NOAH GREENBERG and the NEW YORK PRO Musica

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Gaskiil, Sarah Jane

THE ARTIST AS MANAGER: NOAH GREENBERG AND THE NEW YORK PRO MUSiCA

The American University M.A. 1984

University Microfilms

Intern stionei300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106

NOAH GREENBERG AND THE NEW YORK PRO MUSICA

Sarah Jane Gaskiil

Submitted to the

Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences

of The American University

in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

Arts Management

Signatures of Committee:

Chair: B- Mgy-'oo

j / -

Qk ciA is . fei

Dean of the Colleg^/y

Daté/

1984 The American University Washington, D.C. 20016 ^ ^

il-HE AH S H I C i J UNIVEKSITY LIBRARY

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. @ Copyright

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. For my parents, whose constant support enabled

me to find my way this far.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE ARTIST AS MANAGER:

NOAH GREENBERG AND THE NEW YORK PRO MUSICA

Sarah Jane Gaskiil

ABSTRACT

Founded by Noah Greenberg in 1952, the New York Pro Musica was

uniquely responsible for the revival of early music performance in the

United States. Several themes emerge from a study of the New York Pro

Musica. America's first professional early music ensemble had a clear

sense of its mission, an emphasis on artistic development, and the

desire to provide its artists full-time employment. As artist and

manager, Noah Greenberg took ultimate responsibility for the organiza

tion.

Based on archival research and interviews with principal associates

of the organization, this paper traces these themes chronologically,

beginning with the early years (1952-57) and progressing through a

middle period of growth (1957-62) toward the final period of expansion

(1962-66). In 1966, Noah Greenberg died. The New York Pro Musica

continued operations until 1974 but could not survive its founder.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, it was the complete cooperation of Toni

Greenberg that made this paper possible at all. I owe her thanks for

providing access to the archival materials and for permitting the

reprint of some of them here; for spending generous amounts of time

answering my questions and allowing the reproduction of parts of those

interviews here; for reading the entire draft; and for encouraging this

project from the start. All sources in the New York Pro Musica Archives

now housed at the New York Public Library are quoted by permission of

Toni Greenberg.

Thanks go to George Schuetze for providing the original inspira

tion of the topic in the spring of 1981; to Jo Ellen Grzyb for

graciously providing access to the archival materials during the period

they were housed in her Manhattan studio; and to Steven Ledbetter and

Lynn Trowbridge for their encouragement and sound advice early on.

Special appreciation is due Richard F. French for suggesting the

format of a chronological history, for contributing other valuable

advice and information, and for reading the complete draft.

Lastly, without the sage criticism and guidance of Massimo Ossi,

this paper would never have found its way from draft to final copy.

I'm grateful for his insistence that the highest standards of scholar

ship be maintained from start to finish.

Ill

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CONTENTS

ABSTRACT . . . . 1 1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LU

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

CHAPTER II. THE EARLY YEARS: i952-57 7

1953-54 (12)— 1954-55 (16) — 1955-56 (19)— 1956-57 (21)— Summary: The Early Years (26)

CHAPTER III. ORDERLY GROOTH, PART 1: 1957-62 29

Rockefeller Foundation Grants (29)— 1957-58 (34)— 1958-59 (39) — 1959-60 (44)— 1960-61 (52)— 1961-62 (58)— Summary : 1957-62 (62)

CHAPTER IV. ORDERLY GROOTH, PART 2: 1962-66 65

Ford Foundation Grant (65)— 1962-63 (72)— 1963-64 (76)— 1964-65 (84)— 1965-66 (89)— Summary: 1962-66 (91)

CHAPTER V. EPILOGUE: 1966-74...... 93

APPENDIX A. CHRONOLOGICAL DISCOGRAPHY ...... 104

APPENDIX B. PUBLICATIONS ...... 109

APPENDIX C. ATTACHMENT TO THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION . . 115

APPENDIX D. TRIBUTE TO NOAH GREENBERG BY DENIS STEVENS 117

REFERENCES ...... 120

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In the early 1950s, American audiences occasionally had the

opportunity to hear concerts of early music performed by student groups

at universities or by visiting European ensembles. There existed,

however, no professional American ensemble devoted solely to the study

and performance of music written between 1200 and 1700.

Until a few decades ago, people who spoke of "early music" usually meant a body of composition featuring intensive counter point and strange harmonies, offering limited resources for emotional expression, and appealing only to an audience of specialists and scholars. One respected it, of course; one paid a certain homage to the distant names of Josquin and Lassus, Palestrina and Monteverdi; but it was student stuff, with no practical application.

Much of the music had to be reconstructed before it could be performed, and performing it required special training. The scholars who did the reconstructions and undertook to lead the performances often had no particular talent as executant musicians, and the singers who worked under their direction were almost invariably eager amateurs or conscientious undergraduates, whose vocalism was breathy and insecure and commonly off pitch. Whatever the beauties of the music, such performances could have little appeal, even for a sophisticated audience. And the absence of a considerable ticket-buying audience kept professional singers from trying their hand at the music. A vicious circle of classic dimension was in operation to restrict the enjoyment of medieval and Renaissance music to a cult of devotees.1

One major factor led to a change in the early music scene in the

Martin Mayer, "Musical Echoes of the Renaissance," The Reporter, September 5, 1957 (38-40), p. 38. I am indebted to this article for much of the background information and early history of Pro Musica.

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United States: the growth of the phonograph record, which both opened

up a world-wide market for early music and released performers from

dependence on local audiences.^ A pioneer who took advantage of the

expansion of the recording industry was Noah Greenberg, who led the

revival of early music in the United States with his organization, the

New York Pro Musica, which he founded in 1952. Pro Musica consisted of

a core of ten singers and instrumentalists, augmented at its height by

a motet choir. Renaissance band, several medieval music drama companies

and other ensembles. It also functioned as a library, a research

center, and a small school. The New York Pro Musica was a major

musical institution.

From the start. Pro Musica was the creature of one man, Noah

Greenberg. As Michael Steinberg wrote in The New Grove,

More than might be believed possible for one man, he changed contemporary attitudes to early music, and the texture of concert life in the USA, where his example and influence brought about the foundation of a number of early music ensembles.^

Noah Greenberg took the ultimate responsibility for the organization,

"from choosing the repertory and the performers to the furniture in the 3 office." He enjoyed his role as impresario as much as his role as

artist; his enthusiasm for early music secured many concert bookings for

Pro Musica through the years. Ronald Wilford, one of Pro Musica's early

concert managers, who is now president of Columbia Artists Management,

^Ibid. 2 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 6th ed., s.v. "Greenberg, Noah," by Michael Steinberg. 3 Toni Greenberg, interview held in New York, March 1984.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. commented:

The whole spirit of the organization was Noah Greenberg. The performances were Noah Greenberg. As great as Russell Oberlin [and company] were, the personality of the group and the intellectual stimulation and everything— the excitement— were Noah Greenberg. If you hear Noah speak about New York Pro Musica, you couldn't help but become interested in it.l

Noah Greenberg was always sensitive to his audiences. Programming

on tour would differ from that in New York in that less sophisticated

audiences being introduced to early music for the first time might be

given programs with English language texts rather than foreign

languages. A typical Pro Musica concert program was usually chosen from

music of one country and one century and tried to provide a comprehen

sive picture of the musical life of the time, both sacred and secular.

The focus of a program would occur before the intermission; the second

half would be made up of lighter repertoire.

Pro Musica's board of directors was made up of a talented group of

people, each of whom was artistically oriented; there were no 2 professional business people. Only three men served as president of

the board during the fourteen-year period primarily under consideration

in this thesis: Noah Greenberg (who resigned early on because that "was

the more professional way to do things"), Arthur Squires, and Richard 3 French. Although Noah Greenberg was not a member of the board after

1954, he worked closely with the president in organizing the board

meetings to report on his projects, to alert the board as to Pro

^Ronald Wilford, interview held in New York, March 1984. 2 Richard F. French, interview held in Boston, November 1981. 3 Toni Greenberg, March 1984.

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Musica's financial condition, and so forth. "There really couldn't

have been a meeting without Noah. It was his organization, for better

or for worse.

An examination of the history of the New York Pro Musica must

necessarily be placed in the context of the 1950s and 1960s. "Arts

administration" as a profession and the body of arts management

literature available to managers of arts organizations today did not

exist then. Fund raising was limited to wealthy arts patrons, other

individual contributors, and foundations. Regular federal government

funding, other than international tours supported by the State

Department, began only in 1965 with the creation of the National

Endowment for the Arts. State government support began in New York in

1960 with the foundation of the New York State Council on the Arts; in 2 the early years it was a small organization "run out of a tiny office."

Corporate sources of funding had yet to be tapped.

At the same time, bureaucracy in non-profit organizations could

be held to a minimum. For example, they were not liable for social

security, health insurance, or unemployment benefits. Musicians'

unions did not exert the control over arts organizations that they

do today.

All of the activities of Pro Musica bore the stamp of Noah

Greenberg's personality, vision, enthusiasm, practicality and intellect.

Ultimately, the organization could not survive him.

Several themes emerge from this study of the New York Pro Musica.

^Ibid. 2 Toni Greenberg, March 1984.

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First, there was always an emphasis on artistic development and growth.

For Noah Greenberg, the process of musical discovery was endless and

exciting. It included the search for new repertoire as well as the

experimentation involved with the rehearsal and public performance.

"Noah's vitality best expressed itself in his ability to see towards the

future and to keep it ever opening before him. He never ceased to

translate vision into reality."^

Secondly, Pro Musica stressed the professionalization of early

music. Although it was never quite achieved, a primary aim of the

organization was to provide a full-time living for its principal artists

through more recordings, concerts, television programs and bonuses. Pro

Musica wanted the full-time commitment of these artists and believed

that they were entitled to appropriate pay. Noah Greenberg insisted

that Pro Musica be a part of the regular concert world; the musicians

wore normal concert dress, not costumes. "Noah didn't want early music 2 to be cute," says Toni Greenberg.

Thirdly, the presence of the right people at the right time helped

guarantee Pro Musica's success. Noah Greenberg had an uncanny ability

to attract exactly the kind of people who could help him. Three key

members of the board of directors, Arthur Squires, Richard French, and

Toni Greenberg, made significant contributions to the organization's

management, particularly in the area of long-range planning. Influential

individuals from outside the organization, such as W. H. Auden and

Lincoln Kirstein, aided Pro Musica at crucial points in its development.

^Charles Canfield Brown to Richard F. French, 6 April 1966, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. 2 Toni Greenberg, March 1984.

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Most significantly. Pro Musica had a clear sense of its mission.

During its great expansion from one ensemble that gave seven concerts in

its first year to a number of groups that gave over one hundred public

performances in 1965-66, the organization never lost sight of its

original objectives. Chief among those were educating the public about

early music.

These themes are traced in the following four chapters which take

the form of a chronological history, from the early years through a

middle period of growth aided by two grants from the Rockefeller

Foundation to a final period of expansion brought about by a major grant

from the Ford Foundation.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER II

THE EARLY YEARS: 1952-57

Noah Greenberg was born in New York, April 9, 1919. He attended

public schools there and studied piano and composition privately in the

1930s with Arnold Zemachson and Harold Brown. To the latter he credited

his initial interest, at age thirteen, in music of the medieval.

Renaissance and early Baroque periods.^ At the age of twenty-three,

Greenberg joined the United States Merchant Marines, which he served 2 from 1942 to 1949. He continued his study of early music by collecting

rare scores and recordings at European ports of call, and "studied them

through the long, solitary, undistracted leisure hours of a sailor's 3 life." Greenberg credited Gustave Reese, through his monumental Music

in the Middle Ages and Music in the Renaissance, with persuading him to

devote his life's work to the study and performance of that music.^

^"Noah Greenberg is Dead at 46; Founded New York Pro Musica," New York Times, 10 January 1966, p. 25. 2 Steinberg, The New Grove. Richard French testifies that "Greenberg was a cook in the Merchant Marine; that is where he learned to make, among other things, fantastic omelettes and his famous 'shrimp dish'." Richard F. French to author, 4 October 1984. 3 Mayer, p. 39.

^Noah Greenberg, "Early Music Performance Today," in Aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Music, a Birthday Offering to Gustave Reese (New York: W. W. Norton, 1966), p. 314. The article was actually written by Richard F. French, based on Noah Greenberg's rough verbal instructions. Richard F. French to author, 4 October 1984.

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Returning to civilian life in New York at age thirty, Greenberg was

employed by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union to organize

choruses among its membership.^ At the same time, he formed a small

private group of singers who shared his enthusiasm for early music.

This group rehearsed on a weekly basis at St. Luke's Chapel at Trinity 2 Church on Hudson Street, Greenwich Village.

Toward the end of 1952, a small recording company called Esoteric

Records asked Greenberg to undertake a series of recordings of early 3 music. Esoteric hoped the project could be accomplished cheaply, but

Greenberg insisted upon hiring professional musicians and spending as

much time as necessary in rehearsals to achieve the musical results he

wanted.^ The study group from St. Luke's Church formed the core of the

vocal ensemble for the recordings, and for what was to become the New

York Pro Musica.^

This first recording for Esoteric, released in February 1953, was

Adriano Banchieri's Festino.

\layer, p. 38. ^The New Grove. ^Mayer, p. 38.

^Noah Greenberg's article in the Reese Festschrift (actually written by Richard French) notes the following about the advent of early music in the United States: "Amusingly enough, it was not the givers of conventional concerts who opened up their programs to the repertory of early music, but the record companies— and, for the most part, not the large record companies (who could have easily afforded to do it) but the small ones, who could not afford to hire the virtuoso ensembles and artists needed to sell recordings of the standard repertory. Given the LP record and a restricted operating budget, the small companies were drawn to the modest (and modestly priced) ensembles of the practitioners of earlier music. The partnership was an extraordinarily happy one." Greenberg, p. 315; though these comments are stated in the plural, they clearly refer to Pro Musica's pioneering association with Esoteric.

^Toni Greenberg, interview held in New York, February 1982.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. It made a splash in the small community that bought strange-looking records of unknown music .... And Pro Musica sang the work as few people had ever heard Renaissance music sung— in full voice, on pitch, in aggressive, bouncing rhythms, and without the slightest hint of scholarly timidity.^

The original vocal ensemble for Festino consisted of Ruth Daigon

and Lois Roman, sopranos; Russell Oberlin, countertenor; Charles

Bressler and Arthur Squires, tenors; and Brayton Lewis, bass. The

female voices were a less stable lot than the males in Pro Musica's

early years; Jean Hakes and Betty Wilson replaced Lois Roman and Ruth 2 Daigon by 1954. The original male voices remained unchanged until the

fall of 1957. Russell Oberlin, in 1953 a recent graduate of the

Juilliard School of Music, had sung with Robert Shaw's Collegiate

Chorale. Noah Greenberg had heard him sing solos in several churches in

New York, recognized his extraordinarily high tenor range, and intro

duced him to the literature of the Renaissance, thus initiating the

career of one of the first professional American counter-tenors.

Charles Bressler had also sung for Robert Shaw and in churches in his

home town of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; as a fellow Juilliard graduate,

he came to the group on Oberlin's recommendation. The second tenor,

Arthur Squires, was a chemical engineer with conservatory training in

cello, piano and voice, and the only member of the ensemble who was not

Mayer, p. 39. The Festino recording proved to be a unique instance in Pro Musica's history, preceding the first public performance of the work. Subsequently, Greenberg always used the rehearsals and performances of a work as preparation for the recording. 2 Wilson and Hakes appear in a picture accompanying the Mayer article in November 1954, and sang a concert at Castle Hill, Massachusetts in July 1955. However, Daigon and Hakes recorded An Evening of Elizabethan Verse and Its Music in 1955.

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a full-time professional musician. Brayton Lewis, the bass, had for

several years made his living by singing for Broadway musicals and in

the Radio City Music Hall Chorus.^

While these singers were reading vocal music at St. Luke's Church,

a group of instrumental musicians was meeting independently to play

early music on modern reconstructions of old instruments: viols,

recorders and harpsichord. Among them was Bernard Krainis, a 2 professional jazz trombonist who played recorders. Noah Greenberg

invited this group, under Krainis's direction, to provide the

instrumental ensemble needed for subsequent Esoteric recordings and

eventually for the New York Pro Musica. Greenberg and Krainis are

generally credited as co-founders of the organization.

The original instrumental ensemble consisted of Krainis on

recorders; Sonya Monosoff, viols; and Blanche Winogran, virginals or

harpsichord. Paul Maynard shortly replaced Winogran; Elizabeth Kyberg

occasionally assisted with recorders. By 1954, Seymour Barab also

played viols and was replaced the following year by Martha Blackman.

Following the release of Festino (but before its first public

performance), the New York Pro Musica was formally incorporated in the

State of New York on March 14, 1953. The purposes of the organization,

as stated in the Articles of Incorporation, were designated to be

"exclusively charitable, scientific, literary and educational" and can

^Biographical information on all the original members of the ensemble was obtained from Mayer, pp. 38-39. 2 Mayer, p. 39.

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be summarized as follows: to encourage the general public's understand

ing of early music through concerts and recordings, to promote research

of music not generally known to the general public and to musicians, to

acquire appropriate manuscripts, scores, and musical instruments, to

maintain facilities, and to employ singers and instrumentalists to carry

out the organization's purpose.^ The number of directors of the

corporation was designated to be not less than three and not more than

eleven.^

The organization was formally incorporated as "The New York Pro

Musica Antiqua, Inc." The first article of corporation noted that the

words "Pro Musica Antiqua" meant having to do with "antique or ancient 3 music." The designation was copied from Safford Cape's Brussells' group

of the same name.^ Later the word "Antiqua" was dropped from the

organization's title to avoid confusion between the two.^ The New York

Pro Musica retained the word "Antiqua" only for legal purposes.

The five incorporators, Noah Greenberg, Jesse Simons, Bernard

Krainis, Toni Greenberg and I. Meyer Pincus, first met March 29, 1953 at

80 Perry Street, the Greenbergs' residence. With Noah Greenberg acting

as chairman, a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation was presented

and by-laws adopted. After nominating and electing themselves to the

board of directors, the participants opened the first meeting of the

Certificate of Incorporation of the New York Pro Musica Antiqua, 14 March 1954, Article Two, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

^Ibid., Article Five.

^Ibid., Article One.

^Richard F. French to author, 4 October 1984.

^Steinberg, The New Grove.

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board. The directors were elected to serve as officers; Noah Greenberg,

President; Bernard Krainis, Vice-President; Toni Greenberg, Treasurer;

and I. Meyer Pincus, Secretary. They authorized a corporate seal,

designated the principal office of the corporation to be 80 Perry

Street, and named the fiscal year June 1 to May 31. Annual meetings of

the members of the corporation were to be held on the first Tuesday of

October. The directors agreed to apply for tax-exempt status with the

United States Treasury Department (granted in 1954), and to open a bank

account with the Irving Trust Company.^

Following the release of Pro Musica's first recording in February

1953, Greenberg and Krainis rented the auditorium of New York's School 2 for Social Research for one hundred dollars. The group's first public

concert took place there on April 26, 1953. Noah Greenberg invited

William Kolodney, the concert manager of the Young Men's-Young Women's 3 Hebrew Association (the YM-YWHA, or 92nd Street Y) to the performance.

Kolodney was sufficiently impressed and invited Pro Musica to present a

series of concerts at the Y's Kaufmann Auditorium during the 1953-54 4 season.

1953-54

In its first full season, the New York Pro Musica gave four

Minutes of the meeting of the board of directors, 29 March 1953, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. 2 3 Mayer, p. 39. Toni Greenberg, February 1982. 4 Mayer, p . 39.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. concerts at Kaufmann Auditorium.^ The second of these, on February 22,

1954, was devoted to twenty-seven pieces by Salomone Rossi, a Jewish

contemporary of Monteverdi who wrote music for the synagogue and secular

madrigals in the style of the late Renaissance. This occasion was 2 likely the first modern performance of Rossi's works. The New York

Times' critic wrote, "The performance under Noah Greenberg's sensitive

direction had the gentleness, skill and linear quality for which his 3 group is already noted."

The Kaufmann concerts were a joint effort between the YM-YWHA and

Pro Musica. Between the two organizations "there was always quite a bit

of negotiation as to who was to get what and who was to do what. For

example, the Y ran the box office while Pro Musica furnished its own

printed programs. The programs, with texts in original languages and in

English and extensive program notes, were prepared for Pro Musica by

Carl Miller (later a board member), and the typography was donated by

Franz Hess, the president of Huxley House, the most distinguished

[Arthur Squires], "Request for Aid to Provide for Orderly Growth of Pro Musica," (Rockefeller Foundation grant application), 13 September 1957, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. Pro Musica's season corresponds with the fiscal year, June 1 to May 31. The early history of the organization as revealed through official documents, such as minutes of meetings of the board of directors, is poorly documented. 2 Mayer, p. 39. 3 [Ross Parmenter], "All Rossi Program," New York Times, 23 February 1954, p. 25.

^Toni Greenberg, March 1984.

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typographers then in New York.^ During the early years, Pro Musica did

not collect a straight fee from the Y for the regular series of concerts

performed there, but produced them at their own financial risk. The

Kaufmann series became Pro Musica's showcase for both the critics and a

growing, loyal audience.

In the spring of 1954, Pro Musica was invited to perform at the

inaugural cermonies for the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the 2 Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum booked the group

for one other concert in 1954, as did the YM-YWHA, for a total of three

bookings, or concerts for which Pro Musica was paid a performance fee,

in its first season. With the four concerts produced by Pro Musica at 3 Kaufmann Auditorium, total performances numbered seven for 1953-54.

The Esoteric recordings, so crucial to the creation of Pro Musica,

continued in 1953-54. A total of five recordings, including Festino,

John Blow's "Ode on the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell," madrigals by Thomas

Morley, English medieval Christmas carols, and "An Elizabethan Songbag

for Young People" were issued on the Esoteric label in 1953.^ Four of

these were cited the "outstanding releases of 1953" by the Gramophone

Richard F. French to author, 4 October 1984. It is unclear when the services of Miller and Hess actually began, but the programs were a distinctive attraction of the Y series. Later, Hess also designed many of the covers for the Decca recordings and designed and contributed Pro Musica's logo. 2 Promotional brochure, copyright 1974, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. 3 Rockefeller Foundation grant application, appendix.

^A complete discography is listed in Appendix A.

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Shop.^ Thanks to the Esoteric recordings and the New York concert

appearances. Pro Musica had established a solid reputation in New York

only a year after its incorporation.

At a board meeting in February 1954, Noah Greenberg announced his

resignation as president and as a member of the board of directors;

Bernard Krainis likewise resigned. "They both indicated that they

believed it inadvisable to continue in an official capacity with the 2 corporation in view of the intimate relation to the musical functions."

As Toni Greenberg explains, they resigned because

. . . this was the more professional way to do things. Noah had no experience with boards . . . it was a learning process for him. I guess someone who knew about the proper structure of a board pointed out that there should be a difference between staff and board.3

Arthur Squires was unanimously elected president (and a member of the

board); the position of vice-president was left vacant. The board also

accepted the resignation of Jesse Simons, who did not have time to

devote to Pro Musica. Noah Greenberg was elected Musical Director and

Bernard Krainis was elected Assistant Musical Director. In view of the

growth of Pro Musica since its incorporation, their responsibilities

were to "have direct charge of the singers and instrumentalists, and

also of the research activities of the organization."^

The organization's expenses for 1953-54 totalled $10,173, including

^Promotional brochure. 2 Minutes of the meeting of the board of directors, 7 February 1954, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

3 Toni Greenberg, March 1984.

^Minutes, 7 February 1954.

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artists' fees for concerts and recordings, rehearsal fees, and

advertising. Other than $70 spent for "translations, typing, etc.,"

and $42 for legal services, there were no expenses for administrative

services. Income amounted to $10,372, resulting in a surplus of $199.

Of the total income, eighty-three percent represented earnings from the

four concerts produced by Pro Musica ($3,462), three concerts sponsored

by other organizations ($2,100) and from recording fees and a

television appearance ($3,048).^

1954-55

In the spring of 1954, a set of circumstances in western

Massachusetts set the course for Pro Musica's summer activities for the

next three years. Roy "Skip" Rappaport, owner of the Avaloch Inn across

the road from Tanglewood, near Stockbridge, Massachusetts, wanted to

sponsor some concerts of early music. He sought the advice of Clemens

Kalischer, a local photographer, concerning an appropriate performing

group. Kalischer consulted a friend in New York, Sonya Monosoff, who

recommended the ensemble of which she was a member, the New York Pro

Musica.^

After negotiations between Noah Greenberg and Skip Rappaport were

finalized, accommodations were found for the Greenbergs, their baby

daughter, and eleven performers and their families on a farm near

Chatham, New York. Rehearsals took place outside and in a barn. Toni

Rockefeller Foundation grant application, appendix. Although the fee for one television appearance appears in the 1953-54 budget as written in the 1957 Rockefeller Foundation grant application, no documentation identifying that appearance can be found. 2 Clemens Kalischer, interview held in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, April 1983.

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Greenberg describes the arrangements as a commune before its time: "We

were just a bunch of kids having a good time.

Original plans had called for the construction of a tent for the 2 concert on the grounds of the Avaloch. However, according to a press

release written by Kalischer (who served as public relations director),

by midsummer "the great interest already shown [by the general public]

made the use of a larger hall preferable." Thus, six concerts billed as

"the first festival of its kind to be presented in this country" took

place from August 18th to 29th in the Lenox Town Hall, which had a 3 seating capacity of six hundred. In attendance were such notables as

Erik Erikson, Stefan Lorant, William Gibson, Mrs. Norman Rockwell,

E. Power Biggs, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, and Mme. Olga Koussevitsky

In 1954-55, Pro Musica expanded its series at Kaufmann Auditorium

to five programs.^ In addition, the group was booked to give six

concerts both in and outside of New York. In Washington, D.C., the

International Bank and Monetary Fund invited Pro Musica to entertain at

its ninth annual meeting at the Folger Shakespeare Library.^ In

Baltimore, the group gave a performance at the Peabody Conservatory of

Music.^ In New York, two performances at the Cloisters marked the

^Toni Greenberg, March 1984.

^Clemens Kalischer, April 1983. 3 Clemens Kalischer, press release, personal files.

^Clemens Kalischer, personal files.

^Rockefeller Foundation grant application, appendix.

^Promotional brochure.

^Rockefeller Foundation grant application, appendix.

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beginning of what was to be a most fruitful relationship with that

branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^

Perhaps most importantly for the growth of the organization. Pro

Musica began a collaboration with the poet W. H. Auden. The Y's Poetry

Center Series sponsored two performances of spoken poetry and sung 2 madrigals which gave Pro Musica its first capacity audiences. Auden

narrated the poetry; sopranos Ruth Daigon and Jean Hakes, countertenor

Russell Oberlin, tenors Charles Bressler and Arthur Squires, bass

Brayton Lewis, and harpsichordist Paul Maynard performed the music;

Noah Greenberg directed. The Y concerts brought Pro Musica to the

attention of Columbia Records, which became the group's sole recording

agent in 1955 with the issue of "An Evening of Elizabethan Verse and 3 its Music." In addition, Greenberg, Auden, and Chester Kallman

collaborated to produce an edition of English Renaissance texts and

music. Published in 1955 by Doubleday as An Elizabethan Songbook,

it has appeared since 1970 as An Anthology of Elizabethan Lute Songs,

Madrigals and Rounds under the auspices of W. W. Norton.

Pro Musica earned a total of $16,892 in 1954-55 and spent $18,943,

resulting in a deficit of $2,051. Of the total income, seventy-five

percent was earned; of that, $7,379 came from the eleven concerts

produced by Pro Musica, $4,891 from six concerts booked by other

organizations, and $418 from recording fees. Pro Musica received $4,205 4 in donations.

1 2 3 Ibid. Mayer, p. 39. Mayer, p. 39. 4 Rockefeller Foundation grant application, appendix. Income totals in Pro Musica budgets always reflect actual income, after subtraction of the concert manager's commission.

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The board operated under the principle of the "controlled deficit,"

taking out short or long-term loans when needed to meet a debt. That

is, no doubt, what happened in 1955 when the organization suffered its

first net loss. The principle of the controlled deficit "worked as long

as there was someone in charge who was fiscally responsible."^

1955-56

Pro Musica gave a total of twenty concerts in its third season.

Of these, half were sponsored by Pro Musica and half by other

institutions. In the summer of 1955, Pro Musica presented five concerts

at the Stockbridge Town Hall, and one in Princeton at the annual meeting

of the American Musicological Society. Of those concerts booked at a

fee, five were in New York (three at the Cloisters and one each at the

Kaufmann Auditorium and the Metropolitan Museum of Art), and five

occurred out of town: two at Castle Hill in Ipswich, Massachusetts

and one each at Vassar College, Princeton University, and the Detroit 2 Museum of Art.

In a review of a Kaufmann Auditorium program devoted to the works

of William Byrd, Edward Downes praised the artists' "most exacting 3 technique and sensitive imagination."

Fortunately, the adventuresome Mr. Greenberg commands a virtuoso ensemble. That is, his ten singers and players have, in addition to individual brilliancies, the capacity to become one in musical impulse .... The extraordinary countertenor, Russell Oberlin; the sopranos, Betty Wilson and Jean Hakes, and Charles Bressler, tenor, all made fine solo contributions.^

^Toni Greenberg, March 1984. 2 Rockefeller Foundation grant application, appendix. 3 [Edward Downes], "Works of William Byrd are Presented," New York Times, 23 January 1956.

‘^Ibid.

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On October 9, 1955 Pro Musica made its first documented

television appearance on the CBS arts program, Omnibus. The show was

titled "The Birth of Modern Times." In 1956, Pro Musica performed for

"The Duchess of Malfi" on the CBS television series. Camera 3 .^

Also in the fall of 1955, the first in Pro Musica's series of 2 publications of sheet music was copyrighted. Associated Music

Publishers, New York, published the "New York Pro Musica Editions";

in 1955, Noah Greenberg edited two madrigals by Wilbye and a motet by 3 Lupo to begin the series.

During the 1955-56 season, the organization hired its first

concert or tour manager, whose job was to secure bookings. Negotiations

with William Judd at Columbia Artists Management, Inc., the largest and 4 most prestigious concert management agency, were unsuccessful. By

November 1955, Pro Musica signed a contract with David Rubin, who ran

^Promotional brochure. 2 Copyright office. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. A complete listing of New York Pro Musica publications is contained in Appendix B. 3 It is not known exactly when the series title was implemented. The first three numbers in the series were copyrighted by Noah Greenberg; all following were copyrighted by Associated Music Publishers (AMP). It is likely that the first contract with Associated Music Publishers was signed in 1956. Richard French was vice-president of AMP when the series was activated, and recalls that "that was perhaps how Noah and I came to know one another." Richard F. French to author, 4 October 1984.

^Noah Greenberg to William M. Judd, 28 November 1955, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

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his own small booking firm.^ Rubin may have been responsible for some

of Pro Musica's bookings in the spring of 1956.

Pro Musica's budget doubled in 1955-56, with a total of $31,337 in

income and $31,952 in expenses, giving the organization a small surplus.

Earned income dropped to sixty percent of the total income: the ten

concerts produced by Pro Musica made $6,894, the ten concerts presented

by other organizations brought in $7,740, and television appearances

resulted in $4,293. Unearned income rose dramatically from $4,205 the

previous year to $12,410. The single largest expense for the

organization, $17,564 or fifty-five percent of the total expenses,

represented fees to artists for concert appearances and rehearsals.

Only $356 went for secretarial services; there were no administrative 2 salaries.

1956-57

In the following season, 1956-57, the number of concerts given by

Pro Musica increased again. Of eleven dates managed by the

organization, seven occurred in the summer of 1956: four at South

Mountain near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, one at Williamstown,

Massachusetts, and two at Stratford, Connecticut in conjunction with the 3 American Shakespeare Festival. Greenberg's friendship with Lincoln

Ibid. Although a manager's commission shows up in the FY 1954 and 1955 budgets and is applied to a total of nine concerts, the identity of this manager is unknown. Both Richard French and Toni Greenberg refer to David Rubin as Pro Musica's first manager. It should be noted that the referenced budgets, which appear in the Rockefeller Foundation grant application (appendix), were probably drawn up after the completion of the fiscal years, in 1957. 2 Rockefeller Foundation grant application, appendix. 3 Rockefeller Foundation grant application, appendix.

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Klrstein, founder of the New York City Ballet and cultural

philanthropist, was to prove influential in the development of Pro

Musica. Kirstein sat on the board of directors of the American

Shakespeare Festival and facilitated Pro Musica's appearances there.

Pro Musica premiered three or four new concert programs every

year in its New York season. Those programs then formed the basis for

the concerts performed out of town. In 1956-57, three concerts at

Kaufmann Auditorium and one at the Town Hall again comprised the New

York season, which for the second year in a row was sold out.

Sometime in 1956, Rubin was replaced as concert manager by Ronald

Wilford of Ronald A. Wilford Associates. The number of touring

engagements rose from ten in 1955-56 to eighteen in 1956-57, including

ten outside New York.^ This expansion included the group's first

midwestern tour to such places as Wichita, Kansas, Stillwater, Oklahoma,

and Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In Milwaukee, Pro Musica played

for an audience of 5,000 at the annual meeting of the Wisconsin 2 Education Association.

Ronald Wilford recalls that Pro Musica was not yet known

nationally when he became their manager, but that "everybody knew Noah

Greenberg because of his enthusiasm. So he and I would meet, we'd get

contacts from his friends and so forth, and then we would arrange a date

cluster." They would go to one region and do five or six dates, then go

^Ibid. 2 Rockefeller Foundation grant application, p. 20.

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to another region. "And everyplace they went they would get re-engaged.

Everyplace."^

During this period and throughout its history. Pro Musica had to

bear certain expenses unique to the country's first professional early

music ensemble. Unlike a typical chamber music group performing

standard repertoire. Pro Musica had to spend money to purchase

instruments, conduct research to select repertoire and to prepare

performing editions of music, write scholarly program notes, translate

texts to be sung in performance, and rehearse to learn the unfamiliar 2 music. Each new program demanded a dozen rehearsals.

By the end of 1956-57, Pro Musica had formed an important library

and instrument collection. The instrument collection consisted of the

following: small harpsichord, portative organ (of late medieval design,

built by Josef Mertin, Vienna, duplicating a Van Eyk painting), seven

violas da gamba (three treble viols, two tenors, two basses), tenor

crummhorn, cornetto, sordun, family of recorders, rebec, one-keyed

flute, psaltery, medieval harp, handbells, and percussion. A second

portative organ, of late Renaissance design, was on order from Flentrop 3 in the Netherlands.

To supplement the professional performing ensemble, an education

program had been established by 1956-57. Noah Greenberg taught a weekly

choral study group made up of sixteen amateur singers, Martha Blackman

^Ronald Wilford, March 1984.

^"Far from Mid-Manhattan," Time, 11 March 1957, p. 37. 3 Rockefeller Foundation grant application, p. 5.

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directed a viols study group, and Bernard Krainis led a recorder study

group. These courses were offered annually from October to May.^

The organization's administrative structure remained slight. In

1955 or 1956, the Greenbergs had moved from 80 Perry Street in

Greenwich Village to 865 West End Avenue on the upper west side. The

physical state of the organization at the end of the early years could

be described as follows: the business office, reference library,

lending library, and information service were located at the Greenbergs'

apartment. Rehearsals were held there and at Bernard Krainis's

apartment, which also housed the recorder study group. The viols study

group met at Arthur Squires's residence. Finally, the choral study 2 group gathered at St. Luke's Chapel Library.

In 1956-57, Pro Musica's expenses totalled $36,431; income

equalled $33,626. For the first time, touring income ($15,900) sub

stantially outnumbered income earned from concerts produced by Pro

Musica ($7,336). Unearned income, $10,129 in donations, comprised 3 thirty percent of the total income.

Pro Musica's fundraising activities, never very organized in this

period, generally revolved around a specific project of Noah Greenberg's

which created a specific financial need. The strategy behind Pro

Musica's fundraising was Noah Greenberg's personal approach. "Very

^Ibid. 2 Noah Greenberg to Lincoln Kirstein, 2 April 1956, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. 3 Rockefeller Foundation grant application, appendix.

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often there would be a performance of Pro Musica followed by a party

at which Noah would meet some community leader and next thing you know

there would be a donation. Very unprofessional, but it worked."^ Pro

Musica had moderate success from approaches to New York foundations, but

the majority of contributions came from individuals. Toni Greenberg

explains:

You must remember that we're talking about a time when there wasn't a single crummhorn in all of the United States. So when Noah had the idea to add crummhorns to Pro Musica, he first had to have some made (and that's always a trial and error procedure), and then find people who were willing to play them. Noah would become excited about the new sound, and call up some people and say, are you interested in this project? They would eventually be persuaded to underwrite the "crummhorn venture."2

Noah Greenberg drew his first salary, $1,000, from Pro Musica in 3 1957. He had received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955 and supplemented

his royalty income by writing and teaching at the Mannes School of Music

in New York.^ He also claimed a fee as director from each concert

appearance.

Pro Musica's artists were likewise not able to devote themselves

full time to the organization; they would have needed more than twice

the number of concert appearances than were available in 1956-57 to earn

a living. Bernard Krainis took individual students and taught at two

elementary schools; Brayton Lewis managed a bookstore. The others

free-lanced their instrumental talents or sang at churches and with

choral groups.^

1 2 Toni Greenberg, March 1984. Ibid. 3 Rockefeller Foundation grant application, appendix.

“^Mayer, p. 40.

^Ibid.

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Summary; The Early Years

This period saw the New York Pro Musica grow from a fledgling

group brought about by an unknown recording label to a respected

concert ensemble with a regular New York season and a modest national

touring program. During the early years, Noah Greenberg set up a

framework that provided the basis for Pro Musica's operations throughout

its history.

First and foremost. Pro Musica insisted on paying its musicians to

perform early music. From the Esoteric recordings on, this policy was

never questioned. In its first four complete years of operation. Pro

Musica paid forty-seven percent of its total expenditures directly to

artists for performances and rehearsals; these fees constituted the

largest single line item in the budget. This policy allowed for a

stable core of musicians who did not have to re-learn repertoire once

it was mastered. As Pro Musica's performers of early music entered the

concert world, the professionalization of early music was achieved.

Second, Pro Musica incorporated as a non-profit organization.

After receiving tax-exempt status from the federal government. Pro

Musica could secure donations from individuals and foundations.

The amounts of donations' to Pro Musica varied widely from

year-to-year in this period; from $1,762 to $4,205 to $12,410 to

$10,129 in consecutive fiscal years. - This fluctuation can be attributed

to the lack of any real fundraising plan; money was raised only as

needed for special projects. The great majority of contributions were

secured through Noah Greenberg's personal contacts and approaches. As

Toni Greenberg commented, this may not have been the most professional

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way to raise funds, "but it worked."^

After incorporating. Pro Musica began an annual concert series at

the 92nd Street Y which became the basis of the group's New York season.

Pro Musica's initial engagements at the Y's Kaufmann Auditorium were

facilitated by Noah Greenberg's invitation to the Y's concert coordi

nator to attend the group's first public performance in 1953. The

Kaufmann series formed Pro Musica's first full season. It subsequently

served to introduce the New York public to three or four new concert

programs every year, as well as to establish the group's reputation as

it received regular, favorable reviews from the major New York critics.

From the New York series. Pro Musica gradually evolved into a

touring ensemble. The group affiliated with first one, then another

concert management agency, was hired to play several concerts per year

in other eastern cities, and by 1957 engaged in a full-fledged tour to

several midwestern states. At the same time, the organization adopted

the philosophy of a touring ensemble: reduce the number of self

produced concerts given at a financial risk and increase the number of

concerts booked by presenting organizations. In 1953-54 and 1954-55,

the number of concerts produced by Pro Musica was greater than those

booked by other organizations. In 1955-56, the number of concerts in

the former category equalled the number in the latter at ten each. By

the following season, the number of booked concerts had risen to

eighteen and the number of seIf-produced concerts remained at ten. This

trend was to continue in Pro Musica's development. Throughout the

period, the total number of concerts performed each year increased

steadily, from seven to seventeen to twenty to thirty-nine.

^Toni Greenberg, March 1984.

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"A fairly common deficiency of arts groups is the absence of a

clear statement of purpose and a long view, both artistically and

financially," concluded the 67th session of Columbia University's

American Assembly, chaired by W. McNeil Lowry in 1984.^ In the case

of Pro Musica in the early years, the organization had no long-range

artistic or financial plan. Other than the annual rush to close the

earnings gap, the lack of a specific plan did not, however, hinder Pro

Musica's growth. For the organization did have a clear statement of

purpose. That purpose centered on artistic growth and discovery, and it

guided Noah Greenberg's efforts in the early years.

^Opera America Intercompany Announcements, August-September 1984, p. 4.

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ORDERLY GROWTH, PART 1: 1957-62

Rockefeller Foundation Grants

On September 15, 1957 the board of directors of the New York Pro

Musica submitted an extraordinary document to the Rockefeller

Foundation. Written by board president Arthur Squires and Noah

Greenberg, the fifty-page grant application was titled "Request for Aid

to Provide for Orderly Growth of New York Pro Musica." The application

specified two goals for the organization: a primary goal of

establishing Pro Musica's professional performers as a touring group in

general demand throughout the United States, and a secondary goal of

establishing library and workshop activities in New York as well as

national information services.^

The application stated that Pro Musica faced a crisis which

threatened its future existence. "Money is needed to establish a sound

organizational basis for the next phase of Pro Musica's growth." Pro

Musica had had success in raising money to cover expenses essential to

artistic growth. However, "no success has been had in attempts to raise

money for routine organization expenses." Pro Musica turned to the

Rockefeller Foundation "for help which private philanthropy is at 2 present not willing to supply."

1 2 Rockefeller grant application, p. 9. Ibid., p. 7.

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To fulfill their goals, the authors of the request belived that

Noah Greenberg's role as music director needed to be clarified. "Mr.

Greenberg's proper functions are selecting new concert repertoire,

preparing practical performance editions of music selected, planning

rehearsals, and supervising workship activities."^ Up to this point,

however, Greenberg had been responsible for fund raising, preparation of

publicity materials, details of artists' travel and housing, arranging

artists' rehearsal schedules (including extensive telephoning), and

routine correspondence. To be relieved of these duties, he needed a 2 part-time secretary and personal representative. In addition, he had 3 to receive an adequate salary ($3,000 per annum). To fulfill the

secondary goal, a part-time librarian-musicologist needed to be hired.^

Finally, Pro Musica needed new organizational and rehearsal

headquarters.

The "Request for Orderly Growth" asked the Rockefeller Foundation

to cover unusual travel expenses for artists for the next three years,

to purchase certain capital assets, and to balance Pro Musica's budget

for the next five years.^ The request totalled $45,620 over the

five-year period.

First, $6,000 was requested to cover unusual expenditures for

artists' travel.

During the next few seasons, it will be necessary at times to accept concert engagements requiring air travel, where net income from the engagements will not entirely cover artists' fees, artists' travel, and haulage of instruments . . . past experience has shown that engagements are offered from time to time which appear of

Îbid. Îbid., p. 28. Îbid., p. 29.

'^Ibid., p. 17. ^Ibid., p. 11.

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strategic importance and which thus appear desirable to accept even though a loss is sustained.^

Squires and Greenberg did not anticipate that this situation would last

more than three years.

Secondly, the application included a request for $8,000 in capital

expenditures: $5,000 for music (scholarly editions, microfilms, etc.),

$1,500 for a microfilm reader and projector, tape recorder and sound 2 system, and $1,500 for office furniture and equipment.

The remainder of the total request, or $31,620, was the sum

calculated by the authors of the proposal that would be needed to

balance Pro Musica's budget for the next five years, based on the "basic

budget" as devised by Arthur Squires. He estimated the annual basic

budget to be $28,402.

Pro Musica's expenditures were divided into two categories, a 3 growth account and an operating account. The growth account included

temporarily dispensable expenses, "in the sense that temporary

elimination of items from the account would not jeopardize the

long-range health of Pro Musica."^ The operating account included

minimal expenditures necessary for the organization's survival.

The growth account was primarily concerned with new concert

repertoire.

In a typical season Pro Musica will present seven concerts under its own management (i.e., accepting risk of losses and change of gain.) Typically, three concerts will be given at Kaufman [sic] Auditorium of the Lexington Avenue YMHA, three concerts at Stratford Shakespeare Festival Theatre, and one concert at Town Hall. Concerts managed by Pro Musica fill two important functions:

Îbid., p. 20. Îbid., p. 22. Îbid., p. 24.

^Ibid., p. 16.

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(1) they maintain Pro Musica's status with the New York music public; (2) they keep Pro Musica on the alert artistically, giving the artists fresh outlook on the large body of early music literature, and providing a tested repertoire from which to select programs for concerts tours.^

In addition, the growth account included that portion of the music

director's and musicologist-librarian's salaries which was associated

with preparation of new literature. Finally, it included acquisition of

capital assets and those costs connected with national promotion of Pro 2 Musica.

Salaries, rent, office expenses, and maintenance made up the

operating account.

Operation of Pro Musica under depression conditions would still permit (1) maintenance of headquarters and rehearsal center, (2) continuing service to [the] public in the form of library and workshop activities and a center of information on early music and its performance, (3) continuing fundraising efforts, (4) preservation of instruments and other property, and essential national promotion activities.^

The cost of maintaining Pro Musica's workshops was not included in

the basic budget, as the organization assumed that the program would be

self-supporting from tuition income.

The proposed program of growth is predicted upon income to Pro Musica from sources other than Rockefeller Foundation, as follows:

Income From Concert Ticket Receipts Engagements From Concerts Available for Managed by Organizational Pro Musica Contributions Expenses Total 1957-58 $6,600 $8,000 $3,640 $18,240 1958-59 6,600 8,500 4,850 19,950 1959-60 6,600 9,000 6,300 21,900 1960-61 6,600 9,500 7,860 23,960 1961-62 6,600 10,000 9,740 26,340 1962-63 6,600 10,282 11,520 28,402

Îbid. , p . 16-17. Îbid., p. 17 Îbid.

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Income shown above for 1962-63 is believed to represent a realistic goal for year-in-and-year-out operation beyond the 1962-63 season. If this income can be achieved, continued and healthy operation of New York Pro Musica is assured.^

Pro Musica expected its reliance on public contributions to be put

on a more professional, continuing basis with the addition of a part-

time secretary and a personal representative (administrative assistant) 2 to the staff.

The extraordinary feature of Pro Musica's plan and the key to the

Rockefeller request rested in the column above titled "Income From

Concert Engagements Available for Organizational Expenses." Fifteen

percent of the net income from concert engagements (touring income) was

earmarked for organizational or operating expenses. Eighty-five percent

was to cover artists' fees and other concert expenses.

The authors of the grant application projected the number of

concert bookings which Pro Musica could expect for each of the next five

seasons (see Appendix C). The chart shows that the past four seasons

represented a "dynamic growth phase" for Pro Musica.

There is no suggestion in data from Pro Musica's first four seasons that this growth phase is on the verge of drawing to a close because of approach of maturity, maturity in this case being the saturation of demand for concerts of early music. The trend of Pro Musica's growth during the past four seasons strongly suggests that ultimate demand for concerts of the kind Pro Musica offers will stabilize at a figure in excess of one hundred concerts per season. The light dashed curve of the chart shows a probable projection of growth of Pro Musica's concert engagements .... The heavy dashed curve of the chart is believed to represent a very conservative projection of Pro Musica's growth . . . drawn with the assumption that the ultimate demand for Pro Musica concerts will stabilize at seventy-five per season. The heavy dashed curve has been used in projecting Pro Musica's income from concerts during the next six years.3

Îbid., p. 10. Îbid., p. 19. Îbid., pp. 13-14.

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The chart projects that the number of touring concerts would increase in

the following increments from 1957-58 to 1962-63: twenty-seven,

thirty-four, forty-two, forty-nine, fifty-seven, and sixty-four.

Pro Musica's basic fee in 1957 was $1,500, of which the manager

received a twenty-percent commission, or $300. Often block-booking

lowered the fee and therefore the net income to Pro Musica. The

organization assumed that during the coming seasons Pro Musica's base

fee would increase, and ultimately the concert fees would average

$1,500, yielding $1,200 per concert after commission.^

The conservatism of the projection of concert income was augmented

by omission of income to Pro Musica from recording engagements,

television engagements, recording royalties, and publication royalties, 2 which Pro Musica found difficult to predict.

In December 1957 the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant of

$46,000 to the New York Pro Musica over a five year period, slightly

more than the sum requested.

1957-58

Immediate results of the Rockefeller Foundation grant included the

establishment of the nucleus of a reference library, purchase of several

instruments, and rental of a spacious office, rehearsal studio, and

organizational headquarters at 865 West End Avenue.

During the 1957-58 season. Pro Musica gave the first modern

performances of The Play of Daniel, a twelfth-century musical drama.

Transcribed from British Library manuscript Egerton 2615 by the Rev.

Rembert Weakland (then a priest living in Pennsylvania), and edited for

^Ibid., pp. 14-15. ^Ibid., p. 15,

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modem performance by Noah Greenberg, Daniel was "a tremendous artistic

and popular triumph and brought forth a great deal of favorable

publicity."^ In January 1958, Pro Musica gave eight performances of

Daniel in the Romanesque Hall at the Cloisters, the medieval branch of

the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Fort Tryon Park, New York, and three

performances at the Riverside Church.

This project had first attracted Noah Greenberg's attention in

1954 when he studied Edouard de Coussemaker's transcription of the music 2 for the Beauvais play in Drames liturgiques du moyen age (Paris, 1861).

Coussemaker's publication stemmed from the manuscript dating about 1230,

now in the British Library, which is the only extant source for the

play. Pro Musica's Christmas concert at the Cloisters in 1955 included

three conducti from Daniel, and in 1956 seven excerpts were performed.

Greenberg first corresponded with William L. Smoldon, the noted British

authority on liturgical drama, during or before February 1955; by March 3 1955 a performance was planned prematurely for the following spring.

By February 1957, "it appeared that we were ready to go into production

for the coming Christmas season."^

Lincoln Kirstein agreed to serve as producer, taking charge of

stage direction and costumes. Margaret B. Freeman, curator of the

[Arthur Squires], "President's Report for Fiscal Year 1957-58," p. 1, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. Father Weakland is currently Bishop of Milwaukee. 2 Margaret B. Freeman, "The Play of Daniel at the Cloisters," liner notes to The Play of Daniel, MCA-2504 (previously-DL7-9402, 1959), n.d. 3 Noah Greenberg to William L. Smoldon, 31 March 1955, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

^Freeman, Ibid.

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Cloisters, and Meyer Shapiro, professor of art history at Columbia

University, contributed valuable scholarly advice during the

preparation. The musicologist Edmund A. Bowles suggested appropriate

instrumental scoring based on his work in musical iconography of the

twelfth century. Robert Fletcher designed the sets and costumes.

W. H. Auden wrote the narration.

Members of the regular Pro Musica ensemble performed Daniel;

Russell Oberlin sang the role of Belshazzar's prince, Brayton Lewis was

Belshazzar, Betty Wilson was Belshazzar's queen, and Charles Bressler

played Daniel. The boy choristers of the Church of the Transfiguration

("The Little Church around the Corner"), directed by Stuart Gardner,

played the satraps and soldiers.

The New Yorker reported that Daniel "is like a breath of fresh air

reaching us uncontaminated across the centuries."^ Brooks Atkinson of 2 the New York Times called Daniel an "hour-long invocation to glory."

It was to become the organization's hallmark.

Pro Musica's concert activities in the 1957-58 season included

appearances in Boston, Miami, Toledo, Rochester (Eastman School of

Music), and Durham, North Carolina (Duke University). In the summer of

1957, Pro Musica played two concerts at the Ravinia Festival outside

Chicago. These appearances "were received with unusual enthusiasm—

several hundred were turned away from the second concert— and extremely

favorable notices were obtained from critics of great important for

^Concert program, St. George's Church, New York, December 1964, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. 2 Liner notes. The Play of Daniel recording.

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midwest concert circuits."^ Fifteen concerts were sponsored by other

organizations. Pro Musica produced seven concerts at its own risk

during the year: four in New England in the summer of 1957, and three

at Kaufmann Auditorium for the New York season.

In his President's Report summing up the year's events, Arthur

Squires stated:

Experience during 1957-58 teaches that Pro Musica's growth no longer requires so many concerts undertaken at Pro Musica's own risk. No future summer concerts at Pro Musica's own account are planned. In the future, Kaufman [sic] concerts will be undertaken at a fee; Kaufman authorities are willing to make this arrangement because of Pro Musica's consistently good audiences there. Only an occasional Town Hall concert may be required at Pro Musica's own account: no Town Hall concert is planned for 1958-59 season.

Program printing expenses will still be incurred, however. Pro Musica believes it is important that Kaufman audiences receive a program booklet for concert engagements at fee, since the usual one page concert program does not adequately prepare out-of-town audiences for Pro Musica's work.^

That the 92nd Street Y was willing to pay Pro Musica a straight fee for

its performances at Kaufmann Auditorium may be seen as an important

development in Pro Musica's growth.

Pro Musica signed an exclusive recording contract with Decca

Records during the 1957-58 season. The contract called for two

recordings per year and an optional third one. In 1957-58, the group

recorded The Play of Daniel and the Sacred Music of Thomas Tallis,

including the four-part mass accompanied by viols and the Lamentations

of Jeremiah. Recording fees were paid directly to the artists and 3 remained independent of Pro Musica's accounts.

^Rockefeller grant application, p. 21. 2 President's Report, 1958, pp. 2-3.

^Ibid., p. 4.

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Workshop activities continued in 1957-58, with the Monday night

vocal group of sixteen nonprofessional singers studying under the

direction of Noah Greenberg. Martha Blackman led viol groups two nights

a week, with more than sixteen persons participating. Both viol and

vocal study groups appeared in a recital. In addition, Blackman

directed a group of professional viol players under Pro Musica's

auspices in two concerts during the year.^

In April 1958, Noah Greenberg proposed to the board of directors 2 a new performing group within Pro Musica's auspices. The next month

he held the first rehearsals of Pro Musica's Motet Choir, "a

[professional] group of about sixteen men which will give concerts

primarily devoted to sacred polyphonic music of the Renaissance and

modeled after the typical chapel choir of the fifteenth and sixteenth ^ 3 centuries." A grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Aid to Music

Program made possible the Motet Choir's formation.

The Rockefeller grant had included new part-time staff positions

of secretary and personal representative. By the summer of 1958,

suitable persons had yet to be found for either position and the board

of directors decided to combine them. What Noah Greenberg really wanted

was an administrative assistant, rather than simply a regular

secretary.^ Pro Musica remained unsuccessful in filling the newly

defined job.

^Ibid., p. 3. 2 Minutes of meeting of the board of directors, 13 April 1958, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

3 President's Report, 1958, p. 5.

^Toni Greenberg, March 1984.

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At the start of the 1958 fiscal year, the board of directors voted

to increase the number of directors from five to seven. New board

members elected on October 1, 1957 were Richard F. French, a

musicologist and vice-president of Associated Music Publishers, Inc.;

Beatrice Farwell, of the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Thomas

E. Colby III; and Marcus Rottenburg. The officers were I. Meyer Pincus,

Secretary; Toni Greenberg, Treasurer; and Arthur Squires, President.^

With the triumph of The Play of Daniel and the improvements in the

organization's base made possible by the Rockefeller Foundation grant,

Arthur Squires could write at the end of the 1957-58 season that "no 2 doubt remains of Pro Musica's 'success'."

1958-59

In 1958-59, the number of Pro Musica's touring engagements jumped

dramatically from fifteen the previous season to forty-four. Sites

included Columbus, Ohio; Minneapolis; Greensboro, North Carolina;

Wheeling, West Virginia; Cranbrook, Michigan; and Waltham,

Massachusetts. This season, which included three seminars and a

television and radio performance of The Play of Daniel broadcast by the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Montreal, was the last booked by

Ronald Wilford.^

In July of 1958, Pro Musica faced the problem of finding a new

concert management. The following is excerpted from a letter written by

^Minutes of meeting of the board of directors, 1 October 1957, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. 2 President's Report, 1958, p. 1. 3 [Arthur Squires], "President's Report for Fiscal Year 1958-59," New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

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Noah Greenberg to Richard French;

This [situation] came as a great disappointment to us as Ronald Wilford has done a superb job for our organization and we were quite happy with him. However, he has been absorbed by Columbia Artists (to head a theatrical agency for them) and he is giving up all his attractions with the exception of Marcel Marceau. He has booked over thirty dates for us for next season (excluding New York) and will be responsible for servicing us until the '58-'59 season is over. I should point out that we are on the best of terms with Wilford and he has done everything possible in the last two weeks to arrange for appointments with the various likely managements.

The concert giving aspect of Pro Musica has grown to the point where we are considered a major attraction in the concert field. Our fee places us in the category of Virtuosi di Roma and I Musici and is higher than the fee of the Budapest Quartet. Concretely, this means the following: (a) a manager who specializes in Chamber Music ensembles could not handle us because our fee is to [sic] high. (I'm thinking of Colbert here.) (b) we do not need a management such as Barrett because his specialty is getting "prestige" dates for his artists and we have plenty of those (as a matter of fact, this is one of our problems - Library of Congress, Dumbarton Oaks, Eastman School, various museums - these we have always had) and what we need most are regular concert bookings in large cities.

After examining all possibilities, two real choices remain: S. Hurok, whose office was most interested and Columbia Artists. Mr. Hurok is out of the country at present and it was, therefore, impossible to arrange a meeting with him. Columbia Artists, on the other hand, was most interested - even eager - to meet and discuss. Wilford arranged for a conference with Mr. Schang, president of the company. Wilford and I met with him yesterday and as a result of this meeting, I am prepared to recommend that we negotiate an agreement for Pro Musica with Columbia Artists on the condition that Mr. Schang will represent us personally.

I would like to summarize briefly the points we discussed. Our greatest concern was that Pro Musica, thrown into this large commercial apparatus would not receive the care and attention we have come to expect from Wilford and would lose its identity and distinctiveness. After our lengthy discussion, I am convinced that the Schang office will do right by us. Schang is personally very interested in us and has proven that he is capable of doing a responsible job with an ensemble dedicated to serious music. (He has handled the old English Singers, the Virtuosi di Roma, the Paganini and Festival Quartets.) His son, Chris Schang, Jr., has long been a fan of ours, seems a very sincere and enthusiastic young man and will be responsible for handling us in the Schang office. He has a fair knowledge of early music, thanks to Yale and Hindemith, and is being groomed to take the old man's place.

My other major concern was that Columbia, eager to get as many

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dates as possible for us, would throw us into the Community Concerts circuit for 8-10 weeks at a time, a fate worse than death. I told Mr. Schang that we were interested in being handled only on a straight sales basis and that we would only agree to [a] Community date in between. This he accepted without reservation. To avoid lengthy, tiresome tours of 8-10 weeks, I stipulated three booking periods, late fall, mid-winter and mid-spring - all 3-4 week periods. This, too, was acceptable. I'm happy to say. My suggestions on program format were acceptable, also.^

Wilford recalls that Schang, Sr. "absolutely feel in love" with

Noah Greenberg at that first meeting.

He said to me one day, "You know, I can book a fantastic tour for the New York Pro Musica because of my belief for this man and what he says. But I'm afraid to hear [the ensemble] because it might not come up to my expectations - because my expectations are so high after hearing this incredible man's enthusiasm."2

Schang was not disappointed with Pro Musica's sound. Details were

agreed upon, and thus. Pro Musica was signed by Columbia Artists

Management, Inc. (CAMI), the world's largest concert management agency.

CAMI was to handle radio and television appearances for Pro Musica as

well as all concert bookings.

Toni Greenberg recalls that it was "a big deal" to be represented

by CAMI; there was great prestige in being on the roster of the biggest

firm in the business.

It meant a certain amount of financial security as well, because they were able to book both through their regular concert series and through Community Concerts, where you’re booked into a series as part of a package. It meant many more concerts, many more tours, and much, much more money.3

For the first time in its history. Pro Musica was able to inform

its contracted artists of their probable earnings for the coming season.

^Noah Greenberg to Richard French, 10 July 1958, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

^Ronald Wilford, March 1984.

3 Toni Greenberg, March 1984.

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A total of $2,935 was the estimated figure for 1957-58, including

concert fees, rehearsal fees, and per diem (but not including probable

Daniel performances). Artists received $50 per concert engagement, $60

per concert produced by Pro Musica, $25 per seminar given in conjunction

with a concert, and $20 per diem for idle days spent away from New York

while on tour. The conductor's fee was double the artists'; his per

diem was the same.^

Members of the touring ensemble, or Concert Ensemble, included

Betty Wilson and Bethany Beardslee, sopranos; Russell Oberlin, counter

tenor; Charles Bressler, tenor; Gordon Myers, baritone; Brayton Lewis,

bass; Martha Blackman, viols; Bernard Krainis, recorders; Paul Ehrlich, 2 treble viol and recorder; and Paul Maynard, harpsichord. Oberlin,

Bressler, Lewis, Krainis, and Maynard had been members of the original

ensemble in 1953. Though Arthur Squires occasionally appeared as a

guest artist and in the cast of Daniel, he had retired from active

performing by this time to devote himself, as president of the board of

directors, to Pro Musica's growth as an institution (as well as his own

career as a chemical engineer).

Pro Musica's 1958-59 season brought, in addition to forty-four

appearances by the Concert Ensemble, seven performances of The Play of

Daniel at the Chapel of the Intercession, 155th and Broadway, New York.

This undertaking was greatly handicapped by a newspaper strike which prevented use of newspaper publicity until a week before the

Arthur Squires to artist members of New York Pro Musica (confidential memorandum), 21 July 1958, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. 2 Referred to as the "Professional Ensemble" in Pro Musica documents from 1959-61, the core of six singers and four instrumentalists was known as the Concert Ensemble by 1962.

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series of performances opened. Attendance was relatively poor for the first two performances, but later performances were sold out, including approximately 50 standees at each performance. Indeed, many were disappointed at not being able to secure tickets, and Pro Musica received many requests that the run be extended. This, of course, could not be done without considerable financial risk [and was not done].! 2 For the first time, Daniel made a profit for Pro Musica. The newly

organized Motet Choir gave one concert in 1957-58 at St. Thomas Church

on Fifth Avenue. It also made a recording for Decca of music of Josquin

des Pres. The Concert Ensemble prepared a recording of Elizabethan and

Jacobean music.^

The vocal and viol study groups continued under the direction of

Noah Greenberg and Martha Blackman, respectively. The viol group made

several concert appearances, and three viol players appeared as guest

artists in the Concert Ensemble's Byrd-Gibbons program at Kaufmann

Auditorium and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A wind study group,

professional players of modern instruments who received instruction on

the shawm, cornetto and sackbut, joined the Motet Choir in its concert

and recording.^

Pro Musica initiated a lecture series, the Pro Musica Forum, with

three lectures. Father Weakland spoke on the problems of transcribing

The Play of Daniel into modern notation, Albert Fuller spoke on the

harpsichord and its revival during the past fifty years, and Joel

Newman, Pro Musica's librarian-musicologist, lectured on the music of

^President's Report, 1959, pp. 2-3. 2 Minutes of the meeting of the board of directors, 5 February 1959, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. Actual budgets for fiscal year 1959 are missing from the archives.

3 President's Report, 1959, pp. 3-4.

^Ibid., p. 3.

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Renaissance Spain. The lecturers received $50 each and admission was

charged.^

Pro Musica's board of directors added Mrs. Gregory Smith to its

ranks in 1958-59. At Richard French's request, the board began meeting 2 monthly in September 1958; meetings had been sporadic to that point.

At the close of the season, Arthur Squires wrote.

New York Pro Musica is now taken for granted by the music world. Increasingly, directors, scholars, and the interested public turn to Pro Musica when questions concerning old music arise. New York Pro Musica's library facilities fill a need which no one else has provided for, and much of Mr. Greenberg's time is taken up with ^ correspondence and interviews on problems of early music practice.

1959-60

Significant personnel changes in the Concert Ensemble marked the

1959-60 season. In April of 1959, the countertenor Russell Oberlin,

a Noah Greenberg discovery, announced his resignation effective

beginning the 1959-60 season. Oberlin wanted to pursue a full-time solo

career. This resignation was the first of import for Pro Musica, and

Toni Greenberg remembers "being really upset . . . because Russell was

so marvelous. But as you know, clearly it didn't matter that much . .

. ."in the long run to Pro Musica's popularity or artistry.^

In February 1960, Bethany Beardslee and Bernard Krainis resigned

effective the end of the winter tour. Beardslee, a champion of

contemporary music and an important American singer, sang with Pro

Musica for an "all-too-brief" period. Krainis had provided the original

^Ibid., p. 4 2 Minutes of the meeting of the board of directors, 22 September 1958, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

^President's Report, 1959, p. 1. ^Toni Greenberg, March 1984.

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instrumental ensemble for Pro Musica in 1952-53 and served as the

group's Assistant Musical Director until 1958. The board of directors

"expressed great regret, recognizing the extraordinary contribution made

to the professional ensemble by Mr. Krainis since the beginning of Pro

Musica

Robert White replaced Russell Oberlin in the summer of 1959.

Carolyn Backus, who had auditioned for Noah Greenberg in the spring of

1959, replaced Bethany Beardslee as soprano soloist. Recorder player

LaNoue Davenport filled Bernard Krainis's position.

Concert activities fell into three categories in 1959-60: concerts

of the Concert Ensemble, The Play of Daniel, and concerts of the Motet

Choir and Wind Ensemble.

Pro Musica's first season under the management of Columbia Artists

produced forty-five bookings, an increase of only one from the previous

year, but with a number of new sites. As Noah Greenberg had suggested,

the bookings occurred in four distinct periods— summer, fall, winter,

and spring— and they provided the organization with new community and

university-based audiences across the country.

The Concert Ensemble's summer tour, July 8-17, 1959, was comprised

of a total of five concerts at three summer festivals: Tanglewood

Festival, Lenox, Massachusetts; Castle Hill Concerts, Ipswich, Massachu

setts; and the Ravinia Festival, Chicago. The fall tour of fifteen

concerts centered in the midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and

Michigan) and the east (Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and

Washington, D.C.) from October 25 to November 20. Pro Musica's first

Minutes of the meeting of the board of directors, 8 February 1960, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

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west coast appearances made up the winter tour of seventeen concerts

from January 6 to February 4, 1960. This tour "served to consolidate

[the ensemble's] now nationally recognized reputation" by introducing

Pro Musica to audiences in California, Arizona, and Texas. The spring

tour consisted of eight engagements from April 11 to May 3 in

Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, New

York, and Vermont.^

Fifty percent of the sponsoring organizations on the three tours

during the regular season were colleges and universities, and twenty-

five percent were Community Concert organizations (Columbia Artists's

national network of community-based presenters which booked season

packages through CAMI at block-booked prices). The remaining twenty-

five percent consisted of independent concert series throughout the 2 country. Clearly, CAMI had taken the liberty of booking more than an

occasional filler Community Concert.

Moreover, the group continued to perform in New York. Pro Musica

presented three new programs at the Y's Kaufmann Auditorium under its

own auspices as well as one concert at the Cloisters under its own 3 auspices in 1959-60. The P]ay of Daniel received eight performances

at the Chapel of the Intercession. Richard French reported that "Daniel

has become an important ornament of the New York Christmas season" and

the performances "again evoked an enthusiasm by the press and the

public."^

^Richard F. French, "President's Report for Fiscal Year 1960," New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. 2 Ibid., attachment.

^Ibid., p. 1. '^Ibid., p. 5.

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The Motet Choir and Wind Ensemble, unique at the time for their

combination of male voices with loud Renaissance instruments, jointly

gave three concerts in 1959-60. The Wind Ensemble advanced from the

status of a study group to that of a professional ensemble and made

three appearances apart from the Motet Choir. Pro Musica believed that

the Motet Choir and Wind Ensemble were in no way competitive with the

Concert Ensemble.

Indeed, they complement it and provide an additional opportunity for the kind of research into the sounds and performance practices of the time which Pro Musica considers to be an important part of its work, and which has produced the repertory and virtuosity of the Professional Ensemble itself.!

Pro Musica's workshop activities continued on an informal basis.

The vocal study group, attended by twelve people, was devoted to "the

reading and study of a wide range of vocal literature, without reference

to professional excellence of execution or to public performance." Its

twenty sessions were conducted by Noah Greenberg, Thomas Dunn of the 2 Cantata Singers, and Robert Hickok of Brooklyn College. The aim of

Martha Blackman's viol study group, on the other hand, was to "have its

participants attain a degree of professional competence as well as a 3 wide familiarity with the literature for the instruments."

In April 1960, the board of directors accepted LaNoue Davenport's 4 proposal for a series of recorder classes. In general, the purpose of

the workshop program was to give amateurs the opportunity to receive

instruction from Pro Musica professionals, gaining insight into the

Îbid., p. 8. Îbid., p. 8. Îbid., p. 9.

^Minutes of the meeting of the board of directors, 13 April 1960, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

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problems posed by the performance of early music.

Pro Musica's library continued to grow, within financial

limitations, under the guidance of Joel Newman. Noah Greenberg's

performing edition of The Play of Daniel was published in New York and

London by Oxford University Press in 1959. Decca released two new

recordings by the Concert Ensemble: Elizabethan and Jacobean Music and

the Music of Thomas Tallis.^

Arthur Squires resigned as president of the board of directors in

September 1959, and Richard French was unanimously elected to replace 2 him. In October 1959, I. M. Pincus resigned as board secretary and 3 legal overseer due to other commitments. In April 1960, the board

recommended that Edward Kramer be approached to serve as legal counsel

at an annual retainer of $250; Kramer agreed effective June 1, 1960.^

The financial picture for 1959-60 centered on the unexpectedly

high cost of touring. The organization's hopes as laid out in the

Rockefeller application— that as the number of bookings increased, the

concert account would show a profit which would to an important degree

defray operating costs and overhead (the organizational account)— did

not prove to be realistic. Income from concerts after commissions to

CAMI totalled $51,073, a thirty-five percent increase from the previous

season. Expenses, including concert fees paid to artists, transportation.

^President's Report, 1960, pp. 9-10. 2 Minutes of the meeting of the board of directors, 9 September 1959, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library. 3 I. M. Pincus to Noah Greenberg, 1 October 1959, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

^Minutes of the meetings of the board of directors, 13 April 1960 and 10 May 1960, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

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The Motet Choir and Wind Ensemble, unique at the time for their

combination of male voices with loud Renaissance instruments, jointly

gave three concerts in 1959-60. The Wind Ensemble advanced from the

status of a study group to that of a professional ensemble and made

three appearances apart from the Motet Choir. Pro Musica believed that

the Motet Choir and Wind Ensemble were in no way competitive with the

Concert Ensemble.

Pro Musica's workshop activities continued on an informal basis.

The vocal study group, attended by twelve people, was devoted to "the

reading and study of a wide range of vocal literature, without reference

to professional excellence of execution or to public performance." Its

twenty sessions were conducted by Noah Greenberg, Thomas Dunn of the 2 Cantata Singers, and Robert Hickok of Brooklyn College. The aim of

Martha Blackman's viol study group, on the other hand, was to "have its

participants attain a degree of professional competence as well as a 3 wide familiarity with the literature for the instruments."

In April 1960, the board of directors accepted LaNoue Davenport's

proposal for a series of recorder classes.^ In general, the purpose of

the workshop program was to give amateurs the opportunity to receive

instruction from Pro Musica professionals, gaining insight into the

problems posed by the performance of early music.

Îbid., p. 8. Îbid., p. 8. Îbid., p. 9.

^Minutes of the meeting of the board of directors, 13 April 1960, New York Pro Musica Archives, Music Division, New York Public Library.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 48

Pro Musica's library continued to grow, within financial

limitations, under the guidance of Joel Newman. Noah Greenberg's

performing edition of The Play of Daniel was published in New York and

London by Oxford University Press in 1959. Decca released two new

recordings by the Concert Ensemble; Elizabethan and Jacobean Music and