The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-12-03


"Beggars they are with one CONSENT
And rogues, by act of Parliament F"
This prohibitory statute was always
available IN teTYoTem throughout
the colonies.
In single generation, what little
art or skill the founders had was all
forgotten. OF RaVenscroft few of
the tunes, but not the harmony, re-
NAMED, and these were written,
eight or ten of them, in the psalm
books and Bible, and sung, of course,
in unison. the mere melody, con-
tinually shifting and uncertain, for
at least hundred years. Mere
melody soon runs to vase, and
soaks into the sand of vulgar rote;
it requires the saving power Of
harmony, not poor, mechanical,
mere make-shift harmony, but
harmony inspired by a creative
genius, like Sebastian Bach, deYe-
Hoped with fine instinct out of
the very heart of the melody,
to make the tunes perennial
and evermore unhackneyed. Such
running to waste was fated in the
false conditions of church music
here. The few old tunes that were
sung by rote, as the hymns were
'lined" or 'deaconed' out, inevita-
bly, became mixed, and altered and
perverted. 1t even went so far that
each person sang the lines to what
ever tune came most handy for him
self, sWerYing f1oW the tune set by
the leader into one quite different,
which resulted in the most ludic
rous and maddening jargon. Sc
wall, in his dairy, makes repeated
mention of seven tunes, no more.
These are Windsor, Litchfield, York,
oxford, st. DaYid's, Westminster,
and Low Dutch. These names, al
but one are from Ravenscr0ft, as
probably the tunes were. Once he
says: Il set Windsor tune, and the
people, at the second going owe :,
ran into Oxford, do what / could. "
Again, I'm the morning [ set FORK
tune, and, in the second going over,
the gallery carried it irrisistibly to
! st. Dayid's, which discouraged me
very much" Once, awe sung all
the ordinary tunes. About the be-
ginning Of the eighteenth century
| the lowest depth was reached. Few
congregations could sing more than
four or five tunes, and even these
the Rev. Thomas Walter relates,
.'had bee me so mutilated, tortured,
and twisted, that the psalm,
singing had become 8 mere
| disorderly noise, left TO the mercy
OF every unskillful throat to chOl
and alter, twist and change. accord
ing to their odd fancy, sounding
like 500 different tunes roared out a
the same time, and so little in timt
that they were often one or two
words apart; so hideous as to be baC
beyond expression, and so drawing
that We sometimes had to paus
twice on one word to take breath
and the decline has been so eradua
chat the very confusion and disc0r(
seemed to have become grateful t.
their ears, while melody, sung il
time and tune, was offensive; AM
when it was heard that tunes wer
sung by note, they argued that tn
new way, as it was called, wa
an unknown tongue, not melodiou
as the old. made disturbance Il
churches, was needless, contri
vance of the designing to getmoney
required too much time, and mad
the young disorderly; the old wa.
good enough" Many church mem
bers were suspended for persiStin
in singing by rule. Itrequired mucl
preaching to overcome the prejudice
No wonder that this scandal led [
the rise of a small party of can't
psalmists," who were opposed
any singing, interpreting the divin
} exhortatiOn to s'make melody i
the heart" to mean that we are nc
to make it with the voice .alOuC
These were soon brought Jude
! discipline by the sta1Wart treatmeI
Of the clergy, who ruled all.-DI
cember atlantic.