" Many prominent clergymen wrote
essays and tracts upon the subject; of these essays "The Reasonableness of
Regular Singing," also a "Joco-serious Dialogue on Singing," by Reverend
Mr. Symmes; "Cases of Conscience," compiled by several ministers; "The
Accomplished Singer," by Cotton Mather, were the most important. "Singing
Lectures" also were given in many parts of New England by various prominent
ministers. So high was party feud that a "Pacificatory Letter" was
necessary, which was probably written by Cotton Mather, and which soothed
the troubled waters. The people who thought the "old way was the best" were
entirely satisfied when they were convinced that the oldest way of all was,
of course, by note and not by rote.
This naive extract from the records of the First Church of Windsor,
Connecticut, will show the way in which the question of "singing by rule"
was often settled in the churches, and it also gives a very amusing glimpse
of the colonial manner of conducting a meeting:--
"July 2. 1736. At a Society meeting at which Capt. Pelatiah Allyn
Moderator. The business of the meeting proceeded in the following manner
Viz. the Moderator proposed as to the consideration of the meeting in the
1st Place what should be done respecting that part of publick Woiship
called Singing viz. whether in their Publick meetings as on Sabbath day,
Lectures &c they would sing the way that Deacon Marshall usually sung in
his lifetime commonly called the 'Old Way' or whether they would sing the
way taught by Mr.
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