John Weeks Moore

“ To the great majority of every audience all tunes seem too much alike. Modern harmony being restricted to a few simple rules, which also re-strain the freedom of the melodies themselves, and the time and measure of our sacred music having settled down into a slow and solemn uniformity, it requires some practical acquaintance with music to distinguish one tune from another. ”

“ Within the last twenty years much has been done to restore a better taste, and introduce a better kind of music among us. The struggle has been to banish the fuguing and frivolous airs which deluged the country, and in doing it we have returned too far, perhaps, towards the exclusive use of the old tunes with notes of equal length, and to the plain chant. This cannot last, and the want of more exciting and animating melodies in our churches begins to be manifested, and must and will be gratified. ”

“ The style and taste of one period have no charms at another. So we look in vain into the music of the earliest antiquity for the wonderful effects ascribed to it. So is it also with the tastes of the different nations at the same period ; what prevails in one is without interest in another. ”