The excellence of the work of English choristers has been highly and justly praised. Perhaps it would be fairer not to praise them so unreservedly when we are so severe on our own. Justice often leaves something to be desired. At all events it must be admitted that Berlioz treated the voices in an unfortunate way. Like Beethoven, he made no distinction between a part for a voice and an instrument. While except for a few rare passages it does not fall as low as the atrocities which disfigure the grandiose _Mass in D_, the vocal part of the _Requiem_ is awkwardly written. Singers are ill at ease in it, for the timbre and regularity of the voice resent such treatment. The tenor"s part is so written that he is to be congratulated on getting through it without any accident, and nothing more can be expected of him.