Choral SERVICE — 4th ed. (1810)

Choral SERVICE, in church-history, denotes that part of religious worship which consists in chanting and singing. The advocates for the high antiquity of singing, as a part of church-music, urge the authority of St Paul in its favour (Ephes. chap. v. ver. 19. and Colos. chap. iii. ver. 16.). On the authority of which passages it is asserted, that songs and hymns were, from the establishment of the church, sung in the assemblies of the faithful; and it appears from undoubted testimony, that singing, which was practised as a sacred rite among the Egyptians and Hebrews, at a very early period, and which likewise constituted a considerable part of the religious ceremonies of the Greeks and Romans, made a part of the religious worship of Christians, not only be-

fore churches were built, and their religion established by law, but from the first profession of Christianity. However, the era from whence others have dated the introduction of music into the service of the church, is that period during which Leontius governed the church of Antioch, i. e. between the year of Christ 347 and 356. See ANTIPHONY.

From Antioch the practice soon spread through the other churches of the East; and in a few ages after its first introduction into divine service, it not only received the sanction of public authority, but those were forbidden to join in it who were ignorant of music. A canon to this purpose was made by the council of Laodicea, which was held about the year 372; and Zonaras informs us, that these canonical singers were reckoned a part of the clergy. Singing was introduced into the western churches by St Ambrose about the year 374, who was the institutor of the Ambrosian chant established at Milan about the year 386; and Eusebius (lib. ii. cap. 17.) tells us, that a regular choir, and method of singing the service, were first established, and hymns used, in the church at Antioch, during the reign of Constantine, and that St Ambrose, who had long resided there, had his melodies thence. This was about 230 years afterwards amended by Pope Gregory the Great, who established the Gregorian chant; a plain, unisonous kind of melody, which he thought consistent with the gravity and dignity of the service to which it was to be applied. This prevails in the Roman church even at this day: it is known in Italy by the name of canto fermo; in France by that of plain chant; and in Germany and most other countries by that of the cantus Gregorianus. Although no satisfactory account has been given of the specific difference between the Ambrosian and Gregorian chants, yet all writers on this subject agree in saying, that St Ambrose only used the four authentic modes, and that the four plagal were afterwards added by St Gregory. Each of these had the same final, or key-note, as its relative authentic; from which there is no other difference, than that the melodies in the four authentic or principal modes are generally confined within the compass of the eight notes above the key-note, and those in the four plagal or relative modes, within the compass of eight notes below the fifth of the key. See MODE.

Ecclesiastical writers seem unanimous in allowing that Pope Gregory, who began his pontificate in 590, collected the musical fragments of such ancient psalms and hymns as the first fathers of the church had approved and recommended to the first Christians; and that he selected, methodized, and arranged them in the order which was long continued at Rome, and soon adopted by the chief part of the western church. Gregory is also said to have banished from the church the canta figurato, as too light and dissolute; and it is added, that his own chant was called canto fermo, from its gravity and simplicity.

It has been long a received opinion, that the ecclesiastical tones were taken from the reformed modes of Ptolemy; but Dr Burney observes, that it is difficult to discover any connection between them, except in their names; for their number, upon examination, is not the same: those of Ptolemy being seven, the ecclesiastical eight; and indeed the Greek names given to the

Service. the ecclesiastical modes do not agree with those of Ptolemy in the single instance of key, but with those of higher antiquity. From the time of Gregory to that of Guido, there was no other distinction of keys than that of authentic and plagal; nor were any semitones used but those from E to F, B to C, and occasionally A to B.

With respect to the music of the primitive church, it may be observed, that though it consisted in the singing of psalms and hymns, yet it was performed in many different ways; sometimes the psalms were sung by one person alone, whilst the rest attended in silence; sometimes they were sung by the whole assembly; sometimes alternately, the congregation being divided into separate choirs; and sometimes by one person, who repeated the first part of the verse, the rest joining in the close of it. Of the four different methods of singing now recited, the second and third were properly distinguished by the names of symphony and antiphony; and the latter was sometimes called responsaria, in which women were allowed to join. St Ignatius, who, according to Sozomen (lib. vi. cap. 8.), conversed with the apostles, is generally supposed to have been the first who suggested to the primitive Christians in the East the method of singing hymns and psalms alternately, or in dialogues; and the custom soon prevailed in every place where Christianity was established; though Theodoret in his history (lib. ii. cap. 24.) tells us, that this manner of singing was first practiced at Antioch. It likewise appears, that almost from the time when music was first introduced into the service of the church, it was of two kinds, and consisted in a gentle inflection of the voice, which they termed plain song, and a more elaborate and artificial kind of music, adapted to the hymns and solemn offices contained in its ritual; and this distinction has been maintained even to the present day.

Although we find a very early distinction made between the manner of singing the hymns and chanting the psalms, it is, however, the opinion of the learned Martini, that the music of the first five or six ages of the church consisted chiefly in a plain and simple chant of unisons and octaves, of which many fragments are still remaining in the canto fermo of the Romish missals. For with respect to music in parts, as it does not appear, in these early ages, that either the Greeks or Romans were in possession of harmony or counterpoint, which has been generally ascribed to Guido, a monk of Arezzo in Tuscany, about the year 1022, though others have traced the origin of it to the eighth century, it is in vain to seek it in the church. The choral music, which had its rise in the church of Antioch, and from thence spread through Greece, Italy, France, Spain, and Germany, was brought into Britain by the singers who accompanied Austin the monk, when he came over, in the year 596, charged with a commission to convert the inhabitants of this country to Christianity. Bede tells us, that when Austin and the companions of his mission had their first audience of King Ethelbert, in the isle of Thanet, they approached him in procession, singing litanies; and that afterwards, when they entered the city of Canterbury, they sung a litany, and at the end of it Allelujah. But though this was the first time the Anglo-Saxons had heard the Gregorian chant, yet Bede likewise tells us, that our British ancestors had been instructed in the rites and ceremonies of the Gallican

church by St Germanus, and heard him sing Allelujah many years before the arrival of St Austin. In 680, John, preceptor of St Peter's in Rome, was sent over by Pope Agatho to instruct the monks of Weremouth in the art of singing; and he was prevailed upon to open schools for teaching music in other places in Northumberland. Benedict Biscop, the preceptor of Bede, Adrian the monk, and many others, contributed to disseminate the knowledge of the Roman chant. At length the successors of St Gregory, and of Austin his missionary, having established a school for ecclesiastical music at Canterbury, the rest of the island was furnished with masters from that seminary. The choral service was first introduced in the cathedral church of Canterbury; and till the arrival of Theodore, and his settlement in that see, the practice of it seems to have been confined to the churches of Kent; but after that, it spread over the whole kingdom; and we meet with records of very ample endowments for the support of this part of public worship. This mode of religious worship prevailed in all the European churches till the time of the Reformation: the first deviation from it is that which followed the Reformation by Luther, who, being himself a lover of music, formed a liturgy, which was a musical service, contained in a work entitled Psalmodia, h. e. Cantica sacra Veteris Ecclesie selecta, printed at Norimberg in 1553, and at Wittemberg in 1561. But Calvin, in his establishment of a church at Geneva, reduced the whole of divine service to prayer, preaching, and singing; the latter of which he restrained. He excluded the offices of the antiphon, hymn, and motet, of the Romish service, with that artificial and elaborate music to which they were sung; and adopted only that plain metrical psalmody, which is now in general use among the reformed churches, and in the parochial churches of our own country. For this purpose he made use of Marot's version of the Psalms, and employed a musician to set them to easy tunes only of one part. In 1553, he divided the Psalms into pauses or small portions, and appointed them to be sung in churches. Soon after they were bound up with the Geneva catechism; from which time the Catholics, who had been accustomed to sing them, were forbidden the use of them, under a severe penalty. Soon after the Reformation commenced in England, complaints were made by many of the dignified clergy and others of the intricacy and difficulty of the church-music of those times: in consequence of which it was once proposed, that organs and curious singing should be removed from our churches. Latimer, in his diocese of Worcester, went still farther, and issued injunctions to the prior and convent of St Mary, forbidding in their service all manner of singing. In the reign of Edward VI. a commission was granted to eight bishops, eight divines, eight civilians, and eight common lawyers, to compile a body of such ecclesiastical laws as should in future be observed throughout the realm. The result of this compilation was a work first published in 1571 by Fox the martyrologist, and afterwards in 1640, under the title of Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum. These 32 commissioners, instead of reprobating church-music, merely condemned figurative and operose music, or that kind of singing which abounded with fugues, responsive passages, and a commixture of various and intricate proportions; which, whether extempore or written, is by musicians termed disant. However,

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ever, notwithstanding the objections against choral music, and the practice of some of the reformed churches, the compilers of the English liturgy in 1548, and the king himself, determined to retain musical service. Accordingly the statute 2 & 3 Edw. VI. cap. 1. though it contains no formal obligation on the clergy, or others, to use or join in either vocal or instrumental music in the common prayer, does clearly recognize the practice of singing; and in less than two years after the compiling of King Edward's liturgy, a formula was composed, which continues, with scarce any variation, to be the rule for choral service even at this day. The author of this work was John Marbecke, or Marbeike; and it was printed by Richard Grafton, in 1550 under the title of the Book of Common Prayer, noted. Queen Mary laboured to re-establish the Romish choral services but the accession of Elizabeth was followed by the act of uniformity; in consequence of which, and of the queen's injunctions, the Book of Common Prayer, noted by Marbecke, was considered as the general formula of choral service. In 1560, another musical service, with some additions and improvements, was printed by John Day; and in 1565, another collection of offices, with musical notes. Many objections were urged by Cartwright and other Puritans against the form and manner of cathedral service, to which Hooker replied in his Ecclesiastical Polity. In 1664, the statutes of Edward VI. and Elizabeth, for uniformity in the Common Prayer, were repealed; and the Directory for Public Worship, which allows only of the singing of psalms, established. But upon the restoration of Charles II. choral service was again revived, and has since uniformly continued. See on this subject Hawkins's History of Music, vol. i. p. 404. vol. ii. p. 264. vol. iii. p. 58—468, &c. vol. iv. p. 44—347.