SACRED MUSIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 1241, 11 September 1875, Page 10

SACRED MUSIC.

Apropos of the sacred music in the Melbourne Town Hall on Sunday, the following paragraph from Concordia shows that one of the most distinguished of the Broad Church clergy in London ia in favour of such performances: — "Wherever there is a good organ there should be organ recitals. The noblest, and in some respects the completest of instruments, is habitually neglected in England, owing partly to the fact that what people c&n hear every Sunday they assume cannot be much worth hearing. .■ Bat that is Mt the point—they do not h«w? habitaajly

good organ playing and good organ music on Sunday. Mendelssohn's sonatas, Bach's fugues, and whole archives of noble organ music are unknown to the general public. A series of organ recitals have begun, and will, we understand, be carried on throughout the season at St. James's, Westmoreland street, Marylebone (incumbent, Rev. H. R. Haweis) on the first Sunday in each month. After evening service, about half-past 8, the congregation are invited to keep their seats, and printed programmes are distributed." Arc such recitals less sinful in a church than in a Town-Hall? Another Broad Church clergyman, the Rev. Stopford Brooke, it will be remembered, gave a series of lectures on the English poets irom his pulpit on a Sunday eveiing.