CONGREGATIONAL V. CATHEDRAL MUSIC.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2479, 21 March 1893, Page 4

CONGREGATIONAL V. CATHEDRAL MUSIC.

There is a veiy able article in the Musical Times for February last on the above subject. The article purports to be a review of a book written by a Rev. Mr Shuttleworth, who suggests that "ordinary services should be quite congregational, but that there should also be special services at which cantatas and oratorios might be given with all the resources of art," to which objection is taken on the ground that such services can only be held in large towns. They could not be held in ordinary parish churches. The writer rails roundly at the " rampant congrogationalist," who thinks himself "defrauded and robbed" because ho is not allowed to join in singing of which he doea not understand a note, and who cannot produce anything better than a "peculiar noise—something between a buzz and a drone ; something between a bee aud a bagpipe." Speaking of the special services proposed by Mr Shuttleworth, the writer says :—• " Special services with soloists, chorus, and orchestra can only be successfully carried out in a few large towns in which artists can be found and brought together, and where the offertories are likely to be sufficient to meet the expenses. To one parish in which such a performance could be given, there are probably j.early a thousand iu which it could not be given ; if, then, art is to be eliminated from the ordinary services of these churches, no higher music can be offered as an alternative. By all means 1 it such special services bo given wherever possible, but do not forget that in proportion as a church is distant from a large town the expense of a special service is uniformly greater while its offertories are uniformly less in amount. " Hut underlying all this there is something far deeper and even more serious. The present outburst of Congregationalism in music is not merely a protest against too much cathedralismin parish churches; look well into it, and you will find that, whether supported by a High Church priest or a Low Church minister, it is a logical and necessary outcome of Protestant individualism the overaccentuation of the ' priesthood of the laity.' Held in check, this is the mainspring of the mechanism of our English Chinch, as exhibited in ' lay helpers ' and 'lay synods' ; allowed to run riot, it will end in ' parish councils ' (already sxggested), in which all questions of ecclesiastical authority and practice will bo decided by counting the number of noses of conflicting ratepayers duly assembled in the vestry, it is not a mere coincidence that the growth of f-omethiug like eight thousand chorales in Germany alone should have begun simultaneously with the placing of the J3ible iu the hands of old and young, wise and foolish, with the promise that each could, if he chose, construct his own doctrine, ritual, and practice. We have got beyond the satisfaction of participating in hymn-singing, our congregations iiow claim to sing all the Canticles and the wh.ile of the prose Psalms, the Stnctus, and Gloria in. Excelsis, and oven ask for the introduction of numerous popular hymns in the Eucharist.

" How far these claims are justified by the rubrics of the Prayer Book is not the question to be decided in a musical journal; but speaking as plain coinmonsense students of the book, we understand that the term ' the people' clearly means the congregation, and that when the people are ordered to join the ' minister' or 'minister and clerk' it signifies that the-congregation is to join in the tinging of ' the clergy and choir' If this be so, the congregation is ordered to join in the Apostles' Greed and The Lord's Prayer; but the Canticles &wl Psalms are to be ' sung or said,' by whom .' clearly not by the people, or these very necessary words would not have been omitted by the skilful and wary compilers. So this just claim of the people to be allowed to say the Creed and" Lord's Prayer has gradually swollen into a demand for almost everything not an essential port'unv of the priest's offiee; And this is what the congregation calls taking part iu the services! (i Out' congregations ace apparently' losing the power oi meditating in silence and to their higher edification on truths beautifully depicted by a trained choir in {the tone-colors of our heaven-born art. If a choir performs something better than the congregation itself, could possibly do it, the congregation has, forsooth, been defrauded and'wjbbed—that is to say, ife has actually been deprived of its privilege of doing something badly, at a time and in a pb.ee where only the best and choicest shouli be offered up. Is this a fraud'? is this rofcbsiy / Or, to put it in a colloquial form, are we to drift with the aiream of popularity and allow , everyoxie to huxa a finger in the pie, even if we know that the pie will inevitably be spoiled by the process I Such a course is nothing more or leßa than the high road to the .Salvation Army barracks; we may as -&e}i hand round cornets ami tambourines at once. It is really impossible to teach omr cWigregations that ho who is capable of ts&at jyaise and prayer during a Te Den in reajra jSfco.rp spiritual benefit than the mail why is l \ trying to c itch tlij tune, who cannot help why )fc smuetimns goes high and a-ouibthne* low, and who, sifter a struggle which U-xp j:< >n plotely absorbed his atl.onti.rn, finishe* fe J.u.st vei>e wit;i a gleam of self silisf actum !.>•■« 'Oise ' he ,'jasgot it right, that ti<ne ' It wilt hi mii [ ' wUhau'V pe. pie do not km-w how to nied :+ a(o i'« s.ilence; if tine, the toonor (!<ov .-o in i.'' t'tti heU.er Wli.!f. our rcs<%> ii\ni\t, i'i order that tliey. miy nd'y bvsiits'fti if public worship in onr p ui.sh cin: r clt(ift } is fif-ib &■ knowledge of the rudiments of twt ; of the tine theory of worship ; no; ii.vv ' to rting, but how to ihink. Unless some effort is ru-ido in this direction, and made ptmly soon, not only will the art of church mu-ic bo in joopaidy, but the very existence of all that is most en nobling and edifying in our conception of the Chjiich will be impeiilled. We have already overrun the ordinary limits .of a review, but if M.f Shuttle worth gives so much food f'./i 1 thought, it is his own fault, if we have been tempted to give some of th\i thoughts he has culled up in us. When oucv token in hand, it is dillicult to put down tljet-e essays until the last page is reached, even if the reader does not always fully agree with the wiifcer."

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