AMERICAN MUSIC OF
THE NINETEEN CENTURY
Dr David C F Wright
This article follows
on from Dr Wright's series History of
Music: Part Four
In the nineteenth century
there was a continual flow of European
musicians to the New England states
and it is impossible to include them
all in this essay.
The Englishman Benjamin
Carr (1769-1831) settled in Philadelphia
in 1793 and the man called 'the father
of American music', Gottlieb Graupner
(1767- 1836), did much to make orchestral
concerts both popular and ' a society
event' and establishing what Americans
call the concert season which later
gave way. This Graupner must not be
confused with Christoph Graupner (1683-1760)
who, incidentally, was probably the
most prolific composer of all time with
about 1762 cantatas/ church music to
his name.
Concerts which were
deemed society events were and are embarrassing.
For people to go to concerts to show
off their jewels and finery and to look,
usually disapprovingly, at others not
so wealthy is an affront to any decent
person. The equivalent today in British
society is Royal Ascot. Is it a race
meeting or a fashion show?
The answer is obvious.
It is a race meeting.
This snobbery was at
its height in Vienna in the time of
the Strauss composers. It was not music
that was the interest and, judging by
the music's poor quality and triviality,
that cannot be disputed.
It was not long before
American concerts were the sole domain
of the rich and famous and an excuse
to dress up and show off. Opera houses
were founded and these venues were greater
occasions to parade oneself or, to quote
a vulgar modern expression, to strut
one's stuff. However when oratorios
were staged, many Americans were a little
more circumspect.
Opera and oratorio
usually told a story or recounted a
series of events. This found its way
into orchestral music which attempted
to tell a story - what we came to call
‘programme music’. Early examples of
this are the symphonic poems of Richard
Strauss. Perhaps the first American
composer to write any such programme
music was Anton Philip Heinrich
(1781- 1861) who came from Bohemia and
arrived in Philadelphia in the early
19th century.
The other innovation
was nationalism although composers like
Aaron Copland used to say that America
had no nationalistic music until jazz
came along and that jazz is the only
national music of true America. That
is possibly correct but William Henry
Fry (1813- 1864) has the distinction
of writing the first American grand
opera, Leonora, in 1845 followed
by Notre Dame de Paris in 1863.
Fry's father was the publisher of the
National Gazette and his son became
the editor of the Philadelphia Public
Ledger and had travelled to Europe as
correspondent for the New York Tribune.
In Paris, Fry met Berlioz hoping to
secure a performance of his opera Leonora.
Fry returned to America in 1852 and
became an enthusiastic champion of American
music. He wrote four programmatic symphonies:
Childe Harold, A Day in the
Country, The Breaking Heart and
Santa Claus. The last symphony
was the subject of a long correspondence
in the Musical World journal coming
in for great criticism. His Concert
Overture: Macbeth is an episodic
work and such works are never satisfactory
(what we call ‘stop and start’ music)
and it seems too calculated to be attractive.
Fry died of tuberculosis in the Caribbean
two years after this work was completed.
Another early American
symphonist was George Frederick Bristow
(1825-1898) missing from many reference
books and that in itself is a disgrace.
He is a very important composer and
has at least four symphonies to his
name.
Bristow was a first
generation American composer, the son
of musical English parents who had emigrated
to New York during the year in which
George was born. He showed an early
talent as a violinist and when the Philharmonic
Society was founded in 1842 he was one
of the first violins, a post he held
for almost 40 years. But he resigned
in protest in 1854 because the orchestra
rarely played any works by Americans.
He was persuaded to re-enlist and some
American works were performed. He promoted
American music but this was greeted
with apathy and indifference.
In Britain today, British
music is not promoted or championed.
If British music is played in the concert
hall it is usually lashings of Elgar
and Britten with some Holst, Vaughan
Williams and Walton. Contemporary British
composers who are the only ones served
well in Britain are Maxwell Davies,
Turnage and James MacMillan. There are
so many British composers unknown in
the modern concert hall and I hasten
to say that many of these are far greater
composers than those who we do hear.
Bristow has the distinction
of composing the second American opera,
Rip van Winkle premiered in Nibb's
theatre in 1855 and having a successful
run for four weeks. His Symphony no.
1 dates from 1856 and the Symphony no.
2 in D minor was performed that same
year, the Symphony no. 3 in 1859 and
the Symphony no. 4 was completed in
1872. Bristow did not number his symphonies
as a rule but the second he did as opus
24. It is subtitled the Julien as
it was written as homage to the French
conductor Louis Antoine Julien who toured
America in 1853. It is curious work
in four large movements but it has many
serious weaknesses, all the weaknesses
that we find in Elgar, for instance.
It is bloated, thickly orchestrated,
turgid and repetitious and it lacks
structure and discipline. It is loose
and does not progress from one idea
to another and, again like Elgar, has
sequences which get nowhere. The Symphony
no 3 in F sharp minor Op 26 has these
same Elgarian weaknesses and rambles
on causing one to wonder if it will
ever end. However, there are some attractions
and extended parts for the harp. There
is an andante called a nocturne and
a scherzo called the butterfly's frolic
but we must remember that these were
the days when nature and life were of
interest to people not, as today, the
television and the internet which fascinate
so many. And remember Tschaikovsky wrote
a piece My dolly is ill.
The Symphony no. 4
is even more curious. It is known as
the Arcadian Symphony and yet
has a subtitle The Pioneer. It
is more a suite than a symphony. There
is an orthodox opening movement, a slow
adagio built upon a hymn tune, and a
third movement which is an Indian war
dance and very brash.
America has only ever
won one war and that was the war between
themselves, the American Civil War of
1861-5. It was the war in which the
IRA was born since Irish emigrés
were fighting for liberation of slaves
whereas back home they felt that Ireland
was dominated by the English. This war
produced a different type of music particularly
ballads and nostalgia songs and, of
course, songs which were associated
with the black people. It was the age
of Stephen Foster and the Southern plantation
songs. Foster lived from 1826 to 1864
dying a year before the war ended. Sadly
his songs are parodied and ridiculed
these days, but, if sung well and sensibly,
they capture a slice of American history
that no other composer has. Oh! Susanna,
Camptown Races, Old folks at Home, My
Old Kentucky home, Jeannie with the
light brown hair, Masa's in the cold,
cold ground, Old Black Joe and Beautiful
Dreamer are examples of easy listening
music which conveys a nostalgic sentiment.
A musician of importance
was Theodore Thomas (1835-1905)
whose championship of modern American
music changed people’s attitudes to
it. He was a man of vision. He had come
to America from Essen in 1845 and was
a violin prodigy touring with outstanding
success. He promoted chamber music along
with William Mason and, in 1858, had
to deputise for the conductor Anschutz
at short notice to conduct Halévy's
La Juive at the New York Opera
House. This took him into conducting
and he formed his own orchestra, the
Thomas Orchestra, which toured widely
throughout America, giving thousands
the first experience of seeing an orchestra.
He mixed lightweight and popular works
with those of more substance. From 1873
he organised the Cincinnati Music Festival.
In 1876 he was invited to become the
conductor of the New York Philharmonic
which he did, but he retained his own
orchestra. His example created a desire
for the formation of many symphony orchestras
throughout the States and although some
ventures were financially ruinous it
did not break the back of this musical
pioneer whereas men of lesser quality
would have given up. He gave premieres
of such works as Richard Strauss's Symphony
in F minor.
It was in this climate
of musical growth that the first really
great American composer emerged, John
Knowles Paine who lived from 1839
to 1906. He was universally acclaimed
in his own lifetime not only as a composer
but as a teacher. Then he slipped into
obscurity. His Symphony no. 1 in C is
a masterpiece of symphonic form although
it did earn him the name of the American
Brahms, one of those stupid comments
and comparisons made by people who talk
rubbish. There is no way that Paine
could have known any work of Brahms.
This is the first real symphony by an
America because Paine thought symphonically.
It was second nature to him. His memorable
thematic material is strong, his orchestration
is first rate and the music has character
and is logical in its construction.
The fact that so many people compare
composers is often odious and absurd
and I recall Walton's understandable
anger at the ludicrous suggestion that
he was Elgar's successor.
Theodore Thomas introduced
Paine's Symphony no. 1 to America in
1876. The Symphony no. 2 in A has been
dismissed as having been written by
Bruckner, another use of the heresy
of musical comparison. This symphony
had a rapturous reception at its premiere.
Other works of his received the same
deserved praise such as his Symphonic
Poem: The Tempest, and the engaging
Shakespeare overture As You Like
It. It is reported that even sophisticated
ladies cheered and waved their handkerchiefs
in the air as part of the applause for
Paine’s work.
Paine was born in Portland,
Maine of a musical family. He studied
under Herman Kotzschmar, an emigré
from Saxony and this lead to Paine wanting
to complete his musical studies in Germany.
He became an organ pupil of Carl Haupt
in Berlin in 1858 and was to become
a brilliant organist. He returned to
America in 1861 and was active in introducing
Bach's organ music to the American public.
He gave a concert tour in Germany during
1866-7. In 1862 he had begun to teach
at Harvard and from 1872 became an assistant
professor and a full professor three
year later in 1875. He wrote a Mass
in D and America's first oratorio, St
Peter. The American composer, Gunther
Schuller, recorded the Mass over twenty
years ago. The attractive Moorish
Dances from his opera Azara are
popular.
What Paine did for
orchestral music Arthur William Foote
did for chamber music. He was a
pupil of Paine and his long life brings
us into the 20th century. He lived from
1853 to 1937 and while he has written
impressive orchestral scores, the Suite
in D minor Op 36, his superb Francesca
da Rimini Op 24 and, the Four
Character Pieces after the Rubaiyat
of Omar Khayyam Op 48 it is his
chamber music that has had the greatest
impact possibly because he was the first
major American composer in this genre.
There is a sumptuous Night Piece
for flute and strings of 1917, a
Suite for string orchestra of 1910 which
has an intimate chamber music fell about
it, a splendid Piano Quintet in F sharp
minor Op 67, a very well written Violin
Sonata in G minor Op 20 and, of all
his string quartets, the D major Op
70 has the distinction of being recorded
many times.
Foote was a new Englander
from Salem, Mass and had early training
with Paine at Harvard. Where Foote succeeds
is that his music does not have a Germanic
flavour. He became the organist of the
First Unitarian Church in Boston from
1876-1910 and was for a time president
of the American Guild of Organists.
He never left America and so his style
remains consistent. He was interested
in literature and wrote some fine choral
pieces many based on the works of Longfellow.
He also wrote musical text books on
harmony and the fugue. His unequalled
understanding of instruments and the
orchestra resulted in a fine Cello Concerto
and all his expertise can be seen in
his cantata The Farewell of Hiawatha.
I have performed in both his excellent
Piano Trios.
George Chadwick
wrote three symphonies although
it appears that the first remains in
manuscript. He was born in Lowell, Mass
in 1854. In his early twenties he went
to Berlin and to Leipzig to study. He
returned to Boston in 1880 and two years
later joined the staff at the New England
Conservatory becoming admired as a teacher,
organist and choral conductor. He composed
five string quartets, of which the Fourth
in F minor is best known, and opera
Judith (1900), choral music and
three symphonies as well as a tight-knit
Sinfonietta in D. Both the Symphony
no. 2 in B flat Op 21 of 1888 and the
Symphony no 3 in F of 1896 have been
recorded and are examples of a skilled
and experienced hand. They are attractive
works .
A composer who has
had some limited popularity is Edward
MacDowell who was born in New York on
18 December 1860 although some reference
books say 1861. The piece To a Wild
Rose is well known but his weakness,
if it is a weakness, is that he wrote
tons of piano miniatures, as did Grieg
for example, and thus claimed as a miniaturist.
He has, in fact, been called the American
Grieg, another one of those stupid comparisons
but if comparisons have to be made he
is the American Raff and, of course
MacDowell studied with Raff in Germany
and it was his music that inspired him.
MacDowell was an accomplished pianist
admired by Liszt with whom he had a
close friendship. MacDowell's final
years (from 1888 onwards) back in America
were unhappy. He was a professor at
the newly founded Columbia University
in New York and eventually suffered
a mental breakdown from which he did
not recover. He died in 1908.
However, there are
scores of MacDowell that are worth hearing.
There is the gentle serenity of the
Symphonic poem: Hamlet and Ophelia,
Op 22 inspired by MacDowell's honeymoon
in England. There is another lovelorn
symphonic poem, Lancelot and Elaine,
Opus 25, and the third has also an English
connection. It is called Lamia,
Op 29 after Keats. Here MacDowell over-stretches
himself and tries to emulate Wagner.
Heterosexual relationships play an important
part in his oeuvre as in The Lovely
Alda, an idyll describing the beauty
of Alda and the loss of her lover.
A composer of more
substance was Horatio Parker who
was born at Auburndale, Mass in 1863.
He started musical studies rather later
than normal and this was with a brief
study with Chadwick before going to
Germany in 1882
with the view to studying with Raff
but his untimely death put paid to that
and so Parker went to Munich and studied
under Rheinberger. On his return to
the states he was associated with the
National Conservatory in New York at
a time when Dvořák was teaching
there. Later he became the organist
of Trinity Church in Boston shortly
after which he was appointed professor
at Yale. He composed excellent cantatas
and oratorios. Of particular note is
his Hora Novissima, Op30 of 1893
and two symphonic poems - A Northern
Ballad, Op 30 and Vathek,
Op 56. My great uncle, Sir Ivor Atkins
introduced some of Parker's music to
the Three Choirs Festival much to the
anger of Elgar.
Parker is known for
his sublime hymn tune Deep Harmony.
Sir Thomas Beecham
hated women composers and so he would
have disliked Mrs H H A Beach who
was born Amy Cheney in New Hampshire
in 1867. She was a brilliant pianist
and played the G minor Concerto of Moscheles
when she was sixteen. She was active
in music until she met a Boston surgeon
whom she married and thereafter was
always known as Mrs Beach. On the death
of her husband in 1910 she returned
to music and undertook an extensive
tour of Germany. She wrote a lot of
piano music, and music including the
piano, notably a concerto in G sharp
minor. Some believe her finest chamber
work is the Piano Quintet in F sharp
minor, Op 67 and others speak well of
her Gaelic Symphony set in C
minor. Another absurd comparison has
arisen stating that she was the counterpart
of Ethel Smyth.
Like Fanny Mendelssohn
and Clara Schumann, Mrs Beach's music
is tame, predictable and has nothing
new to say.
Charles Tomlinson
Griffes was born in Elmira, New
York in 1884. He studied in Berlin with
Humperdinck and, on returning to America,
taught in a boys school at Tarrytown,
New York from 1908 to his death in 1920.
His most popular work is The Pleasure
Dome of Kubla Khan of 1919 but his
interest in the exotic and oriental
music is shown in his most interesting
work, Shojo, a Japanese dance
pantomime of 1917. His work is original
using polymetric and polytonal features
not understood at the times and probably
not appreciated even now.
There is a lot of music
highlighted in this article that deserves
to be heard and you are recommended
to pursue such opportunities.
Dr David C F Wright
renewed 2004. This article or any part
of it, however small, must not be used
in any way whether quoted, copied, stored
in any retrieval system or downloaded
without the prior written consent of
the author. Failure to comply is a breach
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