oys produce a pure and beautiful tone to this vowel, especially in that
part of the voice called the upper thin, when he could not do so with
the others. Of course "e" can be sung badly, and boys will sometimes
make a nasal squeak of it, but the correct placing of the tone is
quickly learnt if the teeth are kept nicely apart. Mr. Gilbert teaches
the boys when very young the mechanism which governs their voices above
[Illustration: high f] This is the "small" register. He is careful also
about pronunciation, recommends that boys should be paid, and that bad
behaviour, laziness, or irregularity, if they occur, should be punished
by fines. One of the most marked excellences of Mr. Gilbert's choir is
its chanting, and the elocutional phrasing of the words of the hymns.
The rigidity of the time is often broken with impressive effect in
order, by an elocutional pause, to throw into relief a prominent word or
idea.

* * * * *

Mr. T. H. Collinson, Mus.B., organist of St. Mary's Cathedral,
Edinburgh, has given me some interesting particulars of the training
which his excellent boys undergo. The process of selection is as
follows:--(1) Advertisement. (2) Trial of voice, and entry of
particulars of school, school standard, father's occupation, &c. (3)
Choice of most promising voices. (4) Inspection of homes, as to
overcrowding, &c. (5) Appointment of probationers. (6) Full appointment,
with religious service of admission by the Dean. The parents engage in
writing to retain the child in the choir school until his voice changes,
or to the average age of fourteen. The boys are taken at all ages from 9
to 12-1/2.

"Cultivation of tone, blending of registers, and accuracy of pitch are
specially studied, the principal means being as follows:--(1)
Mouth-opening (silently). (2) Breathing exercise. (3) Sustained notes
_piano_, each to full length of breath. (4) _Piano_ scales. (5) Simple
flexibility exercises, _e.g._, Sir J. Stainer's card of exercises,
published by Mowbray. (6) _Crescendo_ and _Diminuendo_. (7) Behnke's
resonance vowels, oo-o-ah. (8) Behnke's glottis-stroke exercises,
oo-o-ah-ai-ee. (9) No accompaniment, except a single note on the
pianoforte every three or four bars to test pitch. Where badly flat, a
scolding, and going back to try over again. (10) At early morning
practice no _forte_ singing is allowed, as a rule.

"By the above means, especially sustained notes and _piano_ scales,
f