incere regret at beholding choral and
orchestral studies still so badly organized. Everywhere, for grand
choral and instrumental compositions, the system of rehearsals in the
mass is maintained. They make all the chorus-singers study at once,
on the one hand; and all the instrumentalists at once, on the other.
Deplorable errors, innumerable mistakes, are thus committed--particularly
in the intermediate parts--errors which the chorus-master and the
conductor do not perceive. Once established, these errors degenerate
into habits, and become part and parcel of the execution.

The hapless chorus-singers, moreover, are by far the worst treated of
all the performers during their studies, such as they are. Instead of
giving them _a good conductor_, knowing the times of the different
movements accurately, and proficient in the art of singing, to beat the
time, and make critical observations: _a good pianist_, playing _from a
well-arranged pianoforte score_, upon _a good piano_; and a _violinist_,
to play in unison or in octave with the voices as each part is learned
alone--instead of these three _indispensable artists_, they commit them
(in two-thirds of the lyric theatres of Europe) to the superintendence
of a single man, who has no more idea of the art of conducting than of
that of singing, who is generally a poor musician, selected from among
the worst pianists to be found, or who cannot play the pianoforte at
all--some old superannuated individual, who, seated before a battered
out-of-tune instrument, tries to decipher a dislocated score which he
does not know, strikes false chords major, when they are minor, or
vice-versa, and under the pretext of conducting and of accompanying by
himself, employs his right hand in setting the chorus-singers wrong in
their time, and his left hand in setting them wrong in their tune.

One might believe one's self in the Dark Ages, on witnessing such an
exhibition of Gothish economy.

A faithful, well-colored, clever interpretation of a modern work, even
when confided to artists of a higher order, can only be obtained, I
firmly believe, by partial rehearsals. Each part of a chorus should be
studied singly until it is thoroughly known, before combining it with
the others. The same step should be taken with regard to the orchestra,
for a symphony at all complicated. The violins should first be practised
alone; the violas and basses by themselves; the wooden wind instruments
(with a small ban