METHOD OF TEACHING THEM. 237 There may perhaps be some little difficulty in teaching Gregorian music, because those tones are merely musical reading, and it is therefore absolutely necessary that the singer be taught to read before he attempts to sing, which is not so indispensable in the modern chant, where the measured music not only covers the defects of the reading, but produces defects of its own; to teach singing only may possibly be easier than to teach reading and singing too; but to teach the mere notes, or to teach the tones to those who are already capable of reading and understanding what they read, is a matter of no difficulty whatever, if people are contented with slow progress; progress must always be slow where there is a good deal to be taught, and to gabble or sleep over a Gregorian tone, as is done in cathedrals over their chant, would be absolutely intolerable. The only way of teaching it to such a class of halfeducated people, as we generally meet with, is, first, to read the whole psalm yourself, emphasising it carefully. Then to explain it, so that the class feel and appreciate what they are going to sing. Then to make them read it, seeing that they attend to the pauses and emphatic words. When they are able to do this, sound the reciting note with a pitch pipe, and let them read it on that, still preserving their pauses and emphases, and, after that, it is very easy to add the mediation and cadence. I do not think the organ should be used at all; it may be a very effective addition after the psalm is learnt, but, if used before, it teaches the choir to pay more attention to the music than to the sense; in fact, to sing as they do in cathedrals.1 There is no reason why, in admiring the Gregorian 1 The observation made by my choir when I took them for the first time to Chichester Cathedral, "that it was very pretty music, but that the choristers seemed half asleep"-or of one of them, who on his return from London, informed me that "at Westminster Abbey they did not sing nearly so badly as they did at S. Paul's," will convey, as well as any thing can, the idea that must strike the mind of those who, having been accustomed to Gregorian recitative, hear, for the first time, the Psalms strained and twisted into musical measures. The country chorister might be a very indifferent judge of music, but he could feel that the sense was sacrificed to the sound. Of course I am not here speaking of that most objectionable and irreverent of all chants, the syllabic adaptation of Gregorian music-the most wanton sacrifice of sense to sound that ever was invented. you do not lose, y That which convey ce, that which con This is as true ( LORD'S Supper, & would be your des be your very gre Confirmation." "What must I "Do!" said th brother, and then into my hands, ar great hopes of et this, I shall treat case of the Holy make reparation you, notwithsta reparation for t not tell you tha to the other), tl If you will no that, observe, 1 out of conside have been for falling."" 8 APANTAGES OF THE GREGORIAN TONES. struction, and catechising on the hymn or service; it is impossible to have beer or week days, to begin my part - sua tone, without considering or Lather there are many or few in the 215 Cal or cannot perform their teal my little congregation to is to worship aloud, and that perfection of singing, has acceptableness of the service. ree that they must attempt : they can perform it. I * that such a service is always zak: upon me to say that such rational, and that it induces come to Church. At all the test of experience. The in the strictest sense of the word years since I began choral serhas never happened that the from wait of a choir. messible to do this with the res its full choir a 238 THE SELECTION OF HYMNS. music, we should despise, as some do, the modern chants, many of which are very beautiful, and very ecclesiastic in their character. There is room enough in the service for both. As the recitative of the Gregorian is best adapted for the unmeasured verse of the psalms, so the measured music of the modern chant is best adapted to metre. All the good modern chants make admirable hymn tunes, and are more easily learned than any sort of psalm or hymn tune whatever. But a more difficult and a more responsible duty is the selection of hymns to be sung to them. Bishop Mant, in the preface to his own translation of the ancient Church Hymns, says, that he has translated them for family devotion, as he did not presume to offer any materials for public worship, because he knows of no consideration which will justify the act or sanction of an individual in contributing to the introduction of forms of singing, any more than forms of praying, into our churches, without legal sanction." It appears to me that this is over scrupulousness in the Bishop, as it certainly is inconsistency. He felt no difficulty in sanctioning the use of the Metrical Psalms in his diocese, which, composed like his own hymns, originally for private worship, without half the merit of his own, and without any more authority, have found a place in our Prayer Books, in the absolute dearth of any thing better. But, in truth, when the Church does actually possess hymns, when the only reason why these hymns were not authorised in the English branch of it, was the incapacity of the Reformers to translate them, when the want of an authorised version is universally felt and acknowledged, and when the only legal authority which could by any possibility sanction them is in abeyance, we are fully justified in doing what is right in our own eyes, to the same extent as the Israelites were in the days of the Judges, and for the very same reason. The Church has a recognised place for the Anthem, in quires and places where they sing, but not having designated what that anthem shall be, she has left it to us to make the selection. A Bishop has a perfect right to object to this or that THE SELECTION OF HYMNS. 239 hymn, just as he has a perfect right to object to this or that sermon ; but he has no more right to object to the practice of singing hymns, when the Church has provided a place in the service for such compositions, than he has to object to the practice of preaching sermons, which are sanctioned by the Church in precisely the same manner. I have myself never scrupled to use any hymn that I considered orthodox and appropriate. If I am not to be trusted in collecting and adapting hymns, I am not to be trusted in composing and preaching sermons—in fact, I do collect them wherever I can find them. I select those for particular seasons which illustrate best the doctrine of that season. These I make my catechumens commit to memory. Learning poetry is in itself a good exercise for the young, and doctrines are more firmly impressed on the mind in this way than in any other. Some of the hymns thus selected are suited to public worship, some for school or family use, some for private edification -and I have no hesitation in putting all that I select to the uses for which they seem best designed. I offer here a few, which I have brought together from different authors and translators, as they appear to me well adapted to the use of catechumens preparing for Confirmation. In many cases I do not know who are the authors or translators-if I did, I should have to apologise to them all, for alterations, adaptations, erasures, and additions which I have made at pleasure. I. ON THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF CONFIRMATION. Creator Alme Siderum. CREATOR of the starry height, Who, lest the earth through evil eye |