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BY GEORGE GARDNER, Archdeacon of Aston. ALL who desiro to popularise art-in particular to make England once more a music-loving country—ought to ses what an opportunity might here be i found. How much the Church might do in the direction of music, as in other ways, to let Emerson's wish come true!— U So shall the drudge in dusty frock Spy behind the city clock Retinues of airy kings, Skirts of angels, starry wings." In mediseval days forms and ideas of beauty not only centred in the vil- lage churches, as they were before tha .Great Pillage, but radiated oiit-from those wonderful buildings, bringing ele- ments of nobility and loveliness into the market-place and into the cottage. I" At present the cause of good music in England badly needs some such popu- larising influence. Many of our people, who might well respond, are perforce un- touched by what may be learned in the concert room or in the opera house. And it cannot be said that the more univer- sally favoured music hall, though it has ¡I advanced in many ways, does much, save in a quite sporadic fashion, to raise its frequenters out of a taste for the senti- mental alternating with the inane. The Church might here find a great oppor- tunity. There should be a quality about her music as well as., her architecture, which would seem to say, J All without is mean and small; All within is vast and tall." A Bad Tradition. Unfortunately, one cannot plead that the Church just now is doing any educa- tive work among the people of England in this respect. Somehow her music has got on wrong lines. From the cathedral down. to the mission room, English eccle- siastical music is largely under we domi- nation of a bad tradition, established rather more than half a century ago. And, as we have been recently told by an authoritative speaker, just the same is true about the Free Churches. In the opinion of many of us, this so- called" Viorian tradition" is in the main shallow and unprofitable. Now, can it be shown that such a stern judg- ment about what ha, unquestionable become dear to multitudes of people i3 grounded on definite reason? Or is it merely the opinion of a few high-flown and subtle experts ? Fortunately for ou.- present purpose the men about whose work and influence we are thinking did not merely write anthems, services and hymn tunes. They constructed larger works which made an appeal to the musi- cal world outside the Church. And the consensus of opinion of that musical world is that these productions were futile and insufferable. Can one con ceive that Stamer's Daughter of Jàirus, Barnby's Bebekah, or Macfarren's St. John the Baptist and Smart's Jacob will ever again be performed by' reasonable people or listened to with genuine relish ? They were written in a style that super- ficially appeared to say Something new. In reality their characteristics were largely derived from Spohr and Gounod and from the weaker side of Mendels- sohn. By the present generation these performances have been put into the limbo of things profitless and discarded. The same fate doubtless awaits the lesser efforts with which they and their count- less^ imitators have flooded the Church. Divided Partnerships. But ill-growths sometimes die hard. The hindrances to reform in well- endowed cathedrals ought not to be in- superable. There, however, the tendency is, one gathers, to regard an expedition into the wilderness of Palestrina and Byra as a sort of penitential effort, to be followed by a glad and immediate return to fat pastures such as Stainer in A or Barnby in E. In our parish churches the way to better things is often blocked by the involuntary obstruction of a divided partnership. The Rev. Speiilow declares that he has every sympathy with the new ideas about Church song, and that he longs to see them put into prac- tice in his church, but his organist is hopelessly wedded to the present order of things and cannot be induced to attempt any change. Or Mr. Jorkins, Mus. Bac., F.R.C.O., tells you that he is hindered at every step by his vicar's resolve to keep in the old paths, and by that good man's insatiable craving for what is pretty and sentimental. Thus all ad- vance to better things is stopped. Yet if we go on in our present ruts, if we continue to neglect what is old and strong in favour of weak modern stuff, now rapidly losing its first superficial attractiveness, the Church will dis- hearten many of her own keen suppor- ters, and she will never do anything to encourage an intelligent and wholesome love of music in the nation. I would suggest that the thoughtful laity should more often make their in- fluence felt. Let them protest against the weak, pretentious stuff in the way of anthems and canticles that is often chosen to gratify the ambitions of a choir. ,Let them ask for hymns and for tunes that have in them good sense and virility. Among those who order the I music in our churches there is often a feeling, latent or explicit, that drastic amendment of their ws&s ss needed* I

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