RE: What is this mark?

[Chris Crossen]

> Looking at my copy of the Novello Messiah, bar 17 is marked for Strings,
so it seems pretty clear that your mark is simply a device used by Watkins
Shaw to indicate changes in the > instrumental summary below the choral
parts.  For example, at rehearsal B, bar 22, the mark shows that the top
half note belongs to the first violin, while the trumpets have the > rest of
ther notes on beat one.
> 
> Cheers,
> Colin (who thinks singing the bass line to be wonderfully therapeutic!)

Thanks, Colin.