instance the arrangement commonly is three sopranos, two contraltos, two tenors, and one bass.  One of the most beautiful uses of the double choir is to produce antiphonal effects, choir answering to choir, both occasionally uniting in the climaxes.  How stirring this effect can be made may be observed in some of Bach’s compositions, especially those in which he makes the division of the choir subserve a dramatic purpose, as in the first chorus of “The Passion according to St. Matthew,” where the two choirs, one representing Daughters of Zion, the other Believers, interrogate and answer each other thus: 

 I.  “Come, ye daughters, weep for anguish;
    See Him! 
II.  “Whom? 
I.  “The Son of Man. 
    See Him! 
II.  “How? 
I.  “So like a lamb. 
    See it! 
II.  “What? 
I.  “His love untold. 
    Look! 
II.  “Look where? 
I.  “Our guilt behold.”

[Sidenote:  Antiphony in a motet.]

Another most striking instance is in the same master’s motet, “Sing ye to the Lord,” which is written for two choirs of four parts each. (In the example from the “St. Matthew Passion” there is a third choir of soprano voices which sings a chorale while the dramatic choirs are conversing.) In the motet the first choir begins a fugue, in the midst of which the second choir is heard shouting jubilantly, “Sing ye!  Sing ye!  Sing ye!” Then the choirs change roles, the first delivering the injunction, the second singing the fugue.  In modern music, composers frequently consort a quartet of solo voices, soprano, contralto, tenor, and bass, with a four-part chorus, and thus achieve fine effects of contrast in dynamics and color, as well as antiphonal.

[Sidenote:  Excellence in choral singing.]

[Sidenote:  Community of action.]

[Sidenote:  Individualism.]

[Sidenote:  Dynamics.]

[Sidenote:  Beauty of tone.]

[Sidenote:  Contralto voices.]

The question is near:  What constitutes excellence in a choral performance?  To answer:  The same qualities that constitute excellence in an orchestral performance, will scarcely suffice, except as a generalization.  A higher degree of harmonious action is exacted of a body of singers than of a body of instrumentalists.  Many of the parts in a symphony are played by a single instrument.  Community of voice belongs only to each of the five bodies of string-players.  In a chorus there are from twelve to one hundred and fifty voices, or even more, united in each part.  This demands the effacement of individuality in a chorus, upon the assertion of which, in a band, under the judicious guidance of the conductor, many of the effects of color and expression depend.  Each group in a choir must strive for homogeneity of voice quality; each singer must sink the ego in the aggregation, yet employ it in its highest potency so far as the mastery of the technics of singing is