Show I CHURCH MUSIC America has In recent years made giant strides in general music the contemptuous saying 0 sixty years agoVho reads an American booker could have been applied with tenfold force to the hearing of an American composition says Louis C Elson In the International Monthly for August Today To-day we have great composers even In the largest form of composition large symphony orchestras renowned string quartettes operatic performances equal to the best that Europe can hear It Is possible that It lE reserved for our country to break the fetters In which church music has been so long confined It Is not beyond the bounds of probability that the American churches may yet establish a musical service that shall contain within Itself the best artistic results that the ages have brought forth In every church and in every nation nalon But asks the timid Christian would not such a service be very like a concert In a certain sense yes Nevertheless f Handel oratorio and a Bach Passion Music Is also lee a concert though infinitely and dooply religions The miscellaneous concert and 4he secular jingles should alike be denied entrance within the walls of the sanctuary but every phase of the different dif-ferent schools described In this article has but one purposeto lift the heart to God |