In its form, worship-song may be either rhyth mical or metrical ; the former was its primitive and more uncultured form ; the latter is its subsequent and more artistic form. The former is exemplified in the Hebrew psalms and the Greek Christian hymns ; the latter in the Latin hymns of Ambrose and Gregory, and in the subsequent hymnology of the Western Church. Each of course requires a corresponding form of music— the rhythmical hymn, a musical and ad libitum recitative, closing with a cadence, technically known as a ' chant ; the metrical hymn, a metrical tune. The anthem differs from both, in that it consists of certain rhythmical or metrical words set to specific music, which seeks to bring out their special emphasis, and is incapable of being used to any other. The anthem is, characteristically, the performance of choirs, and not the worship of the congregation. In public worship, sacred song may be either the singing of a choir to which the congregation are auditors, or the united act ,of the entire body of worshippers, the choir and organ simply leading and accompanying it. Without denying to the fOrmer the character of worship, it is obvious that it is worship only in a very restricted and imper fect sense. It is worship of a much higher and catholic character for the whole congregation to unite in the utterance of religious feeling. Hence, as a rule, no composition should be allowed in congregational worship too artistic or too intricate for congregational use. On the other hand, every kind of composition is legitimate that a congrega tion can use, and through which it can express the emotions of its spiritual life. Neither rhythmical psalm nor metrical hymn has any natural or legis lative prerogative or sacredness in the church of God.
The manner of singing, again, whether unisonal, as in the early church, or in part harmony as in the modern church ; whether antiphonal, between choir and congregation, or between one part of the congregation and another, as in many of the Jewish psalms, or universal and continuous by the whole congregation, is immaterial, so long as the best expression of religious feeling is secured.
In the Bible, the use and importance of sacred song are fully recognised, and large provision for it is made. The earliest fragment of song in the Bible is not sacred. Lamech expresses himself in a snatch of song which has all the characteristics of later temple poetry.
The Jews seem almost to have restricted their use of poetry and music to divine worship, probably because their theocracy so identified their national and their religious life, as that the expression of the one was the expression of the other. Music and song were joined in holy marriage, and pre sented themselves hand in hand to worship before the Lord.
The first record of Hebrew worship-song is the great outburst of the newly liberated life of the people on the borders of the Red Sea, where Miriam provided for the expression of their praise in her magnificent song. This is the earliest speci men of choral song that the world possesses. It
was evidently sung antiphonally—Miriam and the women on the one side, answered by Moses and the men on the other.
We have minute accounts of the musical service of the Tabernacle and of the Temple, as arranged by David and Solomon ; and especially of the great musical celebration at the dedication of the latter, when we are told that Jehovah especially re sponded to the invocation of worshipping song (2 Chron. v. 12-14).
Beyond all question the Temple-service was the most magnificent choral worship that the world has seen. On great occasions the choir consisted of 400o singers and players (i Chron. xxiii. 5 ; xxv.) ; the statements of Josephus viii. 3) are evidently greatly exaggerated. Its psalmody would consist, first, of such compositions as had been written by Moses and others, with those of David, Asaph, etc. Some of David's early psalms seem to have been adapted for Temple use (comp. Ps. xviii. with 2 Sam. xxii.) Others were doubtless composed specially for it. Hence most of David's psalms, in the collection of Hebrew poetry so desig nated, are inscribed ' To the chief musician.' From time to time fresh contributions of sacred song would be made. As we possess it, the book of Psalms was certainly not the Temple psalter. It is a collection, or rather a combination of four or five separate collections, of Hebrew poetry, of long and gradual accumulation, containing the Temple psalms, but containing, also, many pieces neither meant nor fitting to be sung. Hence the ritual and religious absurdity of singing indiscriminately through the whole. Hippolytus, writing in the 3d century, assigns the various authorship of the collection as a reason why no author's name is affixed to it (Hippolytus on the Psalms, quoted by Bunsen, Christianity and Mankind, vol. i. p. 458 ; see also ibid., vol. ii. p. 176 ; Joseph. Antiq.
12. 3).
From the structure of some of the psalms, as well as from some expressions contained in them, it is certain that they were sung antiphonally, pro bably by two choirs responding to each other. Some of the psalms, the 24th for instance, were evidently alternated between the priest and the people. Among the various suppositions concern ing the meaning of the word selah ;' one is that it is the sign of a great chorus shout of the people. See also s Sam. xviii. 6 ; Neh. ix. ; Ezra iii. so ; Is. vi. 1-3 ; Bishop Lowth on Hebrew Poetry, lect. xix. ; Wheatley on the Common Prayer, ch. iii., sec. 9.
From i Chron. xxv. 7 it appears that church music was formally taught in the Jewish schools.
That Jewish song was celebrated throughout the East, is implied in the ironical request of the Baby lonians, that their poor captives would `sing them one of the songs of Zion.' It is to be observed that the singing of the Temple was no part of the Levitical ritual ; it was a fitting worship, independent of the specific eco nomy with which it was connected. It has, there fore, a certain permanent authority as a scriptural precedent of worship song.