made with the praiseworthy design of bringing the tune more entirely within the physical powers of the choir; but this is short-sighted policy; for while the physical difficulties are thus diminished one third, the inward inspiration is diminished two thirds, and the case is worse than before. We have in the above cases applied a principle, before stating what that principle is. We remark, then, that the expression of triple time differs from that of even time in this, that to the dynamic accent or emphasis of the latter there is added the emphasis of time. Triple time is therefore, rhetorically considered, the reinforced or stronger form of expression. It follows from this, that it is the appropriate form in the utterance of thoughts which, if read or recited, would demand the rhetorical emphasis of time; and is inappropriate in cases where such emphasis is not admissible. Hence it is suited to express entreaty, but not warning; for, in the reading of poetry, expressions of entreaty would naturally take the emphasis of time; while the utterance of warning would be in repressed and

even tones.

We have given these very brief and general illustrations rather to excite an interest in this branch of our subject, than with any thought of their adequacy or completeness. They may serve to suggest the important truth, that, so far as our present inquiries are concerned, church music is only a more impressive mode of uttering the language of sacred poetry. Every element, then, in a tune, and every particular in its performance in this choral recitation, is legitimate matter for criticism, as much as the tones of a reader's voice. And the final appeal in this criticism is not to books and rules, but to the soul; for rules and books are worthless except as they teach us better to understand what the soul felt before books were written, and what it feels without their aid.

We will close our remarks on this branch of our subject, by noticing some changes that have recently been made in a few of our church tunes. The first instance we will speak of, is in a tune where the old movement of time was so firmly intrenched by long usage, that a slight change in two measures has served almost to unfit the tune for present popular use.

In no instance that we know of has a change in the time of a tune occasioned such universal and mark. ed offense, for it is a tune which every body sings, and its rhythm constitutes a very prominent feature in its general effect. Yet the change that has been made is strictly defen sible, and was imperatively called for. We would advocate it, even should it seem to throw the tune out of use for a whole generation. Let it lie in silence, if it needs must, till the remembrance of its old rhythms shall have quite died out, and then it can be taken up and sung as it should be, and without offense. We refer to the tune Windham; and the change is in the last line, where the immediate succession of four quarter notes is changed, and a rhythm substituted to correspond with the preceding lines. The whole time of the tune has indeed been changed from common to triple time, but no important change is felt except at the point we have named. The change is justified by the fact that the former rhythm indicated a falling off in the emotion, similar in effect to the hurried reading of the closing line in a solemn stanza in poetry. The increased power of the tune is at once perceptible to one who can listen to it free from the bondage of association and with an ear open to its true expression.

A similar change of time has been made, with entirely different effect, in two other tunes, Sterling and Olmutz. Here the feeling does not demand a full and prolonged utterance, and hence the check given to

the flow of the rhythm is at war with its leading aim.

A much greater injury has been done by the change of time made in the tune Marlow. This chant, one of the most powerful in our collections of tunes, in its former rhythm of even time, has, by the change in its time, been deprived of all that is distinctive and grand in its character; and, from being a most exciting and elevating strain, has become a merely commonplace medium for the singing of indifferent hymns. With what ideas of musical effect, any editor should have been willing to exchange the irrepressible power of the last line, in its old form, for the tame and flat conclusion we now hear, we can not surmise.

It may be said that the new arrangement has at least the advantage of avoiding some harsh discords that injured the tune in its former state. We think it may be shown that a change in the harmony was entirely uncalled for in the former arrangement. Strong as the discords were, and they were the strongest, such was the power of the tune that they were borne along and reduced into perfect unison with its leading idea. No better proof of this need be given than the fact that the pow er and spirit of a choir uniformly rises while performing this tune in its old and majestic style.

The extent to which the preceding remarks have been carried will induce us to limit what we have to say on the subject of psalm-books to a single particular; and that most closely connected with music.

and hymns is one of great delicacy and responsibility. Here is no field for the display of individual fancies and caprices of taste. It is a transaction with the common heart of a whole people; and he who has not a quick and sure sympathy with its pulsations should not volunteer in such a work. It is by no means certain that the exclusive pursuit of sacred music as a profession, with all its seeming advantages, may not tend in some important respects to disqualify a person for such a work. The singer or musician has necessarily much to think of besides the moral effect of the music or the hymn. He can not well forget his professional place, and may, with the best intentions, acquire habits and fancies, which his kind friends (a man's worst enemies in such a case) will encourage him to regard as graces and signs of genius; and thus the favorite feats at the organ, or with the voice, the startling tricks of soft and loud, come to be looked on by the fond performer as illustra tions of high laws of taste. Alas! for the victims of such practice. They come and sit together in the holy place, and wait in stillness that they may be rapt in sweet and awful song; and what do they hear? The organ, the choir, the chief singer. They think of the singing school, of the organist or fiddler, and wonder how he performs such feats. It might not be quite in keeping to describe such ambitious performers by the pastoral phrase ready made

to our use

"Who their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw,"

But certain it is

"The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed."

44

another the effect which music has on those who listen. His mind is necessarily in the active and not in the passive attitude. We should therefore expect to find the best knowledge of musical effect in one, who, while he was not ignorant of music, should not be occupied in its performance.

We cheerfully acknowledge whatever special advantages there are on the side of the professed musician, and accept gladly all the aid offer ed to the cause of church psalmody from whatever quarter it may come. In inquiring into the wants of the New England Congregational churches in reference to the present subject, our attention is naturally directed to the two books of psalms and hymns which alone, since the exclusive use of Watts in the original form and of Watts as edited by Dwight, have been extensively adopted among us-the Christian Psalmody, edited by the venerated Dr. Worcester; and the Church Psalmody, more recently introdu ced. Of the former it may be enough to say, that it was a great advance on what had been before, while its defects were sufficient to encourage farther attempts in the same line.

That some of these defects should be remedied in the more recent work, is no more than might have been with confidence expected from the talents and the opportunities of its editors. The work is marked by a strict attention to lyrical structure, and the careful rejection of faulty expressions. There is also a large addition to the number of hymns before in use. But we are constrained to add that if this book presents us with the best collection of sacred hymns which our language can afford, we must feel that as yet we are not rich in sacred poetry.

Our particular object however is to speak of the system of notation adopted in this work, as the guide

We are

in musical expression. aware of the claims to a candid and indulgent criticism which any attempt of this kind presents. It is not to be expected that such a work should be perfect. It is a work of taste, in a department of acknow ledged difficulty, where the canons of criticism have yet to be written.

The most that should be demanded by the public, in such a case, is that too much should not be attempted; that what is done be based on broad and unquestionable principles; and that the execution of the work exhibit, throughout, the assiduous application of musical and poetic culture. If these conditions are fulfilled, the occasional occurrence of a faulty direction will not constitute a valid objection to the work. The strictures we have to make however do not relate to faults of this minor or accidental character; but to faults where the principle of notation is utterly indefensible, and the errors so marked as to defeat, where they occur, the aim both of the poetry and of the music.

That we may have distinctly in view the general principles by which we must test the instances we shall adduce, we remark that so far as the physical conditions of singing will admit, the rules for musical expression must be the same as the rules for expression in rhetorical reading. They are both limited to the same sphere. If tones in reading-observe we do not say words, for they have by arbitrary association an independent meaning-if tones in reading can not describe external objects, nor even suggest any thing in space, but only what is internal, so it is with tones in singing. The descriptive powers of music are limited strictly to what falls in time, and can never pass into space. True, it is said Haydn has described the ob jects of nature in the Creation. But how has he done this? Masses of powerful disconnected sound do not

suggest an elephant or leviathan; but they may, by natural association, be suggestive of huge ungainly motion, and if, meanwhile, the accompanying words tell of the elephant or leviathan, these suggested motions may be attributed to the creatures named, and thus the description be made more picturesque by the aid of music. And this is the only mode except in the direct imitation of sound, in which music can be suggestive of objects in external nature.

We remark, further, as a rule for both musical and rhetorical expression, that when an idea is brought into bold relief by means of contrast, the voice should harmonize with the leading idea, and not become pantomimic of the secondary idea, which is only introduced as a foil to set off the principal thought. Thus, if the language expresses joy on deliverance from peril, the tone of voice har monizes with the present triumph, and not with the past danger. If the words deplore the fall from a former happy state, the tones harmonize with the present wretchedness, not with the past joy.

The contrasted ideas may indeed be so expanded as to demand that the voice take the tone of each successively. But we are now treating of those brief expressions where there is no description, but only the utterance of feeling through the aid of contrasted ideas. As in the following instances. We quote from Church Psalmody, affixing the marks of notation as they stand in the book.

or actions of one passing through it. But the feelings of the person here passing through it are triumphant, and not sad. The moment the voice falls into the soft expression in this line, the tone belies the whole sentiment of the couplet. Instead of treading the gloomy vale fearlessly, it falters at the very mention of it. We have read of one Faithful who actually went through the gloomy vale, uttering somewhat loudly these same cheering words as he went, so that his fellow pilgrim in the darkness behind him was encouraged on his way. were taught to suppose that this Faithful acted here in a natural way for a brave man ; but it seems that his manner was in bad taste. It must be urged in apology for him that he was a somewhat antiquated personage, and probably his old hymn-book had not the marks of expression in it.

We

But, to treat this notation with a seriousness it does not deserve, we will put it to the test of reading. No good reader would read the couplet as it is here marked, and this is decisive of the question. Is it asked, what shall express the character of the vale, if the soft expression of voice is not to do it? We answer the adjective gloomy; and for the force of this the inquirer must go to the dictionary.

We have dwelt the longer on this example, because its notation is characteristic of a numerous class of cases in the book. Witness the following:

Then let our humble faith address
His mercy and his power;
mf. We shall obtain delivering grace
In each distressing hour.

Thus, in the very language of hope and triumph, the mere mention of the evil triumphed over, makes the heart faint and the tongue falter. Can there be a more utter incongruity in any thing pertaining

to art?

In that noble breathing for the

take to supply marks of expression for the use of singers, to study the fact that the dictionary is designed to teach the meaning of words; and the varied tones of voice, to express the emotions which the words awaken.

We are by no means unmindful of the many merits of the work we have here noticed; but its faults can not be lightly spoken of. We think the labor of furnishing to our churches such a hymn-book as the times demand, waits for other hands.

He who shall embody and bring before the public the best treasures our language contains in sacred poetry, at once simple and glowing, chaste in form and instinct with the fire of holy feeling, will do an important work for the souls of the people-a work too, which, whatever be its pretensions in regard to directing the singer's performance, will have a most happy influence on the general taste, and on the progress of sacred music.

UNTIL a very recent period, the soil of New England has rarely been wet with unhallowed blood; an atrocious murder furnished a tale of horror for half a century. The inhabitants of our busy cities as well as of our quiet villages slept in unbolted houses, nor were their slumbers disturbed by dreams of robbers or assassins. A capital trial attracted the attention of the whole community; and a public execution collected together the only mass meet ings then known. Now, scarcely a term of court passes without the impanneling of a grand jury in a case of life and death. The youngest judge on the bench in Connecticut has already tried three cases of murder. That feeling of security which constituted one great charm

duced this melancholy change? We answer, the causes, direct and remote, are various and of a complicated character.

Among them may be mentioned the constantly diminishing value that is set upon human life. Formerly the death of any individual was regarded as a loss. Any human be ing, in the arithmetic of social life, was estimated at something more than a cypher. But as population increases, individuality is lost. It is scarcely in the power of the warmest benevolence to shed a tear at the death of one of the myriads