Book Review:
Church Music in History and Practice by Winfred Douglas
revised by Leonard Ellinwood
Scribner's, 1962

note: the original edition of this book was published in the 1930's. References to The Hymnal, 1940 are Ellinwood's.

Canon Winfred Douglas has written a thorough and very helpful book on church music and its use in liturgy. It is indeed a foundational work for those wanting the "what's what" in liturical music. Douglas, a devoted Episcopalian, shows his true colors a number of times in the book. This blog has already highlighted a couple of these. Many a recovering low-churchman will be further enticed by his rhetoric. Yet, at the same time, Douglas is very ecumenical (if the reader permits the term). He expresses a great debt of gratitude to guys who have broad, evangelical appeal like Luther, Bourgeois, Watts, Newton, and Wesley. This is not a book that dwells in the remote past, although much value is placed there. On pages 199-200 he digresses into a discussion of the meaning of the word "catholic." Briefly, he says "...all who praise [Christ] may be catholic members indeed. No mere being a high churchman of a low churchman of a broad churchman, an Episcopalian or a Roman Catholic, a Baptist, a Methodist or a Presbyterian, can give us a right to that lofty name." Whereas there is room to take exception with this statement if too broadly applied, Douglas, whose apparent audience is Episcopalians and Anglicans, strengthens his argument by drawing others in.

Douglas was a high churchman, to be sure, valuing the bells and whistles of elaborate liturgy. At the same he was appalled by the state of the modern Episcopal church's worship, where congregations were made mere spectators to the drama. We who favor sturdy congregational singing find an ally here. Douglas frequently speaks in pastoral tones in his book, desiring a music of God's people, not merely aesthetics.

It could be said that this book is a commentary on The Hymnal, 1940, of which Douglas is listed among the editors. Those unfamiliar with the music Douglas mentions in his book will find a The Hymnal a supplement to Douglas (indeed, Douglas a handbook to the Hymnal). The Hymnal, 1940 is an outstanding piece of practical scholarship as Douglas's book well demonstrates.