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Show HUGE CHORUS GATHERS AT IWAUKEE Five Thousand Voices in Unison at Thirty-sixth Annual Saengerfest INTERESTING HISTORY OF BIG MUSIC FESTIVAL Influence on Singing Exerted Ex-erted in This Country by Gernian-Americans. st raur" TTAimr Tha thirty-sixth annual saengerfest of tha North American bund ia being held in Milwaukee this week, and ot only the German-Americans, out all ef the music lovers of tha eountry are interested in the festival. 8ingers from scores of cities sre ia attendance and the choral numbers will be sung by a consolidated chorna of approximately approxi-mately 6000 Toieea. This huga chorus was rehearsed in detail. Prof. Albert 8. Kramer of the Mil wanke manasrehor in tha past six weeka visited ten eitiea of the eastern states, rehearsing the singing societies for their parte in the great Milwaukee Milwau-kee chorus. Herman A. Zeitx, director of the Milwaukee musikvereia, per-formed per-formed a similar service in the eitiea of the southern and southwestern states. .. . The first ssengerf est in the United 8tatea waa held m Cincinnati in 184B by German-Americans of that eity. only four yeara after the revival of the choral festival in the fatherland. Cincinnati Cin-cinnati always haa been a center of musical culture, and espeeislly J fh." ral activity. The citv waa founded in 1788, and it had a singing school aa . early aa 1800. It was incorporated aa a Vity in 1S14, and it had an organized or-ganized choral society in 1816. Sixty Cities Hold Them. . Out of thia choral society grew the idea of a separate choir" for tha German-Americana, who were numeroua in Cincinnati, and the first great saen-gerfeat saen-gerfeat was held in 1849. Year laUr. in 1873, th music lovers of Cincinnati united and. - under the direction of Theodore Thomss, held their first great May festival of musi. Froas- thi Msy festival various cities of th west havo taken tno idea for " aimilar musical events, even aa many aastsra eitie have followed th ex-ample ex-ample of the older institution of the Worcester festival, yor th spring and fall of thia year ao leas than sixtv American eitiea and towns have held, or will hold, muairal festivala planned on the lines of the great Cincinnati May festival. .... The autumn festival held in Woreea-ter Woreea-ter is peculiarlv interesting because it ia entirely American in origin and had none of the adventitiona aid given to Cincinnati bv the Oermana. The New England Puritans wer pan Ira. singers, who abhorred what they termed "pro-fan" "pro-fan" musie as a pagan aurvival and ao invention of the devil. Fought Against Organ. Boston was more than s century old when the first organ was put up in a church there, and that not until after a terrific controversy. The puritanic puri-tanic objection to instrumental musie in churches has now almost disappeared disap-peared aud is heard of only among two uctn and schisms almost ex- eluaivrlv rural in their membership, but there was a time when this wat a mightv question. The triumph of the ear was sure if slow. The precentors of the nsalm sing, ing New Knglaud congregations began to strive for co-operation in improving improv-ing the musie in the. ehurchea. Thi co-operation resulted in holding conventions con-ventions of precentors and singing teachers in Worcestor, and in turn these conventions developed into a choral society, which will this autumn bold its fifty-fourth annual festival. The inspiration of the German saengerfest saen-gerfest is social and patriotic. The frcat annual gatherings are trihutea o tho fatherland, and tbe clubhouses of the local societies are intended to approximate the opuortnnif ies for social so-cial diversion afforded in the hopie eountry. European FcstlT Feature. There sre probably ten Germsn mu- rieal societies to one of any other kind! e the I'nitrd States, and it is from j the saengerbund. the mannerrlior, the Hederkranz anil tbo musikven in thet the ranks of American muMcians are Isrirclv recruited. The festive features of the saengerbund saenger-bund are distinctly Kiiropean, peculiar-1 ly German. The ptiritanism that yet pervades American life has yielded itsi - opposition to tniiMc, but not to Bacchus, j Theodore Thomas agreed to organise j tho first May festival in Cincinnati only upon condition that the convivial I fratnres of the saengerfest be ex-eluded. ex-eluded. The precedent then set has been rigidlv observed, snd this fact oerhsps has helped to keep up the sep-srate sep-srate organizations of the German sinjr- ern ' The -inspiration if rrneticallv nit etl:er rbonl societies in the lTpited States, aside from, Ihe German scliibs, has been rejirriotts. Sometimes, as in Ihe case of Worcester, this origin isj remote, bot.more often it is immediate.! Next it trie national saengerfeet the . largest bodv ef singers thnt meets an-Minlly an-Minlly in the United States is the chorus of the annual conference of the , German Baptist church, commonly called Dunkers. They Ar German Fnritau. While the denomination lias a membership mem-bership of only sboot IiiO.ixiO. the st t.-adaaee at the annual conference tv 'frequently I.u00. The Dunkers nre the iccrman puritans, and thev continue their opposition to instrumental music in churches, but they have provided the alternative of trained rboral.Mnging. ' The annual chorus of several ibonsawd iCuaituued on pa?e 4-V HUGE CHORUS (Continued from page 1.) voice ia directed by Prof. George B Holsinger of Bhdgewater college. Another religious chorus. .leoi German Ger-man in origin, but purely local in extent, ex-tent, ia the Bach choir .of Bethlehem, P.. Thi. town was founded bv the Moravians,' aad at the very first the Moravian leaders established a collegium col-legium musieum, on the foundation of which has heea reared a remarkable mnsical superstructure. This choir of about 100 voires was the first in America to produce complete the stupendous stu-pendous Bacb maas in B minor, an achievement of which Bethlehem is par doolv proud. The choir is more thai) a centnrv old. Scandinavian. Sing, Too. Still another intereeting music eea-ter eea-ter that had its origin in a religions inspiration is the remarkable Swedish choir of Lindsborg. Kan. Lindaborg. in MrPhereon eountv, is eountrv town of less than 2000 population. Its people are mostly of Scandinavian origin, hard working and thrifty, and vet endowed with that touch of the divine di-vine flame which horned up so brightly in Swedenborg and Ibsen. In holy week this little town enter tains from twelve to twenty thoussnd visitors, who come from all over Kan-aa. Kan-aa. Oklahoma and Nebraaka. aad even New York. Chicago and Boston, to kear the merchants, the farmers and the other villa pe folk of I.indsborg ting Handel's "Messiah." Originated bv a Swedish minister of Bethany Swedish Lutheran church, who first heard the great oratorio in London, the annual "Messiah" week has grows from a local lo-cal church anffir into s national musical event. At Drat onlv the local singers participated, but now the solojata are "ingera of international rermtatioia, but be rhorns ia made of 600 butchers, hakera and candlestick maker of Lindsborg. For ten years this chorus was directed by the talented Samuel Thorstenberg. now of Jamestown. New York. tAa the Swedish preacher waa its original renjus. ao wss Thorstenberg the genius of its great success. Southern Nearo Singers. The Swedish national buildine at the world's fair in St. Louis in 1004 waa taken down, removed and set no again in Lindaborg. and this building ia now need in connection with the Bethany church aa the center of the entertainment entertain-ment of the thousands who come to Lindaborg dnrine; holy week, or "Mea-sieh" "Mea-sieh" week, as it ia called there. Not least among the singine societies of the ITnited States i the Moxart society so-ciety of Fisk nniversitv of Nashville, composed of negroes. The Fisk .iubilee singers sre s section of this society, which includes in its repertoire everything every-thing from plantatinn melodies and negro ne-gro revival eoncrs np to ths masses and oratorios of the mailt era. The first production of "Hiawatha," tha master-of master-of the negro eomooter. flam net Tavlor ColerioVs.. waa given bv thia ao eirtv. The .iuhile aingem traveled till over the world singing teoTo melodiea and collecting mnnev to build the great mrtileo hall, which ia one of the main hniM.np" of the univernitv. TOien rinee Henrv of Prnaaig waa s lad at Potsdam he heard theaa singer. When he . toured thia eountrv several yeara co ht eiovenned aaked to hear them train, and hi train wa taken fcv Nashville end the nepro choir wna Ais-nosed Ais-nosed on flat rare in the nnion station to aerenade the orinte during tha brief reception on the roar platform of hla train. Gorman Enjoy ft.tt.vala. , The great inerease In choral unging manifeated in all parts of the eountrv haa, however, its chief inspiration in tha work of the nnivera. German sine--(ng societies. Tho local mannerehor is certain to bo the nncleiis around which tho general muaie festival ia built up. and despite their separate organization and tha eomnarative isolation of their clubhouses, tho German American singers sing-ers always are ready and willing to cooperate co-operate with others in advancing the general musical interests of ths eom-munirv. eom-munirv. Within their own organitations. mod st their great annusl feaats, such as that now being held in Milwaukee, the German singers enjov their music, their beer, their skat and their patriotism as much as it is given to tho sons of men to eniov anything on this earth. |