HYMNOLOGY!

NZ Truth, Issue 137, 1 February 1908, Page 8

HYMNOLOGY!

CHURCH CHOIRS IN. THE OLDEN TIMES. Jolly Adhelm, the Serio-Comic Singer. More Singular Stories from " Saints and Sinners."

It is astonishing the amount of attention that is paid now-a-days to training choir-singers m the Anglican •and Catholic Cathedrals of New SZealaa.i, and indeed the small churches of the Dominion. Sir John Hawkins wrote a history of music m England long years ago, "m which he m/ade mention that m the Primitive Church each of the congregation assembled sang as his inclination led him, with hardly any other restriction than that what they sang should! be to the praise of God. Beautiful ! Those persons who had musical ears and disliked Dutch concerts, as they were termed, must have rejoiced when St. Ambrose introduced the alternate method of singing. Under Hilary, and later under Gregory the Great, the singing school at Rom© furnished many tuneful clerks. Gregi ory, at all events, restored the ,ecr clesiastical song to a better form. In a chapter on "Joy Songs of the Church," the book "Saints and Sin-^ ners" remarks that to t one Hieronymus was ascribed the merit of having framed (with Papal sanction, asked for by the Emperor Theodosius), a new ritual into which he introduced the . epistles, gospels, y and the, psalms, with the Gloria Patri and Alleluiah ; and these, together with' certain hyr-.ns which he thought pro- 1 per to retain made up the whole of the service. Turning to England one finds /that fromi earliest thros Canterbury was melodious with tho rollI ing harmony of Gregorian song. Wilfrid spread' those billows |of sound^ throughout England. Northumbria seem ; s to have rivalled Canterbury m excellence of singing, and when the vocalists of both localities met m the great arohiscopal city to sing together m pufrlic, they . really founded those pleasant gatherings t KNOWN AS MUSICAL FESTIVALS. And it is worthy of note that the old English folk, who showed, their independenc(K very early, by quitting church when the preacher wearied themi with his sermons, had solace furnished them m song by the famous Adhelm. As the thoroughly bored rustics often poured forth from Mass! before the dry-as-dust preacher had got into the pulpit, they were encountered at some 'bridge end, or corner, by the, sweet-voiced Adhelm, who was as mierry as he was wise. The very sound of his harp strings preluding his work made the good folk run and laughingly surround him/ Then, m. rattling song, he chanted consecutive staves, illustrative of scripture and of the saints. What the teacher couldn't teach m prose, "Jolly Ad'helm," the most popular serio-som&o singer of the day, taught m galloping verse, with a sweeping accompaniment of harp strings. The auditory were swayed m obedience to the theme and its treatment.: Laughing and weeping came by turns, and many a ' fact was riveted to their m|emory by the, aid of rhyme. Oh, enviable foik, possessing this privilege, of which m these, duller times oppressed congregations '•• are cruelly deprived. The ballad sermons of Adhelm, like the ballads written and sold by GoldsmSth to be sung m the streets of Dublin, have perished beyond the ken of even the Society of Antiquaries. Great effteacy, was attributed to some of il:e early Saxon hymns. Fire and sword were said to be powerless against those who sang hymns m praise of St. Columbia. That Saint was himself a most potential singer. He could be, heard a mile off ! On one occasion, when he desired to impress King Oswald? and his people with awe, his singing exactly resemibled thuftder ; m the air, which must have weakened the impression unless the Anglo-Saxons dreaded thunder. This tremendous vocalist -contrasted forcibly with the nuns, whose sacred songs, were as the sweet sighing of doves m solace of the sufferings of their' Lord. Descant and plain song .kept" their own as long as joining m prayer and prose was considered of more importance than preaching. But then came the reforming spirit ;•' and Wycliffe fell roughly on ."DISCHAUNT COUNTER NOTE lAND ORGAN," as impediments both to 'true praying and honest preaching— seducers from sense tV> sound— "stirring vain men to dancing rather than mourning," but enriching ."many proud and lecherous losels," as he called, those who were the composers, or as he quaintly puts it, "who knock notes for many notes and pounds." In presence of a few singers he said the rest of the congregation were dumb 1 or looked like fools. How bitter and charitable he could become m his wrath" touching non-essent-ials, "is shown best m. his remark on those who delighted m this "novelry of song" :— "Strumpets and thieves praise Sir Jack, or Hotfb, and Williamv the proud clerk ; how small I^hey knack 'their notes !" and so on, m a strain more forcible than commendable. Sad were the hearts of the sons of song ; gloomy were the prospects of the minstrels whose harps vibrated only to sacred themes, when denunciations like the above fell upon them from men of note. Later on Erasmus characterised organists, singing boys, trumpets, cornets, pipes, and fiddles as fooleries. Luther, on . the other hand, loved music, thanked God that he loved il,. and recomniiended that it should be a part of education. When the Commonwealth came along, organs were denounced and expelled fromi churches ; but they didn't all perish. Many of them found their way to inns and taverns, where the "box of whistles" served to recreate the guests. This fact, m which the hopeful 1 might have found comfort, was a sore affliction to the Episcopalians at least. They had translated the organs out of their churches and set them up m taverns, ■chanting their dithyrambics and bestial bacchanalians to the tune of those instruments which were wonted

to assist them m the celebration of God's praises.. Men's voices couldn't be hushed like the sounds of the , instruments, and pious writers composci hymns as their predecessors did before them 1 . George Wither had a very full collection ; they were" suited to every condition of life, from an Emperor to a tailor, and for every occasion. If "the voices of THOUSANDS OP SCHOOL .CHILDREN, singing the "Old Hundredth" under the dome of St. Paul's could bring tears to the eyes of Czar Alexander 1.,, not less touching was the figure of Bishop Ken singing a morning hymn to Ms lute every clay before he put on his clothes and (let us hope) af-. ter the, bishop had had a bath. Wither furnished hymps for the- early morning's proceedings; and a man iniight make many worse preparations for the day than by, repeating daily, after getting by xote, Withers hymns— :" When We put on Our Apparel" and "a hymfn whilst we are washing." Augustine was one of those delightful saints who . are not without mortal faults. He was fond of good ringing, and so little averse to good liquor that he expressed a hope that it wouldn't degenerate into habitual tipipling. When the period was over wherein he used to hope that he might become good, "but not just yet," he. retained a sublime love for song, .that is, for sacred song. Augjus-tiitc was carried away by solemn music and singing ; but because he was carried away he denounced both song and music as misleaders. As often as he found himself better pleased with the harmony than with the sentence sung, he confessed to having sinned grievously. Among. Dissenters, the Baptists nnd ! Qrn'vers were for long the* most-ob-stinate opponents of psalmody. The song of the- heart was the only passion they had, or pretended to have, ear for. If it wasn't good for women to speak m church, it was .something- wicked for her to sing there. In some of the chapels a compromise' was made ; a song to the praLj and glory of God was struck up only once, and that at the close of the service. Those who approved stayed to join therein by voice or heart. Those who laughed at such songs withdrew hastily as if to protest that their souls . had no sense of music. The objection on the., p.art of the early Dissenters to singing to the praise and glory of God is inexplicable. The Baptists didn't,' take to it without great difficulty. Those who did v/cre censured by those who did not. banisters who wrote m favor of song were -stigmatised as if they j had been sinners ; and Ingelow, the i Broadmead pastor who gave up the ministry to . become bandmaster, was probably looked upon as BASER THAN JUDAS "ISCARIOT. j Some Dissenters who did not object j to Patrick's version of the psalms would not . tolerate the long- , and : short tegs of spiritual songs in ' triple tune time. Bradbury, who would sing the "Roast Beef of England" at a sth of November tavern dinner;" couldn't bear Watts's hymns. "No, sir," he once said to his clerk, who had 'given out a verse from , Dr. j Watts's ' hymns, . "None of Watts's 'whims' here, if you please !" ■CHancing at France, one notices the "singular fact that the ' weakest or worst of the /Sovereigns of that country were psalm' singers ! Clement J Miarot's translation of the Psalmsof David set a fashion which was never reached with his "Sacred Songs," except, perhaps, m "Sound ■the Loud, Timbrel.".' Marot's versicn was whistled 6"r sung all over France^ From the throne and around it,, down to the ..people killing • time |m a modish promenade, those psalms were the most popular airs of the day, airs associated with the most , frivolous subjects. Much as, ifthe promenaders at the Zoo or the Crystal Palace were, to cross one another. Some singing a "De Profundis" to the air of "Not for others fitting "O, Render Thanks" to "Champagne Charlie!" Henry 11. was a fair musical composer, and he is said to have set tne music to the psalm, "Blessed is Everyone that Feareth the Lord!" and when not singing psalms himself he loved to have them sung ,-to him|. "His wife, Catherine de Medicis, was equally musical and given to psalm-singing. One can hardly fancy that redoubtable woman, as she passed from room to room m the Louvre, malting the place melodious as she did with "Oh, Lord, Rebuke Me Not m Thine ■ Anger," or THAT ROYAL HUSSEY, Diana of Poietiers, carolling her fav-^ orite psalm, "When I Was m Trouble I Called upon the Lord," and making the gallery at Fontainebleau ring with it to any gay air she could think of. Fancy is as hard pufc to it to "accept the fact of such a monster as Charles IX. following the fashion ; but this annointed assassin who shot down hia own Protestant subjects from the windows of his own* palace was wont to arouse himself by singing "As Pants the Hart."