Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922. Excerpt:... THE RELATION OF CHURCH MUSIC TO ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE Rev. Winfred Douglas, Musjdoc. New York City Education, as we all know, does not consist in the acquisition of facts or of mechanical mental processes, but in the guiding, the 'leading out,' of living processes which affect the entire being of the learner. And therefore the music teacher's task is to nourish a vital art: to develop, in separate individuals or in groups, the essential musical process--self-expression, in music, of something worth expressing; and for the utterance of which an inner need is felt. When we consider the general condition of church music in America, it is quite plain that herein is a problem of musical education which, notwithstanding some progress, is far from being solved. The dullness and feebleness and utter artistic insincerity of a large proportion of the music heard in our churches yield sufficient evidence of the lack of any compelling spiritual necessity in its origin. A very large proportion of it is not merely imitative, but imitative of inferior models. A vital art may not remain imitative, though in its formative stages it will necessarily be imitative of good models: nor may true art spring from unworthy or inadequte motives. The convenience of a choir; the mere desire to have something of one's own heard; the demands of a publisher; the need of cash; the material usefulness of advertising; a feeble impulse to compose something: from such motives nothing deserving the name of art can arise; much less religious art. "The greatest and most enduring art has arisen when men have felt that some great thing should be clearly and repeatedly expressed in a manner comprehensible to every one." Nothing less than a great and enduring art should be the aim of men and...