Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

800 SYMPHONY CONCERTS IN U.S. SYMPHONY CONCERTS IN U.S.
the latter half of the same century. Charleston,
S. C. , still maintainsa Caeoilia Society, organised
in 1762, which gave fortnightly concerts from
the beginning of its career with a band of
amateurs, helped out by professionals, and in
1771 advertised in the newspapers of New York,
Philadelphia, and Boston for a first and second
violin, 2 hautboys, and a bassoon with whom the
Society was wUling to enter into a contract for
one, two, or three years. There is little evidence
to be found concerning the size and constitution
of the bands of this period, though the intimations
of the programmes are suggestive. In
1786, at a 'Grand Concert of Sacred Music' in
Philadelphia, which had been inspired by the
Handel Commemoration in Westminster Abbey,
the chorus numbered 230 and the band 50. It
is worthy of note in this connection that a
number of musicians who eat in the band at
the Commemoration were large factors in the
development of instrumental music in America
afterwards ; among them were Gillingham, Reinagle,
Gehot, Pick, Phillips, Mallet, and R. Shaw.
(Readers desirous of pursuing this branch of
the subject further are recommended to read Mr.
0. G. Sonneck's Early Concert-IAfe in America
(1731-1800), published by Breitkopf & Hartel,
1907.)
German influences began to make themselves
felt in the second quarter of the 19th century,
and to them is largely due the present status
of symphonic culture in the United States, with
one phase of which this article is particularly
concerned. The intermediate stage between the
instrumental elements of the concerts of the 1 8th
century and the symphony concerts maintained
in the musical centres of the country is still
disclosed in a large number of cities where the
theatre has a, sufficient patronage to justify
the employment of a considerable number of
orchestral musicians. In these cities^Cleveland,
Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Denver,
New Orleans, New Haven, St. Paul, Minneapolis,
and San Francisco may be taken as examples
—the local orchestral musicians are brought
together a few times in each season, and concerts
given at the instance of either an enthusiastic or
ambitious local leader or of a body of citizens
whoare prompted to make the inevitable financial
sacrifice by a mixture of musical love and civic
pride. Each of the larger and more firmly
grounded institutions, whose stories are to be told
presently, moreover carries on a propagandism
within a large radius of its home ;
and there is,
therefore, wide familiarity with orchestral music
of the highest class, at least in the larger towns
and cities of the northern tier of states. It
is the custom to speak of all the orchestras
(except one) which come in for discussion below
as ' permanent. ' The purpose of this is to distinguish
them as organisations whose members
play only at symphony concerts during the
regular season and under a single conductor.
from the bands which are assembled for occasions,
and whose members otherwise play as
they list. It may be well to remember that
the term is loosely applied ; for no orchestra in
the country is so firmly groimded as the Philharmonic
Society of New York which, through
sixty-five years of good and evil fortune, has
never failed to give a series of symphony concerts
every season, and has maintained the
loftiest standard in programme and performance
;
yet its members are variously employed
in theatre and other concert bands, when
not called on for duty by their own corporation.
Permanency would seem to call for an endowment
in perpetuity, since no orchestra in the country
has yet succeeded in making receipts and expenses
cover each other except the New York
Philharmonic, which lives on the co-operative
plan. The Chicago Orchestra has an endowment
in its hall built by popular subscription ; the
Boston Orchestra is the philanthropic enterprise
of an individual ; the others depend, year after
year, on the generosity and public spirit of their
guarantors, and may, therefore, be said to be just
as permanent, or impermanent as the moods and
motives of the patrons. H. E. K.
Boston.
The Boston Stmphont Orchestra owes
its existence and its large perpetual endowment
to the generosity and taste of Mr. Henry Lee
Higginson, a well-known citizen of Boston, and
affords a good instance of the munificent way
in which the Americans apply their great riches
for the public benefit in the service of education
and art. Mr. Higginson had for long cherished
the idea of having an orchestra which should
'
play the best music in the best way, and give
concerts to all who could pay a small price.'
At length, on March 30, 1881, he made his
intention public in the Boston newspapers as
follows :—The orchestra to number sixty, and
their remuneration to include the concerts and
' careful training. ' Concerts to be twenty in
number, on Saturday evenings, in the Music
Hall, from middle of October to middle of March.
Single tickets from 75 to 25 cents (3s. to Is.) ;
season tickets (concerts only) 10 to 5 dollars ;
one public rehearsal. Is. entrance.
Mr. Georg Henschel was appointed conductor,
and Mr. B. Listemann leader and solo violin.
A full musical library was purchased, and the
first concert took place on Oct. 22, 1881. There
were twenty concerts in all, and the last ended
with the Choral Symphony. o.
Mr. Henschel remained as conductor of the
orchestra for three years. He was succeeded
at the beginning of the season of 1884-85 by
Wilhelm Gerioke of Vienna. Mr. Gericke's
advent led to important improvements in the
orchestra, many changes in the personnel by the
importation of young and ambitious musicians
from Europe, especially from Vienna, and the