suit their varied measures. But this must be done[17]. These tunes in
dignity, solemnity, pathos, and melodic solidity leave nothing to desire.

The English eight-line tunes of Sternhold and Hopkins we may then, with
one or two exceptions, dismiss to neglect; but among the four-line
'common' tunes which gradually ousted them, there are about a dozen of
high merit: these being popular still at the present day require no
notice, except to 32 insist that they should be well harmonized in the
manner of their date, and generally have the long initials and finals of
all their lines observed. They are much finer than any one would guess
from their usual dull presentment. Their manner, as loved and praised by
Burns, is excellent, and there is no call to alter it[18].

Contemporary with this group there is a legacy of a dozen and more fine
tunes composed by Tallis and Orlando Gibbons, the neglect or treatment of
which is equally disgraceful to all concerned.

As for the German tunes of the Reformation, attempts to introduce the
German church-chorales into anything like general use in England have
never, so far as I know, been successful, owing, I suppose, to a
difference in the melodic sense of the two nations. But some few of them
are really popular, and more would be if they were properly presented
with suitable words; and it should not be a difficult task to provide
words even more suitable and kind than the original German, which seldom
observes an intelligent, dignified and consistent mood. These chorales
should be sung very slow indeed, and will admit of much accompaniment.
Bach's settings, when not too elaborate or of impossible compass in the
parts, may be well used where the choir is numerically strong. He has
made these chorales peculiarly his own, and, in accepting his
interpretation of them, we are only acquiescing in a universal judgement,
while we make an exception in favour of genius; for as a general rule
(which will of course apply to those chorales which we do not use in
Bach's version), all the music of this Reformation period must be
harmonized strictly in the vocal counterpoint which prevailed at the end
of the sixteenth century; since that is not only its proper musical
interpretation, but it is also the ecclesiastical style _par excellence_,
the field of which may reasonably be extended, but by no means
contracted. It is suitable both for simple and elaborate settings, for
hymns of praise or of the more