String Chamber Music Performance in New York City, 1842-1852: the Social and Cultural Context of Representative Works by George Frederick Bristow
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STRING CHAMBER MUSIC PERFORMANCE IN NEW YORK CITY, 1842-1852: THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF REPRESENTATIVE WORKS BY GEORGE FREDERICK BRISTOW BY ROBERT J. E. HOPKINS DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in Music with a concentration in Performance and Literature in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Christina Bashford, Chair and Director of Research Professor Jeffrey Magee Associate Professor Stefan Milenkovich Clinical Assistant Professor Andrea Solya ABSTRACT This dissertation focuses on string chamber music performances in New York City during the years 1842 to 1852. George Frederick Bristow, an American composer, wrote string chamber works in 1845 and 1849. The study discusses the broader context of chamber music during the years surrounding Bristow’s composition of his string chamber works. From a consultation of primary sources, key performances are documented and assessed, including a discussion of the sacralization of string chamber genres in music journal performance reviews. The paper will further discuss the influence of mid-century German immigration upon repertoire selection and canon formation. More common in the earlier years of this study, string chamber music frequently appeared on “miscellaneous” performances, featuring a variety of instrumentation and genres, wherein string chamber works would often serve in a secondary role. As a contrast, early efforts to establish concerts series in New York consisting primarily of string chamber music will be presented and discussed. The final chapter will discuss much of George Frederick Bristow’s (1825-1898) musical activity during this period. As a violinist, he appeared in public performances of string chamber music, as well as in the Philharmonic Society of New York. Bristow was also a member of the Euterpean Society, a primarily amateur social-musical group, and his compositional output of string chamber works will be discussed in the context of Bristow’s broader musical experience at the time. Finally, this project produces the first edition of Bristow’s Quartetto, Op. 1 (ca. 1849), and the work’s first appearance in a score format, previously existing only as manuscript parts. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible if without the support of many people. I would like to thank my research advisor, Prof. Christina Bashford, for her endless contribution to this project. Additional acknowledgement goes to the other committee members, Prof. Stefan Milenkovich, Prof. Jeffrey Magee, and Prof. Andrea Solya. I would also like to thank Prof. John Wagstaff for his assistance with the Bristow quartet edition. I would like to give further thanks to the staff of the University of Illinois Music and Performing Arts Library; as well as the university’s History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………...1 CHAPTER I: KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN NEW YORK CITY’S CULTURE BEFORE 1850……………………………………………...…………………….13 CHAPTER II: CHAMBER MUSIC PERFORMANCES, 1842-NOVEMBER 1849………………………………………………………...26 CHAPTER III: SARONI AND EISFELD CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES, DECEMBER 1849-APRIL 1851; MISCELLANEOUS PERFORMANCES, DECEMBER 1849-1852…………..63 CHAPTER IV: BOSTWICK AND EISFELD, NOVEMBER 1851-FEBRUARY 1852……...106 CHAPTER V: CONTINUATION OF THE EISFELD SOIRÉES, MARCH-NOVEMBER 1852…………………………………………………..137 CHAPTER VI: BRISTOW AS CHAMBER MUSIC PERFORMER AND COMPOSER, WITH A CONTEXTUAL DISCUSSION OF QUARTETTO, OP. 1…………………………………………………………..171 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………209 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………........211 APPENDIX: GEORGE FREDERICK BRISTOW’S QUARTETTO, OP. 1……………...........216 iv Introduction George Frederick Bristow (1825-1898) was an American composer, born in Brooklyn, who spent his career in New York City, and wrote at least five string chamber works during the 1840s. As a violinist in the New York Philharmonic Society from its second season (1843-1844), as well as a performer of string chamber music, Bristow was very much at the forefront of the New York’s then-emerging classical music scene. Having never been published, Bristow’s string chamber works survive in manuscript form: Duo No. 2 in G Minor for violin and viola (1845), Duo No. 3 in G Major for violin and viola (1845), Quartetto, Op. 1 in F Major (ca. 1849)1, Quartetto, Op. 2 in G Minor (1849), and Violin Sonata in G Major, Op. 12 (ca. 1849).2 I suspect that the works would have been played or performed in a private setting, but I have not been able to identify evidence of a public performance during his time. Since then, Bristow’s string chamber works have remained concealed from hearing and view, and have been written about only occasionally. Yet, Bristow’s string chamber works are of historical importance for several reasons. According to Roger Paul Phelps, Bristow and Daniel Schlesinger (1799-1839) were the only composers of chamber music active in New York during the first half of the nineteenth century (so far as was known at the time of publication, 1951).3 But of these two, Bristow was the only 1 The year is perhaps best expressed as “probably 1849.” Delmer D. Rogers refers to the year as “?1849” in Grove, and “1849?” in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Subsequent references in this dissertation will simply refer to the year as 1849. See: Delmer D. Rogers, "Bristow, George Frederick," in Grove Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/04008 (accessed December 19, 2013). See: Delmer D. Rogers, "Bristow, George Frederick" in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2nd ed., ed. Ludwig Finscher (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2000), Personenteil 3: 914. 2 All manuscripts held at the New York Public Library: Library for the Performing Arts, Music Division. Call Numbers: Duo No. 2 (JPB 82-48 no. 26); Duo No. 3 (JPB 82-48 no. 27); Quartetto, op. 1 (JPB 82-48 no. 88); Quartetto, op. 2 (JPB 82-48 no. 89); Violin Sonata, op. 12 (JPB 82-48 no. 105). Duo No. 1 appears to not have survived. 3 Roger Paul Phelps, “The History and Practice of Chamber Music in the United States from Earliest Times up to 1875” (PhD diss., University of Iowa, 1951), 345. 1 American-born composer (Schlesinger was German, and arrived in New York in 18364). Delmer Rogers states, of Bristow’s early period: “Among Bristow’s instrumental works, the most important in quality as well as quantity were those for chamber combinations, yet this fact is remarkable when one considers that public performances of chamber literature hardly existed in the United States.”5 Rogers, commenting on Bristow’s output, also states: “The chamber works, written during his early years, are especially unique and creditable representatives of a medium rarely explored by American composers in the 19th century.”6 Of Bristow’s duos, David Bynog writes: “The first important [American] compositions for viola from this period [mid-nineteenth century] are George Frederick Bristow’s duos for violin and viola. […] Despite Bristow’s importance as an American composer, the historical value of these duos, and the availability of the manuscripts, neither a published edition nor a recording of these duos has been produced.”7 The same is also true of other Bristow’s other string chamber music, as we shall see. Bristow is significant for being a composer of American birth writing string chamber music, especially when public performances of such works were only in the beginning stages. Research Objectives, Definitions, and Methods This dissertation aims to explore the social, musical, and cultural context for the development of European chamber music performance in New York City during the mid-nineteenth century, in order to discover how the 1840s string chamber works of Bristow fit within this context. In my 4 Spencer A. Huston, "Schlesinger, Daniel," in Grove Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/A2085557 (accessed September 11, 2012). 5 Delmer D. Rogers, “Nineteenth Century Music in New York City as Reflected in the Career of George Frederick Bristow,” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1967), 143. 6 Delmer D. Rogers, "Bristow, George Frederick," in Grove Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/04008 (accessed September 11, 2012). 7 David M. Bynog, "The Viola in America: Two Centuries of Progress," Notes - Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 68, no. 4 (2012): 738. 2 view, an explanation of chamber music performance during this period is impossible without relating it to outside historical events, such as New York’s growth and increased interaction with Europe: and, furthermore to cultural processes such as the sacralization and canonization of music, which are defined below and which will be a recurring theme throughout the study. The focus on Bristow is chosen because his historical significance seems greater than the level of scholarly attention that his string chamber music has received. As a violinist in the New York Philharmonic Society, Bristow worked with the best string players that New York offered at the time. Furthermore, he was arguably one of the most significant American composers of “classical” music of his generation, producing, in addition to his chamber music, numerous choral, orchestral, piano, and organ works, as well as many songs for voice and piano.8 Bristow is perhaps best known