MUSIC IN EUROPE | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 41.

MUSIC IN EUROPE.

SPEAKING of singing, Mr. Brand makes the startling statement that not one public singer in ten in America can read music fluently, while in Europe the children are educated in this direction from childhood. In Stockholm is to be heard the finest chorus in the world—that of the students in the university. A short time before Mr. Brand's visit, an American manager tried to effect an arrangement to bring over 100 of the best singers. In addition to paying their expenses, he offered the students $1.00 a week for spending money. They didn't accept. The atmosphere, undoubtedly, has something to do with the fine timber of Scandinavian voices. Then, too, the loose gowns worn by the women allow their lungs and voices full development. So well do the people read music, that large assemblages readily sing pieces which they have never seen before. One chorus of thirty voices which sings for King Oscar, and which has practiced together for fifteen years, keeps such perfect time that one who hears without seeing the singers would think that it was only a quartet.—St. Paul, Pioneer Press.