“Some would-be soloists make a great mistake right here.  They think that chorus work spoils them as soloists.  Not at all, if they have proper views of individual work in a chorus.  If they propose to sing out so they shall sound forth above all others, then they may damage their voices for solo work.  But that is a needless and highly improper use of the voice.  Sing along with the others in a natural tone.  They will be helped and the soloist will not be harmed.

“The best conservatories of music in the world require of their students a large amount of practice in concerted performance and will not grant diplomas without it.  All the great soloists have served their time as chorus singers.  Parepa-Rosa, when singing in the solo parts in oratorio, would habitually sing in the chorus parts also, singing from beginning to end with the others.

“Many persons have expressed their astonishment at the absence of the baton both from the rehearsals and public performances of the chorus of The Temple.  Experience has proven to me, beyond a doubt, that a chorus can be better drilled without a baton than with it, though it costs more labor and patience to obtain the result.  To sing by common inspiration is far better than to have the music ‘pumped out,’ as is too often the case, by the uncertain movements of the leader’s baton.”

With a membership that has ranged from one hundred to two hundred and fifty, skilled business management is needed to keep everything running smoothly.

The record of attendance is regulated by the use of checks.  Each member of the chorus is assigned a number.  As they come to rehearsal, service, or concert, the singer removes the check on which is his number from the board upon which it hangs and gives it to the person appointed to receive it as he passes up the stairway to his seat in the choir.  When the numbers are checked up at the close of the evening, the checks which have not been removed from the board are marked “absent.”

The bill for sheet music for one year is something between $400 and $500.  To care for so much music would be no light task if it were not reduced to a science.  The music is in charge of the chorus librarian, who gives to each member an envelope stamped with his number and containing all the sheet music used by the chorus.  Each member is responsible for his music, so that the system resolves itself into simplicity itself.  In the Lower Temple enclosed closets are built in the wall, divided into sections, in which the envelopes are kept by their numbers, so that it is but the work of a moment to find the music for any singer.  An insurance of $1,200 is carried on the music.

Typical of the spirit of self-sacrifice that animates the chorus is the fact that for nearly ten years after the choir was organized, one of the members, in order to reduce the expense for sheet music, copied on a mimeograph all the music used by the members.  It was a gigantic task, but he never faltered while the need was felt.