'I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also.'
To those my friends,
known and unknown,
clergy and church musicians,
who belong to the happy band of working believers.
This book is the outcome of lectures attended and delivered at the College of S. Nicolas, Chislehurst, Kent,
during the years preceding 1939;
it therefore owes a debt of gratitude not only to the staff of the College, among whom were Sir
Sydney H. Nicholson, the Warden of the College, Dr Ernest Bullock, the Director of Musical Studies and Dr C. S. Phillips, the
College Chaplain, but to many outside lecturers of whom one remembers with particular gratitude Dr E. H. Fellowes, the late Dr H.
C. Colles and the late Bishop Frere.
But though the book lays no claim to originality - or to exhaustiveness, for that matter - it
cannot saddle these authorities with the opinions here expressed whose original purity has doubtless suffered a change in their
travel through my own mind.
It became clear, however, that some such book was needed by students of church music which brought together
the knowledge scattered through many famous authorities; church musicians need lo equip themselves with a full knowledge of their
subject in order ultimately to bridge the gap and allay the misunderstanding between the very unmusical parson and the very
musical but un-knowledgeable organist.
The better type of church musician today is not merely a good organist: he aspires to
understand the history not only of his own musical art but also of its close connection with the liturgy it serves.
The Royal College of Organists, London, by its inflexible demand for an adequate standard in organ-playing and choir-training, has recently, with the School of English Church Music, instituted the Archbishop of Canterbury's Diploma in Church Music, and it is hoped that the possession of the Fellowship and CHM. Diplomas of the Royal College of Organists, together with the A.C.D.C.M. Diploma (the first official recognition of the organist's work for his church) will become the norm for every serious-minded church musician.
Unfortunately, little has been done to equip the clergy on the musical side of their work.
The curriculum of
the theological colleges leaves little or no time for training in running and taking public services and the history of music in
worship:
it is indeed true to say that few as yet of the clergy think such matters worth serious thought.
But every parson must
ultimately meet and deal with organists and choirs, and sing services, and though not ends in themselves, music and oratory play a
vital part in public worship.
It is suggested that a knowledge of the matter of such a book as this would at least make a common
ground of approach between the parson arid his organist.
The scope and intentions of the present work need some explanation.
It is not a complete history of its
subjects, liturgy and music, but it tells enough of that history to elucidate the principles of musical worship and concerns
itself more with the practical lessons to be learned from history than with a comprehensive recital of historical facts.
Too often
personal whim is allowed to alter the aim and shape of public services when a perusal of the historical data would act as a
corrective.
Innovation, that proof of a living church, should be tempered by the wisdom learnt during two millenniums.
Broad
principles appear only from a bird's-eye view of this long period and for that reason this work intentionally omits a mass of
detail which, however relevant, tends to make one too engrossed in small issues.
A general historical awareness will add much to
the appeal and effect of a service, which may contain a versicle and response sung to music more than a thousand years old, a
motet by Byrd and a hymn written in the present century.
The Communion of Saints means at least that we can take the music and
liturgical forms made by the saints of other ages and use them to our own advantage, and this book will, it is hoped, stimulate
the interest of those clergy and church musicians who have not as yet thought the age-long tradition of their art worthy of
consideration.
Because of its practical bias this work has set itself definite limits.
The development of liturgies and
forms of service is dealt with on very broad lines and usually from the point of view of the Prayer Book now in use.
Questions of
doctrine are of course entirely omitted.
It is hoped that those who find they are intrigued by what historical data are given will
further their studies by consulting the authorities named in the bibliographies.
For the same reason we arbitrarily take English Church Music to mean music written for and still sung in
English churches.
Thus Dunstable, Fayrfax, even Taverner have but a line or two, not so much, indeed, as Attwood or Stainer who
were possibly inferior musicians.
But they are sung and Dunstable is not. Other names have a place which they could never have in
a history of music -
men like Lampe, the pious bassoon player or Dykes, the dabbler in music -
for in the church service a
hymn-tune or chant may contribute much to the general effect.
Such tiny art forms can as well be tackled by amateurs as by
first-rate musicians;
indeed, Gibbons and Vaughan Williams, both writers of famous and lovely hymn-tunes, are exceptions among the
great names.
Let us note that there are two types of music to consider, that of the people and that of the choir.
The
music of the minister has had no history, but remains much as it always was.
The proportions of music sung by choir and people
will depend on the type of church and its resources;
but each has a history, which must be disentangled from that of the other.
The music of the people has a history that goes back to the publication of the first English Prayer Book and an attempt is made to
tell the story of the metrical psalm and hymn and their performance.
Choir music is dealt with by periods for the most part rather
than by names, though there is some discussion of the more outstanding composers;
their place in the modern repertory and points
involved in the performance of their works are usually given more consideration than an attempted critical valuation of their
output.
Lesser composers are treated only when they have made some important contribution to the repertory or when they typify
some aspect of their period.
The names of some well-known and sometimes important composers who, to ensure clarity of outline to
the book, are not treated at all, are given at the end of each part;
in the same place are given lists of music recommended for
further study;
the study of works so recommended, though important, does not form part of the purpose of this book.
When
individual works are discussed in detail they have without exception been selected because they are universally sung and can be
easily procured for a few pence.
With some licence the long period from Croft to Wesley has been treated as one.
The excuse is
offered that this tidies the book considerably, while to the lay mind there is little difference in kind between an anthem of
Boyce and one of Wesley -
not so much as, for example, between Rejoice in the Lord of Redford and that of Purcell or the settings
of Salvator mundi by Tallis and Blow.
The organ as the accompaniment instrument par excellence in church has been given a short chapter after each
section where the historical data are used to show how the discriminating organist will employ his modern instrument in music of
the period.
Part 6 stands apart from the rest of the book; it is an essay for which the author must accept the full responsibility
of purely personal opinions.
The bibliographies, it is hoped, are the link between
this outline book and that corpus of literature, which probes more deeply into this extensive and absorbing subject.
These books
may be looked upon as the beginnings of a library for serious and practising clergy and church musicians.
Some charts at the end
attempt to give the historically minded student an idea of the panoramas in time of the work of bygone days.
As a parson with no
inherent interest in architecture might yet read a work on that subject which concerns his daily business, so the professedly
unmusical parson may find here some help in understanding the story and function of music in public worship.
To assist any such a
glossary of simple musical terms and conceptions is added;
but it must be admitted that a word with an experienced musician who
has a piano at his command would do better service.
Like all other gebrauch music, church music must be judged by its fitness in the service.
To apply that
standard will sometimes result in what look like queer valuations.
The same is true of ballet music, opera, incidental music to
plays, dance music.
Separated from its ballet counterpart Petrouchka makes, most of the time, pointless nonsense;
as much nonsense
as a Schumann lied divorced from its text.
The point need not be stressed.
And if one cannot judge a church composition from the
printed copy, neither can one assess it with a mind out of sympathy with the church service.
As well ask one who hates dance music
to distinguish between a good and a bad dance-tune arrangement or one who loathes Opera to discuss the relative merits of Faust
and Gotterdammerung.
The litany, for example, looks bald to a degree in the music copy.
Sung in procession with cross and candle
in the half-light of some cathedral it comes to a new life.
The litany is, indeed, more than the words, more than the music;
it is
a piece of corporate expression, a liturgical act. It is psychology as much as music.
The kneeling, the rising and the slow
walking are as much part of it as the dancing in Petrouchka, it might well, in fact, be thought of as a kind of expressive dancing
in slow tempo.
The book, it is hoped, will thus form an adequate first textbook.
If it sends the reader to the authorities
given in the bibliographies it will have achieved the object of a text-book;
if, in addition, it helps the parson to get a
bird's-eye view of a great and ancient English musical tradition and the practising church musician to discover the principles
underlying his work, so that real team work is possible by both, it will not have been written in vain.
The magnificent 'Canterbury' Psalter, a volume of 286 leaves, plus fly-leaves, all 18 by 15 inches in size,
is the work of one man, Eadwine, who had finished it at Christ Church, Canterbury, before the death of St Thomas in 1170.
During
the sixteenth century it was bound in leather-covered wooden boards and furnished with metal bosses representing the Tudor rose;
it was presented to the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, by Thomas Nevile, Master of Trinity, 1595-1615, and Dean of
Canterbury.
Besides the psalter and canticles it contains a kalendar and notes on the Pater Noster and Apostles' Creed.
These are
followed in the medieval manner by a treatise on palmistry, another on a system of prognostication, a self-portrait of Eadwine and
two plans of the famous water-piping system of the Canterbury precincts.
Three parallel Latin versions are given of the psalms,
(1) the Hebraicum, Jerome's translation from the
Hebrew, never used in the services,
(2) the Romanum, the version brought to England by Augustine and in use here till 1066, the
correction by Jerome of his Latin version by collation with the Septuagint,
and
(3) the Gallicanum, the Vulgate or Authorised
Version, a Latin version of the Septuagint corrected by collation with the Hebrew text.
Philologically the psalter is important,
as the Hebraicum text is interlined with a French version, the earliest known, the Romanum with a similar Anglo-Saxon version and
the Gallicanum with glosses in.
When drawing his illustrations Eadwine had open before him a psalter made in the diocese of Rheims in the
ninth century and now known as the 'Utrecht' Psalter:
Eadwine then drew his pictures allowing both the psalm itself and the
Utrecht picture to suggest his subjects.
Above the illustration here shown is a line from the collect after Psalm 149, below
which, top centre, is the figure of Christ flanked by six angels.
Top left are four musicians playing respectively from left to
right a long-necked 'lute', the same, drum (tabret) and harp as mentioned in the following psalm.
Of the four figures top right
that on the left plays another stringed instrument, while the two inner figures hold unidentifiable instruments shaped like ear
trumpets.
The lower groups at the sides show four players of a curved, conical instrument no doubt intended to be trumpets or
shawms:
their strident notes are graphically shown by parallel lines issuing from the bell rather in the manner of a modern
cartoon. The trumpeters' neighbours (one with a leg missing!) may possibly be praying or more likely performing some rhythmic
movement of the hands as in dancing, which would illustrate the psalm very well.
The psalmist's cymbals are not represented.
Eadwine's organ seems rather to be a copy of that in the Utrecht Psalter than the result of direct observation, for at this time
the Winchester organ had 400 pipes and few were content with his meagre ten, six white and four black (pipes were often painted in
England at this time).
His 'casework' is merely a rather pointless frame and he leaves much to be desired in the way of mechanism,
for the players' fingers merely caress the base of the pipes, the soundboard shows some unaccountable holes (?), and the wind
reservoirs seem of an unworkable pattern.
But the human interest is there with the bent backs of the blowers and the impatience of
the players avid as ever for more wind.
The illustration is reproduced by permission of Messrs.
Percy Lund Humphries & Co. Ltd. and the Friends
of Canterbury Cathedral from their facsimile of this monumental work.
The author tenders his thanks to Messrs. Lund Humphries for
facilities to consult the preface of the facsimile.
A corner of a damaged page from the Mozarabic Psalter in the British Museum showing neumes written above the first verse only of psalm 127 (lines 4-7 of the MS.) reading:
Nisi dns ed
berit do
In uano la
qui edific
Nisi dn
dierit
The full reading would be:
Nisi d(omi)n(u)s ed(ifica)berit do(mum) In uano la(borant) qui edific(ant earn.) Nis d(omi)n(us custo)dierit (ciuitatem).
The first two lines of the MS. are the end of a prayer attached to the previous psalm, the third line being
the heading 'CXXVI Canticum', (Ps. 127 in our Prayer Book).
The MS., in Visigothic script, was made in the eleventh century and
used at the Monastery of St Sebastian at Silo, 50 miles from Burgos in Old Castille in Spain at the time when its most famous
abbot, St Domingo de Silos, flourished.
Over the initial words of the psalms the rising intonation can easily be made out with a
capital letter at 'In uano' where the choir joined in after the Cantor had sung the first half-verse.
Even if the monks at Silo
had known the stave notation they might well not bother to use it for the familiar psalms, the first verses only of which are
marked with neumes.
Presumably the other verses were pointed from memory.
Reproduced by permission, from a photograph supplied by
the British Museum.
The title-page of the book from which this page is reproduced by kind courtesy of the owner, Mr William J.
Amherst, shows that the copy is one of the 'Fourteenth Edition Corrected and Amended' in 1717, the original having appeared in
1677.
In this edition the music is 'Composed in THREE PARTS, CANTUS, MEDIUS & BASSUS:
In a more Plain and Useful Method than
hath been formerly Published.'
The tune here shown is the 'Old 100th', here called 'Proper Tune', the melody and bass of which are
given first, then the Medius - with G clef - and lastly the Bassus alone.
Note that the key signature is two sharps only (F-sharp
being given twice) t the necessary G-sharps for the key of A being inserted as accidentals.
The alia breve time signature is here
equal to 21, which if obeyed makes the whole much less heavy than when sung four in a bar. Note the
interesting barring of the first half of lines one and three.
A type of instrument used in many private chapels in the middle of the eighteenth century and still occasionally to be found in
use.
At this period most village churches managed the accompaniments to their hymns and psalms with winch organs and gallery
orchestras.
In 1767 no English organ could boast a set of pedals, even though the larger instruments had two manuals.
The
instrument shown, which has a small pedal in the centre for operating the bellows, is by Snetsler, usually known as Snetzler, and
is now in the Permanent Collection of Antique Musical Instruments of Messrs. Rushworth & Dreaper, Liverpool, who have
generously granted facilities and permission to reproduce.
The picture shows a 'cello and bassoon playing in unison and a clarinet - who alone seems to watch the beat - playing
the melody, with four men at the same stand also, presumably, singing the melody.
Allowing for painter's licence it seems unlikely
that any I real harmony is being attempted by this gallery choir of 1847.
I Webster, whose father intended him for the musical
profession, attended the school of St George's, Windsor, and some of the originals of his figures are still remembered in the
village of Bow Brickhill, where the painting was executed.
It may therefore be considered an authentic document.
Further
information will be found in the pamphlet 'Bow Brickhill' by the Rev. R. Conyers Morrell (1934).
The original of this painting is
in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum who have generously granted permission to publish. Crown copyright reserved.
Singing from Magdalen Tower in the early morning of May 1st each year has a romantic and a realistic aspect.
The first
plate, from a painting by Holman Hunt (who made two versions between 1888 and 1891) catches the spirit of the occasion in the
manner of its time;
the figures are all portraits taken during service time in chapel.
The second, from a modern press photograph,
gives the realities.
Included in the music sung is the Hymnus Eucharisticus of Benjamin Rogers The Holman Hunt picture is
reproduced by permission of the Museum and Art Gallery Committee of the Corporation of Birmingham (the other version, slightly
different, is in the Lady Lever Collection at Port Sunlight), the press photo by courtesy of the Oxford Mail.
Some of the choristers of Canterbury singing carols in the crypt on the site of the first church of
Augustine.
The boys without surplices are 'probationers ' who have not yet attained the status of 'singing boys'.
Singing boys
later become 'choristers' and are then on the foundation with all its rights and privileges.
From a photograph by The Times.
The picture shows the scene at the opening service of the 217th meeting at Gloucester in 1937, with clergy and civic
representatives of the three cities of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester standing below the orchestra.
Beginning as combined
services for mutual betterment of the three cathedral choirs about the year 1716, the festival had by 1724 acquired an orchestra
for the performance of works by Purcell and Handel and was sponsoring secular evening concerts outside the cathedrals.
Boyce was
appointed conductor in 1737 and in 1759 Messiah was first performed at the festival.
In 1869 Sullivan conducted his The Prodigal
Son and so began the practice of producing native oratorios which resulted in the happy connection of Elgar with the festival.
It
is perhaps a pity that the original purpose of improving the service music has rather been lost sight of:
such a purpose need not
exclude the performance of other music.
From a photograph by The Times.
To appreciate the ingenuity of this giant console, completed in 1939, from which all the organs of the
cathedral are controlled, one must imagine the thousands of hidden electrical connections between the stop-knobs and pallets.
The
design, by Willis, is an attempt to supply accompaniments, however and wherever needed, in the varied services of a large modern
cathedral.
We may, in fact, think of such a console as a symbol of the conception of what a cathedral in a great city must do for
its many types of congregation.
From a photograph kindly supplied by Messrs. Henry Willis & Sons and reproduced by courtesy of
the Dean of Liverpool and Messrs. Willis.
Music example 50 is taken by kind permission from an old choir book in the possession of Mr. Wilfrid Norman
of Wheddon Cross.
The author is indebted to the proprietors of Hymns Ancient and Modern for permission to reprint versions of
hymns from the Plainsong Hymn Book.
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