The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1870-04-14

company Of young gentlemen from Yale Col
loge, styling themselves the Yale College Glee Club,
gave a concert at stemway Hall on Tuesday evening
This eoneertizng for money By eonerisns beion s
to the new order OF thngs. Ten year, Is made
part Of university course. Its novelty however,
would be In It's favor rather than detrinient, pro-
yided the singing was good Tut the spectacle that
the nine young gentlemen made Of themselves On
the occasion to which We refer was very neaneht-
ly one indeed. We sincerely trust that tiey know
more about Latin and Greek than thcJ 20 about
music; otherwise there must be fearful rivalry Tor
that prize OF dulness, the wooden spoon.
After a varied experience in listening TO male.
voice singing, extending over a number OF ycIrs, and
including PERHAPS a hundred societies, American
and German, and aer giving care ul thoueht To the
subject, memory fails to recall any thing quite bad
as tits singing was. The young gentlemen. though
calling themselves Glee Club really song no glees
strictly speaking. In fact, an English gee would
have been quite beyond tie measure Of their reach
o. the moon IL hey ond the reach OF little c dren
who grasp toward II. What they attempted was
some German partsongs, OF very low order o.
merit, iAtcnded to be sung without aecompaniue
but sung by them with pianofoIte accompaniment,
the sustaining power OF which wac probably the
only thing that enabled them to get snfely Il rough
to the end without positive and mortiiying failure
Inc thuu VI tue IihnVioile ~ always enough 10
destroy the beauty Of male-yoice singing, but
4; served as a sort Of cover to the very wretched
quality OF this.
Voscl's waltz Is really very pretty composition
when II IL sung with grace and decncy. II il a
trfng and rather frivolous piece, but then It makes
no prctelsion TO be anything else. However, the
collegins managed to strip It Of what charm II did
possess very completely The difficulty with them,
looked at from a musical point OF view. was tina,
their voices were OF an inferior quality That the
first tenoIs were especially lacking In RS nance
that they sang exceedingly out Of tune that they
had very raw and crude IDEA Of light and shade,
and OF all the points that make mp excellent male
voice singing: thnt what voices they had did not
blend well together That there no resonance or
unity OF tone that their time faulty and. in
fact that they were attempting the practice ot an
art Of which they lad not even mastered the rudi-
mcnts.
Besides the German pnrt-songs, the young men
sang q number ui feeble aud juvenile college songs,
such as Bingo J.cei /" kis-njg, jig, aud away NJ
and the Will beasts, and the w1udbo comic ballad
OF the man who was sc1pi-ed nv the cruel In-di-
ans &c. These are all very well al Yale. Their
absuriity can be enjoyed Of an evening under the
college eims, hut they sound terribly feeble an wit
less Ia a large concert room especially when their
juventy is not redeemed by good singing The hall
WIS about two thirds hllci mostly with graduates
Yale, who came TO recall Old tunes, and Nonde. ed
Ms they listened whether the singing really
poor ~ that their day. Let them take heart II Is
hardly within the range OF possibilities that could
have been
Save for the presence and announcement Of these
alumni VINO lent their applause Tor Old association
sake, tho ahair could hive been great iasco As
II was, the young gentlemen escaped with more than
tleir deserts, but II WAS an experiment that will
hardly bear repetition Let these young bachelors O
music be content TO howl their dismal aud discor
dant "gces" In future under cover OF tleir alma
mater, nor venture forth untutored and unncdGed
into the cold world.