IF IT is assumed that the nineteenth century saw the hey-day of
large-scale choral music it should not also be assumed that the
present century is indifferent to the medium. In fact--as reference
to the catalogue of any publishing house will show--there is no end to
choral prolificacy. A combination of new ideals, ideas and technical
methods, however, creates new circumstances both for performance
and appreciation and, as choral singers in Britain and the often special
type of audience (with less interest in other forms of music) which
attends concerts of choral music are cautious in judgement and
enthusiasm, it may be that some special pleading may become
apparent in what follows. There is something of an impasse in present
musical affairs. There is any number of technically gifted composers.
There is a vast demand for music to hear. There are more societies of
music-makers than heretofore. Yet contemporary music as a whole
remains a province apart--for specialists and eclectics--and the con-
temporary composer is torn between his private interests and the
economics of his calling. The 'established' choral society, meanwhile,
stays resolute in devotion to a handful of familiar pieces.

I have a strong feeling that choral music is one means whereby many
questions relating to the nature and purpose of modern music may be
answered. For the medium lies midway between 'art' and 'life',
between aesthetics and reality. Words and their selection and treatment
reveal the attitude of the composer, the poet and the community to
which both belong, towards the philosophic problems of the age. It
was Mendelssohn, in a characteristically critical mood one day, who
postulated that in contrast to music words are imprecise. Consideration
of the music which is dealt with throughout this book will, possibly,
underline the essential truth of his thesis. For Palestrina and Victoria are
as indisputably Catholic as Bach is Lutheran, or Handel humanist; but
their various interpretations of Catholicism, Lutheranism and

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