The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1910-11-08
COPPER COUNTRY
FINNISH SINGERS
FINNISH SINGING SOCIETIES
TAKE PROMINENT PART IN
SOCIAL LIFE OF HANCOCK
AND VICINITY.

The entertainment given at the
Kerredge theater on Sunday evening
nv the Hancock Finnish Glee Club,
was a highly successful affair and was
well attended by the Finnish people Of
the city, and was but the forerunner
of other similar events to be staged
dnrinr the winter. The club was or
eanized early in the fall by Prof. San
frid Mustonen, who has had much ex-
perience in forming and directing
cmbs of this kind during the past
sovon or eight years In the copper
,ountry. The present glee club was
one of the features of the annual cop
rcr country fair held at the Amphi-
drome in September. and In times past
other similar societies directed by
prof. Mustonen have been conspicuous
q, political rallies held here and in
Calumet.
Resides the Finnish Glee Club, there
are numerous other singing societies
,he membership of which is composed
of Finnish people residing in the vic
,ritv the North Star Temperance So
,ietv having it's Savel Ladies choir and
&c r-ole and mixed choirs, the Finnish
College has choirs of both sexes and
nj Franklin. Coburntown, ana other
outlying locations there are temper
wee and other societies which make
- feature of choruses and choirs when
Give freueunt concerts one taking
,lace usually every Saturday or sun
dav night during the winter season
This gift of singing is character
istic of the Finnish people both III
FINLAND and i'm other lands where tney
take up their homes. A
Practically every person in Finland,
from the greatest noble to the most
humble peasant from the woman oil
fashion to she who labors in the nelds
belongs to a great singing society," TOT
such the entire nation is. 1t is no un-
common thing for 5000 trained singers
I'm gather to serenade some loved or
admired public man, and once in Hell
singfors 10000 voices thoroughly or
panized into four parts, joined In sing
ing the national anthem as a fares
well to an exiled patriot.
The city of Uleaborg is near the arc
tic circle, and far from railway ana
there may be heard chorus OF 2,O0o
school children with perfectly blend
ed voices. Every village has It's church
choir, consisting of fifty or a hundred
males, who sing nothing but Lutheran
hymns. Even the companies OF Finnish
guards of the Russian army automau-
cally organize themselves into chor-
uses and sing their national songs
despite the opposition of the Russian
officers.
when a few Films get together they
burst into song as by spontaneous
combustion If alone. they sing indiV-
idually. The farmer sings as he plows
the housewife as she cooks. If a Finn
is doing nothing else, he just sings.
A newspaper story referring to the
universal fondness for music on the
part of the rims, says:
Sometimes, when a brass band plays
"My Country IT'S of Thee or on an
excursion steamer after it gets dark
and he Is pretty well satisfied no one
will recognize him, the American VIII
indulge i'm what he thinks Is singing
but the average citizen would blush
himself to death If asked to burst in
To song I'm cold blood in public place.
II is no uncommon thing to see
whole tablefu of diners in the magni-
hcent hotel at Helsingfors, the capital
Of Finland. suddenly put down knives
and glasses and burst into perfectly
balanced four part song. They doubt
less are happy in their singing put
certainly they sound infinitely sad, the
songs being almost invariably the
moaning folk songs of the saddest OF
all landslide most perfect music OF
melancholy.