selection of tunes, they deserve no less for their labour in procuring, and their taste in deciding between different copies of the same tune, where different editions are found to vary. Many of the old airs now in general use in our churches, it is well known by those acquainted with the history of church music, were written without accompaniments,* and owe their harmony to subsequent authors: and all have undergone such alterations in the hands of different editors, learned and unlearned, during the lapse of two or three centuries, that the exact form of the original harmony is now lost. Hence, if we except the air which has seldom been touched, there is in reality, at the present time, no standard by which the correctness of a given copy of these ancient tunes can be brought to the test. The reader will see many of these tunes in the present compilation, under a form somewhat different from that to which he has been accustomed; but before he censures the course adopted by the editors, he ought to be apprised of the state of facts. We will allow them to make their own statement:

"On perusing the following pages, it will be observed that some of the old tunes are differently harmonized from the copies selected from Williams and Tansur, and other authors of less note. But to those persons who are forward to condemn every copy that differs from the one they formerly have seen, it should be more generally known that those copies are grossly incorrect. Europe, as well as America, has her pretenders to science, and such were certainly Williams, and Tansur, and several others whose compositions have already had a sufficient circulation. We would not be understood to complain of the airs that those authors have compiled, for many of them are truly excellent: but the manner in which they have harmonized them, is such as no person of science or taste can approve. A consideration of these circumstances has induced us to avail ourselves, as much as possible, of those copies which have been produced by the distinguished masters of Europe." To the character of Tansur, we think this representation does no injustice. He

* The first collection of psalm tunes published in Great Britain, (annexed to Sternhold and Hopkins' version, 1562,) were in one part only,

possessed that kind and degree of musical knowledge which may be picked up by a teacher of psalmody, and has dealt it out with no small ostentation in his "Elements of Music Displayed;" but the vulgar rhymes, the excessive meanness of style, and the low abuse of his contemporaries, observable even in this production, demonstrate his total want of learning and taste, and his unfitness for the work of revising and harmonizing the ancient church music of Great-Britain. The copies of old music in his "Royal Melody" are such as might be expected from his taste and qualifications. We cannot, however, place A. Williams precisely on the same level. That he was a superficial contrapuntist, few will probably deny; but there is a variety of pieces now in circulation in this country, some of which are undoubtedly his, (although others are as certainly not,) which are generally esteemed, and are far from being contemptible, in point of composition. That he undertook the revision of the old tunes, in his "Universal Psalmodist," is implied by himself when he speaks of the whole as "composed in a new and easy taste;" but the existence of the "grossly incorrect" copies now current in this country is not to be ascribed to him. These copies appear to have been taken by our late compilers, not from the original work of Williams himself, but from Bailey's edition of Williams and Tansur, published in Newburyport, 1770,-an edition in which the old tunes, common to Williams' and Tansur's books, are copied from Tansur, and in which the few found only in Williams are generally given in a different, and much more exceptionable form than in the English edition.

We think our intelligent readers will have no hesitation in admitting that the copies of many of the old tunes in general circulation, coming as they have done

from a source of so little respectability, and still farther corrupted in passing through the hands of different publishers, are indeed "grossly incorrect." They abound in consecutive fifths and octaves,

-in progressions to unrelated chords-in unsharped sevenths on the ascending minor scale, and in short, in violations of almost every rule of simple counterpoint. However desirable the substitution of correct copies may appear, any attempt of this kind, considering how nearly universal is the adoption of the existing ones, is liable to formidable objections. We are naturally attached to what we have been accustomed to hear from infancy; hence it is scarcely to be expected that innovations, even if made for the better, will meet with a general reception. A certain portion of the old tunes under consideration, are, if we may so speak, the universal language of Christian devotion; and the mischiefs of giving a partial currency to innovations in this language are just as palpable as those which would arise from a partial introduction of the innovations proposed by some wrongheaded philologists, in the established orthography. If it be allowed even to the most skilful theorist to change a note or a passage whenever it does not exactly suit his ear, or coincide with his rules, ignorance and vanity will soon take the work out of his hands, and we shall have as many different" improved and corrected" copies of these tunes, as there are men who possess just that smattering of science which produces eagerness for innovation.

Notwithstanding these objections, several attempts have been made, within fifteen years past, to give our old harmonies an improved form. Mr. Law, we believe, stands among the earliest of those who have undertaken this task; and whatever we may think of the general expediency of the attempt, we must at least do him the credit of saying that he has given several of these pieces a more correct and scientific form than belongs to the copies generally current. The compilers of the

of their old form, except the air. Their zeal for reform has, we think, been carried to a very injudicious extreme, even if it had been under the guidance of the greatest musical skill; but we are compelled to say that their high pretensions are very ill supported. An eminent professor is said, in their preface, to have been employed to correct the harmony of every piece in the work; but this "eminent professor," whoever he was, has committed the grossest violations of all rule, in almost every page that has passed under his review; and while he has left the harmony in a state scarcely better than that in which he found it, he has rendered the melody, in many instances, absolutely barbarous. In a recent compilation, entitled "Songs of the Temple," several of the most defective of the old tunes have been newly arranged, in part by the Editor. We have looked at his arrangements with a careful eye; but he seems to us, in several instances at least, to have studied correctness, to the neglect of an easy flowing melody.*

A less questionable course has, in general, been adopted by the Editors of the Musica Sacra. They have employed themselves, with much apparent industry and perseverance, in comparing those foreign copies which have appeared under the sanction of distinguished masters, and "where the same piece was found to be differently harmonized, have endeavoured to select that copy which would be sung with the most interest, and which, at the same time, should differ least from the one in general use." In regard to those old tunes which had obtained the most general admission into our churches, even this course is not free from the objections incident to innovation; although it has at least the merit of not adding to

*We consider this compilation, however, (especially the last edition, published in Boston, September, 1818,) as possessing, in most respects, a high degree of merit, and as well entitled to a share of public patronage. The later editions of the Village Harmony, likewise, and the Hartford Collection, contain a large mass of excellent church music; but too little attention has been paid by the editors of these compila tions, to the copies of their tungs

the number of varying copies already so unhappily great. But there is a large class of tunes of a more modern stamp, and less generally adopted, in regard to which it appears to us, in every point of view, expedient and desirable. Our ears have not been inured to the defects of the current copies, and the inconveniences attendant on a seeming innovation are comparatively trifling. In the great body of instances in which the copies of tunes, selected by our compilers,vary from those already in circulation, we have no hesitation in saying that the former are decidedly the best. We believe our read ers will agree with us in opinion, when they have compared the Reading, Brentford, Wilton, and Wirksworth of the Mu sica Sacra, with Walsall, Bethesda, Windsor and Aylesburg,* of, for example, the Village Harmony; and the St. Mary's Portugal, Truro, Weymouth, Bangor, Amsterdam, &c. of the former, with those of the same name in the latter. It would be unfair not to notice two or three instances which we regard as exceptions to the above remark. The Portuguese Hymn is given as arranged by a Dublin master; but in the attempt to give it an air of modern refinement, we think the inimitable beauty and simplicity of the old form, as adapted to the words Come hither ye faithful, &c. has been considerably impaired. Likewise in that excel lent tune of Dr. Crofts' called St. Ann's, although the editors have the authority of many English copies for the cadence on the dominant in the third line, and the progression is doubtless in theory the most correct, we must own ourselves best satisfied with the cadence of the common copies on the mediant. The recurrence of two cadences, so nearly identical as those of the second and third lines in the present copy, produces a monotonous and enfeebling effect.

It will be inferred from this enumeration, that many of those favourite pieces which might appear on a hasty glance not to be contained in this compilation, are really found in it under different names. Would it not be desirable, where different names are extensively adopted for the same tune, to notice both, at least in the index?

We have already intimated that the plan of selection, as distinguished from that of original alteration, has not been invariably adhered to by the Editors. We have learned from other sources than their own preface, that in some instances, when a tune was palpably erroneous, and a classical foreign copy was not to be found, they have ventured on slight alterations, upon their own authority. The air they have not ventured to touch, except in one or two instances of old tunes less generally known. The base of ten or twelve pieces has undergone in their hands more or less change; and the upper parts of several more appear to have been newly arranged. In this last particular,-which is of little importance ou the score of innovation, as these parts have always been treated with great liberty,* and as no changes in them can have much effect on the radical harmony of the movement, the Editors appear to us to be fully justified, by the distribution they have made of the parts. The collections of A. Williams, Tansur, and T. Williams, from which most of the foreign church music chiefly used in this country has been derived, are arranged, (although it is spoken of by A. W. as an innovation in his time,) in such a manner as to give the air to tenor voices. The arrangement adopted in the work before us, which is that of almost all the first masters of Great Britain, and is rapidly gaining ground in this country, assigns the air to the treble. Hence the old trebles, in many instances, require raising, to adapt them to tenor voices, and to avoid the effect of a second base.-The propriety of altering a base must be judged of in individual cases from a comparison of two circumstances,--the extent to which the tune is used, and the degree in which the base is faulty. In regard to the old tunes which have the most extensive currency, the Editors have ventured on alterations in the base with a very sparing hand; and

* These parts are a mere nose of wax, and have never been uniform, even in our own compilations. The diversity is equally great in foreign copies.