Philadelphia has had several notable choral societies, the Handel and Haydn, the Bee ,thoven, the Cecilian and the Philadelphia Chorus, conducted by Henry G. Thunder., Michael H. Cross, Chas. M. Schmitz and W. W. Gilchrist. These have all passed away, but in their stead is a new and vigorous chorus of 300 voices, founded in 1897 and conducted by Henry Gordon Thunder, son of Henry G. Thunder.
In, Baltimore the Oratorio Society under Pache, and in Washington the Choral Society under Kaspar, are presenting standard works in an adequate manner.
In the West the German element of the population forms male choruses. But there is no lack of mixed choruses, which meet yearly for a great singing festival. In making these festivals a means for the spreading of musical culture and intelligence, Theodore Thomas and Frank vap der Stucken were indefatigable.
In Chicago the Apollo Club (1872) under Harrison M. Wild, and in Saint Louis the Choral Symphony Society (1870) under Ernst, are bending public taste toward the great choral works.
While the giving of music festivals involves the forming of a large chorus in conjunction with orchestra and soloists, it does not appear that such bodies of voices are appropriately styled choral societies in the strict sense; hence only passing mention is here made of the Springfield, Worcester and Cincinnati festivals, all of which have large and efficient choruses conducted by Chadwick, Goodrich and Theo dore Thomas.
A difference, however, must be made be tween these choruses and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Pa. This unique organization of about 100 voices under the direction of J. Fred Wolle has devoted itself to the presenta tion of the works of John Sebastian Bach, and in the remarkable series of festivals held since 1900 it has succeeded in achieving a national reputation for itself. It produced the great Mass in B minor for the first time in America, besides giving the Matthew Passion, the Christmas Oratorio and other works in a most impressive manner. To some extent this was no doubt due to the unusual and reveren tial surroundings, the old Moravian town, the venerable church in which the performances were held, the announcement of the perform ance by a choir of trombones in the belfry. All these details no doubt helped greatly to create an atmosphere of simplicity and sin cerity that affected the audiences that gathered from far and wide, but the real effect was the chorus work, which was done with an earnest ness and devotion that were most impressive and caused the often inadequate solo and or chestra work to be forgotten.