The Washington herald., 1907-04-29
THE CHORAL SOCIETY.
Chorus Feature of Recent ConceTl
Pronounced a Failure.

Chorus Feature of Recent Concert
Pronounced a Failure.
Editor The Washington Helald.
In spite OF the hattering notices IN the
newspapers. and the praises Of many in
dtviduals, Of the concert recently given
by the Choral Society. the fact remains,
and musicians realize. that the chorus part
.of II was a fiat failure. Musicians who
were In the audience. prejudlced perhaps,
$50 characterized It, and others not mu-
.sieians, were not enraptured with It.
In the arst place the parts were not
balanced. Secondly. the arrangement Of
the singers was miserable Thirdly, half
the basses and two-thirds of the tenors
did not know the notes Of the choruses,
and in the fourth place the lack of an or
chestra and the faulty acoustics Of the
hall had a damaging effect.
The enrolment OF active members Of the
society, according to the programme. is:
Sopranos. 12si altos. 76; tenors, Il. and
basses, 20, making a total Of 3i5. OF that
number there were probably ga present,
and the sbsentees were mostly from the
tenors. Had the full complement been
present. the volume Of sound from the
sopranos would still have dominated the
other parts. and It did dominate them
much more so with the depleted numbers.
1t is doubtful whether there were fifty
basses and thirty tenors on the stage.
The TWO parts. tenor and bass. were
weak. but the soprano was magnificent
The arrangement on the stage may
have looked well from the front. a rich
setting OF gems. as il were. but il was
disastrous In its effects on the music. The
basses were strung up and down the left
wing Of the stage and behind the ladies.
while on the right the tenors were
punched. with a squad OF ladies in Their
rear. and dozen or 30 sandwiched in the
middle like the layers Of a jelly cake, The
tenors were thus divided into two parts.
so that there was no cohesion between
them, and as a result there was much
seesawing in the tenor parts OF the chO-
ruses, and sometimes absolute silence.
What contributed mostly to the failure
Of the chorus was the lack Of familiarity
on the part Of the tenors and BASES with
the notes. There were pages in the Hymn
OF Praise. and measure after measure IN
the Opening Hymn IN which the tenor
part was SILENT simply because the tenors
could not read the notes. and the ear OF
the conductor had failed to detect the de-
feet This was particularly noticeable In
chorus No. T. THE Night Is Departing
in the Hymn Of Praise" That chorus. az
rendered. was merely a grand soprano
solo, with occasional bursts Of tenor and
bass when the soprano was silent In
The Heavens are Telling there was
much hesitation and uncertainty, and IN
the "Hallelujah" chorus the basses went
all to smash, as a musician expressed II,
all from the lack OF that confidence which
is induced by thorough familiarity with
the music.
1t is not difficult 70 assign cause for
this failure. There are plenty of sopranos
and altos IN this city who are first sight
readers. hut how many tenors and BASES
are there who are even halfway readers?
The society has always been weak in
tenors and BASES, especially IN teB0rsi
and no conductor. except possibly one,
that ] have known in the last twenty-five
years has ever fully realized the fact that
the only way 20 bring these parts up TO
the standard is 10 drill them separately
and numerically.
ANY ordinary conductor cafi stand be-
fore chorus Of artists and beat time,
stamp his feet when he wants more noise,
or hutter his hand when he wants soft
ness, but the true conductor hears when
each individual part IS at fault or hears
one or two voices utter false notes and
Immediately remedies the defect by going
over and over the particular passage until
the mind grasps the sense Of it. Any one
who undertakes to pilot a chorus through
"a concert in this city. OF anywhere else,
Tor that matter, must first be drilimaster
and then conductor, otherwise, as in the
concert last Wednesday evening, the re-
suit will be disastrous.
va. G. PENNEY.
Washington. April q