Hearing Strawinsky's Symphony of Psalms last week suggested again the rather controversial subject of setting sacred texts in orchestral-choral compositions for the concert hall. To those who consider religious texts exclusively churchly and liturgical this practice seems a violation of the true character of the words.

The subtle and restrained style of composers like Palestrina, Lassus, and Byrd captures this spirit of churchliness and reserved devoutness. But the less inhibited treatment of sacred texts which the tremendous resources and freedom of the concert hall fosters, though certainly less churchly, is not of necessity less pious.

We recently heard an unfavorable criticism of the Symphony of Psalms, because the details of the treatment of the text--the setting of the individual words--was considered inferior to that in the works of Byrd. This sort of comparison is useless as a way of determining the musical value of either type of composition, for in the orchestral-choral concert work, the details of fitting the individual words and phrases to the musical lines is secondary to the general movement of the whole composition. In the small church piece, on the other hand, the subtle enhancement of the phonetic and expressive qualities of each word and phrase by the musical line is the primary element of the style.

The great settings of sacred texts have in common, beside the absolute musical value, a respectful, sympathetic attitude towards the text. This attitude is no less religious, probably, in the Symphony of Psalms or the Beethoven Mass than in the music of the sixteenth century; it is merely different. If we allow that it is legitimate to take sacred texts like the mass and the psalms from the church service to the public concert, then we must adopt a broader, more general view of the significance of the text and the sort of setting which is appropriate for it.