N~vember 28, 1956

During recent years more and m,::,re ~f my time has been concerned with music
of a strictly instrumental nature. Th is only has strengthened my belief that choral
music stands in unique and precious · relationship to the meaning of all music. Some-
h4-w the choral art possesses by nature its own law of gravity, which dra ws groups ,::, f
people who sing together closer and closer to its finest literature and its deepest
understandings.

I never knew a high sch,::,ol chorus which did not by the end of its season
discover its favorite piece of the year to have been that concerning which in the
be gi nning there had been the least comprehension. On the other hand, which school
ba nds can hlow the same bow-leg ged baton twirlers over the goal posts week-ends on
end and seldom get down to an understanding richer than that of wind by speed over
volume.

Something there is t~.a.t does not allow a chorus to make a fool of itself
for lon g. The mediocre maudlin text, religiosity wit hout fai t h, the canned lau ghter
tha t has no inner smile -- these cannot stand either the pa tient devotion which a
chorus brings to its work nor its flashing unpredictable collective humor. With the
appearance of the weak piece, an ashamed and foolish disinterest t akes over the chorus.
The too-long contemporary pla gue of that best-sellin g Lord's Prayer cannot for long ·
convince anyone who has to sing it (much less the Whom it concerns) simply because it
has a wow of a lyric. Surely it is that the singer is forced by the degree of his
personal involvement to realize what is happening. His voice, his breath, his person
are proposing anaesthesia in place of sensitivity.

--And herein lies the center of my conviction that t ~~_sjl oral art uniquely _ _
holds and nourishes the seed of music's meaning: It is that /,~lone of the musical (f_
.
persuasions the choral art has remained substantially amatei r-:-- L/
', j
1

I 1 m notsure at all that I can state precisely what constitutes amateur

standing in art, for I know a number of professional musicians who are incurably
amateur in their attitude towards music. The fact of compensation or the a.mount
thereof, the degree of performance virtuosity -- these are nei t Qer proof nor inverse
sliding scale of amateur standing.

To be an amateur artist means, I suppose, to be unwilling or unable to set

a price upon the effort and love which attend the creation of beauty. V1hen you get
right down to it, to be an artist is to be an amateur. One can no more think of being
a professional musician than he can of being a professional th i nker, a profess i onal
l ov er, a professional human being. To be an artist is to arrive at some sort of
position in the idea-versus-matter struggle. It's a yea to the proposition that there
are human values lasting beyond one's own mortal limits, and that it is a necessary
part of being human to seek, treasure and transmit these values. --To be an artist is
not the privilege of a few, but the necessity of us all.

R.S.
NOTICES

Tickets for Deoem)er 16th will be distributed to you on December 10th. You must be
pr esent to receive them. Additional tickets for that performance can be purchased
at t hat t ime •

A SPECIAL FULL CHORUSRlllil:.ARSAL has been called for this Sunday, 5:30-7:30.

Twil ig,ht Concert this Sunday, December 2nd, 3:00 p.m.

B.P.