A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Service
SERVICE. In matters relating to the Church this word is used in two totally different senses; first, as a rough translation of Officium, Ordo, Ritus, as when we say Communion-service, Ordination-service, and so on; next as a purely musical term, as when we say 'Wesley's Service in E,' etc. It is with this latter application of the word only that we have here to deal.
A Service may be defined as a collection of musical settings of the canticles and other portions of the liturgy which are by usage allowed to be set to free composition. The term therefore excludes all versicles or responses, or other portions founded on plainsong; all chants, whether Gregorian or Anglican; and all anthems, as their words are not necessarily embodied in the liturgy, but selected at will. On the other hand, it includes the Nicene Creed, Gloria in excelsis, and other portions of the liturgy which have from the most ancient times received a more or less free musical treatment.
The origin of the acceptance of the term in this limited musical sense is somewhat obscure. The gradual disuse of distinctive names of offices—such, for instance, as Matins, Vespers, Mass, etc.—after the Reformation, helped to bring the generic word 'service' into very general use; and it has therefore been supposed that musicians called their compositions 'services' because they were set to certain unvarying portions of the church 'services.' But this explanation is far from satisfactory, for obvious reasons; it gives too much latitude to the term, and offers no reason why it should ever have become limited to its present meaning. But a much more simple explanation is possible if the popular use of the word 'service' be looked into. Originally signifying the duty rendered by servant or slave, it afterwards became used roughly for the persons rendering the service, just as we now hear people speak of the 'Civil Service,' meaning the body of men who do the service, and of a 'service' of railway trains, meaning a regular group or succession. From this conception the word obtains a further meaning of a 'set' of things having a definite use; for example a 'dinner-service'—a 'set' of things for use at dinner; or, again, a 'service of plate'—a 'set' of gold or silver vessels, etc. Although an analogous meaning of the musical term seems not hitherto to have been suggested, its correctness appears so highly probable that we shall in future understand by 'service' merely a 'set' of canticles or other movements prepared by a composer for use at a complete function.
The fullest form of a set or service would include free musical compositions for (1) The Venite, (2) Te Deum, (3) Benedicite, (4) Benedictus, (5) Jubilate, (6) Kyrie eleison, (7) Nicene Creed, (8) Sanctus, (9) Gloria in excelsis; (10) Magnificat, (11) Cantate Domino, (12) Nunc Dimittis, (13) Deus Misereatur.
It will be necessary to say a few words about some of these movements separately before making any remarks on our services generally. The Venite has long since disappeared from the list of free compositions, and is now universally treated as one of the psalms, and sung to a chant instead of being rendered as a motet. In the form in which the Venite was printed in the Breviary may perhaps be traced the reason why many of our earliest church-composers after the Reformation, such as Tallis, Bevin, Bird, Gibbons, and others, left settings of the Venite in motet-form. But this treatment of the psalm was probably found to lengthen unduly the time occupied by the Matins; and it may also have been felt that an elaborate choral setting of these particular words seriously injured their force as an invitation to join in public worship. On the whole it is not a matter for regret that the Venite now takes its place merely as an introductory psalm. It is perhaps worthy of remark that the custom, still prevalent in many parts of the country, of singing the Venite only, and then reading the psalms for the day, may be the slowly dying tradition of a time when the Venite was sung to a special musical setting. Those who maintain this custom should at least open their eyes to the absurdity of inviting people to 'sing unto the Lord,' and then permitting them only to say the psalms.
The free setting of the Benedicite omnia opera did not long maintain its ground, owing probably to its excessive length. Purcell set this canticle, and it is even now occasionally sung to his music; Blow also wrote an elaborate Benedicite in his Service in E minor. But the canticle itself fell for a long time into neglect, and when revived, it was sung either to a chant in triple measure, or to a 'single' chant, or to a Gregorian tone having a 'short ending.' Hayes contributed one of the earliest triple-measure chants.
The Gloria in excelsis, though set to music by Tallis, fell almost entirely out of the 'service' owing to the loss of choral celebrations of the Holy Communion. On their resumption during the last few years the Gloria has once more been included in the set, after a long period of virtual disuse. The Kyrie eleison and Sanctus maintained their place in the set; the former because it was always sung at the so-called 'table-prayers' (that is, a Communion-office brought to a sudden conclusion at the end of the Creed, Sermon, or Prayer for the Church militant); the latter lived on as an introit, a duty it fulfilled at one time universally in our cathedrals; happily it has now been superseded by a short appropriate anthem or hymn.
The Jubilate completely ousted the Benedictus for a long period. The earliest writers of our Reformed Church—Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons, Bevin, Farrant, and others—set the Benedictus to music, but it was afterwards practically lost, until, within the last few years, a better feeling has restored it to the place which it should hold according to the spirit of the rubric, if not according to its letter.
The Cantate Domino and Deus misereatur may be said to have been in fashion from time to time. Both Blow and Purcell set these alternative canticles, and later Aldrich also; but they reached their highest popularity at the end of last and the early part of this century. At the present time they have again fallen somewhat into the background.
In addition to the contents of a service as above enumerated, the most modern composers add musical settings of the Offertory sentences, also of the Doxologies before and after the Gospel, and sometimes also of the Sursum Corda, Agnus Dei, and Benedictus. The Offertory sentences may perhaps be looked upon as a legitimate addition to the set, but the Gospel-doxologies and Sursum Corda have both their own ancient plainsong, and the Agnus Dei and Benedictus are not ordered by our rubric to be sung in the office of Holy Communion.
Having made these few remarks about the contents of a service, we must now discuss the musical character of our English services, assuming that a Te Deum, Benedictus (or Jubilate), Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis may be taken as the main framework of an ordinary service. It can hardly be doubted that Tallis, the chief of the early post-Reformation composers, was influenced, when setting his celebrated Te Deum in D minor, by the character of the then well-known Ambrosian Te Deum which Marbecke published in the 1550 Prayer-book. There can be traced an evident wish to form a melody, if not actually in a Church mode, in a tonality closely resembling one of them. Tallis also avoided contrapuntal devices (in which he was a distinguished expert), and limited within strict bounds the ambitus of his melody and the number of his harmonic combinations. Anybody who will take the trouble to compare his graceful and melodious anthems 'Hear the voice and prayer' and 'If ye love Me' with his Service, must perceive that he wrote his setting of the canticles under an evident self-imposed restraint. The whole of the Service was made to follow absolutely the style of the Te Deum, and the result is, that music of a dignified and ecclesiastical type has been produced—pure, perhaps, but certainly uninteresting. Led in this direction by so great and famous a composer as Tallis, many of his contemporaries and immediate successors followed in his footsteps, and English cathedrals possess a considerable store of plain contrapuntal services in minor keys. This style, the growth of the middle of the 16th century, has even been imitated by those modern purists who seem to think that the highest function of an art consists in founding factories of sham antiques, It is often a matter of surprise to those untutored in the narrow traditions of our cloisters why such glorious canticles as the Te Deum and Magnificat should be so often sung to music of the most sad and sombre description. The explanation now becomes simple. The oldest known Te Deum was in the Phrygian mode; Tallis wrote his setting in an irregular Doric mode; his followers, having lost the knowledge of the church modes, used the minor keys instead; the fashion, once started, kept its hold on church musicians for a considerable period. These 'minor' settings of the canticles will, however, sometimes be found remarkably suitable for use in penitential seasons, or in times of public calamity—a contracted but respectable sphere of utility.
Closely following the class of services just described comes the strict contrapuntal school, of which 'Gibbons in F' forms such a noble example. Gibbons has not found so many imitators as would be expected, but the real reason probably lies in the fact that his counterpoint is so remarkably smooth and fine that it is not an easy task to follow in his steps. Tallis died in 1585, Gibbons in 1625—just forty years later; a change or growth of musical style might therefore have been expected at the latter date. It must not be thought that Gibbons was the first to write the 'pure contrapuntal' service; a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Dr. Tye (who was organist to Edward VI.) show that he transferred his motet-style without any change to his settings of these canticles, which consist almost entirely of short 'points' or phrases of four-part imitation. This is just what Gibbons did, but he threw more melodic freedom and greater breadth into his work, and therefore it has lived, while Tye's Magnificat is only known to antiquarians.
Half a century after the death of Gibbons the settings of the canticles had become merely meaningless collections of short 'points'; and, instead of running on with dignified continuity, the music came to be broken up into a number of small sections, for voices soli alternately with, or in frequent contrast to, short choruses. The influence of the French school, which had the most disastrous effects on English anthems, affected the services also, though to a lesser degree. The services of Purcell and Blow may be considered typical of both the virtues and vices of this school,—melodious, but restless and purposeless.
Seven years before the death of Blow a man was born, who, without possessing any special musical gifts, was destined to bring about a vast change in the character of services; that man was the very second-rate Charles King. The only possible way of accounting for the enormous popularity of his services is to view them as a protest against contrapuntal devices, and as a restoration of simplicity, even if the simplicity is closely allied to weakness. To the influence of King we probably owe two short but beautiful settings from the pen of Dr. Boyce (who died about thirty years after him); one is in the key of C, the other in A.
The next development of the form and character of services was the forerunner of the present 'dramatic' school. Attwood deserves an important place in any sketch of the history of services for his bold attempt to attach to the words music which should vary as their character. This had of course been done to some extent before his time, but nearly always with a polite leaning to the conventionalities of the past; Attwood struck out a fresh path. This fact should be borne in mind by those who are disposed to criticise severely the weak points in his services. Attwood died in 1838, and we soon find ourselves face to face with S. S. Wesley, whose Service in E has been, and is, a model for many living writers; and he has been followed by a large group of living composers, all of whom are striving to produce services in which the natural emotions called up by the character of the words shall be reflected in unartificial music. From the above sketch it will be seen that the service has gone through some such stages of growth as the following:—
- Early simple harmonic (Tallis, Patrick, and others).
- Early contrapuntal (Gibbons and others).
- Late contrapuntal (Blow, Purcell, and others).
- Late simple harmonic (King, Boyce, and others).
- Modern dramatic (Attwood, Wesley, and others).
Yet these divisions, although well-marked in the works of the leaders of each school, are completely broken down by that large number of composers who have either followed some previous school implicitly, or have combined the characteristics of several.
It has already been stated that Gibbons had but few imitators, yet his influence on both Child and Creyghton is distinctly marked. These two musicians were born early in the 17th century, Child in 1606, Creyghton in 1639. The services by Child in the keys of F and G followed the cheerful bright character of Gibbons; the same remark applies to the well-known Service in E♭ by Creyghton. In each of these cases a major key has been selected and the gloomy colouring of the earliest school entirely discarded. When King tried his hand at counterpoint he generally made a sad mess of it, hence his Service in C and his Service in F (especially the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis) are those which were most liked, and to them was principally due the initiation of the later simple harmonic style. To this school Dr. Cooke, organist of Westminster Abbey (b. 1734) contributed a most useful service in the key of G. The Te Deum of the deservedly popular Service in F by Henry Smart proves how much breadth and dignity can be thrown into the 'late simple harmonic' style by the hand of genius; other portions of the sefvice, especially the Benedictus and Nicene Creed belong to the modern dramatic school.
One of the finest, if not the finest setting of the Te Deum and Jubilate to which the English Church can point, is that by Croft, in A. It combines a suitable variety of sentiment with a dignified unity as a whole; and while in turn it is plaintive, penitential, or joyous, it bursts at the close of the Gloria to the Jubilate into a rich fugato highly artistic and effective.
It has been asserted that our modern church-composers have had placed before them the same problem which confronted Palestrina, and are solving it in the wrong way. This is not the case. The real question is broadly this—Should church-music be a level unvarying vehicle for supporting the sacred words, or should it strive to illustrate them? Or, in other words—Should it be a passive receptacle, a mere unobjectionable frame to which the words are to be fitted, or should the music be an active and appropriate comment on the text? The question is not one which can be answered off-hand; all that we can do here is to chronicle the fact that our modern composers have adopted the latter view, and are striving to do for sacred music what the 'romantic' school did for the secular branch. If modern writers of services can be sometimes charged with sentimentality, they can retort that they at least do not exhibit primitive dreariness. Palestrina had to choose between the frivolous artificialities which had then burdened church-music, and the classical style of his own adoption; not between a classical style and a romantic style not then dreamed of. A careful balancing of the various merits of different characters of services will, it is to be hoped, lead our modern writers to form an eclectic school which shall avoid weak sentimentality on the one side, and orthodox dryness on the other. But controversy on this subject has for the last few years been running very high, and opposing parties are not in that temper of mind which can contemplate eclecticism as desirable.
The use of the full orchestra in our cathedrals and churches, which has become common during the last few years, has called into existence a considerable number of festival settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis; these are distinctly modern in character of course, but are for the most part admirable specimens of their kind.
It rarely happens that any foreigner attempts to enter the mysterious boundaries of English service-music; yet Mendelssohn ventured upon the step. His Te Deum and Jubilate in A, Magnificat in B♭ and Nunc Dimittis in E♭, are evident attempts to follow a style to which he had no doubt been attracted by his occasional visits to St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey. Of these four canticles, the Te Deum is unquestionably the finest, the last portion reaching a high standard of beauty and pathos. The contrapuntal writing of the Magnificat is exceedingly clever, especially the fugue to the words 'as he promised'; the Nunc Dimittis is rather spoilt than improved by the reintroduction of the prayer 'Lord now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,' after the triumphal burst 'To be a light to lighten the Gentiles.' But the whole work is published in octavo form and takes its place amongst the services on the music-lists of our principal cathedrals, a strong evidence of its appreciation by our conservative church musicians.
Those who desire to study the literature of services will find ample materials in Barnard's Collection (imperfect and rare); Boyce's Collection of Cathedral Music, 3 vols.; Arnold's Collection, 3 vols.; Rimbault's Collection of Services, 1 vol.; Ouseley's Collection of Services, 1 vol.; various manuscripts in our cathedrals. Full information as to Barnard's Collection will be found under the head Barnard, vol. i. p. 140 of this Dictionary; to each of the succeeding collections above named interesting biographical notices are attached, for the most part extremely correct. Ouseley has given a notice of Richard Farrant as the composer of an 'early simple harmonic' Service in D minor; this however was composed by a 'Mr. Farrant of Salisbury,' not by Richard Farrant; they were probably near relatives.
The rapid growth of music which has taken place in all our parish churches during the last few years has called into existence a new class of 'congregational' settings of the Canticles, under the name of Chant-services. The need of them was felt a century ago, when 'Jackson in F,' their true forerunner, first appeared; no wonder that worshippers were glad on the one hand to escape from the 'reading' of the Te Deum by parson and clerk, and on the other hand from the cathedral service in which they could take no part. And it must be admitted also that the weakest chant-service is an improvement on the system of singing the canticles to single or double chants. It would not be fair to criticise modern chant-services; their authors have produced them as works of utility, not of art; and their need is still so pressing that composers of ability who are willing to lay aside their own artistic aims and don the strait-jacket of a congregation's limited requirements and powers deserve all encouragement and gratitude.
Instead of finding the terms 'chorus' and 'solo' in the older services, we find 'full' and 'verse'; the former explains itself, but the latter is curious, and the origin of its use in this sense has never been satisfactorily explained. [See Verse.]