GREAT MUSICAL FEAST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 209, 4 September 1934, Page 7

GREAT MUSICAL FEAST

CHOIR OF 3000 VOICES. HALF A MILLION SINGERS. MELBOURNE CENTENARY EVENT. Sound takes an appreciable time to travel even a short distance. A crowd cannot see a conductor who is round the corner, and there are 120 estab lished hymn tunes to which “O God Our Help in Ages Past ’ f may be sung. Those are a few of the details that are engaging the attention of the Melbourne Centenary Celebrations musical sub-committee, which is arranging the musical programme for tJie dedication service at the Shrine of Remembrance on the morning of Sunday, November 11. The dedication will be performed by the Duke of Gloucester, a choir of 3000

voices from the 800 church choirs in the metropolitan area will lead the singing, 150 picked bandsmen will play the accompaniments, and a crowd of about 500,000 Victorians and visitors is expected to join in singing the hymns. Church choirs have been practising for 12 months the “Hallelujah” choruses of Handel and of Beethoven. “And the Glory,” “The Heavens are Telling,” and the “Gloria” from Mozart's 12th. Mass. Soon there will be a complete rehearsal, in which eight or 10 conductors will conduct simultaneously. A public address system will repeat the music of the accompaniment of the band and the choir to all parts of the crowd. Sychronised metronomes will provide accurate time for the conductors, who are in positions where the master conductor will not be visible, and ,for the first time in the world, it is claimed, a choir of 500,000 voices will sing together in time and tune. The hymns have been selected with