Artistry, Economics, and the American Symphony Orchestra
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Enduring Crisis, Ensuring Survival: Artistry, Economics, and the American Symphony Orchestra By Michael G. Mauskapf A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Music: Musicology) in The University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Mark Allan Clague, Chair Professor Jane Fair Fulcher Associate Professor Charles Hiroshi Garrett Associate Professor Michael Jensen Dean Henry Fogel, Chicago College of the Performing Arts, Roosevelt University © Michael G. Mauskapf All rights reserved 2012 Dedication To all of the musicians, administrators, and listeners who consider themselves a part of the global orchestra community. ii Acknowledgements As is so often the case, this dissertation reflects the hard work of not one but many, constituting a support structure made up of more people than I can acknowledge here. What follows is an abbreviated list, with apologizes to anyone that I’ve left out. It has been particularly rewarding to work with my committee members, each of whom has facilitated my progress and enhanced my thinking about the issues addressed herein. Mark Clague served as more than just a chair; he was both a sounding board and a collaborator, and is largely responsible for my continued interest in and research of American orchestras. Over the last four years, we have worked together on more projects that I care to count, and I consider myself fortunate to call him a mentor, colleague, and friend. Chuck Garrett played an essential role in bringing this dissertation to life, providing timely comments and suggesting remedies for problems that I was too immersed to see myself. Jane Fulcher’s enthusiasm and inquisitive spirit helped to ground the study in mainstream musicological discourse, while the alternative perspectives furnished by Michael Jensen and Henry Fogel pushed me to make more provocative conclusions. The work presented in this dissertation also benefited from interactions with the faculty and students of the musicology department at the University of Michigan. To name but a few, Roland John Wiley helped make my writing more palatable, Steven M. Whiting rallied institutional support when it was needed most, and Jim Borders iii advocated on my behalf from behind the scenes. Generous financial support was provided by the musicology department as well as Rackham Graduate School, whose Candidacy Research Fellowship and many travel grants made my time at Michigan more prosperous than it might otherwise have been. I benefited from conversations and developed friendships with a number of other students, most especially those from my still-intact cohort: Elizabeth Batiuk, Kathryn Cox, Sarah Gerk, and Alison DeSimone, whose willingness to put up with my antics has forged a lifelong friendship. Countless other members of the U-M community influenced and inspired this research in one way or another, including Rich Crawford, Jim Wierzbicki, Jerry Davis, and sixteen students from an undergraduate seminar I taught on the symphony orchestra and American culture. It may sound clichéd to say that I learned more from them than they from me, but it’s probably true. A number of individuals who I’ve encountered at conferences and other professional events have contributed mightily to my thinking, as well. They include: attendees of the American Orchestra Summit hosted by the University of Michigan (January 2010), presenters at “The Symphony Orchestra as Cultural Phenomenon” conference held at the Institute for Musical Research in London (July 2010), and supporters of the “Orchestras as Organizations” panel presented by the Interdisciplinary Committee on Organizational Studies (ICOS) at the Ross School of Business (January 2010). The research presented in the chapters that follow was expertly aided by a number of individuals, including: Jan Wilson (League of American Orchestras), Barbara Haws and Richard Wandel (New York Philharmonic), staff at the University of Louisville archives, Robert Birman (Louisville Orchestra), Wayne Brown (National Endowment for iv the Arts), Mark Churchill and Stephanie Scherpf (El Sistema USA), Tony Woodcock and Erik Holmgren (New England Conservatory), Tricia Tunstall, Daniel Berkowitz and the staff of Youth Orchestra LA, Stanford Thompson and the staff of Tune Up Philly, and Dan Trahey and the staff of OrchKids in Baltimore, MD. Without their collective generosity, the story that follows would not be nearly as rich. A host of other colleagues, friends, and family members have influenced this work and my interest in music more generally. My love for orchestras was cultivated during college, where I spent much of my time performing, thinking about, and listening to music under the guidance of Brad Smith, Jeffrey Kallberg, and others. At the University of Michigan, my interest in performing arts organizations more generally was piqued by conversations with friends from Arts Enterprise, Symphony Bros., and the Life Sciences Orchestra (you know who you are). Many of the opportunities that have enriched my work with orchestras would not have arisen without the blind faith of people like Claire Rice, Michael Kondziolka, and Ken Fischer—all of whom hail from the University Musical Society, a cultural treasure in the heart of southeast Michigan. During the last few months of writing and revising, my new colleagues at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management have been nothing but kind and understanding as I negotiated two doctoral programs. Never in my wildest dreams could I have anticipated the serendipitous route I’ve taken to this point, but any successes that I’ve enjoyed have been dependent on the support of my family, especially my mother, whose appreciation for music spurred my own passions, and my brother, without whom life would be much more dull (and much less musical). Finally, I thank my extraordinary wife Natasha, whose unending patience and remarkable enthusiasm has v buoyed me throughout this process. Not only did she lift my spirits; she proofread the entire document, helped create figures and graphs, and showed me what hard work really is. It is no exaggeration to say that, without her, this dissertation would not have been written. vi Table of Contents Dedication .......................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ................................................................................................................... ix Abstract ............................................................................................................................. xi Chapter One Untangling the Symphony Orchestra: An Organizational Perspective............................... 1 Introduction: A History of Decline, or Business as Usual? ............................................ 1 Cultural Politics and the Liability of Being Elite .......................................................... 12 Early Orchestra Operating Models ............................................................................... 19 An Orchestral Golden Age ............................................................................................ 32 The Income Gap ............................................................................................................ 41 An Organizational Perspective ..................................................................................... 46 Looking Ahead.............................................................................................................. 55 Chapter Two Achieving Permanence:The Reorganization of the New York Philharmonic, 1902–28 . 59 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 59 The Early Philharmonic, 1842–1902 ............................................................................ 66 First Attempt at Reorganization, 1902–08 .................................................................... 75 Second Attempt at Reorganization, 1908–11 ............................................................... 84 Mahler’s Death and a New Philharmonic ..................................................................... 96 Josef Stransky and the Pulitzer Bequest, 1911–21 ....................................................... 99 Acquiring the Competition, 1921–28 ......................................................................... 108 A Closer Look: Programming ..................................................................................... 116 A Closer Look: Orchestra Economics and the Audience ........................................... 125 Conclusions: Form Matches Function ........................................................................ 130 vii Chapter Three “Fighting the Good Fight”: The Louisville Orchestra New Music Project, 1948–58…...136 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 136 Setting the Stage ......................................................................................................... 139 Robert Whitney and the Louisville Orchestra ............................................................ 143 Charles Farnsley and the New Music Project ............................................................. 148 The NMP’s Early Years,