John
Calvin, in the 16th Century, spoke out
against ornate instrumental music in
churches. It was well into the 19th
Century before most New Englanders would
accept pipe organs in their churches. For
many years singers got along with only the
pitch pipe to "raise the tune." Gradually
the bass viol became the instrument of
choice. (There is a fine example of a
Prescott Company bass viol made in
Concord, New Hampshire, in the Hancock
Historical Society collection.)
Learning
to sing became everyone's concern and it
was serious business. In general,
schoolboys and girls attended singing
school in the late afternoons, and young
men and women attended in the evening. In
many towns, people began to set off
"singers' seats" especially in the
galleries for those who had trained in
singing schools. Thus choirs were
originated. The tenors carried the tune
and often stood by themselves in the
gallery opposite the pulpit; the basses
stood in the gallery to the left, and the
trebles (all the women) and counters or
altos (boys) in the gallery to the right.
(Excerpted from Vermont, New Hampshire
Perspectives "76" Bicentennial
Resources)
The annals
of the town reported in the Hancock Town
Meeting 1801, "Voted: To raise 50 dollars
for singing schools to be expended in the
four quarters of the town."
At the
March meeting 1831, it was voted to raise
$30 for the singing and the agent, Charles
Symonds, to lay out this money, but he was
also instructed not to lay out any on
Sunday. Singing schools remained in vogue
until the mid-19th
Century.
