Sixty Years of California Song

by Margaret Blake Alverson

General Conductor, Mr. R. Herold. Organist, Gustav A. Scott.

These concerts were among the grandest achievements of our time. The music of the musicians and singers was par excellence and should never be forgotten as long as history can keep it alive. How vividly is the scene before me—the magnificent chorus, the pealing of the organ tones, the excellent performance of the orchestra and the beautiful playing of Camilla Urso and the enwrapt listeners that crowded the old pavilion to overflowing. Those were days of music for Californians who knew how to make it and we should always have the greatest pride in recounting these magnificent efforts.

In the year 1874, when Madam Anna Bishop was making her American tour, she included San Francisco, and with her troupe came also Alfred Wilkie, tenor, and Frank Gilder of New York, an organist and pianist of high repute. He was a genius in a class of his own. As the Salt Lake papers said of him, "Frank Gilder, who can snatch more music out of a piano than Beethoven could write in a week, is with the Lingard Company and will play a number of solos tonight. He is an entire orchestra, a sort of a condensed brass band, and those who don't hear him will never know what pianos were invented for." This was a unique "ad.", but was just about right. I was employed by him when he inaugurated his popular twenty-five-cent concerts. He gave thirty-six in the course and I sang twenty-five times for him. I sang one evening at one of Madam Bishop's concerts, and after he heard me sing Gatty's Fair Dove (my ghost song, as he called it) he planned out these concerts—something out of the ordinary. Each artist received ten dollars, no matter how high he stood in his calling, or the prices he received from other managers. That was the order of things and each one who sang must take that or not sing. We began in the hall of the Y.M.C.A. on Sutter street. The following artists appeared: Mrs. M.R. Blake, contralto; M.A. Anderson, tenor; Sig. C. Orlandini, baritone; Frank Gilder, pianist.

The morning Chronicle had this to say in regard to the first concert:

"FRANK GILDER'S POPULAR CONCERTS

"The first of the series was given in the presence of a large and fashionable audience. The music was first-class in every respect and nearly every piece was encored. Gilder's Galop de Concert and Orlandini's Largo al Factotum most emphatically so. Mrs. Blake distinguished herself as an accomplished vocalist in Millard's song, When the Tide Comes In, and in the favorite old Scotch ballad, John Anderson, My Joe. It was supposed from the low price that these concerts would be beneath the notice of the high toned dilettanti of the city, but the performance last evening has completely disabused not only the nicely-critical, but the public generally of this idea. The series is to be continued. The second in the course will be given on Tuesday eve of next week."

The second concert on Tuesday was given with Madam Anna Bishop, Mrs. M.R. Blake; Cornelius Makin, bass; Prof. von der Mehden, baritone; Frank Gilder, solo cornetist. With the sixth concert in the Y.M.C.A. hall we found the hall too small for our audiences, and then went to Platt's Hall. Not two-thirds of the people could get in. We tried Pacific Hall, and that did for several times, and then there were enough people on the outside to fill an ordinary hall. The theaters were too expensive, so we went on the road. We gave two concerts in Stockton theater to packed houses; two in Santa Cruz in the pavilion, with great success; two nights in Vallejo, when every seat was taken, the gallery packed and faces peeping in at the windows. A laughable act not on the programme occurred that evening which, I think, Walter Campbell and myself will never forget. We had a duet in which we always claimed the house, and this evening when our number came Mr. Gilder began his quaint Quaker march and Reuben was to come from one side of the stage and Rachel, on the other, and meet in the center of the stage like two prim Quakers. I took the steps with Mr. Gilder's tom tom of quaint chords and I arrived in the front of the stage and no Walter. I was in dismay and the people began to laugh, especially a portly individual sitting directly in front of the orchestra. He thought it was all in the bill; Madam Bishop, in the wings, feared the performance was ruined. I tried with all my might to keep from laughing at Mr. Gilder, who was keeping up the incessant march. At last I turned and saw Walter Campbell standing beside me with a face like a marble statue, still and pious as the most devout Quaker, waiting for me to begin, rising and falling on his toes. I began my song, "Reuben, I have long been thinking, etc." and the song went on, and between each stanza the applause was deafening and continued until the last too-ral-loo had died away. We received five recalls. The paper came out with glowing accounts of the success Walter and I had won and we were lionized the rest of the season. When we were allowed to retire, Walter, in his quaint way, said to me, "Susan Jane, you almost made me laugh. I never went through such an ordeal in all my singing days. It seemed I was destined to stand there forever before you began." I think we have laughed over that concert time and time again. It is one of our best jokes between us when we recount the enjoyment of our successful concerts given in California, Oregon and British Columbia.

After returning from these smaller towns Mr. Gilder resumed the popular concerts in Pacific Hall until the close of the thirty-sixth concert. It was while we sang in Pacific Hall that King Kalakua was the honored guest. Sam Booth composed a welcome song to His Majesty and great was the reception given him. These concerts made quite a stir among the older musicians, who thought it strange that a twenty-five-cent entertainment should receive such acknowledgment. The halls of the dollar concerts were deserted and the twenty-five-cent concert hall was overflowing with music lovers. The older musicians challenged Gilder to play the music of the old masters. He consented, but the trial never came to anything but words. After he had gone back to New York these disgruntled musicians tried to do the same as Mr. Gilder had done, but it was a complete failure. One of the thirty-six concerts was given in the Tent Amphitheater back of the Palace Hotel, July 4, 1874. The artists were Mme. Anna Bishop, soprano; Mrs. M.R. Blake, contralto; Alfred Wilkie, tenor; Cornelius Makin, bass. The Silver Cornet band was under the direction of Professor Henry von der Mehden and Frank Gilder, pianist. There was an audience of 12,000 people and the programme was one to be remembered for its musical value and splendid singers who received the plaudits of the people in their great enthusiasm at the successful and artistic performance of each number.