The nineteenth-century English choral revival renewed and redefined the role of music of the established English church, and for Anglicanism and Christian worship more generally. It brought together the choral worship that we now take for granted, whether ordinary parish worship, cathedral tourism or global webcasts – all exemplifying the central role of singing in Anglican worship today.

This book focuses on one group – the Cambridge Ecclesiologists of the mid-nineteenth century – and their musical activities from the 1839 founding of the Cambridge Camden Society until the closure of its musical committee in 1862. It shows how they turned the Catholic revival towards art, music and aesthetics, while acknowledging the contributions of many others in this choral revival:

The High Church portion of this revival was more Cambridge than Oxford; the Society changed the Church of England, by appealing to the hearts and minds of future clergy who were students at both universities. More generally, Adelmann augments our understanding of today’s Anglo-Catholicism, showing how Ecclesiologists bridged the gap between the Tractarians and Ritualists.

Then as now, the Cambridge group sits in the shadow of their legendary Oxford predecessors, whose impact continues to reverberate throughout Anglicanism to this day. The British Library lists 403 books with titles containing ‘Oxford Movement’ or ‘Tractarian’, not counting books by (or about) Keble, Newman, Pusey and others. This is only the second book in the past century on the Cambridge Movement itself. While the earlier book by J.F. White documented how it created the Victorian Gothic revival, this book emphasizes its role in the choral revival, using contemporaneous records, including journals, diaries and letters.

In 1839, inspired by the Oxford Movement, John Mason Neale and Benjamin Webb led a group of Cambridge undergraduates in forming a ‘high church club’ that evolved into the Cambridge Camden Society (later the Ecclesiological Society). A key source is the society’s journal The Ecclesiologist (1841–68), edited by Webb for that entire period. By 1843, the Society had more than 700 members and, as patrons or honorary members, ‘two archbishops, sixteen bishops, thirty-one peers and other members of parliament’.

The Oxford and Cambridge groups were similar in their Catholic and antiquarian sentiments, seeking to reclaim the best of the undivided early and medieval Western church. After Newman’s defection, both were accused by evangelicals of ‘Romish’ sympathies.

But if the Oxford Movement was about dogmatic and sacramental theology, the Cambridge men were more focused on the transcendental and how that could be realized in liturgical worship through aesthetics, beauty and experience. With its relocation to London in 1846, the Society matured and attracted broader membership.

While their architectural revival found quick success, the choral revival would not prove so easy. As Adelmann concludes in the final chapter, ‘the ultimate musical goals of ecclesiologists took the better part of a century to be realized, while their revolution for Gothic Revival churches was essentially secured within the space of a decade’.

A major theme is that the choral revival was led not by Neale – a hymnwriter of limited musical abilities – but by Webb and Thomas Helmore. As Helmore wrote in 1850:

Their activism included revival and adaptation of musical works, developing a theology of appropriate choral worship, and demonstrating both, through appropriate performance. These efforts were promoted by the original Cambridge men, newer Society members, and alliances with other like-minded choral reformers.

Helmore and others revived sixteenth- and seventeenth-century polyphonic and unison Gregorian chant, retained by the Tudor church but eliminated during the Interregnum, particularly those sung a cappela. Webb supported other members, including Edward Rimbault and William Dyce, who translated anthems by Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons and Purcell into English. After publishing Psalter Noted, Helmore joined the society in 1849. Over the next five years, he arranged Sarum rite tunes for Hymnal Noted, while Neale and others provided its translations from ancient and medieval texts.

The society had three theological arguments. First, the central role of music in worship was articulated from the Old Testament through the English Reformation. Second, earthly worship both joins and anticipates heavenly worship, as summarized by Cranmer’s translation of the medieval Sanctus preface:

Finally, they focused on excellence in choral service, both choir-led or congregational. The Society had its most direct impact by setting the standard for improved music performance for almost three decades, providing both exemplars and practical solutions for future clergy to lead a choral revival in their respective parishes. Helmore was nationally prominent for decades as leader of the Chapel Royal boys’ choir and the Motet Choir.

The members also sought to increase both the quality and frequency of congregational singing in their churches: at a minimum – singing hymns – but in many cases chanting psalms, canticles or responses. They sought to abolish the distinction of cathedral and parish worship and have local parishes sing everything but the anthem. If anything, ecclesiologists called for more congregational singing than in the cathedral: rather than replacing congregational singing, the choir should support it.

Adelmann is nuanced in his discussion of the periodic allies of the Society, including John Hullah, John Jebb and S.S. Wesley. Hullah and Jubb were later Society members, and he shows how Jebb’s views were closer to the Society than previously reported by Bemarr Rainbow.

After beginning with the ending of the Tractarians, the book ends with the beginning of the Ritualist controversy. Despite Neale’s advocacy of Ritualism, Adelmann demonstrates that the other leading Ecclesiologists were moderates – guided by pastoral realities – who distanced themselves from extreme Ritualist positions.