rd of such a demand from a choir?--and many of my friends
even thought I was demanding too much when, in rehearsing
Berlioz's _Faust_, I asked for something harder in tone than
the usual fluty, mellifluous sound in order to depict the
hearty laugh of the peasants in the first chorus. They were
almost scandalized when I asked for a somewhat raucous,
devil-may-care carousal, tone in the "Auerbach's
Wine-cellar" scene, and when a fiendish, snarling utterance
was called for in the "Pandemonium" scene they thought I was
mad. However, the performance settled all these objections.
It was seen by contrast how ridiculous it was for a choir to
laugh like Lord Dundreary with a sort of throaty gurgle; how
inane it was to depict wine-cellar revelry with voices
suggesting the sentimental drawing-room tenor, and how
insipid it was to portray fiendish glee within hell's
portals with the staid decorum of a body of local preachers
of irreproachable character.

Of course the battle in the rehearsal room had to be fought
sternly inch by inch, but frequent trials, approval of the
progress shown, and brilliant success at the concert won the
day. It was so convincing that many said they could taste
wine and smell brimstone....

Contrasts of tone-color, contrasts of differently placed
choirs, contrasts of sentiment--love, hate, hope, despair,
joy, sorrow, brightness, gloom, pity, scorn, prayer, praise,
exaltation, depression, laughter, and tears--in fact all the
emotions and passions are now expected to be delineated by
the voice alone. It may be said, in passing, that in
fulfilling these expectations choral singing has entered on
a new lease of life. Instead of the cry being raised that
the choral societies are doomed, we shall find that by
absorbing the elixir of _characterization_ they have renewed
their youth; and when the shallow pleasures of the picture
theater and the empty elements of the variety show have been
discovered to be unsatisfying to the normal aspirations of
intellectual, moral beings, the social, healthful,
stimulating, intellectual, moral, and spiritual uplift of
the choral society will be appreciated more than ever....

Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains,
Grasp it like a man