CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE MUSIC IN LOS ANGELES, 1860-1900 A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Special Major by Jeannie G. Pool January 1987 The Thesis of Jeannie G. Pool is approved: Michael Meyer California State University, Northridge ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Lance Bowling of Cambria Records and Publishing Company, Stephen M. Fry, Music Librarian, University of California, Los Angeles and Dr. Robert Stevenson, Musicologist, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Music for their assistance in locating much needed resources. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Beverly Grigsby, Professor of Music, California State University, Northridge, and my husband, Kevin Barker, without whose support this project would have been difficult, if not impossible, to complete. --Jeannie G. Pool iii CONTENTS 1\ClCNOvv~El)(;~ENTS .......................................... iii ABSTRACT • ....••...•.•..••.......••...•....•..•...•...•..... v CHl\PTER I: OVERVIEvv: FRO~ COvv TOvvN Bl\LLl\l)S TO Bic; CITY ~USICl\L LIFE ................................ 1 CHAPTER II: CONCERT Hl\LLS 1\Nl) OTHER PERFOR~l\NCE SITES ....................................... 8 CHl\PTER III: LOCl\L ~USICil\NS ............................. 34 CHl\PTER IV: ~USIC IN CHURCHES ........................... 48 CHl\PTER V: ~USIC PERFOR~IN(; OR(;l\NIZl\TIONS INCLU!)INc; Bl\Nl)S, ORCHESTRl\S 1\Nl) CHORl\L SOCIETIES ..... 56 CHl\PTER VI: ~USIC ~ERCHl\NTS AND I~PRESARIOS ............. 77 CHAPTER VII: VISITIN(; CELEBRITIES ........................ 93 CHAPTER VIII: ~USIC El)UC1\TION ............................ 106 CONCLUSION .....•......................................... 112 BIBLIOc;RAPHY .........•................................... 117 iv ABSTRACT MUSIC IN LOS ANGELES, 1860-1900 by Jeannie G. Pool Master of Arts in Special Major Los Angeles has a rich musical heritage in the European concert music tradition, beginning in the 1860s. Concert halls were built, concerts given, musical clubs and organizations formed, music schools founded, and musicians from all over the world settled here, bringing their music and musical instruments with them. This thesis explores the development of Los Angeles' musical heritage through an examination of primary and secondary sources on music and on Los Angeles history. Primary sources include memoirs, newspapers, city directories, contemporary biographical dictionaries, concert programs, and photographs. Secondary sources include one book and a few articles. Research has been conducted with materials available in the Huntington Library, the Library of California State University, Northridge and the Music Library of the University of California, Los Angeles, and v rare materials in the hands of a private collector, Mr. Lance Bowling. Los Angeles in 1860 was a cow town with a few traveling minstrel troupes and i couple of local part-time musicians providing what little entertainment there was. By the end of the century, Los Angeles had blossomed into a metropolitan city with operas, symphonies, chamber music and other musical extravaganzas presented throughout the year by an accomplished and committed group of local musicians, and by the most prestigious and world-class ensembles who were willing and eager to perform here. By the end of nineteenth century, a cultured music tradition was well established, providing a firm foundation for the rich, diverse and abundant musical life which unfolds during the first decades of the next century. vi CHAPTER I FROM COW TOWN BALLADS TO METROPOLITAN MUSICAL LIFE Los Angeles was incorporated as a city in 1850 and during the first two decades, much of the musical life of the area centered around the popular entertainment offered in saloons, dancing pavilions together with music performed in church and in private homes. Los Angeles was Spanish- speaking and Hispanic cultural traditions dominated the city until the late 1870s, and much of the music performed related to the Spanish and Mexican musical traditions or to the liturgy of the Catholic Church. John Stephen McGroarty, a California historian writing in the 1920s, commented on the state of entertainment in Los Angeles in 1859, the year that John Temple built the first theater: When Johnny Temple built a theatre, our list of entertainments was somewhat enlarged. Instead of high-toned 'Horse Shows' like that just held in Pasadena, we sometimes had bear and bull fights, cock fights and frequent horse, mule and donkey races, and occasionally a Spanish circus, or 'maroma,' and at Christmas times we were regaled with the quaint, beautiful characteristically Spanish 'Pastorella,' which was very effectively and charmingly presented by a thoroughly trained company under the direction of Don Antonio Coronel. 1 Music was an integral part of the lives of the original 1 2 Spanish-speaking families living here at the time Los Angeles was incorporated and California became one of these United States. When Charles Lummis arrived in Los Angeles, after walking from Cincinnati at a distance of 3,507 miles in 143 days, he became involved in the collection and transcription of Indian and Spanish-American music, publishing his reports in his magazine Out West (originally titled The Land of Sunshine) . He was the leading exponent of the Indian-Spanish-Mexican heritage of the Southwest and in 1903 founded the Southwest Museum. He was founder of the Landmarks Club dedicated to the preservation of the missions and to assisting the surviving mission Indians. California historian Kevin Starr described Lummis as the one who "spearheaded Southern California's turn-of-the-century search for a sustaining ideology: for, that is, a dramatization of what it was--or rather, what it daydreamed 2 it could be." His work in preserving the music of California's past had little inpact on the contemporary musicians, but his contribution was significant in that he preserved for all time remnants of the "native" cultural heritage of California by making wax cylinder recordings of live performances. The newly arrived American settlers including the "Yankee Dons," wrote accounts of certain Spanish traditions of music and dance, for instance, the Fandango, but few could even perform its intricate steps by the end of the 3 century. In January, 1861, the Common Council of Los Angeles passed a law requiring advance payment for a one-night license to hold a public dance within the city limits: the so-called "fandango tax." Leading exponents of the Fandango in the 1850s included Don Juan Bandini, Antonio Coronel, Andres Pico, the Lugos and other native Cali- fornians. It was customary for them to hire a hall and turn the proceeds over to a church or other charity. Businessman Marco Newmark recalls in his memoirs: On such occasions not merely the plain people (always so responsive to music and its accompanying pleasures) were the fandanguero, but the flower of our local society turned out en masse, adding to the affair a high degree of eclat. There was no end, too, of good things to eat and drink, which people managed somehow to pass around; and the enjoyment was not lessened by the fact that every such dance hall was crowded to the walls, and that the atmosphere, relieved by but a narrow door and window or two, was literally thick with both dust and smoke.3 Boyle Workman also confirms that the proceeds of the 4 Fandango would traditionally go to the poor. Howard Swan points out that it is truly amazing that any music was heard in Los Angeles during the 1860s, given the "series of misfortunes which for intensity and duration were 5 rivaled only by the plagues of Old Testament times," including floods, followed by drought, and an epidemic of smallpox, not to mention the Civil War. The population of the county was less than 15,000 in 1865, yet there were some active musicians here and the community had serious cultural aspirations. 4 By the 1880s, Los Angeles was a sophisticated musical city. Historian Henry Splitter stated: Along in the 1880s it came to be generally recognized that Los Angeles was a musical city. No matter how dull or good business might be, a good opera company was always assured of success. Concerts of all kinds were more largely attended here than in any other city on the coast, and the quality of music heard was generally higher than elsewhere.6 The development of the musical life of Los Angeles parallels the development of the economic life and during periods of prosperity, music and musicians flourished. During the temporary lulls caused by depression and a full scale "burst", music was not heard and musicians suffered great economic hardships along with the other laborers. The boom of the 1880s was matched in intensity by the quantity and quality of the music being performed. The depression of 1893 meant a curtailment of plans for the newly founded Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, which was revived again in 1897 as the economy recovered and the community was optimistic again about the future prospects of the city. California historian Kevin Starr, in his much appreciated book, Inventing the Dream, states that: To be frank, turn-of-the-century Los Angeles had little in the way of formal culture in comparison with, say, fin-de-siecle San Francisco, then in the throes of its era of greatest artistic activity; but there were signs of developing urbanism that fought against the unsophisticated boom-town tone that dominated.7 He goes on to describe some of the hopeful signs: the 5 establishment of Griffith Park, sporadic appearances of opera companies, the founding of the Los Angeles Symphony in 1898, the founding of social and cultural clubs, schools, and athletic organizations. Apparently, Starr was not aware of the rich and varied musical life of Los Angeles. In the 1890s, touring opera companies which appeared in San Francisco also appeared in Los Angeles. In fact, the National Grand Opera Company in 1887 was financially successful in Los Angeles after its San Francisco appearance nearly spelled its final financial disaster.