Church. Pliny tells us the Christians sung their hymns to Christ.* secum invicem,' ('among themselves in turns') a phrase clearly alluding to a responsorial manner of delivery. I doubt not,' says Calvin, but from the beginning the Primitive Church followed the Hebrew use in singing of Psalms."" After quoting various ancient testimonies to the style and character of the singing in the churches, the author remarks :— "From these and other allusions to church melody, it is evident that the feeling paramount was, that the church melody should betoken a unity, vigour, life, and earnestness, which, when uplifted by a sonorous and congregational voice, should embody a simple and solemn form, a proper vehicle for the words of Holy Writ, a due incitement of devotion, a tendency to Christian edification, and a just reverence of the Great Being to whom the sacrifice of praise was made. To accomplish these important ends, the melody should be enchained in some certain boundary, thereby giving effect to the best notes in the voices of an assembly of men, women, and children, and by its calm dignity and sweet simplicity, prove as attractive to the untutored and unlearned, as to the most refined and most accomplished. And such are the forms of the olden melodies." We are informed by Dr. G. that the early Reformers, led on by Luther, eminently skilled in church music, carried the Reformation, as it is said, by the power of song! or by the excitement, it is presumed, which well adapted and vigorously executed music produced in minds already animated by a sense of the exalted justice and sanctity of their cause. But he tells us that musical harmony had no share in producing this effect; it was produced entirely by unisonous song, universally supported. He states that in the English Reformed Church, the only difference made in the music at first, was, the translation of the words from Latin to English. The preference for unison continued. "The Liturgical services were set to their unisonous song. The Prayer Book was noted to the ancient tunes for the use of all churches, and, to be sung in all churches.' And when harmonies had been published by various eminent authors, from 1563 to 1671, all the melodies were set to the tenor, so as to include male voices,-every effort demonstrating a clinging with fond affection to the older mode of upraising the melody through the instrumentality of the male voice." Dr. G. well observes on modern psalmody or hymnody, "It is a melancholy fact, that the majority of our melodies are beyond the reverential expression of the male voice. The fathers of our country are not required to sing a harmony part, any more than their wives or children. Most of them can sing a tune if in the compass of their natural voice. Skill in art-music is * Pliny's words are:-Carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem, ("they sang hymns among themselves to Christ, as to God,") which is a proof that the primitive Christians addressed their prayers and their worship to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. N. S. NO. 89.-VOL. VIII. no more necessary for congregational praise, than is refined elocution, or rhetorical power, for the office of prayer. There is an intrinsic majesty and sacredness, a high and self-forgetting reverence, in the fact of a minister leading his congregation, the father his family, in the peculiarly sweet and simple form of the olden hymn-melody, and surely it is not to be tolerated that this most primitive and orthodox order of hymning the praises of the Eternal shall be denounced and overturned; and that before being fitted for singing hymns, we must become half-instructed in the wailings of a contra tenor part, or the mysterious grumblings of the bass. It was not so at the era of the Reformation. The tunes of Luther, printed simply as melodies without harmony parts, met with an instantaneous and incredible circulation. Their impressions were legion." The Doctor has many judicious remarks occasionally on quiral singing; he says: "If congregational singing could only be obtained by the operation of trained choirs, and were there schools and choral colleges for that purpose, the remedying of an evil state of things would be comparatively easy. Church music, as well as church doctrine, requires its teachers and expositors; and to leave it to be moulded into any shape that the passions of a changing world may please to impress upon it, is but to resign it to decrepitude and imbecility." "The result of historical investigation shews, that since the ministers of the church neglected the hymn-melody, the people have taken it up, and of consequence it has been lowered in character by popular affections and worldly associations. And further, instead of determining what is the real character of the sacred lyric, in a truthful and genuine artistical form and religious spirit, prejudices of every kind have been permitted to colour it with hues neither consistent with devotion, nor consonant with art. But the lover of genuine church-melody looks into the world of art, and sees that there yet remains the true form of hymn-song, best calculated for the expression of the Christian laity. Taste and truth are things distinct and apa t. That taste which is not directed and controlled by the spirit of Christianity, is perfectly opposed to that highest and purest result of art,—a taste guided by, and under the dominion of, a right devotional spirit. Art is impersonal, and belongs to no predilection. It seeks to apply the best things to the highest purposes, with a due regard to the nature of the Great Being worshiped, and to the proprieties and edification of the worshipers." "Taste is merely a result, not a principle. Most persons think that to be the best tune which SEEMS to them the best. This notion of its propriety arises from the pleasure they take in it; this pleasure flows not from any real learning, but from habits and associations fanciful and local, and these habits have not been gained by study, but from familiarity with what may be good, bad, or indifferent ;-it may have pleased their forefathers, and been handed down by tradition, but this is no test of either truth or error. But the popular feeling,—that of pleasing oneself,-fades into insignificance when opposed to the higher question-what kind of tune is there that shall be the greatest ornament to God's service-a help to all in their devotions?"" And now comes the to us very interesting question,-how do all these considerations bear upon the infant institutions of worship in the New Church? Is the New Church, in a musical sense, a responsorial church, or not? Undoubtedly we may first, in obedience to the general principle referred to at the commencement, confidently adopt the conclusion, that the gradually developing affections taking their quality from the doctrines, will give birth, growth, and maturity, to the principle of good peculiar to the New Jerusalem; and this will give birth to those musical forms of worship in which they can best express, and most correspondently embody themselves. And when this is brought about, the music cultivated will resemble the mental principles to which it corresponds. These mental principles are not newly-created ones; they are the best principles of the ancient human mind brought forth, and carried onwards, to the perfection designed them originally by their Divine Original; so the music corresponding to, and embodying these principles, will not be something in itself entirely new, and therefore different from all preexisting good compositions (which, like all good things, at first originated in heaven), but will be developments from, and in accordance with, the best previous standards. But is the New Church a responsorial church,—musically so, that is,— or not? Or, is the New Church of such an interior and high intellectual cast, that (apart from the hymns or chants which may be continued by the choir) it will be more correspondent with the taste generated by the state of the affections of its worshipers, to accompany the minister's utterance only in the silent thoughts and feelings of the mind within? The hearty cordiality of the unisonous song, simply but soundly constructed, seems to have suitably embodied and expressed the simple, earnest affection of good of the primitive Christians; and, indeed, of all who resembled them in the succeeding churches, down to an advanced period of the Reformation, as we may further judge from the specimens of their music given by Dr. G. Wherever religious good existed at previous periods of the church, it either existed to a great extent in the absence of truth, or in connection with error. But a new period is now opening. Good is to become of a more enlightened character, and therefore more vital and pure. Error is flying away, and Truth is taking its place. Under perfectly new and unparalleled circumstances, it would be rash to predict, or even surmise, the effect likely to be wrought upon our church music. It is enough to know that "the Lord will provide." But one thing seems all but certain, and that is, that if we consult the records of experience, we shall find that there is no just medium between a musically responsorial church or congregation, and the entire disuse of responses not musically expressed. The existence of responses for reading in the Liturgy of the Established Church is but an accident; it is not the fruit of a well-devised arrangement, considerate I do preparation of what best befits a Liturgical service; for the fact appears unquestionable, that, originally, the responses were intended only to be sung; but the managers of the worship lost their zeal, and what was used to be vigorously sung, came to be drowsily said!—“ Drowsily said!" it may be asked, by those who favour responses being said,— "but why so? Is there any necessity for this?" Yes, I answer with much confidence; in the very nature of things it is unavoidable. not venture to decide whether the New Church is to be a responsorial church or not, considering, that is, its peculiar genius; but this I venture to say, that if responses are to be done "decently and in order," they must be sung;—after being well devised, and put to genuine artistical music. What says experience? It testifies that ever since responses were said, they have been a subject for complaint from zealous ministers. And why has ground for this always existed? It may be figuratively replied, in the language of Paul, "If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle." The people have to recite certain words. They are to be said, not sung. The people are, in some way or other, to read them. But the proper idea of reading them, or of the manner proper to read in, is, and must ever be, practically-an uncertainty. The least educated worshipers, when they read, "sing," as it is called; the more educated, were they to read expressively, according to their ability, temperament, or state of present feeling, would read with every variety of rhetorical expression which the words admit,--and what a Babel of sounds would result! With no standard rule or pattern to follow, following only their feelings, some would read faster, some slower, some in one key, some in another, and what could be the result but what is vulgarly called a Dutch concert, in which every one of a company, it is said, sings a different tune? This is a real, a great, and a necessary evil attendant on read responses. It is an inherent and incurable vice and mischief. And how has it in practice always been attempted to be palliated, wherever the majority of a congregation, by great exertion, has been incited to respond aloud? Why, by the educated abandoning all proper expression in reading, and following, with singular absurdity and inversion of taste, the mode of the uneducated. Better all semi-sing, or semi-read, whichever it may more suitably be called, so as to approach to something like musical unison, or rather monotony, than produce the confusion which must result from all reading in their natural manner, the manner which best expresses their perceptions and feelings. Hence comes of necessity that mumbling monotone, as disagreeable to the ear as it is repugnant to just ideas of devotion! Musical cadence, in musical responses, has not only a use of its own, but it has the additional recommendation of rescuing from this sad abuse. But if we are not to have musical responses; and the other alternative is brought into consideration, that is to say, worship without any responses, confining the congregation to the hymns, psalms, and chants,it will immediately be asked, probably, are the people to have nothing to do?—“ Nothing to do!" Are they doing nothing while the Word is being read? Then why should they be considered as doing nothing while the minister is praying, whether extempore or from a liturgy? Do the questioners alluded to mean, I would ask, to speak for themselves, or only for others? If their own case be not put forward as a general pattern, what right have they to assume an infirmity to attach to others, which they do not admit that they experience in themselves ? They can have no right to speak for others, unless they are prepared to say,—“ I shall certainly become drowsy unless I can occasionally rouse myself up by hearing the sound of my own voice, or the voices of others, in a response, and so will every one else!" But who will venture to say this for himself, or if he says it, without feelings of shame? Then why does he presume to answer for others? should he think worse of others than he thinks of himself? Why Until we can obtain a good system of musical responses,—if the New Church, that is, be indeed "a responsorial church," like its predecessors, let us set our faces against the futile attempt to introduce life into our worship by reading or rather semi-singing, or, as the result must be eventually, mumbling responses. We cannot go against nature. Simultaneous real reading of responses would be absurd. The only alternative is mumbling, as the lesser evil of the two; and can this give vitality to devotion? Let every one be assured, that if he individually feels weary in silently accompanying the minister, the fault is his own. Either his feelings are alien, or he has not the right method of following what is said (whether in the reading of the Word, prayer, or preaching). In this, as in all things beside, thought, endeavour, and practice, would make perfect, until there would be no longer any danger of drowsiness or weariness. * * Few persons are at all aware of the vast difference in result, with which different persons mentally follow the ideas of others, whether as expressed in books which they read, or orally, as in preaching, or prayer. When a young person first becomes a debater in discourse, or the reader of a book with a view to reply to it, he is quite astonished at the new and improved character which his habit of attention, and power of memory, for the first time, assumes. He is now all alive, and what he hears or reads makes an unprecedented impression upon him, as it is accompanied with a new degree |