Evening journal., 1918-01-21
C IMMUNITY SIG
At SC OlL TONIGHT
Ever ybc('y S Urged TO Join
III First Open Mus cal
Concert
BIG SUCCESS
IN OTHER CITIES

Sing in the Wilmington High School
auditorium tonight at o'clock. The
building will be warm. as It was heated
for the school today There is no fee
OF any sort connected with the sing, 10
Is free 10 all
The Community Chorus idea has made
great prog ess in many cities. as for m
stance \ . York, Boston and ph ladel-
phia; In a community chorus, every
body sings, big and little. rich or poor
all unite In one grand volume OF SIN
pie harmony, the language the whole
world speaks.
Arthur Farwell, director Of the New
York Music School settlement ard pres
ident Of the New York Community
Chorus has the following to say relative
to community music. The Meaning
OF Community Music" is one of these
indetermlnate subjects that may mean o
great deal and may mean nothing
hope ] can extract from Il or inject
into II one OF two actual ideas that
will be clear enough, simple enough
to carry away. In looking at Il In the
broadgaugc may, one thing that has
impressed me has been the change, the
utter change from the conditions some
tNhAo oc'H ~ tAAN lARoNhN LAAN III AlAN
attitude toward music. That is. 10 was
only two or three decades ago that peo-
pie were thinking that music is an aris-
t0crat.c art, that art Is aristocratic. and
not for the people," that II is only for
the privileged few. When / lived in
Boston in earlier days ! heard that kind
Of talk everywhere, scofilng at the idea
Of music for the people as something
ridiculous / could not combat the mat
ter In those days at all, because id
not have the weapons Of experience.
Since that time almost everyth lng has
been changed Certain persons In those
days went so far as to become philan-
thropists in rega to music. They
were founders Of the great choral and
symphony organizations, and occasion
ally gave 'Wage-earnels cOncei Is for
peoples who were not blessed as they
were. and so some such philanthsopic
ideas were carried out, but they meant
practically nothing as far as the Amer
'can peoples were concerned.
The Community Chorus in its pres
ent form was the invention Of Harry
'Ba nhart Mr.. Bsrnhart had the
vision and the courage to 90 straight
out TO the people, to break all barriers
down. Oh barriers Of special develop
ment and special preparation, and
merely TO say, Come, let us sing to-
gether." In other words, he struck that
thing which was the least common
denOminator Of the community music
idea There Is nothing more generally
possible than simply 10 ask people TO
come together and sing They need
nothing for It, nothing prepared, but
they must have an endless vista into
the future. Countless other things can
and will grow out Of II. To sing to-
gether is a great creative act. Il is not
essentially the specially trained. who
have shared with us in the singing
who have created these great develop
ments II we had not gone out freely
ami called eve ybody to come and sing
Il would not have. been possible 20 do
the things that have been done in the
CITY for New York and which you are
here TO further
He says: The Community Chorus
] am not much on definitions. but
trioI "a write down the other day
what the Community Chorus seem d
10 me I am not giving this out as
a formal definition at ALL and II any
body IS reporting this address ! wish
that he would say so This IS an en-
deavor 10 put in some Kind OF con
crete form what a community cho us
Is.
"a Community Chorus is the regular
periodic meeting OF the representa-
tive pcorle OF a community. all bene
freely lnvit-d. without dues, vO'ce
trials or any conside atom Of previous
musical training fo~ four-part choral
nj 81 nnn1ssfnnr fhn
nrI'fying power OF song 10 the un-
building Of the community. and
IN ough song. TO affirm faith in God
AMI the nation.
Now. with the community chorus,
YOU must accompany the singing You
see we have tried TO put symphony
ochest as before everything else; we
have tried 10 inject them into COM
munlties from without, and so we
have gone In a way that will not reach
the whole people. With the Commun-
ity Church, we went on the plan al
n ST that you could not have anything
except the absolutely highest grade OF
professional orchestra, and, in gen
eral. that Is true, because when you
take the master works OF vocal writ
ing any people you bring together can
sing the parts which the masters have
written for singing, but that is not
true Of your orchestra; there special
mechanical proficiency is required
won't say that the voice Is without
mechanics. but / have yet to see the
oratorio that any people you bring to-
gether cannot learn 10 sing In com
paratively short der, but that isn't
true on the orchestral side. and so we
have had to engage orchest~as Of tn"
most highly developed and proficient
profess iOnals
zone exception we made in New lo"k
and that was through the New lork
Music School Settlement. This for the
chef function Of this inst tuition, aside
from introducing music into communl-
ties and making Il possible for those
who have not the means to study at
the usual prices TO get their musical
training. Is TO develop nOn-profess onal
orchestras II has trained a great many
persons who have gone into the pro
fessionai world but u has also produc-
I'd non-professional Orchestras which
have done a great deal We have four
orchestras az the Music School Settle
ment, elementary, junior and senior,
and so-called symphony or Community
Orchestra. and by combining those four
orchestras we were able 10 accompany
The Community Chorus this year in
New York at Carnegie Hail. and gave
tvhaf ursh-ad "a bp ID very successful