Finding Their Voices - Amherst College

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The vocal class, which met in Amherst’s new Music Studio every Wednesday, soon became split into two groups based on skill, with 24 of the best musicians in the advanced course and the rest in the other. Members of this advanced class seem to have already been able to read sheet music and were instead drilled in basic vocal culture: proper voice production, management of breaths, proper phrasing, etc. Zuchtmann taught the students of this class several choral pieces, and before they really knew what was happening he had them out on stage performing. Needing a name, they settled on that of an old Amherst staple, which had gone all but defunct a few years earlier: the Amherst College Glee Club. Zuchtmann taught private groups and individuals at Amherst in addition to the two groups under the Musical Association. His time became increasingly caught up between leading the “advanced class,” now effectively transformed into the Glee Club, and these private engagements. The elementary course suffered as a result, with Zuchtmann giving it less and less of his attention. Zuchtmann might have had a financial incentive to focus his attention on individuals and performing groups: while the Musical Association relied on student donations and membership fees for its funding, performing groups could pay Zuchtmann from their concert proceeds. If through his training and artistic direction Zuchtmann were able to establish a reputation for the Glee Club as a high-quality musical group, the Club’s profits would go up, and they could then afford to pay him more for his services. This is exactly what happened. After the Glee Club’s first concert, given on 15 December, 1876, the group would proceed to have nine more concerts in the next six months, including events in Holyoke, Norwich, New London, Northampton, and Springfield. These concerts were by and large ! 34!
deemed an enormous success, and the resulting good press allowed the group to make engagements at the prestigious Boston Music Hall for the next school year. Zuchtmann had decided on what he viewed to be a winning method of running the group. He would conduct them, with his gold-tipped baton, through the “heavy” songs (which tended to be part-songs by German composers), and would allow them to sing their various college songs on their own, an arrangement that allowed for a successful mixture of trained precision for serious songs and a more raw “college boy” feeling for the light-hearted works. 49 As an added benefit to running a group that gave regular concerts, Zuchtmann had a perfect opportunity to showcase some of his vocal students from the conservatory in Springfield, with one or two of his students, almost exclusively female, providing solo selections in between pieces by the Glee Club. Zuchtmann’s daughter, Kate Zuchtmann, provided piano accompaniment. Zuchtmann’s success only grew as time went on. At the end of 1877 he gave a series of lectures before the Musical Association on “vocal culture.” 50 Around the same time he organized a joint concert of the Glee Club and another large chorus, somewhat confusingly named the Beethoven Society. 51 This group had no relation to the Beethoven Society of previous years, and consisted of members of Zuchtmann’s conservatory in Springfield. The conservatory apparently had an unusually large enrollment, as the total number of voices appearing at the concert exceeded 150, not counting the 16 of the Glee Club. The Glee Club’s selections during that concert were highly appreciated, with all but one of their pieces encored. A reviewer from The Amherst Student reported: “The college songs, as is invariably the case, tickled the audience immensely. Sanders’ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 49 Sumner Salter, “Early days of the Glee Club,” The Amherst Student (17 January 1891): 103. 50 The Amherst Student (16 March 1878): 126-127. 51 Moses King, King’s Handbook of Springfield Massachusetts (Springfield, Mass.: J.D. Gill, 1884), 170. ! 35!
Page 1 and 2: Finding their Voices: Student Activ
Page 3 and 4: Figures and Musical Examples All Am
Page 5 and 6: A Beginning: The Doctor and the War
Page 7 and 8: Seelye was convinced that in Bigelo
Page 9 and 10: whenever Bigelow was on steady fina
Page 11 and 12: the official curriculum. Fortunatel
Page 13 and 14: the development of music education
Page 15 and 16: on this scare source material, it i
Page 17 and 18: Henry Ward Beecher, who would later
Page 19 and 20: elow their titles. 18 This collecti
Page 21 and 22: years. The impermanence of these gr
Page 23 and 24: ! Figure'1.1'*'Amherst'College'Banj
Page 25 and 26: College Orchestra 1860-1862 Instrum
Page 27 and 28: Delta Kappa Epsilon Glee Club 1876-
Page 29 and 30: One final disclaimer is necessary b
Page 31 and 32: grant a request of the Beethoven So
Page 33 and 34: and vocal scores; planned scenery a
Page 35 and 36: Orchestra, inaugurated in late 1871
Page 37: Association was eventually able to
Page 41 and 42: It is rumored that President Seelye
Page 43 and 44: music and how they viewed the respo
Page 45 and 46: would not be able to pay, Zuchtmann
Page 47 and 48: in late 1883 in the student newspap
Page 49 and 50: performances. With one single excep
Page 51 and 52: Somehow the college authorities fai
Page 53 and 54: student, but when the organ arrived
Page 55 and 56: of his material from the 1869 New A
Page 57 and 58: Figure 1.2 - Old Doc with his cello
Page 59 and 60: involved with his students. 91 He r
Page 61 and 62: The Board of Trustees began address
Page 63 and 64: singing schools or even provide pri
Page 65 and 66: I intend to fill in some of these a
Page 67 and 68: The most difficult part of such a p
Page 69 and 70: Ritter from 1867-1891), who gave le
Page 71 and 72: accepted as an equivalent for some
Page 73 and 74: wrote an essay on the subject in 18
Page 75 and 76: e reconciled, —a proper subordina
Page 77 and 78: into the art they profess the disti
Page 79 and 80: Figure 2.1: Mount Holyoke Banjo Clu
Page 81 and 82: sighted view of music as an entirel
Page 83 and 84: oard agreed with Taylor, and the ch
Page 85 and 86: performances, where they would play
Page 87 and 88: a group well represented in the adm
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The evening was passed with pleasur
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ody. The president had constant tro
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highly involved in the group’s ac
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Figure 2.3 - The first issue of Dwi
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are not now prepared to state. A sy
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accumulations during its twenty yea
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chorus pieces by Mendelssohn, as we
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Mr. Paine to place high Music on it
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“neither Guido nor his immediate
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Music is a science, and Music is a
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influence need be limited to the in
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numbers seem to have somewhat overw
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Paine’s training many of these co
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Chapter Three Music in America We n
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throne. Under his rule Henry’s re
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the use of music between the two th
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Wherefore, although we look far and
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entirely by the congregation. Every
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Ravenscroft’s The Whole Booke of
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a series of Biblical examples and p
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By the late seventeenth century som
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World.” 184 The old style had cle
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Figure 3.1 - Examples of notation i
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HUMAN HORROR, Secretary. Billings c
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Feminine and Trivial: American Perc
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instrument was convenient for many
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should aspire, his Messiah and othe
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and Haydn Society. What might today
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Upon Mason’s arrival in Boston in
Page 147 and 148:
Perhaps indicative of the prominenc
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Woodbridge’s lecture alone did no
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unification of the country’s 39 d
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Following this concert, the orchest
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thousand springs that the Giver of
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Looking back to Amherst College, we
Page 159 and 160:
Afterword William Bigelow’s trial
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practice or ensemble work should co
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Appendix A. Dictionary of Amherst C
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Amherst” and “The Senior Song,
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Years Active: 1885-1929 In late 188
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Cinyrea Years active: c. 1856? - 18
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“‘Beauty’s’ Immense Octoqui
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perfect imitation of the bagpipes.
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Figure'A.1'-'The'serpent'used'by'th
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Figure'A.3'-'The'Amherst'College'Or
Page 179 and 180:
Figure'A.5'-'Calliopean'Quartette,'
Page 181 and 182:
Figure'A.7'+'The'Amphion'Sextette,'
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Figure A.9 - The Amherst College Gl
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Figure A.11 - The Glee Club at Lake
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Appendix B. Summary of Amherst Coll
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art of Music given in Amherst Colle
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Appendix D. Edward Hitchcock Jr., P
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of his glory with the English Peopl
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known as the “Mysteries,” and i
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shepherds abiding in the field, kee
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exciting majestic a work as Handel'
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Committee [4] and received by a maj
Page 203 and 204:
institution to the President's hous
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On commencement day the band perfor
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C.B. Pratt - Assos. Master W.P. Pai
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The instruments were examined and f
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Friday morning, July 4 th [35] The
Page 213 and 214:
Chas. K. Whipple [Charles King, 183
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E.P Russell - Ass. Master A.R. Thay
Page 217 and 218:
April 27th 1830 - The Band met in t
Page 219 and 220:
Mortimer Blake - Secretary Daniel L
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Band met and played quite well cons
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Amherst College, Oct. 13, 1834 Coll
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Appendix G. Religious status of the
Page 227 and 228:
Appendix H. Report by the Harvard P
Page 229 and 230:
those of Homer, and Plato, and Newt
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4. The next thing to be secured, is
Page 233 and 234:
Appendix I. Melody and original wor
Page 235 and 236:
Boston Musical Gazette 1, nos. 1-7
Page 237 and 238:
Ryan, Thomas. Recollections of an O
Page 239 and 240:
Leaver, Robin A. Luther's Liturgica
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Finding Their Voices - Amherst College

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