Finding Their Voices - Amherst College

had been given a formal place in the Amherst curriculum. 5
Hitchcock gave this lecture
over ten times in twelve years, and continued to give it informally even after Amherst
stopped offering the Fine Arts Lecture Course in 1876.
Hitchcock was also an amateur performer, both as a cellist and a singer. He,
along with several Amherst students, sang at both of Patrick Gilmore’s massive Grand
Peace Jubilees in 1869 and 1872, and often invited students to his house to play chamber
music. 6
He also played an important role in supporting Amherst’s major musical groups.
When in 1876 the college refused to assist in the purchase of a piano to help facilitate
orchestra and Glee Club rehearsals, Hitchcock led the way in gathering donations from
students, faculty, and alumni, eventually garnering a check from Rufus Kellogg, a
wealthy banker and Amherst alumnus, for a significant portion of the piano’s cost.
Knowing of Bigelow’s new ambitions and wanting to help make them a reality,
Hitchcock remembered Kellogg’s generous donation and decided to approach the banker
about funding Bigelow’s education. After several exchanges between Hitchcock,
Kellogg, and Bigelow, a deal was arranged where, in return for regular reports of
Bigelow’s progress, Kellogg would give him a series of very favorable loans, to be repaid
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5 Edward Hitchcock, Jr., “Handel: The Representative of the Oratorio” ( c. 1869-1870). Edward
Hitchcock, Jr. Collection, Box 4, Folder 4 (ACASC). Full text of the lecture can be found in Appendix D.
6 The Peace Jubilees of 1869 and 1872 were world-record-setting events, gathering literally thousands of
volunteer performers from around the country to perform popular works, including the chorale “A Mighty
Fortress is our God,” the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah and the Anvil Chorus from Verdi’s Il
Trovatore. The Anvil Chorus from the 1869 Jubilee in particular was quite spectacular, with one hundred
Boston firemen in full fire regalia beating the anvils while an electronically-controlled cannon fired on the
downbeat of every measure. The 1872 Jubilee was a repeat of the first, but on an even larger scale,
including a chorus of over 20,000 voices and an orchestra of 2000 instruments. The event’s ambitious
plans were sadly defeated by the laws of physics. The sheer size of the chorus meant that the audience
heard multiple sections of a piece at the same time: the sound from the closer performers reaching their ears
before the sound of the more distant performers. The two-week-long series of concerts was, however, still
highly popular, the unique spectacle of seeing so many people performing at the same time acting as a
powerful draw on its own, even if the music itself was largely incomprehensible. For more information see
Patrick S. Gilmore, History of the National Peace Jubilee and Great Music Festival (Boston: Patrick S.
Gilmore, 1871).
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