Excerpt from The Reasonableness of Setting Forth the Most Worthy Praise of Almighty God, According to the Usage of the Primitive Church: With Historical Views of the Nature, Origin, and Progress of Metre Psalmody To counteract, 'or rather to direct our unt settled hearts, Which are too apt to desire un limited changes; and var1et1es 1n religious dir ties; such changes and varieties have, .from the beginning, been established by our-eccle smstical ancestors, as are well calculated to en gagethe afiections, enlighten the understand ing, and exhilerate the soul, during the times of its more immediatepreparation for entering upon the glory to be revealed. And there fore certain parts of the service are to be ut tored with a meek and humble vo'ice, others with the voice of 'firm faith'and' stedfast con fidence, and others with the elevated voice of triumphant joy and gladness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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This book presents, for the first time, a history of English liturgical chant as performed in the Church of England and its transmission to churches in Scotland and the United States. In the mid-sixteenth century Reformation, the complex ritual of the Latin rite was replaced by a one-volumeBook of Common Prayer in English. The general nature of the new rubrics, expecially for music, left many of the details of performance to be worked out in traditional ways. Thus the music evolved from its Latin roots in oral, and later written practice. The body of music that makes up the chantingpractice of Anglican and related churches around the world is indeed diversified. Some texts of the liturgy are harmonized in four or more voice parts, often with organ accompaniment, and others are sung in plainsong. The largest group of chants, those for the psalms and canticles, has anidiosyncratic written form and a performance practice that continues to evolve in oral tradition. This music is commonly known as Anglican chant. Its origins in the seventeenth century and its codification in the eighteenth are explored in the choral establishments of the Church of England andparish churches in England, Scotland, and the United States.

The history of American church music is a particularly fascinating and challenging subject, if for no other reason than because of the variety of diverse religious groups that have immigrated and movements that have sprung up in American. Indeed, for the first time in modern history-possibly the only time since the rule of medieval Iberia under the Moors-different faiths have co-existed here with a measure of peace- sometimes ill-humored, occasionally hostile, but more often amicable or at least tolerant-influencing and even weaving their traditions into the fabric of one another's worship practices even as they competed for converts in the free market of American religion. This overview traces the musical practices of several of those groups from their arrival on these shores up to the present, and the way in which those practices and traditions influenced each other, leading to the diverse and multi-hued pattern that is American church music at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The tone is non-technical; there are no musical examples, and the musical descriptions are clear and concise. In short, it is a book for interested laymen as well as professional church musicians, for pastors and seminarians as well as students of American religious culture and its history.

Urban Legends of Church History surveys forty of the most commonly misunderstood events of church history from the period of the early church through the modern age. While these “urban legends” sometimes arise out of falsehood or fabrication, they are often the product of an exaggerated recounting of actual historical events. With a pastoral tone and helpful explanations, authors John Adair and Michael Svigel tackle legendary misconceptions, such as the early church worshiping on Saturday and the unbroken chain of apostolic succession. Urban Legends of Church History will correct misunderstandings of key events in church history and guide readers in applying principles that have characterized the Christian church since the first century.