THE MUSICAL CRITIC and TRADE REVIEW. 3T>5
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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org May 5th, 1882. THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW. 3t>5 HISS AMELIA WDKM1!. first musical utterances were from "The Lock festivals twenty-four years ago. The quarter cen- Miss Amelia Wurmb, mezzo soprano, came Hospital" and other collections of hymn tunes tennial festival of the association will occur dur- here last fall with an excellent reputation as then in general use in New England. By degrees ing the last week in September. Among other concert singer in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Kome, music of a higher order was rehearsed. works the society has in preparation for this event and other European musical centres. Miss Wurmb Its first public performance was given on Christ- the "Damnation of Faust," by Berlioz; Scenes was born in Vienna in 1853. When eight years of mas Day, 1815, at Stone Chapel, now called King's from "Lohengrin," by Wagner; the Ninth Sym- age she played the organ on several occasions in Chapel, to an audience of one thousand persons. phony, and "The Messiah." For fifteen years Mr. the cathedral in which her sister was the soprano. The chorus consisted of about one hundred, of Carl Zerrahn has been not only the conductor at • At one time when her sister was ill she sang the whom ten were ladies, while an orchestra of about the annual festivals of the association, but the solos in a mass in her stead, being at the time a dozen instruments and the organ furnished the chorus master, all rehearsals being held under his scarcely nine years of age. accompaniments. The programme included selec- direction. Her education, begun in Vienna, was com- tions from "The Creation" and "The Messiah," THE CECILIAN SOCIETY. pleted in Paris under Delsarte. Her debut was and other works by Handel. An enthusiastic journalist declared that "there was nothing to The chorus, numbering about 400 voices, was at length made in a Thomas concert in January organized in Philadelphia on May 15, 1875. Mr. last, when she sang selections from Wagner's compare with it," and that "the society was tbe wonder of the nation." This conceit was re- Michael H. Cross was chosen musical director. "Rheingold." The lady is an accomplished lin- The first rehearsal was held on September 15, guist. peated on the 18th of January, 1816. The State Legislature granted to the society February 9, 1875, in the large hall at Chestnut and Eighteenth PUDLEY BUCK. 1816, a special charter wherein the purpose of the streets, which the chorus has ever since retained The early education of Mr. Dudley Buck, the society "to extend the knowledge and improve for its preparatory work. In three months "The organist, was not conducted with a view to his the style of church musick" was recognized. In Messiah" was given before a crowded house at the becoming a musician. His father, a shipping mer- the early concerts the solos were sung by mem Academy of Music. chant in Hartford, where Dudley was born in 1839, bei's of the choir, and to a certain extent they The concerts of the Cecilian have since theu wished his son to succeed him in business. While composed the orchestra also. been a regular feature of the musical season. In at school, though, he managed to borrow a flute The first engagement of a professional soloist several years the orchestra of Theodore Thomas and made his first musical essays seated among was that of Mr Thomas Phillips, in April, 1818, was engaged. Mrs. E. Aline Osgood, Mr. Theo- the foliage of a cherry tree. From a clerk in his to whom was paid the extraordinary sum of four dore J. Toodt, and Mr. Georg Henschel were first father's office he obtained a work on thorough hundred dollars for two concerts. It was not heard at the Cecilian Concerts. bass, which he studied diligently. When on his until the seventeenth concert that a complete The oratorio of "Samson" was first sung in thirteenth birthday he received a flute as a present, oratorio was performed. This was "The Mes- Philadelphia by this chorus, and "St. Paul" had he surprised his family by at once playing upon siah," and the month was December, 1818. The been unheard so long that it was new to most it, for they knew nothing of his previous essays. number of concerts given during a season has listeners when the Cecilian sang it four years He had to wait for a piano until he was sixteen; been as low as one and as high as twenty-three. ago. and not until 1858, when he was a junior at Very rarely has a concert been omitted at Easter, The list of works given in public by the so- Trinity, did his parents decide to give him a and still more rarely has the society failed to give ciety includes "The Messiah," "St. Paul, "Sta- musical education. "The Messiah" at Christmas. bat Mater," "Samson," "The Creation," "Elijah," In that year he went to Leipsic and studied at The support of the society is almost wholly de- "Judas Maccabaeus," besides, a great deal of mis- the Conservatory. In 1862 he returned to this rived from the proceeds of the concerts, but cellaneous music has been rendered by the so- • country and was appointed organist of the Music there ia a permanent trust fund, begun with the ciety. The most ambitious task yet undertaken Hall. Mr. Thomas met him and engaged him as profits of a festival given in May, 1865 (to wit, by the society is "Israel in Egypt." assistant conductor at the Central Park Garden $2,000), and which, by subsequent earnings, in- FESTIVAL CHORUSED. concerts. He is now organist at Holy Trinity, terest, bequests and donations, now amounts to Brooklyn, and conductor at the Apollo Club of 320,000. In pursuance of its avowed purpose to The New York Chorus Society—600 singers. that city. Besides numerous church compositions improve the style of church music, the society Theodore Thomas, Director. W. G. Dietrich, and technical works, he composed the Centennial in its earlier days published several volumes of Chorus Master. •Cantata, received the first Cincinnati Festival prize, anthems and hymn tunes, established lectures on The Brooklyn Philharmonic Chorus—600 and has written a number of songs of considerable musical topics, and formed singing classes The singers. Theodore Thomas, Director. C. Mor- merit. publications quickly became standard, and large timer Wiske and W. G. Dietrich, Chorus Masters. MB. O. MORTIMEB WISKE, profits were realized from the sales; oratorios were The Handel and Haydn Society of Boston—350 also published under its supervision. Th© number singers. Carl Zerrahn, Conductor. The conductor of the Williamsburg branch of the of members, active and retired—the latter a volun- The Ceciliau of Philadelphia—350 singers. Brooklyn Philharmonic chorus, was born at Troy, tary condition after twenty years' service—is about Michael H. Cross, Director. N. Y., January 12, 1853. At the age of twelve three hundred and seventy-five. The active choral The Worcester County Musical Association of years he was appointed organist of the Tibbetts force is a little over five hundred. The female Massachusetts—450 singers. Carl Zerrahn, Con- Chapel, Hoosick, N. Y., and at sixteen years of choristers have never been members of the society, ductor. age he was appointed organist and choir director technically speaking, but are, as members of the The Baltimore Oratorio Association—550 sing- of the Church of the Ascension in Troy, which chorus, subject to the same rules as the men, ers. Fritz Finke, Conductor. position he held until his removal to New York in while paying no dues and having no vote. The The Reading Choral Society of Reading, Pa.— 1872. society has held seven festivals. 100 singers. Edward A. Berg, Conductor. He has held prominont positions in Brooklyn as organist and conductor, and is at present con- It has also taken part in the opening ceremo- THE FESTIVAL ORGAN. nected in this oapacity with the Hanson Place nies at the Crystal Palace in New York in 1854; of Mr. Hilborno L. Roosevelt has built an organ Church. At twenty-one he was appointed con- the Beethoven Centenary Festival, New York, especially for the Festival. It has been placed ductor of the Brooklyn Choral Union, and held June, 1870; in a series of concerts in connec- under the stage, as all the stage room is needed the position during the three years of the so- tion with Theodore Thomas's orchestra, in 1873, for the singers. The instrument was designed ciety's existence. In 1880 he organized the Arn- at Steinway Hall, New York, and has ap- especially to. support the chorus, and consists phion Musical Society in Brooklyn. This society is peared at the Academy of Music, Brooklyn, on of one manual and one pedal keyboard, con- only in its second year, but is one of the most which occasions they performed "Elijah," "Hymn trolling twelve registers, with scales that are successful of its kind, with a membership of over of Praise," the Ninth Symphony, and selections very large, and tones powerful, round, and bril- four hundred. This society produced in January from "Israel in Egypt." It also participated in liant, without being harsh. The keybox is placed of this year scenes from "Frithiof's Saga," by the two Peace Jubilees in Boston, in 18G9 and directly in front of the conductor's stand, so that Max Bruch, under his direction. In 1881 he was 1872. It has brought out in sixty-seven seasons Dudley Buck has the same view of Mr.