Church and Organ Music. Rhythm in Hymn-Tunes Author(s): C. F. Abdy Williams Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 62, No. 938 (Apr. 1, 1921), pp. 275-278 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/909413 Accessed: 03-05-2016 18:20 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Musical Times Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Times This content downloaded from 128.197.26.12 on Tue, 03 May 2016 18:20:53 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE MUSICAL TIMES-APRIL I 192I 275 Caruso pours out his voice lavishly as ever in 'A Granada'-in fact he pours out so much of it Cbthlch anli b rgant fluic. that in a small room one instinctively looks round THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ORGANISTS for shelter. This stirring record owes a good deal to the excellent orchestral part, in which some The following letter has been sent to the stout work is done by the castanets. members: That fine baritone, Titto Ruffo, is heard to advan- The Royal College of Organists, tage in 'Nemico della patria?' ('Andrea Ch6nier'). Kensington Gore, S.W.7. New H.M.V. instrumental records are a varied DEAR SIR (or MADAM)-Owing to the increased lot. The popular Adagietto from 'L'Arlesienne' is cost of musical periodicals the Council find it financially played with delightful effect by Kreisler and string impossible to supply the Members with a weekly musical quartet (Io-in.). Cort6t is brilliant in Chopin's paper as heretofore. After much consideration they 'Tarantelle' without quite making us forget that the have decided to substitute the Musical Times for the piece shows the composer a long way below his best Musical News and Herald. The Council hope the Members will not be inconvenienced by this new (Io-in.). A pleasant old fiddle work in Tartini's arrangement, which will come into operation on Sonata in G minor is excellently played by Madame April I and continue until further notice.-Yours Ren6e Chemet, with Miss Marguerite Delcourt at the obediently, H. A. HARDING, pianoforte. On a Io-in., d.-s., are recorded two March, 1921. Hon. Secretaiy. Hebridean Folk-songs, arranged for violin and pianoforte by Mrs. Kennedy-Fraser, and beautifully played by Miss Marjorie Hayward. 'The Island SIR WALTER PARRATT Sheiling Song' is a lovely melody. At the meeting of the R.C.O. Council on March 12, The Columbia record (I2-in., d.-s.) of Gervase the following resolution was proposed by Sir Elwes singing Farrar's 'Brittany,' and the capital Frederick Bridge, seconded by Dr. W. G. Alcock, old song of Hook, 'Listen to the voice of Love,' and carried unanimously: excellent in itself, will be doubly prized as 'the sound That the hon. secretary be requested to convey the of a voice that is still.' hearty congratulations of the Council to Sir Walter From the same firm comes a fine record of the Parratt on the honour recently conferred upon him by 'Toreador Song' from 'Carmen,' sung by Riccardo His Majesty The King, and to express their pleasure Stracciari, and a Columbia Io-in., d.-s., gives us the that he is still able to render such valuable service to London String Quartet, in the first two movements of the art he has so long adorned. Mozart's Quartet in D minor. The second movement is the more successful of the two, owing to some of the soft passages in the first being too soft. The RHYTHM IN HYMN-TUNES playing throughout is notable for delicacy and finish. By C. F. ABDY WILLIAMS Some capital string records come from the AEolian- Vocalion Co. Sammons plays brilliantly in a Old customs die hard. Naturally, for man is couple of pieces by Kreisler, 'Tambourin Chinois' instinctively conservative. We have lately dis- and 'Caprice Viennois' (I2-in., d.-s.). The same covered flourishing in country districts an player joins Frank St. Leger in the first movement interesting survival of the idea that in hymn-tunes of Grieg's C minor Sonata for violin and pianoforte, the printed notation is sacred and inviolable: a fine bit of playing, with the instruments well- that it is to be adhered to with metronomic balanced. precision at all costs ; that if the choir and congre- Save when treated as a purely melodic instrument, gation find it difficult to cope (for .example) with the violoncello offers a problem which composers Long Measure tunes, so much the worse for choir frequently fail to solve. Here for example is a record and congregation. The tune is all right, for it is of the slow movement of Rachmaninoff's Sonata in printed so. Each musical phrase ends with a minim ; E flat for violoncello and pianoforte, played by Felix no pause or rest is printed ; therefore, with breathless Salmond and Frank St. Leger. The violoncello part haste, we must proceed to the next phrase. Only at as a whole lies rather low, and the pianoforte part the end of a verse may we pause and recover some- consists largely of biggish chords rather high on the thing of our breath ; but the pace having been once keyboard. The result is that the violoncello part set, it is sometimes a little difficult to check it even comes badly off, and the expressive movement suffers here. from this displacement of the centre of interest. So the choir is trained to sing the Long Measure Mr. Frederick Ranalow's singing of a couple of tune without a break, getting its breath as best it Somerset Folk-songs, ' Bingo ' and ' Admiral can, and the congregation, whose aesthetic sense Benbow,' arranged by Cecil Sharp, is recorded on a rebels, pants after choir and organ, like a dog io-in., d.-s. /E.-V. 'Bingo' is particularly jolly. chained to a gig behind a fast-trotting horse ; but, more fortunate than the dog, it can retire from the E. B. & T. E. G,-I have not heard the records you contest when it will. mention, but will look out for them. If they lead me to modify my opinion as to the reproduction of brass tone, so Musical rhythm certainly consists, as some define much the better. it, in an orderly array of equal time-divisions. On UPTON.--(I) For obvious reasons I cannot use this the whole this definition is as good as any other. column for the recommending of any particular 'make' of But there is a thing called human nature which is gramophone. (2) I believe there are very few records of always upsetting our theoretical calculations; and choral music of the type you mention. I will make inquiries. human nature, while it accepts a well-regulated arrangement of time-divisions, rejects, both on The MS. score of J. L. Hatton's opera 'The Queen of physical and aesthetic grounds, an unbroken succes- the Thames,' has been presented to the Liverpool Public sion of thirty-two equal notes. In the first place, Library by Mr. G. L. Hatton, the composer's grandson. such a succession has no breathing places; in the J. L. Hatton was a native of Liverpool. second, the mind has no resting places. This This content downloaded from 128.197.26.12 on Tue, 03 May 2016 18:20:53 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 276 THE MUSICAL TIMES-APRIL I 1921 necessity for the mind can be shown in other than retains this sign in his organ arrangements of musical matters. For instance, let anyone place chorales, though he makes it impossible to observe thirty-two pins in a row at a small but equal space it. This seems a hint that the great Bach himself from one another, and let him retire to a little was no worshipper of the printed text to the detri- distance and count them with the eye alone. He ment of the musical spirit. It is possible that will find that the eye requires 'resting-places for the English editors were fearful lest fermata signs should mind' in order to carry out even so simple an be overdone and become a nuisance; they undoubtedly operation as this. considerably lengthen the Lutheran service. And No doubt it will be said that the harmonic con- some of our organists, looking to the text, the whole struction of such a tune affords 'resting-places for text, and nothing but the text, ride roughshod over the mind' in its closes. But this is not enough. To aesthetic considerations, in spite of the shoals of satisfy human nature there must be some kind of books and articles and lectures that are constantly break in so long a succession of equal sounds, apart being published dealing with the proper rendering of from the physical necessity for providing breathing- Church music. places. When the type of organist we have in mind sees When did this tendency to observe the letter of a printed ferrmaa he is puzzled as to its exact 'value' the print to the detriment of the spirit of the music in terms of the notes that are being sung.