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THE PRIEST'S PART OF THE ANGLICAN LITURGY, CHOIR OFFICES, AND LITANY

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THE FAITH PRESS, LTD.
22, BUCKINGHAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. 2

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FOREWORD

THIS little book is not intended for Church use at either Altar or Clergy Stall, Litany Desk or Lectern, but for home study and practice. It has been so compiled that the inexperienced officiant may have ready at hand something which will show him what to sing, and how to sing it.

Every attempt has therefore been made to explain and illustrate time-honoured rules, and to present the traditional music in its simplest possible shape. With this latter end in view, the vocal range necessary for the whole of the ritual-song has been confined within the limits of the first five degrees of the scale of D major-viz., D, E, F, G, A, with a very occasional B. This will enable Tonic Sol-fa readers to restrict themselves to the easily transposed series d, r, m, f, s, with an occasional 1. The G clef has been used instead of the F clef for the convenience of those who are not very familiar with the latter; so that -in fingering out the notes on his piano or other keyboard instrument -the student must remember to play everything an octave lower than the pitch actually given.

In "noting" the various Service items, single "breves" have been employed for all passages intended for recitation on an uninflected monotone; this plan having been proved, from long experience, to assist the eye more readily in its perception of the beginning and ending of a monotonic recitation than the usual long series of repeated notes-one for each syllable-could ever do.

This plan has also the advantage of demonstrating to a beginner the comforting assurance that he is called upon to learn chants rather than anthems.

He will discover, too, that the ancient plain-tune is very little more than a musical application of the laws of ordinary elocution to the delivery of the Sacred Text.

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