Omaha daily bee., 1896-05-03
SHAFT FOR TIE ORGAN LOFT
Quality Of Omaha Church Music Very
Sharply Criticised
SYMPATHY FOR The TROUBLED soLolST
Some Pertinent Objections 90 women
ns N and the Sombcr
Committee on Music-Dcud-
heads MT RccitnIs.

After several years residence in a cosno-
politan city l was able to look at Omaha
with the impartial eyes of a stranger, and
it came upon me with a sort Of surprise that
either the old Omaha is no more, or that. ac-
cording to the doctors theory, had under
gone the seven years change and become
somebody else. Unwillingly | detected in
some quarters a flavor OF provincialism, a
change often strenuously combated by me
when obliged to take up the cudgels for the
mice little town Of Omaha" as our Pacific
coast friends term it; but after hearing the
various choirs, which to a transient visitor
are always more or less an index of a city's
musical taste, l was compelled to own to
another shattered Illusion, namely, the idea
that Omaha possesses good musical taste.
Formerly when that appreciative little body.
the Ladies Musical society" fourished. and
gave ambitious programs, we applauded and
called ourselves an up-to-date and cultured
community. Possibly the same element still
exists merged into the Woman's club, but
speaking for the churches. there 10 little that
an aspiring village choir could not surpass.
Formerly, where every self-respecting cen
gregation held its quartet choir as much a
matter of course as its minister, the churches
seem driven to the strait OF employing a
soloist-that least devotional Of all excuses
for a choir. Plain congregational singing
is eminently more fitting. Personally one
feels more sorry for the soloist than the
congregation; she has such a variety OF
crochets to conciliate, and often so little
real intelligence to respond to. And to be
a shining success a soloist must be the pet
of a clique, and should furnish interest in
the matter of toggery as well as vocal equip
mental for S. a Sunday.
1t is said that che staid body Of worship
1o.s. 49, nod - Nnh .In-N. In-A,,,A LAu
millinery was unsatisfactory, and this, be
assured, was not due to any aestheticism on
the part Of the people. Another, who had
been sealed with the approval of unques-
tionable critics, seemed to quail before the
stoiclsm Of that dull Calvinistic crowd, and
was commented on as having let her music
tremble-a piece of indecorum on the Sab
bath that doubtless settled her fate IN that
quarter.
At best the soloist's hold on her pupils is
bound to be brief. AS soon as her variety,
external and internal, has been exhausted and
the inevitable safety sets in, she may as
well step down and out before she Is asked
to do so.
Most of the churches have a woman at
the organ, an anomaly that has rarely given
satisfaction. Organ playing seems distinctly
the province of man, but owing either to the
stringency Of the times or to the demoraliZ-
ing effect of the bargain counters, job lots
have a duty at the organ. The full direction
of the singers generally falls to the same
management. and with all due respect to
woman's rights, l object to her in a position
Of command Woman, dressed in a little
brief authority, is sure to want to put on
breaches.
At the St; ,Mary's Avenue
Congregational church see the
mems club is making a brave. if
overdone attempt to afford
variety. Occasionally the variety has
overbalanced the musical side, as on a re-
cent Sunday, when mandolins were down side
by side with an organ solo. The great brain
from a musical committee. Speak
ing of that august body, there are only two
things about it that always caused me to
First, l wonder why a music COM !
mittee is generally selected from as I'M I
people as exist, Second, l wonder
why the committee never ventures out l
singly, but always in two or threes, as if
A body guard were necessary. In a varied
with the committee, have
noticed that 1t always approaches it's man
with the same sort of undertaken air-at
once funeral and non-committal-looking as
II primed with wisdom and state secrets. 1t
10 a way the has of assuming
Lightly. That solemnity has never failed to
arouse in me a perverse desire to laugh, and
hat pompous reticence, the mood known as
contrary, and | am afraid that to be an I'M
qualified success with a committee, one must
lumor its role.
But to get back to the subject-it is but
| step from mandoIins to the banjo and burnt
cork. There is no telling where a decade
nay land us in the theatrical branch OF
church management, unless true is drawn
more strictly. And there Is a pitiful
Is we'll as a ludicrous side to the efforts made
o coax people into the house of worship.
There seems to be an understanding that
he people are to be propitiated for being
here. The address Is brief, that they may
rot cavil, and vehement, so they can't go
o sleep. The attractions" are ranged con-
ipiciously in line just back Of the altar rail,
md neatly complemented in the background
W four s~upernumeraries in straight backed