the text of the music, the +source whence it is derived, &c., together with a +careful account of every departure that has been made +from the originals. It is hoped that this will not +only be of general interest, but that it may inspire +confidence in the text of the book, and ensure the +reception which its authority demands. For the text +of the music, and all the statements in the notes, +I am responsible; excepting those portions of the +notes which are therein assigned to their proper +authorities, and in these I am responsible for the +correctness of the quotations and references, in which +<span class="pb" id="pg_58">[58]</span> +I have done my best to secure accuracy. I owe much +to the kindness of Mr. W. Barclay Squire at the +British Museum; I have also to thank Mr. Godfrey +Arkwright for the loan of some rare books, and +Dr. Chas. Wood of Cambridge for two settings and +occasional reading of music proofs; in which latter +task I gratefully record the help of Mr. J. S. Liddle +and Dr. Percy Buck. To Mr. Miles Birket Foster +I owe the three trios by Jeremy Clark, and to the +Revs. W. H. Frere and G. H. Palmer the text of the +plain-song melodies, and the information concerning +them which is given in the following notes: it is due +to the generosity with which they put their learning +and judgement at my disposal that I am able to offer +these tunes with the same confidence as the rest of +the book. Professor Wooldridge, having co-operated +with me throughout, has allowed his name to appear +on the title page.</p> +<div class="fnblock"> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_22" href="#fr_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a>No. 28 is a good +example of this. See also No. 98. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_23" href="#fr_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a>No. +57 is a good example. The line <i>Du bist mein, +und ich bin dein</i>, corresponds in stanza 2 with <i>Wenn die +Welt in Trümmer fallt</i>, and in stanza 4 with <i>Elend, Noth, +Kreuz, Schmach und Tod</i>. Again in No. 77 the opening +phrase, <i>Mon Dieu, mon Dieu</i>, of the twenty-second psalm needs +music which conditions the other stanzas severely. Again +the weak apologetic latter half of the German hymn +<i>Herzliebster Jesu</i>, No. 42, is irreconcilably out of the key with +the pathetic grief of the beginning. Cases in which +caesuras and grammatical breaks are inconsistent are +numberless. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_24" href="#fr_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a>See note to Hymn 90. Other english hymns altered +for practical purposes in this book are Nos. 19, 35, 51, last +verse of 52, 66, 94, and 96. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_25" href="#fr_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a>I +give illustrations of these words in notes to Hymns +27, 54, 58, 63, 68, 84, and 98. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_26" href="#fr_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a>The cheapness is not the direct cause of the ugliness +of our common hymn-books, nor is their ugliness the cause +of their cheapness. If many copies of a book are sold, +they can be sold cheaply; if only a few, then the initial +expense, which is much the same whether the book be +beautiful or ugly, must be shared between those few buyers +and the author. But thus it comes about indirectly for +cheapness to be the cause of meanness and ugliness, +because in a larger market there is greater indifference to +artistic excellence of all kinds, and from habit a preference +for what is inferior. In a large edition this book could be +sold as cheaply as another. +</div> +<div class="fndef"><a id="fn_27" href="#fr_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a>I state here +once for all that in musical matters I offer +my opinion with becoming humility. +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="ads"> +<span class="pb" id="pg_59">[59]</span> +<table border="1"> +<tr><td> +<h3 class="oblique">ADVERTISEMENT</h3> +<h3>THE YATTENDON HYMNAL.</h3> +<p>Edited by Robert Bridges and Professor H. Ellis +Wooldridge. Containing 100 hymns and 4 voice-parts. +Printed at the Oxford University Press, 1899. +May be obtained of Henry Frowde, Oxford Warehouse, +Amen Corner, London, E.C., or through any +bookseller. Price, 4to boards, £1. A few copies of +the Folio, price £4, are still to be had.</p></td></tr> +<tr><td> +<h3>THE WORD-BOOK OF THE +<br />YATTENDON HYMNAL,</h3> +<p class="center">Which contains a full list of the music, and is called,</p> +<p class="center"><small><i>THE SMALL HYMN-BOOK,</i></small></p> +<p class="center">may be had of B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, +or through any bookseller. Price 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p class="center">Oxford: <span class="sc">Horace Hart</span>, Printer to the University</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Practical Discourse on Some +Principles of Hymn-Singing, by Robert Bridges + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-SINGING *** + +***** This file should be named 21722-h.htm or 21722-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/7/2/21722/ + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson (This file was produced from +images generously made available by The Internet +Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of Hymn-Singing + +Author: Robert Bridges + +Release Date: June 6, 2007 [EBook #21722] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-SINGING *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson (This file was produced from +images generously made available by The Internet +Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + +A +Practical Discourse on some +Principles of Hymn-Singing +By Robert Bridges +1901 + + +_Price, One Shilling, net_ + + +A +Practical Discourse on some +Principles of Hymn-Singing +By Robert Bridges + +Reprinted from the Journal of +Theological Studies, October, 1899 + +Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 50 & 51 Broad Street +London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. +1901 + +The Author's thanks are due to the Editors of the Journal of Theological +Studies, and to the Publishers, Messrs. Macmillan, for permission to +reprint. + + +A +PRACTICAL DISCOURSE +ON SOME +PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-SINGING + +What St. Augustin says of the emotion which he felt on hearing the music +in the Portian basilica at Milan in the year 386 has always seemed to me +a good illustration of the relativity of musical expression; I mean how +much more its ethical significance depends on the musical experience of +the hearer, than on any special accomplishment or intrinsic development +of the art. Knowing of what kind that music must have been and how few +resources of expression it can have had,--being rudimental in form, +without suggestion of harmony, and in its performance unskilful, its +probably nasal voice-production unmodified by any accompaniment,--one +marvels at his description, + + 'What tears I shed at Thy hymns and canticles, how acutely was my soul + stirred by the voices and sweet music of Thy Church! As those voices + entered my ears, truth distilled in my heart, and thence divine + affection welled up in a flood, in tears o'erflowing, and happy was I + in those tears[1].' + +St. Augustin appears to have witnessed the beginnings of the great music +of the Western Church. It was the year of his baptism when, he tells us, +singing was introduced at Milan to cheer the Catholics who had shut +themselves up in the basilica with their bishop, to defend him from the +imperial violence: + + 'It was then instituted that psalms and hymns should be sung, after the + manner of the Eastern Churches, lest the folk in the weariness of their + grief should altogether lose heart: and from that day to this the + custom has been retained; many, nay, nearly all Thy flocks, in all + regions of the world, following the example[2].' + +What great emotional power St. Augustin attributed to ecclesiastical +music, and of what importance he thought it, may be seen in the tenth +book of the _Confessions_: he is there examining himself under the heads +of the senses, and after the sense of smell, his chapter on the sense of +hearing is as follows: + + 'The lust of the ears entangled and enslaved me more firmly, but Thou + hast loosened and set me free. But even now I confess that I do yield a + very little to the beauty of those sounds which are animated by Thy + eloquence, when sung with a sweet and practised voice; not, indeed, so + far that I am limed and cannot fly off at pleasure[3]: and yield though + I do, yet these sweet sounds, joined with the divine words which are + their life, cannot be admitted to my heart save to a place of some + dignity, and I hesitate to give them one as lofty as their claim[4]. + + 'For sometimes I seem to myself to be allowing them undue honour, when + I feel that our minds are really moved to a warmer devotion and more + ardent piety by the holy words themselves when they are so sung than + when they are not so sung; and when I recognize that all the various + moods of our spirit have their proper tones in speech and song, by + which they are, through I know not what secret familiarity, excited. + But the mere sensuous delight, to which it is not fitting to resign the + mind to be enervated thereby, often deceives me, whenever (that is) the + delight of the senses does not so accompany the reason as to be + cheerfully in submission thereto, but, having been admitted only for + reason's sake, then even attempts to go before and to lead. Thus I sin + without knowing, but afterwards I know. + + 'Then awhile, from too immoderate caution against this deception, I err + on the side of too great severity; and sometimes go so far as to wish + that all the melody of the sweet chants which are used in the Davidian + psalter were utterly banished from my ears, and from the ears of the + Church; and that way seems to me safer which I remember often to have + heard told of Athanasius, archbishop of Alexandria, that he would have + the lector of the psalm intone it with but a slight modulation of + voice, so as to be more like one reading than one singing. And yet, + when I remember my tears, which I shed at the hearing of the song of + Thy Church in the first days of my recovered faith, and that now I + still feel the same emotion, and am moved not by the singing but by + what is sung, when it is sung with a liquid voice and in the most + fitting "modulation," then (I say) I acknowledge again the great + utility of the institution. + + 'Thus I fluctuate between the peril of sensuous pleasure and the proof + of wholesomeness, and am more inclined (though I would not offer an + irrevocable judgement) to approve of the use of singing in the Church, + that, by the pleasure of the ear, weaker minds may rise to the emotion + of piety. Yet when it happens to me to be more moved by the music than + by the words that are sung I confess that I have sinned (poenaliter + peccare), and it is then that I would rather not hear the singer[5].' + +What would St. Augustin have said could he have heard Mozart's Requiem, +or been present at some Roman Catholic cathedral where an +eighteenth-century mass was performed, a woman hired from the Opera-House +whooping the _Benedictus_ from the western gallery? + +It is possible that such music would not have had any ethical +significance to him, bad or good. Augustin lived before what we reckon +the very beginnings of modern music, with nothing to entice and delight +his ears in the choir but the simplest ecclesiastical chant and hymn-tune +sung in unison. We are accustomed to an almost over-elaborated art, +which, having won powers of expression in all directions, has so +squandered them that they are of little value: and we may confidently say +that the emotional power of our church music is not so great as that +described by him 1,500 years ago. In fact if we feel at all out of +sympathy with Augustin's words, it is because he seems to over-estimate +the danger of the emotion[6]. + +There is something very strange and surprising in this state of things, +this contrast between the primitive Church with its few simple melodies +that ravished the educated hearer, and our own full-blown institution +with its hymn-book of some 600 tunes, which when it is opened fills the +sensitive worshipper with dismay, so that there are persons who would +rather not go inside a church than subject themselves to the trial. + +What is the matter? What is it that is wrong with our hymnody? Even where +there is not such rooted disgust as I have implied, there is a growing +conviction that some reform is needed in words or music, or both. + +Assuming that the chief blame lies with the music (as, I think, might +easily be proved), I propose to discuss the question of the music of our +hymnody, and I shall proceed on the basis of St. Augustin's principles: I +am sure that they would be endorsed by any pious church-goer who had +considered the subject, and they may be fairly formulated thus, _The +music must express the words or sense: it should not attract too much +attention to itself: it should be dignified: and its reason and use is to +heighten religious emotion._ + +One point calls for distinction: Augustin speaks of his emotion on +_hearing_ the hymns and canticles; he writes as if he had had no more +thought of taking part in the music himself, than we have of joining in +the anthem at a cathedral; and this might lead to a misunderstanding; for +there is no doubt that these hymns were sung by the people: the story is +that the very soldiers who were sent to blockade the basilica, happening +to be themselves catholics, joined their voices in the stanzas which St. +Ambrose had specially composed to disconcert the Arian enemy. + +The ecstasy of listening to music, and the enthusiasm of a crowd who are +all singing or shouting the same hymn or song are emotions of quite +different nature and value. Now, neglecting the rare conditions under +which these emotions may be combined, we shall, as we are speaking of +hymns, be concerned chiefly with the latter kind, for all will agree that +hymns are that part of the Church music in which it is most desirable +that the congregation should join: and I believe that there would be less +difference in practice if it were at all easy to obtain good +congregational singing, or even anything that is worthy of the name. It +seems perhaps a pity that nature should have arranged that where the +people are musical (as Augustin appears to have been) they would rather +listen, and where they are unmusical they would all rather sing. + +Speaking therefore of congregational hymn-singing, and conceding, as I +think we must, that the essential use of such music is to heighten +emotion, then, this emotional quality being the _sine qua non_ (the music +being of no use without it), it follows that it is the primary +consideration. If we are to have music at all, it must be such as will +raise or heighten emotion; and to define this we must ask, _Whose +emotion?_ and _What kind of emotion?_ + +Let us take this latter question first, and inquire what emotions it is +usual, proper, or possible to express by congregational singing of hymns. +William Law, in his _Serious Call_, has an interesting, I may say +amusing, chapter on the duty of all to sing, whether they have any turn +or inclination for it or no. All should sing, he says, even though they +dislike doing so; and I think that what he affirms of private devotion +applies with greater force to public worship. It should satisfy the most +ardent advocate of congregational singing, and it goes certainly to the +root of the matter. + + 'It is so right and beneficial to devotion, has so much effect upon our + hearts, that it may be insisted on as a common rule for all persons; + ... for singing is as much the proper use of a psalm as devout + supplication is the proper use of a form of prayer: and a psalm only + read is very much like a prayer that is only looked over.... If you + were to tell a person that has such a song, that he need not sing it, + that it was sufficient to peruse it, he would wonder what you meant, + ... as if you were to tell him that he should only look at his food, to + see whether it was good, but need not eat it.... You will perhaps say + that singing is a particular talent, that belongs only to particular + people, and that you have neither voice nor ear for music. + + 'If you had said that singing is a general talent, and that people + differ in that as they do in all other things, you had said something + much truer. + + 'For how vastly people differ in the talent of thinking, which is not + only common to all men, but seems to be the very essence of human + nature: ... yet no one desires to be excused from thought because he + has not this talent in any fine degree.... + + 'If a person were to forbear praying because he had an odd tone in his + voice, he would have as good an excuse as he that forbears from singing + psalms because he has but little management of his voice.... + + 'These songs make a sense (of) delight in God they awaken holy + devotion: they teach how to ask: they kindle a holy flame.... + + 'Singing is the natural effect of JOY in the heart, ... and it is also + the natural means of raising EMOTIONS OF JOY in the mind: such JOY AND + THANKFULNESS to God as is the highest perfection of a divine and holy + life.' + +Now though I cannot feel the force of all Law's arguments nor easily +bring myself to believe that a person who dislikes singing, and has no +ear for music, will readily find any comfortable assistance to his +private devotion from making efforts to hit off the notes of the scale; +yet I feel that Law's position is in the main sound, and that he has +correctly specified the emotion most proper to that kind of uncultured +singing which he describes: and though congregational psalm-singing +necessarily involves a greater musical capacity than that assumed in +Law's extreme case, and may therefore have a wider field, yet we may +begin by laying down that JOY, PRAISE, and THANKSGIVING give us the first +main head of what is proper to be expressed, and we may extend this head +by adding ADORATION and perhaps the involved emotions of AWE and PEACE +and even the attitude of CONTEMPLATION. + +In such a subject as the classification of emotions as they may be +expressed by music of one kind or another, it is plainly impossible to +make any definite tabulation with which all would agree. The very names +of the emotions will, to different minds, call up different associations +of feeling. If any agreement could be arrived at, it would be at the +expense of distinction; and all that I can expect is to have my +distinctions understood, and in the main agreed with. And as I am most +ready to grant to the reader his right to a different opinion on any +detail, I beg of him the same toleration, and that he will rather try to +follow my meaning than dwell on discrepancies which may be due to a fault +of expression, or to a difference of meaning which he and I may attach to +the same word. + +With this apology in preamble, I will attempt to make some classification +of emotions as they seem to me to be the possible basis for musical +expression in congregational singing. + +We have already one class: I would add a second, to include all the hymns +which exhibit the simple attitude of PRAYER. + +A third class I would put under the head of FAITH. Examples of this class +will no doubt often cross with those of the first class, but they will +specify themselves as CELEBRATIONS of events of various COMMEMORATION, +introducing a distinct form, namely NARRATION, which is a very proper and +effective form for general praise. + +Also this section will include all the hymns of BROTHERHOOD and +FELLOWSHIP, and of SPIRITUAL CONFLICT, with the correlative _invitatory_ +and _exhortatory_ songs, as modified by what will be said later. + +Also, lastly, under this same head of Faith, the DOCTRINAL hymns, and +professions of creed whether sectarian or otherwise, which, if the +definition be taken widely, make a large and popular class, well +exemplified by the German hymns of the Reformation, or by those of our +Wesleyan revival; strong with the united feeling of a small body, +asserting itself in the face of opposition: concerning which we will not +speak further, except to recall the fact that this kind of enthusiasm was +not absent from the causes which first introduced hymns into the Western +Church. + +I believe that this is a pretty full list of all the attitudes of mind +that can be properly expressed by congregational singing; and if we turn +to other emotions which are made the subject of church hymns, we shall, I +think, see that they are all of them liable to suffer damage by being +entrusted to the rough handling of general vociferation. + +Such will be all hymns of DIVINE AFFECTION and YEARNING; all LAMENTS and +CONSOLATIONS; all descriptions of spiritual conditions which imply +personal experience and feeling, as ABASEMENT, HUMILIATION, CONTRITION, +REPENTANCE, RESIGNATION, SELF-DEVOTION, CONVICTION, and SATISFACTION. + +Here I feel that many readers will be inclined to dissent from what I +say, and as I shall not again recur to Law, I should like, in order to +show my meaning, to call up his extreme example of an unmusical person +singing in private devotion. If one pictures such a case as he supposes, +is it not clear, whether one imagines oneself the actor or the unwilling +auditor, that while such an exhibition of joy might perhaps pass, yet a +similar incompetent attempt to express any of the last-named emotions +would be only ridiculous? But between this single worshipper and the +congregation the incompetence seems to me only a question of degree; +while in the far more considerable respect of the sincerity of the +feeling in the hearts of those expressing it, Law's singer has every +advantage; indeed no objection on this score can be raised to him. But +now suppose for a moment that he has _not_ the emotion at heart +corresponding to his attempt at song, and I think the differentiation of +motives for congregational singing will seem justifiable. + +All these last-named emotions,--which I have taken from congregational +hymn-books,--and I suppose there may be more of them,--call for delicacy +of treatment. A Lamentation, for instance, which might seem at first +sight as if it would gain force by volume, will, if it is realistic or +clumsy, become unmanly, almost so as to be ridiculous, and certainly +depressing to the spirit rather than purifying. In fact while many of the +subjects require beautiful expression, they are also more properly used +when offered as inspiring ideals; and to assume them to be of common +attainment or experience is to degrade them from their supreme sanctity. +But in thus ruling them unfit for general singing one must distinguish +large miscellaneous congregations from small united bodies, in which a +more intimate emotion may be natural: and as there is no exact line of +distinction here, so there is no objection to the occasional and partial +intrusion of some of these more intimate subjects into congregational +hymns. + +To this first question then, as to what emotions are fit to be expressed +by congregational music, the answer appears to be that the more general +the singing, the more general and simple should be the emotion and that +the universally fitting themes are those of simple praise, prayer, or +faith: and we might inquire whether one fault of our modern hymn-books +may not be their attempt to supply congregational music to unfitting +themes. + +To the next question, _Whose emotion_ is this congregational music to +excite or heighten? the answer is plain: It is the average man, or one +rather below the average, the uneducated, as St. Augustin says the +weaker, mind and that in England is, at least artistically, a narrow mind +and a vulgar being. And it may of course be alleged that the music in our +hymn-books which is intolerable to the more sensitive minds was not put +there for them, but would justify itself in its supposed fitness for the +lower classes. 'What use,' the pastor would say to one who, on the ground +of tradition advocated the employment of the old plain-song and the +Ambrosian melodies, 'What use to seek to attract such people as those in +my cure with the ancient outlandish and stiff melodies that pleased folk +a thousand years ago, and which I cannot pretend to like myself?' Or if +his friend is a modern musician, who is urging him to have nothing in his +church but what would satisfy the highest artistic sense of the day, his +answer is the same: he will tell you that it would be casting pearls +before swine; and that unless the music is 'tuney' and 'catchy' the +people will not take to it. And we cannot hastily dismiss these practical +objections. The very Ambrosian music which is now so strange to modern +ears was doubtless, when St. Ambrose introduced it, much akin to the +secular music of the day, if it was not directly borrowed from it: and +the history of hymn-music is a history of the adaptations of profane +successes in the art to the uses of the Church. Nor do I see that it can +ever be otherwise, for the highest music demands a supernatural material; +so that it would seem an equal folly for musicians to neglect the unique +opportunity which religion offers them, and for religion to refuse the +best productions of human art. And we must also remember that the art of +the time, whether it be bad or good, has a much more living relation to +the generation which is producing it, and exerts a more powerful +influence upon it, than the art of any time that is past and gone. It is +the same in all aspects of life: it is the book of the day, the hero or +statesman of the hour, the newest hope, the latest flash of scientific +light, which attracts the people. And it must be, on the face of it, true +that any artist who becomes widely popular must have hit off, 'I know not +by what secret familiarity,' the exact fashion or caprice of the current +taste of his own generation. + +And this is so true that it must be admitted that it is not always the +uneducated man only whose taste is hit off. In the obituary notices of +such men as Gladstone and Tennyson the gossip will inform us, rightly or +wrongly, that their 'favourite hymn[7]' was, not one of the great +masterpieces of the world,--which, alas, it is only too likely that in +their long lives they never heard,--but some tune of the day: as if in +the minds of men whose lives appealed strongly to their age there must be +something delicately responsive to the exact ripple of the common taste +and fashion of their generation. + +All this makes a strong case: and it would seem, since our hymn-music is +to stir the emotions of the vulgar, that it must itself be both vulgar +and modern; and that, in the interest of the weaker mind, we must +renounce all ancient tradition and the maxims of art, in order to be in +touch with the music-halls. + +This is impossibly absurd; and unless there is some flaw in our argument, +the fault must lie in the premisses; we have omitted some necessary +qualification. + +The qualification which we neglected is this, that _the music must be +dignified_, and suitable to the meaning; and we should only have wasted +words in ignoring what we knew all along, if we had not, by so doing, +brought this qualification into its vital prominence, and at the same +time exposed the position of those who neglect it, and the real reason of +the mean condition of our church music. + +The use of undignified music for sacred purposes may perhaps be justified +in exceptional cases, which must be left to the judgement of those who +consider all things lawful that they may save some. But if from the +mission service this licence should creep into the special service, and +then invade every act of public worship, it must be met with an edict of +unscrupulous exclusion. Not that it can be truly described as thus having +crept in in our time. It is always creeping, it has flourished in special +habitats for four or five hundred years, and before then there is the +history of Palestrina's great reform of like abuses. If in our time in +England we differ in any respect for the worse, it is rather in the +universal prevalence of a mild form of the degradation, which is perhaps +more degrading than the occasional exceptional abuses of a more flagrant +kind, which cannot hide their scandal but bring their own condemnation. + +There is indeed no extreme from which this abuse has shrunk; perhaps the +worst form of it is the setting of sacred hymns to popular airs, which +are associated in the minds of the singers with secular, or even comic +and amatory words[8]: of which it is impossible to give examples, because +the extreme instances are blasphemies unfit to be quoted; and it is only +these which could convey an adequate idea of the licence[9] The essence +of the practice appears to be the production of a familiar excitement, +with the intention of diverting it into a religious channel. + +But, even in the absence of secular or profane association, +congregational singing, when provoked by undignified music, such as may +be found in plenty in our modern hymn-books, may be maintained without +the presence of religious feeling, out of mere high spirits, or as we +say, 'in fun,' and may easily give rise to mockery. I have witnessed +examples enough in proof of this, but if I gave them it might be thought +that I wished to amuse profane readers[10]. And though such extreme +disasters may be exceptional outbursts, yet they are always but just +beneath the surface, and are the inevitable outcome of the use of +unworthy means. The cause of such a choice of means must be either an +artistic incapacity to distinguish, or a want of faith in the power of +religious emotion when unaided by profane adjuncts. What would St. +Augustin have ruled here, or thought of the confusion of ideas, which, +being satisfied with any expression, mistakes one emotion for another? + +The practical question now arises. We know the need; how is it to be +supplied? We require music which will reach the emotions of uneducated +people, and in which they will delight to join, and in which it shall be +easy to join: and it must be dignified and not secular. If we condemn and +reject the music which the professional church-musicians have supplied +with some popular success to meet the need, what is there to take its +place? Of what music is our hymn-book to be constructed, which shall be +at once dignified, sacred, and popular? + +The answer is very simple: it is this, _Dignified Melody_. Good melody is +never out of fashion; and as it is by all confession the seal of high +musical genius, so it is that form of music which is universally +intelligible and in the best sense popular; and we have a rich legacy of +it. What we want is that our hymn-books should contain a collection of +the best ecclesiastical and sacred hymn-melodies, and _nothing but +these_, instead of having but a modicum of these, for the most part +mauled and illset, among a crowd of contributions of an altogether +inferior kind; the whole collection being often such that if an +ill-natured critic were to assert that the compilers had degraded and +limited the old music in order to set off their own, it would be +difficult to meet him with a logical refutation. + +The shortest and most practical way of treating this subject will be to +give some account of the sources from which the music of such a hymn-book +as I propose would be drawn. I will take these in their chronological +order. First in order of time are the Plain-song melodies. + +I have already stated the ordinary objection to these tunes, that they +are stiff and out of date. Now it may be likely enough that they will +never be so universally popular in our country as the fine melodies +invented on the modern harmonic system, yet the idea that they are not +popular in character, and that modern people will not sing them, is a +mistake; there is plenty of evidence on this point. Nor must we judge +them by the incompetent, and I confess somewhat revolting aspect in which +they were offered to us by the Anglo-gregorianists of thirty years ago, a +presentment which has gone far to ruin their reputation; they are better +understood now, and may be heard here and there sung as they should be. +They are of great artistic merit and beauty; and instead of considering +them _a priori_ as uncongenial on the ground of antiquity, we should +rather be thinking of them that they were invented at a time when unison +singing was cultivated in the highest perfection, so much so that a large +number of these tunes are, on account of their elaborate and advanced +rhythm, not only far above the most intelligent taste of the minds with +which we have to deal, but are also so difficult of execution that there +are few trained choirs in the country that could render them well. To the +simpler tunes, however, these objections do not apply: in fact there are +only two objections that can be urged against them, and both of these +will be found on examination to be advantages. + +The first objection is that they are not in the modern scale. Now as this +objection is only felt by persons who have cramped their musical +intelligence by an insufficient technical education, and cannot believe +that music is music unless they are modulating in and out of some key by +means of a sharp seventh;--and as the nature of the ecclesiastical modes +is too long a subject, and too abstruse for a paper of this sort, even if +I were competent to discuss it;--I shall therefore content myself by +stating that the ecclesiastical modes have, for melodic purposes (which +is all that we are considering), advantages over the modern scale, by +which they are so surpassed in harmonic opportunities. Even such a +thoroughgoing admirer of the modern system as Sir Hubert Parry writes on +this subject, that it 'is now quite obvious that for melodic purposes +such modes as the Doric and Phrygian were infinitely (_sic_) preferable +to the Ionic,' i.e. to our modern major keys[11]. And it will be evident +to every one how much music has of late years sought its charm in modal +forms, under the guise of national character. + +The second objection is their free rhythm. They are not written in barred +time, and cannot without injury be reduced to it. + +As this question affects also other classes of hymns, I will here say all +that I have to say, or have space to say, about the rhythm of hymn-tunes; +confining my remarks generally to the proper dignified rhythms. + +In all modern musical grammars it is stated that there are virtually only +two kinds of time. The time-beat goes either by twos or some multiple of +two, or by threes or some multiple of three, and the accent recurs at +regular intervals of time, and is marked by dividing off the music into +bars of equal length. Nothing is more important for a beginner to learn, +and yet from the point of view of rhythm nothing could be more +inadequate. _Rhythm is infinite._ These regular times are no doubt the +most important fundamental entities of it, and may even lie +undiscoverably at the root of all varieties of rhythm whatsoever, and +further they may be the only possible or permissible rhythms for a modern +composer to use, but yet the absolute dominion which they now enjoy over +all music lies rather in their practical necessity and convenience (since +it is only by attending to them that the elaboration of modern harmonic +music is possible), than in the undesirability (in itself) or unmusical +character of melody which ignores them. In the matter of hymn-melodies an +unbarred rhythm has very decided advantages over a barred rhythm. In the +former the melody has its own way, and dances at liberty with the voice +and sense; in barred time it has its accents squared out beforehand, and +makes steadily for its predetermined beat, plumping down, as one may say, +on the first note of every bar whether it will or no. Sing to any one a +Plain-song melody, _Ad coenam Agni_ for instance, once or twice, and then +Croft's 148th Psalm[12]. Croft will be undeniably fine and impressive, +but he provokes a smile: his tune is like a diagram beside a flower. + +Now in this matter of rhythm our hymn-book compilers, since the +seventeenth century, have done us a vast injury. They have reduced all +hymns to the common times. Their procedure was, I suppose, dictated by +some argument such as this: 'The people must have what they can +understand: they only understand the simple two and three time: _ergo_ we +must reduce all the tunes to these measures.' Or again, 'It will be +easier for them to have all the tunes as much alike as possible: +therefore let us make them all alike, and write them all in equal +minims.' + +Both these ideas are absolutely wrong. A hymn-tune, which they hastily +assume to be the commonest and lowest form of music, actually possesses +liberties coveted by other music[13]. It is a short melody, committed to +memory, and frequently repeated: there is no reason why it should submit +to any of the time-conveniences of orchestral music: there is no reason +why its rhythm should not be completely free; nor is there any _a priori_ +necessity why any one tune should be exactly like another in rhythm. It +will be learned by the ear (most often in childhood), be known and loved +for its own sake, and blended in the heart with the words which interpret +it: and this advantage was instinctively felt by those of our early +church composers who, already understanding something of the value of +barred music, yet deliberately avoided cramping the rhythms of their +hymn-tunes by too great subservience to it[14]. One of the first duties +therefore which we owe to hymn-melodies is the restoration of their free +and original rhythms, keeping them as varied as possible: the Plain-song +melodies must be left unbarred and be taught as free rhythms, and all +other fine tunes which are worth using should be preserved in their +original rhythm; because free rhythm is better, and its variety is good, +and because the attraction of a hymn-melody lies in its individual +character and expression, and not at all in its time-likeness to other +tunes. This last idea has been a chief cause in the degradation of our +hymns. + +I may conclude then that the best of these simpler Plain-song tunes are +very fit for congregational use. They should be offered as pure melody in +free rhythm and sung in unison: their accompaniment must not be entrusted +to a modern grammarian. It is well also to use most of them in their +English form, the _Old Sarum Use_ as it is called; which happily +preserves to us a national tradition, in the opinion of some experts +older and more correct than any known on the continent; and if the +differences in our English version are not due to purity of tradition, +they will have another and almost greater interest, as venerable records +of the genius of our national taste. These Plain-song tunes have probably +a long future before them; since, apart from their merit, they are +indissolubly associated with the most ancient Latin hymns, some of which +are the very best hymns of the Church. + +The next class of tunes[15] is that of the Reformation hymns, English, +French, and German, dating from about 1550 to some way on in the +seventeenth century. The chief English group is known as _Sternhold and +Hopkins' Psalter_, which was mostly of eight-line tunes. This book was +virtually put together in Geneva about 1560, and antiquarians make much +of it. If stripped, however, of its stolen plumes and later additions it +is really an almost worthless affair, the true history of it being as +follows. A French musician named Louis Bourgeois, whom Calvin brought +with him to Geneva in 1541, turned out to be an extraordinary genius in +melody; he remained at Geneva about fifteen years, and in that time +compiled a Psalter of eighty-five tunes, almost all of which are of great +merit, and many of the very highest excellence. The splendour of his +work, which was merely appreciated as useful at the time, was soon +obscured, for immediately on his leaving Geneva, the French Psalter was +completed by inferior hands, whose work, being mixed in with his, lowered +the average of the whole book enormously, and Bourgeois' work was never +distinguished until, quite lately, the period of his office was +investigated and compared with the succeeding editions of his book. Now +the English refugees compiled their 'Sternhold and Hopkins' at Geneva, in +imitation of the French, during the time of Bourgeois' residence, and +took over a number of the French tunes; though they _mauled these most +unmercifully_ to bring them down to the measure of their doggerel psalms, +yet even after this barbarous treatment Bourgeois' spoilt tunes were +still far better than what they made for themselves, and sufficient not +only to float their book into credit, but to kindle the confused +enthusiasm of subsequent English antiquarians, whose blind leadership has +had some half-hearted following. But if these French tunes, and those +which are pieced in imitation of Bourgeois, be extracted from this +English Psalter, then, with one or two exceptions, there will remain +hardly anything of value[16]. + +To leave the English tunes for a moment and continue the subject, we +shall practically exhaust the French branch of this class by saying that +our duty by them is to use a great number of Bourgeois' tunes, _restoring +their original form_. They are masterpieces which have remained popular +on the continent from the first; thoroughly congenial to our national +taste, and the best that can be imagined for solemn congregational +singing of the kind which we might expect in England. The difficulty is +the same that beset the old original psalter-makers, i.e. to find words +to suit their varied measures. But this must be done[17]. These tunes in +dignity, solemnity, pathos, and melodic solidity leave nothing to desire. + +The English eight-line tunes of Sternhold and Hopkins we may then, with +one or two exceptions, dismiss to neglect; but among the four-line +'common' tunes which gradually ousted them, there are about a dozen of +high merit: these being popular still at the present day require no +notice, except to 32 insist that they should be well harmonized in the +manner of their date, and generally have the long initials and finals of +all their lines observed. They are much finer than any one would guess +from their usual dull presentment. Their manner, as loved and praised by +Burns, is excellent, and there is no call to alter it[18]. + +Contemporary with this group there is a legacy of a dozen and more fine +tunes composed by Tallis and Orlando Gibbons, the neglect or treatment of +which is equally disgraceful to all concerned. + +As for the German tunes of the Reformation, attempts to introduce the +German church-chorales into anything like general use in England have +never, so far as I know, been successful, owing, I suppose, to a +difference in the melodic sense of the two nations. But some few of them +are really popular, and more would be if they were properly presented +with suitable words; and it should not be a difficult task to provide +words even more suitable and kind than the original German, which seldom +observes an intelligent, dignified and consistent mood. These chorales +should be sung very slow indeed, and will admit of much accompaniment. +Bach's settings, when not too elaborate or of impossible compass in the +parts, may be well used where the choir is numerically strong. He has +made these chorales peculiarly his own, and, in accepting his +interpretation of them, we are only acquiescing in a universal judgement, +while we make an exception in favour of genius; for as a general rule +(which will of course apply to those chorales which we do not use in +Bach's version), all the music of this Reformation period must be +harmonized strictly in the vocal counterpoint which prevailed at the end +of the sixteenth century; since that is not only its proper musical +interpretation, but it is also the ecclesiastical style _par excellence_, +the field of which may reasonably be extended, but by no means +contracted. It is suitable both for simple and elaborate settings, for +hymns of praise or of the more intimate ideal emotions, and in a resonant +building a choir of six voices can produce complete effects with it. The +broad, sonorous swell of its harmonious intervals floods the air with +peaceful power, very unlike the broken sea of Bach's chromatics, which, +to produce anything like an equal effect of sound, needs to be powerfully +excited. + +It is necessary to insist strongly on one caution, viz. that grammar is +not style, and settings which avoid modernisms are not for that reason a +fair presentation of the old manner. Nothing is less like a fine work of +art than its incompetent imitation. And this practically exhausts, as far +as I am aware, the material which this period provides. + +The next class will be made up of our Restoration hymns, by Jeremy Clark, +Croft, and others who added to the succeeding editions of the metrical +Psalms. If there are not many in this class, yet the few are good; and +Clark must be regarded as the inventor of the modern English hymn-tune, +regarded, that is, as a pure melody in the scale with harmonic +interpretation of instrumental rather than true vocal suggestion. His +tunes are pathetic, melodious, and of truly national and popular +character, the best of them almost unaccountably free from the +indefinable secular taint that such qualities are apt to introduce, and +which the bad following of his example did very quickly introduce in the +hands of less sensitive artists. They are suitable for evening services. + +After this time there followed in England, in the wake of Handel, a +degradation of style which is now completely discredited. Diatonic flow, +with tediously orthodox modulation, overburdened with conventional +graces, describe these innumerable and indistinguishable productions. And +just as the old tunes were related to the motets and madrigals, so are +these to the verse-anthems and glees of their time. These weak ditties, +in the admired manner of Lord Mornington, were typically performed by the +genteel pupils of the local musician, who, gathered round him beneath the +laughing cherubs of the organ case, warbled by abundant candlelight to +their respectful audience with a graceful execution that rivalled the +weekday performances of _Celia's Arbour_ and the _Spotted Snakes_. Good +tunes may be written at any time, for style is independent of fashion; +but there are very few exceptions to the complete and unregretted +disappearance of all the tunes of this date. + +We have then nothing left for us to do but to review the material which +the revival of music in the last fifty years has given us in the way of +hymns. + +This last group divides naturally into two main heads; first the +restoration of old hymns of all kinds, with their plain, severer manner, +in reaction against the abused graces; and secondly the appearance of a +vast quantity of new hymns. + +Concerning the restoration of the old hymns, we cannot be too grateful to +those who pointed the right way, and, according to their knowledge and +the opportunities of the taste of their day, did the best that they +could. But, as our remarks under the heads of Plain-song and Reformation +hymns will show, this knowledge, taste, and opportunity were +insufficient, and all their work requires to be done afresh. + +We are therefore left to the examination of the modern hymns. In place of +this somewhat invidious task, I propose to make a few remarks on the +general question of the introduction of modern harmony into +ecclesiastical music, with reference of course to hymns only. It cannot +escape the attention of any one that the modern church music has for one +chief differentiation the profuse employment of pathetic chords, the +effect of which is often disastrous to the feelings. + +Comparing a modern hymn-tune in this style with some fine setting of an +old tune in the diatonic ecclesiastical manner, one might attribute the +superiority of the old music entirely to its harmonic system; but I think +this would be wrong. + +It is a characteristic of all early art to be _impersonal_[19]. As long +as an art is growing, artists are engaged in rivalry to develop the new +inventions in a scientific manner, and individual personality is not +called out. With the exhaustion of the means in the attainment of +perfection a new stage is reached, in which individual expression is +prominent, and seems to take the place of the scientific impersonal +interest which aimed at nothing but beauty: so that the chief distinction +between early and late art is that the former is impersonal, the latter +personal. + +Turning now to the subject of ecclesiastical music, and comparing thus +Palestrina with Beethoven or Mozart, is it not at once apparent that +Palestrina has this distinct advantage, namely, that he seems not to +interfere at all with, or add anything to, the sacred words? His early +musical art is impersonal, what the musicians call 'pure music'; and if +he is setting the phrases of the Liturgy or Holy Scriptures, we are not +aware of any adjunct; it seems rather as if the sacred words had suddenly +become musical. Not so with Mozart or Beethoven; we may prefer their +music, but it has interfered with the sacred words, it has, in fact, +added a personality. + +It must of course be conceded that this gives a very strong if not +logically an almost unassailable position to those who would confine +sacred music to the ecclesiastical style. But it seems to me ridiculous +to suppose that genius cannot use all good means with reserve and +dignity; and if the modern church music will not stand comparison in +respect of dignity and solemnity with the old, the fault must rather lie +in the manner in which the new means are used, than in the means +themselves; nor would I myself concede that there is no place in church +for music which is tinged with a human personality; I should be rather +inclined to reckon the great musicians among the prophets, and to +sympathize with any one who might prefer the personality of Beethoven (as +revealed in his works) to that of a good many canonized seers. What is +logical is that we should be careful as to what personality we admit, and +see that the modern means are used with reserve. + +Now if we examine our modern hymn-tunes, do we find any sign of that +reserve of means which we should expect of genius, or any style which we +could attribute to the personality of a genius? Let any one in doubt try +the following experiment: copy out some 'favourite tune' in the 'admired +manner' of the present day, and show it to some musician who may happen +not to know it, and ask him if it is not by Brahms; then see how he will +receive any further remarks that you may make to him on the subject of +music. + +These new tunes are in fact, for the most part, the indistinguishable +products of a school given over to certain mannerisms, and might be +produced _ad libitum_, as indeed they are; just as were the tunes of the +Lord Mornington school before described: and though the composers and +compilers of these modern tunes would be the first to deride the exploded +fashion, their own fashion is more foolish, and promises to be as +fugitive[20]. + +I have said very little in this essay on the words of hymns. I will +venture to add one or two judgements here. _First_, that in the +Plain-song period, words and music seem pretty equal and well matched. +_Secondly_, that in the Reformation period, and for some time onwards, +the musicians did far better than the sacred poets, and have left us a +remainder of admirable music, for which it is our duty to find words. +_Thirdly_, that the excuse which some musicians have offered for the +sentimentality of their modern tunes, namely, that the words are so +sentimental, is not without point as a criticism of modern hymn-words, +but is of no value whatever as a defence of their practice. The +interpretative power of music is exceedingly great, and can force almost +any words (as far as their sentiment is concerned) into a good channel. + +And if music be introduced at all into public worship it must be most +jealously and scrupulously guarded. It is a confusion of thought to +suppose that because--as St. Augustin would tell us--it is not a vital +matter to religion whether it employ music or not, therefore it can be of +little consequence what sort of music is used: and the attitude of +indifference towards it, which has seemed to me to be almost a point of +correct ecclesiastical manners, must be the expression of a convinced +despair, which, in the present state of things, need not surprise. Devout +persons are naturally afraid of secular ideals, and shrink from the +notion of art intruding into the sanctuary; and, especially if they have +never learned music, they will share St. Augustin's jealousy of it; and +it is the more difficult to remove their objections, when what they are +innocently suffering in the name of art curdles the artist's blood with +horror, and keeps him away from church. The artist too, to whom we might +look for help, is the _rara avis in terris_, and, in regard to his +sympathy with the clergy, would often be thought by them to deserve the +rest of the hexameter; but it is really to his credit that he is loth to +meddle with church music. Its social vexations, its eye to the market, +its truckling to vulgar taste and ready subservience to a dominant +fashion, which can never (except under the rarest combination of +circumstances) be good;--all this is more than enough to hold him off. +Where then is the appeal? _Quis custodiet_? + +The unwillingness of the clergy[21] to know anything about music might be +got over if the music could be set on a proper basis; and in the present +lack of authority and avowed principles, it would be well if such of our +cathedral precentors and organists as have the matter at heart would +consult and work together with the purpose of instructing pastors and +people by the exhibition of what is good. This is what we might expect of +our religious musical foundations, which are justifying the standing +condemnation of utilitarian economists so long as the stipendiaries are +content indolently to follow the fortuitous traditions of the books that +lie in the choir, supplemented by the penny-a-sheet music of the common +shops. In the Universities, too, it should be impossible for an +undergraduate not to gain acquaintance with good ecclesiastical music, +and this is not ensured by an occasional rare performance of half a dozen +old masterpieces which are preserved in heartless compliment to +antiquity. It is to such bodies that we must first look for help and +guidance to give our church music artistic importance: for let no one +think that the church can put the artistic question on one side. There is +no escape from art; art is only the best that man can do, and his second, +third, fourth or fifth best are only worse efforts in the same direction, +and in proportion as they fall short of the best the more plainly betray +their artificiality. To refuse the best for the sake of something +inferior of the same kind can never be a policy; it is rather an +uncorrected bad habit, that can only be excused by ignorance; and +ignorance on the question of music is every day becoming less excusable; +and the growing interest and intelligence which all classes are now +showing should force on religion a better appreciation of her most potent +ally. Music being the universal expression of the mysterious and +supernatural, the best that man has ever attained to, is capable of +uniting in common devotion minds that are only separated by creeds, and +it comforts our hope with a brighter promise of unity than any logic +offers. And if we consider and ask ourselves what sort of music we should +wish to hear on entering a church, we should surely, in describing our +ideal, say first of all that it must be something different from what is +heard elsewhere; that it should be a sacred music, devoted to its +purpose, a music whose peace should still passion, whose dignity should +strengthen our faith, whose unquestioned beauty should find a home in our +hearts, to cheer us in life and death; a music worthy of the fair temples +in which we meet, and of the holy words of our liturgy; a music whose +expression of the mystery of things unseen never allowed any trifling +motive to ruffle the sanctity of its reserve. What power for good such a +music would have! + +Now such a music our Church has got, and does not use; we are content to +have our hymn-manuals stuffed with the sort of music which, merging the +distinction between sacred and profane, seems designed to make the +worldly man feel at home, rather than to reveal to him something of the +life beyond his knowledge; compositions full of cheap emotional effects +and bad experiments made to be cast aside, the works of the purveyors of +marketable fashion, always pleased with themselves, and always to be +derided by the succeeding generation. + + +Example is better than precept; and my own venture as a compiler of a +hymn-book has made it possible for me to say much that otherwise I should +not have said. In _The Yattendon Hymnal_, printed by Mr. Horace Hart at +the Clarendon Press, Oxford, and to be had of Mr. Frowde, price 20_s._, +will be found a hundred hymns with their music, chosen for a village +choir. The music in this book will show what sort of a hymnal might be +made on my principles, while the notes at the end of the volume will +illustrate almost every point in this essay which requires illustration, +besides many others. As a complement to this essay and for advertisement +of the Hymnal I here give the prefaces of that book, which are as +follows:-- + + +[1]_Confess._ ix. 6. + +[2]_Ibid._ ix. 7. + +[3]This is perhaps rather a quality proper to the sensation. + +[4]'Et vix eis praebeo congruentem [locum].' which might only mean 'I + cannot find the right place for them.' + +[5]_Confess._ x. 13. + +[6]St. Augustin does not allow that a vague emotion can be religious; it + must be directed. Few would agree to this. + +[7]I assume 'favourite hymn' to mean a sung hymn. The interest of the + record must lie in its being of a heightened emotion of the same kind + as that described by St. Augustin in his own case, _What tears I shed_, + &c. + +[8]It was not an uncommon practice on the Continent (say from 1540 to + 1840), to print books of hymns to be sung to the current secular airs; + and the names or first lines of these airs were set above the + hymn-words as the musical direction. M. Douen, in his _Clement Marot et + le Psautier Huguenot_, vol. i, ch. 22, has given an account of some of + these books; and any one who wishes to follow this branch of the + subject may read his chapter. He does not notice the later Italian + _Laude Spirituali_, which might have supplied incredible monsters to + his museum. + +[9]Besides, the main fault of these books, from which we should have to + quote, is the _association_ of the music, and this is really an + accident, the question before us being the _character_ of the music; so + that we should require musical illustration, for though the common + distinction between sacred and secular music is in the main just, yet + the line cannot be drawn at the original intention, or historical + origin of the music: the true differentiation lies in the character of + the music, the associated sentiment being liable to change. If we were + to banish from our hymn-books all the tunes which we know to have a + secular origin, we should have to part with some of the most sacred and + solemn compositions; and where would the purist obtain any assurance + that the tunes which he retained had a better title? In the sixteenth + century, when so many fine hymn-melodies were written, a musician was + working in the approved manner if he adapted a secular melody, or at + least borrowed a well-known opening phrase: and since the melodies of + that time were composed mainly in conjunct movement, such initial + similarities were unavoidable; for one may safely say that it very soon + became impossible, under such restrictions, to invent a good opening + phrase which had not been used before. The secular airs, too, of that + time were often as fit for sacred as profane use; and if I had to find + a worthy melody for a good new hymn, I should seek more hopefully among + them than in the sacred music of our own century. + +[10]I may give the following experience without offence. When I was an + undergraduate there was a song from a comic opera by Offenbach so much + in favour as to be _de rigueur_ at festive meetings. Now there was at + the same time a counterpart of this song popular at evensong in the + churches: it was sung to 'Hark, hark, my soul.' I believe it is called + _L'encens des fleurs_. They seemed to me both equally nauseating: it + was certainly an accident that determined which should be sung at + worship and which at wine. + +[11]_The Art of Music_, by C Hubert H. Parry. London, 1893, 1st edit. p. + 48. + +[12]And give Croft the advantage of his original rhythm, not the + mis-statement in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, No. 414. + +[13]It would be very damaging to my desire to convince, if I should seem + to deny that the mistaken practice of these hymn-book compilers was + based on the solid ground of secular common-sense. If anything is true + of rhythm it is this, that the common mind likes common rhythms, such + as the march or waltz, whereas elaboration of rhythm appeals to a + trained mind or artistic faculty. I should say that the popularity of + common rhythms is due to the shortness of human life, and that if men + were to live to be 300 years old they would weary of the sort of music + which Robert Browning describes so well-- + + 'There 's no keeping one's haunches still, + There 's no such pleasure in life.' + + But hymn-melodies must not be put on that level. It is desirable to + have in church something different from what goes on outside, and (as I + say in the text) a hymn-tune need not appeal to the lowest + understanding on first hearing. The simple free rhythms, too, are + perfectly natural; they were free-born. + +[14]I need only instance Orlando Gibbons' tune called 'Angels.' The + original is a most ingenious combination of rhythms; and its masterly + beauty could not be guessed from the inane form into which it is + degraded in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, No. 8. + +[15]I omit, for want of space, mention of the late Plain-song melodies + (which would give a good many excellent tunes); and, for want of + knowledge, the Italian tunes. + +[16]Comparing the English with the French Genevan Psalter, I do not think + my judgement is too severe on our own. It had a few fine tunes original + to it; best of all the cxxxvii (degraded in _Hymns Ancient and + Modern_). This is of such exceptional beauty that I believe it must + have been written by Bourgeois for Whittingham. Next perhaps is lxxvii + (called 81st in _H. A. M._), the original of which, in Day, 1566, is a + fine tune, degraded already in Este, 1592, which version _H. A. M._ + follows: it is said to have come from Geneva. Besides these, xxv and + xliv, which are the only other tunes from this source in _H. A. M._, + are very favourable examples, and I do not think that they will rescue + the book. Nor can I believe that these old English D.C.M. tunes were + ever much used. They are too much alike for many of them to have been + committed to memory, while all the editions which I happen to have seen + are full of misprints, and the four-line tunes which drove them out + were early in the field, and increased rapidly. + +[17]When one turns the pages of that most depressing of all books ever + compiled by the groaning creature, Julian's hymn-dictionary, and sees + the thousands of carefully tabulated English hymns, by far the greater + number of them not only pitiable as efforts of human intelligence, but + absolutely worthless as vocal material for melodic treatment, one + wishes that all this effort had been directed to supply a real want. E. + g. the two Wesleys between them wrote thirteen octavo volumes, of some + 400 pages each, full of closely printed hymns. One must wish that + Charles Wesley at least (who showed in a few instances how well he + could do) had, instead of reeling off all this stuff, concentrated his + efforts to produce only what should be worthy of his talents and useful + to posterity. + +[18]If old tunes are modernized out of a fine rhythm, a curious result + would be likely to come about; viz. that modern tunes might be written + in the old rhythm for the sake of novelty, while the old were being + sung in the more modern way for the sake of uniformity. + +[19]This fact is of course generally recognized. The explanation in the + text is one which was elaborately illustrated by the Slade Professor at + Oxford, in his last course of lectures on painting. + +[20]There is one point which I cannot pass over. It has become the + practice in modern books to put marks of musical expression to the + words, directing the congregation when to sing loud or soft. This + implies a habit of congregational performance the description of which + would make a companion picture to the organ gallery of 1830. It seems + to me a practice of inconceivable degradation: one asks in trembling if + it is to be extended to the Psalms. It is just as if the congregation + were school-children singing to please a musical inspector, and he a + stupid one. + +[21]It must be due to unwillingness that comparatively so few of our + clergy can take their part in the service when it is musical. Village + schoolmasters tell me that two hours a week is sufficient in a few + months to bring all the children up to a standard of time and tune and + reading at sight that would suffice a minor canon. + + +PREFACE TO THE +YATTENDON HYMNAL + +Among the old melodies which it is the chief object of this book to + restore to use, some will be found which will be quite new to the + public, while others will be familiar though in a somewhat different + form; and since the sources whence all the tunes are taken are well + known, and have been already largely drawn upon by the compilers of + Psalters and Hymnals, any melody which is new in this book may be + considered as having been hitherto overlooked or rejected, while in the + alternative case it is to be understood that the original cast of the + melody has at some former time been altered (frequently to suit the + English common metre to which it was not at first conformable), and is + now restored. + +The plain-song tunes, of which an account is given in the preface to the +notes, and the few other old tunes which do not fall into either of the +two above-mentioned classes, were included for the sake of their +settings. + +With respect to the vocal settings in four parts it may be said that, in +the numerous cases in which such settings were not added by the composer +of the melody, the editors have done their best to supply the want in a +suitable manner, and with some attempt towards the particular qualities +of workmanship upon which much of the beauty of the old vocal +counterpoint depends; and this latter aim has also governed the +composition of the six tunes not derived from old sources which have been +included in the work. + +This book is offered in no antiquarian spirit. The greater number of +these old tunes are, without question, of an excellence which sets them +above either the enhancement or the ruin of Time, and at present when so +much attention is given to music it is to be desired that such +masterpieces should not be hidden away from the public, or only put forth +in a corrupt and degraded form. The excellence of a nation in music can +have no other basis than the education and practice of the people; and +the quality of the music which is most universally sung must largely +determine the public taste for good or ill. + +Since such information as might be looked for in an introduction is given +in the notes at the end of the volume, there is nothing to add here but a +list of the sources and composers in order of date, which should in the +eyes of musicians go far to justify this attempt. + + +SYNOPSIS OF THE MUSIC IN ORDER OF DATE + +PLAIN-SONG MELODIES, + Sarum use, nine, Nos. 29. 30. 31. 32. 47. 48. 49. 75. 86. + Ambrosian, two, Nos. 91. 100. + Later plain-song, two, Nos. 44. 45. +HEINRICH ISAAC, 1490, one tune, Nos. 82 & 83. +From the Strasbourg Psalter, before 1540, two, Nos. 37. 72. +German of same date, one, No. 16. +LOUIS BOURGEOIS, 1550, thirteen, Nos. 3. 19. 20. 27. 58. 64. 67. 70. 74. + 77. 79 & 80. 88. 99 & see 66 & 84. +CHRISTOPHER TYE, 1550, one, No. 15. +From Crespin's Psalters, circ. 1560, three, Nos. 41. 84. 89. +THOMAS TALLIS, 1560, seven, Nos. 2. 14. 54 & 55. 59. 68. 78. 98. +From the French Genevan Psalter, after 1560, one, No. 92. +A setting by CLAUDE GOUDIMEL, 1565, No. 88. +English, 16th cent, four, Nos. 39. 53. 66. 87. +Two settings by GEO. KIRBY, 1592, Nos. 39. 53. +A setting by J. Farmer, 1592, No. 87. +A setting by Rd. ALLISON, 1599, No. 84. +Italian, 16th cent., one, No. 1. +HANS LEONHARD HASSLER, 1600, one, No. 62. +THOS. CAMPION, 1613, one, No. 36. +ORLANDO GIBBONS, 1623, eight, Nos. 23. 24. 25. 28. 35. 38. 56. 94. +HENRY LAWES, 1638, one, No. 73. +JOHANN CRUEGER, 1640, four, Nos. 41. 57. 93. 97. +English & Scotch, 1600-1650, seven, Nos. 10. 40. 50. 51. 60. 63. 71. +German, 17th cent, two, Nos. 69. 90. +JEREMY CLARK, 1700, nine, Nos. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 21. 61. 81. 95. +WILLIAM CROFT, 1710, four, Nos. 34. 43. 52. 76. +English, 18th cent., four, Nos. 12. 26. 33. 65. +J.S.BACH, eight settings, mostly of earlier melodies, Nos. 13. 57. 62. + 80. 83. 85. 90. 97. +Seven new tunes by H. E. W., Nos. 4. 11. 17. 18. 22. 46. 96. + + +NOTE + +'The seven tunes by Tallis are all transcripts of his original four-part +compositions. Only two of these tunes are in the common books; one of +them "The Ordinal" is always reset, the other "Canon," which is usually +sung to Bp. Ken's evening hymn, is completely altered, the canon being +put in a different position and the harmony changed. This tune is I +believe correctly edited for the first time in the Y. H. and it is now +thus sung at Wells Cathedral. + +'Of the eight tunes by Orlando Gibbons, two only (and these altered both +in rhythm and harmony) appear in the common books. All Gibbons' tunes are +given in the Y. H. with his own bass, the inner parts being supplied. + +'There is a complete list of the music in the word-book of the Yattendon +Hymnal, which is published by Mr. Blackwell of Broad Street, Oxford, and +may be bought for 1_s._ 6_d._' + + +THE +PREFACE TO THE NOTES + +The origin of this book was my attempt, when precentor of a village +choir, to provide better settings of the hymns than those in use. + +When I gave up my office, I printed the first twenty-five hymns for the +convenience of the choir, and also for the sake of the tunes by Jeremy +Clark, which I had been at some pains to restore, and for the +preservation of the tunes composed on our behalf by Professor Wooldridge. + +My choice of music had so far been limited to tunes, for which suitable +words were to be found in _Hymns Ancient & Modern_; but by the time that +these first tunes were printed, I determined to continue the book free of +this restriction, and, from whatever source, to provide words for tunes +which I had hitherto been unable to use. I then became aware of a real +cause for the absence of most of these tunes from the common hymnals: +_there were no words of any kind to which they could be sung_. Having +already translated some of the old Latin hymns for their proper melodies, +I was thence led on to the more difficult task of supplying the greater +need of these other tunes; the result being that over forty of these +hundred hymns have english words newly written by myself. Almost all of +these new hymns are in some sense translations, for even where an +original hymn could not be followed in its entirety, as an old Latin hymn +generally may be, there was usually a foundation to begin upon, and I +never failed to find the music conditioning, dictating, or inspiring the +remainder. I did not willingly engage in this, nor until I had searched +word-books of all kinds; a fruitless labour, unless for the hope begotten +thereof that my practice in versifying and my love for music may together +have created something of at least relative value. + +The unusual method which I was constrained to follow, that is of writing +words to suit existing music, has its advantages. In some cases, as will +be seen in the notes to the hymns, the musician, out of despair or even +contempt for the doggrel offered to him, has composed a fine tune quite +independent of the words to which it was dedicated[22], and such tunes +have been silent ever since they were composed: while even when a melody +has been actually inspired by a particular hymn, the attention of the +composer to the first stanza has not infrequently set up a hirmos, or at +least a musical scheme of feeling, which, not having been in the mind of +the writer of the words, is not carried out in his other stanzas[23]: +indeed, as every one must have observed, the words of hymns have too +often been written with insufficient attention to the conditions which a +repetition of any music to every stanza must impose. To get rid of such +discrepancies between words and music is advantageous to both, and +although this treatment cannot of course be applied to english +hymns,--which it is not allowable to alter, except in cases of glaring +unfitness or absurdity, such as would if uncorrected cause the neglect of +a good hymn[24],--yet, where the hymn has to be translated from a foreign +language, some reconstruction is generally inevitable, and it can follow +no better aim than that of the mutual enforcement of words and music. And +the words owe a courtesy to the music; for if a balance be struck between +the words and music of hymns, it will be found to be heavily in favour of +the musicians, whose fine work has been unscrupulously altered and +reduced to dullness by english compilers, with the object of conforming +it in rhythm to words that are unworthy of any music whatever. The chief +offenders here are the protestant reformers, whose metrical psalms, which +the melodies were tortured to fit, exhibit greater futility than one +would look for even in men who could thus wantonly spoil fine music[25]. + +The form and size of the book were determined by the type, chosen because +it was the only one that I could find of any beauty; and I wished that my +book should in this respect give an example, and be worthy both of the +music and its sacred use[26]. Moreover a book from which two or three +singers can read is more convenient in the choir than a multiplicity of +small books; and the music being in full score, its intention cannot be +mistaken: for it must be understood that most of these tunes are set in +the manner proper for voices, but unsuitable for the piano or other keyed +instrument; and the book is intended to encourage unaccompanied singing. +A choir that cannot sing unaccompanied cannot sing at all; and this is +not an uncommon condition in our churches, where choirs with varying +success accompany the organ. A proper manner of sustained singing, and +the true artistic pleasure that should govern it, will never be obtained +until these conditions are reversed. + +There is one novelty which I am responsible for introducing, namely the +four-part vocal settings of certain early plain-song melodies. The later +plain-song tunes, such as No. 44, are, I suppose[27], as fit for this +treatment as any other tunes of the same date; but in the case of the +earlier melodies, which were composed before the invention of any +complete system of harmony, it is generally agreed that they should be +sung in unison, in fact the more elaborate of them cannot be sung +otherwise. To give four-part settings of any of these early tunes calls +therefore for an explanation, which I will give as briefly as possible. + +When these tunes are sung, they are usually accompanied, and this implies +a harmonic treatment. Now the best harmonic treatment which they can have +is the Palestrinal, because that was the earliest complete system, and +therefore the nearest to their time, and also because we may rely on the +truth of its interpretation of the modes for the reason that Palestrina +had never heard any music that was not modal. A modern musician, if he +attempts to go back beyond Palestrina, must draw on his imagination, and +while his aim must be to produce something artistically and technically +less perfect than Palestrina's system, his work, when it is done, will +carry neither authority nor conviction. + +If then we take Palestrina's harmonic interpretation of the modes, it +seems to me that there can be no objection to giving vocal parts to the +simpler hymns. If it is preferred to sing them in unison, the modal +settings will be a guide to the accompanist. But it is my opinion that +such settings as I offer will really please, and they may possibly do +something to bring these tunes, which have a unique, unmatchable beauty, +into favour with choirs that dislike the effort and waste of unison +singing. These settings offer no difficulty of execution all; _that is +necessary is that the under voices should know the melody_: and though +this is not generally thought requisite in a modern hymn, it is asking +nothing extra of a choir that would sing the plain-song tunes; for even +if they are sung in unison, they must first be known by heart (otherwise +their rhythmical freedom, which defies notation, and is indispensable to +their beauty, cannot be approached), and when once a choir has got thus +far, the under parts, being phrased with the melody, will easily follow +it. An explanation of the notation of these settings is given in the note +to Hymn 29. Congregational singing of hymns is much to be desired; but, +though difficult to obtain, it is not permissible to provoke it by +undignified music. Its only sound musical basis is good melody: good +melodies should therefore be offered to the people, such as it has been +the object of this book to bring together; and they should have as much +freedom and variety of rhythm as possible. If some of the good melodies +are, owing to their wide compass or other difficulty, unfit for +congregational singing, this is an advantage; because neither are all +hymn-words equally suitable. Most of the words in this book are suitable +for congregational singing; some are not. A hymn-book which is intended +entirely for congregational use must be faulty in one of two ways; either +it will offer for congregational singing hymns whose sacred and intimate +character is profaned by such a treatment, or it will have to omit some +of the most beautiful hymns in the language: but congregations differ +much, not only with regard to the music in which they are capable of +joining, but also as to the sort of words which best express their +religious emotion. + + +In the following notes the left-hand side of the page is given to the +words, the right to the music of each hymn: in the latter column will be +found full information as to the text of the music, the source whence it +is derived, &c., together with a careful account of every departure that +has been made from the originals. It is hoped that this will not only be +of general interest, but that it may inspire confidence in the text of +the book, and ensure the reception which its authority demands. For the +text of the music, and all the statements in the notes, I am responsible; +excepting those portions of the notes which are therein assigned to their +proper authorities, and in these I am responsible for the correctness of +the quotations and references, in which I have done my best to secure +accuracy. I owe much to the kindness of Mr. W. Barclay Squire at the +British Museum; I have also to thank Mr. Godfrey Arkwright for the loan +of some rare books, and Dr. Chas. Wood of Cambridge for two settings and +occasional reading of music proofs; in which latter task I gratefully +record the help of Mr. J. S. Liddle and Dr. Percy Buck. To Mr. Miles +Birket Foster I owe the three trios by Jeremy Clark, and to the Revs. W. +H. Frere and G. H. Palmer the text of the plain-song melodies, and the +information concerning them which is given in the following notes: it is +due to the generosity with which they put their learning and judgement at +my disposal that I am able to offer these tunes with the same confidence +as the rest of the book. Professor Wooldridge, having co-operated with me +throughout, has allowed his name to appear on the title page. + + +[22]No. 28 is a good example of this. See also No. 98. + +[23]No. 57 is a good example. The line _Du bist mein, und ich bin dein_, + corresponds in stanza 2 with _Wenn die Welt in Truemmer fallt_, and in + stanza 4 with _Elend, Noth, Kreuz, Schmach und Tod_. Again in No. 77 + the opening phrase, _Mon Dieu, mon Dieu_, of the twenty-second psalm + needs music which conditions the other stanzas severely. Again the weak + apologetic latter half of the German hymn _Herzliebster Jesu_, No. 42, + is irreconcilably out of the key with the pathetic grief of the + beginning. Cases in which caesuras and grammatical breaks are + inconsistent are numberless. + +[24]See note to Hymn 90. Other english hymns altered for practical + purposes in this book are Nos. 19, 35, 51, last verse of 52, 66, 94, + and 96. + +[25]I give illustrations of these words in notes to Hymns 27, 54, 58, 63, + 68, 84, and 98. + +[26]The cheapness is not the direct cause of the ugliness of our common + hymn-books, nor is their ugliness the cause of their cheapness. If many + copies of a book are sold, they can be sold cheaply; if only a few, + then the initial expense, which is much the same whether the book be + beautiful or ugly, must be shared between those few buyers and the + author. But thus it comes about indirectly for cheapness to be the + cause of meanness and ugliness, because in a larger market there is + greater indifference to artistic excellence of all kinds, and from + habit a preference for what is inferior. In a large edition this book + could be sold as cheaply as another. + +[27]I state here once for all that in musical matters I offer my opinion + with becoming humility. + + + +ADVERTISEMENT + + +THE YATTENDON HYMNAL. + +Edited by Robert Bridges and Professor H. Ellis Wooldridge. Containing + 100 hymns and 4 voice-parts. Printed at the Oxford University Press, + 1899. May be obtained of Henry Frowde, Oxford Warehouse, Amen Corner, + London, E.C., or through any bookseller. Price, 4to boards, 1. A few + copies of the Folio, price 4, are still to be had. + + +THE WORD-BOOK OF THE +YATTENDON HYMNAL, + +Which contains a full list of the music, and is called, + +_THE SMALL HYMN-BOOK,_ + +may be had of B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, or through any +bookseller. Price 1_s._ 6_d._ + + +Oxford: Horace Hart, Printer to the University + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Practical Discourse on Some +Principles of Hymn-Singing, by Robert Bridges + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-SINGING *** + +***** This file should be named 21722.txt or 21722.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/7/2/21722/ + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson (This file was produced from +images generously made available by The Internet +Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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