The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1877-03-16
OrEanIsts and Leaders.


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One Of the indispensable ingredients Of
4 good and effective choir il 4 good, ei.
iective organiBt. All tacitly admit his
and q good many-We among them-be.
lieVe the organist ranking foremost not
exactly by virtue Of his being a renowned
manager Of the manuals, or 4 great mani.
pulator Of the stops, but rather on nc.
count Of his being good accompanies,
good timist, q good inventor Of melody,
and q good rythmist shaping his little
creations Of interludes and preludes into
acceptable and regular phrases and
stanEas. OF course he should know ali
about Modulation. Some hold that the or.
ganist should have little 10 say about the
singing. We differ. It would be ana nom.
ally, leading to no good whatever. In our
choirs, rs they are at present constituted,
the organist should assume the part Of
general leader, though, as a matter, Of
course, there may be sublelders acting
under his orders. II, however the or.
ganist, Is lacking In the qualities, that
constitute aleader, the next best thing ia
to have somebody else lead and, In such
q case, even the orgsnist must submit.
II Is poor way, however. The character.
istics OF good leader are pretty much the
same as those in any other captain. He
must DO man Of tirmness, and decision,
not Of two much love Of appreciation,
that is, he must not be too vain, for in
that case, he will try too much too please
every body, he must be ladies man, Of
course, that il, he must not do every
thing, the ladies want him 70, nor mind
every thing they say. Hemust be man
OF not too much hesitancyand indirectnesS,
your indirect aecretiVe men never make
good leaders. Finally, he must understand
his business. We have known rehearsals
conducted by men whose vanity made
them believe themselves to be great man.
ayers, in which the business Of the eve.
ming was drawn out and delayed until
everybody was Disguised. We have gone
away from reheRrsals OF two hours "tilli.
clustering" when not 4 thing could be
shown in the end that had been done or
learnt that evening. Often the leader
complains, saying "the singers won't 20
to work-they won't pay attention; they
want to gossip" We reply that II you
are the right kind Of captain it is easy
to mend that; you alone are responsible
for this state OF things, tor this delay, for
this waste OF time. The work is infinite.
ly easier, however, il the organist be the
leader, and il full power il given him
cheerGully to control matters and put
them into execution.
A great deal is required OF our organ
lists, far more than their salaries Justify.
While being paid beggarly, they are
asked to have all the skill Of men who
who receive from one TO two thousand
dollars year at Chicago or New York.
We remember an individual who hap
pened to be leader not only OF the choir,
but also OF the organist, though he should
have been the very last TO lead, after
coming home from his semi.annual bus.
mess trips East, where he had heard the
Organists OF New York and Boston,
would take great pains to lecture his
organist and explain the way they man
aged their stop, recommending how to
experiment on all the little organ tricks
he had become familiar with in the East,
never thinking about the beggarly salary
his church was paying TO that same or
ganist and the princely salaries that were
paid in the East.
This city can certainly boast Of a very
fair set OF organists. They are infinitely
superior to their salaries, even the poor
est Of them. If they were paid better
some OF them would work more for their
choir. Many small towns west OF us
would be ashamed to pay the salaries to
orgRnists which we pay here. We have
some good organists, and we have var
ious kinds OF them. Some are superior
in the management Of stops. Some lack in
Invention and thoughexperts in reproduc-
ing the compositions Of others, are scarce
ly able to invent an acceptable interlude
OF their own. Some are deficient in
rythm, that is they cannot round of their
little melodies into measure and time.
Some stick last in their modulations. An
amusing instance OF this kind occurred
not many weeks ago at one OF our
churches. The last hymn had been finish.
cd at the evening service. The congrega.
ton rose for the Long Metre Doxology,
which was to be in q. Now, from E TO
G, as you know, is Just as easy as from
Chapline street into Twelfth. But our
organist we don't mean ours in place Of
just stopping right, advanced 10 Book
ings corner and placed his foot into
TWelfth-took another road. He went
down TO Fourteenth, thence into Main,
up the alley by Trushelrs back into
Chapline, thence mOdulating toward
Twelfth; but, taking another notion, he
made toward the alley by Paull's leading
into Eofi, intending from there to get into
Twelfth-that is, into the Doxology.
But one OF the choir, fearful that it would
take too long, cut him short with the
courage and voice Of lion, informing
"Piai.c God. from whom all blessing flow"
There was a smile. MAupE