St. Paul daily globe., 1895-12-15
REALM Of MUSIC.

At the1conference on the subject
of church music held by the Presby-
terian churches of the city at the
House of Hope church on Thurs
day, several excellent papers were
presented. Among them was a val
liable one by D. F. Colville, of this
city, entitled, Suggestions From the
Choir to the Pew" The paper was
as follows:
A writer in the Century Magazine for
December says: Religion and music
are not only alike sacred, but they
touch at so many points that they
can hardly be separated, and in their
higher ranges they melt into one.
There are debased forms of music that
have no suggestion of religion, and
there are debased religions that do not
call for music; but when each is wor-
thy of it's name they pass into each
other as by creative affinity" They are
both born of the emotions and express
only emotion. Music does not express
thought, as words do, but it has the
power to make us think; or perhaps,
more properly stated, to feel, as words
alone cannot.
In the old Greek days, Mousike,
whence our modern term music"
meant the union of all the beautiful
arts of the muses.. We are not sur
prised, therefore, to find that in an
cient Greece, composer and poet were
one, that poetry and music were not
sisters, but were absolutely branches
of the same art. Aeschylus, Euripides,
Sophocles, and even Aristophanes, were
composers, although we generally think
Of them as poets only. 1t is possible
that even oratory, in it's early days,
was closely intertwined with music,
for Cicero is known to have had
slave with a pitch-pipe, behind him
during his great speeches to help him
modulate his voice in certain passages.
1t has been said of the elder Salvini
that the modula tons of his voice were
so beautiful, so musical, that the emo
tions he portrayed were keenly felt and
understood although not a word he
uttered was Ineligible to a large ma
jority of his audiences. Go into ole of
our churches on a Sabbath morning.
The services will consist of prayers,
readings, a sermon and something very
different from these, called the music.
1t is not like the sermon, which is an
appeal to thought; it does not ask any
thing, as do the prayers; it does not
declare anything, as do the lessons
from the Bible; it may use words, but
does not depend upon them; 1t may
suggest, but does not insist on thought.
What does it do then? 1t kindles emo
ton. But what is emotion? The power
that moves action. A passive emotion
is an anomaly. AS our pastor eloquent
ly remarked last Sunday morning, all
the great acts in the worlds history
have been the results of great emo
tions.
Before the Reformation the music
of the services was relegated to the
choir. The Reformation brought it to
the people, and from that time to the
present the people have claimed, and
have had the right to claim, part in
the service. And it will never be
known how much of the success of the
movement was due to this fact. The
historical instances of the power of
music to move great masS are too
numerous to mention; but it was no
idle ceremony CromwelPs soldiers In
dulged in when they sang hymns upon
going to battle Is 1t not shame then
that this inheritance, so dearly bought,
should be voluntarily surrendered by
even a single congregation of Worship
ing people? And yet it is done in
great many instances. The choir is
engaged not to lead, but to furnish
the music. 1t is needless to say that
where this exists dissatisfaction will
inevitably arise.