s music in the church service; and even the
gospel singer Sankey is said to have found that the softest rather
than the loudest singing was spiritually the most impressive.[18]

[Footnote 18: On the other hand, the criticism has been made in recent
years that certain orchestral conductors have not sufficiently taken
into consideration the size and acoustics of the auditoriums in which
they were conducting, and have made their _pianissimos_ so soft that
nothing at all could be heard in the back of the room. In order to
satisfy himself that the tone is as soft as possible, and yet that it
is audible, it will be well for the conductor to station some one of
good judgment in the back of the auditorium during the concert, this
person later reporting to the conductor in some detail the effect of
the performance.]

_Pianissimo_ singing or playing does not imply a slower tempo, and in
working with very soft passages the conductor must be constantly on
guard lest the performers begin to "drag." If the same virile and
spirited response is insisted upon in such places as is demanded in
ordinary passages, the effect will be greatly improved, and the
singing moreover will not be nearly so likely to fall from the pitch.

The most important voice from the standpoint of melody must in some
way be made to stand out above the other parts. This may be done in
two ways:

1. By making the melody louder than the other parts.

2. By subduing the other parts sufficiently to make the
melody prominent by contrast.

The second method is frequently the better of the two, and should more
frequently be made use of in ensemble music than is now the case in
amateur performance.

The conductor of the Russian Symphony Orchestra, Modeste Altschuler,
remarks on this point:

A melody runs through every piece, like a road through a
country hillside. The art of conducting is to clear the way
for this melody, to see that no other instruments interfere
with those which are at the moment enunciating the theme. It
is something like steering an automobile. When the violins,
for instance, have the tune, I see to it that nobody hurries
it or drags it or covers it up.

In polyphonic music containing imitative passages, the part having the
subject must be louder than the rest, especially at its first
entrance. This is of course merely a corollary of the general
proposition explained under number three, abo