re
comparatively a small number of instrumental musicians, there has been
a wonderful development of singing societies within the last
generation, and it is to this fact largely that the notable growth in
the country's knowledge and appreciation of high-class music is due.
No amount of mere hearing and study can compare in influence with
participation in musical performance. Music is an art which rests on
love. It is beautiful sound vitalized by feeling, and it can only be
grasped fully through man's emotional nature. There is no quicker or
surer way to get to the heart of a composition than by performing it,
and since participation in chorus singing is of necessity unselfish
and creative of sympathy, there is no better medium of musical culture
than membership in a choir. It was because he realized this that
Schumann gave the advice to all students of music: "Sing diligently in
choirs; especially the middle voices, for this will make you musical."

[Sidenote: _Singing societies and orchestras._]

[Sidenote: _Neither numbers nor wealth necessary._]

There is no community so small or so ill-conditioned that it cannot
maintain a singing society. Before a city can give sustenance to even
a small body of instrumentalists it must be large enough and rich
enough to maintain a theatre from which those instrumentalists can
derive their support. There can be no dependence upon amateurs, for
people do not study the oboe, bassoon, trombone, or double-bass for
amusement. Amateur violinists and amateur flautists there are in
plenty, but not amateur clarinetists and French-horn players; but if
the love for music exists in a community, a dozen families shall
suffice to maintain a choral club. Large numbers are therefore not
essential; neither is wealth. Some of the largest and finest choirs in
the world flourish among the Welsh miners in the United States and
Wales, fostered by a native love for the art and the national
institution called Eisteddfod.

[Sidenote: _Lines of choral culture in the United States._]

The lines on which choral culture has proceeded in the United States
are two, of which the more valuable, from an artistic point of view,
is that of the oratorio, which went out from New England. The other
originated in the German cultivation of the _Maennergesang_, the
importance of which is felt more in the extent of the culture,
prompted as it is largely by social considerations, than in the music
sung, which is of nec