Curiosities of Christian History Prior to the Reformation

by James Paterson

ORIGIN OF SINGING IN CHURCH SERVICES.

The first change in the manner of singing was the substitution of singers (who became a separate order in the Church) for the mingled voices of all ranks, ages, and sexes, which was compared by Ambrose, the great reformer of Church music, to the glad sound of many waters. The antiphonal singing, in which the different sides of the choir answered to each other in responsive verses, was first introduced at Antioch by Flavianus Diodorus. Milman observes that it is not improbable that this system of alternate chanting may have prevailed in the Temple service at Jerusalem. The antiphonal chanting was introduced into the West by Ambrose; and if it inspired or even accompanied the Te Deum usually ascribed to that prelate, we cannot calculate too highly its effect on the Christian mind. So beautiful was the music in the Ambrosian service that the sensitive conscience of the young Augustine took alarm, lest when he wept at the solemn music he should be yielding to the luxury of sweet sounds rather than imbibing the devotional spirit of the hymn. Though alive to the perilous pleasure, he inclined to the wisdom of awakening weaker minds to piety by this enchantment of their hearing. The Ambrosian chant, with its more simple and masculine tones, is still preserved in the church of Milan; in the rest of Italy it was superseded by the richer Roman chant which was introduced by Gregory the Great. The cathedral chanting of England has almost alone preserved the ancient antiphonal system, now discarded by the Roman Catholic Church for its greater variety of instruments.

THE ORGAN IN CHURCH MUSIC.

No instrument, as an accompaniment to human voices in Church music, has been discovered equal to the organ for the power and grandeur of its effects; but being of a great mechanical complexity, it has taken many centuries to bring it to perfection. Rudimentary instruments of the same kind, worked by wind and some by water, are mentioned by the ancients. The hydraulic organ was used for some centuries in preference to the pneumatic organ, but it ceased altogether in the fourteenth century. It is not precisely known at what period the organ was first used for religious purposes, but it seems to have been in common use in Spain about 450. Pope Vitalianus, in 666, saw its advantages in assisting the human voice. In the eighth century both the Anglo-Saxon and French artists began to exert their ingenuity in improving the instrument. Charlemagne first introduced it in Germany, and he sent one as a present to the Caliph. In the ninth century organs came into general use in England, and St. Dunstan showed his ingenuity in improvements. One was made in 951 for Winchester Cathedral. A monk named Theophilus in the eleventh century published a treatise on the art of making the organ. Organs, whether hydraulic or pneumatic, were nearly the only instruments used in churches in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, all others being rejected, in consequence of abuse and their theatrical effect. There were usually, however, opponents and defenders of the extent to which this accompaniment was resorted to. Peter the Venerable, of Cluny, defended them. St. Augustine had lamented the blindness of the Manicheans in rejecting sacred music. The first organ which appeared in Europe was sent as a present by Constantine Copronymus to Pepin, King of France, in 757, and he placed it in the church of St. Corneille at Compiégne. The secret of these steam organs is now entirely lost. The first organ on the present principle seen in the West was that which Louis Debonnaire placed in the church of Aix-la-Chapelle. It is related of this organ that a woman expired through rapture and surprise at the sweetness of its sound. One of the same kind was mentioned in the annals of Fulda in 828. At the close of the ninth century many skilful organ-builders were drawn to Rome by Pope John VIII. In the tenth century an organ of this kind was placed in Westminster Abbey. So delicious and astonishing was the music of organs and flutes at the consecration of the monastic church of Cava, near Salerno, and such was the harmony of sound and pleasant odours, that the Serene Duke Roger and all the people present thought themselves on the very borders of heaven. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was the custom to place the organ in the choir, but in the fifteenth century a custom arose to remove it to the western extremity of the nave. It was thought before the Council of Trent, in 1545, that the Church music had been carried to an excess, and the council once thought of prohibiting all music except the Gregorian.

AUGUSTINE CONVERTING THE BRITONS WITH MUSIC.

When Augustine came from Italy to England, about the year 596, for the purpose of converting the inhabitants of Britain to Christianity, he and his accompanying missionaries adopted in aid of their devotions a musical service. For some time the people were delighted with so agreeable a novelty, but after a while it gradually ceased to please, and at length met with such violent opposition that it was entirely laid aside. During the papacy of Vitalianus, in 657, one of the principal vocalists in Rome was sent to instruct the Britons in the Italian method of chanting and singing, and the cathedral of Canterbury is entitled to the honour of having been the first church in England in which a regular choral service was performed.

THE EARLIEST HYMNS OF THE CHURCH.

There was always some trace of hymns, as distinguished from the Psalms, being used by Christians. There is some dispute as to the hymn sung by our Lord and His Apostles on the occasion of the Last Supper. Some think it must have been the Hallel or paschal hymn, consisting of Psalms cxiii.-cxviii., which was chanted. In the gaol at Philippi Paul and Silas sang their hymns so loudly that the fellow-prisoners heard them. The Greeks seem to have had only eight tunes of Church music, and the Syrians had two hundred and seventy-five. The earliest known Christian hymn is given by Clemens Alexandrinus, the historian. The learned have disputed whether the Christian Greek hymns were founded on the old Pagan hymns used in the heathen worship. Ambrose, about 360, is thought to have been the first to introduce hymns into the Latin Church, though it is more likely that he merely gave greater impetus to the use of these in the Church services.

MONK MUSICIANS (A.D. 945).