198.—"ENGLYSHE MEETRE."
Dr. Christopher Tye, a prominent musician of the time of "good Queen Bess" once undertook to set to music the Acts of the Apostles. This was no slight task; but the good old doctor plodded through fourteen chapters and then gave it up. His reasons for undertaking such an endless and thankless task is told on the title page as follows:—
"The Actes of the Apotles, tranflated into Englyſhe meetre, and dedicated to the kynge's moft excellente majeſtye, by Criſtfer Tye, doctor in musyke, and one of the gentylmen of hys grace's moſte honourable chapell, wyth notes to eche chapter, to ſynge, and alſo to playe upon the flute, very neceſſary for ſtudentes after their ſtudye, to ſyte theyr wyttes and alſoe for all Chriſtians that cannot ſynge, to reade the good and godlye ſtoryes of the lives of Chriſt and his apoſtles."
One verse will suffice to show the improvements that were made on the usual reading in order to get the Scripture into "Englyſhe meetre." It reminds one of the arrangements of the Psalms in the books of certain Psalm-singing sects. The verse quoted is the first of the fourteenth chapter.
"It chanced in Iconium,
As they oft tymes dyd uſe,
Together they into dyd come
The ſynagogue of Jues;
Where they dyd preache and only ſeke
God's grace then to atcheve,
That they so spake to Jue and Greke
That manye dyd beleve."
Composers now-a-days think they must have words that furnish some inspiration. What would they do if confined to such a libretto as the above sample?
But those were the days of counterpoint, of the mathematical in music; and the composer wrote his vocal fugue without reference to the sentiment of the words. Though Händel wrote much that was expressive of feeling, we defy one to find much sentiment in some of his works. Take the "Amen," "All We Like Sheep," and "For Unto Us," choruses in the "Messiah," for example. They are simply fugues, set to words, to be sure, but essentially instrumental in character. No one would think of writing that style of vocal music now-a-days. The day of writing instrumental music for voices is past. Our time demands true sentiment in words and a corresponding sentiment in the music.