Opis: A First Series of Church Songs (Classic Reprint) - Baring-Gould Sabine

Excerpt from A First Series of Church Songs

A want has been long felt for a collection of Church songs to supplement the Hymn Book - songs with a distinctly Church and religious tendency, without being hymns. From the workshop, the kitchen, and the stable, we hear the most sacred words warbled lightly, because they have become familiar in church or chapel wedded to taking tunes. The English people, for lack of national "Volkslieder" such as the Germans possess, have become a hymn-singing people; and the hymn is sung regardless of the character of the words, because the people are cheerful and want to sing.

Of late years Messrs. Sankey and Moody, and, later still, the "Salvation Army," have introduced religious songs which have at once become favourites, because the airs have been secular, and, in some cases, the words rollicking. The result has been a distinct lowering of the reverence of the people for holy things and holy words. Sacred aspirations and names, at which angels and devils bow, are trolled out or roared to music-hall tunes, sometimes by tipsy men, and often without thought.

The tendency of these songs is not only to irreverence and profanity, but also to encourage heretical views of the scheme of Salvation. Justification is upheld as a sentimental outgush of excited hysteria, not as the gradual growth of a spiritual life; and this mischievous teaching poisons the sources of the moral conscience.

In compiling the collection now presented to Churchmen, the authors have done their best to insist cm definite truth, and to make the song a vehicle for impressing some facts necessary to salvation on the minds of those who sing them. They have aimed especially at giving definite expressions to the doctrine of "the Catholic Church," a doctrine which is presupposed, rather than insisted on, in our hymnals. The Church's year brings the great facts of Our Lord's life and the event of Pentecost before people's minds, and the hymns accentuate the lessons of the gospels for the Festivals. But there is no great feast of the "Holy Catholic Church" at which this verity of the faith is insisted on; whence the need of supplementing the hymnal with Church songs teaching this doctrine, to be used at mission services, social gatherings, and in processions.

In an age of flux in religious belief, and disintegration, social, political, moral and religious, we cannot sufficiently impress on the minds of Christians the fact of the unity of the Church Catholic in all ages and in all places, and of her being the one immutable guardian of the truth, moral and religious, amidst the general change and upheaval, and disturbance of traditional beliefs.

A hymn should have its distinct character, be objective, and void of mawkish sentiment. It should be addressed to God, and not to the human soul, nor should it be an oblique sermon. It is an act of worship and praise. But a sacred song need not be so restricted; thus, such songs as "By the gate they meet us," "Sinner, come to Jesus," "We won't give up the Bible," "Nearer home," and the like are unsuitable for public worship, but they are tolerable at the religious class, in the home circle on a Sunday evening, and nor schools.

The songs in this collection belong to this category: they are adapted both as to words and tunes for use outside the church as a supplement to the Hymnal.

Just thirty years ago, the writer of this introduction began a similar collection, and laid it aside. He saw then that there was a need for such a book, but the demand had not come, so the time was not ripe for its production.

In selecting the melodies rather a wide field has been travelled over. Some that may not appear of much merit when tried over on the piano are taken because experience has proved them to be good workable tunes when sung by a body of voices. The harmonies throughout have been composed, re-written, or revised by the Rev. H. Fleetwood She

Szczegóły: A First Series of Church Songs (Classic Reprint) - Baring-Gould Sabine

Nazwa: A First Series of Church Songs (Classic Reprint)
Autor: Baring-Gould Sabine
Wydawnictwo: FB &c Ltd
Kod paskowy: 9781331060178
Języki: angielski
Ilość stron: 72
Format: 15.2x22.9cm
Oprawa: Miękka

Recenzje: A First Series of Church Songs (Classic Reprint) - Baring-Gould Sabine