PREFACE.

THE universal acceptance which Dr. Rippon's Selection of Tunes has met with from the public, is fully evinced by the general circulation it has obtained; and by the many thousand copies which have been sold; this is highly grateful to the Editor, particularly as it was a juvenile performance, a first attempt, and, although years have rolled on, and experience has, in some degree, matured his judgment, yet he can say, that the same reasons which induced him to select the tunes, still remain in force for preserving the body of the work entire as it is. To meet the taste of the public, Supplement has been added to Supplement, until the book has grown almost too large for the pocket, yet the scattered fragments of art and natural genius, sufficient to fill another volume, appear to have been unnoticed; or, if gathered up, have been collected by different persons, and published in various forms, according to the fancy of the com­piler; and always accompanied with a considerable number of the tunes which are in Dr. Rippon's selection; thus, the public, who are in possession of that book, have been compelled, for the sake of a few new tunes, to purchase the old ones over and over again. To obviate this inconvenience, was a principal reason for publishing the present volume,( which is not intended to oppose, but to accompany Dr. Rippon's Book,) and the flattering reception the first Edition of the Com­panion has met with from the public, is a gratifying proof of its utility.

The Editor is indebted to David Smith, Esq. of Staffordshire, for collecting a number of standard and approved tunes, both old and new, and also for the copy- right of Mr. Moreton's Tunes; from the printed and manuscript copies, a selection has been made of such tunes, as appeared best adapted for congregational use; these, the Editor believes will be an acquisition to the work, and prove highly acceptable to the lovers of good and cheerful music; and, also, a few others, with which he has been favoured from particular friends, exclusively, for this volume. Among the collected Tunes, are some which travelled about in manuscript, until scarce a vestige of just composition remained about them, the melodies excepted; those have been harmonized afresh, but the Bass has been retained as much as possible, knowing how difficult it is for young singers to unlearn what they were first taught, however wrong it may be. A few of the melodies are evidently the production of persons whose knowledge of music was very superficial; however pleasant such airs may be in themselves, the dif ficulty, not to say the impracticability, of reducing their harmony to regular order, will appear to every judge of composition. These, and other trivial defects, will, perhaps, offend rigid critics; but the Editor has not so much consulted the discriminating judgment of the critic, as the taste of the Public, who( like Frederick the Great of Prussia) prefer the pleasantness of the music to the perfection of it; yet all may find satisfaction, for while the untutored Melodist enjoys