Welsh Journals

art of singing is perhaps the most subtle and complex of all arts, as it touches science, psychology and ought to be a moral discipline for the student, at the same time as an attitude of soul. After reading Mr. Clifton Cooke's attempt we feel bound to say that the longed-for book still remains to be written. Mr. Cooke's work is not however without any merit. The author has a long experience as a teacher, and he gives out conscien- tiously the result of it. There is a great deal of common sense throughout, particularly in the advice on the hygiene which ought to be observed by all intended singers. The chapter on breathing is good, as well as the remarks on the academic teaching of singing," on examinations and diplomas. This common sense is alright as far as the negative side is concerned. But the author is less fortunate in the do than in the don't." It is always a harder task and in music especially to give advice about what to do than to point out what ought not to be done. There is first of all the danger of generalisation Some advice may be excellent for one student and fatal for another. In voice training there are as many methods as there are students. Advice taken from a book on local emission may lead to irrepar- able damage. It happens that certain explanations clear and accurate in the mind of the writer, because they symbolise for him a large number of reminis- cences of experiments vivid to his mind, are mis- understood and badly applied. That is why we cannot approve of the chapter on Vocal Develop- ment. There is no room here for technical argument. But there is one point which calls for special criticism because it touches on the very spirit of the book. Mr. Cooke had an idea which might have been valuable. He asked a few composers for Lessons on the rendering of their songs." The composers chosen by the authors are perhaps well known," but they are often well known for qualities which are not those of the best music. There are in England composers who would afford the student a much higher standard of study, e.g.. Sir Hubert Parry, Dr. Walford Davies, Mr. Vaughan Williams, Dr. Vaughan Thomas, Mr. Roger Quilter, Mr. Graham Peel. Mr. Cooke's choice is a sufficient indication of what is lacking in his work, a work inspired more by common sense, let us say it once more, than by a deep artistic feeling. L. A. B. "Group Theories of Religion and the Religion of the Individual." By Clement C. J. Webb. M.A. Allen & Unwin. 5s. net. This book is devoted to an examination of the theories of religion put forward by M. Durkheim and his principal collaborators in V Annee Sociologique. Mr. Webb believes that the French Sociologists have done a service to the Philosophy of Religion by insisting on the social character of religion. He is in sympathy with them in certain criticisms which they make on some accounts of religion which abstract unduly from the historical facts of religious development. He, nevertheless, subjects their stand- point to a very rigorous criticism. He is not in sympathy with their distrust of religious experience and metaphysics. On the whole, they deny to religion any objective validity. It is mere illusion due to collective suggestion. Consequently, they would prefer that the historian of religion should be a disbeliever. They are constantly bringing the charge of confessional prejudice against English and American writers on the comparative science of religion. Mr. Webb finds it difficult to believe that a complete stranger to religious sentiment is the ideal historian of religion as to suppose the lack of any musical taste a qualification for writing the history of music. Their distrust of metaphysics, again, according to Mr. Webb, has deterred them from a sufficiently thorough examination of the relation of the human individual to the community of which he is a member. The doctrine of the French Sociologists is seen at its best in M. Durkheim's presentation, and a whole chapter is devoted to his definition of religion, which, however, is found inadequate. Mr. Webb. in fact, being of the opinion that a definition of religion is needless and impossible. In a subsequent chapter dealing with M. Durkheim s Philosophy of Religion, as presented more especially in Les Forms Elementaires de la Pensee et dela Vie Religieuse (recently translated into English). Mr. Webb claims to have discovered certain admissions by M. Durkheim which seem to suggest the possibility that in religion there is an apprehension of a genuine reality, which is independent even of society, in the sense that it is not a mere product of the social nature of man, though not necessarily so unconnected with it but that it may be the ground of the existence of that very social nature itself." This is a preg- nant sentence, and we are persuaded that the elaboration of these admissions would involve a very drastic change in M. Durkheim's thesis. Special attention is given to M. Levy Bruhl's theme, in Les Fonctions Mentales dans les Sociites Infkrieures, that the minds of members of primitive groups work quite differently from ours. Religion, according to M. Bruhl, belongs to a stage of mental development (la mentaliti pr&logiquc), which the