The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 30, 1905, Page 4

0 you love music? Do you love children? Then there is a rare treat in store for you twice this woek— and you will be sorry sil the days of the year if you miss it. Only TWICE, remember! Take note—and warning—and “do not t your chances, like sunbeams, pass you by."” On Monday afternoon—to-morrow afternoon—one great chorus of 3000 school children will sing, and on Sat- urday afternoon another great chorus of 3000 school children will sing, each a different set of songs, and their songs. will be sveet, sirople, familiar® melo- dies, folk songs and fongs of. praise and patriotism and the joy of living, the songs of the people. You'll not need a libretto, mor & translator, nor a special cult, nor a carriage, nor a gown to outshine your . meighbor’s, nor a round, ringing gold - plece to buy e e, You can go straight’ from your place in-the workaday world, wearing your workaday clothes, {n the weariness of your workaday spltit it you must; pay your 75 cents for a reserved seat, and bathe your soul in joy—that is, of course, If you love music and children. You don’t need o be educated up to it; 'to attend preparatory lectures and that sort of thing; to humbug yourseit ’into an attitude. . . You need only to go just as you are, to open your ears and your heart to it —yes, and your eycs, too, it you like, for 3000 California childreh singing “Gloria, California” with all their might is a sight worth seeing—and you will get, well, you will get your six- bits' worth at least. » How do I know? Why—I've heard the choruses sing already at rehearsal. 1 have, as it were, sampled the dish before Mt is served. g Perhaps you have cherished 1 have, being among the uninitiated, the mistaken beliet that at the May Mu- sleal Festival, given as it is for the benefit of the teachers' annuity and re- tirement fund, the public school chil- dren would be heard every day, that they would pipe’thelr lttle songs in \ahrill chorus at every performance, and then give way to the “real” mu- slc, to the “real” players and singers. ‘But that isn't at.all what is going to Lappen. 3 Two afternoons are to be given over entirely to the children, together with Innes and his band, of course. . To-morrow afternoon three thou- sand school children from the public schools on the north side of town will sing. On Saturday afternoon three thousand children rom the public schools on the south side of town will sing. The geographical division was made to muke it as easy as pos- sible to bring the children of cuch chorus together for rehoarsal. Have you ever heard three thou- &and children's voices lifted in Gou- nod’s beautiful “Praise Ye the Father”? It 18 with that that the Children's Festival of Song opens to-morrow, Be in your seat in the Mechanics’ Pavilion in time to hear it! Perhaps you think you'd rather not, Perhaps you think you'd rather miss it. Perhaps you think that chil- dren, through lack of comprehension, will spoll that impressive hymn of praise for you by a perfunctory, me- chanical rendering. Lay by your fears—or, at least, lot us see together how they have been 1aught to sing it. “ghildren.” says a pretty, round- sty | a smile of efgaging friendliness, “let us imagine we are out upon the sum- mit of a mountain—sdy Mount Tamal- pais, and we can look up into the beautiful sky and out upon thé gredt ocean®and the bay. Don't you think we would feel happy In seeing so much of the beautiful world? Then let us come down from the mountath and imagine ourselves among all the hurrying, busy people in a great city —in San Francisco, where we live, ana in those other great cities that we Iearn about where so many peo- ple live, Now, Iot us sce what this new song says: Prais yo the Fathert” Lot all the carth sing praisest ‘What does (hat mean? Why. that ALL the earth, not only we who are here in school, who are here in San Francisco, who are here in Califor- nia, but all who are on the mountain- tops, who are in the valleys, who are on the great ocean and in the coun- tries beyond the ocean, who are in the big cities everywhere shall sing praises. Now—how shall we sing them?" | The response of round, full tones, the jubilant notes pour out in intel- ligent response. He is our refuge, A present help 1n trouble, she reads on. “Some of us,* she explains softly, “have had a little brother or sister who died—when we think of ~that, when our father or mother is very sick, we say our pravers more 'ear- nestly then, don't we? A preseat help fn. trouble ‘wells up from ‘the childish throats with a curious, touching softneés. Praise yo bis Kindness, The bonor of his majesty! “Think how great is the power of God, who has made the world so beau- tiful—" i The brown-eyed young woman with the magnetic smile says no more. In the eager young eyes fixed on her you can see for yourself the vision of the world beautiful from the mountain top ‘where in fancy she has taken them. Something of the impressiveness of di< vine majesty rises with the rising note. God s our shield— All our trust ia in the Lord: ) He is our strencth and out hope They who trust in bim are biessed! “You see,” says the young woman, ‘this tells us Just how we feel to- ward our own father at home, doesn't it? We don't know ¥s just why our own father at home wants us (o do a certain thin or wants us not to do, but we do know that we are safe in his care and happier when we do his will. Isn't that the way you teel—and you—and you “'¥es, Miss Carvente comes from every side, and the reverent spirit of the music dwells in the singing voices. Sing unto Cod, for the heav'ns deciare his Lokt nations b €lad and sivg or Joy! Lt ail the people praise him! *"We are not the only ones who know the goodness of God. Ilis kindness and his care for all the world, for the nations to be glad about Pragee bim in the heavens, All yo angele wing his praisest Praise bim, Wil yo stars of light Fraise ye bim, O ye heav'ns o heavasl Praise him for his mighty acts ik, exalt his name above the rkies! God ulone. is our salvation and our wtrength, O, phalse o bis name! praise ye his same! “Nor Is it only for the peovle of the carth to sing the praises of God, you see; but the stars, all that he created shall praise him, too. Sing!" she says, with an upward sweep of her arm, the born conductor's jovement, ‘“exalt his name above the skies! That's it san bnansht of It is all rigkt. not a note slurred or dragged; the watchful young wo- man with the brown eyes has seen to hat; her enthusiasm has accorded ex- actly with the score; she hasn't said much about high notes or low, long notes or short; the plano has insisted n them with precision, but she has opened the minds and touched the hearts, a1d put that into their sing- ing that only understanding can do. This s the way the choruses that sing in the Children's Festival of Song have been trained by Miss Estelle Car- penter, who is the sypervisor of music for San Francisco’s public schools. No part of the technique has been sacrificed. The drill on the #cales has been hammered at with persistent in- dustry; the matter of breathing has been attended to as befits its impor- tance; but always, always Miss Car? penter—this enthusiastic little woman avho lolds the musical training of more than 50,000 children in her hands —demands of the children “What are You trying to express?” In drilling them on the scales it is not a question of running them merely. “Suppose,” she says, "we are sing- ing without words the story of a little boy who has mo one to take care of him, who is tired, and lonely and hun- gry, how would he sing thi “La, 1a, la, la, 1a, Ia, la, 1a, scale in plaintive eadence. “Suppose,” she goes cn, “the same little boy has some good fortune hap- pen to him, fs suddenly taken into some one’s home to be cared for ang loved— “Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! the vocal ladder s joyously mounted. ¢ is this quality—this scul quality so rare in children’s singhg, so very rare in chidren’s ‘choruses—that you will find in the Children’s Festival of Song at the Mechanics' Pavilion to-morrow afternoon. e runs the WHERE SHAKESPERE ROBABLY the Alexandrian li- brary ‘would not contain all of the volumes of treatises, learned and otherwise, that have gon- cerned themselves with the sources used by Shakespere in many of his great masterpieces, notably “The Merchant: of Venice” “Macbeth” and “Romeo and Juliet.” In view of the present Shakespere revival by the Sothern-Marlowe combination, the fol- lowing ' interesting explanation of the sources for two of the master scenes of “Romeo and Jullet" possesses. the merit of considerable originality and as much plausibllity as many theories that have been expounded at greater length. It is the result of an effort made by an English Shakespere society & year or more ago, which, getting away from the Italan sources and othe popular ideas, places the igoep- tion both of the vault scene and the ddrowning of Ophelia In incidents oc- curring at or near Shakespere's Own birthplace of Stratford-on-Avon. Near Stratford-on-Avon there is house called Clopton House, the resi- denee ofghe late Sir Arthur Hodgson, whicl Strange and traglo Shakespere's own THE time which may have suggested to him the vault scene in “Romeo and Juliet”” without golug SAN A sie Ophetia. s The traditonal Warwickhi FRANCISC of Juliet was Cl O SUNDAY ginal and CALL i 54 LR ST Clopton family vault dowever, premature, fr when the vault NP very inmost being will thril 1f they sing it to you as they did at rehearsal they will sing “Praise Ye the Father” & that a chord In your respon- o hen they will sing you Kentucky Home” with a plaintive and the “Suwaunee River” with such a homesick longing that'it wili— I dor’t know what it will do to you. As for me— When Miss Carpenter said to’ them, “Just imagine how. YOU would feal i you wers sold into slavery far from vour, home," they poured such pathos into “Weep no mere, my lady.” and wailed with such .musical tsarfulness that “Al de worid am sad and Geoary * + +_ Far from de of folks at home™ ' that [ becqme analytical: at once gnd attributea a Jump in my throat to the nenetrating quality of® the silvery sweet girl sopranos and the haunting, dppealing note in the un- changed boy voice. It is worth a good dead (o hear (hem sing “Oh" Maryland, My Marylans with a possessive pride that almost bursts their buttons off and to hear them proclaim fn perfsct time and tune that “Columbiu’s the gem of the ocean. Yow'll never know what inspiration there s in those songs nor what a Jaunty deflance there can be put into “Dixie” until you hear thres thousand listy, happy Colifornia boys and girls sing. They have two distinctly California songs In their repertoire for the festi- vals of Monday and Saturday. One is “Gloria, California!” a simple, stately anthem, every word and note of which belong to California, for it was writ- ten by Charles Keeler and the music composed by Professor Pasmore. The other is Will Carlaton’s “Dear Old Hilis of California,” a pleasing bailad-liks song, with the music by Sam Davis. MATERIALS lotte Clopton leaning against the wall in her grave clothes. “And when they looked neater,” says William Howitt, who tells the story im-his “Visits to Re- markable Mansions,” “she was indeed dead, but not before in the agonies of despair and hunger she had bitten plece of flesh from her white, round arm.” Like Ophelia, Margaret Clopton, a sister of Charlotte, fell in love with a mai who afterward repudiated her. Her mind became unbinged and she drowned herselt In a pool In the leaty grounds of her home. When Shakes- pere was a boy thesales about the tragic ends of Charlotte and Margaret Clopten must huve been the Yheme of common gossip, and were likely to make a profound impression on his mind, They have never been forgotten in Warwickshire, and the ghosts of Charlotte and Margaret have long been supposed to wamder through the cor- ridors of Clopton House. Even the genial spirit of the late Sir Arthur Hodgson was not able (o Completely exorcise them. However, the people o tratforg und of W re porsuaded that Juliet gr . For gayoty and variety in the pro- grammes of both children’s days there are bird songs and walts songs, beau- titully adapted to the lightuess and flexibility of children's voices, | among them (hat delicious little laughing gong of “The Three Chafers” that is cne of the. star performances of the Loring Club, and that the children sing with a joyousness and briiliancy that wiil meke the Loringites grash their teeth with futfle envy. Among the valtz songs is the sweet old “Dlue Danube” that our mammas, and even our grandmamms, bave danced to for | io, (hess many vears As a finale to each children's day ; “America” is to be sung, of co and the programme will invite ou i in the singing of it.” Great things ought to come of that invitation—a co-aperation that should be beard ‘six blocks v in every direction from the Pavilion, for it will e a cold and seif-contained nature in< decd thut can resist the inspiring cail of three (housand young - oices that you shail. Trom evers mountaln side Let feeodom ring! Twenty congs sung by six thousand voices Is What the children's choruses offer you—six haurs of delicious enjoy- ment of a kind that makes (he heart STOW young. It is all ready to deliver to you on schedule time-—at 2:30 of the clock to- MOFTOW alternoon: Dut can you guesy what it has meant in iabor, fore- thought, organizalion. diplomacy, #kill, fndustsy and sheer grit Lo get it ready? ¢ To 'the exceptional and reaily won- derful executive ability and tact and enthusinsm of one liltle wowan the chlet credit s due—to Miss Fistelle Carpenter, who supervises the music ot the public schools; and next to Mies Carenter to the musical teachers in the schools, who ca-operated with Tier 20 willinglv that they worlked over- time to make. the choruses artisticaliy’ periect. “Two months ago savs Miss Car- penter, telling how it was done, L call- cd the teachers togetiier and explain- ed to them how to select the volces, not all the teachers of the schools, just the musical teachers. I wanted only the good voices—and the good children; children who could sing and who would reiearse willingly, We made selections from seventy schools, one hundred from onme school, two hundred from another, fifty here, one hundred and-fitty there, untit we got together our six thousand singing children. ' Then we divided them into two choruses, one to come from the north side, the other from the south side, making the division in order to make, it as easy as possible to bring the children together for rehearsals and to reach them at their schools, Tach chorus has its own set of songs, an“arsgngement which has made it just half the work for the children and the teachers, and, of cgurse, double the work for me, but that has made it possible to give more care to the sing- ing of each song than If cach of the choruses had had to learn all the songs. “In each chorus of three thousand there are twelve hundred sopranos, seven hundred altos, five hundred ten- ofs and five hundred bassos, “The voices selected, then I gave out the songs one or two at & time, adding to them as they werg learned. This work was done in the schools, many the musical teacher rensat recess in order not to encroach i school tme. the hall of"the Mission High School I took a thousand children at a time and each thousand came in swice to rehearsal there. That made twelve. rehearsals of a thousand each. “Then came the bigerehearsals, the three thousand of each chorus to- gelher. For those we had to have the Alhambra, and there we had four, two for each chorus. Thiz, skeletonized, is the work that: had to be done. To fill in and cover over the skeleton you must do what I did, see the rehearsals—for real in- terest: the big rehearsals in the Al- hamibra, R . ! From all points of the city there comb processions of the children with , theit banners; drums or bugles, and. a polite footnote o “rice and tuke part teachiers to keep them out of mischief and harm, They fill the blg barn-like Athambra,” buzzing, Tumming, chat- tering until a cataract of sound pours mrqn‘lll all the doors and windows. | A sharp. liftle whistle pierces the ronxgl mighty hand-clapping follo: and sience falls, & YGood morning, children,” says the pleasant- volce of the pleasant little leader of the chorus, : i “Good morning, 'Miss Carpenter, breaks a wave of sweet volces from stage to ceiling, and the preliminaries are disposed ot The piano speaks, the songs are gone over from every point of view. Fassage atter passage, bar after bar, 18 gone over again and again until it runs smooth as silk and all the 3000 veices are brought together in one beautiful harmony of sound. : “There, that little girl in the top. row of the gallery is not opening her meath. You know, little girl, you can't sing with your mouth shut. . “And the boy behind the-plllar, in the back there—on the left. Yes—I mean you; don’t try to hide. Don't cut off this note so short. Woe'to delinquents! Tow do the keen eyes find the little irl in the gallery and the boy behind the pitiar? = Nor is that all. There are the idio- syncrasies of childish pronunclation and substitution to be detected and overcome, They all have a predilection for singing “Land of thy pllgrim's pride” iastead of “the” and of twisting “Co~ lumbia” until “teroes assemble” and “hyrranies tremble” and Of saying that “bye and bye hard times comes a-knocklng,” all of which is pertectly scandalizing to careful L nguage teachers, These glaring errors, and 2 dozen more like them, have to be polished out of existence, of course, Miss Car- penter and all the teachers believe, Let us hope they won't be—that “teroes” will still assemble at the chil~ dren's festival, for what o tiresome world this would be If human nature were infallible, if we had nobody's mistakes (o cheer us, “IU's been dreadfully hard work, but oh, how I have enjoyed it," confesses Miss Carpenter. “It has madé muth extra work, but we have been paid to do it say enthuslastic musical teachers. . “IUs splendld,” say the children. “Wish we could have & musical festi= val every year." . Why can't they—for themselves? Why shouldn’t the children of the public schools have their own big fes~ tival every year? Why shouldn’t thelr musical traine exhibition of choru Think it ov carerully. o 10 the Children’s Festival'or Soggie