Article on the movement and remuneration of church singers

“There is the usual epidemic in the church choirs, which seizes the members yearly, and compels them to change their situations on the 1st of May, either from a dissatisfaction with the style of music, or a wish to increase their salaries. Several changes have already been made in the various churches, engagements to take effect on the 1st of May. Bishop Southgate’s choir changes the soprano and tenor, the present soprano, Mme. Lanair [sic, Lanari], having relinquished her position, has sailed for Europe. Miss Beebe, who has been the soprano of Dr. Rogers’ church for several years, takes her place. Mr. McDonald, of the Ole Bull Troupe, takes the place of Mr. Hill as tenor. In Dr. Rogers’ church the choir will be composed almost entirely of new voices. The tenor alone is retained. At Dr. Bellow’s church Mrs. Mozart takes the place of Miss Hamlin, who goes to Dr. Spring’s church, Fifth-avenue, corner Thirty-seventh-street. The other members of the choir are Miss Jewett, contralto; Mr. Busoni, tenor; Mr. Van Sicklen, bass. Mme. Salvotti goes to the Strong-place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, where they have also a new quartet. At Hastings’ church, in Forty-second-street, Mr. Whitely, an organist, recently from England, is engaged. At Rev. Dr. Montgomery’s church a new tenor is engaged in the place of Mr. Neilson, who goes to the Church of the Holy Savoir, where Mr. Antonio L. Mora is to have charge of the music. At Christ Church, Fifth-avenue and Thirty-fifth-street, the old choir has been dismissed. Mrs. Hess, the soprano, having an engagement at Dr. Chapin’s church, Fifth-avenue, corner Fifty-third street. The Church of the Ascension, Fifth-avenue and Tenth-street, have discharged their old choir, and will probably get along with a precentor and congregational singing[.] Dr. Crosby’s church, Fourth-avenue and Twenty-second-street, have discharged their choir, and with organist and precentor, will have congregational singing. Grace Church Chapel, where Dr. Beames has been in charge of the music for the past year, have dispensed with their choir. It was expected that the prices for the first-class church singers would be reduced, and the various committees were acting in accordance with this idea, and gave notice to the several members of the choir that their salaries must be cut down. To the astonishment, however, of many of these gentlemen, their singers, some of them, were engaged immediately at higher prices elsewhere, and after looking in vain for others to supply the place, they have been compelled to take poorer voices at the old prices paid to much better artists. The truth is that, in this advanced stage of music of every description, the congregations worshiping in our fashionable churches demand the best talent for their religious devotions, and the falling off in the attendance where the music is not up to the required standard admonishes the rectors and the vestrys [sic] that economy in this department will not pay.”