The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-08-07
DR.. PARRY'S CHOIR.

IL ISL very OlIen t1dl welsh SlhbNiS
fail to hit the top note of success
whenever they try. But II seems from
the report in last weeks Cardiff Times
that the performance OF the Welsh
choir at Crystal Palace, London, July
17, was a fiat failure, almost dis
grace.
The lesson of insufficient rehearsal
s probably another term for over con-
fidence, and II teaches that with all
the natural singing ability which
Wales possesses, yet there must be
training, there must be art
The Times article will be interesting
to Welshmen generally, as a blow
struck at the pride of Wales-her song
lis felt wherever there is a Welsh
heart.
The prominent part taken in the per-
formance by DR.. Joseph Parry, who is
well known here, will be doubly in
! teresting. Here is the full report:
Wales was today given a large and
prominent place in the great choral
festival of the Tonic Sofia association
at the Crystal Palace, when, under the
conductorship of DR.. Joseph Parry, a
representative Welsh choir, said to
comprise $500 voices, occupied the
Handel Orchestra, and for two hours
discoursed a programme of Welsh mu-
sic before a large and sympathetic
audience. 1t must, however, be con-
fessed at the outset that the concert
fell far short of fulfilling the high eX-
pectations that had been formed; that
the performance, truth to tell was on
the whole sadly disappointing. Not
that the Welsh concert was not in
many respects distinctly enjoyable,
Many of the selection indeed, given by
the choir were heartily, if not enthus-
iastically, applauded; and the perform
ance of DR.. Parry's tone poem, now
produced for the first time-the very
item in the programme that the pro-
moters were most anxious about-pass-
ed off very successfully, and created
a desire on the part of most musicians
present to hear it repeated under more
favorable circumstances. But Wales
prides itself upon the inapproachable
excellence of its choral singing; it
claims,and rightly so, to have attained
the very pinnacle of perfection in this
particular branch of the musical art.
and when, therefore a Welsh choir
leaves it's own country and proceeds
to the gathering place of nations, there,
with the eyes of a whole kingdom up
on 1t, to give an exposition of Welsh
music and Welsh choral singing, its
performance must be judged by a very
high standard of excellence. Regard
ed then in this light, today's perform
ance was intensely disappointing
LACK OF TRAINING.
1T was obvious to the merest tyro
present that the choir suffered from
lack of training. The voices were all
that could have been desired--clear, re-
sonant, and tuneful; they We're capable
of a performance that would have rem
dered it almost impossible for any body
of singers to equal, much less to sur
pass; butts useless to gloss over the
fact-the choristers had not learned all
their pieces This is not the mere iso-
lated opinion of the writer. The Choir
listers, when the performance was over
sorrowfully admitted it, and sought
sympathy on the ground that they had
not been supplied in time with copies
AN allegation which should at once be
refuted, if refutation is possible. Mr.
Spencer Curwen, in an interview which
we publish below, while animated with
strong desire to be as complimentary
as possible to DIR. Parry, was forced to
acknowledge that the performance
suffered from insufficient rehearsal"
The woeful consequences of this insult
ficient training became evident in q
variety of ways. There was want of
understanding between choir and con-
ductor; the singers were frequently out
of tune, occasionally out of time; the
singers did not keep the beat" (as one
musician put iD; and in many of the
pieces the choristers utterly spoiled the
effect by their hesitancy and half
heartedness, and, as often as not-and
this applies more especially to the
basses-by being too precipitate. AL
though the concert finished well with
a really rousing, spirited, and alto
gether magnificent rendering of the
professional march Hail, Prince of
Wales,' there was a sense of general
reliet on the part both of Welshmen in
the audience and Welshmen in the
chorus when the concert was got
through and done with. Last year. on
a similar occasion, the chorsters and
their friends assembled in large num-
pers In the concert room in the Central
IranceptWhere mutual congratulations
were INDUCED in and congratulatorv
speeches delivered by well-knOWn
Welsh NJ. P.'s. No such meeting was
held today, and luckily so, for the
choristers and their friends would
t'"'N PiNNiOuS ilNNlt " COnSIatulate
each other upon, and the probability is
that mutual recriminations, and not
congratulations, would have been ex-
changed. The local choirmasters, we
take it, are primarily responsible for
training the choirs, 1t is quite con-
ceivable, however, that their best eff
forts might be neutralized by the ne
glect of the central authorities in SUD-
plying them in time with copies of the
music, and in making the requisite ar
rangements for frequent and thorough
rehearsals on the part of the constitu-
ent choral bodies. DR.. Joseph Parry
himself, it is conceded, devoted con-
siderable time and labor to the task of
visiting the sections and organizing re-
hearsals; his zeal and enthusiasm in all
that pertains to the promotion of
Welsh music are too we'll known TO
need recapitulation, but 1t is suggested
that the methods he adopted in the
present instance were not altogether
beyond criticism, and that possibly he
attempted too great a task consonant
with his numerous engagements. Mr..
Spencer Curwen generously suggested
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