American orchestras in the nineteenth century / edited by John Spitzer.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Spitzer, John, 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Orchestra--United States--History.

Orchestra.

Music--United States--History.

Music.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (504 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Studies of concert life in nineteenth-century America have generally been limited to large orchestras and the programs we are familiar with today. But as this book reveals, audiences of that era enjoyed far more diverse musical experiences than this focus would suggest. To hear an orchestra, people were more likely to head to a beer garden, restaurant, or summer resort than to a concert hall. And what they heard weren't just symphonic works-programs also included opera excerpts and arrangements, instrumental showpieces, comic numbers, and medleys of patriotic tunes. This book brings together musicologists and historians to investigate the many orchestras and programs that developed in nineteenth-century America. In addition to reflecting on the music that orchestras played and the socioeconomic aspects of building and maintaining orchestras, the book considers a wide range of topics, including audiences, entrepreneurs, concert arrangements, tours, and musicians' unions. The authors also show that the period saw a massive influx of immigrant performers, the increasing ability of orchestras to travel across the nation, and the rising influence of women as listeners, patrons, and players. Painting a rich and detailed picture of nineteenth-century concert life, this collection will greatly broaden our understanding of America's musical history.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction: Toward a History of American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century

The Ubiquity and Diversity of Nineteenth- Century American Orchestras

I.1. Building the American Symphony Orchestra: The Nineteenth- Century Roots of a Twenty- First- Century Musical Institution

I.2. Modeling Music: Early Organizational Structures of American Women's Orchestras

I.3. American Orchestras and Their Unions in the Nineteenth Century

Orchestras: Local versus National

II.1. Invisible Instruments: Th eater Orchestras in New York, 1850- 1900

II.2. Beethoven and Beer: Orchestral Music in German Beer Gardens in Nineteenth- Century New York City

II.3. Performances to "Permanence": Orchestra Building in Late Nineteenth- Century Cincinnati

II.4. Critic and Conductor in 1860s Chicago: George P. Upton, Hans Balatka, and Cultural Capitalism

II.5. Amateur and Professional, Permanent and Transient: Orchestras in the District of Columbia, 1877- 1905

Marketing the American Orchestra

III.1. Bernard Ullman and the Business of Orchestras in Mid- Nineteenth- Century New York

III.2. John Sullivan Dwight and the Harvard Musical Association Orchestra: A Help or a Hindrance?

III.3. Th e Leopold Damrosch Orchestra, 1877- 78: Background, Instrumentation, Programming, and Critical Reception

III.4. Gender and the Germanians: "Art- Loving Ladies" in Nineteenth- Century Concert Life

Orchestras: American and European

IV.1. "A Concentration of Talent on Our Musical Horizon": Th e 1853- 54 American Tour by Jullien's Extraordinary Orchestra

IV.2. Ureli Corelli Hill: An American Musician's European Travels and the Creation of the New York Philharmonic

Orchestral Repertory: Highbrow and Lowbrow

V.1. Orchestral Programs in Boston, 1842- 55, in European Perspective

V.2. Theodore Thomas and the Cultivation of American Music

V.3. Th inking about Serious Music in New York, 1842- 82

Afterword: Coming of Age

Bibliography

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613530288

9781280126420

1280126426

9780226769776

0226769771

OCLC:

780425983