Finding Their Voices - Amherst College

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give an education to women equivalent to that given to men, differences rooted in perceived gender-roles still remained. Most importantly for our study, women were allowed, and in some cases even expected, to study the practice of an art, either in the form of painting, drawing, sculpture, or music. By 1894 there were seven major women’s colleges in the northeastern United States, later known colloquially as the Seven Sisters: Smith, Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, and Wellesley in Massachusetts; Vassar and Barnard in New York; and Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania. Of these seven, all but Bryn Mawr offered courses in music within ten years of their founding. As Mount Holyoke predates these other institutions by over forty years, it provides a fitting starting point for my analysis. Although it did not become an official college until 1888, the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary had offered music as part of its curriculum since 1838, when it instituted a class in vocal music to be given to three of its four grades of instruction. 100 The institution also offered the use of a piano for instrumental practice. Although little specific information from this time exists concerning the actual content of these vocal classes, later information suggests that they largely consisted of simple choir practice. A student memorial for Charlotte M. Steele, a music teacher employed by Holyoke from 1875 to 1886, reveals that the person who held the position was essentially the conductor of a choir, choosing repertoire and rehearsing the vocal class: Those years of constant association with Miss Steele deepened my love for music and broadened my appreciation of the highest forms. […] As teacher of choral classics, she brought about wonderful results for those days, when little, if any, preliminary instruction was given in elementary schools. Her pupils were led on and up to a high order of music and to many of the classics. 101 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 100 Second Annual Catalogue of the Officers and Members of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, 1838-9 (1838): 9. Online here: http://clio.fivecolleges.edu/mhc/catalogs/1838/index.shtml?page=9 101 “In Memoriam: Charlotte M. Steele,” The Mount Holyoke 17, no. 7 (March 1908): 359. ! 62!
The most difficult part of such a position would likely have been the task of training students who had no prior knowledge of singing, or even of basic music notation, to sing “choral classics.” Just what repertoire was meant by this term is unclear, although, as explored in chapter three, based on contemporary views of music it likely encompassed several Handel oratorios. Perhaps the most interesting fact illuminated in the memorial was just how over-qualified Steele was for her position. Her brother, George W. Steele, was one of the founders of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and went on to be a highly regarded professor of music at Smith <strong>College</strong>. 102 Charlotte graduated from Oberlin in 1866, and immediately went abroad to study music in Leipzig, Germany. After three years she returned to teach piano at her brother’s conservatory from 1869-1871. 103 She began teaching at Mount Holyoke in 1875. Her skills must have far exceeded her assigned duties, which were limited to serving as conductor and instructor in music fundamentals. Before Steele was hired, Holyoke had contented itself with a decidedly less skilled pool of instructors: recent graduates of the institution, or, more often, current students. None of these instructors remained for more than a year after graduation, and most were replaced as soon as they finished their four-year course. The quality of this student instruction could never have amounted to much. Students at the Holyoke Seminary ranged in age from 12 to 20, and excepting those who had had unusually precocious childhoods, they likely came to the institution with only a very amateur grasp of music. Additionally, students had very little opportunity for their own independent study of music, as their personal lives at the seminary were highly !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 102 W. R. Cochrane, Families of Antrim, New Hampshire (Baltimore: Clearfield Publishing Company, 2009), 692. 103 Ibid, General Catalogue of Oberlin <strong>College</strong>, 1833-1908 (Cleveland: Hubbell Printing Co., 1909), Int. 175. ! 63!
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Finding their Voices: Student Activ
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Figures and Musical Examples All Am
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A Beginning: The Doctor and the War
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Seelye was convinced that in Bigelo
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whenever Bigelow was on steady fina
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the official curriculum. Fortunatel
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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 and 38: Association was eventually able to
Page 39 and 40: deemed an enormous success, and the
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: I intend to fill in some of these a
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
Page 89 and 90: The evening was passed with pleasur
Page 91 and 92: ody. The president had constant tro
Page 93 and 94: highly involved in the group’s ac
Page 95 and 96: Figure 2.3 - The first issue of Dwi
Page 97 and 98: are not now prepared to state. A sy
Page 99 and 100: accumulations during its twenty yea
Page 101 and 102: chorus pieces by Mendelssohn, as we
Page 103 and 104: Mr. Paine to place high Music on it
Page 105 and 106: “neither Guido nor his immediate
Page 107 and 108: Music is a science, and Music is a
Page 109 and 110: influence need be limited to the in
Page 111 and 112: numbers seem to have somewhat overw
Page 113 and 114: Paine’s training many of these co
Page 115 and 116: 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
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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
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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
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Figure'A.5'-'Calliopean'Quartette,'
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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
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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
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Chas. K. Whipple [Charles King, 183
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E.P Russell - Ass. Master A.R. Thay
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April 27th 1830 - The Band met in t
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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
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Appendix H. Report by the Harvard P
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those of Homer, and Plato, and Newt
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4. The next thing to be secured, is
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Appendix I. Melody and original wor
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Boston Musical Gazette 1, nos. 1-7
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Ryan, Thomas. Recollections of an O
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Leaver, Robin A. Luther's Liturgica
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