San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-06-24
Church Music.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.

from Jne brooklyn Eagle.
Feeling and sentiment aside, and
considering the matter solely from it's
artistic view point, the music used at
a church service ought to be sacred
music. Advanced ground was taken
on Monday night at the Plymouth
league meeting anent this matter, for
it was held that it should supplement
a preachers work and not be mere
ly a sacred concert. The term
"sacred coucert"' is, unhappily,
stretched to cover anything that aims
to amuse the public. Two large re-
sorts in this city and numerous
"dives" in New York have sacred
concerts" every Sunday night, where
the odor of sanctity that pertains to
the carols of soubrettes and song and
dance men is half effaced by the odOr
of beer from the bars adjacent. The
sacredness of the affair consists en-
tirely in its occurrence on Sunday
night, for on Monday the same enter
tainment is called q variety show. In
the churches there has been ten.
dency to make the religious service
"show" In the sense that it az
fords a medium for the dis
play of talent on the part of
singers and organists They sometimes
exceed the limit of time in their
part of the service, desirable and at
tractive as that part is, and they
more frequently jar on the sensibil-
tiles of the congregation--they, per-
haps, regard it as an audience-by
the introduction of music of a doubt
fully religious character, whatever
the words may be. There Is good
music enough for church singing
without resort, on the one hand, to
the nasal, sleepy old tunes of the New
England psalm books, or to the flashy
works of young composers on the
other.
Were it not for the difficulty of
persuading the Protestant churches
to adopt anything that savors of the
methods of Catholicism it could he
shown that there are many beautiful
and appropriate things that might
be adopted or adapted from the
writings of Haydn, Mozart, Reetho-
ven, and other composers of note, and
as q matter of fact some of the most
refined and some of the most impress
sive of church pieces have been taken
bodily from secular compositions.
Mendelssohn's songs no less than his
oratorios have been drawn on
for this purpose; the opening
number In the opera of Will
lam Tell is sung as a hymn all over
the land, and not one person in ten
knows 1t to be secular in origin, SO
admirably does it lend itself to
religious uses; "Der Freischuets" has
I'm nm 10 OF Laos
The Ave Maria of Gounod and of
Verdi fit any religious subject, and
the wonder is that the pill grims
chant from "Tsnnhauser. 1.-THE grand.
est of all chOrals, and of religious
meaning in itself. has not been
adopted into the service of all creeds.
The fact that piece occurs in an
opera does not invalidate its use in
church. The fact that an "Amen"
chorus is written like the finale of a
comic opera should bar 1t from accept
ance in all churches.
To adopt the Wagnerian precept,
music should fit the sense. AS there
is nothing frivolous in the idea of re-
ligion there should be nothing frivol-
GUS in religious music. There is,
however, much that is serene ard
joyous in the promises of religion, and
music as properly reflects these attri-
butes as those of solemnity and awe.
Handel's oratorios exhibit these
phases in perfection, and there was
never a sermon preached that had In
more of the joy and grandeur Of
Christian teaching than the mighty
"HaJlelujah" from the "Messiah;" for
no sermon could so affect q man like
George III. as to bring him to his fe,
and to tears, as it is reported of him
when he heard this chorus thunderir z
down the arches of Westminster.
Music like this conforms with the re-
ligion of the time. The hardness and
gloom are departing FROM it, and such
music is needed for it's true express
sion. AS DR.. Abbot said on Monday
night: 1.-THE hymns Of fifty years ago
do not express the emotions of the re-
ligious people of today" But whatev-
or the music be, it should take it's
place as a component part and not I'll 9
whole of the forms of worship.