189 



The "lining" or " deaconing off" tlie verse was an obvious impedi- 

 ment to perfect melody. And though strongly defended by many of 

 the clergy, was probably one of the causes that led to the rise of a 

 body of anti-psalmists between 1640-1660. 



Music gradually grew worse ; the number of tunes used in public 

 worship was reduced to thirteen, and, in most congregations, no more 

 than three or four of these were ever attempted to be sung. The 

 hymn was lined and then sung by rote, as it was called, the whole con- 

 gregation joining, without regard to the rules of rhythm, melodjs or 

 dynamics, and with no knowledge of, or attempts at harmony. The 

 confusion that ensued was ludicrous in the extreme, and is described 

 by a contemporary, the Eev. Thomas Walter, as sounding "like five 

 hundred different tunes roared out at the same time." 



The date of the arrival of the Province Charter (1692) or of the rev- 

 olution of 1688 was described as an epoch in the history of music, as 

 well as in many other things enumerated. The first music printed in 

 New England appeared about 1690, and within about thirty years 

 thereafter a successful attempt was simultaneously made to introduce 

 "regular singing" or singing by note instead of the loose and incor- 

 rect rote singing which had prevailed. The action of the leaders in 

 this movement was narrated at considerable length. 



In 1710, the first mention of the use of organs in New England ap- 

 pears. The unpublished diary of Eev. Joseph Green of Danvers, now 

 in the possession of a member of the Institute, contains the following 

 entry under date of May 29, 1711: "I was at Mr. Thomas Brattle's 

 heard ye organs and saw strange things in a microscope." And in 

 1713, an organ was imported for King's Chapel in Boston, which lay 

 seven months in the porch before it was set up on account of the pub- 

 lic clamor against it. 



In 1743, the first organ was set up in Salem, in St. Peter's Church; 

 and in 1745, Edward Bi'omfield, of Boston, nearly completed the first 

 American-made organ, which was declared a very fine instrument of 

 1200 pipes and two banks of keys. And the first organ used outside 

 Episcopal churches was set up in Providence, E. I., in 1770. 



Competent musicians began to arrive here, and to spring up among 

 the population, and music books and books of musical instruction were 

 published here, — the first by Eev. John Tufts, of Newbury, in 1712. 



Details of the struggle to introduce regular singing were given, and 

 also an account of the early engravers of music. 



The American Eevolution was next asserted to be another epoch in 

 more respects than one ; and, as it approached, a movement led by 

 Eev. Lemuel Hedge, of Warwick, Mass., was made to abolish the 

 "lining out" process which had generally prevailed up to that time. 



