UPLIFTING INFLUENCE

Waipa Post, Volume 41, Issue 3185, 7 August 1930, Page 7

UPLIFTING INFLUENCE

MUSIC THROUGH THE AGES. CHURCH GUARDIANSHIP. " Music has been and is now more than ever an uplifting influence," said Mr Robert Parker, C.M.G., in an address delivered at St. Paul's Pro-Cath-edral, Wellington, during the musical week service held last Sunday evening (says the Dominion). His address, said Mr Parker, would deal first with the history and growth of church music, and he would conclude by offering some practical suggestions for the fuller use of music by the congregation as a means of worship. It was the first 'opportunity of doing this that he had had for fiftytwo years, he said.

Mr Parker spoke first of the appropriateness of the week being inaugurated by special church services when music itself owed so much to the guardianship of the church. The first public use of music had always been a religious one. He mentioned its use in the earliest times, leading up tf> the period of Constantine, when stately churches were built, always with a space set apart for a body of singers. Music grew steadily, and the singing at Milan during the time of Ambrose was finer than it had ever been. Ambrose had done a good deal to develop the song worship of his people, and the work he did jn the fourth century was continued in the sixth by Gregory, who was responsible for the Gregorian qhant, used since the Oxford movement in certain Anglican churches.

Mr Parker went on to speak of other great contributors to the growth and development of music, illustrating modes and the gradual introduction of harmony with passages played on the organ. Each of these harmonic developments was a step in the direction of modern music. " The church," he said, "like a careful mother, watched over and regulated all that was done."

The period with which he had been dealing, Mr Parker continued, had been called by Sir Hubert Parry " the babyhood of music." Later on, in Rome, another great style was set by St. Phillip Neri, who laid the foundation of the oratorio. Many of the greatest works were due to this, including Bach's "Passion," Haydn's "Creation," Mendelssohn's "Elijah," and others, leading down in modern times to "The Dream of Gerontius," by Sir Edward Elgar. The practical question, he said, was in what way they dould use music most surely to inspire worship and devotion, and how they could do this to the greatest advantage. He pointed out several ways in which the congregation might take a more active part in the services. Three anthems were sung by the choir. These were " The Glory of the Lord," by Goss; "Rejoice in the Lord',' by Purcell; and an unaccompanied anthem by Sullivan. Mackenzie's " Benedictus " and Bach's "Aria" were given as violin solos with organ accompaniment.