Teachers. Children, have you learnt to know
What return to him you owe?

Children. Teachers, we our hearts must give,
Love, obey him while we live.

Teachers. Children, will he you receive,
If you on his name believe?

Children. Teachers, boundless is his grace,
If we early seek his face.

It will be readily perceived that the music adapted to the Teachers' Question is in two parts—the upper part for female voices (soprano)—the lower part for male voices (bass or baritone): and that the music adapted to the Children's Response is also in two parts—the upper part for the majority of children's voices (soprano)—the lower part for those very low voices which are called contra-alto. Let no ambitious male teacher go intruding his bass into the children's part. In the last verse a difference is made in the arrangement. The first line is sung by teachers' voices-soprano and either bass or baritone voices: the second line by the children's-soprano and contra-alto; but the last two lines are sung in chorus by all-the female teachers and children uniting to sing the soprano and contra-alto parts, while the male teachers supply the bass. This last verse we print with the music below.

Chorus of Teachers and Children.

!m r d r m :f !s :- - 1 s d' :s.f !m r d :

Hear! oh! hear

us Lamb di-vine; Make us all for

!d it, Id :-t, !d

:r !m :- !f m m m.r !d t, !d

!d, s, !, s, !d, :d' !d, :- !f, :d, !d, :m,.f,!s, :s, !d, ::—.s,

LESSONS ON SINGING.

NO. IV.

My dear Friend-I suppose that, in practising the last exercises which I sent you, your pupils have experienced no little difficulty in modulating* with correctness and precision, the last three notes of the ascending mode, Lah-Te-Doh. This is almost universally the case with beginners. The difficulty of true intonation here appears to lie in our having to sing three consecutive whole tones. (Fah to soh, soh to lah, lah to te,) before we come to the part tone, instead of only two as in the lower part of the mode. All may go on smoothly till we reach the third tone-then we feel the tendency to flatten on the te. The difficulty is not so great in descending. The Greeks, in their melodic system, shunned these difficulties of intonation, and real harshnesses of progression; and in the old Romish church chaunts, as well as in certain old national melodies, there is a marked avoidance of three tones in conjunct succession. This practical difficulty is noticed in the "Theory and Practice of Musical Composition," at page 26. To that Essayand to its polite and learned author-I am indebted for whatever is of choicest value in these letters. If I did not know that you had already perused it with great interest, I should recommend it to you now, and say that it exhibits a remarkable combination of extensive learning—a learning that is confined to no country and to no school-with a free, unburdened power and originality of thought.

My pupils have found another difficulty, which I have not yet analyzed. Ray, in descending, has always been found a very impracticable note. It is, however, remarkable that these (r and t) are the most artificial notes in the scale. See Art. SCALE-Penny Cyclopædia.

At this stage of your proceedings, I think it very important that you should learn the exact nature and capabilities of each voice in your class. I need not remind you that the voices of

• To modulate is to sing in mode. See the "Theory and Practice of Musical Composition, by G. F. Graham, Esq., p. 31, or Art. Music," Encyc. Brit. for the correct use of the word Modulation.

children do differ, and that very greatly, both in pitch and compass: nor have you to learn that to give a child a weight to carry above his strength, is not more injurious than the practice of teaching children to strain with thin and squeaking sounds after notes which their Maker did not intend them to sing. I have been amused to observe the leader of some country choir, pitching a tune a note or two higher than the majority of the congregation can reach, and himself almost splitting the upper regions of his throat in the effort-with what pity he regards the poor contra altos and baritones who cannot reach his envied altitude. Such persons boast of being able to "sing high." Just fancy a man boasting that he had a long finger! You would answer: "Why, man, it was made so; and if it was not, the more shame that you should injure it thus to please your vanity." I was grieved to see Mr. Hullah's exercises running so completely and cruelly out of the compass of many voices. He is bound by his system and his notation. He says that it cannot be helped. But we are not so bound, and we can easily avoid the error. If you will look at the diagram below you will perceive that music written between the

SCALE OF FIXED NOTES.

pitch of upper E1 and lower c may be sung by all the voices-by the male voices of course, in the octave below; and here is ample scope for exercises on all the intervals of the scale. Within this compass also should all tunes be confined that are really intended to be sung by a congregation. If, in these exercises, we had to deal with voices of only one nature and compass we should pitch the exercise just in that key which would be easiest to that kind of voice. The medium sounds of every voice are not very best.

only its easiest, but its

Permit me to recommend you to give to each child a card like that, which is represented as already filled up, below.

ADMIT [MARY HOWARD]

TO THE [FIRST] SOLFA CLASS,

VOICE [SECOND SOPRANO],

EASY COMPASS FROM [F1] TO [C.]

[March 1st, 1842.]

[T. B.] Secretary.

I hope that the following remarks may assist you in this registry of voices. They are taken from a work entitled "the Art of Singing," by D. Crivelli. They are "the result of the study and experience, for nearly thirty years," of a gentleman who is spoken of by the Atheneum (I quote from memory) as the most successful vocal teacher in England. We will take the ladies' voices first and begin with the highest. Boys' voices, before they break, belong to this class. You will notice that my diagram is not taken from M. Crivelli. It moreover contains an error. The upper limit of the contra alto voice should be on E1. I should like also to have added a mark to the upper c, thus c'. I wish you to put both these statements to the test and to give me the result of your own experience.

FEMALE VOICES.

THE FIRST SOPRANO VOICE. Its extremest compass is from E2 (E in alt) down to B, (below the staff.) The part to be cultivated is from B' down to c. It is weak in the lower sounds, but light and brilliant (if well developed) in the higher onesabove B. The organ has not much muscular strength, and cannot therefore give effect to sustained sounds. THE SECOND SOPRANO VOICE. Its extreme compass is from c2 down to G,. The part to be cultivated the same as the last. It is generally full and round in its quality, and flexible. is of a stronger muscular construction.

The

organ THE CONTRA-ALTO VOICE. Its extreme compass is from B' flat down to E. The part to be cultivated is from E1 to G Its organ is of a very strong muscular construction. It is not very flexible. The upper sounds are harsh or weak. It is, however, sometimes full from D' down to G. ful from G down to G1.

It is most power

MALE VOICES.

THE TENOR VOICE is of two sorts. The first is that very delicate, light, and flexible voice for which the alto part is written in our common tune books. Like the first soprano voice, among females, it is not adapted to sustained sounds. Its compass is about a tone higher than that of the common tenor voice. The stronger tenor voice has for its extreme compass from B flat (B in the treble cleff) down to B, flat (B in the bass cleff). The part which should be cultivated is from G down to C,. It is full, round, and capable of sustaining and expanding sounds with firmness. "Great care should be taken not to force the higher sounds. They should be sustained firmly though lightly, and without making use of falsetto, a quality of voice dissonant and unpleasant, and which ought never to exist in a well-cultivated voice."

THE BARITONE VOICE. Its extreme compass is from G (in treble cleff) down to F, sharp (below the bass cleff). The part which should be cultivated is from D (below the treble cleff) down to G, (on the lowest line of the bass cleff). It partakes in some degree of the quality of both bass and tenor. It is more soft and flexible than the former. From the ease with which it takes the notes D, E, F, (treble cleff) it may sometimes be mistaken for the tenor. "But from the different position of the organ in the throat, these sounds instead of being full will be of a hollow quality, being the extreme sounds of the baritone, whilst they are in the middle, and the fullest part of the tenor. If the voice is at all strained on this part, instead of gaining the soft and full baritone quality, it will become an imperfect mixture of the baritone and tenor."

THE BASS VOICE. Its extreme sounds are E (lowest line of the treble cleff) and E, (below the bass cleff). The part marked for cultivation is the same as for the baritone. It is naturally of a hard and inflexible quality, but very full and powerful in sustaining sounds.

The space I have already occupied warns me to defer to another opportunity some important remarks, which I have been favoured to obtain for you, on the different registers of voices, and on the management of the voice in the act of singing. I must also ask you to wait another month for the method of training children to pitch tunes for themselves. Meantime you