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MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1867. Regular Meeting. 

 Vice President GOODEIX in the chair. 



Mr. A. C. Goodell, jr., read a paper on the Progress of Sacred Mu- 

 sic in New England from its earliest settlement to the beginning of 

 the present century. 



The history of Puritan psalmody begins with the Reformation, when 

 the great innovators of doctrines and disciplines invaded the choirs 

 as they had the altars, and divided the services of both between the 

 preacher and. the congregation. 



The reformed music, though much derided by the cathedral priests, 

 is now universally praised by competent critics for its sublimity and 

 peculiar fitness. A recent principal of the Royal Academy of Music 

 has declared, in a critical review of music, that "the pure sacred 

 strains " such as the " old Hundredth psalm," and the tunes " London," 

 " Windsor," etc., and those made in imitation of them, "are alone 

 worthy of study." 



The work of the Reformation was greatly aided by them, and these 

 were the tunes with which our Puritan fathers were familiar, and 

 which they brought with them to these shores as among their most 

 sacred treasures. 



A copy of Thomas Ravenscroft's collection of tunes dated 1621, con- 

 taining the autograph of Gov. Endicott, and now in the Mass. Histor- 

 cal Society's Library, was next described as a work showing a very 

 thorough and correct knowledge of musical science on the part of the 

 composers, as well as of the singers who used it ; and the use of this 

 book, several copies of which are still preserved in old libraries in 

 New England, as well as many other facts, were adduced to show that 

 the earliest settlers of New England were good musicians ; and the 

 Puritans of England were also shown to be proficients in music, not- 

 withstanding the modern opinion to the contrary. But the second 

 and third generations in New England lost much of what their fathers 

 and grandfathers knew, including the use of instruments with which 

 many of the first settlers were familiar, but which had become so 

 neglected in 1673, that the Commissioners for Plantations reported that 

 there were then " no musicians by trade " in the whole colony. 



Music in the New England congregations was entirely vocal from 

 the first. At Salem, Aiusworth's psalms were used until 1667, and 

 in Plymouth until 1692. These were provided with tunes printed to 

 accompany the verses, so that it was not necessary to line out the 

 psalm in these places, as had been the custom in other places 

 where the Bay Psalm book (without music) was used. Ainsworth's 

 version contained forty-four tunes. 



