Is Our Sunday-School Music Deteriorating?

by George Whelpton

It would be less difficult to write on the subject of Sunday-school music if I had a clearer conception of the modern purpose of music in the Sunday-school. Is it educational? Is it for the elevating and refining influence of music upon the developing taste of unfolding life at its most impressionable period? Is it for the purpose of familiarizing young people with the great hymns of the church, developing a churchly musical taste, and preparing them for future service in the musical life of the church? Or is it, chiefly, to enliven the Sunday-school, add crispness to the opening exercises and make them entertaining to the adult element of the church? Judging from the predominating character of the music in most Sunday-schools of to-day, I am led to believe that the latter is the case; that the relationship of the music of the Sunday-school to that of the church is lost to consideration. The music now in prevalent use in Sunday-schools does not inspire devotional feeling nor reverence for the church, and does not lead to familiarity with the hymns of the church.

A Generation Ago Music Was Churchly

Forty years ago the music of the Sunday-school was on a far more churchly basis. It was a part of the worship. While the hymns of the church were much used, there was no lack of distinctively Sunday-school music by such writers as Bradbury, Woodbury, Perkins, Root, Emerson and Palmer—music of good character that appealed to the musical taste of the young and trained it in the direction of the music of the church. In those days the average child in his early 'teens knew more of the important hymns of the church than the average church member of 40 to-day. Another striking contrast is that in those days it was the chief ambition of young church people to sing in the choir of the church. Consequently, every church had a large volunteer chorus choir and hearty, inspiring choir and congregational singing was the rule. This was the prevailing condition of music in the church and Sunday-school when the late Dwight L. Moody, the greatest of modern evangelists, began his work in this country.

There never has been a deep religious awakening that has not made music its handmaid. When Martin Luther began his great work of the Reformation, one of his first steps was the adaptation of scriptural texts to some of the best music of the Roman Catholic Church. It was not his purpose, he said, to abolish music in worship, but to show what was churchly and how it should be used. A practical knowledge of the science of music enabled Luther not only to do this, but to provide for himself music that would be most helpful in the work he had before him; and it is worthy of notice that the work done by him at this time gave to music, as a means of worship, a new aspect and was of permanent benefit to the church.

Gospel Hymns Grew Out of Moody's Work

Mr. Moody's appreciation of music in connection with his work was no less than that of Luther's and his dependence upon it even greater; but, unlike Luther, he could not create it for himself. He, however, possessed the power of arousing others, capable of doing this, to an appreciation of his needs and inspiring them with the enthusiasm necessary to meet them. The result was the birth of the gospel hymns which created a new era in church music in this country. Ministers, laymen and Sunday-school workers, whose emotional feelings had been thrilled by these hymns in Mr. Moody's meetings, urged them upon their churches and Sunday-schools and their use soon became almost universal. They did not appreciate the fact that such hymns as "Go Bury Thy Sorrow," "Almost Persuaded," "It Is Well with My Soul," and "Where Is My Wandering Boy To-night?"—hymns that Mr. Moody used with such wonderful effect at the psychological moment—did not express the normal sentiments of Christian life, or come within the vision and experience of the youth of the Sunday-school. Mr. Moody clearly foresaw that such use of these hymns would demoralize the music of the church and did everything in his power to prevent it. I never heard him speak more earnestly than when he said: "These gospel hymns are intended for the work I am doing, not for the church, prayer meeting or Sunday-school, and no one regrets more than I that they are ever used there. Church members have no right to spend their time singing these hymns and they certainly have no place in the Sunday-school.' If this be true of the gospel hymns used by Mr. Moody how much more true must it be of the inferior imitations that have appeared since his day? Revival hymns have followed one another with remarkable rapidity, until the whole country seems to be flooded with them. As the musical taste of the people who have created a demand for this kind of literature has deteriorated, its quality has declined to such an extent that the enterprising compilers of these books have to rake the gutters of the vaudeville and concert halls of our large cities to find music bad enough to satisfy it. For this demoralization the traveling evangelist is in no small degree responsible. It is, chiefly, this kind of music that he makes use of, and when he closes a religious campaign in a city a good supply is left with the church and Sunday-schools to continue the demoralizing influence so auspiciously begun.

Another source of corruption no less disastrous to the churchly musical education of young people is the catchy rhythmical ragtime music now finding its way into many Sunday-schools. With scarcely an exception, the text is without literary or educational value, and the music of a decidedly cabaret character. It is a psychological fact that the nervous system of both human beings and animals is acutely sensitive and responsive to rhythmical impressions. The use of music in the circus is not so much to entertain the people as to stimulate the nervous system of the animals and make them more responsive in the performance of their tricks. In a greater degree is the. nervous system of human beings similarly affected by the rhythmical movement of a composition. The more pronounced the rhythm the more the nervous system is excited. It is not the melody or harmony of dance music that sets the feet in motion, but the rhythm. The less knowledge people have of music as an art and science, the more they are influenced by the rhythm. This is the chief though unrecognized reason for the demand for such music as I have described; yet it is this musical taste that is in a position to dominate the music of the Sunday-school. When a new book is to be selected people of such taste are appointed to select it. Educated musicians are not consulted because their tastes are too classical The children are not consulted because they are not supposed to know what they should sing. The educational value of music and its influence on unfolding life receives no consideration. The effect of the Sunday-school music of to-day upon the church of the next generation is of no importance. The chief ambition is to get the latest sensation of the coming evangelist, or a book of similar character exploited at some Sunday-school convention.

Boys Mistake Theater for Sunday-School Music

Not long ago the superintendent of a country Sunday-school, an advocate of music of this character, took his two little boys to town one afternoon and let them amuse themselves while he transacted some business. They had not gone far when they heard a phonograph grinding out ragtime melodies at the entrance of a cheap picture show. They looked at each other in surprise, as it was not Sunday, and one of them finally said: "Let's go in, Jimmie; they're having Sunday-school."

While this may seem amusing on the surface it is a serious matter at the root and should cause anxious reflection on the part of those who are responsible for it. "Whatsoever ye sow that shall ye reap" applies to the affairs of the church as well as to the affairs of the world.

Children go to Sunday-school for religious instruction and churchly training; not to sing cheap gospel songs and light, catchy music for the entertainment of their elders. The Sunday-school has no more right to deprive them of the opportunity of learning the important hymns of the church than our educational institutions have to deprive them of the privilege of acquaintance with the standard literature of the day; no more right to put into their hands senseless doggerel poetry and ragtime music than have our libraries to force upon them the demoralizing yellow peril literature that springs from the same source.

The best of the modern revival hymns serve only a temporary purpose and only few of them can be used to advantage in the Sunday-school. They appeal to a mature emotional sentiment and do not come within the experience, taste and imagination of childhood. Young people need to have emphasis placed on the idea of praise, gratitude, reverence, service and heroic living. Every model Sunday-school hymn is a word picture, set to music to develop its perspective and enhance its effect. Our first, clearest and most beautiful view of heaven is obtained through the singing of such hymns, and they afford the finest kind of religious instruction. If, therefore, children can get so much theology through hymnology, why not permit them to study more the riches and beauty of our best hymn books, instead of forcing upon them hymns that mean nothing to them and have a demoralizing effect upon their developing literary and musical taste?

Every musical instructor of children knows that they prefer to study and sing good music. In a New England village not long since I heard a rendition of The Messiah by 150 school children from 12 to 16 years of age. They sang the soprano and alto of the choruses, the other parts being supplied by the orchestra. The solos were sung by some of the best soloists of the State. These children had met, voluntarily, twice a week for rehearsals for six months preparing for this concert. As I heard them sing these great choruses I was filled with shame for the church when I thought of the great multitude of her children in the Sunday-school who never heard anything better than a revival hymn or a ragtime melody. For this condition those who select the music for the Sunday-school are directly responsible. And there can be no improvement until the present objectionable music is eliminated and the standard hymns of the church, interspersed with distinctively Sunday-school music of an elevating and churchly character, take its place.—From The Continent.