222 Contemporary Evolution. 



Gregorian Church singing. In sculpture, the reversion 

 has been less marked, yet it may be traced in many mon- 

 umental effigies. 



Still, nothing we have yet seen is, it must be confessed, 

 very encouraging. In order that this artistic evolution 

 should follow the general law, it should present us with 

 examples of a progress from a comparatively undiffer- 

 entiated and simple beginning to a complex and hetero- 

 geneous result. 



Now as regards MUSIC, the very controversies which 

 take place about it show that we have arrived at a new 

 conception ; namely, the appropriateness of different styles 

 for different purposes. When the Gregorian style was 

 young, it was the general style of the day, and had no 

 special sacredness. 



Similarly, the styles which succeeded were forms of 

 the fashion of their period, and the praises of love or 

 wine were celebrated in the same manner as the praise of 

 Christ and His saints. We have, then, now a new idea to 

 work upon, with immensely enriched materials, and music 

 is becoming curiously and deliberately Christian in a way 

 it never was before. Gregorian singing and the music of 

 Palestrina are made use of with a distinctly Christian 

 feeling and intention ; and however different may be the 

 musical expression of the Christian religious sentiment in 

 the time to come, the foundations of its distinctness are 

 already laid, and its differentiation is determined. 



