Music has been called the handmaiden of Christianity, but may more
appropriately be designated its loyal helpmeet. Whatever synagogue or
other melodies may have first served to voice the sentiments kindled by
the Gospel of Glad Tidings it was inevitable that the new religious
thought should seek and find new musical expression.

In shaping a ritual for general use, an accompaniment of suitable music
had to be considered. The fathers of the church constituted themselves
also the guides of music. Those forms which give symmetry and
proportion to the outward structure of the tonal art were pruned and
polished under ecclesiastical surveillance until spontaneity was
endangered. Happily in the spirit of Christianity is that which ever
proves a remedy for the mistakes of law-givers. The religion that
inculcates respect for the individual has furthered the advance of music
and of spirituality.

Beyond the confines of the church was another musical growth, springing
up by the wayside and in remote places. Folk-music it is called, and it
gives untrammeled utterance to human longings, human grief and despair,
and human wondering over the mysteries of life, death and the great
Beyond. Untutored people had always found vent in this kind of music for
pent-up feelings, and the folk-music of the Christian world, during the
Crusades, gained a new element in the fragments of Oriental melody
transplanted into its midst. In time, through the combined wisdom of
gifted composers and large-minded ecclesiastical rulers, the music of
the church and the music of the people became united, and modern music
was born.

Architecture, painting, sculpture and poetry possess practical proofs of
their past achievements and on these their present endeavors are