Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1892-01-09
THE OLD VILLAGE CHOIR
BY MRS. NJ. L. RAYNE,

SSNHE material raw and unkempt
XIII and needing much pains to
SS lick into shape, could be easy
S gathered in every community
where church was built. The ser
vice was always gratuitous. 1t was
considered an honor to sing in the
choir and in those days it didn't
need much voice to be able to run
the scale of do, re, mi, and power to
screech was often quite as acceptable
as musical tone. But the singer
must know correct tempo. He or
she might sing out of tune, but it
was not permissible to sing out Of
time. There was stern visaged pfe-
centor, OF master of the choir, who,
tuniug-fork in hand, stood in awful
majesty in the front row and his SOL
laredo was the signal for the choir
to clear threats and begin TO &c,
ready. In those good old days of
evening meeting "at early candle
light, God wiling" or as the classic
dominic worded it, "Des volente,"
there were no contralto or soprano
voices. Then the leader picked up
the key note with fork,
''And the vicious old viol went growing
along
At the heels Of the girls, in the rear of the
song"
There were only the tenor and
treble, counter and bass, and the
girls voices were nowhere in the
classification except that they carried
the air. Was it melody? The con-
gregation thought So, probably, be-
cause everyone in it had the privilege
| of singing with the choir, and drown
ing it out with volume Of sound.
In those days the elder lined out
the hymns. In high nasal tone the
good deacon recited in . sing-song
| the hymn for the occasion, and he
couldn't spoil the hymn in reading
it any more than the choir could
spoil it in singing it-although our
choirs of to-day would smile audibly
at the old Westinghouse music Of
the past. But what earthly voice
with its self-conscious infections is fit
to sing that grand anthem of our
forefathers' worship:
| awhile shepherds watched their nocks by
night
All seated on the ground"
Then came in the tenor:
'sThe Angel Of"
Then the bass Numbered:
| THE Angel off,
Then the counter:
l The Lord came down.,
And the choir:
"And GLORY shone around"
This was the fugue or contrapun-
tai style, where all parts of the tune
respond to each other, and which
was the most effective singing known
in that simple service of song.
And it is a question if that grand
| prelude to the heavenly music was
ever sung better or more acceptably
by the mezzo-sopranos and basso-
profundos of the modern choir, with
their quavers and trills on the high
C's of musical craft.
I had funny story told me about
the dear bigoted old choir singers Of
that day, which shows with what ex-
IRENE and jealous caution they
watched the slightest innovation on
local customs. Some one had gone
on journey fifty or sixty miles dis
tant, and his safe return had been
made subject of prayer. When he
came, he was full Of queer notions
imbibed in the "ta-o-w NJ which he
had visited. Among other things,
he had the audacity to tell the choir
that there was new way Of pro-
nouncing words, and that "shoRe"
was pronounced ashon.n There was
an immediate revolt, and she old
deacon sternly asked how it would
sound to hear the line:
"And glory shons around-"
read 'shon around
at be too redikilous, brethren and
sistern, to contemplate" aud the
young man msekly subsidized into his
she'll
Quaint anecdotes linger in the at
mosphere Of that vanishing past.
One old dominic went into the pulpit
and, opening his hymn book by the
light of huttering tsllow dip, look
ed at the congregation and said, with
due solemnity:
Il fear mine eyes are growing dim;
I
| cannot see to read this hymn"
To his surprise the deacon at once
lined it to the congregation:
/ 81 fear mine eyes are growing dim;
Icannot see to read this hymn
When the choir had sung that, the
minister attempted to explain. Said
| he:
II did not mean that for the hymn.
! only said mine eyes we're DIM"