The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-15
HOW THE NEW YORK BOY
 IS TRAINED FOR CHOIR
The Process Makes Lads Not Only Good Singers, But Well Behaved In Pubic-Dcplne Is Seven Flights of the Work Says Chormaster of St. Thomas'-Rewards of
 Membership In a Church Choir

From the New York Sun.
 To some strangers in the city the boy choirs In New York churches are a sur prise, besides being among the most at tractive features of the metropolitan Sun day As rule such visitors are not well acquainted with the New York boy. Ere quently New Workers themselves. who know the New York boy, are surprised at these choirs, although for a reason different from that of the strangers. I A New York woman who does not often attend an Episcopal church remarked re- gently at the close of the morning serv- ice at St. Thomas church:
 How is it done? I have never seen or listened to anything like it. Fancy Willie sitting up straight for nearly two hours 1 without so much as winking!'
 And fancy Dick' rejoined her com l panion, keeping his eyes glued to sheet of music all the time he is singingf' It was the boys behavior that most impressed these women. They had boys of their own.
 With strangers from other cities and towns 1t is the musical results that most | astonish. Strangers are not prepared to find such harmones produced without the l aid of the geminne voice. Then they de- eide that the New York choir boys are the pick of the best behaved lads among the families of the congregation or of the immediate neighborhood, boys who | are naturally or unnaturally good and who are born singers into the bargain. l As rule they go home ignorant of the tremendous work the choir they have listened to represents.
 | To a great extent their ignorance Is shared by the bulk of New York's pop ulation, including many pewholders in the very churches which maintain the most noted choirs. Of one thing, however, some of these pewholders are quite cer- i tain that none of the boys in the chancel l comes from homes of members of the ! church.
 This is true at least in the case of St. Thomas choir which does not contain l one boy whose parents belong to the church. The methods used at St. Thomas are in the main those followed by every organst and choirmaster
 In the St. Thomas choir nearest the con- gregation sits the solo soprano, Master Lester Mccormick, who owes some of his | winning qualities of voice and tempera- ment to Irish ancestry. In the rear of the boys sit the 15 adult members of the choir and back of them at the Keyboard Will Macfarlane, composer, organist and . choirmaster.
 "Seven-eighths of the work of training a boy choir" says MT. Macfarlane, IS discipline. The boys of St. Thomas choir
 
 like gentlemen"
 At rehearsal as at the church services, unwavering fidelity to duty is exacted. Twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursoay afternoons, the boys rehearse In the vestry grouped on either side of piano in the order they assume in the chahcei' and on Friday evening there is rehear- sal of the full choir in the chancel with the organ.
 
 The ouickness shown by the boys in learning a new piece of music IS aston ishing to a visitor. Scarcely less aston ishing is the qufckness or the enoir master to detect the least dlscora iron pm either the alto or the soprano side, ms l ability instantly to locate and remedy It, and his power to keep at high water mark the enthusiasm of the boys for an l hour and half. -
 Instantly a boy lags he is spotted. IT | he undertakes to stand in sloucmns position or on one foot instead of solid | Iy on both feet he Is spotted If he sits down sideways he Is seen at once and 1 called to order by the choirmaster, who i apparently Is looking for the next piece of music.
 If when singing a chorister doesn't open his mouth wide enough that Is seen l too, although MT. Macfarlane is looking l at the sheet of music In front of him. | The choir masters voice is never raised, ] he never nags, he never speaks unless 1t Is absolutely necessary.
 At the close of rehearsal, when visitor | naturally expects a stampede Of the 30 I youngsters toward the door which opens | directly upon the courtyard of the parish l house, there Is scarcely a movement. The boys are not dismissed in a body.
 willie, John, Allen, you may go,' IS the order.
 And Willie, Allen and John get into their coats and are off. The same order is given to three or four more boys, and they too disappear, and so it goes to the end of the list. Nor do the first three wait outside for the next three. There must be no congregating nearer than one block away from the church Is . fixed rule. Said the choir master in speaking of the exceptionally good beha- vior of the boys at rehearsal and in the chancel:
 "The fact that they are marked for good or indifferent behavior has something to do with it. Each boy is entitled to five points. Five points means perfect. "If he comes late, or Is noisy when ap- preaching or leaving the church, or is ab- sent or inattentive while at rehearsal, he loses point. Losing points means that his pay decreases. I do not impose fines. I don't like that plan. Every newcomer Is made to understand that he is paid in
 
 course a boy who is given to losing points is not as valuable in the choir as one who can be depended on, consequently he isn't paid so much.
 "The 25 boys under my charge now , are no better or worse than the average public school boy. Some of them are very poor, others are fairly well off, none is rich. We have no boys from the con gregation in the choir.
 "A number of them live a good many miles away. I have boys from Brooklyn, from Woodside, l.. l.; from Jersey City
 from Yonkers ani from uptown and downtown and the East and West Side of this city. But no matter where they live once they enter the choir the boys are recognized asl )nging to this congrega- tion, and evei thing that can be done to help them physically, mentally and spirit ually is done.
 ' "Over at the East Side parish house of St. Thomas church. which Is the head- | quarters of the choir guild, there is l, gymnasium for their use, boys club, which includes athletics in its pleasure programme, and they are taken on sev- eral outings during the year and have weeks stay at the church summer camp free of charge.
 with the affection of his boys won, l choirmaster will have little trouble 1 in securing creditable department, oth-