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The National Music of America. 23 |
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To sing God's praises she delights Through all the days and all the nights. To Him, too, would my song ascend, That I might praise him without end.
D. Martin Luther."
In dark contrast with such a noble appreciation of one of God's most glorious gifts, we have the distaste of Calvin for church music, and unfortunately it was the Calvinistic lead that the English Separatists followed, and which moulded the earliest music of New England. The music of the Roundhead in England, and of the Pilgrims in New England, was severe and ascetic. What stronger contrast to such a poem as the above can be imagined than such lines as the following:
" In the black, dismal dungeon of despair, Pined with tormenting care, Wracked with my fears, Drowned in my tears, With dreadful expectation of my doom And certain horrid judgment soon to come. |
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