“Some years ago the species of entertainments known as ‘Old Folks’ Concerts’ was highly popular, and several well-organized companies of singers journeyed through the land, singing in good style and in antique garb the melodies so familiar to our recent ancestors. Of late years the custom has died out.

This season, however, there has been a decided revival of this interesting entertainment. In several of our churches and public halls concerts of old-time music have lately been given with such success as to prove that the taste for old-fashioned melody has by no means become extinct. The churches in which such concerts have been given have been crowded to excess on these occasions, and the receipts, intended usually for church purposes, have been most gratifying.

The performers at the Old Folks’ Concerts are usually amateurs—choir singers and others—who lend their aid as much for the fun and novelty of the thing as for anything else. The costumes are hired for the occasion from some professional costumer, and often present a variety of garb suggestive rather of a masquerade ball than of an imitation of the dresses worn in our colonial days. Thus, a Queen Elizabeth, in all the magnificence of ruff and farthingale, will be seated side by side with a belle of 1800, or a bride of 1750, or a British officer of the Revolutionary period. The general effect is, however, pleasing; and as the director and violinist is usually so gotten up as to be a cross between the representative ‘Uncle Sam’ and Solon Shingle, the risibilities of the audience are easily moved, even after the immense fans and the gigantic bonnets of the dames have become too familiar to excite a smile. Many excellent people, who would be horrified at the idea of witnessing a farce at a theatre, will sit in their decorous pews and scream with laughter over the funny man of the Old Folks, or wildly applaud his comical song, especially if it be accompanied by a touch of dramatic action or facial contortion.

An entertaining specimen of the Old Folks’ Concert was given on Tuesday night at the Presbyterian Church on Thirteenth street, near Sixth avenue, by a band of some thirty singers, many of whom are quite well known in musical circles. The tickets, of a quaint, old-fashioned design, quite different from the conventional concert tickets of this period, cost fifty cents each. The programmes were written in the old-time phraseology, giving the (fictitious) names of the performers and a list of the music to be sung and were garnished with such marginal notes as these [quote from programme notes].

The music sung at this concert included [see above]. In all these pieces the time was taken with great rapidity and decision, and the singing was admirable. The singers beat time with their hands, always sounding the pitch before beginning.

Besides these old choruses, there were a number of more modern selections. One gentleman sang with charming taste, ‘Oft in the stilly night,’ a contralto gave Jenny Lind’s song, ‘I’ve Left the Snow-Clad Hills,’ two vocalists sang the pretty Scotch duet ‘Hunting Tower,’ and, of course, the comic singer had his opportunity. The concert, which was without a single specimen of modern Italian music, will be repeated before long.” [A list of participating amateur musicians follows].