Page:Pen, pencil, baton and mask; biographical sketches (IA penpencilbatonma00blaciala).pdf/24

4 went on the indefatigable leader found that his engagements were considerably interfered with by three heavy services on Sundays and two on week-days, and he exchanged St. Andrew's for St. Anne's, Soho.

It was at Westminster Abbey that Sir Joseph Barnby first started the series of Passion services that, later, he inaugurated with full orchestra every Friday during Lent at St. Anne's, the faine of which spread all over the land. Going to Dean Stanley, he obtained his sanction for special services on Tuesday in Holy Week, whereat the Great Passion' of Bach should form a meditative service. Those who were present can never forget the impressive and thrilling nature of that performance. Sir Joseph got together a surpliced orchestra and chorus of five hundred people, who assembled in the semi-darkness of the transepts. As soon as the great organ pealed out, the procession moved along, carrying their instruments, and appeared to the crowded congregation who were assembled in the nave, in the broad glare of gaslight under the organ screen. Jenny Lind, who was present, remarked to Sir Joseph that she had never been more affected in all her life. His whole soul is in the orchestra. Unlike the organ, where each stop is of wood or metal, he regards each stop as an immortal soul in orchestra, and with his great choir, composed chiefly of persons of strong individuality, he welds then into one harmonious whole with the utmost subtlety of mind and sympathy. It is not,' he explains, ' like a general who orders his men in a certain direction. You make them think with you-identify themselves with you.'

In 1870 the Franco-Prussian war sent Gounod to these shores, just about the time the Albert Hall was completed. The opportunity was hailed to raise a great choir, of which Gounod was conductor for eighteen months. When he returned to Paris, and it became necessary to seek for a successor, Sir Joseph Barnby was unaninously elected to the conductorship of the Albert Hall Choral Society.