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ing, it is essentially the same with others which are already in circulation, though with some minor changes, even in this respect, of which an account shall presently be given. But in the synoptical arrangement of the music and words, it is, to the best of the writer's belief, singular, with the exception only of a work which has been published with the title of "Cantica Vespera;" and which, as it originally suggested the idea of the present undertaking, would also have superseded its necessity but for the circumstance of its being unsuited to the Anglican Service.

So much having been said upon the general object of the volume, it is proposed to occupy the remainder of this preface with a very brief sketch of the history of Antiphonal Chanting; which, however incomplete, will not, it is hoped, be wholly without interest to the general reader.

The earliest recorded specimen of antiphonal chanting is that of the song of victory recited alternately by the companies of Moses and Miriam after the passage of the Red Sea. On this occasion, there appear to have been two quires, the one of men, led by Moses, the other of women, led by Miriam. song of "Moses and the children of Israel" having been concluded, Miriam and her attendants "answered them," repeating the burden of the strain, "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.' "" *

The

Another instance occurs in 1 Sam. xviii. 7, where, on David's return from the slaughter of Goliath, the women who came out "from all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music," are said to have" answered one another as they played," saying,

* Exod. xv. 1. 21.

"Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands." These are evidently corresponding verses, or clauses of the same verse, such as those in the Christian Service in which the Priest and people mutually take part.

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Nothing is directly said in Scripture of the manner in which psalmody was performed in the Temple worship prior to the Captivity. The choral regulations, however, seem to have very nearly resembled those of the Church at present, in involving, for instance, two orders of chanters besides the priests; the singers," who were sometimes of the tribe of Levi, (ecclesiastics,) and sometimes of the other tribes, (laics,) and their "sons," who, being of invariable number, * were probably boys under their direction. There would seem also to have been two corresponding quires, robed in white, with a "principal," or precentor. Thus we read (2 Chron. v. 12) of the "Levites which were the singers," who, "with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets." And the 12th chapter of Nehemiah, which contains an account of the restoration of the Temple worship after the ancient model (see verses 45 and 46), speaks of the "two companies of them that gave thanks in the house of God;" while, in the preceding chapter of the same Book, we read of "Mattaniah, the principal to begin the thanksgiving in prayer." (Nehem. xi. .17.) Moreover, at the solemnity of laying the foundationstone of the second Temple, it is evident that the 136th, or some similar Psalm, was performed antiphonally by the several divisions of the quire. For it is said that, "when the builders laid the foundation of

* 1 Chron. xxv. 8, &c. See Bedford's Temple Service.

the Temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid." (Ezra, iii. 10, 11.) Now, it is remarkable that the very same form of praise was used on the introduction of the Ark into the oracle by King Solomon at the consecration of the First Temple. "It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord saying, For He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever." The practice, then, of alternate chanting may fairly be considered as ancient as any regular institution of ceremonial worship. It formed certainly a part of the Temple, and, to all appearance, of the Tabernacle, Service; while the song of Moses and Miriam carries us back to yet more distant times, and was itself probably the remnant of earlier, as it is has become the precedent of later, usage.

Nor shall we wonder to find this method of psalmody adopted into a ritual which was founded on Divine revelation, and framed according to a heavenly pattern, seeing that the prophet Isaiah was permitted to contemplate, in a vision, the angels, as they stood crying "one to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory."

" *

* Is. vi. 2, 3.

A like sight is believed to have been vouchsafed in Christian times to S. Ignatius, the disciple of S. Peter, and his successor in the see of Antioch, who has accordingly been esteemed as the founder of the Antiphonal Chanting in the Catholic Church. Independently, however, of any such visible and express sanction of the practice, its known antiquity and prominence in the Mosaic Service of praise would alone give it a claim upon the dutiful reception of the early Christians. S. Paul makes mention twice* in his Epistles of the three kinds of sacred song which are in use among us at this very day, Psalms, Hymns, and Canticles. Moreover, that there were authorized psalms in the days of the Apostles, and, again, that individual members of congregations took part in the regular psalmody of the Church, appears from the censure passed upon the Corinthian Christians in 1 Cor. xiv. 26.

But, indeed, to say that the Psalms of David were in use at all in the Church of the Apostles, is almost the same with admitting the Apostolic authority of the antiphonal mode of recitation. For, as a learned writer has abundantly shewn,† the very structure and composition of the Psalms themselves is such as to imply distribution of parts. This is evident, at first sight, from such a Psalm as the 136th, where the latter half of each verse is plainly intended to be of a sung in the way choral response to the former. And the same observation applies partially to the 118th Psalm. Who, again, can doubt that a Psalm like the 24th, which consists almost wholly of question and answer, is most fitly distributed between two divisions of a quire, or between the Priest and congregation? Again, one Psalm (the 107th) repeats four times the same words; while another

Eph. v. 19; Col. ii. 16.

† Bedford's Temple Service.

(the 62nd) repeats twice a verse of praise proper for a chorus. In the 20th Psalm the first four verses contain blessings alternately pronounced upon each other by Priest and people, answering to the Catholic form of reciprocal benediction, "The Lord be with you."—" And with thy spirit." Next comes a chorus of the people, "We will rejoice in Thy salvation," &c. followed by a verse for the Priest, and this, again, by a final chorus of respondents. Some Psalms again, like the 135th and 150th, speak of praising God by particular persons, or instruments of music, and conclude with a general exhortation; the former verses being apparently divided between different portions of a quire, and the conclusion chanted in common.

A farther and very strong corroboration of this view of the ancient method of psalmody is in the fact that the Hebrew verb which, in Exod. xxxii. 18, Numb. xxi. 17, Ps. cxlvii. 7, and other places, is translated "sing," means properly, " to answer."

That the Psalms of David, then, were (in the Temple Service, at least,) not read, but sung, or chanted, and that they were intended for alternate recitation, may be fairly assumed; though it is still a question into what portions they were actually divided. In the primitive Church it was customary for the people to respond, not in the whole verse, but in the latter clause of it only, hence called an "acrostick;" and at other times the precentor alone chanted all the Psalms except the last, which the rest of the singers recited in chorus.* The former of these modes, by which single verses were split into corresponding sentences of praise or benediction, is represented among ourselves at this day by what are called the "suffrages," after the Creed and Lord's Prayer in *Bingham's Antiq. lib. xiv. c. 1.

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