273.—OUR MUSICAL ADVANCEMENT.
But few of the great composers have heard their works given with such completeness and skill as they can be given to-day. Wagner was of course an exception to this rule. In our day, while the voices may not be better they are used in more massive combinations, and the orchestral instruments have been improved by modern skill. But of course the stringed instruments are an exception to this rule. The organs of to-day are larger and have a more flexible action and greater varieties of tone color than in the time of Bach. The piano of to-day has a much greater volume of tone and an increased compass over the piano of Beethoven's time. In the field of choral music the choruses have been largely augmented, though, to be sure, a large chorus does not always promise the best results in shading and promptitude.
Händel heard no such choruses give his oratorios as we may hear sing them to-day.
When "The Messiah" was first given in Dublin the chorus consisted simply of the choirs at the two cathedral churches. And if Dean Swift had been sane in 1742 it is doubtful whether Händel would have been allowed the use of St. Patrick's choir, for in 1741 the great Dean addressed an exhortation to the Sub-Dean and Chapter, commenting on the conduct of certain members of the choir for "singing and fiddling at a club of fiddlers." The choruses that took part in the performance of Händel's oratorios during his lifetime numbered less than 100 singers. The chorus brought together for the great commemoration performances in Westminster Abbey and in the Pantheon in 1784 was made up of about 275 singers, and yet its size was the astonishment of the contemporaneous musical world.
What would the musicians and public of that day have said to a chorus of five or six thousand singers, such as are now frequently gathered together?