The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-25

The Euterpean club of the Ugh school
will appear tomorrow night in its
eleventh annual concert, given In the
auditorium of the school building at
$3.50 under the direction of Miss Leta
kits. A group of songs by Mrs. Marie
Stapleton- Murray, the soprano soloist
who is here from Pennsylvania to as
est the club, and the triQmphal march
from Aida" compose the first part of
o most entertaining programmes; the
second, according to the custom of the
! Euterpean club. is cantata.
When one is disposed to be in kind
. 1y mood toward ambition and talent 1t
becomes a habit to indulge in pleas
Rntries, but it is a real pleasure to
praise the work of this excellent
chorus of young people and some of
the more conservative of Birming
hams authorities have had occasion to
do SO unstintedly in times past Their
fresh young voices are trained 20
charming accord, they sing with the
spirit and joy of the youth and yet
with appropriate restraint The chorus
has been carefully selected and well
disciplined. 1t is a delight to listen to
work has been given solely toward
this concert. The director Miss Kits.
has brought the club together in week
ly rehearsals to soften every rough
tone, to strengthen where strength was
needed, to give form and substance: i:
indeed, to scattering fragments of good
{ tones. Yesterday the final rehearsal
was held in the presence of the chill
dren of the grammar grades in the
public schools and If their unqualified
appreciation of the music is an indi i.
cation it will be a fattering audience
that greets the Euterpean club tomor-
row evening. And believe it or not, the
grammar school hoy or girl in the city
of Birmingham is no mean Judge OF
music.
From his fourth year he begins to
hcquaint himself with good music
through the talking machine, grafono la
or victrola. He soon becomes ,ac-
quainted with the voices in Quartet
numbers, learning to distinguish the
four parts, then in combination with
the orchestra he studies the music of
quartet and last he studies the or
chestral music alone He has ALREADY.
Seuoitu musical instruments and
knows the makes of VIOLIN its form and
the source of its sound. And he can
Tell you things as he hears the chorus
tomorrow night. or as he heard it yes-
terday, with which many grownups are
unfamiliar. He is ready to distinguish
between the coloratura, the lyric and
1nezzo. He can easily detect the bari
tone or the bass quality; moreover the
boy or girl of the grammar school
as fairly well posted on operatfc mu-
sic; each school studies some opera ey-
cry year and hears it, teo, thanks to
the victrola, for the records are ex-
changed from school to school and the
children made to familia rize themselves
with voices and orchestration
That is why the pupils of the public
school are acquiring real artistic dis
elimination along with the more pro
sale three Rs" 1t is the advantage of
modern educational methods and it will
pc the strongest means of future mu-
sical development in Birmingham
The Euterpean club has $50 voices. bows
and girls. The membership is selected
from the classes in sight reading, num-
bering about 500 students, and the re-
sulting chorus trained and tested by Miss
Kits during the first semester of the
scholastic year, is then drilled for the
dnal event. The services of several mr-
sicians is secured, so that the chorus will
be supplemented by people of mature
training. The soloists this season are
Mrs. Marie Stapleton- Murray, dramatic
soprano, Miss Evelyn Going, mezzo: Mr.. |
i Leon Cole, baritone, and Mr.. John
Thomas, bass. Mrs. Edmund Castle Wells |
and Mr.. Keller will play first violin and |
Miss Florence Smith and Miss Rosa Ben |
nett second violin. Mr.. Basil Manly will |
play the cello and Miss Virginia Handley. |
who is the teacher of music in the high