, 1889-01-18
NO CHOIR GIRLS WANTED.
MEN AND BOYS ARE NOW RE-
CURED FOR cHUBcH SERVICES.


Disappearance of the Mixed ChoIr-Ad-
vantaSes and Disadvantages of the
Changc-why Girls Who Sing Flock 30
New ork-Fo Places and Small Pay.
There's n cheerful noteI' said a bright
young woman to the writer. 81 am noti-
fed that after next Easter the church
where l have sung for the last three
years will do away with a mixed choir
and employ boys and men only. All the
churches are going that way. And yet
when a girl who gets her living by
church singing talks of joining a comic
opera company, there is CONSERVATION
among her friends, who at once exclaim.
She might sing in u church choir; Miss
So-and-so gets $1,000 a year at DR..
Blanks church on Fifth avenue Can't
you say n good word for singers who
would like to earn their living by church
singing, but are unable to find work
owing to the demand for boy choirs2 /
came to New York five years ago, and
have managed to support myself, after a
fashion, ever since by singing in church
and giving music lessons, and / know at
least a dozen other girls who have done
the same thing.
DREAMS OF II PRQvINCIALS.
There is not q successful church singer
in any small town in the interior of this
state who does not dream of coming to
New York in order to earn some money
and perfect herself in her art; she knows
that she can hear good music here for q
triilc, that schools are plenty, and she has
an idea that the churches of this city and
Brooklyn are always ready to pay big
salaries to singers. They have heard
how Miss Emma Abbott began at the
late DIR. Chapin's church, Went to Europe
and blossomed out into an opera singer.
They arc not averse to singing In opera if
u good engagement offers. But
comic opera Is something too dread
full to think of; that never entered
into their calculations. The result
of this popular delusion Is that
scores of clever young women come from
their country homes TO New York every
year to reap disappointment, perhaps
losing excellent chances at home In tie
meantime. a change in fashion has
eliminated the woman singer from the
church choir. Go to the organist of any
big church where chorus girls are en-
ployed, and he will tell you same story.
1t is worth while uttering u word Of
warning to tho score who are now think
ing of trying for fame and fortune here"
A few hours visiting among ~organists
showed how true wa this plant. Twenty
years ago almost every Protestant Epis-
copal church employed a large chorus Of
men and women, the best of whom re-
ceived salaries. Today the churches
where mixed choirs arc employed and
paid may be counted on the fingers of
one hand. In u great many Presbyte-
rian, Methodist and Baptist churches
the members of the quartet of singers
are paid to lead the congregational sing
ing, but the choir, If it exists, is a volun-
teer one. In the leading Episcopal
churches great pride used to be taken
with the choir, and there was q constant
rivalry. With "high church" or ritual
istic services began the change.
THE VETERANS VIEW.
A veteran organist, who did not wish
his name used because the church which
employed him might object to his re-
marks, said,
Tho disappearance of the church
choir, and the consequent disappearance
OF women from our church chofrs, Is
part of h Anglomania with which we
have been afflicted for the last twenty
years. 1t is English to have only boys
and men In the choir, and SO the ladies
have to go. l can mention a dozen
churches which held out for years
against the boy choir craze. but have
been obliged to give In. Zion church,
Holy Trinity in Forty-second street,
Calvary, and st. James in Madison ave-
nuo are all important churches that have
sent adrift their mixed choirs within the
last three Years and now employ boys.
In the case of Calvary church there was
particular hardship. Mr.. Joseph Mosen-
thai, who had been organist there for
twenty-five years, had to leave when the
change was made, because he was too
old a man to adopt new ways. The con-
gregation wanted n boy choir, and they
have it.
"Whcnever the boy choir comes in, a
number of lady singers lose their places.
The salaries paid may not have been
largo, but they enabled a great many
young ome to live In this city while
perfecting themselves as music teachers.
Some of he most successful music
teachers in the great cities of the north
and west got their training hero and sup
ported themselves by church engage
ments. The most successful organists,
in resisting the demand for q boy choir,
have been the Warrens, father and SON
the first at st. Thomas church and the
latter at st. Bartholomew's. Go to Mr..
George w. Warren, tho veteran organ
list of st. Thomas, and he will tell you
how small is the field for young women
who wish to make n living by church
singing in New York."-New York Star.