Through the musical experience gained in the study of choral works and because of the pleasure it gives to the participants, interest is aroused in other forms of musical art. Those who are engaged in trying to awaken the American people to the appreciation of music by means of recitals by singers, pianists, and violinists; by chamber music, symphony concerts, and opera, will find more ready response from people who have entered the field of music apprehension through choral singing than through any other medium except the thorough training of a good music school, and this contingent is, as yet, comparatively small. It is to be hoped that, as the value of choral singing as a community asset becomes more generally recognized, public education boards and civic societies will give the fullest encouragement to its practice by the people at large. It is not too much to say that twenty per cent. of the adults of every city could become qualified to take part in choral singing, and this opens up marvellous possibilities. Such civic choruses could assist in the celebration of the national holidays, of festivities in memory of great events, in exercises designed to honor a famous man; in short, they would be a true people’s voice expressing a people’s emotions, aspirations, and ideals. What more fitting then than that the great republic of America should foster the art and cultivate the practice of choral singing in order the more effectively to proclaim to all the world its message of well ordered liberty, of enlightenment and progress, and of peace to men of good will? FRANK DAMROSCH New York, May, 1915. CONTENTS OF VOLUME SIX PAGE PREFATORY NOTE vii INTRODUCTION BY DR. FRANK DAMROSCH ix PART I. CHORAL MUSIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES CHAPTER I. MUSIC OF THE EARLY AND MEDIÆVAL CHURCH AND EARLY SECULAR MUSIC 1