Horatio Parker, whose works we have already reviewed, is at present the most representative church composer in America. Parker has devoted some of his best inspirations to the church and has written many fine anthems and services, while his stirring hymn-tunes, with their modern harmonies, mark a real stage of evolution in that restricted field. Foote and Chadwick have both done much in church music; there is, however, a neutral quality about their anthems and they possess neither the distinctive qualities of the purely ecclesiastical style nor that of the popular anthem. Arthur Whiting has written comparatively little church music but the few things that he has done are among the best of all American church music. There is a feeling of great strength and solidity in Mr. Whiting's vocal writing and his style is always pure. The other church composers who generally follow the more severe style are mostly members of America's English colony of organists, true to the tradition of their training: Will C. Macfarlane, Clement R. Gale, T. Tertius Noble, are to be named as some of the best known of these writers.
It is most fortunate that the more popular style of anthem has one exponent who brings to it not only its essential elements of popularity, but who is able to add as well those sterling qualities of intrinsic musical worth which place his anthems in a unique class. This writer is Harry Rowe Shelley. Shelley was born in 1858. His first studies were under Dudley Buck and he later studied with Dvořák in Europe. His list of about fifty anthems are deservedly the most popular of native works used in American churches to-day, and his sacred songs are also a most serviceable addition to the church répertoire. It must be added that, although Mr. Shelley has found his truest mission in church music, he has had larger ambitions which he has not entirely failed in fulfilling, and the list of his works includes an opera, 'Leila,' a symphonic poem, 'The Crusaders,' a dramatic overture, Francesca da Rimini, an oratorio, 'The Inheritance Divine,' a suite for orchestra, a fantasia for piano and orchestra, piano pieces and songs.
Among those whose work follows lines similar to that of Shelley is P. J. Schnecker, whose numerous anthems possess somewhat the physiognomy of Shelley's works, but are without their genuine musical qualities. John Hyatt Brewer has written church music of considerable distinction as well as several cantatas both sacred and secular. Brewer was a pupil of Buck and was born in 1856. Sumner Salter, Gerrit Smith, Louis R. Dressler, Frank N. Shepherd, Fred Schelling, are other names familiar to the choir loft. Important among church compositions are the works of Eduardo Marzo. Mr. Marzo's work is mostly for the Catholic service and, thus restricted in its use, it has not come to the general notice which it would otherwise have reached.
In concluding, we add a few names of those who, among the younger men, are producing church music of a freshness and vigor which promises well for a renaissance of sacred music that shall happily combine the dignity of the older schools with the more vital utterance of a contemporaneous expression. Frank E. Ward, whose secular compositions find mention in another chapter of this volume, has written many good anthems and two sacred cantatas. Philip James is the author of some strikingly good church music, while Mark Andrews, Clifford Demarest, Caryl Florio, and W. Berwald are well-known and esteemed names to those who follow the lists of standard church music.
B. L.
FOOTNOTES:
[86] 'Contemporary American Composers,' 1900.
[87] Op. cit.
[88] Vance Thompson: 'The Life of Ethelbert Nevin,' Boston, 1914.