The several Tones have been thus characterized: The First, the grave and serious Tone, suited to express trust and confidence in GOD. The Second, the solemn Tone; reverence. The Third, the plaintive Tone; bewailing and complaint. The Fourth, the thankful Tone; celebration of God's wonderful works and mercies. The Fifth, the joyous Tone, praise. The Sixth, the majestic Tone, triumph. The Seventh, the gentle Tone, (sometimes called "angelicus";) supplication and lowly thanksgiving. The Eighth, the noble Tone; sureness, firmness, and fixedness.

Most of the Tones have other endings besides those here given; but, though very beautiful and characteristic, they are omitted, as too complex for congregational chanting. They will be found in the same valuable and careful arrangement of the Gregorian Tones, already referred to, from which the present remarks are mostly taken.

The reciting-note must be held a sufficient time to allow for the reverent intonation of praise: but it will be generally found that choirs err on the side of over-slowness rather than the opposite. Care must be taken to allow

K

no interval between the reciting-note and the first change-note: the former should glide off freely and easily into the latter. Again, one verse should be taken up at the end of the preceding without the slightest break. Rather, where the final notes of a verse are lengthened out by a swell, which with practice may easily be attained, the reciting-note of the following verse should appear to rise insensibly out of it. It is this which gives so stirring and surge-like a character to these Tones, as they roll uninterruptedly from side to side of a Choir.

St. Augustine, in a well-known passage, speaks thus: "Sometimes, from over-jealousy (of the influence of external things) I would entirely put from me and from the Church the melodies of the sweet chants which we use in the Psalter, lest our ears seduce us; and the way of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, seems the safer, who, as I have often heard, made the reader chant with so slight a change of note, that it was more like speaking than singing. And yet, when I call to mind the tears I shed when I heard the chants of Thy church in the infancy of my recovered faith, and reflect that at this time I am affected, not by the mere music,

but by the subject, brought out, as it is, by clear voices and appropriate tune, then, again, I confess how useful is the practice."

TABLE OF THE PSALMS AND CANTICLES,

As chanted to the several Gregorian Tones.

FIRST TONE.-Psalms i. v. xii. xiii. xvii. xxiii. xxvii. xxxv. xxxvii. xliii. xlviii. lix. lx. lxii. lxv. lxxxiii. lxxxiv. lxxxix. xc. xci. xciv. xcv. xcix. cix. cx. cxix. (2, 3, 4, 13, 21,) cxxi. cxxvii. cxxviii. cxxix. cxl. Venite.

SECOND TONE.-Psalms iii. iv. xiv. xvi. xxv. xxvi. xl. 1. liii. liv. lvi. lxiii. lxix. lxxvii. lxxxi. lxxxii. lxxxvii. cxix. (1, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,) cxx. cxxxiv. cl. Te Deum. Nunc Dimittis.

THIRD TONE.-Psalms vi. xxii. xxxii. xxxviii. xliv. li. lxvii. lxxiii. lxxiv. lxxxvi. cxix. (10, 11,) cxliii. Deus misereatur.

FOURTH TONE.-Psalms vii. xi. xix. xxxvi. lii. lxxvi. xcii. xcvi. xcviii. cv. cvi. cxxxv. cxlv. cxlvii. Cantate.

FIFTH TONE.-Psalms ix. xx. xxx. lvii. lxxv. ciii. civ. cviii. cxiii. cxxii. cxxiv. cxxxvi. cxliv. cxlviii. Benedictus.

SIXTH TONE.-Psalms viii. xviii. xxi. xxiv. xxix. xxxiii. xxxiv. xlv. xlvii. lxvi. lxviii. lxxii. xciii. xcvii. c. cxxv. cxxvi. cxxxviii. cxlvi. cxlix. Jubilate.

SEVENTH TONE.-Psalms x. xxviii. xxxi. xxxix. xli. xlii, xlix. lv. lxi. lxiv. lxx. lxxi. lxxix. lxxx. lxxxv. lxxxviii. ci. cii. cxvi. cxix. (5, 6, 7, 9, 22,) cxxiii. cxxx. cxxxi. cxxxix. cxli. cxlii. Magnificat.

EIGHTH TONE.-Psalms ii. xv. xlvi. lviii. lxxviii. cvii. cxi. cxii. cxvii. cxviii. cxix. (8, 19, 20,) cxxxii. cxxxiii. Benedicite. Athanasian Creed.

MIXED TONE.-Psalms cxiv. cxv.

THE END.

J. S. Crossley, Printer, Leicester.