TIMELY TOPICS

Northern Advocate, 27 October 1932, Page 4

TIMELY TOPICS

DECLINE OF CHURCH MUSIC.

Dr. William Prendergast, president, or the Incorporated Association of Organists, in his presidential address at the opening of the annual congress of the association in Edinburgh, said that those who subsisted on mechanised music, to the exclusion of the genuine article were not only starving themselves but were doing a disservice to the art, for if nobody studied or practised music there would be no need of teachers or composers, as they were discovering at the present time to their eost. In the meantime teachers were faring badly, and the Church would soon be seriously affected, since the salaries of those who followed the organist’s profession had hitherto been calculated at the assumption that these officials could mahe a living by teaching music. That method was now bankrupt, and in future proper financial provision must be made. Earlier in his address Dr. Prendergast said that the. decline of Church music was but the corollary of the decadence of formal religion. The Church —organised religion of all denominations—might be the biggest, thing in the world if it were Christian, but in how many cases could it be honestly said that the spirit of Christ found any plaee in it? The commonly accepted view of worship was extraordinarily' narrow and inadequate. Could they shut their eyes to the fact that the artistic level of divine worship was very much below that of what were regarded as secular performances in the theatre and concert hall? Dared they say that they took less pains in church, or that it was j perforce inferior for financial reasons? Worship should bo of the highest character attainable. It was a mockery to offer fo Cod in church that which would bo hissed at in a theatre nr hall. There was no reason why a church should not ho managed as regarded finance* and decorum as j efficiently ns a theatre. |

THE DOPE DANORP. Says the London ‘'News Chronicle”: Tt seems to be certain that the practice of drug-taking is increasing in London. Unless it is promptly and sternly dealt with it may attain proportions which will make it very dif-

dealt to eradicate. The present, increase is probably .just, one aspect of the wave of demoralisation which has swept, over a certain small section of society. This seems confirmed by the fact that the agents of the new traffic are uni drawn from the same classes of society as the waiters and barmaids who used to be The dreg

purveyors in the old days, but from the half "smart" Society young men

and women whose; orgies have latterly been so much in the public eye. The enormous prices charged for the drugs show further that it is a vice of the rich.