Well, the snideness is self-evident. But how did a Ukrainian peasant chorus sound in Mencken's time? What does any of this actually mean in terms of musical performance? Mencken probably had no idea. He just thought that if he said "peasant" and named a poor, foreign country, he had conveyed cutting contempt.

Did you see the movie Winged Migration? The deep, powerful sound of male voices which you hear during the Gtand Canyon scene comes from a Bulgarian (or was it Romanian) men's choir. I am just back from a weekend in Las Vegas, and nothing I heard there could compete with that music for beauty.

I say to hell with 'em.