CONGREGATIONAL PSALMODY.-A VISIT TO THE CHURCHES.

Evening Star, Issue 3191, 13 May 1873, Page 3

CONGREGATIONAL PSALMODY.-A VISIT TO THE CHURCHES.

No. 4.—A Presbyterian Church. To the Editor.

Sir, —The singers, led by a precentor and choir, consisted of a few ladies (trebles), with good voices, who sang well. The alto part was scarcely heard (we ought to train our boys to sing alto; the harmony is not complete without it). The tenors are numerous ; some of them have bass voices, and would improve the singing by taking the part best suited to their voices. The basses are good, and ring vigorously. The tunes were pitched rather high, but, notwithstanding, the pitch was kept up very well. Precentors should be aware thdt a good many of the tuning forks in use are a shade too high. The first tune was “Jackson’s,” well adapted to the psalm to which if. was sung Ihe time was good, and shewed that the choir gave attention to this subject; they avoided the drawling so common in Presbyterian Churches. Si-me of the basses, in the third line, sang the seventh, instead of the flat seventh, as it is printed. The second was the 24th Psalm, 3rd verse, and was sung to “ Langdon’s Chant,” well suited to the words. In singing the words so the inciting tone, there was no attention paid to the punctuation. Singers who practise chanting should know that the wo ds sung to the reciting tone, should be sung as a good reader would read them, in the third verse, “Cease ye, when days nf darkness come,” etc. They made a pause after “days,” and then went on with the cadence ; and in the fourth verse, third line, they -ang, “And can its plain-(pau«e)-tive cries bo heard,” thus spoiling the sense of the word”. Those faults are very common in churches where they chant metrical psalms and hymns. We should like to see the chanting of the prose Psalms and other portions of Scripture becoming more general. The last was the sSth Paraphrase, sung to the tune “ Tranquillity.” This tune may suit the first verse, “ Where high the heavenly temple stauds,” &q., hut is nut in sympathy with the remainder of the Paraphrase A tune without turns, twists, and repeats would be more in keeping with the words—

Our fellow-sufferer yet retains A fellow-feeling of our pains ; And still remembers in the skies His tears, his agonies, apd erles. They, however, expressed the sentiment as well as piano, mezzo, and forte could. The singing throughout the church was hearty. We could see a great many tune books throughout the church, but some of the books were by different compilers. This is a great mistake, as the several books give Efferent harmonies, which, when sung together, make discord. Certainly this is the best congregational singing we have heard for some time, showing that the people of this congregation have the interests of psalmody at heart.—l am, &c., A Lover of Psalmody. Dunedin, May 8.