The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-24
AS TO CHOIR SINGERS.
WEARY ROUND OF TENORS AND
 SOPRANOS BEGUN.

The Important Part the Musical
 Agent Plays.
 This is the time of year when the released church sopranos and tenors go out in search of new positions. For yet another month they will be mak- ing the dreary round of pilgrimages to unfamiliar organ galleries, thrilled all ternately with hopes and fears, more or less comforted by the sight of faces which they have encountered perhaps, many times before in 'try-outs." The l little army of church singers in New 1 York is really almost a definitely linn lted organization with an acquaint- anceshlp of years, generated with the i contact of competition. The neWcom- CTS creep into line one at time, prac- ttcally unnoticed, until, suddenly, they, too, realize that they are veterans of the never-ending shift from place to | place. The sacred solo and the an- them strew the musical shoals with i derelicts just as productively as light 1 opera or musical comedy.
 A yearly recurrence of the same faces among the applicants for church work is inevitable. Annually the Damocietian blades of loo dreaded music committees fall upon the heads of men and women who didn't please the minister; who have sung the same pieces so often that we'd like d change; or who have insisted upon more salary, and we know of some one else Just as good who will come fer less And regarding one another, eonJecturing whether oratoria or sa- cred solo lies within well-worn leather rolls, these cid acquaintances, who, however, rarely vouchsafe to one an- other more than nod or a common- place word, are conscious of an added self-respect. For, after all, there must be m anyreasons for leaing on's po- sition outside of professional un- worthiness. Church contracts, as a rule, arc for the year begiuning May | By the latter part of March nearly all quarters and choruses will be com- plete for a tWelvemonth.
 Little recks the average congrega tion, listening to faultlessly executed music of the anxities, heart burn )ings, nd-sometimes-littl tragedies, which lie behind the engaging of the singers, who have struggled artisti- cally, but none the less frantically for all that to obtain the privilege of those Sunday stations. The church choir loft is in many ways--to the initiated-reminiscent of the stage. The congregation hears well-trained voices; sometimes sees rapt appearing faces flushed with churchy tints, where, the yellow sunlight is trans- muted into deep reds and greens by the glass of memorial windows. Sound and tableau blend harmoniously. It is the finished product. No one but
 the quartet and chorus have detected
 the hint of a waver in that crescendo | which made the tenors spurt nervously with tendency toward losing pitch. l No one but they have heard the mutt l terings of the organist as he finger ed | his steps and progressed from offer troy to hant or hymn. Perhaps only the solist has marked the sarcastic gleam in the choirmaster's eye as he has turned for a moment on his bench. And this sort of thing probably. has | been gone through with tenfold the night before at rehearsal. There is a behind the scenes" in every chureh | as well as In every theater.
 | A majority of church choir positions in New York are filled by agents, a condition not true some years ago. There are many of these agents, few reliable ones-by that is meant a man or woman who actually is in close touch with things churchy musical: who is informed weeks in advance of official announcement that Mrs. A., the contralto, is 10 be "let go' by -
 Street Methodist, or Mir. B., the bassos contract with the Avenue Pres l byterlan, is not to be renewed.
 Just how these traffickers in oppor- | tunlties for salary manage to keep tab upon the various organ lofts is a mystery that the singers themselves even the most seasoned of them, have been unable to discovered fery often the agent and certain of the most in- 1 fiuentiel choirmasters are avowedly at daggers drawn, apparently nursing some ancient grudge. One of the best-known deaers in voca tommodi- ties, who exacts his registration fee of $10 in advance with a lieu of 10 per cent upon a successful applicants first years stipend, seems to be in the receipt of daily bulletins. The church job hunter-that is the way musicals pilgrims usually refer to their early spring occupantion-regasds his or her morning mail as of the utmost importance. For the postman will probably bring two or three postal cards containing something like this:
 St.---s contralto position vacant Salary $500, Chormaster A. B. C. You may mention my name.
 Just as frequently, however, the card may say:
 Trial for sopranos at the St Congregational Tuesday afternoon 2-4. Salary S7OO last year. Do not mention my name.
 Those postal cards almost gave me nervous prostration few years ago. said a soprano, a veteran of seven New York seasons, one day this week. Tt was because I imagined l was up and coming, and registered with three agents, two men and one woman. As a consequence I sometimes got seven or eight cards morning, and the times of trial, to say nothing of the places, were as dangling as flatted Christmas carol. 1 tried Conscientious ly to cover Brooklyn. Harlem, and the