Music in the History of the Western Church
MUSIC IN THE HISTORY
OF THE WESTERN CHURCH
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
ON RELIGIOUS MUSIC AMONG PRIMITIVE AND
ANCIENT PEOPLES
BY
EDWARD DICKINSON
Professor of the History of Music, in the Conservatory of Music,Oberlin College
HASKELL HOUSE PUBLISHERS Ltd.
Publishers of Scarce Scholarly Books
NEW YORK. N.Y. 20012
1969
[vi]
First Published 1902
HASKELL HOUSE PUBLISHERS Ltd.
Publishers of Scarce Scholarly Books
280 LAFAYETTE STREET
NEW YORK. N.Y. 10012
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 68-25286
Standard Book Number 8383-0301-3
Printed in the United States of America
[vii]
PREFACE
The practical administration of music in public worshipis one of the most interesting of the secondaryproblems with which the Christian Church has beencalled upon to deal. Song has proved such a universalnecessity in worship that it may almost be said, nomusic no Church. The endless diversity of musicalforms and styles involves the perennial question, Howshall music contribute most effectually to the endswhich church worship has in view without renouncingthose attributes upon which its freedom as fine artdepends?
The present volume is an attempt to show how thisproblem has been treated by different confessions and indifferent nations and times; how music, in issuing fromthe bosom of the Church, has been moulded under theinfluence of varying ideals of devotion, liturgic usages,national temperaments, and types and methods of expressioncurrent in secular art. It is the author’s chiefpurpose and hope to arouse in the minds of ministersand non-professional lovers of music, as well as of churchmusicians, an interest in this branch of art such as theycannot feel so long as its history is unknown to them.[viii]A knowledge of history always tends to promote humilityand reverence, and to check the spread of capriciousperversions of judgment. Even a feeble sense of thegrandeur and beauty of the forms which ecclesiasticalmusic has taken, and the vital relation which it hasalways held in organized worship, will serve to convincea devoted servant of the Church that its properadministration is as much a matter of concern to-dayas it ever has been in the past.
A few of the chapters in this work have appeared insomewhat modified form in the American Catholic QuarterlyReview, the Bibliotheca Sacra, and Music. Theauthor acknowledges the permission given by the editorsof these magazines to use this material in its presentform.