Music in the History of the Western Church / With an Introduction on Religious Music Among Primitive and Ancient Peoples

This work surveys the development of religious music in the Western Church, beginning with ritual song and dance among early peoples and proceeding through the establishment of liturgy and chant, medieval choral practices, the musical Mass, Protestant hymnody and the rise of cantata and Passion forms, to Anglican systems and congregational song and contemporary American challenges. It highlights how devotional aims, liturgical usage, national temperaments, and secular musical styles shaped sacred repertories and performance, and combines chronological narrative with practical discussion of musical forms, institutional administration, and the relations between worship and artistic expression.