PREFACE.

In the following attempt to "point" the Canticles and Psalms, I have proposed to myself two very simple ends: first, to avoid every kind of false accent; and, secondly, to obtain an easy and natural flow of words. Unless the first object be kept in view, the meaning of the Psalms themselves must perpetually be obscured; while the second is necessary to satisfy the requirements of good taste and the dictates of musical feeling. It is in the combination of these two principles-the principle of correct accent on the one hand and of good taste on the other-that the perfection of a system of pointing will naturally be found.

Much has been said and written about the exceeding difficulty of the task which I have taken in hand. I venture to think that the difficulties are considerably lessened by a regard to the two principles suggested above. In the great majority of verses, the required emphasis would appear to decide the question of pointing at once. It can seldom be a matter of opinion whereabouts, in any short sentence, an intelligent reader would cause his emphasis to fall; and, wherever a stress is laid in reading, common sense requires that a musical accent should also be given when the words are sung. chanting the Psalms, this accent can be obtained only in one way the emphatic syllable must be placed in the accented part-i.e., the beginning of the Bar; and we shall have as many emphatic positions as the Chant has Bars.

In

*The theory of Syncopation, by which another kind of accent is obtained, belongs to a different order of composition, and does not concern our present inquiry.

It is important to notice this, because many persons are in the habit of speaking as if the laws of musical accent were arbitrary, and might be suspended at pleasure,

Now, the modern form of a Single Chant has been generally understood to consist of five Bars of strictly metrical time, besides two Bars of indefinite length, on which a certain number of words are more or less rapidly recited. And when the difficulty of reciting these words distinctly, without assigning any special emphasis to any of them, was found to engender the common fault of "gabbling," 'gabbling," means were devised, more ingenious than practical, for obtaining an artificial accent on some word at the close of the Recitation. To meet this view, syllables have sometimes been marked with an acute or grave accent, and sometimes printed in capitals, or italics, or black letters ;* the word thus printed being intended to catch the Choristers' eye, and arrest him in his "gabbling ;" and also to denote the commencement of an imaginary Bar," or an imaginary half-Bar, linking the Recitation of the Chant to its strictly metrical part. The system thus enunciated deserves to be treated with respect, because it has found favour with musicians of eminence, and is adopted to this day in many of our Cathedrals; but few persons would be bold enough to say that it has proved successful. In my own very humble judgment, the utter misapprehension which it betrays of the nature of the Reciting Note, and its unphilosophical attempt to obtain a musical accent otherwise than on musical principles, have overlaid a comparatively simple matter with a host of difficulties, and have thereby, in spite of the highest talents and the best intentions, rather discouraged than promoted the chanting of the Psalms themselves.

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The plain truth is that the Single Chant consists not of five metrical Bars, but of seven; the first and the fourth of which are sometimes, but not always, preceded by a few words of recitation. In such verses, for instance, as Psalm cxlviii., 3:

:

| Praise Him, sun and moon | praise Him, | all ye | stars and | light,

the two first words of each phrase form in either case as true a Bar as any of those which follow them; and there can be

*For lo, Thine enemies, O Lord, lo, Thine ENe | mies shall | perish : and all the workers of WICKed | ness shall be destroyed. |

no reason whatever why they should not be marked in the ordinary way. In a long verse, such as Psalm lxviii., 30,

When the company of the spearmen, and multitude of the mighty are scattered abroad among the beasts of the people, so that they

humbly bring pieces of | silver: |

And when He hath | scattered the ❘ people that de | light in | war,

the seven Bars of the melody are just as plainly marked, and the Recitation forms a natural and easy introduction to each phrase.

The Reciting Note, then, is not a part of the Chant itself, but an introduction to it; not an indefinitely prolonged Bar, but a rapid recital of words which are incapable, by their very combination, of being comprised within any Bar which the given phrase puts at our disposal; being subject, not to the laws of musical accent, but to those of punctuation, and the natural rhythm of words. And, if this truth be borne in mind, the transition from one part of the verse to the other becomes a matter of no difficulty whatever. For it is open to any Reader, whether reading on one note or on several, at any moment he pleases, to leave off reading, and begin to sing a metrical tune. It is what every English Priest does continually, when, as in chanting the Litany, he gives a musical inflection at the end of a prayer. But it is not open to any Singer, still less to a Choir of Singers together, to sing the first half of a musical phrase in no time at all, and to divide the other half into Bars. And, if any one attempts to do so, he produces just that hopeless confusion of accents, that awkward unmeaning pause, which has been the destruction of all good chanting since chanting first began. True singing is always metrical;* and the reciting note, not being metrical, is no musical phrase at all, but a bona fide recitation, or reading (to borrow a homely illustration) in a sing-song manner. The seven Bars of melody, on the other hand, are seven true Bars,

* Even in a rallentando, or ad libitum passage, the musical rhythm is strictly preserved; the notes still retain their relative value; and the time is not broken, but only changed.