Show rHAT 1 HA BEEN D NE 1 Utah the Peer Musically of any Other Place THE SALT LAKE CHORAL The Tabernacle Choir of Fire Hundred and Fifty Thirty Thousand Children and Adults Take tart In Sabbath School Music Every Sunday Onr Hands and Orchestras Boston New York Cincinnati and Chicago Chi-cago held their heads high when music in Ameriut is mentioned and doubtless would greet any claims of rivalry from the great American desert with a smile of ridicule Honored friends we bid you smile then read and ponder over the following facts Utahs treasure lance mountains resound re-sound every Sabbath with the song offering offer-ing of over five hundred church choirs ranging all the way from ten voices to 53 > each we will say thirty voices to be a low estimate of the average This would make 15000 choristers out of a population of 250000 Where else in our broad land can a comparative com-parative number of the masses be found taking part in chorus work THE TABERNACLE CHOIR in Salt Lake city numerically leads the world as a church choir with its 550 members mem-bers with an average attendance of over three hundred people The music it renders ren-ders is of the best representing all schools ancient and modern Such 4 honored names as Bach Handel Haydn Mozart Spohr Gounod Rossini Verdi Buck and other great masters of the past and present time are found mingled with names of local composers who write works which while making no claim to greatness do not sound out of place in such splendid company One of the most noted organs in America Amer-ica accompanies this choir which though built when iron rails were not to be found within 1000 miles of Zion and con > strutted chiefly by home mechanics and of homo materials is still declared by eminent authority to be in some respects unequalled by the greatest instruments in the country About six years ago we Dr Eberago personally heard the late Dr Eber Tour gee founder and then director of The New England Conservatory of Music declare it to be more effective than ever the great Boston music hall organs had been Much of this however he thought was due to the wonderful acoustic props prop-s of the building wherein our magni ficant organ towers Add to this a congregation con-gregation of from 4000 to 10000 people joining in some old congregational tune led by the choir and organ and where on ordinary occasions will you find its equal This does not begin to exhaust Salt Lakes choral strengtn 4 THE CHORAL of Another rival but friendly organization f organiza-tion numbering 250 voices bearing the i name of the Salt Lake Choral society will this Christmas night 1692 be rendering the latest and we believe honestly the j greatest American musical work The Light of Asia by Dudley Buck in the famous building accompanied by the great organ and a select orchestra During Dur-ing the following four months they will master Haydns Creation while the choir are working on The Last Judgment I Judg-ment by Spohr and the double mottette 1 Wrestle and Pray by Bach We mention these to show the intelligent reader that it is not Sunday school can tattas we are boasting about though when we come to that we are to the front t again The Sunday school jubilees in Salt Lake city have found 5000 children in the chorus and on Columbus Day I 12000 people were jammed into that great eggshaped building listening to the patriotic pa-triotic songs sung by 6000 public schoolchildren school-children in unison and joining in cheers to the best flag under the sun The genuine musiclover from the east taking the advice Go west young man finds to his delightful surprise that he is not by any means isolated from the pleasures of home life The dear grand familiar strains of the masterworks master-works greet him like old friends and kindly bridge over the chasm between the old associates and the new I 4 OTHER PARTS OF UTAH x Our neighbors to the south in Utah a county boast of another choral society numbering 300 voices while the north prides itself on its Logan choir sixty voices and the Sage Brush Male Glee club and Ogden its tabernacle choir and Choral society all making it an easy matter to bring together 1500 Voices for I any occasion IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS I For the past three years our children j I have had music systematically taught in I our public schools and a juvenile choir of 1000 voices is a branch of the tabernacle taber-nacle choir which will keep that organization I organ-ization supplied with singers for the next fifteen years Last June we heard at the tabernacle at lust four male choruses in competition none of which numbered f less than fifty nor more than 100 There t are to my knowledge two ladies choruses t chor-uses that represent that branch of vocalS vocal-S music Thirty thousand children and I j i adults take part in Sabbath school music > every Sunday J j t INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC j t I t I Instrumental music is well represented I i in our fair territory also Almost every I n hamlet contains either a cabinet organ or a piano while the guitars and mandolins i are innumerable I t Brass bands abound and violins are r sufficiently numerous at least to furnish every little settlement with music to supply sup-ply the young peoples dances while j t drums hush dont mention them 1 Politics of late has set so many of them beating that they have become a pest I An exception to this however may be 1 found in the flute and drum band of the I juvenile choir about fifty little fellows who play in parts on their flutes in remarkable re-markable style with a very few drums to mark the time We have many teachers of ability on piano organ violin etc besides class teachers and conductors for vocal music Our orchestras while including a number num-ber of really excellent executants and good readers are very far behind our vocal forces for want of better and more complete organization or a more exten I sive and a higher plane They furnish the ordinary work for which they are generally engaged such as ballroom music and theatrical selections passably well and we have had even a glimpse on a few occasions of a higher possibility were they to remain together a sufficient time to practice and accustom themselves to a class of music demanding a fuller care and more delicate shadings of expression ex-pression as the symphony the cantatta the oratorio But at present it has to be confessed that when our choral organizations prepare a work that reflects credit upon themselves they have to sacrifice lh2 crowning effects ef-fects which only an efficient orchestra could supply in accompanying them or have much of their months of training in f shading destroyed by an orchestra so I busy in trying to master their but little I used instruments on their notes that they pay but little attention to either CDiidnc tion or dynamic marks of expression Nothing can redeem us from this faulty condition of things until we have either grown in numbers sufficient to have in our midst a needed number of artists who can be employed regularly on a higher clsss of music as our present instrumentalists instru-mentalists catch a sufficient amount of the true love of musec our vocalists demonstrate dem-onstrate and like them meet regularly I for practice together until higher works are mastered Then and not until then may we hope for a perfection of t rendition I to the fine choral and orchestral works j now given always with an imperfect accompaniment ac-companiment The public cannot be said to be unappreciative at heart but as is usually the case with people too plentifully supplied there isa woeful lack of that hearty enthusiasm so necessary neces-sary to the full progress of art We have man who are here only through love of home and people who struggle along with only now and then a ray of encouragement encour-agement who have proved themselves them-selves of talent that elsewhere would arouse for them that enthusiasm appreciation that would urge them on to higher perfet ton and make them the object ob-ject of just pride to the community I We might name some of these but it is our intention in this article to avoid personalities per-sonalities We would suggest however to the people the favorable conditions enumerated in the beginning of this article may not always endure unless nourished with tJe sunshine of enthusiastic enthusi-astic practical appreciation The noble burdenbearers who have sacrificed so much to bring about such results may become disheartened and cease their untiring labors or go elsewhere else-where in search of more substantial encouragement I en-couragement and their followers seeing their fate may not have courage to take up the load We believe however that there is an appreciation underlying the apprant indifference in-difference which will not permit all the wonderful natural musical talent to be found in Utah to go begginc and we predict a great future for music in our Mountain Home Musicus |