MEMOIRS OF A NEW ENGLAND VILLAGE CHOIR. WITH OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS. BY A MEMBER. Wbat though no cherubim are here display9d, No gilded walls, no cedar colonnade, No crimson curtains hang around our quire, Wrought by the ingenious artisan of Tyro j No doors of fir on golden hinges turn No spicy gums in golden censers burn If humble love, if gratitude inspire, One strain shall silence even the temples quire, And rival l lichae19s trump, nor yield to Gabriels lyre. Pielpcmt S Airs of Palestine. BOSTON.-S. G. GOODRICH, AND CO. .---p 1829. DISTRICT OF MAlSACHVSETTS, TO WIT District Clerks Ofice. Ba it remembered, that on the tenthday of March, A. D. 1829 in the fiftythird year of tho Inde ndence of the United t a dosf America, S. C. Coodrich and g. o f the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the riaht whereof they claim as proprietors in the words following, to W a Memoirs of a New England Village Choir. With Occasional Reflections. By a Member. In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the cop es of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned and also to an act, entitled a An act supplementary to an act, entitled An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, cbarts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etch ing historical and other prints. JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Nussachwetts. THE hIERlBERS OF THE HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY B O S T O N . I dedicate to you a work, of which the principal merit is a humble co-operation in the design, so suc cessfully prosecuted by you, of improving the Sacred Music of New England. THE AUTHOR. , OF A NEW ENGLAND VILLAGE CETOIR. PART FIRST. THE BIEETINGHOUSE. WISHIN t G o p resent a sketch of manners in New England, and of some changes that have occurred in our taste for sacred music, I have presumed to adopt for the purpose, a kind of desultory narrative. The time when the few humble incidents occurred, which are recorded in the followving pages, embraced about ten years, bordering upon the last and present centuries. The place was a village, situated not far from the river BIcrrimac and for the sake of avoiding ani invidious allusions or interpretations, I shall give to thc town tlic fictitious name of Waterfield. l a THE V LLAGE CHOIR. Many years had now elapsed, since any interruption, or indeed any thing extraordinary, had happened to the music, that was barely tolerated in the mcetinghouse at Waterfield. At the period when our me moirs commence, thc long-established leader, Blr Pitchtone, had just removed with his family to one of the new towns in the District of Maine, and the choir, which had been for some time in a decaying state, was thus lee without any head, or any hope of keeping itself together. For some Sundays after his departure, not an individual ventured to appear in the singing seats. Young Villiams, the eccentric and interesting shoemaker, who was an apprentice to his father, knew perfectly well I owto set the tune, but he had not as yet acquired sufficient selfconfidence to pass the leading notes round to the performers of different parts, nor to encounter various other kinds of intimidating notoriety attached to the office. The female singers, besides, had been so long and so i nplicitly accustomed to their late leader, THE VILLAGE CHOIR. 3 that nothing could have induced them to submit to the control of so young and inesperienced a guide...