Glee Club Research Articles

The Rural School Music Problem

THE MUSIC TEACHER seldom has an opportunity to learn, firsthand, the results of the music program, or the lack of a music program in the schools. After graduation pupils scatter, and in the universities and colleges -the only places where these young people are found in great numbers-many are lost to music due to the college and university emphasis on subject matter and professional performance. campus organizations are interested only in the most talented and most successful of our school musicians; and on the basis of the achievement of this select group, little evidence can be gained indicating the results of our music program. This article is based on five years of contact with the boys in the Agriculture Short Course of the University of Wisconsin. These students are a fair example of the product of the rural schools and certainly indicate what is being done and what needs to be done in our rural work. Short Course was reorganized in 1932 into the present course, with the ideals and spirit of the Danish folk school. Professor Vincent E. Kivlin, its director, states that a few of the boys are not high school graduates but the majority of them have completed their high school education; the average age of the students is twenty-one; and, finally-a fact which is important to music education-these students all are firmly resolved to become farm leaders. Attendance at a fifteen-week session for each of two years is required for graduation. Dean Chris L. Christensen of the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture tells us that The course of study is organized around the idea that these young men are to be farmers, citizens, and community leaders at one and the same time. We have, therefore, completely blended the so-called vocational emphasis with the scientific, cultural and citizenship emphasis. For example, there are courses in music, drama, citizenship, history, law, speech, and public discussion scheduled through the day, interspersed with the courses in agriculture. Three hundred men-the entire group-participate in the Community Music course, which is primarily devoted to group singing. A glee club is organized each year-and inasmuch as fully one-third of the entire group usually appear for the tryouts, the disappointment is so great to those not selected that holding the club down to a reasonable size becomes a major problem. A course in leadership is offered, providing training in the fundamentals of music and conducting, and a band and orchestra are organized when the instrumentation is adequate for these groups.

Fundamentals of Musicianship

Fundamentals of Musicianship

Glee Club and Chorus

Glee Club and Chorus

An Inter-Scholastic German Glee Club

THE importance of club activities as indispensable adjuncts to successful modern foreign language teaching is so well established that it hardly requires reiteration or argument at the present writing. For a detailed article on this subject, based on practice rather than theory, the reader is referred to Joshua Hochstein's A Pan American Manual' wherein the why and wherefore and, in a sense limited to a Pan American club, the how of club work receive exhaustive treatment. Standard texts on the teaching of modern foreign languages2 contain abundant bibliographical material on this topic as do articles in current professional periodicals.3 This article, therefore, in speaking of the Inter-Scholastic German Glee Club of New York, will offer no apologies for the existence of the Club for the past seven years. More appropriately, it will endeavor to acquaint the reader with the history and present status, the achievements and activities of the Club, with pertinent statistics, and with such hints on organization and administration as will, it is hoped, point the way for those who would attempt to organize similar clubs in cities other than New York.

The Microphone and the Chorus

DOUBTLESS many people have wondered why the majority of radio programs are given over to instrumental groups such as symphony orchestras, bands, and smaller ensembles rather than to vocal groups. The question then arises, Why do we not hear over the radio more vocal performances by the fine oratorio societies, a cappella choirs, and glee clubs of which the country can so rightfully be proud? It will of course be inferred that for quality in performance choral groups are not as good as instrumental groups, hence radio's seeming preference for instrumental groups. It is my purpose to discuss the reasons why instrumental ensembles are, for broadcasting purposes, superior to vocal ensembles. From observation, I have found that there are two reasons why this is true: (1) Radio operators have not perfected their technique in broadcasting choral music, and (2) choral performance itself is inferior in tone quality, intonation, and dynamics-three major elements that have a marked effect on the microphone. Sometime ago I listened to a broadcast by a college a cappella choir from a station that would rank with the best in the United States. The selection was the Song of the Volga Boatmen. Instead of the light, in-thedistance effect of the opening measures, there was considerable volume and the tone was badly distorted. The volume increased as the song progressed and at the peak, the quality and clarity left little to be desired. But, toward the close, when the singing should have faded away in the distance, it took on the same volume and bad quality noted at the beginning. Altogether the radio reproduction of a very good piece of singing was most unsatisfactory. In looking for the explanation, it was quite obvious that the operator responsible for monitoring the broadcast was either ignorant or inexperienced. He evidently was trying to the volume indicator register evenly throughout, and, in so doing, destroyed the shading--one of the major musical values of this particular selection. The operator who monitors a broadcast by twisting a little dial can make or break a performance. He should be a musician or, failing this, he should at least possess musical sense. Having this, he will not do the ridiculous thing just recounted, nor others equally bad but not so obvious. Even with this factor taken care of adequately, there still remains the matter of how much sound and what kind shall go into the microphone. The proper placing of the microphone for a broadcast is, of course, the responsibility of the radio station. It should be placed so that the various parts of the choir are in balance. One of the worst faults often observed in the broadcast of choral performances is the overpowering tendency of the soprano section in mixed choruses. Here again the station operator is supposed to function. Nowadays, the choral director can check up on the proper placing of the microphone by use of a sound recorder. By means of auditing through the public address system, which is part of any reputable recorder, the best arrangement can quickly be determined by experimenting during rehearsal. Once determined, the most satisfactory arrangement should be charted and always used. As a rule, soprano voices should be placed much farther from the microphone than the male voices. If the sopranos cannot conveniently be placed farther away, they may be placed at either end of the usual semi-circular grouping rather than directly in front of the microphone, and their tendency to preponderance will thus be avoided. The practice of using more than one microphone has not come within my experience, and, in my opinion, such a practice seems neither wise nor necessary. It is likely that vocal broadcasts are more often ruined than helped by the use of more than one microphone because of the difficulties involved in mixing the various pick-ups. After all, a person who sits in a favored location hears perfectly a musical performance with one pair of ears. It is therefore reasonable to assume that a single microphone as favorably placed will register the same desired balance.

Junior Glee Clubs of Young Men

Junior Glee Clubs of Young Men

Music Courses in College

T HREE objectives are generally recognized in the department of music: to train teachers, to train performers, and to develop appreciation in so-called amateurs. Data from the blanks on which application for admission is made by entering Freshmen indicate that the appreciation aspect is the most important, although music schools and departments of music almost without exception stress performance or, less frequently, teacher training. Of the 3,502 students whose complete records were available in the junior deans' offices at Ohio State University, 439, or 41 per cent, had taken music of some sort either within or without the curriculum in high school. Since this proportion was fairly constant throughout the several colleges of the university, as is shown in Table I, it is probably significant for colleges elsewhere. The larger percentage in Education is due to the fact that the Department of Music is a part of that college. The smaller percentage in Engineering results because fewer opportunities are given boys than girls to take music in high school. Band, orchestra, or some form of instrumental music was mentioned by 43 per cent of those who had taken music; glee club or chorus by 48 per cent; the remainder had had history of music, appreciation, operetta, and so forth. Less than one-fourth of these students continue music in any form whatsoever in college, even

"Home Made" Music Appreciation Concerts

RUE appreciation of any subject is fostered by the number and nature of the active contacts the individual makes with that subject. If these contacts can be made frequently and under auspicious circumstances, so much the better. In the case of music, this procedure is no exception. If the child lives his music, grows up with it by actually singing and playing it, more appreciation will be gained than by endless hours of passive listening. From the earliest efforts at musical expression by means of the voice, the rhythm band, classes in piano and orchestral instruments, choruses and glee clubs, bands and orchestras, to the glorious day when John or Mary is acclaimed before the footlights as an artist, the greatest work in appreciation is achieved by means of actual active participation in music. That is fine for John or Mary, you say, because they are the talented members of the class. But what of the large number of boys and girls, who, although they are equally enthusiastic and earnest in their application, have harely a single talent, as against the two or five of the more gifted few? Are they to be deprived of the opportunity to do the next best thing to actual participation-active listening-and thus be robbed of the understanding of music that even a sincere non-performer may acquire? Far from it. Carefully guided activity in appreciation involving a definite procedure for each grade, specific units of work to be mastered, such as types of music, voices and instruments, as well as much information about the lives of the great names in music will furnish a background for this active listening.

The Why and Wherefore of the Junior High School

The organization of High Schools everywhere is the biggest movement ever made toward solving the many difficulties, which have heretofore faced us in the upper grades. A rather recent publication Junior High School Education by Davis, thoroughly sets forth the historical setting of this department in our educational field. How are we, as directors of music, to suit our music curriculum to these comparitively new conditions? Many cities have already solved these problems, Kansas City among them, and I for one look forward with great interest to March 30th-April 3rd, for further ideas and assitance from that source of inspiration. Music, as a means of self-expression an outlet for energetic, emotional youth is one of the necessities in the High School. The gang spirit which is so uppermost at this age accounts for the united feeling of music. instructors in the assembling of groups of classes in the auditorium at least once a week that they may sing from the heart. Much of the assembly period should be devoted to what we commonly call community singing, with some time devoted to program numbers furnished from the compositions rehearsed in their class rooms, by orchestras, emsemble groups and glee clubs. Need of the Course If there has been no time devoted to music other than those periods previously stated it may take considerabable pressure and urgent appeal to find time in the busy class schedule of the day for recitations devoted to those studentswho are studying some branch of applied music and very much need assistance in theory fundamentals beside the desirable electives interpretation, history and appreciation. Young people should know that there are such men as Beethoven, Elgar, Tschaikowsky and Grieg and others of the many outstanding figures in the worlds musical literature (if it may be so termed) just as truly as they should know the literary geniuses-the novelist, the essayists and the poet. It is a part of their heritage to which they have a right. The mass of music educators must feel the seriousness of their calling sufficiently before they can make the heads of our school systems recognize it as it deserves to be recognized. Will Earhart of Pittsburg says that the adolescent youth has characteristics that make him an infant adult rather than an adult infant and that this fact must determine the nature of the new courses which we are forming for our High Schools. All who are endeavoring to formulate courses in music for High Schools seems to be unamious in feeling that it affords the richest possibilities of any point in the entire school system. Making a Beginning Some of us are called upon in this 67

From Associated Glee Club of America

From Associated Glee Club of America

Boys' Glee Clubs in Grade Schools

Boys' Glee Clubs in Grade Schools

Music for Glee Clubs. Further Preliminary Lists

Music for Glee Clubs. Further Preliminary Lists

Music for Glee Clubs. Some Preliminary Lists

Music for Glee Clubs. Some Preliminary Lists