Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1889-02-07
NO CHOIR GIRLS WANTED.
MEN AND BOYS ARE NOW RE-
OUIRED FOR CHURCH SERVICES.

Disappearance of the Mixed Choir-Ad
vantages and Disadvantages of tn,
Change-Why Girls Who Sing Flock Il
New York-Few Places and Small Pay.
There's cheerful motel" said bright
young woman to the writer 81 am mott
fled that after next Easter the church
where | 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 church choir; Miss
So-and-so gets $4,000 a year at DR..
Blanks church on Fifth avenue Can't
you say a 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? l
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 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
trife, 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
ful to think of that never entered
into their calculations. The result
of this popular de1usion 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
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 a word of
warning to the score who are now think
ing of trying for fame and fortune here"
y few hours visiting among organists
showed how true was this plant. Twenty
years ago almost every Protestant Epis-
copal church employed large chorus of
men and women, the best of whom re-
ceived salaries. Today the churches
where mixed choirs are employed and
hr f01 %ho -
one hand. In 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 volun-
churches great pride used to be taken
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:
"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. 1t is English to have only boys
and men in the choir, and so the ladies
have to go. / can mention q 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-
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. Mr.. Joseph Mosen-
thai, who had been organist there for
years, had to leave when the
change was made, because he was too
Did man to adopt new ways. The con-
wanted boy choir, and they
have it.
whenever the boy choir comes in,
number of lady singers lose their places.
The salaries paid may not have been
arge, but they enabled a great many
young women to live in this city while
0erfecting themselves as music teachers.
some Of the most successful music
,eachers in the great cities of the north
and west got their training here and sup
ported themselves by church engage
nents. The most successful organists, |
n resisting the demand for boy choir,
nave been the Warrens, father and SON
he first at st. Thomas church and the
after at st. Bartholomew. Go to Mr..
George w. Warren, the veteran organ
st of st. Thomas, and he will tell YOU
low small is the field for young women
Who wish to make a living by church
l.