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the Messiah, after which Dr. A. B. Hall, the Chairman of the Festival Committee and President of the Day, welcomed the audience in the following address:

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS OF DR. HALL.

At the quarterly meeting of the School Board, in March last, a Committee was appointed by you, Mr. Mayor, to make the required arrangements for the Fourth Musical Festival of our public schools. On behalf of my associates on that Committee I have the honor to announce, that they have attended to the pleasing and responsible duty assigned to them, and are now prepared to present, as their report, this group of twelve hundred choristers, from the Normal and Grammar Schools of our honored city. Their youthful and melodious voices, I doubt not, will find in every person here to-day, in this large and discriminating audience, a listening ear and a responsive heart.

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Gentlemen of the Committee, teachers, friends, one and all, I bid you a hearty and generous welcome to this festive scene, and to this temple, consecrated to the divine art of music. We do not invite you here to witness a scholastic entertainment, incident to a medal examination, or a public exhibition, for these are passed, and the bright jewels, gathered from the harvest of today and yesterday are here before you. But we come with the sweet and enchanting strains of melody playing upon these young and tender lips, ready to lay upon the altar of music her just and merited tribute. The introduction of vocal music into our public schools was a wise and judicious act on the part of those who had in charge the educational interests of the city. Since that important event in the history of our schools, the growing sentiment in its favor has become so strong that the cultivation of the musical element is now regarded as one of the necessities of a well-regulated system of instruction.

With the return of this annual Festival closes the active labors of the present school year. It is not my purpose at this time to pronounce any eulogy upon the system of education in our City

and State, or to speak in praise of our faithful and intelligent corps of teachers; for he who reads the history of this Commonwealth, and understands her institutions, will find the schoolhouse standing side by side with the church, in every town and hamlet, the one consecrated to the worship of the living God, the other to the education of her children. And although it is not within the province of this occasion to bring before you the profound works of the great masters of harmony, still, at this culminating point of our labors, this crowning summit, — from whence we can review the rich and varied experiences of the year, and look forward with higher and nobler hopes for the future, what can be more fitting and more appropriate, than to carry heavenward our benedictions with songs of joy and praise from these youthful voices? I need not tell you that music bears upon its wings some of the sweetest and purest pleasures of the passing hour, whether it gushes forth from human lips or from the breath of old olus upon his throne. Music elevates and quickens our perceptions; it softens and subdues the rebellious disposition; it refines and soothes the wayward and turbulent passions; it nerves the heart to deeds of valor and heroism; it gives joy and consolation in the hour of affliction, and carries the soul captive across the rough and stormy sea of life, and stands beyond the vale of time to welcome, with angelic voice, the wandering spirit to its final home.

While the study of music appeals to our highest and keenest sensibilities, and tends to promote our happiness, at the same time it develops sentiments of patriotism and love of country. For,

"The man that hath no music in himself,

Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils."

Go with me into whatever nation or community you will, where poetry and music, joined hand in hand, share a place in the affections of the people, there you will find the love of freedom and constitutional liberty deeply rooted in the great heart of the

living and moving masses, who, cheered on by the soul-stirring notes of their household ballads, or the more thrilling tones of their national airs, need but the breath of eloquence from a Kossuth or the determined will of a Garibaldi to rouse their dormant energies and lead them forth to deeds of triumph,

For God and their native land."

The chanting of the "Marseillaise," by the peasantry of France, will rock the empire, from the plains of Normandy to High Alps. The majestic notes of "God Save the Queen," will cause the heart of Briton's sons to pulsate with warmer devotion for their homes and their altars. The same love and power of music dwells in the affections of the American people.

When the unwelcome news first flashed along the lightning's pathway that an unrighteous rebellion was showing its long-concealed and gigantic head, in a distant portion of our fair land, and the drums had ceased to beat the music of the Union upon the ramparts of Fort Sumter, the clarion notes of our patriotic airs, echoing from city to town and from valley to hill-top, imbued our Union-loving sons and daughters with the same heroic spirit and impulse that guided their fathers and mothers in those trying hours of their early history, when,

“ Amidst the storm they sang,

And the stars heard, and the sea;

And the distant aisles of the dim woods rang
With the anthems of the free.”

As I read yesterday of the exciting events now going on in the land of Patrick Henry and his illustrious compeers, and as I look upon this beautiful panorama before you, composed of flowers gathered from the rich and luxuriant fields of instruction all over our city, and upon these national emblems, so dear to us all at this time, I almost feel the proud assurance, that if the twenty-seven thousand children in our Boston schools, dwelling in the shadow of yonder granite monument, could stand, to-day, around

and encircle the sacred tomb of Washington, and there, with united voices, peal forth, in thundering tones, the "Star-Spangled Banner," that every soldier engaged in the conflict, as he heard those inspiring notes, borne upon the free winds of heaven, would swear anew to plant and protect these Stars and Stripes throughout the length and breadth of our common country, “now and forever." I will detain you, ladies and gentlemen, but a moment longer, from the feast of music and eloquence awaiting your approval.

The Committee are under great and lasting obligations to the masters of the schools for their kind and faithful co-operation in aiding them to perfect and carry out the arrangements for this entertainment. To our young friends, the chorister pupils, our warmest thanks are due, for the promptness with which you responded to the call of the Committee. Some of your number bear with you the honors you have received from the hands of your respective committees. To-day, according to a time-honored custom, you will be made the recipients of other tokens, as a further expression, for your faithfulness and devotion.

Then followed the musical part of the programme, as given below:

I.

THE LORD'S PRAYER: A Gregorian Chant, sung in unison by twelve hundred children of the public schools.

II.

CHORAL-ST. ANN'S. · Attributed to Sebastian Bach.

Let all the lands with shouts of joy,

To God their voices raise;

Sing psalms in honor of his name,

And spread his glorious praise.

God's tender mercy knows no bound,
His truth shall ne'er decay;
Then let the willing nations round

Their grateful tribute pay.

III.

THREE PART SONG-Abt. Sung by pupils of the Girls' High and Normal School.

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IV.

CHORAL- "CAST THY BURDEN UPON THE LORD."— From Elijah." Mendelssohn.

V.

GRAND HALLELUJAH CHORUS. From the Messiah. Handel.

VI.

CHORAL-THE JUDGMENT HYMN. - Martin Luther. "Great God, what do I see and hear?"

VII.

CHORAL-THE OLD HUNDREDTH PSALM.

From all that dwell below the skies,

Let the Creator's praise arise;
Let the Redeemer's name be sung

Through every land, by every tongue.

Eternal are thy mercies, Lord;

Eternal truth attends thy word;

Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore,
Till suns shall rise and set no more.

Of these musical performances it is perhaps unnecessary to speak in detail. Suffice it to say, that the massive chorals, for simple satisfying beauty and solemn impressiveness of effect, - fell in nothing short of our past experiences of the kind; the difficult Hallelujah Chorus of Handel,-undertaken though it was with many misgivings on the part of the Committee,

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