When Theodore Thomas left the New York Philharmonic he accepted the musical directorship of the American Opera Company, to which we have already referred in a previous chapter. When he got back to New York after an absence of two seasons he attempted to revive his old orchestral organization, in spite of the fact that there were three competing orchestras in the field. His attempt was a dismal failure and he found himself stranded without money, engagements or prospects. At this ebb-tide of his affairs he met Mr. C. N. Fay, of Chicago, who inquired whether he would be willing to go to that city if he were given a permanent orchestra. 'Oh,' said Thomas, 'I'd go to hell if you would give me a permanent orchestra.' So he went to Chicago.
Before the fire of 1871 Chicago had an orchestra of its own, conducted by Hans Balatka. Then it was without one until Mr. Fay issued his invitation to Theodore Thomas in 1890. Fay succeeded in getting fifty men to guarantee $1,000 each for a season and formed the Orchestra Association. After taking a year in which to organize his players, Thomas started the career of the orchestra that bears his name in 1891. A most instructive essay might be written upon the succession of difficulties, financial and other, which the Theodore Thomas Orchestra was compelled to surmount before it reached the position of solid permanency which it now occupies. That it did surmount those difficulties is due chiefly to the iron obstinacy of Thomas himself and to the persistent optimism of Mr. Bryan Lathrop, who steered the enterprise through many critical situations. Shortly before his death on January 4, 1905, Thomas succeeded in realizing his desire to secure for the orchestra a home of its own. Had he failed in that object it is quite probable that the orchestra would have been disbanded after his death, but in succeeding he raised the orchestra to the position of an institution in which Chicago has since taken an increasingly great pride.
Thomas was succeeded in the conductorship by Frederick A. Stock, who still holds the post. We have had occasion to point out before that Thomas was very fortunate in his successors. In Chicago, as elsewhere, his conservatism held him more or less closely to the classics and his interpretations of these established a high and dignified standard which was of incalculable value in educating the public taste. Accepting this standard as his own, Mr. Stock ventured gradually into new paths and, while still maintaining the classic tradition, he led his public into greater intimacy with the moderns. César Franck, d'Indy, Debussy, Chausson, Glazounoff, Gretchaninoff, Balakireff, Borodine, Sinigaglia, Max Reger, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler have all figured on his programs, together with Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, with Haydn and Mozart, with Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn, with Wagner, Liszt, and Tschaikowsky. Like the other big American orchestras, the Theodore Thomas organization makes an annual tour, bringing to the smaller cities their meed of musical entertainment and to the larger ones an opportunity of comparing notes.
In spite of the great strides made by Chicago in musical culture during recent years, its importance in the musical history of the Middle West is second to that of Cincinnati. From the beginning the elements composing the citizenship of the latter city were such as to introduce musical activity at a very early stage. The first Sängerfest in the West was held at the old Armory Hall there about 1842, and in 1878 the Cincinnati College of Music, equipped to teach all branches, was founded by Miss Dora Nelson.
The Cincinnati College of Music, which has since become the College of Music of Cincinnati, became the vibrant centre of musical growth in the Middle West. It was never without its own orchestra, string quartet, chorus and school of opera and expression. Through its faculty concerts, lectures, and other forms of educational entertainments the people of Cincinnati became interested and discriminating auditors.
Theodore Thomas was the first musical director of this school, and it was from Cincinnati that he first exercised the influence which has since resulted in such remarkable advance in all musical centres of the Middle West. The first May Music Festival to be given in America was organized and performed under his direction in 1873. Five years later, during which time the Cincinnati Festival had become an established institution, the Springer Music Hall was erected for the future use of the May Festival Association.
The May Festivals were given loyal public support and were successful from the beginning. Choral societies were numerous and the cause of advanced musical education found sincere support in every section of the city. The first orchestra to give public concerts was organized and operated by Michael Brand, a 'cellist of considerable local fame. He had gathered about him the more advanced of the local musicians and in 1894 an orchestra of forty men was giving concerts under his direction.
In 1895 public spirited women, interested in the advancement of music, conceived the idea of establishing a regular symphony orchestra on a substantial basis through public subscription. This movement was led by the Ladies' Musical Club, of which Miss Emma L. Roedter was president and Mrs. William Howard Taft, wife of the later President of the United States, secretary. The conception of the plan that was followed is accredited to Miss Helen Sparrman, at that time honorary president of the Ladies' Musical Club. As a result, the Cincinnati Orchestra Association Company was organized and nine concerts were given under its direction during the season 1895-96.
The season was divided into three series of three concerts each, and three prospective conductors, all of them men of wide experience, were engaged to conduct a series each.
Following the performance of these trial concerts ten thousand dollars was secured by public subscription and the succeeding fall an orchestra of forty-eight men, with Frank Van der Stucken as permanent conductor, was established. The first regular season in 1895-96 consisted of ten pairs of concerts given in Pike's Opera House, on Friday afternoons and Saturday evenings, from November 20 to April 11, inclusive. The orchestra was increased to seventy men during the season 1896-97 and the concerts transferred to Music Hall, where they were given until the winter of 1911. About this time Mrs. Thomas J. Emery had begun the construction of a building for the use of the Ohio Mechanics Institute and the auditorium was so constructed that it could be made the home of the orchestra, which at this time was being operated under the corporation title of The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Association Company.