Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-06-24
MUSIC DOES NOT sUBDUx
The Average Church Choir and Hence The,
10 Trouble for the Minister.


10 Trouble for the Minister.
From the Boston Advertiser
subject which has been repeatedly dis
cussed at various ministerial gatherings in Bos-
ton is that of church music. When that tonic
is under discussion much is said about Gregor-
ian. antiphonal, Anglican and other styles of
music. but often very little indeed is said about
church choirs. And yet it can hardly be de-
MED that church choirs are often very import
ant bodies in q certain way. Many q minister
has spent more painful hours in considering
questions relating to his church choir than he
has devoted TO his sermon during some un-
happy period when there has been some trouble
in his choir
Happy. thrice happy the clergyman who has
never known what it is to be confronted bv an
angry spirit OF dissension In his choir If indeed
there has ever been a clergyman of much ex-
perience who can truthfully avow that SO bliss
full an ignorance is his. Exactly WHY this
should be so. who can say? Philosophers, from
the time OF Socrates down to the present age of
Herbert Spencer have dared to graphic with
knotty questions, but not one has dared even TO
attempt to solve the riddle which the church
choir problem presents. There is good reason
to believe that Aauthippe sang in one Of the
most fashionable temple choirs Of her day, but
the shy way in which Socrates avoids all refer
ence to the subject shows that be had a good
deal OF horse sense after all.
or course there are church choirs and church
cholrs. Many set along year after year without
single 'spat," and others are wrecked on the
Scylla Of dispute with the pastor or the
Charybdis OF a quarrel among themselves be-
fore the choir has been in existence a wear
Personally the members Of most church choirs
are pleasing, intelligent, amiable and refined
people, as q rule.
AND YET RIvALRIEs EXIST.
Perhaps there is, as some assert, a something
in music that engenders rivalries Else why
should one soprano speak slightingly of another,
who gets the lions share of the ''solos:" or why
should the leading basso gaze with a poorly
concealed sneer at the tenor, when the latter
has reached a nigh note after a brea;hless
struggleP Yet according to the facts OF all time
music Is supposed to have refining softeniug
and emollent effect rather than an engaging
one; but from the time that Apollo and Marsyas
had their little sangerfest the facts too often
tend to create an opposite inference SO far as
musicians are concerned.
Perhaps if the Rev. Lamb Agnus of Weeping
Canon, n. NJ. knew as much about chulc h
choirs as he does now he would not have at
tempted to start a male choir at that place. III
the reports Of the Weeping Canon experiment
are correct, Mr.. Agnus had but recently left a
theological school and had more enthusiasm
than practical knowledge, but there can be no
doubt than his intentions were the best. 1t
was said many times in Weeping Canon that the
clergyman meant we'll. but had no 'sabe.'"
At all events, according to the generally cred
tied accounts OF the affair, Mr.. Agnus set about
forming male choir soon after his arrival in
Weeping Canon.
At his personal and urgent solicitation about
every cowboy and miner in that part Of Sierra
county who could sing or who thought he could
sing was taken in the choir on trial The first
few rehearsals were source OF many sleepless
nights to Mr.. Agnus, but matters finally pro-
Rr9SS9d q hat
that a concert would be given by the choir on
an evening in the early part Of June 1t was
generally supposed that an influential and pop-
ular individual who was known as .Chloride
Jack would be given the leading part, because
OF his remarkably powerful il not particularly
sweet voice; but Weeping Canon was startled
BY the announcement that young ranchmau,
Pompllio Penalties, was to be the star of the
evening. 1t was noticed that Chloride was
absent from the rehearsals after that and MANY
OF the older and wiser members Of the choir at
once resigned from the organization
SHOTGUN oBLIoAro.
The concert was held on the evening a. An
nounced, but what the Weeping Canon Coyote,
the local weekly, described as an unfortunate
misunderstanding" served to shorten the pro-
gram noticeably. After the choir had sung two
anthems, which were vigorously applauded, Sr.
Penalties started in on q solo. He had barely
finished q brief recitative when a double-bar-
relied gun was thrust through one Of the open
windows and heavy load of buckshot was dis
charged at the soloist. As the buckshot ''scat-
tered to a great extent several persons in the
audience were more severely injured than Sr
Penalties was, and the injured ones made haste
to whip out their siX-shooters. large portion
OF the audience made a rush for the door; many
others dropped quickly to the floor and crawled
under the benches; some vivacious cowboy
shot out" the lights and, to quote the Weep
ing Canon Coyote. "the scene that followed
beggared description"
About o'clock that evening young man In
clerical garb bailed the Hermosa stage excit-
eddy and clambered in. His muddy and dis
heveled attire was not such the Rev. Lamb
Agnus usually wore, but he was the individual.
He was afterward induced to return TO the
weeping Canon Church. after a few weeks had
elapsed; but for several years since his return
he has insisted upon purely congregational
singing.
More Like 1t.
From Truth
Mrs. Toots-"Aren't you ashamed to come