Congregational Singing.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XIII, Issue 3, 1 September 1922, Page 404

Congregational Singing.

. Tfe.e ggeat.. success of cp^inuiQity .singing, m, the. principal centres population . and even m the smaller towns shp^l4 eiicourja^e, us to. make. ; a serious attempt to restore con- - gregational singing m our churches. It is plain tMt a •great many people enjoy singing? together. .Why have we failed hitherto m eliciting enthusiasm m Church hymn singing? The Germans and th'e, : Welsti, we 'are told, enjoy hymn singing just as much as the singing of . s,e y cu}a' j*. jnusic. Is it possible to make oui;'^ congregations as' enthusiastic as" others f Why are our congregations .dumb? First of all, of course, it is the, men wlip make community singing successful. Now, men do not make up a large proportion m our congregations —perhaps there, would be more of them if our services were more congregational. The secrets of success m community singing are probably :.r~ 1. The freedom, the. abandon, the absence of musical 'precision. We cannot, of course, adopt methods such as those which prevail m a' ' community sing, ' ' good Rumored banter and. the setting of side against, sixle m competition. „ r The application of such methods^ by the Salvation Army always strjlces us' as utterly, irreverent and inconsistent with the nature anxl purpose of sacred hymns that are' intended as an act of worship. '„" ..:. . 2. The •admixture of the serious with humorous or rollicking songs and choruses. Here again the nature of Church music precludes the introduction of light or frivolous music or words. :, . ... , 3.. -The .community iS sing ,js ■„ a ' ' sing' ', . purely .-and sjimpiy.;; It ; : h'as no other motive than pure healthy r.eereatipn.and [amusement and the ;eneouragement of camaraderie, and there is nothing m it. .corresponding to devotion unless it be the singing of patriotic songs. . But is it possible to get a similar result without these,. methods:? . What are the things which stand m .the way? First, no doubt, we have killed congregational singing by having trained choirs placed m such a posir tion m the church that they; arecut pflt from the congregation. It may be proper an Cathedrals for the- singing to be left to people .specially trained to do it artistically and correctly;.^^but surely the : .cj^e r :is t .,4i|Eere^ m ; our smaller parisK-;ch"m^%. -It would be

a tremendous'iiiiproveinent if the sur}iliced choir undertook only special parfcs of. the service and. left the rest to the congre^atio^; The congregational choir, to coin a phrase, should be at the west end of the church or m the centiie and should be responsible" for singing the , ordinary ■ Kyinns. " The ' congregation would then be encouraged to "join m, ''instead of listening to a performance' by a choir set apart as a separate entity. Next, we should have to scrap nearly all " Hymns Ancient and Modern." We can never have congregational singing as long as we sing hymns which are set so high as to be beyond the reach of ninety per cent, of the men and a great many of the women. The singing must be m unison, as the great majority of both men and women have not had the musical education necessary for the singing of harmonies, and, even if they had, there could be no proper balance of parts m a congregation of men and women grouped according to families rather than according to voices. Most of the settings m Hymns Ancient and Modern are much too high for ordinary people to sing m unison, and many of the hymn tunes are utterly unsuitable for unison singing. The English Hymnal has been compiled not for Cathedral choirs but for congregations, and if it were widely addpted we should have gained a great deal. The ideal of Hymns Ancient and Modern was to provide beautifully harmonised tunes for Cathedral choirs, and the Cathedral choirmaster resents the spoiling of the choir's performance by the im-

pudent intrusion of the congregation as almost a sacrilege. We must scrap this idea if. we are to enlisit the enthusiasm of our congregations. We must give them their, share m the ser.vice> not merely bid them listen to others. ..'..'.

' There are plenty of tunes that are good and melodic without being trashy. Congregatiqns love the trashy ones not because they are trashy, but because- they have had so few opportunities of learning to sing really good tunes. When they do have that opportunity they embrace it — for example it is most inspiring to hear a congregation sing St. Anne (0 God our help) or other great psalm tunes like" Buckingham (when I survey). People would soon be weaned from rubbish like St. Hilary (Pleasant are thy Courts i above) if they had more hymns to sing like Adeste Fideles. With regard, then to music, we want good sound tunes, not tricky nor dramatic but nobly simple, suited to the words, to be sung m unison. The congregation must be strengthened by including m the midst of it a choir who know the hymns and know, them well-. Next we- need congregational practices. People cannot sing either with enthusiasm or. devotion hymns they have not : properly learned, and the time of: divine service is not the time for learning to sing. Congregational practices are quite common m England now, and the movement is rapidly spreading. Some of our best English choirmasters are devoting their energies to the conducting of congregational practices, and a few churches m New Zealand are adopt-

ing V 0 methdtt : wifti- greaf sup(?esS : . We want to get rid of the CathedriU starch; that is sealiijg tKe mouths of Anglican congregation^, 'and "making their hearts and nectfs cold 'and 1 stiff. Only a' Ca'ttiedial tra:ihed " audience^ can feel any devotion m a service m which it is impossible for people To join with their own lips, and unless we provide an outlet for the devotion of our people the charm of public worship^ will fail to; appeal ti> the vast majority of thena. We \ want warm r services not sacred concerts, we want a crowd of enthusiastic worshippers, not small' congregations' of admirers of the choir. T

Would it not help singing immensely if we ignored (quite modern) convention, placed our. harmoniums at the baLck of 1-'- the church and enlisted the help, of stringed instrumeiits and (say) "a clarionet? r . .