The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1882-10-28


Attendants of the great city churches,
with their organs and their salaried
choirs, have little idea of the great i'm
provement that has taken place in the
;;jyss...s .:s.s &C church music within the last
49,, -: :, ....:Isy. r. ec....:..2 :..-- 8 =
degree be realized by a visit to some
rural church where the school OF cyan
kee church music" which was established
in 1905, still exists in its original simpli-
city. This school was the result of the
second controversy that occurred IN the
history of church music in this countrD
The first ragged about 1870. When the
Pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth they
brought with them Ainsworth's version
OF the Psalms, which was not relinquished
finally till 1902. Indeed, when new
collection or version, called the bay
Psalm Book" was made, it met with de-
termined opposition from the sturdy
Puritans, who wanted to have
all things just as they always
had been. But whatever Psalms they
sung, they sung them, the historian tells
us, with decorum, if not ability; and their
laudable intentions were manifested by
their cultivation of music at Harvard
college. But this excellence soon de-
clined. Many books were lost and none
others could be obtained; and music was
neglected. until at last three or four tunes
constituted the repertoire of most con-
gregations, and these were so corrupted
that no two persons sung them alike.
Every melody was tortured and twisted
as every unskillful throat saw tit, until
their psalms were uttered in medley
of confused and disorderly noises rather
than in decOrous song. One patient
divine ofthat period SAYS of their singing
that it sounded "like 500 different tunes
roared out at the same time;" and so lit
tie attention was paid to time that they
were often one or two words apart, pro-
ducing noises $50 hideous and disorder
ly as is bad beyond expression" The
manner of singing had also become so
tedious and drawing that the same au-
thor saws" 81 myself have twice in one
beat paused to take breath" To remedy
this state of things it was proposed about
the year 1923, by some daring limo.
vations, that the people should
learn to sing by note. Then fol-
lowed the conflict before men
toned. Surely singing by note, said the
fathers, can be nothing else than de-
vice of the devil. ''Truly," says writer
in the New England Chronicle, in 1873,
truly have great jealousy that II we
once begin to sing by note the next
thing will be to pray by rule, preach by
rule, and then comes popery. When a
man learned to read notes so as to sing
l.. l.. IoI ,,f
the superstitious people considered him
a sorcerer. The controversy ragged furi
o,lsly, and gave rise to curious arguments
and leases of conscience. The virtuous
contemners of notes objected to the read
ings of music:
l. That it was q new way-an I'M
known tongue.
9. That it was not so melodious as the
usual way.
g. That there were so many tunes one
could never learn them.
l. That the new way made disturb
ance in churches, grieved good men, ex-
asperated them and caused them to be-
have disorderly.
5. That it was PopiSh.
&. That it would introduce instru
ments.
I. That the names of the notes were
blasphemous.
s. That it was needless, the old way
being good enough.
9. That it was only continuance to
get money.
10. That it required too much time to
learn it, made the young disorderly and
kept them from the proper influence OF
the family. etc.
With great sole1nnity it was discussed
whether it was proper for one to sing,
and all the rest to join only in spirit
and saying amen, or for the whole con-
gregation to sing. Whether women as
we'll as men, or men alone, should sing.
Whether pagans (the unconverted) be
permitted to sing with us, or church
members alone. Also, whether it be
lawful to sing psalms in metre devised
by man, or whether it be lawful to
read the psalm to be sung, and wheth-
or proper to learn new tunes which
were uninspired; 'for it appears that
they had so long been accustomed to hear
and sing the same tunes that they uad
imbibed the idea that the tunes were
inspired and that mans melody was on
" a vain show of art.
So great was the excitement, and 50
bitter the luminosity of the controversy,
that many clergymen wrote treatises to
set things right, and DR.. Cotton Mather
circulated a letter pouring oil on the
troubled waters, but decidedly favoring
the reformation. It is needless to say
that the reformers were finally success
full. Notes came into use, and the fathers
were not carried up the chimney on
broomsticKs in consequence.
About half q century after the contro-
versy concerning singing by note Ameri-
rap music first made its appearance i'll
IN person of VIM. Billings. He intro
uuced and composed the peculiar fugue
iingles which characterize Yankee
church music. Billings was Boston
boy, born in 1747. He was tanner By
trade. and is said to have written hs
first tunes with chalk on the walls of the
tannery. All that can be said in favor
of his peculiar music is that it was Il
right lusty way of singing praise. He
used to roar his own tones with such
strenuous power that Dir. Pierce of
Brooklyn, who had a loud organ of his
own, used to say that when he sang by
Billings side he could not hear his own
voice. At length more refined taste
began to revive, and the "Old Hundred"
singers, as they were called, began to
manifest themselves. These were per-
sons who advocated returning to the old
| tu1ltS OlllcIS iAAO AiiOAA WI
lowed the second controversy, before
mentioned, about the year 1906, which
was waged stoutly between the cold
Hundred" myers and the adherents of
the Billings school. Finally, though
not without excitement and
struggle, the Yankee music came to the
ground. sin some places, at the COM
mencement of the change of music, sing
ers in towns and churches were SO equal
ly divided that the struggle was long and
tedious to decide which should carry on
the singing in the church where neither
party, in fact, where strong enough to
sustainit acceptably; Sc they had to COM
promise, aud in some instances sing al
ternately their favorite tunes on the Sab
bath. But the effect of this was sad.
each would sing from his own book with
energy, while the opposers would sing
with indifference and destroy the effect.
This state of things could not prevail
long, for house divided against itself
cannot stand" What the chronicler has
coid IF ch,roh n,,Sic in thocn DAVIS ia