bringing together in a single
performance a larger body of most skilful musicians than was ever
before attempted. An immense building called "The Coliseum" was
constructed for the purposes of the festival, which was to continue
five days. On the 15th of June, in the city of Boston, "The National
Jubilee and Great Musical Festival" was begun. The number of
instruments and performers composing the great orchestra was 1,011;
and an organ of immense proportions and power, built expressly for the
occasion, was employed. The grand chorus and solo vocalists numbered
1,040. Besides, one hundred anvils (used in the rendering of Verdi's
"Anvil Chorus") were played upon by a hundred of the city's firemen in
full uniform; while to all this was added a group of cannon, the same
being used in the performance of the "Star-spangled Banner." The vast
chorus, the orchestra, and all the leading performers (among the
latter were Ole Bull, Parepa, and Carl Rosa), were selected from the
finest musical people of the country, being accepted only after strict
testing by skilful judges. At this great gathering many of the works
of the great composers were performed, and only works of real merit
had a place on the programme. These were all performed by this vast
_ensemble_ with a precision and an excellence that were really grand
and wonderful. This achievement of Gilmore was considered the most
brilliant entertainment of modern times. Of it, it has been truly
said,--

"This great event, by the sublimity of its music, held the
nation spell-bound. The great volume of song swept through
the land like a flood of melody, filling every Christian
heart with 'glad tidings of great joy.' It came like a
sunburst upon a musical world, shedding light where had been
darkness before, and revealing a new sphere of harmony, a
fairy-land of promise, and triumphantly realizing greater
achievements in the divine art than were hitherto thought
possible. It will ever be a memorable epoch in the history
of music, a glorious event; and thousands upon thousands are
happier for that week of glorious music. The boom of the
cannon, the stroke of the bells,[9] the clang of the anvils,
the peal of the organ, the harmony of the thousand
instruments, the melody of the thousands of voices, the
inspiring works of the great masters, the song of the
'Star-spangled Banner,' the cheers of the multitu