New-York tribune., 1869-06-16

opposite direction not pleasant for the seats
filed up very slowly, and at no time was the build
ing more than three-f)urths full At o'clock Admi-
raj Farragut and various other dignitares took the
seats of honor reserved for them the center OF
the hail. and after the applause which greeted them
had subslded, the Rev. +. L. Hale began the inaugu
ration prayer. 1t was commercially short and
where sat was entirely inaudible. This, however
was not surprising, because soon as he commenced
all the people in the back seats scrambled over the
benches into the better places beyond them. BY the
time this rush was over the prayer was over, too,
and so was the short address of welcome by Mayor
Shurtlef, and the Hon. A. II. Rice was well under
way with his congratulations of mankind upon the
restoration of peace throughout the land. Mr. Rice
had prepared very long speech and sent it to the
newspapers in advance but he delivered only little
bit of it, for il came to his ears that he would be
coughed and clapped down if he spoke longer than
10 minutes At the first symptoms of impatience
which took the form of loud and long applause in the
middle of sentence he wound up. and the business
of the afternoon began. few chords on the organ
gave the signal for the chorus to rise and showed at
the same time that the instrument, small as it
looked, possessed marvellous power, and also very
good quality of tone. Mr. Gilmore, the originator
and principal organizer of the Jubilee, took the
stand amid applause which bOrdered upon frenzy.
People shouted and waved their hats arms,
and bandkerchiefs, in way which would have
astonished New-York, and in calm, philosophical
Boston, seemed little short of insanity, but during
this week has been said before, Boston means to
be insane. Many other favorites had similar re-
ceptiOn. There was grand uproar, for instance,
when Ole Bull took his seat with the orchestra. TO
play the first violin, Carl Rosa playing beside him;
there was a wild enthusiasm for Madame Parepa-
H., t1,o oct Of oil nai
to Carl Zerrahn the pet of Boston. and Prince
of Conductors who drilled the choruses. The first
piece on the programme was Luthers famous choral
sung by nearly 10000 voices with the string Orches
ira and organ. 1t was done with great precision,
and seemed to settle the doubtful question whether
so large a company cOuld be brought TO sing to-
getheT, without producing a mere babel of noise
The Hymn of Peace, and my Country 'riS Of Thee"
also went smoothly, and in general, may say that
all the slow music was successful. But cannot pro-
nounce the experiment of this Jubilee as altogether
satisfactory. Near the stage the noise certainly
loud enough, but people at the further end of the
building did not find the din quite as aw-
ful as they expected it, To a person sitting in the
front of the balcony, opposite the stage, the
music was unexpectedly weak in its effect. Ten
thousand voices in the Coliseum sound no more
powerful than 900 would sound in Stenway Hall
4
certain limit adds anything to the impression the
audience if the space winch their voices have
to spread is too much enlarged. Last year, 1000
people sang at the Handel and Haydn Festival in
the Boston Music Hail. and produced much greater
effect than the 10000 who sang here to-day. The
Music Hall chorus was not only better but actually
seemed more massive Beside. when yOu have many
thousands together especially if they have rehearsed
in squads instead of all at once it is impossible TO
make them sing delicately so long as they scream
their loudest. II is all right provided they also
scream their sOwest but the soft passages
are apt 10 be too soft, and the quick
ones are confused. II predicted that
even if all sung exactly in time the result would be
failure, because sound does not travel with suiii
cient velocity for all the voices 10 reach the AT the
same instant. This has proved to be true. though
not to such troublesome extent as feared. The
chorus is packed closely, vet it covers area of
about 800 feet squaretha to say the voices Of the
rear ranks have 500 feet further to travel than the
voices of the front rank and both start precisely at
the same moment, one will come in fifth of sec
Ond after the other This interval of time, short 1t
is can be appreciated by the and the least lag
gng on the part of those distant singers aggravates
the difficulty to a distressing degree. In the quicker
of the chorus, arranged from MOzart's
Mass everything seemed agog. In the " Star Span
gled BannerD too there was frequent confusion. In
the chorals however, no such troubles expert
enced because the voices dwell long enough
on each note for everybody to catch up
There we're two solo performances by Madame
Parepa-Rosa, namely GOunods Ave Maria" and
Rossini's "Infammatus.7 Her pure, sweet, noble
voice came across that vast space through the surg
ing of 400 instruments and above the sound Of 10000
voices, in the choral accompaniment with distinct
,,,l,i / Inn Her
notes were distinctly heard in the remotest corners
and the effect of such beautiful voice coming ap-
parently from such an immeasurable distance,
lust charming. The overtures TO "Tannhauser
and William Tell" which played by about
$50 musicians. Neither went we'll nor produced
as strong an effect as if played by 100 good
men in our opera house The Coronation March"
from the Prophet" was better, but imperfect The
features of the day, however, were the Anvil
Chorus" the Star-Spanged Banner" and My
Country, 'Tis of Thee" accompanied by every con
ceivable device for making noise. For the first
there marched in 100 fremen in red shirts AMI white
capes and placed themselves, with sledge hammer in
hand. by the side of 100 anvils. The enthusiasm
which this performance aroused can scarcely de-
scribe. A typical BOstonan beside me jumped mp in
his excitement and opened umbrella. At proper
intervals battery of u pieces Of artillery, stationed
lust outside the doors, and discharged
by electrical wires. manipulatcdby member of the
Orchestra, lent sOnorous voices to the uprOar and
the city bells rang by similar scientific appliances
warned all the towns of what was going on. To be
sure the artillery to MS inside sounded something
like the capping of cellar doors, and the smoke
pouring in. and the bells did not hear at all but
il was all very grand and noisy, and as the roof did
not come off, nor the people near the stage feen dis
may and deafness Mr. Gilmore may congratulate
himself upon grand success. II was not very good