The Church has a good right to look to Mr. Richard S. Willis, as being, perhaps, of all our youthful native musicians, the one of whom she may expect the most true hearted and efficient service. His training, however scientific, has not been that which would qualify him the most readily for usefulness in this field: but there is an earnest devotion of spirit, a reaching forth after the deep and the true, a growing strength and manliness, exercised and made firm by a steady industry, which promise the best results. He has just issued a neat little volume on Our Church Music, a Book for Pastors and People, which is the best and most thoughtful practical essay that has for a long time appeared among us.
Church Journal.
Were it not for the copyright on this admirable book, we should be compelled to transfer large portions of it to our pages. As it is, we hope to give, hereafter, some specimens of it, and in the mean time, cordially recommend it for its interest and the usefulness of its suggestions.
Episcopal Recorder.
Many of the articles collected in this pleasant and thoughtful volume have been already published in our columns; and we are glad to know that they have attracted that attention among our readers which they deserve. The series is now completed, by the addition of others, not so well adapted to a journal like this, because requiring diagrams, etc., to illustrate them, but harmonious with those in tone and teaching, and equally rich in useful suggestions. Mr. Willis has brought the finest musical cultivation of Europe to assist him in his task, but has never allowed his artistic taste and knowledge to overlay and smother his native good sense, or his instinctive perception of what is demanded in true church music. We have found his writings on this subject instructive and quickening; the more so, perhaps, because our own half-formed thoughts have often been brought back to us by him, more fully and clearly expressed than they had been to ourselves, and clothed with the authority that belongs to one who is so rapidly becoming a recognised Master in his chosen department.
Independent.
OUR CHURCH MUSIC.—A Book for Pastors and People. By Richard Storrs Willis. 12mo., 138 pages.
Price, 50 cents.
Mr. Willis in this work considers church music mainly as a part of worship, which is its true and original design, and not as a mere entertainment interposed between the graver offices of devotion and instruction. He points out the objections to the common modes of conducting church music, stating them with a good deal of force and vivacity. * * * * Mr. Willis thinks that to make our music what it ought to be, “we need to simplify the congregational style and amplify the choir style.” He gives some practical suggestions, well worthy of consideration, respecting the singing of children in churches, the position of the choir and organ, the importance of clergymen possessing some knowledge of music as an art, and the training of the youth of a congregation in singing. In a second part of his treatise, Mr. Willis considers what subjects are proper for hymns, the adaptation of hymns to music, the treatment of words, the expression given to them in singing, and the introduction of what he calls “secular efforts” in church music. His views on all these subjects bear witness to his fine taste and careful study of the subject. Mr. Willis has given to both the scientific and practical part of music the study of years, and is entitled to speak on the subject with a tone of decision.