THE MUSICAL WORLD.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 8, 1 May 1876, Page 2

THE MUSICAL WORLD.

[kbom enharmonia.] Aii organ of remarkable structure and dimensions lias jusfc been opened at Prim-rose-lull, London. It is in a liall at the back of Mr. Hobne's house. This gentleman, an engineer by profession, isanentlius:last onthe subject of organs, and himself a very good performer. He has, at length, realised the desire of years, and the organ, which has been four years in building, ■ is iinislied. M. Guilenant, of Paris, Mr. Best, aiid St'. Lemmens played at 1 the opening performances, when Mr. Holmes invited liis friends to hear liis neW:-instru-ment. - Among the. novelties of the instorument are a ail ecli organ at the opposite end. of; the hall, played same key-Hoard by electric action. The performer faces the. audience, and the wind is supplied to i the* 'pipes by a steam-engine of cleven-hprse power. manuals, sixty-five speaking stopsj/iiine'couplers, twenty-one adjusting pedals,'tind 4,209 ]y.pe_s._ In the United States, Mclhie. Titiens was offered £I,OOO to sing five songs at a concert, but was obliged, from illness, to refus2. " Dr. Strainer has been presented with a handsome baton of ivory and. gold, by the gentlemen of the evening service choir, at St. Paul's, London, together with an address, congratulating liim on his recovery from an accident. The tonic sol-fa method of teaching to sing is now far .more extensively used in schools than any other method. Professor Blakie has written, with clia-. racteristic energy and humour, on the way in which preaching monopolises the time of public worship in the Presbyterian Church. He proposes that each clmrch shall have its pastor an the true sense of tho word, the preaching to be done by itinerant evangelists, who shall not have to prepareillore tliaiT one" sermon a month. Under the new- fsyMcmhe hopes that clmrch music will assert that place, and significance in, Divine worship, which is now so often denied it in Presbyterian churches.