Music Library Reading Room Notes

Issue no.2 (1999-2000)

University Libraries The University of the Arts

Compiled by the Music Library Staff Mark Germer: Music Librarian Lars Halle & Aaron Meicht: Circulation Supervisors

A Note on Music Imagined p. 2

Philadelphia’s Musical Legacy p. 3 by Marjorie Hassen

The New Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: First Impressions p. 15 by Mark Germer

The University of the Arts . 320 South Broad Street, , PA, 19102 http://www.uarts.edu University Libraries: http://library.uarts.edu A Note on Music Imagined

by Music Library Staff

References are common to the sustained- poser’s struggles in his late masterwork -often explicit--literary inspiration that lies Doktor Faustus (1947), which earned for at the heart of numerous musical works Mann something less than the gratitude in the Western canon, from absoute Ber- of Schoenberg. lioz’s to Britten’s Metamor- phoses. Composers are assumed to have assimilated the texts they set in songs, With these intersections in mind, the UA choruses, and operas, mining them for Music Library has begun a modest ef- the opportunities they present for musi- fort to identify and acquire worthy literary cal expression and formal coherence. But works that demonstrate the fascination there is an equally diverse and extensive with music on the part of contemporary tradition of exploring musical themes, in- fiction writers, especially when they have cluding the very meaning of human mu- interacted in some notable way with the sic-making itself, in Western literature. history of music. Among modern works with powerful commentaries on matters musical are Thomas Bernhard’s fictional- The musical components of the short sto- ized remembrances of (The ries of E.T.A. Hoffmann--praised in his day Loser, 1983); Michael Ondaatje’s attempt as both a writer and a composer--are well to account for one of jazz’s mysterious appreciated, if remembered now mainly founders, Buddy Bolden (Coming Through thanks to the dramatization of three tales Slaughter, 1976); and Herbert Simmons’s in a comic opera by Offenbach. But the evocation of a figure resembling Miles use of fiction as a peg on which to hang Davis (Man Walking on Eggshells, 1962). meditations on style in music, the nature There are more to be (re)discovered. One of creativity, or the role of the musician in new work, Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music society reaches back at least to the phi- (1999) will even be issued in conjunction losophe Denis Diderot (in Le Neveu de with a containing music Rameau, of ca. 1760) through the poet that plays a role in the novel’s plot! Eduard Morike (Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag, 1855) to Romain Rolland’s Jean- Christophe (a work of 1916 that won its author the Nobel Prize) and Franz Werfel’s Verdi (1924, rev. 1930)--the last of which has even been given partial credit for the rebirth of interest in a hitherto neglected musical genius. Perhaps the most infa- mous example of musical fiction is Thom- as Mann’s imagining of a modernist com- Philadelphia’s Musical Legacy: Collections of Historic Interest in The University of ’s Libraries (Part 1) by Marjorie Hassen

Editor’s note: The music librarian of the organist, and composer. His Seven Songs University of Pennsylvania, Marjorie Has- for the Harpsichord or Forte Piano, pub- sen, has kindly allowed us to reprint, in a lished in Philadelphia in 1788, includes shortened version, her fine introduction to a dedication to George Washington, in some of UPenn’s archival holdings. This which the composer asserts, “I cannot, I article, through its focus on primary docu- believe, be refused the credit of being the ments, provides much on the subject of first native of the United States who has Philadelphia’s music history that is not oth- produced a musical composition.” The Li- erwise available. For the full version, with brary’s copy of this publication was Hop- numerous plates and facsimiles, see The kinson’s own--a gift of the patriot’s direct Penn Library Collections at 250 (University descendent, Edward Hopkinson Jr.--and of Pennsylvania, 2000). is part of a sixteen-volume collection pre- sented to the University between 1948 and 1950. Pennsylvania’s Quaker settlers had little interest in music; it was, rather, William Penn’s hospitality to other religious groups The Hopkinson Collection, as it has come that ensured the establishment of a musi- to be known, includes printed and manu- cal life in the Colony. From its early days the script music amassed primarily by Fran- most populous city, Philadelphia sheltered cis (1737-1791), but also by his grand- a thriving community of immigrant musi- son Oliver (1812-1905). At the heart of cians, and over the course of the eigh- the collection are three volumes of ho- teenth century, as musical performances lograph music manuscripts, copied by extended from the church to the concert Francis Hopkinson for his own library: a hall, the city became one of the principal songbook fragment containing sixteen centers of music in the New World. works primarily for voice and keyboard (dated 1755 in Hopkinson’s hand); forty- six works for keyboard (copied ca. 1763); Public subscription concerts were pre- and a volume of 115 Lessons for key- sented in Philadelphia as early as 1757, board (copied ca. 1764). It is unknown organized chiefly through the efforts of a whether Hopkinson himself was respon- native son, Francis Hopkinson. Hopkinson sible for the many arrangements that are was a member of the first graduating class present in these volumes, but it is clear, of what was then the College of Philadel- given the breadth of the collection, that phia--later the University of Pennsylvania. he was familiar with the forms and styles A lawyer by profession and a signer of the of European vocal and instrumental mu- Declaration of Independence, he was also sic of his day. His transcriptions include an accomplished amateur harpsichordist, popular dance and march tunes as well as works by the leading English and Con- est American music benevolent society in tinental composers of the eighteenth continuous existence. century, among them Karl Friedrich Abel, Thomas Arne, Arcangelo Corelli, Frances- co Geminiani, George Frideric Haendel, The musical climate in Philadelphia at the Johann Adolf Hasse, Domenico Scarlatti, time of the Society’s founding was en- John Stanley, and Johann Stamitz. gagingly described by the organization’s first Secretary, the attorney and amateur musician, John K. Kane. Looking back These manuscript volumes are supple- from the midpoint of the century, he re- mented by thirteen volumes of printed membered: music that preserve an extraordinary com- pilation of contemporaneous American and European editions. Here too, nearly The state of music in those days, and all the important composers of the eigh- musical taste!--Hupfeldt used to give teenth century are represented. Among his “Annual Concert,” the crack musi- the works that date from the elder Hopkin- cal phenomenon of the year, at which son’s time are several Haendel oratorios, he annually played his Concerto by arranged for voice, harpsichord and Kreutzer, while the ladies chatted and (, 1784), and the solo string parts laughed in ancient tea-party fash- of some fifty concerti grossi of Domerico ion, and gentlemen stood upon the Alberti, Corelli, Geminiani, and Antonio benches with their hats on, or walked Vivaldi (London, ca. 1730), which were round the room to exchange compli- performed by Hopkinson and his friends ments and retail the last joke. at concerts in Penn’s College Hall during Yet we had our Quartette party, - his student years. three , all professional except Dr. La Roche, - a tenor or two, - and a couple of basses; ... and we A “gentleman amateur” of high social used to meet round at each others’ standing, Hopkinson frequently joined with houses of a Saturday night, fifteen or immigrant European professionals in both eighteen of us, to hear Haydn, Mo- private and public music performances, a zart, Boccherini, sometimes to bog- circumstance illustrative, in Richard Craw- gle over Beethoven, and then to eat ford’s words, of “the partipatory atmo- crackers and cheese, and drink por- sphere of music-making in colonial Phila- ter or homoeopathic doses of sloppy delphia” (see the article on Hopkinson in hot punch. We were a delightful little The New Grove Dictionary of American club, the elite of the time, and the Music (1986), v. 2, p. 421). This atmo- veritable germ of the Musical Fund. sphere continued into the early years of the nineteenth century and was the impe- tus behind the establishment, in 1820, of (From The Autobiography of the Honor- the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia able John K. Kane, 1795-1858 [Philadel- by a group of professional and amateur phia 1949], entry for 20 Jan. 1849) musicains--still held today to be the old- The Society developed out of these “quar- the Society’s bank vault were relocated tette parties,” adopting as its objectives to the Free Library of Philadelphia and, in “the relief of decayed musicians and their 1991, the complete collection (excluding families, and the cultivation of skill and the materials held by the Historical Soci- diffusion of taste in music.” And while its ety) was donated by the Society to the formal documents indicate that benevo- University of Pennsylvania Library. lent work was foremost in the minds of the Society’s founders, the level of musical activity within the organization throughout The documents that comprise what the first half of the nineteenth century sug- is known as the Records of the Musi- gests that its focus was in large measure cal Fund Society provide unique details the promotion of concerts. about nineteenth-century Philadelphia’s musical life and its active participants. The tenets of the Musical Fund’s found- The significant role played by the - Musi ing members, who viewed the organiza- cal Fund Society in the growth of musical tion as a framework within which Phila- performance in Philadelphia, particularly delphia’s musical elite could “reform the over the course of the nineteenth century, state of neglect into which the beautiful is documented in its archives. Donated art of music had fallen” (from the report to the Library in 1991, this material offers of 1831), became, in turn, the Society’s unique insight into Philadelphia’s cultural formal objectives. The most celebrated milieu and includes minute books, en- member of this group of “musical elite” gagement books, concert programs, and was arguably the composer, organist, and papers from the Society’s 1820 founding music publisher Benjamin Carr, whose through the present. Also preserved is an description of 1820 Philadelphia as “very extensive collection of manuscript and barren of any thing like public spirit as it published music, dating primarily from the relates to music” (from a letter in the John late eighteenth century to the late nine- Rowe Parker correspondence in the Rare teenth, much of it used for performance in Book & Manuscript Library), goes hand in Society concerts. hand with John Kane’s comments, not- ed above. Among the other founders of the Society were the composer, ‘cellist, Maintained originally by the Society in and music teacher George Schetky who, its offices, the music collections were with Carr, edited the Musical Journal for placed on deposit in the Free Library of the Piano Forte, the first major American Philadelphia in 1936, although ownership music publication in magazine form; the remained with the Society. The minute composer, organist, conductor, and sing- books, papers, and other historic docu- er, Benjamin Cross, who was a graduate ments were divided between the Society’s of the University of Pennsylvania and a offices in Philadelphia and a bank vault student of Benjamin Carr, and who later until 1952, when the Society vacated its (in 1841) conducted the first American offices. At that time some of this material performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute; was deposited with the Historical Society and Thomas Loud, of the piano manufac- of Pennsylvania. In 1986 the items held in turing firm Loud and Brothers, which was among the most prolific in America, pro- a music library. The minutes of the May ducing close to 600 pianos annually. 1820 meeting of the Directors, in fact-- just three months after the Society was established--includes a resolution to cre- Members were classified, upon accep- ate a committee to “procure such mu- tance into the Society, as either “profes- sic as they consider necessary for the sional” or “amateur,” with the former cat- use of the Society” (from Minutes of the egory entitled to “relief” benefits in the Directors for May 1820). From this date manner of a monthly allowance when “dis- through the middle of the century, a sub- abled by age, sickness, or any other infir- stantial sum would be spent for printed mity from attending to business.” Not until music, as well as for hand-copying mu- 1939 was the “professional” category of sic that was unavailable for purchase. membership abolished, when the Society Great quantities of orchestral and cham- turned its attention exclusively to the goal ber music were imported from the firm of “promoting a sound and critical musical C.F. Peters in Leipzig and, when only a taste in the community.” score was available, individual instrumen- tal parts were hand-copied. On other oc- casions a score would be made from the Engaged in an extraordinary level of musical purchased printed parts. The society also activity throughout the first half of the nine- made copies of performance materials teenth century, the Society gave eighty-six borrowed from such organizations as the “regular” concerts, as well as a number of Handel and Haydn Society of New York special performances, between 1821 and and the Moravian Brethren in Bethlehem. 1857, with professional members serving The result is a collection rich in first and as the foundation of the Society’s Orches- early published editions of music as well tra and Chorus. Often elaborate affairs re- as in contemporaneous manuscript cop- quiring large forces of instrumentalists and ies that document the performance his- singers, the programs usually combined tory of the Society. works of the leading European composers of the day with those of local composers. Much of this music was new to American Also counted among the Society’s hold- audiences and the Society’s concert pro- ings are two distinct sheet music collec- grams boasted a number of Philadelphia tions acquired in the 1930s: the Edward or United States premieres of works by, I. Keffer Collection of American sheet mu- among others, Beethoven, Rossini, Mo- sic and the Newland-Zeuner Collection. zart, and the Philadelphia composer Henry Edward Iungerich Keffer (1861-1933), Fry, whose 1845 opera Leonora--consid- Vice president of the Society from 1927 ered to be the first grand opera by a North until his death, graduated from the Uni- American composer--was premiered un- versity of Pennsylvania School of Dental der the auspices of the Musical Fund. Medicine in 1883. For fifty years he was one of Philadelphia’s most devoted music patrons, taking a leading role in the for- To support its performance activities, the mation of the . As Society began almost immediately to build an accomplished amateur violinist, Kef- fer served as concertmaster of the Phila- Congress in 1930, a smaller group of ma- delphia Society from 1893 to terials--numbering approximately 1,200 1900, and during the years following the items and similar in nature to the Keffer turn of the century, he hosted weekly Collection--remained in the possession of chamber concerts in which the city’s most Nagy. At the urging of several members, highly-regarded musicians participated. including Edward I. Keffer, the Musical Fund Society acquired these materials to assure their preservation in Philadelphia. Donated to the Musical Fund Society dur- ing his lifetime, the Keffer Collection con- sists of close to 2,500 items bearing pub- Of particular significance for the Society, lication dates that range from the 1790s both financially as well as artistically, was through the late nineteenth century. Ap- the construction, in 1824, of Musical Fund proximately half of the titles were printed Hall. It was designed by the eminent archi- in Philadelphia by such publishers as John tect and founding member of the Society, Aitken, G.E. Blake, Benjamin Carr, George William Strickland. The hall was built on Willig, and Lee and Walker. Included Locust street between Eighth and Ninth among them, as might be expected, are Streets and served not only as a con- many works composed by Musical Fund cert hall for the Society’s performances Society members. The collection’s impor- but, owing to its extraordinary acoustics, tance, however, reaches well beyond the was also the favored Philadelphia venue boundaries of Philadelphia in its represen- for major touring artists of the day. The tation of one hundred years of the music programs and engagements books for publishing trade. Musical Fund Hall record appearances by the singers Maria Malibran, Adelina Patti, Henrietta Sontag, and Jenny Lind; the Purchased by the Musical Fund Society violinists Ole Bull and Henrik Vieuxtemps; in 1931 from the antiquarian book dealer and the pianists Louis Moreau Gottschalk Charles T. Nagy, the Newland-Zeuner Col- and Sigismond Thalberg. Its large seating lection contains manuscript and printed capacity was also well suited to political music dating from 1784 through 1875, of meetings and lectures, and the Hall was both American and European origin. The host to the Pennsylvania Constitutional collection was acquired by Nagy from Convention (1837), the first convention of the estate of William Augustine Newland the National Republican Party (1856), and (1813-1901), an English-born Philadelphia to such distinguished speakers as William musician, who was at once an organist, Makepeace Thackeray, Horace Mann, conductor, composer, teacher, and pub- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Greely, lisher. A portion of Newland’s music library and Henry Ward Beecher. came from Heinrich Christoph (Charles) Zeuner (1795-1857), a German-born or- ganist and composer who settled first in In 1857, with the opening of the Academy Boston before moving to Philadelphia in of Music, the Hall’s use as a performance 1839. While the major portion of the origi- venue decreased markedly, as did the ac- nal collection was sold to the Library of tivities of the Society. In 1918, when it was clear that income from the Hall was no lon- which they anticipated would be sub- ger sufficient to support its maintenance, stantial, to support their current activi- the Society embarked on what was to be ties. This manuscript material, which in- the lengthy process of selling the building. cludes an autograph score of the quartet, It was not until 1982, however, when the a second manuscript score partially in the Hall was renovated for condominiums that hand of the composer, and a set of parts, its fate was sealed, with only the facade was purchased for the Library by Marga- remaining to serve as a reminder of the ret Ormandy, who had three years previ- building’s rich and varied cultural history. ously proven to be a generous benefac- tress through her donation of the papers and music collection of her late husband, At the end of the nineteenth century the . One of very few ma- activities of the Musical Fund revived, but jor works by Bartók not in private hands, now its mission focused on the sponsor- this set holds particular value as the com- ship of concerts, educational programs, poser’s working manuscript. Each of the and competitions. Among its endeav- three components incorporates changes, ors were the creation of a Choral School additions, and corrections to the music, (1885), the sponsorship of the Germania including several overpasted pages. Orchestra concerts (1895-1899), and the support of the newly-formed Philadelphia Orchestra (1900). The Society’s first com- Together the documents and music col- petition, named for the attorney, com- lections that comprise the Musical Fund poser, and Musical Fund member Edward Society Records provide a wealth of de- Garrett McCollin, was announced in 1925 tail, relating not only to the operation of with the aim of encouraging the composi- the organization itself, but also to musical tion of new chamber music works (to date, taste and orchestral performance prac- seven McCollin competitions have been tice in nineteenth-century Philadelphia. held). The first prize was awarded jointly Over the course of the next century, the to the Italian composer Alfredo Casella (for Philadelphia Orchestra would be--and his Serenata) and Béla Bartók (for his Third continues to be--the focal point of con- String Quartet). Following the December cert activity in the city. The Library’s col- 30, 1928 American premiere of the works lections of music and personal papers of at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, the origi- the two long-term conductors of that en- nal performance materials remained in the semble, and Eugene possession of the Society, a stipulation of Ormandy, document that musical activ- the competition rules. ity, and they offer insight into orchestral performance pratice and the prevailing musical tastes of twentieth-century Phila- In 1990, before discussions concerning delphians. transfer of the Musical Fund Society’s Ar- chives to the University of Pennsylvania were initiated, the Society made the deci- Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985) served sion to sell the Bartók performance mate- as Music Director of the Philadelphia Or- rial and to use the proceeds of the sale, chestra, from 1938 until his retirement in 1980, when he was appointed Conductor ent and flair for the theatrical were con- Laureate. After his death, the conductor’s trasted with his German predecessors, widow, Margaret Ormandy donated to the and Carl Pohlig. Trained as Library the Maestro’s scores, professional an organist and choir director, Stokowski papers, letters, photographs, recordings, came to the United States from his na- and memorabilia. At the same time the tive in 1905 to serve as organist Philadelphia Orchestra and Philadelphia at New York’s St. Bartholomew’s Church. radio station WFLN jointly contributed the His ambitious nature soon led him away complete set of Philadelphia Orchestra from organ loft to the conductor’s podium concert tapes, broadcast from 1960 to and after three seasons in New York, fol- 1981 on WFLN. lowed by a brief stay in Europe where he pursued his interests, he was engaged in 1909 to conduct the Cincin- Preceding Ormandy on the Philadelphia nati Symphony. His extremely successful podium was Leopold Stokowski (1882- revival of that orchestra, which had been 1977), who arrived in the city in 1912 and resurrected after a two-season hiatus, remained until 1941, overlapping Orman- brought him to the forefront when the dy’s tenure for several years. He main- Philadelphia Orchestra was searching for tained a remarkably active career following a new conductor in 1912. his departure from Philadelphia, conduct- ing and recording on both sides of the At- lantic until just before his death in England One of the most influential conductors in 1977. Soon after, his music collection of his generation, Stokowski was at the and surviving professional papers were same time one of the most controver- placed at the Curtis Institute of Music in sial. His progressive views, his flamboy- Philadelphia by Stokowski’s heirs. In 1995, ant presence on the concert stage, and the Curtis Institute approached the Univer- his innovative approach to music-making sity of Pennsylvania Library about relocat- provoked both the epithets “genius” and ing the materials to Penn for the purposes “charlatan.” His interest in sound repro- of preservation. A formal transfer was ex- duction and transmission resulted in pi- ecuted in July 1997. oneering recordings utilizing the latest technological developments, and in his pursuit of the perfect balance and blends The history of the Philadelphia Orchestra of color in the concert hall, he often ex- is naturally entwined with its principal resi- perimented with the placement of play- dent conductors. The successive tenures ers’ seating by moving sections of the of Stokowski and Ormandy extended over orchestra to different parts of the stage. a 68-year period, from 1912-1980, cover- Himself an advocate of everything new, ing more than two thirds of the Orches- Stokowski attempted with almost mes- tra’s one hundred-year existence. With sianic fervor to bring Philadelphians the Stokowski’s 1912 debut, the Philadelphia most challenging and experimantal or- Orchestra crossed over the threshold into chestral works of his day. His devotion to its first era of national significance with a the “music of our time,” in fact, led him conductor whose distinctive musical tal- consistently to program contemporary compositions alongside more canonical The turning point in Ormandy’s career fare throughout his career, despite occa- came in october 1931 when illness pre- sional public protestations. vented from fulfilling his guest-conducting commitment in Phla- delphia. Ormandy was approached after It was Stokowski’s broad interests in tech- several established conductors, who did nology and his desire to bring music of not want to risk their careers by substitut- the “masters” to the greatest number of ing for the revered Maestro, refused the people that led him to Hollywood and his engagement. The concerts were a huge eventual collaboration with success, and word of Ormandy’s tri- on Fantasia. In the end, it drew him away umph quickly traveled across the country, from Philadelphia. Stokowski’s gradual de- catching the attention of the Minneapolis parture, however, set in motion the ascent Symphony Orchestra, whose conductor to the podium of Eugene Ormandy, and a had suffered a stroke. new era for the Orchestra. At the end of his week-long Philadelphia engagement Ormandy left for Minneapo- lis and what would be a five-year commit- Ormandy was a child prodigy who began ment. As Stokowski had done in Cincin- his musical career as a violinist in his na- nati at the outset of his career, Ormandy tive . Following a series of perfor- revitalized the Minneapolis Orchestra, mance in France and Austria in 1921, a vastly improving the quality of its play- promised United States tour of 300 con- ing and expanding its repertory. He was certs for $30,000 enticed him to New York also largely responsible for arranging its in December of that year. The expected 1934 recording contract with RCA Victor, contract did not materialize, however, the results of which propelled Minneapo- leaving the twenty-two-year-old violinist lis from a provincial ensemble to interna- marooned and penniless. He found work tional standing and elevated Ormandy to as a member of ’s Capitol national prominence. Theater movie palace orchestra and was assigned a seat at the back of the sec- tion, advancing to the concertmaster chair Ormandy had first appeared as guest within one week. He made his conducting conductor in Philadelphia beginning in debut at the Capitol in September 1924, 1932, but after Stokowski’s 1934 an- when the orchestra’s conductor fell ill, and nouncement that he would conduct only two years later was appointed associate half of each future concert season, Or- director. Under the guidance of the influ- mandy participated in the steady stream ential manager , Ormandy of guest conductors during the following began to expand his conducting activities, two years. Then, in the spring of 1936, working with radio orchestras and con- he was formally appointed co-conductor ducting summer concerts with the Philhar- of the Philadelphia Orchestra. For the monic Symphony at New York’s Lewisohn next five concert seasons Ormandy and Stadium and the Philadelphia Orchestra at Stokowski shared the Philadelphia podi- Fairmont Park’s Robin Hood Dell, where um while maintaining a cordial, if distance, he was well-received. relationship. In 1938 Ormandy advanced one step closer to sole proprietorship of a performance or recording--in the case the Orchestra when the Board name him of living composers, with or without their Music Director, but it was not until 1941 knowledge or consent--and the scores of when Stokowski finally severed his ties to both Stokowski and Ormandy are promi- Philadelphia that the “Ormandy era” offi- nent documents of the practice. cially began.

Stokowski is perhaps best known for his Diminutive in stature, energetic yet graceful orchestral arrangements, which include on the podium, Ormandy was known for works written for other media, “sym- his infallible ear and prodigious memory. phonic syntheses” of operatic literature, He rarely conducted with a score and was and reorchestrations of existing instru- widely recognized as an unsurpassed ac- mental works. The practice may best be companist to the many soloists with whom considered in the context of the mod- he and the Philadelphia Orchestra per- ernist interest in music of the past and formed. His training as a violinist governed of similar works of reclamation by Otto- much of his conducting technique, such rino Respighi, Igor Stravinsky, and Arnold that the richness of tone that he drew from Schoenberg. Stokowski’s reworkings of the Orchestra was so distinctive it became J.S. Bach keyboard compositions are known as the “Ormandy” or “Philadelphia” the most commonly encountered ex- sound. Particularly noteworthy under Or- amples, yet they represent but a fraction mandy’s leadership was the extensive of the total number, which ranges from program of touring and recording under- Jean-Philippe Rameau to John Philip taken by the Orchestra, which served to Sousa. Close to 200 of these survive in establish its international reputation. the collection, dating from ca. 1915 to the 1960s, the majority only in manuscript. Ormandy, too, practiced the “art of tran- The Stokowski and Ormandy collection scription,” though in smaller numbers and at Penn document a significant period in on a much smaller scale, concentrating the performance history of the Philadel- primarily on the works of Bach and Haen- phia Orchestra. The Library’s collections del. The process he followed in creating preserve over 1,100 scores and sets of his thirty-four surviving transcriptions is parts from the tenure of Eugene Ormandy well-documented in the Archive, which and more than 900 from that of Leopold includes scores of works in their original Stokowski. These record the performance form bearing Ormandy’s markings, as well markings of each conductor, which in- as his completed arrangements, often in clude--aside from the more typical tempo multiple versions. and dynamic indications--the addition of instruments to the orchestration, doubling of one instrumental part by another, cuts, While both of the original collections have and reconceptions of rhythmic or melodic been supplemented by individual gifts of elements. It was not unusual for conduc- letters, recordings, and photographs, par- tors of this generation to alter (or “inter- ticularly significant are the oral history col- pret”) a composer’s work in such ways for lections devoted to the two conductors. The Eugene Ormandy Oral History Proj- the oral history interviews, which include ect was conducted from 1988-1997 by conversations with a number of Philadel- the University of Pennsylvania Library with phia Orchestra members who played un- funds contributed by the Presser Founda- der both maestros. tion. Interviews were recorded with nine- ty-one of the conductor’s associates, in- cluding Philadelphia Orchestra musicians This extensive chronicle, documenting six and administration, soloists, composers, decades of the Philadelphia Orchestra and recording engineers, concert managers, its conductors, is mirrored and extended close friends, and family. The Stokowski in another of the Library’s major holdings, oral history materials came to the collec- the Papers and related tion as part of the Oliver Daniel research music collections. The Penn Library is the files. Gathered by Daniel, Stokowski’s principal repository for material related principal biographer, during the writing of to the life and career of the Philadelphia- his book, Stokowski: A Counterpoint of born contralto who gained international View (1982), the files were subsequently recognition not only for her supreme vo- donated to the Stokowski collection while cal talent but also for her commitment to it resided at the Curtis Institute. The clip- social issues. Anderson herself made the pings, correspondence, programs, finan- original gift to the Library in 1977, followed cial data, and photographs are highlighted by two additional donations in 1987 and by 575 interviews conducted or collected 1991. The final group of materials was by Daniel that include the recollections of presented after her death in 1993 by her relatives, friends, composers, conductors, nephew, the conductor James De Pre- performers, agents, and critics. Not simply ist. The collection documents Anderson’s general conversations, these interviews extraordinary career and includes corre- are often focused discussions of specific spondence, professional papers, recital events or issues, resulting in a wealth of programs, clippings, scrapbooks, over detailed information about the two conduc- 4,400 photographs, awards, recordings, tors. An interview with the dancer Martha and an extensive collection of music. Graham, for example, reveals the numer- ous obstacles encountered in bringing to the stage the 1930 American premiere of Born in 1897, Marian Anderson grew up Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps, which in South Philadelphia in a close-knit com- Stokowski conducted at the Academy of munity whose financial support made Music. The former Philadelphia Orchestra it possible for her to take voice lessons Associate Conductor William Smith sheds beginning around 1915. Her earliest per- light on Ormandy’s conducting technique forming experience was as a six-year-old and the challenges it presented for Or- member of the junior choir at Union Bap- chestra members, and various composers tist Church and as her voice matured, describe their experiences while preparing she was invited to participate in special new works for performance. The intersec- concerts. By her twentieth birthday she tion of the two conductors and their indi- had begun to tour professionally, and in vidual influence on the development of the 1924 she made her New York debut in a Orchestra is, in fact, particularly clear from Town Hall recital. While this appearance was not particularly well-received, she politan Opera. the role of Ulrica triumphed the following year, taking first in Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, prize in a vocal competition against more Anderson made her operatic debut just than 300 other singers. The prize, a per- before her 58th birthday and, though her formance with the performance met with critical acclaim, her in Lewishohn Stadium, gained her over- vocal accomplishments were somewhat whelmingly positive reviews and national overshadowed in the press by the historic exposure. importance of the event.

Anderson traveled to Europe on several The Marian Anderson papers reflect the occasions, beginning in 1927, to further remarkable breadth of the singer’s career, her study of both languages and reper- which spanned almost fifty years, as well tory, and was invited to tour Sweden and as the active public service role she played Norway in 1931. Her return to Scandina- throughout her life. More than 6,000 in- via two years later occasioned a meeting dividual correspondents are represented with the Finnish composer , in the collection, including family mem- for whom she sang. Sibelius was so af- bers, to whom she wrote while on tour, fected by Anderson’s voice that he later composers, conductors, performers, and composed a song for her. The work, “Soli- many other prominent figures and organi- tude,” remains unpublished and is pre- zations with ties to humanitarian, educa- served only in manuscript as part of the tional, religious, and arts causes in which Anderson collections. she was interested. Anderson’s extensive vocal repertory is documented in the col- lection of concert programs and music, Under the personal guidance of the cel- a testimony to her wide-ranging musical ebrated concert manager Sol Hurok, with interests. During her career Anderson ac- whom she became associated in 1934, quired over 2,000 music manuscripts and Anderson’s concert appearances in the close to 3,000 pieces of printed sheet United States and Europe increased, music of art songs, opera and oratorio and she maintained a grueling schedule excerpts, international folk music, and throughout much of her career. Despite spirituals. Often the manuscripts were her growing reputation as an artist, how- submitted to Anderson with letters from ever, she did not escape the indignities of the composers or lyricists, many of whom racial discrimination in her country. The were women. Of particular interest are most famous example occurred in 1939 the works of Florence Price (1888-1953), when she was barred from singing in Con- the first African-American woman to gain stitution Hall by its owners, the Daughters widespread recognition as a symphonic of the American Revolution, an action that composer with the 1933 performance of precipitated her now legendary Easter Sun- her E-minor Symphony by the Chicago day performance at the Lincoln Memorial. Symphony orchestra. She is perhaps Some years later, in 1955, she was once best known, however, for her songs and again thrust into the limelight as the first spiritual arrangements, some of which African-American to be cast at the Metro- she composed specifically for Anderson. The contralto’s vast collection of spiritu- recordings of art songs, opera excerpts, als in both published and manuscript form and spirituals were rejected for release by testifies to the central role they played in either the recording company or Ander- her development as a concert artist. All son, and were never issued commercially, of the major names of the day are rep- yet they are an integral part of the con- resented including Price, Nathaniel Dett, tralto’s remarkable performance history, a Hall Johnson--a 1910 graduate of the history that the University Library has en- University of Pennsylvania--Roland Hayes, deavored to preserve. Hamilton Forrest, and Harry T. Burleigh, a close friend of Anderson’s since her teen- age years. Anderson’s printed music col- Viewed together, the Library’s music-re- lections also include hundreds of folk lated collections travel considerable dis- songs, most of which she collected dur- tance toward an extensive documenta- ing her European tours, and multiple edi- tion of Philadelphia’s musical past. The tions of standard vocal repertory. Found papers of the Musical Fund Society, the here are the songs of Brahms, Schubert, nineteenth-century manuscript and print- Sibelius, and , and opera ed music collections, and the constellation and oratorio excerpts of Bach, Haendel, of materials associated with Stokowski, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Alessandro Scarla- Ormandy, and Anderson bequests, tes- tti, and Verdi. tify to the rich history of cultivated music- making in the city’s two-and-a-half cen- turies. The Anderson collections include, in ad- dition to commercial recordings, over 150 hours of private recordings, arguably the most extraordinary part of her legacy. Among the tapes and discs are interviews, performances of complete works for voice and piano, vocal coaching sessions, re- hearsals--notably a session in which Hall Johnson coaches Anderson on her inter- pretation of his arrangement of the spiritual “Lord, how come me here”--and solo and accompanied vocal exerises, chiefly re- corded in Anderson’s home studio in Dan- bury, Connecticut. The numerous hours of practice sessions that are preserved here provide an intimate portrait of the singer, at the same time documenting the techni- cal means she employed in her practice. Of related interest are the more than 100 test pressings Anderson recorded in New York (for RCA) and (for La voix de son maitre) between 1935 and 1966. These The New Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: First Impressions by Mark Germer

Editor’s note: This essay, commissioned logical disciplines of music study as they by the Music Library Association, is re- are conceived and taught today (5). printed by permission of the publisher.

This, at least initially, was the MGG of “Eine Enzyklopaedie wird nicht fur den the most influential generation after that Augenblick abgefasst,” wrote Friedrich of the founding fathers-the MGG of Blume in 1951 (1), taking a tone at once Friedrich Gennrich and Jacques Hand- lofty and pragmatic: such an enterprise, schin, of Heinrich Hueschen and Heinrich best conceived as a potentiality, can come Besseler, of Otto Gombosi and Paul Net- to a halt but not to completion. And so the tl, of Henry George Farmer and Thurston unfinished-finished product may realisti- Dart, of Federico Ghisi, Higini Anglés, and cally be judged according to what it ac- Charles van den Borren (a men’s club, complishes, but not by what it neglects mainly, were it not for Naenie Bridgman (thus far) to take into account. There must and Anna Amalie Abert). A great many remain something, he continued else- younger post-War scholars, of course, where in a much remembered quip, for our helped to fill the fourteen principal- vol grandchildren to do (2). Those who have umes issued by the end of the 1960s, their taken cognizance of that monumental edi- multilingual and trans-Atlantic exchanges fice known as MGG (3)--have tended to contributing perhaps almost as much as echo this view, and it is indeed difficult to ubiquitous conference rituals to the very imagine how one’s frustrations with this creation of an international discourse on somehow amorphous sextadecalogue musicology. Encyclopedia editorship, could not ultimately be salved by gratitude however, requires efforts more herculean for the wealth it does bestow. Blume was than the convening of congresses, for only too conscious of the work’s imbal- the random elements--the interests and ances (4). But even the slightest apprecia- abilities of willing contributors--must be tion of the improbable odds under which aligned or discounted in favor of an inter- the small editorial staff worked, in the first nally consistent whole; Blume’s achieve- decades after the near-annihilation of Eu- ment was a first distillation of a rapidly ropean learning, engenders something accelerating conference, held over the more than mere admiration. In short, no course of an entire generation, into an or- undertaking of this ambition should be dered representation of the field. allowed to dissapear into a cloud of self- deprecation, for, as Ludwig Finscher now reminds us, the old MGG played, even as Blume doubted, at least for a time, that it evolved, nothing less than a formative anything like the old MGG would ever be role in shaping the humanistic and socio- attempted again, since the dawning age of splintering specialization would render specialization appears not less but per- the grand synthesis impracticable, if not haps greater than ever, and that MGG has simply quaint and obsolete. Perhaps it was proven, through its reliance and emphasis he who unwittingly commenced the into- on the Austro-German musicological tra- nation so often heard now that sweeping dition, an exceptionally successful venue histories unified by a single vision will soon for historical--and historicizing--summary no longer satisfy our agile sensibilities. I (10). One does not turn to MGG for defini- recall the clever talk that greeted Gerald tions of terms or explications of concepts, Abraham’s one-volume survey in 1979 as unless those terms or concepts happen no doubt the last masterful overview from perforce to be the pegs on which a theo- the era of omnivorous all-rounders (6), retical, codificatory, or aesthetic disquisi- and indeed few readers will have missed tion must be hung. Rather, here are found noticing that collections of essays of vari- the central themes and ideologies at the ous authorship do seem to have gained a core of the field, nobly embraced on the certain ascendency. widest possible franchise, if arrayed also to capture and reflect the radiance of a titled elite (the parallel to Baroque imperi- Yet even if we disregard trade or study alism seems inescapable: these volumes texts (7), there would be little point in de- celebrate the reach and rapacity of musi- nying the appeal of published generalists, cology’s expanding realm). especially if they are provocative--it would be difficult to avoid mention of Carl Dahl- haus as an example--including a few ata- Above all one finds charted throughout vistic ventures that keep something called MGG the philological and style-critical the “Abendland” from its penumbral rest underpinnings of Continental humanistic (8). (There is no “Abendland” in the new scholarship, especially such socio-aes- MGG, interestingly enough, presumably thetic constructions as “Epochenglie- in recognition of the awkwardness of the derung” that Blume himself took respon- term, even though the alleged dichotomy sibility for assaying in his (dare one say, between Eastern fantasy and Western epoch-making) articles on “Renaissance,” rationality has played a role in the histo- “Barock,” “Klassik,” and “Romantik.” For riography of European music from Char- tracing the phylogeny of “Gattungen” lemagne to Stockhausen.) There have there may well be no better place to sounded funeral tocsins for life-and-works go. And those who fretted that the New biographies of the monumetal sort, too; a Grove Dictionary had failed to deliver on few years ago I was told by a most promi- the very idea of music itself may now an- nent scholar that collections of essays on chor some optimism in the strengths of specific analytico-biographical problems German intellectual convention (11). would take their place. Trouble is, some- one forgot to tell Maynard Solomon (9). But the new MGG, so far as one can tell (12), will offer its synthesis with less gran- Finscher is well-advised, then, to point out deur. Silke Leopold’s sober handling of that the need for synthesis in this age of the term “Barock,” ten pages to Blume’s thirty-one, leaves the notion of advancing phy demonstrates), but no less striking new conceptualizations behind, and so-- for that. and here I do not know whether to say mirabile dictu or horresco referens--actu- ally reads like an encyclopedia entry; its Equally impressive--and illustrative of Ger- utility lies not in its (solid) scholarship but man musicology’s broad compas--are the in its rhetorical presentation, that is, in its essays for which no counterparts existed clarity, its restraint, and its sense of propor- in the old MGG, and so will inevitably tion. Indeed the temptation is to wonder serve to mark the distance traveled in for- whether the ultimate gift of the new MGG ty years: “Altamerika,” “Amerika” (mean- will be its adherence to simple standards ing Latin America and the Caribbean), of tautness and intelligibility. It is too early “Afroamerikanische Musik” (meaning that to say, but the departure proves notice- of the entire hemisphere), “Altslawische able as well in the physical layout of pag- Musik,” “Biblische Musikinstrumente,” es and paragraphs: gone are the strange “Blues.” For me the presence of these ar- interruptions of diminutive and variously- ticles seems as salient a characteristic of spaced type that made certain pages of the new MGG as the fact that all subject the old MGG sheer torture. The ascetic entries will be divorced, Riemann-like, charm of those old tomes was that, lav- from people and institutions (14). Nor am ish in size and appearance (they even felt I dismayed by the German bias (15): ar- substantive), they conceded nothing to ticle assignments (“Banjo”) based chiefly ease of use: “Scholarship is hard,” one on reputation within the German orbit; was supposed to say, squinting. The new near-exclusive concentration on the Ger- MGG, by contrast, itself no tribute to the manic components of multi-ethnic tradi- bookmaker’s art (13), nonetheless adver- tions (“Baenkel-sang”); disproportionate tises the modern virtue of approachability. reliance on German-language bibliogra- phy (“Blues”)--for it is ironically this very asymmetry that, in the end, provides bal- Altogether less monumentality, then, but ance to the critical reference literature, it would not be fair to say less generosity. taken as a whole. I look forward to the The thirty columns dedicated to “Augs- prospect of an article on jazz whose bib- burg” lack the several facsimiles and plates liographical slant I may not be exposed to of the old article but contain nearly twice otherwise. the amount of text; the ten columns in the old MGG devoted to Hans Hickmann’s “Afrikanische Musik,” supplemented with More than that, the idiosyncracies of cov- six line-drawings seem a bit pallid next to erage and coordination in any such feat of Gerhard Kubik and Arthur Simon’s “Afrika synthesis, in my view, are to be relished suedlich der Sahara,” with 145 columns, rather than lamented. For good or ill, they two maps, 69 black-and-white and seven constitute the historiography of the field color plates, and approximately two doz- as much as any other feature, and we en music examples or notational illustra- should be loath in most circumstances to tions. The comparison is unfair, of course preordain or proscribe them. In any case (as a glance at the post-1950 bibliogra- it seems unclear what purpose would be served (other than pedantry) by pointing tive discussion (of, say, music integral out peculiarities of omission or commis- to bereavement ritual in several cultural sion unless they conflict with the ultimate contexts)--and had it done so, would objectives of the whole. Many readers have become a more substantial entry. will judge the entry on “Autograph” to be On the surface, perhaps, Finscher can slight--though in fairness they should wait be taken at his word when he claims not for the article on “Editionstechnik” in order to have repeated the Eurocentrism of the to see how well the two work together-- old MGG (18). But if the new MGG is to but the argument cannot be sustained that prod and inspire and exert a formative in- the subject’s treatment is ill-conceived or fluence on the field in the manner of its wrong-headed. predecessor, one suspects it will have to move beyond mere inclusiveness by al- phabetic sequence toward greater sub- Similarly, some may wonder, while not nec- ject integration. essarily bemoaning the choice, why the articles on “Argentinien” and “Australien” have separate subentries on rock music But then integration is one of the objec- but not, say, on the local jazz traditions of tives of synthesis, and both are desirable these countries; others will simply find the if we are not to become entrapped by our discussions of national popular musics su- specializations. Even within our sub- and perficial (16). Yet at times there is present, interdisciplines many experience what I believe, an undertow that flows against Clifford Geertz has plaintively described the editorial intent, and it does have to do as the “radical variousness of the way we with encyclopedic comprehensiveness. It think now (19).” Possibly the directed ef- is most easily felt in the articles devoted fort to provide synthesis and summation- to modern nation states or ethnic groups -of which MGG is a conspicuous example wherein persist the vague (but still not and not, one hopes, solely a response to wholly vapid) dichotomies between “Kun- some craving for voluminous academic stmusik” and everything else. Would that reference books--expresses a widely held MGG had brought us to a point of sophis- faith in the communicative energy latent in tication beyond this. the vocabulary and rhetoric of generaliza- tion, though the dialects of professional discourse be many. In that case, volume The slippage can also be discerned in the 1 of the new MGG both provides a stan- essays on conceptual categories or on dard of intelligibility to look to and also the methodologies of music study: “Ato- suggests what must yet be transcended. nalitaet,” fine as it is on the Second Vi- It remains to be seen whether the twenty ennese School, offers nothing on atonal volumes will themselves appear in a way jazz; neither “Analyse” nor “Auffuehrungs that transcends the fixity of print; should praxis” depart from Western constructs that happen, we shall be closer than ever to consider the not inconsequential eth- to Blume’s ideal of an encyclopedia exist- nomusiological literature on these topics ing in potentia. (17); and “Begraebnismusik” could surely have provided fertile ground for compara- (1) “Vorwort,” volume 1 of the “old” Die wart” zu entwerfen, Luecken in diesem Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Bild aufzufinden und zu schliessen,- ver Allgemeine Enzyklopaedie der Musik (Kas- nachlaessigte Fragen neu zu stellan, sel: Baerenreiter, 1949-51), p. vii. Ludwig neue, aus der systematischen Absicht Finscher refers to this monument as “die des Ganzen sich ergebende Fragen zu alte MGG” in his foreword to the new edi- verfolgen.” [But as regards content, the tion (Kassel: Baerenreiter; Stuttgart: Melt- MGG has not only summarized the state zler, 1994- ), and I shall follow that lead of research in all areas of the discipline, hereinafter. The twenty volumes of the but in fact has acted as a goad to re- new MGG are scheduled to appear in two search--through its claim to encyclopedic parts: a “Sachteil” in eight volumes, fol- breadth, its aim to limn a comprehensive lowed by a “Personenteil” in twelve. Vol- picture of music “in the past and in the ume1 of the new MGG covers subject en- present,” to seek out and fill lacunae in tries A-Bog. this picture, to formulate neglected ques- tions anew, to follow up new questions arising from the systematic purposeful- (2) In his “Postlude,” accessible in English ness of the whole.] “Vorwort,” new MGG, in Notes 24 (1967-68): 217-44, here at pp. vii-viii. 244.

(6) The Concise Oxford History of Music (3) Blume, “Die Musik in Geschichte und (London: Oxford University Press). Gegenwart: The Preface to the Supple- ment,” Notes 26 (1969-70): 5-8; C.W. Fox, [review of Lieferungen 1-2], Notes 7 (7) It strikes me as relevent in this con- (1949-50): 466-67; P.H. Lang, “Die Musik text that Grout-Palisca retains a high in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Epilogue,” profile in its fourth edition (Donald Grout Notes 36 (1979-80): 271-81. and Claude Palisca, A History of Western Music [New York: Norton, 1988] and Wo- erner likewise in its eighth (Karl Woerner, (4) The editor’s “Postlude” and “Preface to Geschichte der Musik [Goettingen: Van- the Supplement” (notes 2-3) both contain denhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993]). references to changes of direction and the resulting asymmetries. (8) Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, Musik im Abendland: Prozesse und Stationen vom (5) It is an important point, to which I shall Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart (Munich: return presently: “Die MGG hat aber auch Piper, 1991). inhaltlich nicht nur den Forschungsstand in allen Bereichen des Faches zusammenge- fasst, sondern die Forschung weitergetrie- (9) At the time of this writing, Solomon’s ben--allen durch ihren enzyklopaedischen Mozart: A Life (New York: HarperCollins, Anspruch, den Zwang, ein umfassendes 1995) has just been described (by Ed- Bild der Musik “in Geschichte und Gegen- ward Said, in The New Yorker [13 March 1995]: 99) as “a compelling--indeed often able to recommend that libraries and indi- harrowing--synthesis.” viduals with limited resources might con- sider subscribing to the subject volumes only, especially in light of the traditional (10) “Vorwort,” New MGG, pp. vii, ix. strengths of German music scholarship. This may in fact be a good strategy for some, but little reflection is required to re- (11) The New Grove Dictionary of Music alize that the potential for self-reference and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (Lon- within the encyclopedia is great: presum- don: Macmillan, 1980) contains no entry ably readers of “Konzert” will be sent to for “Music.” Volume 1 of the new MGG Vivaldi. Also I should point out that insti- tantalizes with a directional reference from tutional histories are not found among the “ars musica” to “Musicke-Musica-Musik.” “Sachteil” entries, so that investigators of music publishing will look for the firm Ar- taria in the “Personen” volumes. (It is not (12) I should perhaps state emphatically yet possible to comment on whether the that my impressions here recorded can- sound-recording and electronic publish- not, proleptically, constitute a review of ing industries will be similarly represent- the new MGG. Far too many questions ed.) remain unanswerable at this stage to do more than take courteous notice of a momentous project. Serial publication of (15) Though I am confused about the the old MGG worked against the kind of choice of towns and cities (Altdorf amd reception history reviews provide, and it Ansbach have individual entries; Athens, may prove interesting to see whether that Baghdad, and Bogota do not). problem will resurface for the new MGG, for--in keeping with my theme thus far--it is often in the review literature that schol- (16) The exception thus far is “Aegypten,” arly synthesis occurs. shared by Ellen Hickmann and Salwa El- Shawan Castelo-Branco, surely one of the jewels of volume 1. (13) It may not bode well for volumes so likely to be used heavily that the paper- board covers of my copy were disfigured (17) On the subject of analysis, see sec- in shipment. Alarming, too, are confirmed tion IV of Ann Briegleb Schuursma’s Eth- reports that volume 2, which I have not nomusicology Research: A Select Anno- seen, has been printed on acidic paper. tated Bibliography (New York: Garland, 1992), for citations that are historically important if not fully representative of cur- (14) If there is an ideological rationale for rent thinking. Performance practice has, this, I have failed to grasp its significance: of course, long attracted theoretical dis- it is not clear to me why two alphabetical cussion in the fields of folkore and com- sequences are better than one. But since munications as well as ethnomusicology the opportunity exists, I would like to be (oral narrative performance alone qualifies as a discrete area of study, one whose im- plications for music have been argued in many contexts; see, for example, Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Enter- tainments: A Communications-Centered Handbook, ed. Richard Bauman (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).

(18) “Vorwort,” new MGG, p. ix. I shall sidestep the question whether a Europe- an encyclopedia can be anything but Eu- rocentric, by definition.

(19) “The Way We Think Now: Toward an Ethnography of Modern Thought,” in his Local Knowledge (New York: Basic Books, 1983), 161. I do not come by this reference honestly: the citation is found in Richard Lanham’s “Strange Lands, Strange Languages, and Useful Miracles,” an essay that I much admire, found in his The Electronic Word: Democracy, Tech- nology, and the Arts (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 139.

(Reprinted, slightly altered, from Notes 52 [1995-96], 39-44; by permission.)