" One indignant and disgusted church attendant thus
profanely recorded in church his views:--
"Written out of temper on a Pannel in one of the Pues in Salem Church:--
"Could poor King David but for once
To Salem Church repair;
And hear his Psalms thus warbled out,
Good Lord, how he would swear
"But could St Paul but just pop in,
From higher scenes abstracted,
And hear his Gospel now explained,
By Heavens, he'd run distracted."
These lines were reprinted in the "American Apollo" in 1792.
The repetition of a word or syllable in fuguing often lead to some
ridiculous variations in the meanings of the lines. Thus the words--
"With reverence let the saints appear
And bow before the Lord,"
were forced to be sung, "And bow-wow-wow, And bow-ow-ow," and so on until
bass, treble, alto, counter, and tenor had bow-wowed for about twenty
seconds; yet I doubt if the simple hearts that sung ever saw the absurdity.
It is impossible while speaking of fuguing to pass over an extraordinary
element of the choir called "singing counter." The counter-tenor parts in
European church-music were originally written for boys' voices. From
thence followed the falsetto singing of the part by men; such was also
the "counter" of New England. It was my fortune to hear once in a country
church an aged deacon "sing counter".
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