Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-04-16
A Big Massacre of
Congregational Singing
BY r. Dewitt Tajmaqe

n There has been an effort made fl
the last twenty years to kill congr
gational singing. The attempt hi
e been tolerably successfully; but
K seems to me that some rules migl
g be given by which the work could b
done more quickly, and completed.
What is the use of having it lingerin
on in this uncertain way? Why nc
Il put 1t out of its misery? II you ar
going to kill a snake, kill II thorough
! ~, and do not let It keep on Vaughn
its tail till sundown. Congregations
! singing is q nuisance, anyhow, to lot
of the people. 1t in%terferes with thei
comfort. 1t ohends their taste. |
disposes their nose to t~iexibility il
the upward direction. 1t is too demo
cratic in its tendency. Down Will
congregational singing and let US have
no more Of it.
The first rule for killing it is tc
have only such tunes as the people
cannot sing.
Besides that if you let them sing
one tune at a service, they will be
putting their oar into the other tunes
and bothering the choir. There is
nothing more annoying to the choir,
than, at some moment when they
have drawn a note to exquisite
fineness, thin as split hair, to have
some laundering elder come in with a
Praise We the Lordi" Total abstin,
ence, ! say Let all the churches take
the pledge eve against the milder
musical beverages; for they who tam.
per with champagne cider soon get to
Hook and old Burgundy.
Now If all tunes + new, there will
be no temptation to the people. They
will not keep humming along, hoping
they will find some bars down where
they can break into the clover pas
tare. They will take the tune as an
inextricable conundrum, and give it
up, Besides that, Pisgah, Ortonville
and Brattle Street are old fashioned.
They did very we'll in their day. Our
fathers We're simple people, and
the tunes fitted them. But our faith
ers are gone and they ought to have
taken their baggage with them. 1t is
a nuisance to have those old tunes
floating around the church, and some
time. just as we have got the music
fine as an opera, to have a revival
Of religion come, and some newborn
break out In Rock of Ages, Cleft for
Me-" till the organist stamps the ped
al with Indignation, and the leader
of the tune gets red in the face and
swears Certainly anything that
makes a man swear is wrong-ergo
congregational singing is wrong.
"Quod erat demonstrandum; which,
hein translated, means. plain as the
nose on your face"
What right have people to sing who
know nothing about rhythmics, melo-
dies, dynamics? The old tunes ought
to be ashamed of themselves when
with our modern beauties,
Let Dunde and Portuguese Hymn and
Silver Street hide their heads beside
what he heard not long ago in d
charch--just where | shall not tell.
The minister read the hymn beauti-
fully. The organ began. and the choir
sang as near as / could understand,
as follows:
efoeapuen wt-maio (icGe1rm neeihdtt
ooo-aw-geebah
Ah-me-la-he
O-pah-sah--dah
Wo-haw--gee-e-e-e.
MY wife, seated beside me, did not
like the music. But said: What
beautiful sentiment! My dear, IT is
pastoral. We might have known that
from 'Wo-haw.gse. You have had
your taste ruined by attending the
Brooklyn tabernacle The choir re
peated the last llne Of the hymn fouI
times. Then the priIna donna Ieaped
on Ia the first line, and slipped, and
fell on to the second, and that broke
and let her through into the third
The other voices came Iii to pick hel
up. and got into grand wrangle, and
-Sf AN%NltSJ.