The Express.
London, England, 1865-05-11 00:00:00

Inoue, maddials, and putwoop.
In a purely musical point of view, we may remind our
leaden that we have &Inn regarded these immense vocal
gatheriap, sow so frequent at the Crystal Palace, with •
vary qualified degree of approbation. In the first place the
unorerisal multiplication al voice& our be auxin, with ad-
ventage, only to a limited extent, beyond which no corre-
sponding increase of effect can be produced. Experience hie
shown that five hundred choral voices have more Tsai
power than five thoesand, and are capable of per
dueling grander effects In • bean span, such
• naltitede world only sten end overwhelin
the ear ; in a spies so net as the Omni Paleae. the voices
are dispersed and lastin Assn, in. the same manor ea if
the singers were in an open field; while solo vans., even of
the mass powerful noes, an so week as to be all but ine-
dible. So muse has this her -Load to be the ear that,
ever airmen first Handal Festival, eight yens ago, ye-
nned attempts have been made to improve the efionlical
properties of the locality, by esedwing the cathertra above
and on all sides but the front, and other— ex-
pettiest/ ; but it is edurietel that these attempui
have been only partially stioreseful. We believe that
the utmost amount of real choral peham wee has been
and Norwich, obtained
at the greed Festivals of Birming , where
the sumerkal Wing* of die noel end instrumental or
chasten once exceeds between three and four hundred per.
formers. Bat festivals to school children, such as those
given by Mr. Martin sad by the Topic Sol-Fa Amociatioa, are
pleasant things to wines, independently of their merits
as musical eatertainewats. It is delightful to see so
many thousand London children enjoying • eoen-
try holiday, with all the glee belonging to their
age, and laying in • stock of health, animation, and happy
memorise. Were we to consider merely the musical effect
of Mr. Martin's choruses and part-soup, it would be equally
good (or perhaps better) in • moderately sired room in
London, with thirty or forty voices and a pianoforte bet
when some thousands of nice, clean, happy-looking children
are assembled at Sydetharn to sing them, they here •
charm quite different from and much greater than any
pleasure derived from their mere musical beauty.
Under these qualifications we received greet pleasure from
our visit to the Crystal Palace yesterday, though the
weather was such as to deprive the children of half the
enjoyment of their holiday. The music was judiciously
chosen, and well arranged by Yr. Martin, for the purples
of each a performance ; and they mug in such • way as to
show that they have been carefully and well instructed in
their respective schools. The simplest things (es we more
than once have had occasion to observe) were those that had
the greatesteffecksuchas Luther's Hymn, the Veeper Hymn,
and the part gong The Sabbath Be1L" The children,
as a body, have flee voices ; the girls especially, who in
these simple harmonies produced a volume of sound de-
lightf ally deer and fresh. Altogether it was very pleasing
to hear their music; for it showed that they were lousing
an art which, even in its simplest forma, is • blearing to
mankind, sod will be to them, as long as they live, a sown
of pure and olden enjoyment.