| Citation |
NHG-P.764.006
20 Jan 1764:31,32 (381)
Messi'rs Drapers, As you have lately inserted a piece to
satisfy some of your good old customers, relating to church
musick, which contains several mistakes, not to say
falsehoods, please to give the following a place, and you
will likewise satisfying some of your good old customers.
Music! Thou charmer of all human race,
Thy heav'nly lays embellish ev'ry grace,
The soul from pensive tho'ts by music freed
Receives new vigour, and flies on with speed
Tow'rds lasting bliss where heavenly arts do lead.
The exquisite J. B. begins his notable piece in this polite
strain, "There are a set of geniuses, who stick themselves
up in a gallery, and seem to think they have a privilege of
engrossing all the singing to themselves, by singing such
tunes as it is impossible for the congregations to join in."
However zealous this foreign gentleman may be in his
African ("bawling") way or worship, it is of little
importance to the people of this land, who endeavour to sing
the praises of the most High, with decency and order. I
have attended the public worship in many churches on this
continent, and never had the unhappiness of hearing any tune
sung or ("bawl'd") which resembled "Ally Croaker" in the
least degree. On the contrary they were tunes composed
according to the good old rules which the congregations in
general might join in as well as in any other. Indeed I
must confess it was with difficulty I held my breath so long
as they were singing some of their notes in some places.
The sagacious mind of J. B. seems grieved at the manner of
those geniuses in singing (or "bawling") their "jiggish
tunes" as he is pleas'd to term them: One would think he
distinguished an essential difference between them and good
old "plain simple" ones. But as it appears he has no taste
for music, not discerning between psalm tunes, jiggs or
"Ally Croaker" this observation may be dismiss'd without
further notice.
His resentment is shewn in the fable of the "clergyman"
who desired to hear the Old Hundred psalm tune sung, but was
not granted the favour, by reason (as he says) the gentlemen
had a new one "consisting of four or five parts with many
fuges." What the author here mentions (being invalid) might
be suppos'd the product of his own musical genius, did not
his name B and his factious disposition, denote him an ally
to one Belial, a hater of psalmody, who has little to do
with church music.
By Mr. B's judgment of the geniuses in their devotion he
may be esteemed a superstitious bigot, the searching and
judging the heart being an omniscient prerogative.----It is
allowed by all who have the knowledge of the theory of
music, that the genuine old method of singing and
composition is the only true one, which many fond of their
own way, through ignorance, pervert.
Upon the whole, those tunes are humbly recommended for
divine service, which are of the most grave and solid
composition, and bear the nearest resemblance (not of Ally
Croaker, but) of the sublime song, of the harmonious choir
in the celestial realms of eternal glory. For
Music! is in the breath of second birth,
The saint's employment, and the angel's mirth,
The rhetoric of seraphims, a gem
In the King's crown of New Jerusalem:
Then think that do despise such sacred mirth,
Are neither fit for heav'n nor for earth.
[signed] J. W.
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