ground of mere coincidence. From this period the cathedral method became more general, and engrossed the labours of such men as Tallis, Bird, Tye, Taverner, Shepherd, Farrant, Bull, Humfreys, Wise, Tucker, Clarke, Blow, Green, Purcell, Croft, &c., &c. In the hands of these distinguished composers, Church music was rapidly and elaborately developed. The refinements which it received from Tallis and his contemporaries incurred the censure of the Reformers, who thus became instrumental in the introduction of that other method which we shall now consider, namely, parochial psalmody.

The dissatisfaction with the choir music of the Church was displayed at the period of the earliest manifestation of the anti-papal spirit, and so we may place the origin of parochial psalmody-itself a direct result from this dissatisfaction-at the dawn of the great Reformation. Thus we find hymns employed exclusively amongst the Albigenses, as well as the followers of Wickliff, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague. This new system, however, if new it can be called, was forced to become a borrower from the established ritual, and so the melodies used were derived from chants to which the old Latin hymns were sung. But as the work of the Reformation progressed, the chasm between the ancient and modern ecclesiastical music grew wider and wider, which every day rendered it the more difficult to bridge over. Thus by degrees increasing in virulence, this opposition attained its acme in the hands of Luther, Zuingle, Calvin, Beza, Buchanan, and Knox. The Reformers in general were disposed to divest music of all those graces and ornaments derivable from melody and measure. Calvin exceeded even this, for he was for stripping it of anything bordering upon harmony, and adhering exclusively to unisonous singing. This narrow and, where music was concerned, ignorant view of the matter, would no doubt have diffused itself quickly amongst the other Reformers, except that the authority of Luther, who was himself an excellent musician and composer, was interposed to stem the torrent of extravagance that threatened to inundate the Church.

In one respect they seemed all to be agreed, namely, in the predilection for verse, rhythmical or otherwise. Thus Luther turned into verse the Liturgy, Creed, and Catechism; and even-as a strong illustration of the poetic mania-it may be mentioned that the Confession of Augsburg was made to assume the same dress. Side by side with the German revolution in Church music stands that initiated in France, and adopted from thence by the church at Geneva, under John Calvin. The French Metrical Psalmody originated from a version of a portion of the Psalms by one Marot, which were set to tunes composed mostly by the famous Claude Goudimel, by many supposed to have been the instructor of Palestrina. Much to the displeasure of the supporters of the Romish Church in France, the

airs and words of this version were eagerly sought after, till, by the influence of the papal authorities, they were brought into disrepute, and psalm-singing came to be regarded as a badge of heresy. This, joined to their indiscriminate use amongst the multitude, and their employment at the convivial meetings of the rich, had the effect of divesting them of all solemnity, and reducing them to the level of mere popular ballads. Notwithstanding this debasement, the version itself, with its tunes, was adopted by the Genoese, and became the basis on which was built the entire system of Calvinistic psalmody.

The force of these changes soon vibrated throughout Europe, and England was not long in becoming the subject of their influence. Thus we find a partial version of the Psalms by Sir Thomas Wyatt, and another by Earl Surrey somewhere about A.D. 1549, which is nine years after Marot's version, executed in 1540. The work of Wyatt and Surrey has not, however, reached our day. Thirteen years from the date of its publication appeared Sternhold's metrical rendering of fifty of the Psalms, A.D. 1562, the remainder being completed by the pen of Hopkins. This version may be frequently met with appended to the Scriptures. There is before us at present a copy of it, inserted at the end of the New Testament, in a Bible, the authorized translation, printed at Edinburgh, 1790. This, it is stated, "is allowed by the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, and appointed to be sung in congregations and families." This version, however, as is well known, does not appear in the Book of Common Prayer, but that of Drs. Tate and Brady, which is its inferior in many respects, and has been stigmatized not more severely than it deserves. It may be added that our psalmody in England is an offshoot from that sanctioned in the German Church, and not the Calvinistic, as some erroneously imagine. One proof of this lies in the parallelism existing between the tunes employed in the Anglican and German Churches, our Old Hundredth Psalm, e. g., being ascribed by Handel to Martin Luther. The German airs were not universally appropriated to its own use by the Church of England; but tunes were chosen, in some cases, indigenous to our country, and selected from certain popular melodies employed in secular music.

It now remains that we say a few words respecting Instrumental Church Music. At the outset may be stated what may be urged from Scripture in favour of its divine sanction. The mention of instrumental music, as an element in public worship, seems as old as the time of Seth or Enos. In the 4th chapter of Genesis the mention of musical instruments composed of pipes and strings -some such, possibly, as may afterwards have been employed by David is ascribed to the offspring of Jubal (ver. 21). The statement, however, with which the chapter concludes, is very express, though this is not apparent from the rendering of the Autho

rized Version, which is somewhat incomplete. The translation of our Bible of verse 26, "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord," might be rendered, as the Hebrew more properly bears that sense, "Then he [Enos or Seth] was caused to use instruments composed of pipes in calling upon the name of the Lord.” In a subsequent age we find David, "the man after God's own heart," employing instrumental music as an adjunct to those choirs which he had organized for the singing of the Lord's praises, and which were brought into requisition at the dedication of Solomon's temple. In his own individual capacity we know that the son of Jesse was an ardent admirer of instrumental music. Indeed its potency in relation to the subjugation of melancholy, and the suscitation of cheerfulness in a bosom oppressed with woe, is in an eminent degree illustrated in the case of the royal harpist of Israel, whose soothing strains chased away the evil spirit that, through God's visitation, troubled Saul.

The Christian followed the example of the Jewish Church in this matter, though the former rejected the musical instruments, e. g., the tabret and cymbal usually employed by the latter. The reason for this arose, probably, from the fact that these two instruments were associated with all the fury and indelicacy of the rites of Bacchus, and those celebrated by the priests of Cybele. Here tabret and cymbal were in prominent use, and, as such, were abjured by the primitive Christians. In lieu of these were adopted instruments more strictly belonging to the heathen; for instance, the lyra, cithara, and psaltery; the first being suitable for the execution of gay, and the other two of grave music. There was an additional element in the service, namely, dancing, of which the word "choir" (from the Greek xopos, a dance) is a standing record. This custom seems to us not more irreverent than ridiculous; but not so with those who lived close upon an age in the world's history when saltatory movements formed an essential portion of the Pagan religion. Nay, more, we find David (2 Sam. vi. 14) adopting this practice in the religious services arranged for the ceremony of bringing the ark to Jerusalem, as indeed had, at a much earlier period, been done by the prophetess Miriam (Exod. xv. 20). The custom long survived in the Church, -nor, we believe, is it even now entirely eradicated. Of its once potent sway we have a remnant in the motions and genuflexions of the officiating priest in the Roman Catholic Church during the celebration of mass. But of the existence of both music and dancing as adjuncts to public worship in the Christian Church, we need only point to that which is a direct offshoot of both: we mean the mysteries of the Middle Ages, or miracle plays. Here a sort of sung dialogue, after the mode of what we denominate "recitative," together with instrumental music and dancing, introduced at intervals, was adapted to certain sacred subjects, such as our Lord's

Passion,-which, by the way, is still represented after this mode, in certain Continental cities, at measured intervals of time. All this prepared the way for the invention of what we call the oratorio.

Notwithstanding the anathemas hurled by the Fathers against instrumental music as employed in public worship, it gradually crept into popular favour, and ultimately triumphed over all opposition. The antagonism from patristic disapprobation is to be accounted for in this way, that inasmuch as the musical instruments employed by the Christians were those in use amongst the heathen, the Fathers considered that their adoption by the Church was an impious alliance between paganism and our holy religion. Yet they scrupled not in other respects to patronize such an amalgamation, as may be observed in that accommodating spirit already alluded to which they displayed towards the philosophy of the schools, and which induced some to assimilate the doctrines of our Lord to those of Aristotle and Plato. The censure, however, thus directed against the instrumental Church music of that early age-though it proved abortive as regards its total suppression-was, at all events, in the issue of things, beneficial, by being subsidiary to a more improved system of ecclesiastical music, and in all likelihood to the invention of that grandest and most perfect of all instruments, the organ.

The modern organ, whose inventor is said to have been Ctesibius, a barber of Alexandria, is a development of a very ancient musical instrument found amongst the Greeks, namely, the hydraulicon,-a structure, as its name imports, where the motive power was water. When it was that our present method of producing sound in the organ was brought into use cannot be accurately determined. Antiquarians are frequently deceived in their researches by not bearing in mind that the word "organ," as occurring in the writings of antiquity (e. g., see St. Augustine on Psalm LVI.), is a sort of generic term for musical instrument. The earliest mention of this instrument exists in an epigram by the Emperor Julian ("Anthol.," I., 86, 5), about A.D. 364; though it is difficult to decide whether the hydraulicon is intended or not. Cassiodorus (on Psalm CL.) alludes to something similar. In all likelihood, however, the first instrument of a similar nature to our modern organ is that recorded as sent from Constantinople, about A.D. 757, by Constantine Copronymus VI. to Pepin of France. And yet anterior to this, somewhere in the seventh century, we find the organ for the first time introduced into Rome by Pope Vitalian. In the fifteenth century we have mention of an enormous organ, or at least something approximating to it, at Westminster, according to the statement of William of Malmesbury, as cited by Du Cange. From this period organs became in general use throughout Europe, and at the time of the Reformation they might be said to be universal.

The organ is the crowning invention to Church music, and its operation in the development of the latter can scarcely be exaggerated. Its influence was intensified through the discovery of the theory of counterpoint by Guido, from whose day ecclesiastical music, both in the instrumental and vocal parts, became gradually more refined, till it attained a sort of climax under Palestrina at Rome in the sixteenth century. The Roman Catholic Church since Guido's time had abandoned-in music, at least-that conservative spirit which at the first sternly resisted the innovations of floriture, &c., imported into the Latin from the Greek Church. And so, from the age of Palestrina, we find the Papacy rather encouraging that meretricious style so painfully conspicuous in the masses of Mozart.

The power of the organ being thus obvious in the matter of producing Church music on a grand scale, it might have been supposed that it would have been left to do its work unaided. This, however, has not been the case, for an addition in some cases has been made of brass, wooden, and stringed instruments. Palestrina seems to have inaugurated this plan, and to have been the first to organize an orchestra as an accompaniment to the organ in the churches. This method cannot be approved of as a general rule; yet we have heard it praised by some; for instance, in St. Peter's at Rome, the occasional use, from the dome, of a band of silver trumpets, at parts of the pontifical mass, is described by those who have heard it as an effect exceedingly fine. Again, in the chapel of the Madeleine at Paris, the influence of sound from the orchestra behind the high altar, and from the organ at the opposite extremity of the church, is too well known to have its beauty described-a remark, indeed, applicable to the magnificent church of St. Eustache. Here, however, the organ and orchestra are grouped together in the choir of the sacred edifice.

The natural effect upon Church music of the invention of the organ, and of the employment of orchestration, might be easily anticipated. A higher degree of ornamentationa nd a greater complexity in the vocal parts was the necessary consequence. Each century, as it passed on, ushered in some new refinement, so that at the Reformation it was made a subject of complaint that the gross bulk of the people could not understand the music employed in the churches,— much less, as requiring a musical education, take part in it; and there appears to have been some justice in the complaint. The sense was sacrificed to sound, and the composer's part was discharged without any regard to the words intended to be used; so that there subsisted no harmony between the cadence of the music and the division of the syllables. A great improvement in this respect was wrought by the efforts of some eminent musicians in England, more especially the most celebrated of the three Purcells. To employ, however, simply unisonous singing was to pass over into the opposite extreme,