236 SCIENCE IN SHOUT CHAPTERS. 



a little and open a little more, according to the articula- 

 tions of the choir, to represent the vocal effort of one 

 gigantic throat. 



There is, I think, one fault in the shape of this mouth. 

 It extends too far laterally in proportion to its perpendicu- 

 lar dimensions. The angles of the mouth are too acute; 

 the choir extends too far on each side. The singers should 

 be packed more like those of the Birmingham Festival 

 Choir. 



There is an acoustic limit to the magnitude of choirs. 

 Sound travels at about 1100 feet per second, and thus, if 

 one of the singers of a choir is 110 feet nearer than another 

 singer to any particular auditor, the near singer will be 

 heard one-tenth of a second before the more distant, though 

 they actually sing exactly together. In rapid staccato 

 passages this would produce serious confusion, though in 

 such music as most of Handel's it would be scarcely 

 observable. 



Some observations which I have made convince me that 

 the actual choir of the Handel Festivals has reached, if not 

 exceeded, the acoustic limits even for Handel's music, and 

 decidedly exceeds the limits permissible for Mendelsshon 

 and most other composers. 



1 found that when standing on the floor of the building 

 in front of the orchestra, and on one side, I could plainly 

 distinguish the wave of difference of time due to the travel- 

 ing of the sound, and in all the passages which required 

 to be taken up smartly and simultaneously by the opposite 

 sides of the choir, the effect was very disagreeable. 



The defect, however, was not observable from the press 

 gallery, which is placed as nearly as may be to the focus of 

 the orchestral curve, so that radial lines drawn from the 

 auditor to different parts of the orchestra do not differ so 

 much in length as to effect perceptible differences in the 

 moment at which the different sounds reach the ear. 



My conclusion, therefore, is that if any amendment is to 

 be made in the numbers of the Handel Festival choir, it 

 should rather be done by a reduction than an increase; that 

 the four thousand voices should rather be reduced to three 

 thousand than increased to five thousand. With greater 



