{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_21722/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_21722","id":"gutenberg_21722","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21722","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Music","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Church music -- Protestant churches","Hymns"],"text":"Produced by Stephen Hutcheson (This file was produced from\nimages generously made available by The Internet\nArchive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA\nPractical Discourse on some\nPrinciples of Hymn-Singing\nBy Robert Bridges\n1901\n\n\n_Price, One Shilling, net_\n\n\nA\nPractical Discourse on some\nPrinciples of Hymn-Singing\nBy Robert Bridges\n\nReprinted from the Journal of\nTheological Studies, October, 1899\n\nOxford: B. H. Blackwell, 50 & 51 Broad Street\nLondon: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co.\n1901\n\nThe Author's thanks are due to the Editors of the Journal of Theological\nStudies, and to the Publishers, Messrs. Macmillan, for permission to\nreprint.\n\n\nA\nPRACTICAL DISCOURSE\nON SOME\nPRINCIPLES OF HYMN-SINGING\n\nWhat St. Augustin says of the emotion which he felt on hearing the music\nin the Portian basilica at Milan in the year 386 has always seemed to me\na good illustration of the relativity of musical expression; I mean how\nmuch more its ethical significance depends on the musical experience of\nthe hearer, than on any special accomplishment or intrinsic development\nof the art. Knowing of what kind that music must have been and how few\nresources of expression it can have had,--being rudimental in form,\nwithout suggestion of harmony, and in its performance unskilful, its\nprobably nasal voice-production unmodified by any accompaniment,--one\nmarvels at his description,\n\n  'What tears I shed at Thy hymns and canticles, how acutely was my soul\n  stirred by the voices and sweet music of Thy Church! As those voices\n  entered my ears, truth distilled in my heart, and thence divine\n  affection welled up in a flood, in tears o'erflowing, and happy was I\n  in those tears[1].'\n\nSt. Augustin appears to have witnessed the beginnings of the great music\nof the Western Church. It was the year of his baptism when, he tells us,\nsinging was introduced at Milan to cheer the Catholics who had shut\nthemselves up in the basilica with their bishop, to defend him from the\nimperial violence:\n\n  'It was then instituted that psalms and hymns should be sung, after the\n  manner of the Eastern Churches, lest the folk in the weariness of their\n  grief should altogether lose heart: and from that day to this the\n  custom has been retained; many, nay, nearly all Thy flocks, in all\n  regions of the world, following the example[2].'\n\nWhat great emotional power St. Augustin attributed to ecclesiastical\nmusic, and of what importance he thought it, may be seen in the tenth\nbook of the _Confessions_: he is there examining himself under the heads\nof the senses, and after the sense of smell, his chapter on the sense of\nhearing is as follows:\n\n  'The lust of the ears entangled and enslaved me more firmly, but Thou\n  hast loosened and set me free. But even now I confess that I do yield a\n  very little to the beauty of those sounds which are animated by Thy\n  eloquence, when sung with a sweet and practised voice; not, indeed, so\n  far that I am limed and cannot fly off at pleasure[3]: and yield though\n  I do, yet these sweet sounds, joined with the divine words which are\n  their life, cannot be admitted to my heart save to a place of some\n  dignity, and I hesitate to give them one as lofty as their claim[4].\n\n  'For sometimes I seem to myself to be allowing them undue honour, when\n  I feel that our minds are really moved to a warmer devotion and more\n  ardent piety by the holy words themselves when they are so sung than\n  when they are not so sung; and when I recognize that all the various\n  moods of our spirit have their proper tones in speech and song, by\n  which they are, through I know not what secret familiarity, excited.\n  But the mere sensuous delight, to which it is not fitting to resign the\n  mind to be enervated thereby, often deceives me, whenever (that is) the\n  delight of the senses does not so accompany the reason as to be\n  cheerfully in submission thereto, but, having been admitted only for\n  reason's sake, then even attempts to go before and to lead. Thus I sin\n  without knowing, but afterwards I know.\n\n  'Then awhile, from too immoderate caution against this deception, I err\n  on the side of too great severity; and sometimes go so far as to wish\n  that all the melody of the sweet chants which are used in the Davidian\n  psalter were utterly banished from my ears, and from the ears of the\n  Church; and that way seems to me safer which I remember often to have\n  heard told of Athanasius, archbishop of Alexandria, that he would have\n  the lector of the psalm intone it with but a slight modulation of\n  voice, so as to be more like one reading than one singing. And yet,\n  when I remember my tears, which I shed at the hearing of the song of\n  Thy Church in the first days of my recovered faith, and that now I\n  still feel the same emotion, and am moved not by the singing but by\n  what is sung, when it is sung with a liquid voice and in the most\n  fitting \"modulation,\" then (I say) I acknowledge again the great\n  utility of the institution.\n\n  'Thus I fluctuate between the peril of sensuous pleasure and the proof\n  of wholesomeness, and am more inclined (though I would not offer an\n  irrevocable judgement) to approve of the use of singing in the Church,\n  that, by the pleasure of the ear, weaker minds may rise to the emotion\n  of piety. Yet when it happens to me to be more moved by the music than\n  by the words that are sung I confess that I have sinned (poenaliter\n  peccare), and it is then that I would rather not hear the singer[5].'\n\nWhat would St. Augustin have said could he have heard Mozart's Requiem,\nor been present at some Roman Catholic cathedral where an\neighteenth-century mass was performed, a woman hired from the Opera-House\nwhooping the _Benedictus_ from the western gallery?\n\nIt is possible that such music would not have had any ethical\nsignificance to him, bad or good. Augustin lived before what we reckon\nthe very beginnings of modern music, with nothing to entice and delight\nhis ears in the choir but the simplest ecclesiastical chant and hymn-tune\nsung in unison. We are accustomed to an almost over-elaborated art,\nwhich, having won powers of expression in all directions, has so\nsquandered them that they are of little value: and we may confidently say\nthat the emotional power of our church music is not so great as that\ndescribed by him 1,500 years ago. In fact if we feel at all out of\nsympathy with Augustin's words, it is because he seems to over-estimate\nthe danger of the emotion[6].\n\nThere is something very strange and surprising in this state of things,\nthis contrast between the primitive Church with its few simple melodies\nthat ravished the educated hearer, and our own full-blown institution\nwith its hymn-book of some 600 tunes, which when it is opened fills the\nsensitive worshipper with dismay, so that there are persons who would\nrather not go inside a church than subject themselves to the trial.\n\nWhat is the matter? What is it that is wrong with our hymnody? Even where\nthere is not such rooted disgust as I have implied, there is a growing\nconviction that some reform is needed in words or music, or both.\n\nAssuming that the chief blame lies with the music (as, I think, might\neasily be proved), I propose to discuss the question of the music of our\nhymnody, and I shall proceed on the basis of St. Augustin's principles: I\nam sure that they would be endorsed by any pious church-goer who had\nconsidered the subject, and they may be fairly formulated thus, _The\nmusic must express the words or sense: it should not attract too much\nattention to itself: it should be dignified: and its reason and use is to\nheighten religious emotion._\n\nOne point calls for distinction: Augustin speaks of his emotion on\n_hearing_ the hymns and canticles; he writes as if he had had no more\nthought of taking part in the music himself, than we have of joining in\nthe anthem at a cathedral; and this might lead to a misunderstanding; for\nthere is no doubt that these hymns were sung by the people: the story is\nthat the very soldiers who were sent to blockade the basilica, happening\nto be themselves catholics, joined their voices in the stanzas which St.\nAmbrose had specially composed to disconcert the Arian enemy.\n\nThe ecstasy of listening to music, and the enthusiasm of a crowd who are\nall singing or shouting the same hymn or song are emotions of quite\ndifferent nature and value. Now, neglecting the rare conditions under\nwhich these emotions may be combined, we shall, as we are speaking of\nhymns, be concerned chiefly with the latter kind, for all will agree that\nhymns are that part of the Church music in which it is most desirable\nthat the congregation should join: and I believe that there would be less\ndifference in practice if it were at all easy to obtain good\ncongregational singing, or even anything that is worthy of the name. It\nseems perhaps a pity that nature should have arranged that where the\npeople are musical (as Augustin appears to have been) they would rather\nlisten, and where they are unmusical they would all rather sing.\n\nSpeaking therefore of congregational hymn-singing, and conceding, as I\nthink we must, that the essential use of such music is to heighten\nemotion, then, this emotional quality being the _sine qua non_ (the music\nbeing of no use without it), it follows that it is the primary\nconsideration. If we are to have music at all, it must be such as will\nraise or heighten emotion; and to define this we must ask, _Whose\nemotion?_ and _What kind of emotion?_\n\nLet us take this latter question first, and inquire what emotions it is\nusual, proper, or possible to express by congregational singing of hymns.\nWilliam Law, in his _Serious Call_, has an interesting, I may say\namusing, chapter on the duty of all to sing, whether they have any turn\nor inclination for it or no. All should sing, he says, even though they\ndislike doing so; and I think that what he affirms of private devotion\napplies with greater force to public worship. It should satisfy the most\nardent advocate of congregational singing, and it goes certainly to the\nroot of the matter.\n\n  'It is so right and beneficial to devotion, has so much effect upon our\n  hearts, that it may be insisted on as a common rule for all persons;\n  ... for singing is as much the proper use of a psalm as devout\n  supplication is the proper use of a form of prayer: and a psalm only\n  read is very much like a prayer that is only looked over.... If you\n  were to tell a person that has such a song, that he need not sing it,\n  that it was sufficient to peruse it, he would wonder what you meant,\n  ... as if you were to tell him that he should only look at his food, to\n  see whether it was good, but need not eat it.... You will perhaps say\n  that singing is a particular talent, that belongs only to particular\n  people, and that you have neither voice nor ear for music.\n\n  'If you had said that singing is a general talent, and that people\n  differ in that as they do in all other things, you had said something\n  much truer.\n\n  'For how vastly people differ in the talent of thinking, which is not\n  only common to all men, but seems to be the very essence of human\n  nature: ... yet no one desires to be excused from thought because he\n  has not this talent in any fine degree....\n\n  'If a person were to forbear praying because he had an odd tone in his\n  voice, he would have as good an excuse as he that forbears from singing\n  psalms because he has but little management of his voice....\n\n  'These songs make a sense (of) delight in God they awaken holy\n  devotion: they teach how to ask: they kindle a holy flame....\n\n  'Singing is the natural effect of JOY in the heart, ... and it is also\n  the natural means of raising EMOTIONS OF JOY in the mind: such JOY AND\n  THANKFULNESS to God as is the highest perfection of a divine and holy\n  life.'\n\nNow though I cannot feel the force of all Law's arguments nor easily\nbring myself to believe that a person who dislikes singing, and has no\near for music, will readily find any comfortable assistance to his\nprivate devotion from making efforts to hit off the notes of the scale;\nyet I feel that Law's position is in the main sound, and that he has\ncorrectly specified the emotion most proper to that kind of uncultured\nsinging which he describes: and though congregational psalm-singing\nnecessarily involves a greater musical capacity than that assumed in\nLaw's extreme case, and may therefore have a wider field, yet we may\nbegin by laying down that JOY, PRAISE, and THANKSGIVING give us the first\nmain head of what is proper to be expressed, and we may extend this head\nby adding ADORATION and perhaps the involved emotions of AWE and PEACE\nand even the attitude of CONTEMPLATION.\n\nIn such a subject as the classification of emotions as they may be\nexpressed by music of one kind or another, it is plainly impossible to\nmake any definite tabulation with which all would agree. The very names\nof the emotions will, to different minds, call up different associations\nof feeling. If any agreement could be arrived at, it would be at the\nexpense of distinction; and all that I can expect is to have my\ndistinctions understood, and in the main agreed with. And as I am most\nready to grant to the reader his right to a different opinion on any\ndetail, I beg of him the same toleration, and that he will rather try to\nfollow my meaning than dwell on discrepancies which may be due to a fault\nof expression, or to a difference of meaning which he and I may attach to\nthe same word.\n\nWith this apology in preamble, I will attempt to make some classification\nof emotions as they seem to me to be the possible basis for musical\nexpression in congregational singing.\n\nWe have already one class: I would add a second, to include all the hymns\nwhich exhibit the simple attitude of PRAYER.\n\nA third class I would put under the head of FAITH. Examples of this class\nwill no doubt often cross with those of the first class, but they will\nspecify themselves as CELEBRATIONS of events of various COMMEMORATION,\nintroducing a distinct form, namely NARRATION, which is a very proper and\neffective form for general praise.\n\nAlso this section will include all the hymns of BROTHERHOOD and\nFELLOWSHIP, and of SPIRITUAL CONFLICT, with the correlative _invitatory_\nand _exhortatory_ songs, as modified by what will be said later.\n\nAlso, lastly, under this same head of Faith, the DOCTRINAL hymns, and\nprofessions of creed whether sectarian or otherwise, which, if the\ndefinition be taken widely, make a large and popular class, well\nexemplified by the German hymns of the Reformation, or by those of our\nWesleyan revival; strong with the united feeling of a small body,\nasserting itself in the face of opposition: concerning which we will not\nspeak further, except to recall the fact that this kind of enthusiasm was\nnot absent from the causes which first introduced hymns into the Western\nChurch.\n\nI believe that this is a pretty full list of all the attitudes of mind\nthat can be properly expressed by congregational singing; and if we turn\nto other emotions which are made the subject of church hymns, we shall, I\nthink, see that they are all of them liable to suffer damage by being\nentrusted to the rough handling of general vociferation.\n\nSuch will be all hymns of DIVINE AFFECTION and YEARNING; all LAMENTS and\nCONSOLATIONS; all descriptions of spiritual conditions which imply\npersonal experience and feeling, as ABASEMENT, HUMILIATION, CONTRITION,\nREPENTANCE, RESIGNATION, SELF-DEVOTION, CONVICTION, and SATISFACTION.\n\nHere I feel that many readers will be inclined to dissent from what I\nsay, and as I shall not again recur to Law, I should like, in order to\nshow my meaning, to call up his extreme example of an unmusical person\nsinging in private devotion. If one pictures such a case as he supposes,\nis it not clear, whether one imagines oneself the actor or the unwilling\nauditor, that while such an exhibition of joy might perhaps pass, yet a\nsimilar incompetent attempt to express any of the last-named emotions\nwould be only ridiculous? But between this single worshipper and the\ncongregation the incompetence seems to me only a question of degree;\nwhile in the far more considerable respect of the sincerity of the\nfeeling in the hearts of those expressing it, Law's singer has every\nadvantage; indeed no objection on this score can be raised to him. But\nnow suppose for a moment that he has _not_ the emotion at heart\ncorresponding to his attempt at song, and I think the differentiation of\nmotives for congregational singing will seem justifiable.\n\nAll these last-named emotions,--which I have taken from congregational\nhymn-books,--and I suppose there may be more of them,--call for delicacy\nof treatment. A Lamentation, for instance, which might seem at first\nsight as if it would gain force by volume, will, if it is realistic or\nclumsy, become unmanly, almost so as to be ridiculous, and certainly\ndepressing to the spirit rather than purifying. In fact while many of the\nsubjects require beautiful expression, they are also more properly used\nwhen offered as inspiring ideals; and to assume them to be of common\nattainment or experience is to degrade them from their supreme sanctity.\nBut in thus ruling them unfit for general singing one must distinguish\nlarge miscellaneous congregations from small united bodies, in which a\nmore intimate emotion may be natural: and as there is no exact line of\ndistinction here, so there is no objection to the occasional and partial\nintrusion of some of these more intimate subjects into congregational\nhymns.\n\nTo this first question then, as to what emotions are fit to be expressed\nby congregational music, the answer appears to be that the more general\nthe singing, the more general and simple should be the emotion and that\nthe universally fitting themes are those of simple praise, prayer, or\nfaith: and we might inquire whether one fault of our modern hymn-books\nmay not be their attempt to supply congregational music to unfitting\nthemes.\n\nTo the next question, _Whose emotion_ is this congregational music to\nexcite or heighten? the answer is plain: It is the average man, or one\nrather below the average, the uneducated, as St. Augustin says the\nweaker, mind and that in England is, at least artistically, a narrow mind\nand a vulgar being. And it may of course be alleged that the music in our\nhymn-books which is intolerable to the more sensitive minds was not put\nthere for them, but would justify itself in its supposed fitness for the\nlower classes. 'What use,' the pastor would say to one who, on the ground\nof tradition advocated the employment of the old plain-song and the\nAmbrosian melodies, 'What use to seek to attract such people as those in\nmy cure with the ancient outlandish and stiff melodies that pleased folk\na thousand years ago, and which I cannot pretend to like myself?' Or if\nhis friend is a modern musician, who is urging him to have nothing in his\nchurch but what would satisfy the highest artistic sense of the day, his\nanswer is the same: he will tell you that it would be casting pearls\nbefore swine; and that unless the music is 'tuney' and 'catchy' the\npeople will not take to it. And we cannot hastily dismiss these practical\nobjections. The very Ambrosian music which is now so strange to modern\nears was doubtless, when St. Ambrose introduced it, much akin to the\nsecular music of the day, if it was not directly borrowed from it: and\nthe history of hymn-music is a history of the adaptations of profane\nsuccesses in the art to the uses of the Church. Nor do I see that it can\never be otherwise, for the highest music demands a supernatural material;\nso that it would seem an equal folly for musicians to neglect the unique\nopportunity which religion offers them, and for religion to refuse the\nbest productions of human art. And we must also remember that the art of\nthe time, whether it be bad or good, has a much more living relation to\nthe generation which is producing it, and exerts a more powerful\ninfluence upon it, than the art of any time that is past and gone. It is\nthe same in all aspects of life: it is the book of the day, the hero or\nstatesman of the hour, the newest hope, the latest flash of scientific\nlight, which attracts the people. And it must be, on the face of it, true\nthat any artist who becomes widely popular must have hit off, 'I know not\nby what secret familiarity,' the exact fashion or caprice of the current\ntaste of his own generation.\n\nAnd this is so true that it must be admitted that it is not always the\nuneducated man only whose taste is hit off. In the obituary notices of\nsuch men as Gladstone and Tennyson the gossip will inform us, rightly or\nwrongly, that their 'favourite hymn[7]' was, not one of the great\nmasterpieces of the world,--which, alas, it is only too likely that in\ntheir long lives they never heard,--but some tune of the day: as if in\nthe minds of men whose lives appealed strongly to their age there must be\nsomething delicately responsive to the exact ripple of the common taste\nand fashion of their generation.\n\nAll this makes a strong case: and it would seem, since our hymn-music is\nto stir the emotions of the vulgar, that it must itself be both vulgar\nand modern; and that, in the interest of the weaker mind, we must\nrenounce all ancient tradition and the maxims of art, in order to be in\ntouch with the music-halls.\n\nThis is impossibly absurd; and unless there is some flaw in our argument,\nthe fault must lie in the premisses; we have omitted some necessary\nqualification.\n\nThe qualification which we neglected is this, that _the music must be\ndignified_, and suitable to the meaning; and we should only have wasted\nwords in ignoring what we knew all along, if we had not, by so doing,\nbrought this qualification into its vital prominence, and at the same\ntime exposed the position of those who neglect it, and the real reason of\nthe mean condition of our church music.\n\nThe use of undignified music for sacred purposes may perhaps be justified\nin exceptional cases, which must be left to the judgement of those who\nconsider all things lawful that they may save some. But if from the\nmission service this licence should creep into the special service, and\nthen invade every act of public worship, it must be met with an edict of\nunscrupulous exclusion. Not that it can be truly described as thus having\ncrept in in our time. It is always creeping, it has flourished in special\nhabitats for four or five hundred years, and before then there is the\nhistory of Palestrina's great reform of like abuses. If in our time in\nEngland we differ in any respect for the worse, it is rather in the\nuniversal prevalence of a mild form of the degradation, which is perhaps\nmore degrading than the occasional exceptional abuses of a more flagrant\nkind, which cannot hide their scandal but bring their own condemnation.\n\nThere is indeed no extreme from which this abuse has shrunk; perhaps the\nworst form of it is the setting of sacred hymns to popular airs, which\nare associated in the minds of the singers with secular, or even comic\nand amatory words[8]: of which it is impossible to give examples, because\nthe extreme instances are blasphemies unfit to be quoted; and it is only\nthese which could convey an adequate idea of the licence[9] The essence\nof the practice appears to be the production of a familiar excitement,\nwith the intention of diverting it into a religious channel.\n\nBut, even in the absence of secular or profane association,\ncongregational singing, when provoked by undignified music, such as may\nbe found in plenty in our modern hymn-books, may be maintained without\nthe presence of religious feeling, out of mere high spirits, or as we\nsay, 'in fun,' and may easily give rise to mockery. I have witnessed\nexamples enough in proof of this, but if I gave them it might be thought\nthat I wished to amuse profane readers[10]. And though such extreme\ndisasters may be exceptional outbursts, yet they are always but just\nbeneath the surface, and are the inevitable outcome of the use of\nunworthy means. The cause of such a choice of means must be either an\nartistic incapacity to distinguish, or a want of faith in the power of\nreligious emotion when unaided by profane adjuncts. What would St.\nAugustin have ruled here, or thought of the confusion of ideas, which,\nbeing satisfied with any expression, mistakes one emotion for another?\n\nThe practical question now arises. We know the need; how is it to be\nsupplied? We require music which will reach the emotions of uneducated\npeople, and in which they will delight to join, and in which it shall be\neasy to join: and it must be dignified and not secular. If we condemn and\nreject the music which the professional church-musicians have supplied\nwith some popular success to meet the need, what is there to take its\nplace? Of what music is our hymn-book to be constructed, which shall be\nat once dignified, sacred, and popular?\n\nThe answer is very simple: it is this, _Dignified Melody_. Good melody is\nnever out of fashion; and as it is by all confession the seal of high\nmusical genius, so it is that form of music which is universally\nintelligible and in the best sense popular; and we have a rich legacy of\nit. What we want is that our hymn-books should contain a collection of\nthe best ecclesiastical and sacred hymn-melodies, and _nothing but\nthese_, instead of having but a modicum of these, for the most part\nmauled and illset, among a crowd of contributions of an altogether\ninferior kind; the whole collection being often such that if an\nill-natured critic were to assert that the compilers had degraded and\nlimited the old music in order to set off their own, it would be\ndifficult to meet him with a logical refutation.\n\nThe shortest and most practical way of treating this subject will be to\ngive some account of the sources from which the music of such a hymn-book\nas I propose would be drawn. I will take these in their chronological\norder. First in order of time are the Plain-song melodies.\n\nI have already stated the ordinary objection to these tunes, that they\nare stiff and out of date. Now it may be likely enough that they will\nnever be so universally popular in our country as the fine melodies\ninvented on the modern harmonic system, yet the idea that they are not\npopular in character, and that modern people will not sing them, is a\nmistake; there is plenty of evidence on this point. Nor must we judge\nthem by the incompetent, and I confess somewhat revolting aspect in which\nthey were offered to us by the Anglo-gregorianists of thirty years ago, a\npresentment which has gone far to ruin their reputation; they are better\nunderstood now, and may be heard here and there sung as they should be.\nThey are of great artistic merit and beauty; and instead of considering\nthem _a priori_ as uncongenial on the ground of antiquity, we should\nrather be thinking of them that they were invented at a time when unison\nsinging was cultivated in the highest perfection, so much so that a large\nnumber of these tunes are, on account of their elaborate and advanced\nrhythm, not only far above the most intelligent taste of the minds with\nwhich we have to deal, but are also so difficult of execution that there\nare few trained choirs in the country that could render them well. To the\nsimpler tunes, however, these objections do not apply: in fact there are\nonly two objections that can be urged against them, and both of these\nwill be found on examination to be advantages.\n\nThe first objection is that they are not in the modern scale. Now as this\nobjection is only felt by persons who have cramped their musical\nintelligence by an insufficient technical education, and cannot believe\nthat music is music unless they are modulating in and out of some key by\nmeans of a sharp seventh;--and as the nature of the ecclesiastical modes\nis too long a subject, and too abstruse for a paper of this sort, even if\nI were competent to discuss it;--I shall therefore content myself by\nstating that the ecclesiastical modes have, for melodic purposes (which\nis all that we are considering), advantages over the modern scale, by\nwhich they are so surpassed in harmonic opportunities. Even such a\nthoroughgoing admirer of the modern system as Sir Hubert Parry writes on\nthis subject, that it 'is now quite obvious that for melodic purposes\nsuch modes as the Doric and Phrygian were infinitely (_sic_) preferable\nto the Ionic,' i.e. to our modern major keys[11]. And it will be evident\nto every one how much music has of late years sought its charm in modal\nforms, under the guise of national character.\n\nThe second objection is their free rhythm. They are not written in barred\ntime, and cannot without injury be reduced to it.\n\nAs this question affects also other classes of hymns, I will here say all\nthat I have to say, or have space to say, about the rhythm of hymn-tunes;\nconfining my remarks generally to the proper dignified rhythms.\n\nIn all modern musical grammars it is stated that there are virtually only\ntwo kinds of time. The time-beat goes either by twos or some multiple of\ntwo, or by threes or some multiple of three, and the accent recurs at\nregular intervals of time, and is marked by dividing off the music into\nbars of equal length. Nothing is more important for a beginner to learn,\nand yet from the point of view of rhythm nothing could be more\ninadequate. _Rhythm is infinite._ These regular times are no doubt the\nmost important fundamental entities of it, and may even lie\nundiscoverably at the root of all varieties of rhythm whatsoever, and\nfurther they may be the only possible or permissible rhythms for a modern\ncomposer to use, but yet the absolute dominion which they now enjoy over\nall music lies rather in their practical necessity and convenience (since\nit is only by attending to them that the elaboration of modern harmonic\nmusic is possible), than in the undesirability (in itself) or unmusical\ncharacter of melody which ignores them. In the matter of hymn-melodies an\nunbarred rhythm has very decided advantages over a barred rhythm. In the\nformer the melody has its own way, and dances at liberty with the voice\nand sense; in barred time it has its accents squared out beforehand, and\nmakes steadily for its predetermined beat, plumping down, as one may say,\non the first note of every bar whether it will or no. Sing to any one a\nPlain-song melody, _Ad coenam Agni_ for instance, once or twice, and then\nCroft's 148th Psalm[12]. Croft will be undeniably fine and impressive,\nbut he provokes a smile: his tune is like a diagram beside a flower.\n\nNow in this matter of rhythm our hymn-book compilers, since the\nseventeenth century, have done us a vast injury. They have reduced all\nhymns to the common times. Their procedure was, I suppose, dictated by\nsome argument such as this: 'The people must have what they can\nunderstand: they only understand the simple two and three time: _ergo_ we\nmust reduce all the tunes to these measures.' Or again, 'It will be\neasier for them to have all the tunes as much alike as possible:\ntherefore let us make them all alike, and write them all in equal\nminims.'\n\nBoth these ideas are absolutely wrong. A hymn-tune, which they hastily\nassume to be the commonest and lowest form of music, actually possesses\nliberties coveted by other music[13]. It is a short melody, committed to\nmemory, and frequently repeated: there is no reason why it should submit\nto any of the time-conveniences of orchestral music: there is no reason\nwhy its rhythm should not be completely free; nor is there any _a priori_\nnecessity why any one tune should be exactly like another in rhythm. It\nwill be learned by the ear (most often in childhood), be known and loved\nfor its own sake, and blended in the heart with the words which interpret\nit: and this advantage was instinctively felt by those of our early\nchurch composers who, already understanding something of the value of\nbarred music, yet deliberately avoided cramping the rhythms of their\nhymn-tunes by too great subservience to it[14]. One of the first duties\ntherefore which we owe to hymn-melodies is the restoration of their free\nand original rhythms, keeping them as varied as possible: the Plain-song\nmelodies must be left unbarred and be taught as free rhythms, and all\nother fine tunes which are worth using should be preserved in their\noriginal rhythm; because free rhythm is better, and its variety is good,\nand because the attraction of a hymn-melody lies in its individual\ncharacter and expression, and not at all in its time-likeness to other\ntunes. This last idea has been a chief cause in the degradation of our\nhymns.\n\nI may conclude then that the best of these simpler Plain-song tunes are\nvery fit for congregational use. They should be offered as pure melody in\nfree rhythm and sung in unison: their accompaniment must not be entrusted\nto a modern grammarian. It is well also to use most of them in their\nEnglish form, the _Old Sarum Use_ as it is called; which happily\npreserves to us a national tradition, in the opinion of some experts\nolder and more correct than any known on the continent; and if the\ndifferences in our English version are not due to purity of tradition,\nthey will have another and almost greater interest, as venerable records\nof the genius of our national taste. These Plain-song tunes have probably\na long future before them; since, apart from their merit, they are\nindissolubly associated with the most ancient Latin hymns, some of which\nare the very best hymns of the Church.\n\nThe next class of tunes[15] is that of the Reformation hymns, English,\nFrench, and German, dating from about 1550 to some way on in the\nseventeenth century. The chief English group is known as _Sternhold and\nHopkins' Psalter_, which was mostly of eight-line tunes. This book was\nvirtually put together in Geneva about 1560, and antiquarians make much\nof it. If stripped, however, of its stolen plumes and later additions it\nis really an almost worthless affair, the true history of it being as\nfollows. A French musician named Louis Bourgeois, whom Calvin brought\nwith him to Geneva in 1541, turned out to be an extraordinary genius in\nmelody; he remained at Geneva about fifteen years, and in that time\ncompiled a Psalter of eighty-five tunes, almost all of which are of great\nmerit, and many of the very highest excellence. The splendour of his\nwork, which was merely appreciated as useful at the time, was soon\nobscured, for immediately on his leaving Geneva, the French Psalter was\ncompleted by inferior hands, whose work, being mixed in with his, lowered\nthe average of the whole book enormously, and Bourgeois' work was never\ndistinguished until, quite lately, the period of his office was\ninvestigated and compared with the succeeding editions of his book. Now\nthe English refugees compiled their 'Sternhold and Hopkins' at Geneva, in\nimitation of the French, during the time of Bourgeois' residence, and\ntook over a number of the French tunes; though they _mauled these most\nunmercifully_ to bring them down to the measure of their doggerel psalms,\nyet even after this barbarous treatment Bourgeois' spoilt tunes were\nstill far better than what they made for themselves, and sufficient not\nonly to float their book into credit, but to kindle the confused\nenthusiasm of subsequent English antiquarians, whose blind leadership has\nhad some half-hearted following. But if these French tunes, and those\nwhich are pieced in imitation of Bourgeois, be extracted from this\nEnglish Psalter, then, with one or two exceptions, there will remain\nhardly anything of value[16].\n\nTo leave the English tunes for a moment and continue the subject, we\nshall practically exhaust the French branch of this class by saying that\nour duty by them is to use a great number of Bourgeois' tunes, _restoring\ntheir original form_. They are masterpieces which have remained popular\non the continent from the first; thoroughly congenial to our national\ntaste, and the best that can be imagined for solemn congregational\nsinging of the kind which we might expect in England. The difficulty is\nthe same that beset the old original psalter-makers, i.e. to find words\nto suit their varied measures. But this must be done[17]. These tunes in\ndignity, solemnity, pathos, and melodic solidity leave nothing to desire.\n\nThe English eight-line tunes of Sternhold and Hopkins we may then, with\none or two exceptions, dismiss to neglect; but among the four-line\n'common' tunes which gradually ousted them, there are about a dozen of\nhigh merit: these being popular still at the present day require no\nnotice, except to 32 insist that they should be well harmonized in the\nmanner of their date, and generally have the long initials and finals of\nall their lines observed. They are much finer than any one would guess\nfrom their usual dull presentment. Their manner, as loved and praised by\nBurns, is excellent, and there is no call to alter it[18].\n\nContemporary with this group there is a legacy of a dozen and more fine\ntunes composed by Tallis and Orlando Gibbons, the neglect or treatment of\nwhich is equally disgraceful to all concerned.\n\nAs for the German tunes of the Reformation, attempts to introduce the\nGerman church-chorales into anything like general use in England have\nnever, so far as I know, been successful, owing, I suppose, to a\ndifference in the melodic sense of the two nations. But some few of them\nare really popular, and more would be if they were properly presented\nwith suitable words; and it should not be a difficult task to provide\nwords even more suitable and kind than the original German, which seldom\nobserves an intelligent, dignified and consistent mood. These chorales\nshould be sung very slow indeed, and will admit of much accompaniment.\nBach's settings, when not too elaborate or of impossible compass in the\nparts, may be well used where the choir is numerically strong. He has\nmade these chorales peculiarly his own, and, in accepting his\ninterpretation of them, we are only acquiescing in a universal judgement,\nwhile we make an exception in favour of genius; for as a general rule\n(which will of course apply to those chorales which we do not use in\nBach's version), all the music of this Reformation period must be\nharmonized strictly in the vocal counterpoint which prevailed at the end\nof the sixteenth century; since that is not only its proper musical\ninterpretation, but it is also the ecclesiastical style _par excellence_,\nthe field of which may reasonably be extended, but by no means\ncontracted. It is suitable both for simple and elaborate settings, for\nhymns of praise or of the more intimate ideal emotions, and in a resonant\nbuilding a choir of six voices can produce complete effects with it. The\nbroad, sonorous swell of its harmonious intervals floods the air with\npeaceful power, very unlike the broken sea of Bach's chromatics, which,\nto produce anything like an equal effect of sound, needs to be powerfully\nexcited.\n\nIt is necessary to insist strongly on one caution, viz. that grammar is\nnot style, and settings which avoid modernisms are not for that reason a\nfair presentation of the old manner. Nothing is less like a fine work of\nart than its incompetent imitation. And this practically exhausts, as far\nas I am aware, the material which this period provides.\n\nThe next class will be made up of our Restoration hymns, by Jeremy Clark,\nCroft, and others who added to the succeeding editions of the metrical\nPsalms. If there are not many in this class, yet the few are good; and\nClark must be regarded as the inventor of the modern English hymn-tune,\nregarded, that is, as a pure melody in the scale with harmonic\ninterpretation of instrumental rather than true vocal suggestion. His\ntunes are pathetic, melodious, and of truly national and popular\ncharacter, the best of them almost unaccountably free from the\nindefinable secular taint that such qualities are apt to introduce, and\nwhich the bad following of his example did very quickly introduce in the\nhands of less sensitive artists. They are suitable for evening services.\n\nAfter this time there followed in England, in the wake of Handel, a\ndegradation of style which is now completely discredited. Diatonic flow,\nwith tediously orthodox modulation, overburdened with conventional\ngraces, describe these innumerable and indistinguishable productions. And\njust as the old tunes were related to the motets and madrigals, so are\nthese to the verse-anthems and glees of their time. These weak ditties,\nin the admired manner of Lord Mornington, were typically performed by the\ngenteel pupils of the local musician, who, gathered round him beneath the\nlaughing cherubs of the organ case, warbled by abundant candlelight to\ntheir respectful audience with a graceful execution that rivalled the\nweekday performances of _Celia's Arbour_ and the _Spotted Snakes_. Good\ntunes may be written at any time, for style is independent of fashion;\nbut there are very few exceptions to the complete and unregretted\ndisappearance of all the tunes of this date.\n\nWe have then nothing left for us to do but to review the material which\nthe revival of music in the last fifty years has given us in the way of\nhymns.\n\nThis last group divides naturally into two main heads; first the\nrestoration of old hymns of all kinds, with their plain, severer manner,\nin reaction against the abused graces; and secondly the appearance of a\nvast quantity of new hymns.\n\nConcerning the restoration of the old hymns, we cannot be too grateful to\nthose who pointed the right way, and, according to their knowledge and\nthe opportunities of the taste of their day, did the best that they\ncould. But, as our remarks under the heads of Plain-song and Reformation\nhymns will show, this knowledge, taste, and opportunity were\ninsufficient, and all their work requires to be done afresh.\n\nWe are therefore left to the examination of the modern hymns. In place of\nthis somewhat invidious task, I propose to make a few remarks on the\ngeneral question of the introduction of modern harmony into\necclesiastical music, with reference of course to hymns only. It cannot\nescape the attention of any one that the modern church music has for one\nchief differentiation the profuse employment of pathetic chords, the\neffect of which is often disastrous to the feelings.\n\nComparing a modern hymn-tune in this style with some fine setting of an\nold tune in the diatonic ecclesiastical manner, one might attribute the\nsuperiority of the old music entirely to its harmonic system; but I think\nthis would be wrong.\n\nIt is a characteristic of all early art to be _impersonal_[19]. As long\nas an art is growing, artists are engaged in rivalry to develop the new\ninventions in a scientific manner, and individual personality is not\ncalled out. With the exhaustion of the means in the attainment of\nperfection a new stage is reached, in which individual expression is\nprominent, and seems to take the place of the scientific impersonal\ninterest which aimed at nothing but beauty: so that the chief distinction\nbetween early and late art is that the former is impersonal, the latter\npersonal.\n\nTurning now to the subject of ecclesiastical music, and comparing thus\nPalestrina with Beethoven or Mozart, is it not at once apparent that\nPalestrina has this distinct advantage, namely, that he seems not to\ninterfere at all with, or add anything to, the sacred words? His early\nmusical art is impersonal, what the musicians call 'pure music'; and if\nhe is setting the phrases of the Liturgy or Holy Scriptures, we are not\naware of any adjunct; it seems rather as if the sacred words had suddenly\nbecome musical. Not so with Mozart or Beethoven; we may prefer their\nmusic, but it has interfered with the sacred words, it has, in fact,\nadded a personality.\n\nIt must of course be conceded that this gives a very strong if not\nlogically an almost unassailable position to those who would confine\nsacred music to the ecclesiastical style. But it seems to me ridiculous\nto suppose that genius cannot use all good means with reserve and\ndignity; and if the modern church music will not stand comparison in\nrespect of dignity and solemnity with the old, the fault must rather lie\nin the manner in which the new means are used, than in the means\nthemselves; nor would I myself concede that there is no place in church\nfor music which is tinged with a human personality; I should be rather\ninclined to reckon the great musicians among the prophets, and to\nsympathize with any one who might prefer the personality of Beethoven (as\nrevealed in his works) to that of a good many canonized seers. What is\nlogical is that we should be careful as to what personality we admit, and\nsee that the modern means are used with reserve.\n\nNow if we examine our modern hymn-tunes, do we find any sign of that\nreserve of means which we should expect of genius, or any style which we\ncould attribute to the personality of a genius? Let any one in doubt try\nthe following experiment: copy out some 'favourite tune' in the 'admired\nmanner' of the present day, and show it to some musician who may happen\nnot to know it, and ask him if it is not by Brahms; then see how he will\nreceive any further remarks that you may make to him on the subject of\nmusic.\n\nThese new tunes are in fact, for the most part, the indistinguishable\nproducts of a school given over to certain mannerisms, and might be\nproduced _ad libitum_, as indeed they are; just as were the tunes of the\nLord Mornington school before described: and though the composers and\ncompilers of these modern tunes would be the first to deride the exploded\nfashion, their own fashion is more foolish, and promises to be as\nfugitive[20].\n\nI have said very little in this essay on the words of hymns. I will\nventure to add one or two judgements here. _First_, that in the\nPlain-song period, words and music seem pretty equal and well matched.\n_Secondly_, that in the Reformation period, and for some time onwards,\nthe musicians did far better than the sacred poets, and have left us a\nremainder of admirable music, for which it is our duty to find words.\n_Thirdly_, that the excuse which some musicians have offered for the\nsentimentality of their modern tunes, namely, that the words are so\nsentimental, is not without point as a criticism of modern hymn-words,\nbut is of no value whatever as a defence of their practice. The\ninterpretative power of music is exceedingly great, and can force almost\nany words (as far as their sentiment is concerned) into a good channel.\n\nAnd if music be introduced at all into public worship it must be most\njealously and scrupulously guarded. It is a confusion of thought to\nsuppose that because--as St. Augustin would tell us--it is not a vital\nmatter to religion whether it employ music or not, therefore it can be of\nlittle consequence what sort of music is used: and the attitude of\nindifference towards it, which has seemed to me to be almost a point of\ncorrect ecclesiastical manners, must be the expression of a convinced\ndespair, which, in the present state of things, need not surprise. Devout\npersons are naturally afraid of secular ideals, and shrink from the\nnotion of art intruding into the sanctuary; and, especially if they have\nnever learned music, they will share St. Augustin's jealousy of it; and\nit is the more difficult to remove their objections, when what they are\ninnocently suffering in the name of art curdles the artist's blood with\nhorror, and keeps him away from church. The artist too, to whom we might\nlook for help, is the _rara avis in terris_, and, in regard to his\nsympathy with the clergy, would often be thought by them to deserve the\nrest of the hexameter; but it is really to his credit that he is loth to\nmeddle with church music. Its social vexations, its eye to the market,\nits truckling to vulgar taste and ready subservience to a dominant\nfashion, which can never (except under the rarest combination of\ncircumstances) be good;--all this is more than enough to hold him off.\nWhere then is the appeal? _Quis custodiet_?\n\nThe unwillingness of the clergy[21] to know anything about music might be\ngot over if the music could be set on a proper basis; and in the present\nlack of authority and avowed principles, it would be well if such of our\ncathedral precentors and organists as have the matter at heart would\nconsult and work together with the purpose of instructing pastors and\npeople by the exhibition of what is good. This is what we might expect of\nour religious musical foundations, which are justifying the standing\ncondemnation of utilitarian economists so long as the stipendiaries are\ncontent indolently to follow the fortuitous traditions of the books that\nlie in the choir, supplemented by the penny-a-sheet music of the common\nshops. In the Universities, too, it should be impossible for an\nundergraduate not to gain acquaintance with good ecclesiastical music,\nand this is not ensured by an occasional rare performance of half a dozen\nold masterpieces which are preserved in heartless compliment to\nantiquity. It is to such bodies that we must first look for help and\nguidance to give our church music artistic importance: for let no one\nthink that the church can put the artistic question on one side. There is\nno escape from art; art is only the best that man can do, and his second,\nthird, fourth or fifth best are only worse efforts in the same direction,\nand in proportion as they fall short of the best the more plainly betray\ntheir artificiality. To refuse the best for the sake of something\ninferior of the same kind can never be a policy; it is rather an\nuncorrected bad habit, that can only be excused by ignorance; and\nignorance on the question of music is every day becoming less excusable;\nand the growing interest and intelligence which all classes are now\nshowing should force on religion a better appreciation of her most potent\nally. Music being the universal expression of the mysterious and\nsupernatural, the best that man has ever attained to, is capable of\nuniting in common devotion minds that are only separated by creeds, and\nit comforts our hope with a brighter promise of unity than any logic\noffers. And if we consider and ask ourselves what sort of music we should\nwish to hear on entering a church, we should surely, in describing our\nideal, say first of all that it must be something different from what is\nheard elsewhere; that it should be a sacred music, devoted to its\npurpose, a music whose peace should still passion, whose dignity should\nstrengthen our faith, whose unquestioned beauty should find a home in our\nhearts, to cheer us in life and death; a music worthy of the fair temples\nin which we meet, and of the holy words of our liturgy; a music whose\nexpression of the mystery of things unseen never allowed any trifling\nmotive to ruffle the sanctity of its reserve. What power for good such a\nmusic would have!\n\nNow such a music our Church has got, and does not use; we are content to\nhave our hymn-manuals stuffed with the sort of music which, merging the\ndistinction between sacred and profane, seems designed to make the\nworldly man feel at home, rather than to reveal to him something of the\nlife beyond his knowledge; compositions full of cheap emotional effects\nand bad experiments made to be cast aside, the works of the purveyors of\nmarketable fashion, always pleased with themselves, and always to be\nderided by the succeeding generation.\n\n\nExample is better than precept; and my own venture as a compiler of a\nhymn-book has made it possible for me to say much that otherwise I should\nnot have said. In _The Yattendon Hymnal_, printed by Mr. Horace Hart at\nthe Clarendon Press, Oxford, and to be had of Mr. Frowde, price 20_s._,\nwill be found a hundred hymns with their music, chosen for a village\nchoir. The music in this book will show what sort of a hymnal might be\nmade on my principles, while the notes at the end of the volume will\nillustrate almost every point in this essay which requires illustration,\nbesides many others. As a complement to this essay and for advertisement\nof the Hymnal I here give the prefaces of that book, which are as\nfollows:--\n\n\n[1]_Confess._ ix. 6.\n\n[2]_Ibid._ ix. 7.\n\n[3]This is perhaps rather a quality proper to the sensation.\n\n[4]'Et vix eis praebeo congruentem [locum].' which might only mean 'I\n  cannot find the right place for them.'\n\n[5]_Confess._ x. 13.\n\n[6]St. Augustin does not allow that a vague emotion can be religious; it\n  must be directed. Few would agree to this.\n\n[7]I assume 'favourite hymn' to mean a sung hymn. The interest of the\n  record must lie in its being of a heightened emotion of the same kind\n  as that described by St. Augustin in his own case, _What tears I shed_,\n  &c.\n\n[8]It was not an uncommon practice on the Continent (say from 1540 to\n  1840), to print books of hymns to be sung to the current secular airs;\n  and the names or first lines of these airs were set above the\n  hymn-words as the musical direction. M. Douen, in his _Clement Marot et\n  le Psautier Huguenot_, vol. i, ch. 22, has given an account of some of\n  these books; and any one who wishes to follow this branch of the\n  subject may read his chapter. He does not notice the later Italian\n  _Laude Spirituali_, which might have supplied incredible monsters to\n  his museum.\n\n[9]Besides, the main fault of these books, from which we should have to\n  quote, is the _association_ of the music, and this is really an\n  accident, the question before us being the _character_ of the music; so\n  that we should require musical illustration, for though the common\n  distinction between sacred and secular music is in the main just, yet\n  the line cannot be drawn at the original intention, or historical\n  origin of the music: the true differentiation lies in the character of\n  the music, the associated sentiment being liable to change. If we were\n  to banish from our hymn-books all the tunes which we know to have a\n  secular origin, we should have to part with some of the most sacred and\n  solemn compositions; and where would the purist obtain any assurance\n  that the tunes which he retained had a better title? In the sixteenth\n  century, when so many fine hymn-melodies were written, a musician was\n  working in the approved manner if he adapted a secular melody, or at\n  least borrowed a well-known opening phrase: and since the melodies of\n  that time were composed mainly in conjunct movement, such initial\n  similarities were unavoidable; for one may safely say that it very soon\n  became impossible, under such restrictions, to invent a good opening\n  phrase which had not been used before. The secular airs, too, of that\n  time were often as fit for sacred as profane use; and if I had to find\n  a worthy melody for a good new hymn, I should seek more hopefully among\n  them than in the sacred music of our own century.\n\n[10]I may give the following experience without offence. When I was an\n  undergraduate there was a song from a comic opera by Offenbach so much\n  in favour as to be _de rigueur_ at festive meetings. Now there was at\n  the same time a counterpart of this song popular at evensong in the\n  churches: it was sung to 'Hark, hark, my soul.' I believe it is called\n  _L'encens des fleurs_. They seemed to me both equally nauseating: it\n  was certainly an accident that determined which should be sung at\n  worship and which at wine.\n\n[11]_The Art of Music_, by C Hubert H. Parry. London, 1893, 1st edit. p.\n  48.\n\n[12]And give Croft the advantage of his original rhythm, not the\n  mis-statement in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, No. 414.\n\n[13]It would be very damaging to my desire to convince, if I should seem\n  to deny that the mistaken practice of these hymn-book compilers was\n  based on the solid ground of secular common-sense. If anything is true\n  of rhythm it is this, that the common mind likes common rhythms, such\n  as the march or waltz, whereas elaboration of rhythm appeals to a\n  trained mind or artistic faculty. I should say that the popularity of\n  common rhythms is due to the shortness of human life, and that if men\n  were to live to be 300 years old they would weary of the sort of music\n  which Robert Browning describes so well--\n\n    'There 's no keeping one's haunches still,\n    There 's no such pleasure in life.'\n\n  But hymn-melodies must not be put on that level. It is desirable to\n  have in church something different from what goes on outside, and (as I\n  say in the text) a hymn-tune need not appeal to the lowest\n  understanding on first hearing. The simple free rhythms, too, are\n  perfectly natural; they were free-born.\n\n[14]I need only instance Orlando Gibbons' tune called 'Angels.' The\n  original is a most ingenious combination of rhythms; and its masterly\n  beauty could not be guessed from the inane form into which it is\n  degraded in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, No. 8.\n\n[15]I omit, for want of space, mention of the late Plain-song melodies\n  (which would give a good many excellent tunes); and, for want of\n  knowledge, the Italian tunes.\n\n[16]Comparing the English with the French Genevan Psalter, I do not think\n  my judgement is too severe on our own. It had a few fine tunes original\n  to it; best of all the cxxxvii (degraded in _Hymns Ancient and\n  Modern_). This is of such exceptional beauty that I believe it must\n  have been written by Bourgeois for Whittingham. Next perhaps is lxxvii\n  (called 81st in _H. A. M._), the original of which, in Day, 1566, is a\n  fine tune, degraded already in Este, 1592, which version _H. A. M._\n  follows: it is said to have come from Geneva. Besides these, xxv and\n  xliv, which are the only other tunes from this source in _H. A. M._,\n  are very favourable examples, and I do not think that they will rescue\n  the book. Nor can I believe that these old English D.C.M. tunes were\n  ever much used. They are too much alike for many of them to have been\n  committed to memory, while all the editions which I happen to have seen\n  are full of misprints, and the four-line tunes which drove them out\n  were early in the field, and increased rapidly.\n\n[17]When one turns the pages of that most depressing of all books ever\n  compiled by the groaning creature, Julian's hymn-dictionary, and sees\n  the thousands of carefully tabulated English hymns, by far the greater\n  number of them not only pitiable as efforts of human intelligence, but\n  absolutely worthless as vocal material for melodic treatment, one\n  wishes that all this effort had been directed to supply a real want. E.\n  g. the two Wesleys between them wrote thirteen octavo volumes, of some\n  400 pages each, full of closely printed hymns. One must wish that\n  Charles Wesley at least (who showed in a few instances how well he\n  could do) had, instead of reeling off all this stuff, concentrated his\n  efforts to produce only what should be worthy of his talents and useful\n  to posterity.\n\n[18]If old tunes are modernized out of a fine rhythm, a curious result\n  would be likely to come about; viz. that modern tunes might be written\n  in the old rhythm for the sake of novelty, while the old were being\n  sung in the more modern way for the sake of uniformity.\n\n[19]This fact is of course generally recognized. The explanation in the\n  text is one which was elaborately illustrated by the Slade Professor at\n  Oxford, in his last course of lectures on painting.\n\n[20]There is one point which I cannot pass over. It has become the\n  practice in modern books to put marks of musical expression to the\n  words, directing the congregation when to sing loud or soft. This\n  implies a habit of congregational performance the description of which\n  would make a companion picture to the organ gallery of 1830. It seems\n  to me a practice of inconceivable degradation: one asks in trembling if\n  it is to be extended to the Psalms. It is just as if the congregation\n  were school-children singing to please a musical inspector, and he a\n  stupid one.\n\n[21]It must be due to unwillingness that comparatively so few of our\n  clergy can take their part in the service when it is musical. Village\n  schoolmasters tell me that two hours a week is sufficient in a few\n  months to bring all the children up to a standard of time and tune and\n  reading at sight that would suffice a minor canon.\n\n\nPREFACE TO THE\nYATTENDON HYMNAL\n\nAmong the old melodies which it is the chief object of this book to\n  restore to use, some will be found which will be quite new to the\n  public, while others will be familiar though in a somewhat different\n  form; and since the sources whence all the tunes are taken are well\n  known, and have been already largely drawn upon by the compilers of\n  Psalters and Hymnals, any melody which is new in this book may be\n  considered as having been hitherto overlooked or rejected, while in the\n  alternative case it is to be understood that the original cast of the\n  melody has at some former time been altered (frequently to suit the\n  English common metre to which it was not at first conformable), and is\n  now restored.\n\nThe plain-song tunes, of which an account is given in the preface to the\nnotes, and the few other old tunes which do not fall into either of the\ntwo above-mentioned classes, were included for the sake of their\nsettings.\n\nWith respect to the vocal settings in four parts it may be said that, in\nthe numerous cases in which such settings were not added by the composer\nof the melody, the editors have done their best to supply the want in a\nsuitable manner, and with some attempt towards the particular qualities\nof workmanship upon which much of the beauty of the old vocal\ncounterpoint depends; and this latter aim has also governed the\ncomposition of the six tunes not derived from old sources which have been\nincluded in the work.\n\nThis book is offered in no antiquarian spirit. The greater number of\nthese old tunes are, without question, of an excellence which sets them\nabove either the enhancement or the ruin of Time, and at present when so\nmuch attention is given to music it is to be desired that such\nmasterpieces should not be hidden away from the public, or only put forth\nin a corrupt and degraded form. The excellence of a nation in music can\nhave no other basis than the education and practice of the people; and\nthe quality of the music which is most universally sung must largely\ndetermine the public taste for good or ill.\n\nSince such information as might be looked for in an introduction is given\nin the notes at the end of the volume, there is nothing to add here but a\nlist of the sources and composers in order of date, which should in the\neyes of musicians go far to justify this attempt.\n\n\nSYNOPSIS OF THE MUSIC IN ORDER OF DATE\n\nPLAIN-SONG MELODIES,\n  Sarum use, nine, Nos. 29. 30. 31. 32. 47. 48. 49. 75. 86.\n  Ambrosian, two, Nos. 91. 100.\n  Later plain-song, two, Nos. 44. 45.\nHEINRICH ISAAC, 1490, one tune, Nos. 82 & 83.\nFrom the Strasbourg Psalter, before 1540, two, Nos. 37. 72.\nGerman of same date, one, No. 16.\nLOUIS BOURGEOIS, 1550, thirteen, Nos. 3. 19. 20. 27. 58. 64. 67. 70. 74.\n    77. 79 & 80. 88. 99 & see 66 & 84.\nCHRISTOPHER TYE, 1550, one, No. 15.\nFrom Crespin's Psalters, circ. 1560, three, Nos. 41. 84. 89.\nTHOMAS TALLIS, 1560, seven, Nos. 2. 14. 54 & 55. 59. 68. 78. 98.\nFrom the French Genevan Psalter, after 1560, one, No. 92.\nA setting by CLAUDE GOUDIMEL, 1565, No. 88.\nEnglish, 16th cent, four, Nos. 39. 53. 66. 87.\nTwo settings by GEO. KIRBY, 1592, Nos. 39. 53.\nA setting by J. Farmer, 1592, No. 87.\nA setting by Rd. ALLISON, 1599, No. 84.\nItalian, 16th cent., one, No. 1.\nHANS LEONHARD HASSLER, 1600, one, No. 62.\nTHOS. CAMPION, 1613, one, No. 36.\nORLANDO GIBBONS, 1623, eight, Nos. 23. 24. 25. 28. 35. 38. 56. 94.\nHENRY LAWES, 1638, one, No. 73.\nJOHANN CRUEGER, 1640, four, Nos. 41. 57. 93. 97.\nEnglish & Scotch, 1600-1650, seven, Nos. 10. 40. 50. 51. 60. 63. 71.\nGerman, 17th cent, two, Nos. 69. 90.\nJEREMY CLARK, 1700, nine, Nos. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 21. 61. 81. 95.\nWILLIAM CROFT, 1710, four, Nos. 34. 43. 52. 76.\nEnglish, 18th cent., four, Nos. 12. 26. 33. 65.\nJ.S.BACH, eight settings, mostly of earlier melodies,  Nos. 13. 57. 62.\n    80. 83. 85. 90. 97.\nSeven new tunes by H. E. W., Nos. 4. 11. 17. 18. 22. 46. 96.\n\n\nNOTE\n\n'The seven tunes by Tallis are all transcripts of his original four-part\ncompositions. Only two of these tunes are in the common books; one of\nthem \"The Ordinal\" is always reset, the other \"Canon,\" which is usually\nsung to Bp. Ken's evening hymn, is completely altered, the canon being\nput in a different position and the harmony changed. This tune is I\nbelieve correctly edited for the first time in the Y. H. and it is now\nthus sung at Wells Cathedral.\n\n'Of the eight tunes by Orlando Gibbons, two only (and these altered both\nin rhythm and harmony) appear in the common books. All Gibbons' tunes are\ngiven in the Y. H. with his own bass, the inner parts being supplied.\n\n'There is a complete list of the music in the word-book of the Yattendon\nHymnal, which is published by Mr. Blackwell of Broad Street, Oxford, and\nmay be bought for 1_s._ 6_d._'\n\n\nTHE\nPREFACE TO THE NOTES\n\nThe origin of this book was my attempt, when precentor of a village\nchoir, to provide better settings of the hymns than those in use.\n\nWhen I gave up my office, I printed the first twenty-five hymns for the\nconvenience of the choir, and also for the sake of the tunes by Jeremy\nClark, which I had been at some pains to restore, and for the\npreservation of the tunes composed on our behalf by Professor Wooldridge.\n\nMy choice of music had so far been limited to tunes, for which suitable\nwords were to be found in _Hymns Ancient & Modern_; but by the time that\nthese first tunes were printed, I determined to continue the book free of\nthis restriction, and, from whatever source, to provide words for tunes\nwhich I had hitherto been unable to use. I then became aware of a real\ncause for the absence of most of these tunes from the common hymnals:\n_there were no words of any kind to which they could be sung_. Having\nalready translated some of the old Latin hymns for their proper melodies,\nI was thence led on to the more difficult task of supplying the greater\nneed of these other tunes; the result being that over forty of these\nhundred hymns have english words newly written by myself. Almost all of\nthese new hymns are in some sense translations, for even where an\noriginal hymn could not be followed in its entirety, as an old Latin hymn\ngenerally may be, there was usually a foundation to begin upon, and I\nnever failed to find the music conditioning, dictating, or inspiring the\nremainder. I did not willingly engage in this, nor until I had searched\nword-books of all kinds; a fruitless labour, unless for the hope begotten\nthereof that my practice in versifying and my love for music may together\nhave created something of at least relative value.\n\nThe unusual method which I was constrained to follow, that is of writing\nwords to suit existing music, has its advantages. In some cases, as will\nbe seen in the notes to the hymns, the musician, out of despair or even\ncontempt for the doggrel offered to him, has composed a fine tune quite\nindependent of the words to which it was dedicated[22], and such tunes\nhave been silent ever since they were composed: while even when a melody\nhas been actually inspired by a particular hymn, the attention of the\ncomposer to the first stanza has not infrequently set up a hirmos, or at\nleast a musical scheme of feeling, which, not having been in the mind of\nthe writer of the words, is not carried out in his other stanzas[23]:\nindeed, as every one must have observed, the words of hymns have too\noften been written with insufficient attention to the conditions which a\nrepetition of any music to every stanza must impose. To get rid of such\ndiscrepancies between words and music is advantageous to both, and\nalthough this treatment cannot of course be applied to english\nhymns,--which it is not allowable to alter, except in cases of glaring\nunfitness or absurdity, such as would if uncorrected cause the neglect of\na good hymn[24],--yet, where the hymn has to be translated from a foreign\nlanguage, some reconstruction is generally inevitable, and it can follow\nno better aim than that of the mutual enforcement of words and music. And\nthe words owe a courtesy to the music; for if a balance be struck between\nthe words and music of hymns, it will be found to be heavily in favour of\nthe musicians, whose fine work has been unscrupulously altered and\nreduced to dullness by english compilers, with the object of conforming\nit in rhythm to words that are unworthy of any music whatever. The chief\noffenders here are the protestant reformers, whose metrical psalms, which\nthe melodies were tortured to fit, exhibit greater futility than one\nwould look for even in men who could thus wantonly spoil fine music[25].\n\nThe form and size of the book were determined by the type, chosen because\nit was the only one that I could find of any beauty; and I wished that my\nbook should in this respect give an example, and be worthy both of the\nmusic and its sacred use[26]. Moreover a book from which two or three\nsingers can read is more convenient in the choir than a multiplicity of\nsmall books; and the music being in full score, its intention cannot be\nmistaken: for it must be understood that most of these tunes are set in\nthe manner proper for voices, but unsuitable for the piano or other keyed\ninstrument; and the book is intended to encourage unaccompanied singing.\nA choir that cannot sing unaccompanied cannot sing at all; and this is\nnot an uncommon condition in our churches, where choirs with varying\nsuccess accompany the organ. A proper manner of sustained singing, and\nthe true artistic pleasure that should govern it, will never be obtained\nuntil these conditions are reversed.\n\nThere is one novelty which I am responsible for introducing, namely the\nfour-part vocal settings of certain early plain-song melodies. The later\nplain-song tunes, such as No. 44, are, I suppose[27], as fit for this\ntreatment as any other tunes of the same date; but in the case of the\nearlier melodies, which were composed before the invention of any\ncomplete system of harmony, it is generally agreed that they should be\nsung in unison, in fact the more elaborate of them cannot be sung\notherwise. To give four-part settings of any of these early tunes calls\ntherefore for an explanation, which I will give as briefly as possible.\n\nWhen these tunes are sung, they are usually accompanied, and this implies\na harmonic treatment. Now the best harmonic treatment which they can have\nis the Palestrinal, because that was the earliest complete system, and\ntherefore the nearest to their time, and also because we may rely on the\ntruth of its interpretation of the modes for the reason that Palestrina\nhad never heard any music that was not modal. A modern musician, if he\nattempts to go back beyond Palestrina, must draw on his imagination, and\nwhile his aim must be to produce something artistically and technically\nless perfect than Palestrina's system, his work, when it is done, will\ncarry neither authority nor conviction.\n\nIf then we take Palestrina's harmonic interpretation of the modes, it\nseems to me that there can be no objection to giving vocal parts to the\nsimpler hymns. If it is preferred to sing them in unison, the modal\nsettings will be a guide to the accompanist. But it is my opinion that\nsuch settings as I offer will really please, and they may possibly do\nsomething to bring these tunes, which have a unique, unmatchable beauty,\ninto favour with choirs that dislike the effort and waste of unison\nsinging. These settings offer no difficulty of execution all; _that is\nnecessary is that the under voices should know the melody_: and though\nthis is not generally thought requisite in a modern hymn, it is asking\nnothing extra of a choir that would sing the plain-song tunes; for even\nif they are sung in unison, they must first be known by heart (otherwise\ntheir rhythmical freedom, which defies notation, and is indispensable to\ntheir beauty, cannot be approached), and when once a choir has got thus\nfar, the under parts, being phrased with the melody, will easily follow\nit. An explanation of the notation of these settings is given in the note\nto Hymn 29. Congregational singing of hymns is much to be desired; but,\nthough difficult to obtain, it is not permissible to provoke it by\nundignified music. Its only sound musical basis is good melody: good\nmelodies should therefore be offered to the people, such as it has been\nthe object of this book to bring together; and they should have as much\nfreedom and variety of rhythm as possible. If some of the good melodies\nare, owing to their wide compass or other difficulty, unfit for\ncongregational singing, this is an advantage; because neither are all\nhymn-words equally suitable. Most of the words in this book are suitable\nfor congregational singing; some are not. A hymn-book which is intended\nentirely for congregational use must be faulty in one of two ways; either\nit will offer for congregational singing hymns whose sacred and intimate\ncharacter is profaned by such a treatment, or it will have to omit some\nof the most beautiful hymns in the language: but congregations differ\nmuch, not only with regard to the music in which they are capable of\njoining, but also as to the sort of words which best express their\nreligious emotion.\n\n\nIn the following notes the left-hand side of the page is given to the\nwords, the right to the music of each hymn: in the latter column will be\nfound full information as to the text of the music, the source whence it\nis derived, &c., together with a careful account of every departure that\nhas been made from the originals. It is hoped that this will not only be\nof general interest, but that it may inspire confidence in the text of\nthe book, and ensure the reception which its authority demands. For the\ntext of the music, and all the statements in the notes, I am responsible;\nexcepting those portions of the notes which are therein assigned to their\nproper authorities, and in these I am responsible for the correctness of\nthe quotations and references, in which I have done my best to secure\naccuracy. I owe much to the kindness of Mr. W. Barclay Squire at the\nBritish Museum; I have also to thank Mr. Godfrey Arkwright for the loan\nof some rare books, and Dr. Chas. Wood of Cambridge for two settings and\noccasional reading of music proofs; in which latter task I gratefully\nrecord the help of Mr. J. S. Liddle and Dr. Percy Buck. To Mr. Miles\nBirket Foster I owe the three trios by Jeremy Clark, and to the Revs. W.\nH. Frere and G. H. Palmer the text of the plain-song melodies, and the\ninformation concerning them which is given in the following notes: it is\ndue to the generosity with which they put their learning and judgement at\nmy disposal that I am able to offer these tunes with the same confidence\nas the rest of the book. Professor Wooldridge, having co-operated with me\nthroughout, has allowed his name to appear on the title page.\n\n\n[22]No. 28 is a good example of this. See also No. 98.\n\n[23]No. 57 is a good example. The line _Du bist mein, und ich bin dein_,\n  corresponds in stanza 2 with _Wenn die Welt in Truemmer fallt_, and in\n  stanza 4 with _Elend, Noth, Kreuz, Schmach und Tod_. Again in No. 77\n  the opening phrase, _Mon Dieu, mon Dieu_, of the twenty-second psalm\n  needs music which conditions the other stanzas severely. Again the weak\n  apologetic latter half of the German hymn _Herzliebster Jesu_, No. 42,\n  is irreconcilably out of the key with the pathetic grief of the\n  beginning. Cases in which caesuras and grammatical breaks are\n  inconsistent are numberless.\n\n[24]See note to Hymn 90. Other english hymns altered for practical\n  purposes in this book are Nos. 19, 35, 51, last verse of 52, 66, 94,\n  and 96.\n\n[25]I give illustrations of these words in notes to Hymns 27, 54, 58, 63,\n  68, 84, and 98.\n\n[26]The cheapness is not the direct cause of the ugliness of our common\n  hymn-books, nor is their ugliness the cause of their cheapness. If many\n  copies of a book are sold, they can be sold cheaply; if only a few,\n  then the initial expense, which is much the same whether the book be\n  beautiful or ugly, must be shared between those few buyers and the\n  author. But thus it comes about indirectly for cheapness to be the\n  cause of meanness and ugliness, because in a larger market there is\n  greater indifference to artistic excellence of all kinds, and from\n  habit a preference for what is inferior. In a large edition this book\n  could be sold as cheaply as another.\n\n[27]I state here once for all that in musical matters I offer my opinion\n  with becoming humility.\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT\n\n\nTHE YATTENDON HYMNAL.\n\nEdited by Robert Bridges and Professor H. Ellis Wooldridge. Containing\n  100 hymns and 4 voice-parts. Printed at the Oxford University Press,\n  1899. May be obtained of Henry Frowde, Oxford Warehouse, Amen Corner,\n  London, E.C., or through any bookseller. Price, 4to boards, 1. A few\n  copies of the Folio, price 4, are still to be had.\n\n\nTHE WORD-BOOK OF THE\nYATTENDON HYMNAL,\n\nWhich contains a full list of the music, and is called,\n\n_THE SMALL HYMN-BOOK,_\n\nmay be had of B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, or through any\nbookseller. Price 1_s._ 6_d._\n\n\nOxford: Horace Hart, Printer to the University","title":"A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of Hymn-Singing","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":13574}