Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1905 — SING ALL THE WHILE [ARTICLE]

SING ALL THE WHILE

THE FINNS INDULGE IN SONG IN AND OUT OF SEASON. From N'oltle to return®t and From tbe City Lady to the Woman Who Works In the Field the People May Be Said to Form One Vast Choral Society. In the palatial supper room of the great hotel in Helsingfors, the capital of Finland—the best hotel in Russia, for the Finns represent all that is most progressive in the czar’s empire—a company of ladies and gentlemen seated at one of the tables suddenly began singing. With trained voices they sqng a four part folk lore song of the northland. Never heard I a song so deeply melancholy. It was the music of the unhappiest of the enlightened peoples of the earth. That was on my first evening in Finland. From that time forth throughout a stay of four weeks among those sad hearted people I listened to their singing morning, noon and night almost continuously. Tire Germans sing a great deal, the Swedes sing part of the time, the Russians sing most of the time, but the Finns as a nation actually sing all the time. From noble to peasant, the men of Finland may be said to form one mighty male chorus. From the great lady of the capital city to the lowly woman who builds houses with her own hands on the borders of Lapland, the women of Finland may be said to comprise one vast choral society. The acknowledged finest singing society in Europe is indeed the Helsingfors male chorus. It is composed of 100 members, and from their ranks are recruited the singing teachers of the country. Singing festivals as held by the Finns are on a scale unequaled In any other country. Five thousand singers gathered one night In the public square in Helsingfors to serenade a Finnish artist named Rosenfeld, whose picture had been awarded first prize at the local salon. In a city that is a surprise to all travelers, near the arctic circle, many miles from a railroad, the city of Uleaborg, 2,000 school children gathered in the park in front of the hotel and for half an hour, for the travelers’ benefit, filled the air with the music of the snow wilderness, with songs that told of the vast loneliness of the country beyond the city. Once in Helsingfors 10,000 voices joined in chorus to sing the national anthem. It was an improvised chorus, but the singing was by no means the hanim scarum, go-as-you-please sort, but thoroughly organized into four parts and executed with precision. This Incident was described to me by the man in whose honor the great chorus gathered. Said he: “I was one of the first persons ever exiled from'that part of the czar’s domain. My departure from Helsingfors was the occasion of a public demonstration of surpassing solemnity. Ten thousand persons gathered at the railway station to say goodby. The crowd watched the leave taking in absolute silence, but as the train began to move 10,000 heads were uncovered, and 10,000 voices began singing tbe national anthem. And this scene was repeated—with fe'wer singers, of course—at every railroad station all the way to the port where I took a steamer for America.” These singing Finns do not always sing their folk lore songs or their patriotic anthems. They are a deeply religious people, mostly Lutherans, and each town has its special .choir for singing nothing but hymns. I went to the largest church in the country to hear the singing of a choir of nearly a hundred male voices. The grandest cathedral organ never produced music of such majesty and power as did that choir, which included the most wonderful bass voices in Russia. Even the companies of Finnish guards, though officered by Russians,, sang the Finnish anthem as they marched past the hotel every morning on the way to relieve the old guard. The Russian officers once tried to put a stop to the singing of the Fipnlsh national song by the soldiers, but the discontent among the men became so apparent that singing was again permitted. Thus wherever the Finns get together they burst into song. When they cannot get together they sing individually. The housewife preparing the cabbage soup sings. The farmer plowing his field in sumiqer or journeying long distances on snowshoes in the winter sings at the top of his voice. Whenever I passed one of the men in the lonely districts in charge of a herd of reindeer he was singing. In the posthouses, where the traveler is sheltered overnight, the servants gather when their day’s work is done and join their voices in the chorus. This constant singing is regarded by *ll students of Finnish life as an important national influence. The effect cf so much music in the nation’s soul Is seen in the emotional side of the people's nature and bus its concrete form in a ready sympathy that binds the Finns together as one family, each for all and all pjr each. Such is this nation of singers that sings all the time.—London Tit-Bits.