Music Library Reading Room Notes Issue no.3 (2000-2001) University Libraries The University of the Arts Compiled by the Music Library Staff Mark Germer: Music Librarian Lars Halle & Aaron Meicht: Circulation Supervisors In Conversation with Donald Chittum p.2 A Chronology of Music in Philadelphia to 1900 p.11 The University of the Arts . 320 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19102 http://www.uarts.edu University Libraries: http://library.uarts.edu In Conversation with Donald Chittum by Music Library Staff Professor of Music Donald Chittum, a long- name was Herbert Cuff and he taught me time faculty member and former director theory while I was still taking drum and of the School of Music, sat down with the percussion lessons. When I was in high UArts Music Library staff to record for us school, there were a couple of students his perspective on the School in its various from Atlantic City who were enrolled in incarnations. The following excerpts from the [Philadelphia] Conservatory, and who this conversation have been condensed were having trouble with their harmony and edited for continuity, though we have assignments, and asked me to help them. tried to retain the informal tone. Those who And they said, “Well, why don’t you go would like to hear the complete interview and check out the school? You look like may do so in the Music Library. We began you might do very well there.” I did, and by asking Professor Chittum how he first that started my career. I guess I’ve now came to the Philadelphia Conservatory. been connected with the school in one way or another for 52 years! The Philadelphia Conservatory of Music was patterned on the European type of I stayed on with the school through two conservatory. In other words, it was not a years at the collegiate level and then comprehensive type of university-oriented “made myself available” for military ser- school that was post-secondary, neces- vice. I went into the Army for nearly two sarily, and that gave degrees. There were years. I [joined] in October of 1950 and all kinds of instruction going on in the con- came out in the early summer of 1952. servatory for musicians as early as four, It was a wonderful experience. I was a five, six years old, all the way up through band-training, non-commissioned officer. degree-bearing [i.e., granting] programs. I I was a conductor. It was wonderful for say that as a prelude to mentioning that me because I learned how to teach, really I started at the conservatory when I was to teach, in the Army. I learned that, first in high school [in Atlantic City]. And I was of all you have to make things very clear accepted in the degree program--this was to people. And also you have to not ask in 1948, my senior year in high school. So, anybody to do anything you wouldn’t do that was a wonderful time for me, and in yourself. They are just a few simple rules 1948 I was taking music theory, eartrain- but they are very, very important. ing, orchestration, counterpoint, and mu- sic history--all of these kinds of things that were very important--piano, violin--when I In the 1950s the Conservatory boasted an was still in high school. I had started study- internationally acclaimed faculty. Profes- ing theory and harmony when I was about sor Chittum recalled some of the impor- 12 or 13, privately with some members of tant figures teaching there at that time. rather prestigious orchestras. I remember one especially, who was a principal clari- netist at the Pittsburgh Symphony. His I took a year off and came back in the Fall 1955. But, because of the way my pro- of ‘53. [So I came back to] the Philadel- gram was arranged--there was a two-year phia Conservatory of Music. And [the com- master’s[-degree] program--I started the poser Vincent] Persichetti was there, the master’s program concurrently with the composer-conductor Boris Koutzen was bachelor’s. A very important teacher for there, and [the composer and pianist Ed- me was Katherine Grube. [The director at ward] Steuermann was there; [the pianist this time was] Maria Ezerman-Drake. And Olga] Samaroff-Stokowski--was no longer her son was Hendrik Drake. He ultimately there when I got back, but [had been] there became the director of the school when it when I left. [Also the famous pianist] Wil- merged with the Academy. But Katherine liam Kappel was at the school slightly be- Grube was phenomenal. As a matter of fore I started as a student, or had finished fact, when I was in the master’s program working with Olga Samaroff-Stokowski. I I was her graduate assistant. And that’s didn’t know him personally. Evelyn Christ- how I got the job here. She developed man-Quick was the music history teacher. an incurable cancer, and so she talked to There was a string teacher named [William] Mrs. Drake and said “Look, it doesn’t make Bless. Abe Pepinsky was a very, very fine much sense to hire a substitute when Don violist, and he also had a very strong back- has been working with me, now, for two ground in the science of music--in acous- years.” When it came to make the appoint- tics, in the psychology of perception, things ment for the following year, Mrs. Drake of that nature. So he came to the Musical said: “Would you like the job?” [Katherine Academy before the merger of the Con- Grube taught] theory, eartraining, keyboard servatory with the Academy, and taught harmony. And she was wonderful to me. courses in psychology and acoustics and related academic areas to music. He was very brilliant; he also served as Academic Professor Chittum continued his education Dean of the Academy. Joe Arcaro was on while evolving into a full time professor. the piano faculty. John Carlin was very im- portant to me--he was a piano teacher and a guide to me. He gave me all contempo- I studied conducting privately with Per- rary piano music to play instead of the usual sichetti. We [worked on] literature that five-finger exercises. Allison Drake was on went well beyond what the conducting the piano faculty. Joseph Castaldo [came classes did. My master’s degree concen- to study at this time, and] we were class- tration was in 20th-century harmony and mates together. Steuermann above all was he was working on the 20th-century har- phenomenal. Phenomenal teacher. Olga mony book at the same time. So we had Samaroff-Stokowski was also one of those a lot to talk about. His conducting class, teachers who almost become a mother to for me, was priceless. We covered a lot of her students. the 20th-century literature. I worked with Sol Schoenbach and Oscar Shumsky [as] chamber music coaches, in the summer We asked Professor Chittum about his program for about five years in Ventnor, transition from student to credentialed New Jersey, called the Ventnor Youth Or- faculty member. chestra. Here I was in my twenties with two guys that were phenomenal in their knowledge of repertoire and experience. I I finished the degree program, I think, in was just quaking in my boots whenever I was around Shumsky especially. I was on exclusively scholarship institutions--there the faculty and I was working towards a were several conservatories of music in doctorate part-time, ‘till ‘63 when I got central Philadelphia: Combs Conservatory my doctorate, with a major in theory and (from 1885), The Neupauer and Stern- a minor in conducting. I studied both with berg schools (about which little is known), Koutzen, formally, and [on my own] with Temple’s School at 1521 Locust, The New Persichetti. School of Music (from 1943), The Philadel- phia Musical Conservatory, and The Mu- sical Academy. We asked Professor Chit- Professor Chittum also spoke about the tum to locate for us the original spot of the problems beginning to face many of the Conservatory and the Academy. smaller institutions in Philadelphia at the time. The Conservatory was at 220 S. 20th St.- -the building no longer exists; there were There had been waves of G.I. Bill students two buildings there, 220 and 224. And flooding colleges and schools everywhere the Academy was at 1617 Spruce St., throughout the country from the Second where the Garden Restaurant is now, and World War and even after the Korean you can seen the plaque out in front that War. So the schools had an influx of stu- they’ve been kind enough to keep: that is dents whose tuition was being paid for the plaque from the original school. by the government, and they were flour- ishing. By the end of the ‘50s those stu- dents weren’t there anymore. But these Most small arts schools with a life as long were, most of them, proprietary institu- as this one will go through difficult times. tions. In other words they weren’t pub- Professor Chittum talked about the first of lic, just musicians [who] banded together several transformations that would even- and created a school--got a charter from tually lead to the University of the Arts. the state. But it became rather evident to many of them that [professional survival would be difficult] because of the work- Hendrik [Drake] and Joe Castaldo and I ing conditions. There were theaters in were very close friends, and we kept talk- Philadelphia employing musicians, there ing about the plight of both institutions; were hotels employing musicians.