eran church is
invariably unaccompanied. It closely resembles in form our anthem, but
the German Protestants look upon the _a capella_ style, which continues
the tradition of the Sistine Chapel at Rome, as the purest and highest
in church music. On no account would they use the organ to accompany a
motet. This gives rise to elaborate compositions, often like
Mendelssohn's "Judge me, O God," in eight parts. By treating the boys
and men as separate choirs, each in four parts, and getting responses
between them, a variety of tone colour, which is almost orchestral, is
obtained; and when both choirs unite in solid eight-part harmony, the
result is imposing. As the Germans are usually not sight-singers, the
labour involved in learning these motets is immense. The higher register
of the boys is well trained. They sing up to B flat without effort, and
with purest tone. The same may be said of the Dom Choir, for which
Mendelssohn wrote his motets. At my last visit to Leipzig, I carried an
introduction to Dr. Rust, trainer of the Thomas Church choir, but I was
there just after Whitsuntide, when the yearly shifting of classes had
just taken place, and Dr. Rust, who wished me to hear his boys at their
best, asked me not to come to a rehearsal. Speaking generally, the
voices of German boys are thinner than those of English boys, more like
fifes than flutes.

ST. CLEMENT DANES, STRAND.

The choirmaster here, Mr. F. J. Knapp, is also master of the parish day
school. Here he insists on quiet singing, and stops coarseness directly.
The boys are taught on the Tonic Sol-fa system, which, says Mr. Knapp,
has alone enabled him to produce his results. Some time ago at St.
Stephens, Walworth, he was called upon to produce a choir in a week, and
he did this, by nightly rehearsals, to the satisfaction of everyone.
Complete oratorios, with band, were frequently given by this choir of
sol-faists. At St. Clement Danes he had to produce a choir in five days,
and here again he succeeded by the use of Tonic Sol-fa. "Our
choir-boys," he says, "can now sing at sight almost anything I put
before them. We never have more than two or three practices (one only,
full) for the most difficult anthems we do. There is an anthem every
Sunday, a choral communion once a month, offertory sentences on
alternate Sundays, cantatas and oratorios at Festivals." Mr. Knapp
adopts the useful plan of "tuning-up" his boys before the morning
service. Flattening, when it