oys to use their upper registers is a
very old-fashioned one; but it is very effective. It is to make them
sing the major diatonic scale, ascending and descending; beginning at a
low pitch, and gradually raising it by a semitone at a time."

* * * * *

Mr. C. Hibberd, of Bemerton, near Salisbury, whom I quote also in the
chapter on "Flattening," dwells on the difficulties of the rural
choirmaster. He says:--

"I have rarely come across the soft fluty tone in the country. I once
met with a boy with it in the choir at Parkstone, near Bournemouth, and
another here at Bemerton, but in both cases the boys were above the
average of country boys, and the village was close to a larger town. In
both cases, also, the boys had good and careful practice over and above
the ordinary choir practices. At places farther in the country it seems
an impossibility to get the tone. With only a few boys to pick from, it
is a difficulty to find boys enough to fill up ordinary vacancies. With
a great deal of trouble and practice one can get a great part of the
roughness toned down, and, as a rule, that is all."

* * * * *

Several of my correspondents, it will be noticed, speak with great
confidence of the use of the Tonic Sol-fa system in rural places. This
system, useful everywhere, certainly attains its greatest usefulness in
places where the task of the choirmaster reaches its highest degree of
difficulty. To those whose only acquaintance with Tonic Sol-fa is a
casual glance at a printed page of the new notation, it naturally seems
strange that the use of a musical shorthand can affect the whole
training of the boy. But behind the letters and punctuation marks, which
go to make up the Tonic Sol-fa notation, there lies the Tonic Sol-fa
method--a fixed and many-sided educational system, founded on the truest
principles of education, carrying on simultaneously the training of the
ear for tune and time, making progress sure because gradually
developing the intelligence along with the voice. With Tonic Sol-fa,
also, is associated a definite system of voice-training. Tonic Sol-fa
teachers are all more or less of educationists, and have caught by
observation or study the teacher's art. This is the cause of their
success.

[Illustration: Decoration]

CHAPTER XI.

NOTES ON THE PRACTICE OF VARIOUS CHOIRMASTERS IN CATHEDRALS, &c.

I SUMMARISE here information obtained, ch