III
In grouping the foregoing names and labelling them as the 'Boston group' it must not be understood to imply that the art of these writers forms a school in the sense of its having a common distinctive idiom or style. The group marks in some of its members, as has been said before, an early era of American composition. The fact that Boston became the birthplace of America's first serious musical art was probably due to the presence there of the largest and best permanent orchestra, to the establishment of the first university department of music (at Harvard), and doubtless also in no small degree to the general intellectual life of the New England metropolis.
Generally speaking, however, locality plays but a small part in marking the traits of our native composers. As in all places and at all times, opportunity to hear and to be heard has drawn the best talent to the larger centres. The musical life of New York, as well as that of Chicago, while differing in many essential features from that of Boston, discloses many similar phases of artistic endeavor as we compare the contemporaneous musical life of these cities.
Among the names of those who were the pioneers in the musical culture of New York none is better known than that of William Mason, the first of America's great pianists, who in his earlier life did valiant service in America for the cause of Schumann and Brahms and whose entire life represents one of the highest and most effective of America's cultural influences. Dr. Mason was a son of Lowell Mason (q. v.) and was born in 1829. He spent the years from 1849 to 1854 in Europe, where he was one of the intimate circle of pupils which surrounded Liszt at Weimar.
Dr. Mason's place as a composer is not a large one. His list of works is represented almost exclusively by piano compositions, of which he wrote about forty. They are all in the smaller mold, and, while they are rather stereotyped and conventional in their lines, they have found a place in the pianistic répertoire as grateful and pleasing pieces of piano music.
The composer of church music has had a large place in the field of American composition. The impetus given to this branch of art by the New England 'psalm-tune teachers' was a strong one and it is but a natural consequence of their labors that to-day the church commands the services of so many of our writers. We shall consider the church composers and their works in subsequent paragraphs of this chapter, but the name of the Nestor of anthem writers—Dudley Buck—deserves mention in this place as being one of the first workers in the general musical service of earlier days in New York. Moreover, while the present fame of Buck rests largely upon his church music and upon one or two deservedly popular songs, he must not be overlooked as one of the first composers in America to essay the larger forms of cantata and oratorio.
Buck was born in Hartford in 1839. He studied at Paris and at Dresden for two years. Returning to America, he pursued his career first in his native city, later at Chicago and Boston, finally settling in 1875 at New York, where he passed the remainder of his life. Apart from the large mass of church music, more largely representative of his real mission than any other of his compositions, the list of Buck's works includes a symphonic overture 'Marion,' a comic opera 'Deseret,' besides a list of something like eighteen cantatas, the most ambitious of which is 'The Light of Asia.'
Buck's style never achieved a distinctive vein, nor is it ever marked with a loftiness of conception, but instead there are, in the best of his pages, a Mendelssohnian fluency of writing and a natural melodic line which have gained for his works the favor of a large public.
One of the first native composers to receive serious recognition in Chicago was Silas G. Pratt, a musician who seems to have had a Wagner-like genius for self-exploitation, but whose brilliant career must be said to have been incommensurate with the real value of his works. Pratt was born in 1846 and as early as 1872 gave a concert of his own works in Chicago. Several years later he produced some of his larger works at concerts in Germany and England, and in 1885 his oratorio, 'The Prodigal Son,' and an anniversary overture were given in London. His opera 'Zenobia' had meanwhile (1882) been given in Chicago. Besides these works Pratt wrote two symphonies, a symphonic suite, and several works which are evidently an effort toward a national music, at least such is the implication of their titles and programs. One of these represents a battle of the Civil War, another depicts the incidents of Paul Revere's ride, while a third bears the impressive title 'The Battle of Manila.'
Another potent activity in the earlier days of Chicago's musical life was that of Frederic Grant Gleason (born in 1848), who has to his credit an imposing list of large works, including two operas, 'Montezuma' and Otho Visconte, a symphonic poem, 'Edris,' several cantatas, and many smaller works. Gleason was highly esteemed by Theodore Thomas, who produced many of his works in the Chicago concerts of the Thomas Orchestra.
Henry Schoenefeld was one of the first Americans to follow Dvořák's suggestion in adopting native folk-song as thematic material. Schoenefeld was born in Milwaukee in 1857 and on his return from Europe in 1879 took up his residence in Chicago. Not unlike his are the talents and aims of Maurice Arnold, another of the first to exploit the negro themes, which he successfully incorporated into a violin sonata and a series of 'Plantation Dances.' Both will receive more extended notice in a later chapter.
As against these early efforts at instilling negro flavor into our national music may be noted one of the first attempts at utilizing Indian music as a thematic basis. This was done by Frederick R. Burton in his cantata 'Hiawatha' (1898). Besides this, the most successful of his works, Burton wrote a cantata, 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,' and the last years of his life were devoted to writing one of the most important contributions to the literature of American folk-music, a book on Indian music entitled 'American Primitive Music,' which was published in 1909, after Mr. Burton's death.
New York is often accused of being peculiarly non-representative of typical American life. The accusation is, in a measure, just and holds good in its application to musical conditions. As the metropolis, where, without doubt, more music than anywhere else in the country is heard, New York lacks a local life of its own; there is no feeling of neighborly companionship among its art workers, and in consequence there hardly exists that which we could term a New York 'group' of composers in the sense to which the term is applied to Boston's community of music-makers. New York claims as citizens many of America's best known composers, but they figure too little in the musical life of the city and are the objects of too little local pride.
An exception to this, however, is found in the case of Arthur Whiting, whose concerts bring him often into public view and whose local reputation as a pianist is undoubtedly far greater than his recognition as a composer. Deserving of the latter, however—and that by reason of a very serious and notable achievement in creative fields—Arthur Whiting must be counted as one of the real ornaments of America's list of composers. Mr. Whiting's well-known Brahms enthusiasm and his activities as a producer of Brahms' works bring upon him the suspicion of being a thorough-going Brahmsite, even in his own compositions; a suspicion, however, not well founded, for Mr. Whiting is quite free from the Brahms influence. That he is ofttimes prone to intellectuality, and too rarely gives himself up to the spontaneous and expressively beautiful, is perhaps a more just accusation, but the statement that Mr. Whiting is an artist of deep sincerity, of high ideals, and of thorough equipment must remain unchallenged.
Mr. Whiting's recent work has been almost exclusively in the smaller forms. He has, however, in the past written several larger works, the best known of which is his Fantasie for piano and orchestra. This work, recently revived at a concert given by the American Academy, has a rhythmic energy that makes it 'American' in the best sense—a genuine and spontaneous expression of the national nervously intense temperament. For the most part, however, the orchestra has seemed to have but small inspiration to offer to him and his sober formal sense and his own distinctions of style lead him more naturally to the piano, the vocal quartet, and to other chamber music combinations as his medium of expression.
Henry Holden Huss is principally known through his successful handling of the larger forms and he can point with just pride to the real success which has been that of his piano concerto in D minor, his violin concerto, and his sonata for violin and piano. These, as well as a sonata for violoncello and piano, have all found acceptance with a number of the best living interpretive musicians, who have given Huss a very wide hearing.
Mr. Huss acknowledges himself a thorough-going Wagnerite and confesses to coming largely under the influence of his works, but the bulk of his writings shows other influences, notably in the strong sense of the classic cyclical form, which Mr. Huss handles with an excellent mastery and in which he proves himself an artist of great resource and equipment. Another favorite form with Huss is the extended aria with orchestra, and in this form he has written several of his best works. Among these may be mentioned 'Cleopatra's Death' for soprano, 'Nocturne' for the same voice, 'The Seven Ages of Man' for baritone, 'Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead' for alto, and 'After Sorrow's Night' for soprano. In the last-named work Mr. Huss has employed a harmonic scheme which in its modern freedom represents his most advanced development.