LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 6, Issue 320, 4 December 1862, Page 3

LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

Wanganui, December 1,1862. Sir, —In the old country, where every interest and every institution is represented in the Press, and where there is an appropriate organ for each, it would be out of place to write to a local weekly newspaper respecting the conduct of Church Worship and Church Worshippers. But as there exists no other channel, I ask you - to publish the following questions and remarks. It is quite possible they may offend some one —perhaps more than one; but I do not write them in order to give offence, and it is universally admitted that the plain truth can seldom -. be spokeniwithout disturbing the conscience of Borne among the hearers. First, then—Why does Church Worship In Wanganui begin in the afternoon with three verses of the'Morning Hymn ? _ Why do we exhort ourselves to “ shake on dull sloth and early rise.” when every soul among us has been up two or three hours at least? Why do we commence the service by singing at all, seeing that the directions of the Church are, “t At the beginning of Morning Prayer, the Minister Bhall read with a loud voice some one or more of these sentences of the Scriptures that follow. And then he shall say thatwhich is written after the said sentences ” ? Why (if we must sing the Morning Hymn in the afternoon), do we hot sing it to a Church tune, not to such a one as “ Portuguese,” which is only suitable to the words expressly composed for it,— namely, “ Adesse fideles ” (“ Be 1 present, ye faithful,”or “Ye faithful, approach ye.”) The Repeat in the last line of this tune makes nonsense of.half the .metrical Psalms it is aungto. - , , Why do we gabble (no other word expresses my meaning except perhaps “jabber”) the noble words of the Canticles, in order to make them fit the organist’s recitation note ? The principal and vast superiority of Chants over Metrical tunes is, that the words may be taken with full expression and emphasis according to their sense, the music being entirely elastic. With the Metrical tune you must cut up your words into verses and lines, and sing them m , strict time, while in the Chant time does not exist—in its musical meaning—the bars which .appear in some hooks of Chant music being modern corruptions. With the Chant the music should be timed according to the number' of syllables ; not any number of syllables crammed into a minim of music. Is it likely we can sing—“ It is He that hath made , us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of - his pasture” (24 syllables, two commas, and a semicolon), in the same space of time that it takes'us to sing,—“and to the Holy Ghost” ? Yet this and similar impossibilities axe attempted in every Canticle sung here. , Why is the Choir (?) totally unprovided with mu3 ie and point books ? On paying a visit to the cockloft where the supposititious choir, are penned, I found half a dozen children who sang or not according to whether they knew the tunes, and two gentlemen who did the best they could where they had to improvise every note. There might have been a king in the cockloft, but I am certain there were no laws, for every one Bang that which was right in his own ears, and very little that was right in mine. And bow can it be expected if (as 1 am told) they never meet for practice ? , _ . Why do we all sit still after the Epistle, till the announcement of the Gospel has been made, and then jump up in a great hurry, so as utterly to drown the Gloria ? The congregation should rise at the end of the words “Here endeth the Epistle.” . ~ _. ~ , Why do we not stand during tpe Epistle and he Offertory ? We get a good long rest always during the Sermon, and very wisely the Litany is transferred to the Evening Service. I will not take up more of your space this week, but, if you will. permit me, will resume the subject next week. I am, sir, your obdt. servant, Georgb Fred. Allen.