Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

'
;'
426 SERVICE SESQUIALTEEA
been produced— pure, perhaps, but certainly
uninteresting. Led in this direction by so great
and famous a. composer as Tallis, many of
his contemporaries and immediate successors
followed in his footsteps, and English cathedrals
possess a considerable store of plain contrapuntal
services in minor keys.
Closely following the class of services just
described comes the strict contrapuntal school,
of which Gibbons ' in F ' forms such a noble
example. It must not be thought that Gibbons
was the first to write the ' pure contrapuntal
service ; a Magnificat and Nxinc Dimittis by
Dr. Tye (who was organist to Edward VI.)
show that he transferred his motet-style without
any change to his settings of these canticles,
which consist almost entirely of short ' points
or phrases of four-part imitation. This is just
what Gibbons did, but he threw more melodic
freedom and greater breadth into his work, and
therefore it has lived, while Tye's Magnificat
is only known to antiquaries.
Half a century after the death of Gibbons the
settings of the canticles had become merely
meaningless collections of short ' points ' ; and,
instead of running on with dignified continuity,
the music came to be broken up into a number
of small sections, for voices soli, alternately with,
or in frequent contrast to, short choruses. The
influence of the French school, which had the
most disastrous effects on English anthems,
affected the services also, though to a lesser
degree. The services of Purcell and Blow may
be considered typical of both the virtues and
vices of this school,—melodious, butrestless and
purposeless.
Seven years before the death of Blow a man
was born, who, without possessing any special
musical gifts, was destined to bring about, a vast
change in the character of services ; that man
was the very second-rate Charles King. The
only possible way of accounting for the enormous
popularity of his services is to view them as a
protest against contrapuntal devices, and as a
restoration of simplicity, even if the simplicity
is closely allied to weakness. To the influence
of King we probably owe two short but beautiful
settings from the pen of Dr. Boyce (who died
about thirty years after him) ; one is in the key
of C, the other in A.
Thenextdevelopment ofthe form and character
of services was the forerunner of tlie ' dramatic
school. Attwood deserves an important place
in any sketch of the history of services for his
bold attempt to attach to the words music
which should vary as their character. This had
of course been done to some extent before
his time, but nearly always with a polite leaning
to the conventionalities of the past ; Attwood
struck out a fresh path. This fact should be
bonie in mind by those who are disposed to
criticise severely the weak points in his services.
Attwood died in 1838, and we soon find ourselves
face to face with S. S. Wesley, whose Service
in E has been, and is, a model for many living
writers ;
and he has been followed by a large
group of living composers, all of whom are
striving to produce services in which the natural
emotions called up by the character of the words
shall be reflected in unartificial music.
Those who desire to study the literature of
services will find ample materials in Barnard's
CoUeotion ; Boyce's Collection of Cathedral
Music, 3 vols. ; Arnold's Collection, 3 vols.
Kimbault'a Collection of Services, 1 vol. ;
Ouseley's
Collection of Services, 1 vol. ; various
manuscripts in our cathedrals. Full information
as to Barnard's Collection will be found
under the head Baknakd. [Of late years efi'orts
have been made to restore the fine old Cathedral
Services to general use, from which they were
for many years kept by the crowd of ' easy
services purveyed by the least skilful organists
and writers of the day. The Church Music
Society has already done much good in this
direction.] J. s.
SESQUI. A Latin word signifying, literally,
the whole pliis its half.
In musical terminology, the prefix Sesqui is
used in combination with certain numeral
adjectives, to express the proportion, either of
harmonic intervals or of rhythmic combinations.
[See Pkopobtion.] Thus, Sesquialtera expresses
the proportion of two to three, and therefore
represents the perfect fifth, which is produced
by sounding two -thirds of a given string.
Sesquitertia, indicating (not very correctly) the
proportion of three to four, represents the perfect
fourth, sounded by three-fourths of the string.
Sesquiquarta, or four-fifths, represents the major
third. Sesquiquinta represents the minor third,
given by five -sixths of the resonant string.
Sesquisexta, six-sevenths, and Sesquiseptima,
seven -eighths, correspond with no intervals in
the accepted canon of the scale : but, Sesquioctava,
or eight-ninths, represents the peculiar
form of the major second known to theorists as
the Greater Tone ; and Sesquinona, nine-tenths,
gives the Lesser Tone—an interval, which,
though conventionally called a major second,
and ti'eated, in practice, as identical with that
just described, is less, by one Comma, than the
Tone represented by Sesquiootava.^
In rhythmic combinations, Sesquialtera is
used as the general symbol of triple time. The
term Sesquialtera is also applied to passages of
three notes sung against two ; Sesquitertia, to
three notes sung against four ; and Sesquiquarta,
to four notes sung or played against five.
[See Hbmiolia.] w. s. e.
SESQUIALTERA. A compound organ stop
consisting of several ranks of pipes, sometimes
as many as five. Various combinations of intervals
are used, but they only represent different
1 The Greater and Lesser Tones are, by some theorists, cnllrrl the
Acute and the Grave major second.