Pàvel Ivànych gazed meditatively at his music, and never moved.
“Ivàn Stepànych, Pètka’s hitting me,” whimpered an alto.
“Pètka!”
“Ivàn Stepànych, I didn’t——”
“Hold your tongue before I come and make you. Now, then!”
The choir-master struck several chords.
“Now listen! You all begin piano: ‘I believe in one God the Father Almighty,’ ... recitative, you know; and mind every word is clear. The basses must get their vowels out well.... Pàvel Ivànych! Where are you looking?”
“I?”
“No, I, of course! What do you suppose I’m talking to you for? Oh! good heavens, what a life! Well now, you begin piano; and, trebles, mind you don’t drag! Do you hear? ‘By whom all things were made!’ All the parts break up here! Sforzando: ‘By whom all things!’ ... D’you understand? Pètka, look at me! ‘And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures.’... Forte. ‘And sitteth on the right hand.’ ... Fortissimo.... Do you understand what it means? Do you? ‘From thence He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead.’... Think what it means—the earth, the heavens, everything, going to dust ... and the last trumpet,—lightning,—thunder,—everything annihilated!... ‘Whose kingdom shall have no end.’... At ‘end’ you have another diminuendo, and let the voices die away. You have to express all that great—how do you call it?—wisdom, and power, and eternity, ... don’t you see? Basses lead. Bring out all the tone you can; it wants to be like three hundred voices here! Tenors, change tone; take the octave! Trebles and altos: tra-la-la-la-la.... Stop!”
The choir-master had got so absorbed in describing how the Creed ought to be sung, that he had started up from the piano, and, imagining that it was really being sung as he said, began gesticulating and excitedly nudging the tenors, who edged away as far as they could. The basses, meanwhile, were taking snuff indifferently, while the trebles and altos, hiding their faces behind their music, were pinching each other and giggling. At last the singing began in good earnest; they all coughed, shuffled their feet, mumbled a little, and suddenly burst out in a roar: “I believe in one God the Father Almighty.”... The choir-master stood in the middle of the room, with his eyes fixed on the ceiling, nodding his head and beating time with his hand.