LETTER XVIII. Distinct Articulation in Singing-Congregational Singing, with reference to the utterance of the words. LEIPZIG, March 29, 1852. THE importance of a clear, distinct, tasteful, and appropriate delivery of the words in vocal music cannot be too strongly urged. A good utterance of words is one of the elementary technicals in singing; as much so as is tone, intonation or time. Singing combines both the elements of speech and of song, and no one can claim to be a vocalist who has not cultivated as well his articulating as his vocal powers. Teachers of singing should urge this point as one of the greatest importance; for, whatever other qualifications one may possess, he cannot be even a tolerable singer who does not utter his words with distinctness and propriety; and no one sings well who does not go further than this, and deliver his words with taste and elegance. But, strange as it may seem, while this is a point of so much importance, it is one which is much neglected, and one would sometimes think, when listening to an untaught choir, that the very elementary sounds, or powers of the letters, had not been learned. Instead of the clear, open, full vowels of the language, we often hear strange and distorted sounds, which seem to belong to mere animals rather than to men, and which give to a chorus a feline or canine character, a mewing or a howling altogether unworthy of the human voice. And the consonants, too, are not less absurdly misplaced or omitted. One principal reason of this neglect or abuse of language in singing is that but little careful instruction has been given in the common schools, until within a few years, in elementary reading. But even where this instruction has been given, a separate and distinct attention to the subject, in connection with singing sounds, is necessary; for we have sometimes known professors of elocution (and most worthy ones) who made sad werk of the language in their attempts to utter it in song. We rejoice to know that teachers of music are giving this subject more attention than formerly. At the Teachers' Institutes held in Boston, teachers of elecution have been employed to lecture, and in the musical conventions held in different parts of the country instructions are given, which, if followed up with a suitable practice or training, must lead to improvement. But all the lectures and all the preaching in the world will not do without careful and continued training; and this must be done under the direction and superintendence of one who is capable of doing the work. If ministers or school teachers could be induced to exercise our choirs in reading and declamation, we should soon witness improvement. Chanting and reading simultaneously by choirs, are recommended as valuable exercises in acquiring a good articulation of words. Than this, there is no more important subject connected with singingschools and choral performance. Is it possible to articulate words with as great distinctness in song as in speech? Much depends upon the character of the song. In plain chanting we think it can be done, and with equal ease. In tunes of very simple rhythmic form, of a melodic compass that is quite within the range of the singer's voice, strictly syllabic, and favorable as to movement, or length of tones, we think, too, that the question may be answered in the affirmative. If it be asked whether it is as easy for a choir of thirty or forty persons to articulate their words as they may be articulated by a good speaker, then we may answer the question by asking whether it is easy for twenty or thirty persons to read a hymn simultaneously, so that the words can be heard as distinctly as when read by an individual? Undoubtedly it is much more difficult for a choir so to deliver their words as that they shall be clearly understood, than it is for a single person to do so. When we use the speaking voice, we adjust it in all respects to our immediate wants, or use it in that way in which a clear utterance of the words is best promoted; but in song we are not at liberty always thus to use the voice, for here a melody or tune has been prescribed, and it may be so high or so low as to make it exceedingly difficult to connect words distinctly with tones; or it may be too soft or too loud in power, or too quick or too slow in movement for this end; or all may be combined, and length and pitch and power present an insuperable obstacle to the singer's success. In the application of this question to choir-singing, and taking into view the nature or different characteristics of the speaking and the singing tones, we should reply in the nega tive. Two inferences follow: I. Much careful practice and thorough training are necessary to enable a choir to sing well. The St. Thomas' choir in this place, meet for practice every day at five o'clock; the English cathedral choirs sing together the service once in the forenoon and once in the afternoon of each day. We cannot expect then that any choir can do well with less than one or two thorough, close, protracted drillings in a week. Choirs must meet for practice, and really practice too, if they would speak their words well in song, or sing well with respect to any of the essential elements of vocal music. II. Such tunes should generally be chosen for public worship as are well adapted to the articulation of words; and choirs should not be willing to sacrifice the words to musical effect. It is not uncommon for congregations to desire the singing of tunes in which the parts are so mixed up as to render the hear 1 CONGREGATIONAL SINGING NOT ARTISTIC. 87 ing of the words impossible, and then blame the singers for not speaking the words plainly. Singers should strive to speak the words plainly, and strive to do this without violating the laws either of musical or elocutionary taste. We do not believe that congregational singing can ever prevail unless the essential elements of a good musical performance are given up. That is, we cannot have a good musical performance (or what is usually understood to be a good musical performance) in connection with congregational singing. History, and the actual state of things now existing, tell us that such a general state of musical improvement as would be necessary for this, is merely ideal, something imaginative only, and not to be realized. We have heard congregational singing in many places in the United States-south, and west, and east -and also in different European countries, but (to say nothing about taste) we have never heard it where the musical laws of time or tune were observed; nor have we ever heard it where to a listener all would not be confused with respect to the words. No two persons speak the words alike, or precisely at the same time, both latitude and longitude are unknown, and although the tide of rhythmic form forces obedience so far as to cause the arrival of each one at the end of the stanza within hailing distance of the others, yet the effect is almost always quite Babelian. From this view of the subject, or looking at congregational singing as it has been, is now, and probably will be, it follows that where it prevails, no one will be able to hear the words with any degree of certainty. But we must also consider that where it prevails there is no one to hear the words. Every one is engaged in singing for himself, and has nothing apparently to do with those around him. To be sure he is influenced 88 IS CONGREGATIONAL SINGING DESIRABLE? by the mass of tone, but of this he is at the time unconscious, and worships as an individual. As there is no one to listen to the words then, so their clear enunciation is comparatively unimportant. This is also equally true of the other elements of good singing as it is with respect to the words. Everything that belongs to taste in music must be given up as we enter the very threshold of the congregational chorus; and even time, and tune, and the articulation of tones and of words, cannot be expected. But if such be the fact, is congregational singing desirable? Go with me to the Nicolai Church in Leipzig, and look down from the upper gallery upon a congregation of fifteen hundred or two thousand persons; see them with hymn books open, apparently unconscious of those around, listen to their rough and uncultivated voices, in time and tune, or out of time and tune, joining with the loud pealings of the deep diapasons, rolling through the arches of the great building, and filling the whole with a mighty chorus of sound; mark the movings of your own spirit, and you will not need an answer to the question from another. LETTER XIX. St. Peter's Church-Richter, the Organist-the Tomb of Bach-Chorals sung at St. Peter's. LEIPZIG, March 24, 1852. THIS is said to be the oldest church in Leipzig. edifice which stands close to the eastern gate of the city, was erected in 1507. It is, I should judge, about 120 or 140 feet in |