New Yorker Allgemeiner Sängerbund Delegates’ Meeting

Article on North East Sängerbund choral festival. Publication of excerpts from a letter from the N.Y. Allgemeine Sängerbund addressed to the board of the North East Sängerbund regarding the forthcoming choral festival on Baltimore. The N.Y. Allgemeine Sängerbund requests the following:

1. We would like to be in direct contact with the board of the choral festival regarding the sending of money and musical items.
2. We would like to have our own rehearsals for the festival, because

1. the locations for rehearsals in NY restaurants are too small to hold a large number of singers
2. it is impossible to study the songs correctly in a mass chorus
3. of the desire to do the best to contribute a quality performance to the festival.

When the decision was made to found the North east Sängerbund at the last (10^th) choral festival in Philadelphia, delegates of choruses belonging to the NY Allgemeine Sängerbund were present and in agreement with the necessity of such new umbrella organization. According to the constitution of the North East Sängerbund, not all requests may be approved. For instance, a separate direct contact to the festival board is not allowed. The larger cities New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore have special committees to organize communication with the festival board. One must go through these committees. (rest of article copy is missing)

At a delegate’s meeting of the North East Sängerbund, the joining of a new chorus member was approved: Utica men’s chorus.

The main topic at this meeting was the discussion of the N.Y. Allgemeine Sängerbund requests that were submitted in writing. It was decided to stay with the constitution: only chorus members of the North East Sängerbund are allowed to participate in the choral festival in Baltimore in July.

In the last delegates’ meeting of the N.Y. Allgemeine Sängerbund on December 11^th, the delegation sent to Baltimore to negotiate their requests (see AR: NNYMZ 12/12/68, p.296/297) with the festival board gave its report. The results are the following: the N.Y. Allgemeine Sängerbund is allowed to participate in the choral festival without joining the North East Sängerbund. Musical items from Baltimore are directly sent to the Allgemeine Sängerbund, and the rehearsals for the festival will take place under the direction of their conductor. At the festival site, they will be provided with their own special headquarters. Regarding the participation in the festival song [mass chorus], the N.Y. Allgemeine Sängerbund will have to communicate with the North East Sängerbund. In the matter of financial management, a committee of three delegates of each North East and N.Y. Allgemeine Sängerbund regulate the incoming money and are in charge of transferring it to the festival finance committee in Baltimore. (…)