Glens Falls in 1919 — Making vocal music ‘a vital part of education’
A century ago the Glens Falls School Board determined “community singing” should be “a vital part of the education and culture of all public students of proper age.”
The board hired J. Erwin Mutch to the newly created position of high school vocal music teacher.
Mutch, a student of Oscar Seagle, would teach singing techniques and breathing exercises to all male and female high school students.
“This is with no idea of producing soloists, but to train the young folk of Glens Falls to sing properly and understandingly,” The Post-Star reported on Oct. 20, 1919.
“Glens Falls has never had much enthusiasm for community singing. It is hoped by the Board of Education that this new course will so train local young people to sing and to cultivate musical taste that Glens Falls will some day become a city as full of people who sing and sing well as Bethlehem, Pa., which has such a wonderful Bach festival each year.”
Mutch also organized a glee club at the Glens Falls Y.M.C.A., The Post-Star reported on Oct. 23, 1919.
Mutch also managed a concert series at Christ Church Methodist.
In January 1920 the Glens Falls Woman’s Club hired Mutch to lead a weekly community sing, open to all, at 3:45 p.m. Wednesdays in the high school auditorium.
“The Woman’s Club believes that Glens Falls should join the ranks of other wide awake cities of the east and develop community singing as a part of civic life,” The Post-Star reported on Jan. 12, 1920. “If you are ready to do your part this may prove the beginning of a big movement.”
The Post-Star reported on Feb. 17, 1920 that Mutch would be a soloist with the New York Symphony on Feb. 23, performing “Prologue” from the opera “Pagliaaci” with the orchestra the armory at Elizabeth, N.J.
It would be the fourth time Mutch performed with the New York Symphony.
Before coming to Glens Falls Mutch was a soloist with the choir of Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, The Post-Star reported on Dec. 17, 1919.
At the end of the 1919–1920 school year Mutch and Miss Marie Loughney, another soloist from Glens Falls, went to Kansas City to join a five-person touring concert ensemble that musical managers Horner and Wilte organized, The Post-Star reported on May 21, 1920.
