The accomplishment of this matter is linked with the third and last general division of our main subject, the question of administration. As a natural consequence of events in American musical history, dating from the earliest days, there has arisen the so-called 'musical world' of America to-day, the well-defined national system of concert, recital and operatic life. This system arose normally to supply the new world with the products of the highly developed musical art of the old, and in such a capacity it has admirably served its purpose. In the course of time, however, and with the increasing wealth and musical culture of America, the harvest to be reaped by the commercial exploitation of foreign artists has not remained unperceived by a country not naturally backward in the perception of commercial advantage. It is quite natural that those who took into their hands the management of these affairs should seek the greatest profit which they could be made to yield. This, it will readily be seen, was not to come from the broad development of a given locality, which would involve education and a departure from the centres of wealth, but from the exploitation of the narrow circle of wealth and culture which existed in every community of importance. Thus a great circuit was established throughout the country, by which a process of skimming the cream from as many communities as possible was set in operation, in the presentation of famous foreign artists to what has been allowed to pass as the American public. Thus a system established originally as a service to the people has finally degenerated to the condition of a commercial enterprise which is utterly without regard to the broader interests of the people. The true condition of affairs is made evident to-day by the fact that when a resident of any moderate-sized prosperous American city starts to inaugurate some local musical enterprise for the benefit of the whole community, and calling for the entire community's support, he learns that the concert and recital life of his city, its 'musical world,' reaches and is supported by but from three to five per cent. of the entire population. The other ninety-five to ninety-seven per cent. find the regular musical events beyond their means, as well as beyond the facts of their culture, though in the latter respect America is now rapidly learning that the enjoyment of the best music is far less dependent upon special education than has commonly been supposed.
Meanwhile, by phonograph and player-piano, by newspaper and magazine, by high-class municipal concerts and occasional chance glimpses into the world of greater musical possibilities, the mass of the people have begun to become awakened to the existence of the larger musical world which they do not see and the larger musical life which they do not share, and to crave participation in it. Finally, therefore, we have the spectacle of an American 'musical world' which is no longer true to American conditions and which does not serve the people. In short, we have finally come face to face with the problem of the reaction of musical art and democracy.
With this question the nation has of late begun to deal in no half-hearted or uncertain manner. In fact, the national response to this situation involves the greatest American musical movement of the day. In its earlier phase the question asked was: Will the people, under democracy, rise to the accepted standards of musical culture? A negative answer to this question has been generally entertained, and among cultured people it has been commonly supposed that democracy would drag down the standards of musical culture. That a wholly new and multifold phase of musical life would arise to meet the requirements of a civilization such as that of America seems to have been earlier suspected or foreseen only by a few thinking students of conditions, who recognized the fact that the exact meeting of the mass, as it became more enlightened, with the conditions of traditional musical culture was not the solution which was to be expected or even desired. The plain fact was that the people at large were not enjoying the benefits, the pleasure, recreation, or inspiration, as the case might be, of all that the world prizes as music in any of its forms above that of popular songs and dances. Neither the educational system, on the one hand, nor the cultural system, on the other, provided them with it. One merely gave a little elementary training of the most primitive sort, and for a short time, to children, and the other did not reach beyond the extremely restricted sphere of culture and wealth. A movement was needed which should bring music in all of its forms directly to the masses of the people, and in the nation-wide campaign for what may be termed 'music for the people' such a movement has arisen. Experiments on every hand have shown that the people have needed only to be brought in contact with the higher forms of music, under advantageous conditions, to rise spontaneously to the enjoyment of it. The movement, in its activities, has assumed no particular form, but has taken a variety of forms according to the possibilities of local conditions. The 'Forest Festival,' or 'Midsummer High Jinks,' of the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, while not open to the general public, has nevertheless shown the potent appeal of outdoor musical dramatic festivals to a large number of persons not commonly in touch with musical life. Municipal concerts on a scale not hitherto attempted, such as those in Central Park, New York, presenting not band, but orchestral concerts of the world's greatest music, have met with an astonishing and enthusiastic response on the part of the masses who have hitherto had no opportunity of hearing anything above the popular music of the streets, the dance halls, and the 'movies.' The musical phase of the social centre movement has assumed vast and national proportions, making use of the public school halls for concerts and recitals for thousands of persons who were previously without musical opportunities. Certain towns, such as Bethlehem, Pa., Lindsburg, Kans., and the towns of the 'Litchfield County Choral Union,' Conn., have established choral enterprises which include in the choruses practically the entire population. In two years the custom of Christmas trees with music, free to the people, has become almost a national movement. The 'community chorus,' such as that established in Rochester, N. Y., with a membership of nearly one thousand drawn from the people at large, and singing in the public parks and school halls, should prove a desirable form of people's musical enterprise in many places. Standard symphony orchestras in various cities are branching out extensively in the direction of giving concerts involving the highest order of music to the people at popular prices, and in some cities the organization of symphony orchestras for popular price concerts is threatening the existence of the regular orchestra. And well-nigh surpassing in significance most other phases of the general movement, and certainly in their popular inclusiveness, are the pageants or 'community dramas' with music, which are now constituting a feature of community life throughout the country.
If, then, the appreciative epoch along the older lines, is concluded in America, it may be said that the nation is coming to a new appreciation of music, as a whole, in its relation to humanity. The new movement will call forth new and larger efforts on the part of American composers, who, with their present thorough assimilation of the various musical influences of the world, will lead the nation into a new and mature creative epoch.
Arthur Farwell.
August, 1914.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME FOUR
| PAGE | ||
| Introduction by Arthur Farwell | [vii] | |
| Part I. Appreciation | ||
| CHAPTER | ||
| I. | Our English Inheritance | [1] |
| The foundation of American musical culture—State of English musical culture in the seventeenth century—The Virginia colonists—The Puritans in England and in America; New England psalmody. | ||
| II. | Beginnings of Musical Culture in America | [22] |
| The foundations of American music—New England's musical awakening; early publications of psalm-tunes; reform of church singing—Early concerts in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, the South—The American attitude toward music—The beginnings of American music: Hopkinson; Lyon; Billings and their contemporaries. | ||
| III. | Early Concert Life | [55] |
| Sources of information—Boston Concerts of the eighteenth century; New England outside of Boston—Concerts Concerts in Philadelphia; open-air concerts—Concert in New York—life of the South; Charleston, Baltimore, etc.; Conclusion. | ||
| Part II. Organization | ||
| IV. | Early Musical Organizations | [84] |
| Origin of musical societies—The South; The St. Cecilia of Charleston; Philadelphia and New York in the eighteenth century—The Euterpean Society; the New York Choral Society; Sacred Music Society; other New York Societies—New Society of Boston; other societies in Boston and elsewhere. | ||
| V. | The Beginnings of Opera | [104] |
| Scantiness of theatrical performances in America; Charleston and Tony Aston; New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere—The Revolution and after; rivalry between New York and Philadelphia—The New Orleans opera. | ||
| VI. | Opera in the United States. Part I: New York | [117] |
| The New York opera as a factor of musical culture—Manuel García and his troupe; da Ponte's dream—The vicissitudes of the Italian Opera House; Palmo's attempt at 'democratic' opera—The beginnings of 'social' opera: the Academy of Music, German opera, Maretzek to Strakosch—The early years of the Metropolitan—The Grau régime—Conried; Hammerstein; Gatti-Casazza; Opera in English—The Century Opera Company. | ||
| VII. | Opera in the United States. Part II | [158] |
| San Francisco's operatic experiences—New Orleans and its opera house—Philadelphia; influence of New Orleans, New York, etc.; The Academy of Music—Chicago's early operatic history; the Chicago-Philadelphia company; Boston—Comic opera in New York and elsewhere. | ||
| VIII. | Instrumental Organizations in the United States | [181] |
| The New York Philharmonic Society and other New York orchestras—Orchestral organizations in Boston—The Theodore Thomas orchestra of Chicago—Orchestral music in Cincinnati—The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra—Orchestral music in the West; the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra—Chamber music ensembles—Visiting orchestras. | ||
| IX. | Choral Organizations and Music Festivals | [206] |
| The Handel and Haydn and other Boston societies—Choral organizations in New York, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere—Cincinnati, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Chicago and the Far West—Music festivals. | ||
| X. | Musical Education in America | [230] |
| Early singing teachers and schools—Music societies in colleges—Introduction of music into the public schools—Juvenile music—Conservatories—Musical courses in colleges and universities—Community music—Present state of public school music—Municipal music. | ||
| Part III. Creation | ||
| XI. | The Folk-Element in American Music | [277] |
| Nationalism in music—Sources of American folk-song; classification of folk-songs—General characteristics of the negro folk-song—The negro folk-song and its makers—Other American folk-songs—The negro minstrel tunes; Stephen Foster, etc.—Patriotic and national songs. | ||
| XII. | The Classic Period of American Composition | [331] |
| Pioneers in American Composition: Fry, Emery, Gottschalk—The Boston group of 'classicists': Chadwick, Foote, Parker, and others—Other exponents of the 'Classical': William Mason, Dudley Buck, Arthur Whiting, and others—The lyricists: Ethelbert Nevin; American song-writers—Composers of church music. | ||
| XIII. | Romanticists and Neo-Classicists | [360] |
| Influences and conditions of the period—Edward MacDowell—Edgar Stillman-Kelley—Arne Oldberg; Henry Hadley; F. S. Converse—E. R. Kroeger; Rubin Goldmark; Howard Brockway; Homer N. Bartlett—Daniel Gregory Mason; David Stanley Smith; Edward Burlingame Hill—The younger men: Philip Greeley Clapp; Arthur Bergh; Joseph Henius; Carl Busch—The San Francisco Group; Miscellany—Women Composers. | ||
| XIV. | Nationalists, Eclectics and Ultra-Moderns | [407] |
| The new spirit and its various manifestations—Henry F. Gilbert, Arthur Farwell, Harvey W. Loomis—Frederic Ayres, Arthur Shepherd, Noble Kreider, Benjamin Lambord—Campbell-Tipton; Arthur Nevin; C. W. Cadman; J. A. Carpenter; T. C. Whitmer—W. H. Humiston, John Powell, Blair Fairchild, Maurice Arnold—Sidney Homer; Clough-Leighter and others—Charles M. Loeffler and other Americans of foreign birth or residence. | ||
| XV. | The Lighter Vein | [451] |
| Sources of American popular music—Its past and present phases—American comic opera: Reginald de Koven; Victor Herbert; John Philip Sousa; other writers of light opera—The decline of light opera and the present state of theatrical music. | ||
| Literature | [465] | |
| Index | [469] |
MUSIC IN AMERICA