Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-19
"SING" MEETINGS
IN WARTIME
Martial Melodies Should Be the
Rule for Community
Assemblages

hearts Of life to follow schoolma 'am.made
rules-is not absent from all the recent
| journalistic paragraphs about the war
and music Mass Singing Impossible in
Army. Says Horace Oboe"-"Teach Sam.
mees 70 Sing Properly, Demands Ynez
! Viola"-these headlines are typical of
sort of kindly meant but utterly futile
emotion apt to spring UP among people
Who are interested in the war, but in no
| POSITION to fight.
One commentator comp.t,n- gently
that the men whistle in camps .,'ead Of
intoning words with the music Another
would turn the military machine Of this
country into a sort Of travelling conserva.
tory, forgetting that IL is the spontaneity
Of song and whistling that appeals to the
"gobs" and the "leathernecks" and the
"doughboys."
Is it not time to stop learned perhaps
fnehearted, but patronizing "horning in
on such themes? And by the same sigr
is not the attempt to mold martial
opinion a sort Of perversion from an oh.
ject that is really within the scope of the
stay.at.homes?
This month there was a definite exam.
plea picture" actors would call it-of
what can be done in the direction Of the
vocal impulse. It based itself not on the
theory that a marine should be able TO
distinguish between a stretto and fugue,
or an artilleryman chant something from
Palestrina instead of Pack Up Your
Troubles II simply said: We are in
Philadelphia. We want to sing. We will
And they did.
The pulse of the machine In this case
was Albert n. Hoxie. He announced, in
the newspapers, that he was going to give
a community Sing" in Mcpherson Square.
He sent out ten thousand invitations to
this charmingly simple stunt" freed Of
cant. Those who came lifted up their
voices in songs of personal feeling that
have lived too long to be hackneyed, and,
best of ALL in tunes wrought out of the
furnace of country.love. That was vir.
tually all the affair amounted to. But its
very simplicity was an earnest Of its sue.
cess. There weren't any long.winded
speeches The "we.have.with-us.to
atmosphere was notably and delightfully."-
hanished.
Now every one who was there, and who
pumped fresh air into his lungs and
fresh inspiration into his brain, is won.
dering when Philadelphia will have it's
next open.air sing"
1t may be asked, at this point, what
all this has to do with the military spirit
True it hasn't any tangible link with the
tunes that come to the lips of American
soldiers as they stroll down the Boulevard
des Italiens, or the whistled cheer of
American ambulance drivers threading
Balkan Businesses in their automobiles |
It apparently is a sort of grand parochial
endeavor to keep busy in paytme, in a
quaint and eternally likable, and vul
gar way. Most great music is vulgar |
in the original sense of the word, in spite |
Of what carping contrapuntalsts say BY |
the way, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was |
the hit of the bill when the New York |
Civic Orchestra played IT at the St. Mich |
olas Rink this week.
Virtually, a community Sing" in |
Philadelphia might mean nothing to SOL |
diers across the ocean. They probably !
wouldn't even know Of it. But when
fairly sensible people are found who will |
believe in and plead for a universal cult |
for the transference of thoughts of
peace" perhaps a tiny plea might be
made for a parallel in music. Such
psychic activities are frowned on by the
scientist, laughed at by the intellectual
TQr,t fyo
play in which a mans self-directed will. |
power swayed the fates Of several per-
sons. Thousands Of real persons went to
that play, didn't smile at it; accepted it, |
Whatever such acceptance Of a drama |
may mean Gt should mean much, drama |
having been built on religious ceremony
originally, the fact is plain that COM
munity singing in these red days, should |
not be permitted TO lapse into the merely |
tuneful and innocuous. 1t ought to take |
on some Of the color of overseas bravery. |
Blood there should be in it, and muscle |
and the fexibility ofEhe athletic.
Ten thousand persons chanting Way |
Down Upon the Suwanee River" and |
Sweet Alice, Ben Bolt" may provide a |
Ave thousand, at fortissimo pitch Of |
spirit and voice, singing martial ditties, |
would give TO their smaller performance |
the gesture of the times, and raise the |
occasion from one of detached pleasure |
seeking 10 the plane of homogeneity with |
our brothers abroad.
We need not ask in our songs that |
God punish Germany" But we can put |
the spirit of the American war slogan |
spirit that has been crystanized into |
three crisp bits of invective-into them. |
Who knows by what impalpable ways the |
sound Of that cry at home may thread |
and penetrate the barriers between us
and the trenches? 1t requires no veiled |
mystic TO see that the spiritual flavor of |
our withdrawn and unmenaced existence !
may communicate itself past sea and |
shores of other countries through hardy |
sentiment, frightened and strengthened |
by the first means of mans expression
song.
Let us have war songs at the next