The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-09-01
Church Music.


should hesitate to demolish the re-
ceived method of providing the music
for public service. The dissolute lives
of the hired singers of Europe, and the
mischievous pranks of the surpliced
urchiDs in English choirs, were GER
tainly out of harmony with the humble
spirit of devotion which, in their opin-
ion, should characterize the exercises
when Christians meet together for the
purpose of prayer and praise. Thus, in
the beginning, all singing with them
was congregational, and the hymns
were adapted to the simplest airs. But,
alas for zeal unaccompanied by knowl-
edge there were sure to be in the as
sembly some two or three to whom
even the strains of "Old Hundred" or
Lancaster would prove a hopeless
stumbling block; yet, such was their en-
thusiasm, that not to 'join in" would
have eappeared to them like the neglect of
sacred duty. The horrible effect of the
resulting Babel of sounds at last sug-
gested the quartette choir, in the vain
hope that something like harmony
might be obtained, and, in some
churches, four of the faithful were Sc
lected to lead the mass of the congrega-
ton through the intricacies of song.
But when the blind lead the blind, the
inevitable consequence, according to
proverbial lore, is ditch. Matters
were but slightly improved. At last
one audacious spirit, whose soul had
been tortured by discord, suggested to
council of deacOnS who presided over
church not far from Plymouth Rock,
that the introduction of a bass-viol
would assist in reducing the musical
portions of the church to order. The
| result was stern reprimand, and the
unfortunate man who had so far fallen
from grace as to suggest the introduce
ton of so vile thing as bass viOl into
church, was long regarded with sus-
picion.
But the seed thus sown was destined
to bear fruit. Two parties arose in the
parish, and the result was that one
Sunday morning the iniquitous instru-
| ment was seen in the choir, towering
above the heads of the singers. AT the
| first twang from the inanimate ennis
sary of Satan, three of the deacons arose
and left the church. The fourth, a
bolder man than the rest, remained.
When asked why he did so, the vener-
able man replied, 81 have worshipped
| in the house of God nigh on to eighty
years, and am not going to be driven
out by big fiddle" What became Of
the indignant elders is not known, but,
according to tradition, the "big fiddle"
remained. This was the first step in
the path of innovations; but the opposi-
ton to skilled music in our churches
still continued, and only step by step
was the battle won by those lovers
of harmony who maintained that song,
| though natural to birds, should only be
attempted by human beings when
specially gifted in that direction. How
stern was the opposition to the ancient
advocates of original custom may be
seen in Will Carleton's ballad of 1.-THE
| New Church Organ" where one of the
singing sisterhoOd expresses her Opin-
ion of the instrument just introduced
within the sacred precincts of the meet
ing-hOuse. The poem expresses the
| feeling of the conservative party in the
great questian so admirably that We
venture to quote two of the sianzas, in
spite of the fact that they are no doubt
already familiar to our readers:
They've got a brand-new organ, Sue,
For all their fuss and search;
They've done just what they said they'd do,
And fetched il into church.
They're bound the critter shall be seen;
And on the preachers right
They've hOisted up the new machine,
In every bOdy's sight;
Agin my voice and vote,
For it was never my desire
To praise the Lord by note.
"pve been a sister good and true
For fve-and-thirty year;
I've done what seemed my part to do,
And sung my duty clear.
But Death will stop my voice, 1 know,
For he is on my track;
And some day l to church will go,
And nevermOre come back.
And when the folks get up to sing,
Whenever that may be,
I don't want any patent thing
A-squealin' over me-"
The use of the organ in church music
dates from the ninth century. Church
music was much improved, but some of
the abuses that crept in a few centuries
later startle the student of sacred his
tory. Not merely were popular mel
Odies of a secular nature often taken up
and worked in among sacred har-
monies, but the words were actually
transplanted into the religious compo-
sLions. Papal bulls having sought in
vain to combat this abuse, it was
brought under the cognizance, first of
the Council of Balse, and then of the
Council of Trent. The latter prohibited
the performance of any mass of which
profane words formed a part, and also
of any music founded upon secular
themes. Thus the same question of
procuring suitable music for divine
worship has been a source of difficulty
in the Church since its earliest days.
| And the problem seems likely to re-
main unsolved; for, if trusted to pro-
fessional hands, church music must of
necessity lose something of its sacred
character; while, If we are to depend
upon the voluntary efforts of those
whose piety rather than their talent
leads them to praise God in song, we
must reconcile ourselves as best we can
to listening to strains in which discord
too frequently is more apparent than
harmony.-Ha1per's Weekly.
Mrs. Merriwether says "men do not
like to admit or think of women as
slaves, hence all their nonsense about
wOman's greater purity, etc., being
jeOpardized by political rights. They
endeavOr to cover up our claims with
| flowers" Our task should be to show
our servile position and make our petit
ton to our masters in such humble
terms as to revolt their sense OF decency
and mock their sense Of justice. We are
in truth nothing but absolute slaves to
men, without one right they are bound
to respect, or that we have power to en-
force.
More than 10000 documents were
printed and circulated by the National
Woman Suffrage Committee, while at