The Portland daily press., 1869-05-12

Something abOnt Musical FestivaIs-Win
the Coming ebay Of Jubileen be a sue
cesss
The bold attempt of our Boston neighbors to
inaugurate great musical festival on the scale
set forth has raised much speculation as to its
probable success as a mere musical affair."
That it will be the grandest occasion Boston
ever saw, as great gathering of the people
of the nation is beyond doubt, and that 1t
will attract the attention of the whole world
by the vastness of its proportions mas already
been proved The building itself Is wonder
to the throng of people who daily wend their
way thither to watch its growth through the
army of workmen.
A GLANCE at some of the affairs by which
this one may be in part judged of and measur-
ed, will be interesting to our readers, for be it
known that even monster peace offerings
have history. In 1871 somebody wrote of a
band that had four hundred and ninety-one
stringed and wind instruments, and five hun
dred sixty-three mixed voices. The music was
pronounced wonderfully soft and yet power
Jul. An enthusiastic writer is quoted as say
ing of it, "no single instrument was heard, but
all were blended together in the softest shower
of h,rmony.
In the Crystal Palace in 1861, thirty five hum
dred children, with one thousand tenors, sang
together with fine effect, and year later tive
thousand little voices were blended in harmony
most perfect, so the account said. Indeed,
there seems to have been in England period
when these great choruses were the order of
the day, and there appears to have been won
4 y fa,ao fbann both fho
lace and the musical critics One of the most
striking events of the time of which we speak
was the uniting into one monster concert for
ty-nine full brass bands, with no end of buglers
and drummers, and the critics said that the
music selected was performed with an the pre-
csion of an ordinary band
In our own country the only great event in
the line of immense musical festivals which
we remember with any particulars, was the
great celebration in New Orleans, in 1864,
when the people celebrated the independence
of the State government, on the occasion of
Gov. Hahn's Inauguration. Mr.. Gilmore was
the master-spirit ON that occasion, and brought
about the affair in very short time and with
the material to be found in the city alone The
musical offering was rendered in Lafayette
Square, and was made up of ten thousand child
voices, borne up by an orchestra of five hun
dred pieces, accompanied by bells and artillery
The newspapers of New Orleans were full of
glowing accounts of the event. and one of them
actually likened the melody of these voices to
tae music of the angel spheres.
Thus it would seem that even one thousand
instruments and twenty times as many singers
can render our national airs with real har-
mony as well as power, and that grea5 bodies
of musicians are not merely noisy. And with
out the evidences furnished by later and more
scientific trials, this would not have been doubt
ed, when it is remembered that fifty thousand
people have sung the "Marseillaise'' in the
streets of Paris with such wonderful power and
effect that made all France applaud Nor will
it be forgotten by any of us who have sat
around camp fires or trudged along the weary
march, how thousands of voices have mingled
in the glad refrain of that best of all the sol
dier's songs, "John Brown
There can be no fear that these thousands
who are now preparing the music of the great
jubilee will fail to do their mission well, and
as mere concert" it must be grand tri-
umph, while, as the celebration of great
epoch in peoples history, it will be grander
still. Let US say, then, all honor and all Sue
cess to the great scheme