| Citation |
NYJ-N.766.012
30 Oct 1766:23 (1243)
To the printer, Sir, please to insert the following, in your
next paper and you will oblige a friend, as well as every o[
] your readers, who is a lover of music.
I was last night at the rehearsal of Mr. Tuckey's Te Deum,
etc. which did honour to the con [ ] ser, and credit to
the performers. In this place where a taste for the polite
a [ ] music is so much in vogue, it is surprising, and t [
] regretted, that so delightful a part of it as the vo[ ]
should be neglected, especially when there is a per [ ]
here so capable of teaching of it, and so deserving [ ]
encouragement. The ill effects of this negligence are very
obvious to every judge of psalmody, on Sundays at church;
where the congregation for want of being properly instructed
in only the common rules of singing, very often confuse each
other, and spoil the harmony. How commendable would it be
for young gentlemen and ladies, to pass the winter evening
in so laudable and divine an exercise! How delightful, when
every family would resemble the heavenly choir! I hope
every well wisher of psalmody will improve upon these hints,
and give due encouragement to so amiable an accomplishment.
It is hardly worth while to mention an objection that has
once or twice been suggested to me against the encouragement
of this concert of solemn music. The objection is, that it
is a kind of profanation of sacred music, to make it the
subject of entertainment, except in divine service,
especially in promiscuous companies, where the behaviour of
some of the audience will probably be very unsuitable to the
subject of the entertainment; but I think the objection both
frivolous and illiberal. The objection would equally hold
good against introducing any divine subject into company,
except when assembled solely for the purpose of divine
worship; it would even prohibit all meetings for learning
psalmody, and consequently in the end entirely destroy the
use of it. And why should it be supposed that the behaviour
of the company would profane the subject of the
entertainment? Can gentlemen and ladies act so out of
character, at a public meeting, as to scandalize the design
of their meeting? No, a proper regard to their own
characters will secure them against any impropriety of
behaviour. A musical entertainment of any kind, being
intended to delight the ear, naturally requires silence and
attention; and every polite hearer behaves accordingly, both
for his own satisfaction, and that he may give no
interruption to that of the rest of the audience. Much more
will an entertainment of church music dictate silence and
attention, during the performance, and exclude any
unsuitable levity in the intervals--The passions, the
temper, and motions of the mind and thoughts, will naturally
correspond with the movements and harmony of the sounds--
and the music being adapted to words address'd to the
Supreme Being, the author of those organs of delicate
perception, by which we are made sensible of such exquisite
delight--The heart must be strangely out of tune with the
rest of the Almighty's works, that is not affected, so as to
offer up the silent sacrifice of thanks and praise. And
such a temper of mind cannot suddenly give place to any such
levity of behaviour, as might justify the objection, even if
the audience could otherwise be so forgetful of their
characters, as to fall into it.
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