nt is that for
such a group a program an hour and a half long is probably more
suitable than one of two or two and a half hours. Our feeling is,
furthermore, that the "tired business man" would not object so
strenuously to attending the serious musical performances to which his
wife urges him to go if some of these matters were considered more
carefully by the artist in planning the program! But here again, of
course, we have a matter which depends altogether upon the kind of
music presented, whether the entire program is given by one artist or
whether there are several performers, whether the whole program is of
one kind of music or whether there is variety of voice and instrument,
whether the performers are amateurs or professionals, and upon whether
the performer is an artist of the first rank and is able by his
perfection of technique, his beauty of tone, and his emotional verve,
to hold his audience spellbound for an indefinite length of time, or
whether he belongs to the second or third rank of performers and is
able to arouse only an average amount of interest. Our purpose in
including a discussion of the matter is principally in order that we
may have an opportunity of warning the amateur conductor not to cause
an audience which would probably give favorable consideration to a
short program, to become weary and critical by compelling them to sit
through too long a performance. This is particularly true in the case
of amateur performance; and since this book is written chiefly for the
amateur director, it may not be out of order to advise him at this
point to plan programs not more than an hour or an hour and a quarter
long, at first. It is far better to have the audience leaving the
auditorium wishing the program had been longer than to have them
grumbling because it is too long.

[Sidenote: ADAPTABILITY TO AUDIENCES]

Our fourth problem has already been presented in discussing the other
three, for it is because of the necessity of adapting the performance
to the audience that we have insisted upon variety, unity, and
reasonable length. Many a concert has turned out to be an utter fiasco
because of failure on the part of the program maker to consider the
type of people who were to listen to it; and although on such
occasions it is customary for the performer to ascribe his failure to
the stupidity of the audience, it must nevertheless be acknowledged
that the fault is more commonly to be laid at the door of th