Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-04-03
NO CHOIR GIRLS WANTED.
MEN AND BoNs ARE NOW RE- CURED FOR CHURCH SERVICES.

Disappearance of the Mixed Choir-Ad-
 vantages and Disadvantages of the
 Change-why Girls Who Sing Flock to
 New York-Few Places and Small Pay.
 There's a cheerful note!' said bright young woman to the writer. Fl am noti- fled that after next Easter the church where l have sung for the last three years will do away with 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 among her friends, who at once exclaim: She might sing in a church choir; Miss So-and-so gets $3,000 a year at Dr. Blanks church on Fifth avenue Can't you say 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 choirs? 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 dozen other girls who have done the same thing.
 DREAMS OF THE PROVINCIALS.
 "There is not a 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 a trifie, 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 Dr. Chapin's church, went to Europe and blossomed out into an opera singer They are not averse to singing in opera if a 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 the meantime. A change in fashion has church choir. Go to the organist of any big church where chorus girls are em- ployed, and he will tell you same story. It is worth while uttering word of warning to the score who are now think ing of trying for fame and fortune here "
 A few hours visiting among organists showed how true was this plaint. 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 are employed and paid may be counted on the fingers of one hand. In a great many Presbyte- rian, Methodist and Baptist churches the members of the quartet of singers are paid to lead the congregational sing teer one. In the leading Episcopal churches great pride used to be taken with the choir, and there was constant rivalry. With thigh 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:
 ''The disappearance of the church choir, and the consequent disappearance of women from our church choirs, Is part of the Anglomania with which we have been afflicted for the last twenty years. It is English to have only boys and men in the choir, and SO the ladies have to go. 1 can mention a dozen SAld SilSo "AASu ic1u ouO IOI 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 nue 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. MT. Joseph Mosen- thai, who had been organist there for twenty-two years, had to leave when the change was made, because he was too old man to adopt new ways. The con- gregation wanted boy choir, and they have it.
 "Wheneyer the boy choir comes in, a number of lady singers lose their places. The salaries paid may not have been large, but they enabled great many young women to live in this city while perfecting themselves as music teachers. Some of the most successful music teachers in the great cities of the north and west got their training here and sup ported themselves by church engage ments. The most successful organists, in resisting the demand for boy choir, have been the Warrens, father and son. the first at St. Thomas church and the latter at St. Bartholomew's Go to MT. George w. Warren, the veteran organ ist of St. Thomas, and he will tell you how small is the field for young women who wish to make living by church singing in New York. New York Star.
 The Height of Ocean Waves.