Concert-goers heard the other evening what was to most of them a new instrument. It was the a cappella chorus—group singing unaccompanied. Specifically, it was the Sistine Choir (TIME, Oct. 22), in its Manhattan début. One does not think of voices without accompaniment as an instrument of rich and dramatic musical utterance. The church choir, smug, monotonous, leaves an abiding impression on the American ear. Even the best of oratorio choruses do not escape the stilted, churchy dullness. A fine operatic chorus, like that of...
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