"
This "Squeaking above and Grumbling below" had become far too frequent in
the churches; Judge Sewall writes often with much self-reproach of his
failure in "setting the tune," and also records with pride when he "set the
psalm well." Here is his pathetic record of one of his mistakes: "He spake
to me to set the tune. I intended Windsor and fell into High Dutch, and
then essaying to set another tune went into a Key much to high. So I pray'd
to Mr. White to set it which he did well. Litchfield Tune. The Lord Humble
me and Instruct me that I should be the occasion of any interruption in the
worship of God."
The singing at the time must have been bad beyond belief; how much of its
atrocity was attributable to the use of "The Bay Psalm-Book," cannot now
be known. The great length of many of the psalms in that book was a fatal
barrier to any successful effort to have good singing. Some of them were
one hundred and thirty lines long, and occupied, when lined and sung, a
full half-hour, during which the patient congregation stood. It is told of
Dr. West, who preached in Dartmouth in 1726, that he forgot one Sabbath Day
to bring his sermon to meeting. He gave out a psalm, walked a quarter of a
mile to his house, got his sermon, and was back in his pulpit long before
the psalm was finished. The irregularity of the rhythm in "The Bay Psalm
Book" must also have been a serious difficulty to overcome.
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