ABSTRACT
The early nineteenth-century festival chorus differed radically from its later counterpart. There are numerous tributes throughout the nineteenth century to the high standards of choral singing at the festivals. Much of the credit for this may be attributed to the commitment of a number of excellent chorus-masters, or sub-conductors as they were sometimes called. The tradition of employing male altos in the festival chorus was more tenacious. Female voices were not used to provide the alto line until the mid-nineteenth century and, even at that stage, their introduction was slow and sporadic. Birmingham admitted contraltos to its chorus in 1849 but the proportion of women to men was tiny 17 contraltos as opposed to 60 male altos. That male altos were still being used during the 1880s in the north of England is evidenced by a note in the alto part of Sullivans Martyr of Antioch, a work specially written for the 1880 Leeds festival.
