Our last article dealt particularly with the tunes we sing, and was more directly connected with the work of the Precentor than with the congregation. This month, therefore, we step down from the Precentor's box and we take our place in the pew. The Precentor is there to lead, and it is for us to follow.

Let us get it clear from the beginning that it is not necessary for the Precentor to be a man with a loud voice. Far too often we find the leader straining to keep his congregation together and in time. This is something to be avoided at all costs. It should never be, and it need never be if we will but follow a few simple rules.

Clearly it is impossible for a body of people to keep in time with a Precentor if he is away in the back of the congregation where he cannot be seen and where he can be heard only by those in his immediate neighbourhood. But the answer is not for him to raise his voice until it rises above all the others. If we are to have good singing, he must take his place in the front, facing the congregation, where he can be seen by all. Then the congregation, in its turn, must be obedient to the Precentor. We must be alert, watching our Precentor, following his direction just as a symphony orchestra pays close attention to its conductor.

The Precentor will guide us in the four basic elements of tune, pitch, tempo (or speed) and modulation (or volume). The Psalm having been announced by the Minister, the tune to which it will be sung ought to be made known to the congregation so that we do not have to wait while he sings a line or more before we can join in. The pitch - that is, the note of the scale on which we begin the tune - will be given us by the Precentor. These things we will hear, but from then on the important elements of tempo and modulation we will follow, not by the ear, but by the eye as we pay close attention to our leader.

Let us now make some observation on these vital elements of tempo and modulation. First of all, tempo (or speed). One person will say, "I don't like fast singing." Another will say, "The singing is too slow." Which one is right? Probably neither! Our singing should never be so fast as to savour of flippancy or irreverence, nor yet on the other hand so slow as to prove laborious and exhausting. Spurgeon speaks of a student who "found it necessary to work his air-pump in the middle of a sentence." We ought never to allow our singing to become so retarded as to force us to resort to such measures and so lose the whole sense of what we are singing. The Scriptural direction is not to sing as quickly as we can, nor as slowly as we can, but what saith it "I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also!" That is the criterion which bears the stamp of the Divine approval. Yet how often do we hear, for example:

"The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. (Pause.)
He makes me down to lie. (Pause again.)
In pastures green he leadeth me. (Another pause.)
The quiet waters by." (The final phrase quite alone and unattached.)

We are to sing with the understanding. It is clear, therefore, that we cannot lay down any arbitrary rule and say the singing ought to be slow, or the singing ought to be fast. Just as we have to be guided by our sense of the fitness of things in selecting a tune, so must we be guided in fixing the tempo of each individual Psalm. In a song of praise or triumph or of joy the tempo will be quickened and the voice will be lifted up as our whole heart and being enters into the spirit of the expression of our lips.

"O come, let us sing to the Lord;
Come, let us every one
A joyful noise make to the Rock
Of our salvation."

If we do indeed sing with the understanding, then we will never be guilty of singing such words to the tempo set down for a lament. On the contrary, these slow and measured tones will be reserved for the plaintive, the penitential or confessional Psalms.

"O Lord unto my prayer give ear,
My cry let come to Thee;
And in the day of my distress
Hide not thy face from me."

How can we sing such words of supplication wrung from a heart in deep distress, and sing them to the tempo of a marching army?

It is the Precentor's duty then to take account of these things, but whilst it is his responsibility to set the time, it is the duty of the congregation to keep in time with him. Therefore, we must watch the Precentor.

This brings us finally to the matter of modulation (i.e., the increase or decrease in volume). In music, when volume increases, it is called a "crescendo." When it decreases "decrescendo." It is largely this variation in volume which gives our music its "expression." But when we come to sing the Psalms, we usually find that any attempt at such "expression" is quite non-existent. This may be a long-standing tradition, or it may be a mistaken idea that we must always sing as loudly as we can. Whatever the reason, our praise must remain expressionless and dull until we learn the rudiments of modulation!

A prayer, a confession, a supplication, ought never to be shouted, but sung softly and with the understanding. Yes, in that grand old Shepherd's Psalm we will tread very softly through that dark and desolate valley, but we will ascend triumphant on the other side, and our voices will rise in a grand crescendo until they ring out for all the world to hear: "And in God's house for evermore, my dwelling-place shall be."