The League Hymnal

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Excerpt from The League Hymnal: A Collection of Sacred Heart Hymns Embracing All the Hymns in the "League Devotions" Arranged to Suitable Tunes, Original and Selected Just where the dividing line between the sacred and the pro fane in music lies will perhaps never cease to be a matter of dispute, but certain it is that the adaptations of secular song tunes, which are found in some hymn-books, must fall under the profane, as the Church understands that term. Had the Church never spoken on this matter, it would still be repugnant to our Catholic people's sense of what is fit and proper in the holiest of places, that a priest should have to struggle through the prayers of the Holy Mass, because of such tunes as Alice, where art thou? The Vacant Chair, and others of more vulgar title, which, through the carelessness or bad judgment of organists, sometimes find their way into our choirs. A second class of tunes, which can also be said with certainty to fall under the profane, are those which are written in the style of secular songs and which, if heard without the words, would be recognized only as such. In these, as a rule, the devotional gives way to the sentimental, cheerfulness to levity and oftentimes vulgarity, while not even an attempt is made to give a serious or dignified musical expression to the senti ments embodied in the words of the hymn. Not the least objectionable feature of some of these tunes is a j ingling piano accompaniment quite unsuited to the church organ. If this worldly music is not a positive hindrance to reverence and piety, especially in youthful listeners (who generally paylittle or no attention to the words), it will certainly not help to foster these virtues in their young souls. For many, both old and young, these two classes of tunes, where they are used, have the effect of making it a matter of no little difficulty to hear Mass or attend evening services with devotion. As reparation for the irreverences committed against our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is the great work of the League, it is but right to expect that its Directors and its members will do all in their power to promote in our churches a reverent and devotional style of singing, and to discourage, when they can properly do so, any music of an irreverent or worldly character. 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.