The times., 1901-05-19

Every Sunday, when the night is well
begun, and the pedestrianss are becoming
few even in the busy streets, the plaintive
sound of a flute may be heard issuing
from the oper door of a Chinese laundry,
on { Street, near Sixth. II you happen
to be lettering and care to follow the
sound. you will hear as you come nearer
the small dilapidated building the sound
also of n plucked string following the
weird rise and faII of the flutes note.
Go closer and below the plunk-plunk of
| the banjo, and you will be able to dis
tinguish a bell like tingle small and me-
tallic and vibrant.
"A look into the building through the
door, which. IN these warm days, stands
open, reveals a small room of shelves,
piled with packages ticketed with red,
laundry table, piles of sprinkled clothes,
and dozen Cinnamon squatting around,
some on the table some on the floor
Most of them have little on but shirt,
loose trousers, and sandals. Nearly all
are smoking. with deep eontented whiffs.
metal bowl pipes with long bamboo stems
The air is tinged with the odor of tobac-
co. but the dominant smell is that semi
acrid, but pleasing fragrance of the joss
stick.
In the centre of the group sit three
slant-eyed Cinnamon, with pigtails tied
around their heads, but Intelligent and
from a Mongolian standpoint good look
ing. They are the musicians, and this
is the regular Sunday evening rehearsal
of the Chinese Orchestra that y9s are
witnessing, and if you step inside you
viii be cordially invited to join a circle
of listeners that includes the most hon
ored citizens in Washington's Chinatown.
They might be called the Browning Cir
Gle" of the Capital Mongolians, for they
are all appreciative, of music as well of
literature, if not performers or writer's.
If you have entered yon have not dis
turbed the music, for the tune drags on
with it's endless seeming repetiti ms while
the stolid-faced listeners watch and blink.
Finally when it seems to have swung
around the circle of it's variations dozen
times and to be starting on the circuit
again, the jerky little melody comes to
sudden stop in a t-r-r-r-r-r i-l-l-l-l note
which seems to be the only one on the
scale upon which it should not end. 1t
leaves your ears, accustomed to Western
music, up in the air so to speak, but the
Chinese listeners are contented, and show
their satisfaction in handclapping and
laudatory comment
After a brief interval one of the per-
formers takes bag down from the wall,
and slips out from it new instrument
with narrow neck, a small drum, and
bow The other performers take up
theirs and the three start out upon new
piece so similar in pitch interval, and
rhythm to the first that you cannot distin-
guish them. Around the circuit of its
changes it goes again and again, while
the performers labor with stolid counten-
ance and the bare-necked, barefooted
OnlO0kRrG
Play gospel tune, says one in the
audience and they render the well-known
into Chinese BY strict attention you can
distinguish a slight resemblance between
the tune played and the one you-are so
used to hearing in church, bat the inter
valsare so displaced, the rhythm is so con-
fused and there are 50 many quirks and
trills in it, that the tune has had all the
impressiveness twisted out of 1t, and is as
near Chinese as music can be. Follow
ing this gospel tune, which has set all the
listeners singing in chorus, comes a host
of others-eXplained by the most fluent
Chinese musician as ALE same Sunday
SCHOOL tune"
The performance generally goes on until
ii o'clock in the evening, when in defer
ence to the people on the block. who may
care TO sleep, ii closes. AS the door stands
open and the window is but half covered
by the red good luck" cloth there is
room for everybody, even the smallest
child, TO look in, and as a rple the Sunday
evening performance is given to Crowd
ed galleries. with the first BOWS of the or
chestra circle well filed The whole
neighborhood seems to take pleasure in
the sound of the reedy flute, and the muf-
fled plunk of the banjo. When the in
strument played with a boW comes on the
scene the listeners-sl except the Chi
is too shrill for Westt.n ears TO stand
with comfort.
There are perhaps only two-or at most
three-Chinese orchestras in the cities of
the East-one in New York and in
Boston, and perhaps one in Philadelphia
Such is the statement that the members
of the organization make. They say also
that for fifteen years there has been some
sort of a musical organization among the
Chinese in Washington. but that this or
chestra has ben organized only since the
first of this year. The members of the
musical society-the Saengerbund of Chi
natoWn-are Wing Lee who is president
OF the association; George Moy, III Jim.
Moy John, and MOy Wing The perform
ers, and many of the listeners. are rem
bers of the Chinese Sunday school of Cal
vary Baptist Church, and their belonging
to the school was really the beginning CT
the orchestra. They wanted to help make
the music for the singing at the school,
and they were wanted to help IN The en-
tertainments. The performers are al mt
sicians of long experience, and play near
ly all the instruments equally wei. They
have been practtcing together foWfN er,
only few months.
George Moy is the most skilled of all
and he is really the director. He not
only plays all the instruments, hut he also
writes music. and puts down in Chinese
characters the Sunday school hymns Chi
nese music, as George Moy writes it, is
almost the same as any other kind of
Chinese writing, 1t has the same kind
of characters, only there are not so many
angles and lines in them.
The instruments Were all imported for |
the musicians, specially. The order was |
sent to China, and the shipment was over |
two months in reaching here. The instru- |
ments are finely made, especially one |
called the Young Koum. which is a min !
iature piano, played with little vibrating |
former. 1t has about forty strings. which |
are strung over the top }of n harp-like |
sounding board. and resound when struck, |
giving forth soft. metallic, tremulous |
in the whole Chinese orchestra TO play, |
and George Moy is the only one who |
makes much of a success with it. He can
make his little hammers fly over it and
bring out fine Chinese rapid jig tunes.
The next most expert performer is ).
Lee Jim, who has the banjo or Sam Yin,
as his favorite instrument Lee Jim has
been playing ever since he was small
boys and can make plenty music out
of his long-necked Sam "A. 1t has
small drumhead tightly covered on both
1t is played with a tortoise lell plectrum
and the strings are tuned octave and
the fifth about CAD. The lddle string
is used for the melody and ) the only
one that is fretted. The 9th strings are
resorted to only occasionally and are al
ways used open.
Wing Lee plays all the wind. instru-
ments which are classed uHder the name
Wang Say. He has several long bamboo
flutes a fiagoIet kind of horn, which
makes it's sound through reed and
of the pony whistle that has
one hole covered with oiled paper This
gives the instrument q peculiar munied,
cracked sound that is distinctly original.
George Moy is the only one who plays
80 FTCfG haags