Lowell Mason
Published: 2016-09-09
Total Pages: 516
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Excerpt from The Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book, for the Service of Song in the House of the Lord Two principal methods have prevailed, to a greater or less degree, in the Service Of Song in Chris tian worship; that of the whole Congregation, and that of a select Choir. The Congregational was the primitive method, and the only one known in the earlier history of the Church. The method of sing ing by a choir came into the Church at a later period, with wealth, power, and worldly greatness, and it has been her attendant rather in temporal prosperity, than in poverty and adversity. At the time of the Reformation, Congregational Singing had become extinct, and the more artistic manner of choirs, consisting mostly Of an inferior order of the clergy, singing in a language unknown to the people, had taken its place. Luther, Calvin, Knox, and others, took early measures to rescue the singing exercises in public worship from the hands of the clergy, and to reinstate it as an exercise for the people. As the abuses of the Romish church had led to the rejection of chanting (the primitive form of Church Song) the Psalms were translated, or hymns were written in a stanzaic form, and adapted to a simple but dignified form of melody, with special reference to the capabilities of the peo ple. The union of the whole assembly in the exercise was regarded as essential. Other liturgical forms were rejected; but this new one of a metrical Psalmody, for the people's simultaneous utterance of praise and prayer, was received with great favor, and almost universally practiced. It was no attempt on the part Of the Reformers to introduce an artistic manner of song, but, on the contrary, a very plain one, a highway of Psalmody, in which the wayfaring man, though a fool, should not err. The Congregational method, thus restored to the churches, was brought to this country by the Prot estant Fathers. It continued to be their only method for about a century and a half. It is not sur prising that during this period, amidst the deprivations which the new settlements experienced, atten tion to song should have been neglected, nor that, neglected by generation after generation, the ability for it should have been well nigh lost. In the early part of the last century the very low con dition Of the singing in public worship began to attract the attention of some of the friends of religion, and measures were taken by a few of the leading clergymen and others for reform. Hitherto all the singing in the American churches had been unisonous, the melody only having been sung; but in 1720 a book of tunes in three parts, Cantus, Medius and Basus, was published by Rev. Thomas Walter. The harmonizing of the tunes in parts undoubtedly grew out of the fact that the more elaborate service of choirs had always taken that form both in the Lutheran and the English church. In the Protestant churches Of Europe generally, metrical Psalmody continues to this day to be sung, as it was originally, in unison, and it is at least doubtful whether parts in harmony for the choir and unison for the congregation, would not still be the best arrangement for Church Song. This new arrangement Of tunes in parts led to 'the formation of choirs. At first, they were introduced only as helps to Congregational Singing, but this gradually yielded, as it had done before, and the new method advanced with sure and steady progress, until towards the close of the last century it had become the almost exclusive method of Church Song. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
