Finding Their Voices - Amherst College

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Fénéstrange, Lorraine, again close to the German border. After teaching there for four years he emigrated to the United States, where he immediately became active in the burgeoning music scene. In Cincinnati he founded and directed the Caecilia Choral Society and the Philharmonic Orchestral Society. In 1861 he moved to New York, becoming director of the Harmonic Society as well as a German Männerchor. While teaching at Vassar he pioneered the field of musicology in America, writing several books on the history of music, including a seminal study of the history of American music. 110 He was among the first instructors to teach the history of music, and, in collaboration with his second wife, Fanny Raymond Ritter, he introduced the practice of giving illustrated historical lectures, where Frédéric would lecture and Fanny, a virtuosic pianist, would perform representative examples. Once music became accepted as a general study, this model would come to be used nationwide. His enthusiasm, skill, and obvious deep knowledge of the subject gave him an almost legendary reputation both on campus and elsewhere. 111 Ritter’s partner, Fanny Raymond Ritter, was a highly active and successful musician herself. She whole-heartedly believed in the benefits of teaching music in women's colleges, and had maintained that women, if only they were trained properly, could become composers and performers as famed as any of their male counterparts. She !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 110 Frédéric Louis Ritter, Music in America (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1884). His other publications include A Practical Method for the Instruction of Chorus Classes (New York: G. Schurmer, 1868); History of Music in the Form of Lectures (Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co., 1870); The Student’s History of Music: The History of Music from the Christian Era to the Present Time (Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1883); The History of Music, from the Epoch of Ancient Greece to our Present Time (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1883); Music in England (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1883); and Musical Dictation; a Practical Guide for Musical Students (New York: Ewer, and Co., 1887). 111 The 1870-1871 Vassar Course Catalogue describes Ritter as a “gentleman of the first rank in the profession [who] aims at the highest standards of classical culture, both as to taste and execution.” Sixth Annual Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Vassar <strong>College</strong>, 1870-1871 (New York: S.W. Green, 1871): 22. ! 68!
wrote an essay on the subject in 1877, which was soon printed in a widely read journal of music. In it, she traces the role of women in music through history, and extols the successes of a number of women as singers, actresses, and poets. She compares this success to the relative dearth of famed female composers, and argues that the reason for the disparity is simply that women have not had the educational opportunities to fully master the subject. There is just too much for them to learn on their own: Mathematics, acoustics, psychology, languages, as well as general literary acquirements, the practice and technicalities of several instruments, and the science of music, must all be mastered by the aspirant in composition, and gradually, through the application and assimilation of long years of study, become the “second nature” of his mind. 112 Clearly some kind of guided instruction is required, she writes, and on a broad scale. She closes by arguing that musical studies should be a part of every woman's college curriculum: There is surely a feminine side of composition, as of every other art. And I would suggest the adoption of the science of composition as an elective, if not obligatory, branch of the higher course of study in ladies' colleges. From actual personal experience, I do not hesitate to pronounce it equal—merely as a mental discipline—to mathematics, while it enriches the mind to a far higher degree, and is more likely to prove of practical benefit to women in after life, than the study of the other science. 113 Ritter's claims about the relative skill of women, quite bold for the time, provoked many hostile reactions. When the editor of The Musical Times in the United Kingdom read her article in 1882, he promptly wrote a rebuttal, deconstructing her essay section by section, and giving dismissive statements about women for his reasoning. Among his quips: "Woman, as a creative musician, can hardly be said to exist;" in music, "a woman does not originate, she only interprets or reproduces;" and: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 112 Dwight’s Journal of Music 36, no. 20 (6 January, 1877): 365. 113 Ibid. ! 69!
Page 1 and 2:
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
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on this scare source material, it i
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Henry Ward Beecher, who would later
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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 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: accepted as an equivalent for some
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
Page 117 and 118: throne. Under his rule Henry’s re
Page 119 and 120: the use of music between the two th
Page 121 and 122: 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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Finding Their Voices - Amherst College

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