N EW pointed Psa t er justly be challeng d to j ustify

its clai s in the face of ore than a score of e e e

Angl ican and e it is this ve ry ultitude of
which is i t s rst and best justi cation For e e e
Psa l ter has ee a witness to the fai l ure of al l e e it to
satisfy so e considerab e u ber of e e Of course so e
new Psa lt ers acco panied with chants are p tly due to a
desire for better chan t s or better choice an d assign ent of
chants but al l a l ike set the selves to a end t he pointing
This failure o f al l exis t ing pointing is f ther shown by
war con t ro versy stil l kept up between the t wo syste s
under which they are all now classi ed the cal led Cathedral
syste and the ca l le Church syste though they
n ot really two syste s but one syste applie d in di erent
degr ees
It woul d surprise the eader if coul d quote here fro
letters sent unsought to myself alone an d therefore
senting a uch ore wide l y spread dissatisfaction with our
A glican chan t ing t he many plaintive appeals for s o e refor
or vigorous conde nations of the ethods n ow ost prevalent
fro experienced Organists Choir asters an d Clergy
the fact o f this genera l dissatisfaction is also sh ow n and a t the
sa e ti e its unrecogni ed cause i s revealed by the frequen t
of such expressi o ns of slike as choppy chanting rigid
cut and dried chants and by co pl aints that the Psal s are

uch o f art s o f this In tro uct ion a re in s t ance

in o f anua ebr ar where
it v e rise to uch n t erest in iscussion of which a vant a e has
been rat efu ll t a en in i ts re isi on n r e ent
 C HAN TIN IN RH H

made to move in fetters or in a strait waistcoat or dril l ed

gainst nature to keep s t ep wi t h the easured tread of e t rica l
usic and by prote ts on beha l f of the so l e n tone and state l y
rh th of the Psal s against the j ingle of any
Angl ican chants
The secret of their failure i s to be found in the point fro
which al l existing p o in t ed Psa l ters start viz that the chant
being what it is t he words o f the Psa l s ust be ade to con
for to it The Angl ican chan t is a they say an d it is
a elody of seven or bars in other words i t is a
etrica l tune l ike a hy n tune except as regards the reciting
ote and so e deny even this ex eption
there i s nothing sacred about an Anglican chant If i t
co es into col l isi o n with another fact str o nger and ore
a l terable than i t se l f it us t either confor thereto o r ake
way fo r so e t hing else and tha t o ther fact is this that the
Psa l s and Can t icles are r they are in what i s called
or rhy t h ic pr o se the grandest for of bu t
in etre And they and t heir poe t ic form sacred and
una l terab l e except with a vi o lence which sacri l ege It is the
hitherto constant struggl e betwee the tyrann of rigid
e t rica l chan t and the free born but fett ered Psa l rhyth
t hat has caused without being genera ll y detected t he
fac t i o n and ur uring abou t Ang l ican chan t ing An d t he
re edy ust be found in a i eren t concep t i o n fro t hat
entertained as t o the true nature fo r of the Chant
and i t s rela t i o n to t hat of the Psal this Psa l ter is n ot there
fo re ere l y one ore en eavour to rep o int the Psa s i e to
i prove the usual pointing in particu l ar passages it is an
at t e pt to reconsider the atter afresh to g o back to rs t
princip l es to h istorical precedents and to early Eng l ish ex
a p l es
It is not necessa ry of course to insist upon rst principle
of al l t hat church usic i s who ll y fo r the g l ory o f God and
the he l p of in w o rshipping it is en o ugh to begin
with the princip l e e bodied in our o tto Vox anci la verbi
Mu ic the hand aid no t the istress of t he w ords to
re e ber tha t as far as chanting is concerned the w ords are
not on l y xed for us by the Church but consecrated in their
fo rm as well as thei r piri t as pa rt of H oly Writ the
 U E AN TIPH O NY

true question is and shoul d always have been not how to make
the Psa l verse the for of a chant but

In at t e pting to car ry out these principles four leadi g

points have bee n kept i n view

p p os s
rec over a re a t er free o fro e t ri c on s
h th t he s a o r e l as t ic i t v rie t
or t o t he Chan t
us t here at o ce ac n owl e e ver reat ebt to
ohn He woo whose int erest in su estiv e li ttl e boo o n
the lowes ave the clue to the rh th ic l
efec t o st lish hants to the t e re e
S ON e sca e ne cessi t inv l ve c o ns t an tl
in rev i l in s s t e s u tt in fa l s e e asi s o n
i or t an t w r This second object i s gained incidenta ll y
an d yet co p l etely through t he methods e ployed to obtain
the rst
TH R ob t in s o o t hnes s i n it
han t n o f t he t ri in j in l e ct l s
an es t s whethe r of n otes or sy ll ables See p III
and p note
F O RTH res t or t ru e n t i h n es onsive
ne s whic e xis t s w i t hin e ac verse wit i n e c
s n l e ch n t and als o withi n each half of a double han t
as e l l as b e t een t he s i e s a ch o r and congregati o n
To these four leading purposes everything h owever
n e essary irre l eva t or fanciful it may at rst sight appear
is di ectly referable and subse rvient

Our rs t consideration ust be the words of the Psa m

verse the for and character of their poetry
The Psa l verse as distin guished fro ordinary prose on
one hand an d fro etrica l hy ns on the other has two
marked characteristics of its own

ant ici at e sa rehension i t be well to that o

free o in c oncert e sin in is obvi ous l unatt ainab l e to
that free rh t h here o en o f n ot n in c o on with
the free chan t of the lat e ohn row exce t a c o on
 C HAN TING I N HYT H M

These two characteristics are

that is to say there is n o xed meas red
ength of lines no regularity i n the fa ll of the accen t n o
fee t no rhy e an d yet there i s a cert ain unde ned rh th
or wel l propo tioned distribution of the i rregul ar accents
which gives the the true ring of poetic for and a dignity
far exce ll ing that of any but the bes t exa ples of metrical
verse It is in sho rt a free recitation and pri ari l y nothing
but a recitation with on l y such of voice at certai n
p oints as wi l l give expression to its other characte ristic
ANT H ON Each verse contains in itse l
a verse or versicle in its rst half and a resp o nse in its last
half In order to reali e this l et the reader if he is not al ready
a w are of it recite a l ost any ver e inserting yea i ediate l
after t he dividing c ol on or in s o e cases even or yea even
and if i t does not in t errupt but ra t her devel o ps the sense
i t obviousl y sho w s tha t there is t h is responsiveness
co e let us sing unto the Lord yea let us heart il rej o ice in
the s t ren th of our sa l vati on xcv Lord h o w gl o ri o us
are works yea Thy thoughts are very deep An unwise
doth not we ll consider this yea and a fool d o th n ot
understan d xcii The waves of the sea a re ighty
and rage horribly yea but yet the L o rd who d w elleth o n
high is ightier xciii ecause they provoked his Spirit
even so that he spake unadvised l y with his l ips Neither
destroyed they the heathen even as the Lord co anded
the cvi see also v It is indeed on l in few
stances and in ost of these because of is t akes in our Prayer
ook t ranslation or punctuation that it will be found to fai l
To the truth of this antiphonal structure we have al so a t hree
fold external witness viz each verse divi ded into
sive halves the co l on or p oi nt see Titl e page of the ook
of Co on Pra er or in Lati n Psalters by a n asterisk
each chant di ided into more or less usi cally resp o nsive
h alves the double bar l ine each choir divided into
responsive sides and

hese charact er tics o f the s l verse are n ot in ee c onne

to the sa s o f a vi we c l the but are foun in cert ain
isol at e sal s o r on s in the es a ent e a ent over
a onathan i t he o s o f o ses the on s
 T UE AN IPH NY

These two charac

of Psalm are then t he t sts of a t rue Psa l
N o chan t n o pointing which does not
confor t o these has any c l ai t o our acceptance
I chan t t erefor is t e c on e ne

An d
this i t fai l s to do
If it does n o t leave as any as possible of the words free
for recitati o n that is the two e l odies or
ca ll ed the Mediati o n and Cadence de and so any
sy l lab l es as are n o w genera l ly assigned t o the upon the
taken supp o si t ion t hat each e l ody requires a str ong initi
accent for which a su cient l y strong sy ll able cannot be found
with o ut t respassing backward upon what should be the free
recitati o n
I f by reason of a wide rising in e rval at the end of the
on o t o ne e phasizing this accent or of a e l o y ade pro
inent by o t her striking intervals or zigzag ove ents the
effect produced is that o f a arked tune starting fro that
acc nt an d sharp l y distinc t fro the reci t ation rather t han a
s oo t h inected ex t ension o f it fo r the recitation is thereby
t hr o wn i n to t he shade and beco es a ere preli in ary to this
t une
If either reciting note is out o f easy reach of any ordi nary
voice for free na t ural recitation wi t hout strain or hur ry
II chan t is c on e ne
so produces the awkward l y
heavy accent the Ang l ican thu p the nal note w hich
is one of t he w o rst features of the prevai l ing s ste leading as
d o es to an intolerabl e accu ulation of syl l ab l es upon that
note of which we shal l have to say ore presentl y And this
is al w a s t he case in Ang l ican chants if the elody in the l ast
bar but one of the chant is broken into two ini s of d ferent
pitch and cannot be writ t en as one se ibreve s o as to receive
all the o ne concentrated accen t which as wi l l be presently ex
pla ned is alone al l ow ab l e the cadence This point is so

of H annah the isions of a aa in the o r

ri ar an t ic l es of our ai ra er with exce ti on the
sal o r Athana ian ree