Reverence for the place and song, and
respect for the singer alike failed to control the irrepressible start
of amazement and smile of amusement with which we greeted the weird and
apparently demented shriek which rose high over the voices of the choir,
but which did not at all disconcert their accustomed ears. Words, however
chosen, would fail in attempting to describe the grotesque and uncanny
sound.
It is very evident, when once choirs of singers were established and
attempts made for congregations to sing the same tune, and to keep
together, and upon the same key, that in some way a decided pitch must be
given to them to start upon. To this end pitch-pipes were brought into the
singers' gallery, and the pitch was given sneakingly and shamefacedly to
the singers. From these pitch-pipes the steps were gradual, but they led,
as the Puritan divines foresaw, to the general introduction of musical
instruments into the meetings.
This seemed to be attacking the very foundations of their church; for the
Puritans in England had, in 1557, expressly declared "concerning singing of
psalms we allow of the people joining with one voice in a plain tune, but
not in tossing the psalms from one side to the other with mingling of
organs." The Round-heads had, in 1664, gone through England destroying the
noble organs in the churches and cathedrals.
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