Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 249, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1917 — SINGING IS LOST ART TODAY [ARTICLE]

SINGING IS LOST ART TODAY

In Thk Age It la Largely Confined to ths Professional Performers, Even In the Churches. Ringing, as far as most people are concerned, is a lost art. Thousands attend operas, recitals and musical comedies, but, as for singing themselves Informally at their work or splay, they have forgotten how. In times past people of all ranks sang together as a matter of course. Sailors sang at their work; peasants, shepherds, cowboys, all had their favorite and appropriate songs? The songs of children at games, the lullabies of mothers, are In tlfe collected ballads and folklore of many peoples. “The pastimes and labors of the husbandman and the shepherd.” says Andrew Lang, according to the Indianapolis News, “were long ago a kind of natural opera. Each task had its own song; planting, seeding, harvesting, burial, all had their appropriate ballads or dirges. "The whole soul of the peasant class breathes In Its burdens as the great sea resounds In the shell mast up on the shore.” Nowadays the whirl of machinery makes all the noise. The workers in mills might find It unsatisfying to sing at their work, but it Is doubtful if they would sing even if their voices could be heard, while singing in an office or store would pretty surely be stopped by the “boss” or the police. Thousands congregate every night in the silence of moving picture theaters, and even in the churches where singing by the congregation used to be customary, the attendants now usually listen in silence to a paid singer. Singing In this age is largely confined to the professional performer.