Like most societies of the period, the Handel and Haydn was composed of both instrumental and vocal members. Amateur players comprised about two thirds, and professionals one third, of the orchestra. The professionals were engaged to “ help out.” We were paid the modest sum of two dollars for each evening, whether concert or rehearsal, every Sunday through the season. It was an invaluable apprenticeship. I believe that musicians of the present day, who do not have the slow building-up through the regular performance of oratorios, lose a schooling no other music can give. Old Bostonians were great gainers by being permeated with the Messiah, the Israel in Egypt, Samson, Jephtha, Solomon, Saul, Judas Maccabeeus, Acis and Galatea, and Esther, all by Handel; the Creation, the Seasons, and masses, by Haydn; the Elijah, St. Paul, and the Hymn of Praise, by Mendelssohn ; and the Requiem and other masses, by Mozart