Page:Selected letters of Mendelssohn 1894.djvu/52

38 For example, the first “tonus” they sang was:—
 * I.


 * II.

And in that way the whole psalm with the forty-two verses continues, one half-verse always ending on G A G, the other on G E G. They sing without variety of expression, and it sounds as if a number of people were earnestly and fiercely disputing, and each side doggedly repeating the same reply over and over again. In the last verse of each psalm they sing the closing words more slowly, and with greater emphasis, and, instead of the inflexion, end with a sustained chord of three notes sung piano, for example, in the first: At the commencement of each psalm comes an antiphon, or several, by way of prelude; usually these in “canto fermo” are sung by two altos very coarsely and harshly, so, too, is the first half verse of the psalm itself, and at the second the system of responses by the male choirs comes into play. I am