_The Tabernacle_: A Collection of Hymn-Tunes, Chants, Sentences, Motets,
and Anthems, adapted to Public and Private Worship, and to the Use of
Choirs, Singing-Schools, Musical Societies, and Conventions. Together
with a Complete Treatise on the Principles of Musical Notation. By B.F.
BAKER and W.O. PERKINS. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
This thoroughly prepared book will prove of much service in those
departments of musical study and practice for which it is intended. The
style of church-music throughout the country has undergone material
changes within the last five-and-twenty years. In the cities and larger
towns, such societies as can afford the expense have established
quartette choirs of trained vocalists, who deliver the hymns and anthems
of the service to selections from the music of the great masters, which
they are expected to render in a manner that shall be satisfactory to a
taste educated and refined by the instruction of good teachers and the
public performances of skilful musicians. In the country churches, the
congregations still unite in the singing; or, where it has been the
custom for those who could sing to "sit in the seats" and form a chorus
choir, such custom still obtains. Some notion of city taste, however,
has gone abroad in the country, and the choirs, although old-fashioned
in their organization, are not quite content with the psalm-books of old
time, and are constantly asking for something newer and better. A great
many volumes have been published in order to supply this want, some of
which have done good, while, if we say of others that they have done no
harm, it is as much as they deserve.
A music-book for general use in churches which do not have quartette
choirs and "classical" music must be prepared with care and good
judgment. It must contain, of course, certain old standard tunes which
seem justly destined to live in perpetual favor, and it must surround
these with clusters of new tunes, which shall be as solid and correct in
their harmony as the older, while their lightness and fluency of melody
belong to the present day. There must be anthems and chants, and there
must be a clear and thorough exposition of the elements of vocal music
to help on the tyros who aspire to join the choir.
The work of which we are writing answers these requirements well. Its
editors are practical men; they have not only taught music to city
pupils, but they have conducted choirs and singing-schools, and have
discovered the wants of ordinary singers by much experience in normal
schools and musical conventions.
"The Tabernacle" contains the fruits of their observation and
experience, and will be found to meet the requirements of many singers
who have hitherto been unsatisfied. It commences with the rudiments of
music and a glossary of technical terms, to which is appended a good
collection of part-songs, especially prepared for social and festival
occasions. Then follow the hymn-tunes, which are adapted not only to the
ordinary metres, but also to all the irregular metres which are to be
found in any collection of hymns which is known to be used in the
country. Next come the chants and anthems: among these are arrangements
from Mozart, Beethoven, Chapple, Rossini, (the "Inflammatus" from the
"Stabat Mater"), Curschmann, (the celebrated trio, "Ti prego,")
Lambillote, and other standard authors. Indices, remarkably full, and
prepared upon an ingenious system, by which the metre and rhythm of
every tune are indicated, conclude the volume.
We are confident that choristers will find "The Tabernacle" to be just
such a book as they like to use in instructing and leading their choirs,
and that choirs will consider it to be one of the books from which they
are best pleased to sing.
_The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, with Documents,
Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, Poetry, etc_. Edited by FRANK MOORE,
Author of "Diary of the American Revolution." New York: G.P. Putnam.
Charles T. Evans, General Agent.
Three large volumes of this valuable record of the momentous events now
transpiring on this continent have been published. The maps, diagrams,
and portraits are excellent in their way. No fuller documentary history
of the Great Rebellion could be desired; and as every detail is given
from day-to-day's journals, the "Record" of Mr. Moore must always stand
a comprehensive and accurate cyclopedia of the War. For the public and
household library it is a work of sterling interest, for it gathers up
every important fact connected with the struggle now pending, and
presents it in a form easy to be examined. It begins as far back as
December 17, 1860, and the third volume ends with the events of 1861.