Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1888-11-10
GERMAN oHuRcH MUSIC.
An English Critic Discusses the Singing Of
Chorales By the Congregation.

An English Critic Discusses the Singing oi
Chorales By the Congregation.
The principal church at Stuttgart is
the Stiftskirche. It possesses a fine
organ Of some seventy stops, by Walcker
of Ludwigsburg, with four manual and
two separate pedal organs-a loud and
a soft one. There are two pedal-boarda
which can be coupled together. The
second pedal-board lies a. little above
the other, and further from the player.
There is thirty-two feet Bourbon on
the great, but 1t stops at the tenor c
key; the remaining twelve notes are
produced acoustically. Another feature
of this organ is its division into two
parts, to allow window to be seen.
The organist sits at kind of desk,
away from the organ, This noble in
strument stands in a gallery at the end
Of the church. It Is worthy OF remark
that continental organs are always
placed in galleries. can not remem.
Der ever seeing one on the floor OF
packed into that terrible place, an or.
gan-chamber Strange, and passing
strange, that in our own country il
should have become the fashion, had
almost said the rage-with ''restorersr
OF churches and organs to abolish the
west-end gallery and ''bring the organ
down." The ecclesiastical and other
reasons given for this Improve
ment" appear to me to be very poor
reasons, and they ought not to
have been made too much OF in a ques-
tion so seriously affecting church music
The music of the Lutheran churches is
truly solemn and devotional. The first
music | heard at the Stiftskirche was
the well-known tune called "Hanover,"
which was sung, unaccompanied by the
choir alone. But grander yet was the
unisonous singing Of the chorales by the
congregation. 1t was truly sublime to
hear these grand tunes sting slowly by
a congregation Of many hundreds to the
accompaniment Of a magnificent organ
with a thirty-two-feet pedal, and the
effect was enhanced by four trombones
in the organ gallery, which occasionally
added their lofty voices to the grand
mass of sound. The trombones played
the four-voice parts. l have since heard
the service of high mass in Italy, with
all the ecldt which the choicest music,
the richest dresses, the most imposing
ceremonies, could confer on it; yet it
fell short in effect OF the simplicity OF
the Lutheran worship. The Lutheran
service is very simple. 1t con-
sists chiefly in prayers, reading OF
the scriptures, the sermon, and the sing
ing of chorales. A noble organ volun-
tary closes the service; no frivolous,
indecorous strains ever emanate from
the organ. The preachers are men OF
noble and intellectual countenance, and
they wear the ruff. We should con-
slider their sermons rather long Ger
man, as spoken by them, is not by any
means harsh combination of gutter
ais, but q magnificent, high-sounding
language. The chorale is not sung
through as we sing hymns in England,
but its course is often interrupted by
the prayers, the reading, and the SER
mon; after which it is resumed. Burney
does not seem to have known of these
breaks in the chorale singing. He tells
us that he attended the service at the
Cathedral of Bremen, but, growing
tired of the monotonous chorale, he left
the building during the singing and
went to walk in the town. When he re-
turned to the Cathedral he found the
people singing the same tune. He then
left the church a second time, and went
to make his arrangements for leaving
Bremen, after which his curiosity
prompted him to pay another visit to
the Cathedral, when he "sti1 found
them vocally and crganically perform.
ing the same ditty, whose duration
seems to have exceeded that of the
Scots psalm in the time of Charles l."
London MttsicGL World.