Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-09-18
THE SINGING SCHOOL.
TEACHING EXPRESSION TO A CLASS
Or LITTLE GIRLS.


A Vast Improvements on the Methods of |
the Old Fashioned "Singin' SkuIe"
Teacher-A Surprised Audience-Novel |
Features of a Rehearsal.
How to sing with the eyes is the burden OF
a new system which Mr.. W. L. Tomlins
taught choir of seventy-dve little girls for
a public performance at the Music Teachers
convention in the city.
The girls were ranged in a sort of amphi-
theatre, with Mr.. Tomlins and the piano in
the center Now" said Mr.. Tomlins, Il
want you to mean what you sing; want you
to let your faces show what your voices are
uttering; | want you to be merry when the
music is merry, and sad when the music is
sad
The girls began to run up the scale. "Low
at first" said their teacher. Imagine me to
be i'll in bed You have come to ask after
my health"
And the maidens, with an air of concern
and heightened faces, and notes quite low
but clear tiptoed their way gently along the
scale
Louder" cried Mr.. Tomlins; Il am bet
ter; | am convalescent; you are happy to
know that | shall soon be out again"
And with expressions of joy, with smiles
| and congratulations, the girls went over the
| ground again
And now" shouted Mr. Tonlins, 81 am
| as well as ever. am out with you for a pic
mic. 1t is the Fourth of July, and we are
romping in the fields"
With wild burst of song the little ones
rushed up the scale with a tremendous pecan
of delight.
Hold on to the top note" said Mr.. Tom
Inns 'Hold on to it. Imagine that you are
up in the clouds. Fancy yourself little an
gels floating in the sky. Up-up-up. Now
softly fiutter down"
The spectators applauded vigorously. They
had never seen so much significance extracted
from an octave. And the singers having
within the compass of notes visited sick
room, gone on a picnic, shouted for the
Fourth of July, and fioated like angels in the
nimbus of glory, sat in whirl half of pleas
ure, half of amazement
Next said Mr.. Tomlins, ''let Us sing
Come Out, It's Now September ,"
And off went the children with the refrain:
| All among the barley
| Who would not be blithe
When the free and happy barley
| Is smiling on the scythey
"Stop, stop, STOP cried the teacher; ''you
mustn't cross barley field like that. You
must dance, you must trip, you must be
merry"
In an instant all the faces changed Girls
who were intent on catching the notes began
to think of the words. Away they swung to
the lit OF the song. Little tots wagged their
heads or mechanically touched their skirts as
if to lift them for dancing And so they be
gin again, tripping among the barley, per
forming sarabband among the ripened grain.
The difference was astonishing.
So the little children passed to the second
part:
The yellow leaves are paling and kindling into
red,
And the ripe and golden barley is hanging dowI
its head
Here they were taught that the paling Of
the leaves was to be accompanied with
Guietude of bearing, sadness of voice; thai
the kindling into red was to be expressed
with emphatic and positive conviction. AnC
as for the ripe and golden barley, that wa
to be celebrated with the joyous exultatioI
of harvest song. -Four lines could hardly
be made to carry more variety of expires
sion.
A sweet and tranquil evening hymn wa
given with the same changes of note an,
look. The children's voices sank low as tn
gloom of night was supposed to approach
, then sweled into fervor at the thought o
, divine protection; then broke into rapture a
, the heavens opened and the angels descendet
, in floods of light upon the sleeping child
Like sacred song at twilight, falling fror
: the organ loft of a dim cathedral, it san
into the heart and moved the sensitive t
; tears.
{ And now said Mr. Tomlins, after
g long silence, Il will sing you song myself
:, You will begin by applauding me, and httl
: Elsie opposite will bring me this posy {
flowers when l have done"
e Mr. Tomlins' song. which was given I
show the children how a soloist phrases an
$ stands before an audience, told of son
, hedgelings in a nest with their mother:
r ''Whoo," said the little ones; ''whoo,' said sh
b AL in their nest in the old pine tree.
t And when little Elsie, golden haire
r baby, had presented posy of flowers, IL
i children took up the refrain. Every deta
e was infinitely criticised. Don't sing %
pine tree" said Mr. Tomlins, las though i
/, age were reproach to the pine tree. 1t WI
It nice old pine tree; pine tree which Dir,
II would naturally choose to nest in. Sing 'ol
e with quite another accent
It The little girls pursed up their mouths al
d smiled sympathetically, and so made the phi
e tree quite respectable ornament of Il
lie forest. And after that there was a glad ha
g vest song, and the performance was over.
II Il think" said Mr.. Tomlins to the spect
Il tors, as they gathered around to congrat
er late him, this system will find universal q
e. ceptance If the teachers approve it in t
convention, it is likely to become popular
the schools"
'And where did you get the little girlsT
Or ~ sent around to the superintendents
~ six Sunday schools and asked them to Sc
Y; me all the younger girls that cared to con
ii You see what they have learned, "-Chica
ut Tribune.