regnant with religious fervor as the sermon itself, and may indeed,
because of its esthetic and emotional appeal, convey a message of
comfort or of inspiration to many a heart that might remain untouched
by the appeal of a merely intellectual sermon. But it has been our
observation that the usual church solo very seldom functions in this
way; that the singer usually considers it only as an opportunity to
show how well he can perform; that he seldom thinks very much about
the words; that the selections are usually not chosen because they are
appropriate to the remainder of the service but because they are
"effective" or perhaps because they are well adapted to the voice or
the style of the singer; and that our congregations have grown so
accustomed to this sort of thing that the performance of a sacred solo
is now usually listened to, commented upon, and criticized in exactly
the same way in the church service as would be the case at a concert
performance.

Instead of thinking, "I am delivering a _message_," the singer is only
too palpably saying to us, "I am singing a _solo_, don't you think I
am doing it well?"

The remedy for this condition of affairs is the same as that which we
have been recommending for church music in general, and before church
solo singing can be commended in very glowing terms as a method of
assisting the congregation to become more thoughtful, more fervent in
their devotional attitude, we must have:

1. More appropriate selections.

2. A more sincerely reverent and a more thoroughly
non-egoistic attitude on the part of the soloists.

Because these things are so difficult of attainment under present
conditions our feeling is that, all in all, chorus music is probably
considerably more effective as a vehicle for making a religio-esthetic
appeal, than solo singing.

[Sidenote: PROGRESS IN PUBLIC SCHOOL MUSIC AS RELATED TO CHURCH
CHOIRS]

The public schools are doing very much more in the way of teaching
music than formerly, and in many places consistent work is being
carried on as the result of which the children now in school are
learning to read music notation somewhat fluently, to use their voices
correctly, and are cultivating as well a certain amount of taste in
music. Because of this musical activity in the public schools, our
task of organizing and directing volunteer church choirs should be
very much simplified in the near future. Community singing will help
at thi