Young America Made Music
This took place during the sessions of the National Education Association at Dallas, Texas. It was on the last evening of the convention, which for five days had engaged in earnest discussion on the education of children in the United States.
Five thousand persons applauded when the curtain rose; and the spectators were thrilled when they saw on the stage eight hundred boys and girls dressed in pure white. These were the best singers in the Dallas elementary schools. For an hour they sang, never missing a word or a note, without a scrap of paper before their eyes. The last third of the program was the cantata of “Rip Van Winkle,” which was rendered with a sweetness possible only to the unspoiled voices of children who sing because they love to sing.
The curtain rose the second time, and the scene changed. The National High School Orchestra appeared for the first time in history before the National Education Association. Two hundred and sixty-six boys and girls from thirty-nine states sat there “with their handsome instruments.” They were selected from six hundred who were competent and anxious to attend. It was a thrilling sight to watch these young people who sat together regardless of the states from which they came, and whose faces had “the features of every nation under heaven.” The program was arranged to recreate the moods of life—of play, heroism, questioning, hope, despair, fantasy, and religious fervor. The musical selections were from the masters, and they were rendered with perfect harmony.
For two hours these young people stirred the depths of their vast audience. It was like a glimpse of the great scene described in the Bible, “of the company out of every nation and kindred and tribe before the throne of God, whose anthem of praise is like the sound of the sea.”
The closing number was most impressive. Led by the youthful orchestra, the audience sang the evening hymn of Sabine Baring Gould:
“Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh,
Shadows of the evening
Steal across the sky.”
So the music swept on until the closing stanza was reached:
“When the morning wakens,
Then may I arise
Pure, and fresh, and sinless
In Thy holy eyes.”
This incident is fully described in Yankee Notions, by Henry T. Bailey.[27] He concludes his account with an impressive sentence: “I heard the great heart of my country singing as never before, and the harmony was as rich and deep as human brotherhood itself.”
Here is a testimony to faith and hope suggested by