Bass—J.W. Yarndley, J.E. Blake, Wm. P. Edwards, Jr., R. Jansen, Chas. Dugan, D.W.C. Nesfield, G. Nathanson, G. Mancusi, Phillip Jones, Charles E. Holbrook, E. Pique, Walter C. Campbell, Carl Formes, W.H. Kinross and Jacob Stadfeldt.
In addition to our many fine singers, the committee secured from the East as director the well-known and popular leader, Carl Zerrahn. Negotiations were made with the most celebrated singers of the East, and among those to come were: Myron W. Whitney, bass; Miss Anna Drasdil, contralto; Mrs. Helen Ames Billings, soprano; Mrs. Clark, soprano, and Mr. Fessenden, tenor. With the assistance of these strangers and local artists that could be depended upon for solo work, everything looked auspicious for the festival. Rehearsals began immediately. Our parts were assigned to us. For the first concert the bouquet of artists sang Spirit Immortal (Verdi), and sextette, Chi Mi Frena (Donizetti); second concert, Sleepers, Awake (Mendelssohn), male chorus; The Soldier's Farewell; Anvil Chorus, full orchestra, anvils, artillery, etc.; third concert, Inflammatus, Mrs. Marriner, soloist, bouquet of artists and grand chorus; Spirit Immortal repeated; Chi Mi Frena repeated; America, Hallelujah Chorus; Star Spangled Banner.
The solos of chorus numbers were sung by our local soloists. While the Eastern singers were excellent, they found out that in California there were also artists to be respected, as did the distinguished leader, Carl Zerrahn, when he began the rehearsals. He had nothing but the highest praise for the fine musicians he found in this section. Before this great gathering of singers and people came to an end, there was still another concert as a farewell tribute to the strangers. It took place in the Grand Opera house and proved to be a grand finale to this successful musical undertaking. Every seat in the opera house was taken. The soloists were at their best; the choruses grand and inspiring and full of animation. The orchestral numbers were all new. The bouquet of artists sang their concerted passage from Lucia even better than on the former occasions.
Besides these concerts there was also a promenade concert at the Pavilion for the numerous visitors from the interior cities and 2,000 availed themselves of the opportunity. There was also an afternoon concert by 3,000 children under the baton of Prof. Mansfeldt, and on Monday night the sacred concert with portions of Elijah and the choice numbers of the previous concerts was successfully given, and the musical festival of 1878 passed into history.
Since the chorus played so prominent a part in this festival season, it would be well to add also a tribute of thanks to these singers of the city and interior delegations who came at the call of the director, Sumner Bugbee, in splendid numbers, showing that all the cities of the state made music a prominent factor. The number of singers who took part in the first day's performance was 1,800. The following were the places from which the choruses were drawn, with the number from each, together with the names of directors:
Bouquet of artists (50), Carl Zerrahn, director; Handel and Haydn society (453), J.P. Morgan, director; George Gee's class (100); Jackson's Glee club (165), G.W. Jackson, director; Apollo Glee club (95), Martin Schultz, director; Sacramento (60), J. McNiell and Chas. Winters, directors; San Rafael (24), R.M. Bosworth, director; Oakland Harmonic (165), J.P. Morgan, director; Oakland Orpheus (80), J.W. McDougall, director; Oakland High School (81), H.J. Todd, director; Healdsburg and Santa Rosa (41); San Jose (60), Z.M. Parvin, director; Gilroy (12), Prof. Johnson, director; Merced (2), San Juan (2), Eureka (24), J. Hetherington, director; Rocklin (4), Salinas (24), W.J. McCoy, director; Diamond Springs (26), M.R. Griffiths, director; Woodland (24), C.E. Pinkham, director; Suisun (18), D.R. Stockman, director; Stockton (26), E.W. Elliott, director; Portland (17), Prof. Morse, director; Soquel (14), T.S. Tartton, director; Modesto (21), W.H. Franzini, director; Sonoma (3), Santa Barbara (7), G.H. Young, director; San Diego (17), E.D. Blackner, director; San Buena Ventura (9), Max Eiderline, director; Vacaville (15), Theo. Ritzner, director; Nevada City (10), Visalia (8), Prof. Hirsch, director; Oregon (22), and many individual singers of no society.
It was a pity that after all this success there should come an aftermath of unhappy, unpaid singers and players who were unable to realize a farthing from their splendid work. Mr. Bugbee slipped quietly out of the city, Mr. Kinross sailed on the Portland steamer, Mr. Benham disappeared, as did also Mr. Easton. The concerts certainly paid a splendid profit, but expenses and high salaries of these men ate up the expected profits. Everything was carried out with a lavish hand and Mr. Bugbee, with all his promises, did not fulfill them as by contract. I do not know what the other soloists' losses were, but my portion was to be $150 for three days, carriages, etc. After the concert in the opera house I never saw Mr. Bugbee, although I made every effort to do so. He was lost to San Francisco forever. A number of years after all this trouble I saw a notice of his death in a southern city. Carl Zerrahn was the only one who benefited by his coming and he returned home with $2,500 in his pockets, a gold medal, laurel wreath and embossed letters of appreciation from the musicians of California. I never knew how settlement was made with the managers and the Eastern artists. It is my opinion they received nothing and were obliged to return on their own expenses. The papers were full of sarcasm and by-play upon the names of the prominent men who had the matter in hand. "Charles Stoddard, our poet, had his genius completely crushed under the $20 that he did not receive for his work." The San Francisco Chronicle said further: "In the meantime, the present creditors are singing with much vim the Oweratoweriwoe of the Götterdämmerung."
Laying all jokes aside, it was a great event. It would give the reader only a faint idea of the mass of humanity to express its size merely by so many thousands. The spectator looking down upon it from some upper seat of the boundless gallery of the choral amphitheater saw an awe-inspiring scene. People in numbers almost as great as the standing army of the United States were packed so closely together that all individuality was lost, and the pulsating aggregate looked like the exposed and mottled back of some submerged sea monster. Between the parts of the programme the combined hum of ten thousand voices floated upon the air like the deep boom of the surf on the seashore. When the raised seats were well filled in the vast gallery the graduation was lost to the eye, and the whole presented a plane surface as rich in coloring as if it had been a hanging of rarely worked tapestry. The main floor was one solid mass of female loveliness and manly worth. There were national dignitaries on a visit to the coast, state dignitaries from Sacramento, city dignitaries and nature's noblemen from all over the country at large. The amiable and heavily bearded countenance of Governor Irwin was conspicuous in one of the boxes. The buxom and benign countenance of Mayor Bryant, his person clad in a rigorously accurate full dress costume, was not less noticeable. But the ladies! Oh, there began the tempest of the soul of any man who tried to pick out any one who was more pre-eminently attractive than the other. The eye could travel on forever through the boxes from east to west, from Mission street to Market, from the main floor to the roof, and every prospect was pleasing and man was utterly outvied. At half past two the tall and graceful conductor, Carl Zerrahn, arrayed in a black frock coat and a pair of lavender colored trousers, stepped lightly down the gorgeous hill of choristers to the front of the orchestra, made a profound bow to the audience, then turned and raised his baton to the chorus. Instantly the 1,800 rose to their feet with a motion so well timed that it seemed as if the whole south end of the pavilion was rising. As 1,800 scarlet-covered chorus books were hoisted into view, the whole amphitheater seemed aflame as if for an exaggerated incantation scene of Fra Diavolo. Then there was another motion of the baton, with the precision of a machine fifty bows scraped upwards over fifty violins and 150 other instruments, and 1,800 voices burst forth in melody.
