This month in Greenwood a new choir has formed, and we've begun to practice our first pieces with the assistance of organizer and accompanist, Carol Young. While not yet officially named, the Greenwood Choir looks forward to getting a repertoire of songs well in hand, and standing for our first concert in the community sometime in 2017.
It's also interesting to look back at the ways in which music served the community of early Greenwood. Given the much larger population then, it's not surprising that at the turn of the century, Greenwood had a great many musical experiences to offer its residents. There were singing groups of various kinds along with orchestras, brass bands and concert bands.
Every year, practically from the day Greenwood was founded, there was music to be heard. Christmas concerts, carolers and performances were held along with school concerts and church fund-raisers. In fact, music played a key role in Greenwood's ability to raise money for building needed facilities. Concerts were held as fund-raisers for the school, hospital, social welfare services, churches and their clergy. Ladies Aid groups from various churches were active ticket-sellers for these events. One of the biggest was the traditional Tag Day Concert, when the ladies canvassed area residents, selling tags that were worn to give one admittance to concerts or entertainment events.
Choir and choral concerts were often combined with orchestra or band performances, or with dances or fancy balls. Sometimes these were sponsored as company events. For example, management of the Mother Lode Mine held numerous concerts for employees, and the entire community was invited.
Troupes of traveling entertainers often came through the Boundary, and Greenwood welcomed everything from comedic Vaudeville acts to gospel, and even opera singers. Popular with both visiting and local entertainers were Irish and Scottish concerts, including both Irish and Highland Fling dancing.
The popularity of community music is also evidenced by the local retail support for it. By 1901 the Greenwood Music Store was offering a "Large collection of sheet music at 5, 10, and 15 cents."[1] The Boundary Creek Times advertised their general print services, including the printing of concert programs.[2]
Of course, the great variety of musical entertainment meant that Greenwood needed to provide suitable venues for the artists to perform in. Church choirs practiced and sang in their own churches, but also at public programs throughout the city. There were active choirs at the Anglican, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches. Sometimes small community choirs from camps like the Mother Lode joined the Greenwood church choirs to perform over the holidays.
Church choir concerts were one of the mainstay forms of entertainment, and their popularity was great. This news report from October 1897[3] gives us a good description of one such concert:
"Church Concert. A striking evidence of the fact that the population of Greenwood is continually increasing was to be found in the attendance at the church concert on Wednesday evening. The school room heretofore was sufficiently large to contain those who desired to attend entertainments of a similar character, but on Wednesday night standing room even was at a premium. The concert was a good old fashioned one with an excellent programme and an excellent repast to satisfy the inner man. …
The entertainment opened with a quartette in which Messrs. Castleman, Beath, Leith and Lamont's voices blended with the music of Mr. Gully's autoharp. Then came a recitation by Miss Maud Butler, and an instrumental duet by Messrs. Beath and Gulley, a song by Mr. Harland, a recitation by Miss Josie Bartlett, and a duet by Mrs. Paton and Miss Castleman. From a meritorious point of view the last was the gem of the evening. Refreshments were then served and the Anaconda Orchestra opened the second part of the programme with a well played overture.
The member for the district was introduced to the audience by the chairman as "Hon. Donald Graham." Mr. Graham made a brief address. He couldn't talk politics at a church social but he said nothing and said it well for about three minutes. He extended his congratulations upon the remarkable growth of the city, upon the large number of good looking ladies present and concluded by expressing his belief that as a railway would certainly be built next year, the city would assume extensive proportions."
One of the most popular concert venues in early Greenwood was Rendell's Hall, which hosted a non-stop line-up of entertainment events. There was also the Niagara Concert Hall, and large rooms in the various hotels served as concert venues. But while the music may have been first-class, the venues were not necessarily so. Perhaps the worst Greenwood concert on record was given by a visiting company of performers from south of the border, who sang at Miller's Hall.[4] The story is told in a Greenwood Weekly Times article from April 21, 1900:
BREHANY CONCERT
A High Class Entertainment in Miller's Hall Last Evening.
"Even a Louise M. Brehany could not arouse enthusiasm in Miller's hall. Its wretched acoustic properties and lack of proper ventilation would destroy proper appreciation on the part of even the most ardent lover of good music. If the concert last evening was not an enthusiastic success, the fault did not lie with the members of the Louise Brehany company. Every member was an artist, and under more favorable conditions the concert would have been voted the most enjoyable ever heard in the city! The accompanist, Sauvlet, is a pianist of the yery highest rank. Olga Schmitt, a pretty maid of 16 summers, is a musical marvel. As a violin soloist she easily takes first rank.
The prima donna is, of course, Louise M. Brehany. Blessed with a sweet mezzo-soprano voice of great power, a pleasant manner and a pretty face, she immediately captures her audience. Her singing of "Could I," "Thine Forever" and "Annie Laurie," as an encore, made good the claim that she is one of America's greatest ballad singers. Jesse B. Monroe has a pure alto voice and was heard to good advantage in "Spring Tide".
The male members of the company are Louis J. Mintz, a tenor, and Forrest D. Carr, a basso. Their solos were appreciated, but they were heard to better advantage as the wealthy farmers in the second act of "Martha." The attempt to stage "Martha" in Miller's hall was rather a travesty, but nothing could detract from the glorious music of the quartettes, duets and arias that make up the act. The Louise M. Brehany company deserved a better hall and a more appreciative audience, but these are growing times in Greenwood, and when they next come may they be welcomed in a neat opera house."
A Smoking Concert
Another interesting concert experience could be found at several public venues in Greenwood. Known as "smoking concerts", these performances of singers, bands and orchestras were held in the domain of men's club rooms, found in hotels and social houses of the day.[5]
While the notion of sitting to hear a music concert, surrounded by a room full of smoking, talking men would not find much favour today, at the turn of the century this popular tradition from Victorian England[6] was welcomed in Canadian frontier towns:
'Smoking concerts were live performances, usually of music, before an audience of men only. Popular during the Victorian era, these social occasions were instrumental in introducing new musical forms to the public. At these functions, men would smoke and speak of politics while listening to live music. These popular gatherings were sometimes held at hotels.
Although the concerts are now obsolete, use of the term has continued in England, where it is used for student-organised variety performances, especially at Oxford and Cambridge. The Victorian era saying, "Booking for smoking concerts now" meant that a person had recovered and was again in the prime of health. This saying is found in the works of writer P.G. Wodehouse.'
We can imagine the scene at a smoking concert in early Greenwood looking very much like the image depicted in the illustration above (although not likely with an elephant head mounted on the wall).
[ Boundary Creek Times — April 24, 1897 ]
Obviously a great favourite of the day, the song 'Annie Laurie' was sung on many occasions in Greenwood. And at this 'Wednesday Concert' program, it was apparently sung twice!
