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sibly have supposed it to be serious. A solo on the coarsest double base that was ever played upon, would have been mel- lifluous, by comparison.
After him, a middling counter-tenor sung, which even so strong a foil could not make agreeable; and then another soprano, not at all a hopeless subject: his voice was well toned, and he had a little improvable shake. In short, this was the only promising singer that I had heard for two days. But to the bad voices, so slovenly, ignorant, and unfi- nished a manner was added, that the people were sung out of the church as fast as they came in. There was a young man who played solo parts in the ritor- nels with a kind of clarinet, which they call at Naples a vox humana; another on the trumpet, and a third on the haut- bois; but in an incorrect and uninterest- ing manner. The boys who sung had very poor cadences to their songs, which,
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