The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-30
MUSIC OF The SYNAGOGUES.
CATHOLIC MASSES SUNG FOR JEW
ISM WORSHIPPERS.

The Music BanIshed BY the Pope Performed
by Fine ChOirs In SynagOgues Things
q Make Jewish Temples worth
Visiting BY Music Lovers-Tne services.
This is the season when lovers OF music
a. 1t used to be given here in the Roman
Catholic churches before women were
banished from their choirs and solemn
Gregorian chants succeeded the horid
and operatio masses Of Mario, Gounod
and Mozart can hear the choicest parts OF
that music given by as fine choirs a. ever
sang in the Roman Catholic churches. For
these are the days Of the Jewish New Year.
YOm Kippur and Sucooth, and the
OF the synagogue choirs nave been stretched
to their utmost to provide adequate musical
offerings for these holidays. ~
The music OF the synagogues is very
little known to the majority OF the singers
in the CristAn churches outside Of those
who used to sing In the Roman Catholic
churches before the present Pope's edict
pruning the musical end Of the services
was issued. 1t was from these singers
that the synagogues which we're not strictly
orthodox and which vent in for elaborate
musical services recruited their choins.
Hence it was that during the years when
Miss Catherine Hike was the soprano soloist
at st. Patrick's Cathedral she also held
a like place at the Friday afternoon and
Saturday morning services at Temple
Bethel at Se~venty-sixth street and Fifth
avenue, and st. Patrick's well known tenor.
Mr.. Kaiser. sang FIRST at Temple Rodoph
Sholom at Slxty-third street and Lexing-
ton avenue. and later and at present
- fha fapnpla f0.Efho~ 1owu0 kan
avenue. at Fifty-fifth street, which is dis
tinguished by the imposing name OF
Ahawath Chesed Shaar Hashomayim. There
DR.. Carl Martin sang during the days when
he was doing the ulktof the bass solo work
Of the highest class hereabouts, at Grace
Church, at the Messiah performances at
Carnegie Hall and on the concert platform.
Theodore Van YORK and Josephine Jacoby
have been synagogue singers 90.
And nowadays you may hear Miss Janet
Spencer and Mrs. Catherine Mihr-Hardy
at Temple Emanuel at Fifth avenue and
Forty-third street, and further up, at the
gilt domed Temple Beth-ET, Mrs. Lora
Lamport McGuane of -Mr. Rockefeller's
Fifth Avenue Baptist Church." as it is
known among church singers; Miss Mar
garet Reyes OF the Broadway Tabernacle
and Albert Quesnel Of the Church Of the
Divine Paternity. DR.. Carl Duff and
Julian Walker have sung there, too.
For several reasons the sy~nagogues AVE
been able to get high priced ~soIoists at
less than half what they are paid for much
less arduous work on Sundays at the
Christian churches, and the same thing
holds true of o~rganists. One Of these rea-
sons Is that the services fall on Friday
evenings Inc Saturday mornings, when
the singers have nothing to do and ara
willing to fill in their time as prohtably
as possible.
Also singers like to get together in these
services because they know that their CO.
workers will be we'll trained singers, and
that the music will be better n as a
rule, than that rendered by the choruses
Of the Christian churches, because the
chorus singers Of the synagogues are all
~soloists Of Christian churches, most ofwhom
take turns at doing the solo work at the
temples. And a third reason is that the
singers like to sing the music, and can get
It nowhere else.
So, at Temple Emanuel there ia a choir
Of sixteen voices, under Max Spicker as
director and with blond Will Macfarlane
Of 81. Thomas's as organist, OF which Mr.
Macfarlane said the other day:
Il believe that choir is the best choir In
America
Up at Temple BETHEL, where blond
Charles Heinroth Of the Church Of the
Ascension Is organist and directst the music,
too, they think the same thing Of their
choir OF ten voices, although at Temple
Emanuel there is a more liberal and
elastic expense account and often the organ
IL assisted by instrumentalists.
This organ at Temple Emanuel, by the
way, is avery fine -four manual Odell organ
which Mr.. Macfarlane thinks is about the
finest thing in town in the organ line. Il
consider it a better organ than the n 1
h&d at st. Thomass, he says. Tina one,
OF course, has gone Up in smoke"
Mr.. Macfarlane at 5 O'Clock gives a half
hour recital before the Friday afternoon
services, beginning with October. All per-
sons are welcome at the s~ynagogues. not
w~ithstanding a somewhat widespread belief