iv

PREFACE.

The music, it will be seen, both in the Prose Psalter and in the Hymn- Book, appears invariably in company with the words, agreeably to the universal usage in our own country in the period succeeding the Re­formation, and in modern Germany. The advantages of this arrangement are obvious and manifold. The Clergy are spared the weekly trouble of selecting the tunes: the choice of music inappropriate to the words is avoided: a due variety of chants and tunes is secur­ed: the people know the music they will have to sing, and by practising it at home can become thoroughly familiarized with it; and above all, the melody be­comes associated and intertwined in the people's minds with the Psalm or Hymn. The benefit of this last result is incalculable. No sooner is the Hymn given out than the tune starts at the same moment to the The tune suggests the memory, and conversely. Hymn; the Hymn calls to memory the tune. If it be urged, the poor can make no use of the music,-it may be replied, this objection is fast receding before the widely extended range of educational appliances. The elements of music now form an integral portion of instruction in our national schools, and not a few indulge the sanguine hope that a few years will see the poor of this country as able to take the same in­telligent part in the common tune" as the poor of Germany. To say the least, the non- musical section of a congregation, if not gainers, yet assuredly will not be losers by the arrangement. They will still have the words, as they had before; whilst, on the other hand, that section which have some knowledge of music will have their position improved; they will have the music as well as the words. The whole of the music is printed in what is commonly called short or compressed score, a mode of arrangement universal in Germany, and rapidly becoming so in England. Short score means the harmony of the four parts or

*" Este's collection, at the period of its publication( 1592), was found in every Church pew, and was in general use; for the power of reading from notes was then not rare, but a general ac­quirement."- Preface to a Collection of Psalm Tunes.