Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-06-17


choruses, and there Will also be a
chorus of some 5000 school children
from the public schools of Indianapo-
lis, who were divided into fifteen sec
tions and specially trained for the
work by competent instructors. The
main exercises will be held In the big
Coliseum, which has a seating capacity
of about 1000. over and above the
singers themselves. Walter DAM
rosch will be the conductor of the
Indianapolis fest. 1t was his father,
DIR. Leopold Damrosch, who organized
the New York Symphony club and
made it one of the most famous mu-
steal organizations In the country.
Other prominent conductors Of orches-
trail music will also be on hand to
assist him in leading the great multi
tude of voices.
A million dollars for three days of
music might be the title of this story
for that is what 1t will cost, If not
more. Estimating the average ex-
penses of each visitor at $20-and this
Is an underestimate--it means that 1t
will cost them a million dollars to be
there. If the average distance travelled
Is 100 miles 1t will mean that 100000
miles have been gone over by the saen-
gerfest visitors. One of the most in
teresting features of the fest will be
the forest festival to be held in Ger
mania park at the close of the meet
ing. Here thousands upon thousands
of people, all loyal American citizens,
yet tracing a common heritage back to
the Fatherland, will meet together, and
German dishes will be eaten, health
will be pledged in German drinks,
German songs will be sung, and Ger
man tales will be told. Here one will
witness what no other country can
see-50, 900 people gathered together.
each loving his native land and his
own people, but all true and loyal
citizens of an adopted country.
In fact, these saengerfests are trib-
utes to the Fatherland. Wherever
there are Germans and there are some
90, OOO, 900 of us who are of German birth
or German descent, they love the songs
of the land from which they came.
No other nation, unless 1t be Italy. has
as much music to the square inch In
its makeup as Germany And when
the immigrant transplants himself
upon the American shore he never for
gets the songs he used to sing. They
are kept alive in his heart and In his
memory, and are handed down to MS
children and to his children's children.
Hence, the German-American finds
himself in a class ali by himself
In the perpetuation of the songs
of the land whence he sprung. There
are probably ten German musical CLUBS
in the United States where there is
one of any other recruiting ground or
the nation. Whether they be turn
yereins. saengerbunds, mannerchors OF
nv whatever name they are called
thew all represent the same oeVot'os
to the songs of the Fatherland, ana
the same determination to keep tnem
green in their memories and to mana
them down to their posterity.
The first saengerfest ever held was
that at wurzburg. Bavaria, In le4o.
singers from all parts of the German
er,nire gathered there and PATRIOTISM
ran high and overlooked. So success
FIJI was the event that others were
held. and in 1S49 American Germans
followed suit with their first rest at
Cincinnati. There were five cities rep
resented and some fifteen choruses' IL
was not as large an affair by any
means as the ones of the present day,
hut n was voted q great success, ana
sir,ce then there have been thirty
tests sometimes occurring annually
and sometimes slipping several years.
THE last meeting of the North Ameri-
can saengerbund was held in st. LOUIS
In 1909. 1t was intended to hold 1t our
inc the worlds fair, but the FAIR was
nnstnoned a year in order to have 1t
aon, pleted on opening day, so that the