CHURCH MUSIC OF THE FUTURE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2502, 9 January 1869, Page 3

CHURCH MUSIC OF THE FUTURE.

(The Orchestra.) As a rule, it is a bishop's carriage stops the way. The cry of the Episcopal Doctor is "No thoroughfare." Be at rest, is the suggestion, and so you will find rest for your soul. Our bishops begin upon these principles, they go on upon them, and die with them. The new Bishop of Chester has just been charging upon the duty of standing upon (his) old ways, and of returning to the psalmodic ballads of Sternhold and Hopkins, of Tate and Brady. Dr Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, has been denying the right of a parochial hymnal to the laity, and insisting on the episcopal right to the authorization of a hymnal j and the late Bishop of Peterborough took his last Sacrament prefaced by a voluntary abjuration of vestments, lights, incense, and music. . . . It is a hard, and perhaps not a pleasant lesson for bishops, deans, and canons to learn —that of being assured that there is and can he no service nowadays without music being the first and necessary consideration—but learnt it must be, sooner or later, by these distinguished gentlemen. Perhaps tilt! sale to the amount of four millions of one modern hymnal may tend in some degree to open their eyes and direct their judgments. During the past week, thousands and thousands of hymn-loving folk have been crushed together at the opening of the new church of St. Mary Magdalene, in the Harrow road. The great interest lias been the new hymns, although wc do not altogether fall into ecstasies with the lyrics of the Kcv Dr Monsell. Hymns of ten and twelve stanzas are much too long to be good, but Londoners in the days of Queen Kliziibeth trolled out with nil cheerfulness psalms of greater length—and the new cou* gregatioii of the Rev Mr West in the Harrow road do not complain. His church is truly one of the future—for it has no endowmentis one of rare beauty and high cost, and its daily services are Communion at seven, at eight, Matins at ten, Communion at eleven, Evening Song at Five, and Compline at eight. Without music sur.h things could not be, and with music audi things are not likely to die. There has been an attempt made to check all this outburst of song. Archdeacon Wordsworth is, as our readers know, a poet, and has made a hymn-book of his own composing, Following the examples of an Archbishop ot York, of the past Bishops of London, of Liehfield, of Salisbury, of Chester, and other dignitaries, the Archdeacon has also made a

collection of hymns for the use of parish churches. In tills he lias been followed by the Dean of Canterbury, and we have all heard of the new York hymnal and the forthcoming Sarum. The Archdeacon's book enjoys high patronage, the late Archbishop of Canterbury approved of it, and the Bishops of London and Winchester approve of it. But tho people do not; they use other hymnbooks, norland's, Mercer's, Windle's, the S.P.C.K.'s, and "Hymnß Ancient and Modem." The Archdeacon confers with the Bishop of Oxford, and Dr Wilherforee consults Sir Robert Phillimore, Ills chancellor. Mr Robert Phillimore not long ago decided that no hymn could be sung before the Communion, no " Kyrie lileison " sung after a commandment, and, in fact, Imd denuded (lie great office of the Church of nearly all its music, Of course tho Chancellor declared that all new hymn-books were illegal, and that no parish priest could lawfully bring any tuch collection into use in a parish church. In ruling this Dr Phillimore flies in the face of all Catholic usage and all fact since the days of the Reformation. The hymns never left the Chapels Royal, and they exist in MS. to this day. Archbishop Cranmer tried to arrange the Latin hymns; and, when regretting his failure, says he leaves it to other hands, and never oncebims at their disuse. He says he only left off that others might do better. A Church without hymns is no Church at all, and a Church pretending to be Catholic without hymns is a perfect satire upon the term. Better is a Church with all possible medias-

val corruptions and all imaginable innovations than a Church shorn of liymnody. Queen Elizabeth enjoined the singing of hymns, and her successors have never contradicted or ignored her injunctions. It was in virtue of these Royal injunctions that the stiff old Jacobite parson sung the Act of Parliament aB a ballad; he could not conscientiously read it as an edict from authority, but he toned down its acerbity by means of the clerk and choristers.

Dr Phillimore, when judging of the rights of the congregation is hard and stiff. He reads the law against the rights and privileges of every Catholic church in Christendom, if we may be allowed the use of such a term. But when asked what is thepowerof a bishop in such a state of things, he turns round, eats his words, swallows his opinion, and says, Where a bishop ia concerned the law is not the point; a bishop may make laws in this case, he may direct the use of any hymn-book, lie may pick and choose one for his diocese and thrust it upon all congregations, or he may (what is worse) inflict it upon any separate parish. Whether Dr Wilberforce believes this or not we cannot say; but he sends this strange direction to the Archdeacon, and the Archdeacon publishes it as a new canon of the Church. In all this fuss and attempt at control over the people's church-songs, music has been forgotten. In one sense the bishop may have a control over the choice of hymns, for it is averred that he can forbid the use of any music where and when he pleases save the Merbecke music to the Prayer-book. And in thus directly forbidding the use of the tune, he can indirectly forbid the use of the hymn. But, to put it conversely, what is an episcopal injunction worth, touching a thing to be sung, if the bishop is to choose the tune and the people do not like it ?