AMS Philadelphia 2009 Abstracts - American Musicological Society

Abstracts Thursday afternoon 31
the order of the day, eclipsing the focus on political and economic history that had formerly
characterized the discipline.
Based on an examination of the work of Rossiter and Crunden (both now deceased), interviews
with their former colleagues, and an assessment of the extent to which their ideas
became lodged in Ives scholarship, I argue that through them, the influence of “New History”
left its trace on the reception of the composer. Though Ives was not a member of a disenfranchised
minority, both scholars scrutinized his social milieu in a manner consistent with the
emphases of “New History,” examining everything from the values implicit in the fraternity
culture of Yale to the psychological crosscurrents of the progressive movement of the teens.
Rossiter even went so far as to liken the social constraints that governed Ives’s life choices to
the Communist Party dicta imposed on Soviet composers. This was a direct repudiation of
the view of the autonomous Ives that had thrived during the early Cold War period—a view
that had served the purposes of American propaganda on several occasions. I point out that
while the previous generation of scholars had used Ives as a screen upon which to project their
convictions about American culture, the new generation used him as a screen upon which to
project their misgivings.
SYMPHONIES FOR THE MASSES: ALFRED HERTZ
AND “PEOPLE’S MUSIC” IN SAN FRANCISCO
Leta Miller
University of California, Santa Cruz
In 1912, Charles Seeger, newly-appointed chair of the University of California’s music department,
argued for orchestral music “as a means of good government…, a preventative of
crime…, and a force for character development.” The occasion was the first concert of the
San Francisco People’s Philharmonic, which aimed to supplement the more professional (and
costly) San Francisco Symphony. The symphony, founded a year earlier, had been launched
with the backing of the city’s elite and hired a conductor with impeccable social credentials,
Henry Hadley. The Philharmonic, during its short life, sought to effect social reform by “uplifting
the common people” through the transformative power of “good” music. The people
themselves hardly objected; they turned out in force for their orchestra.
In 1915 the Symphony replaced Hadley with the decidedly non-aristocratic Alfred Hertz.
He instigated a budget-priced, city-funded symphonic series that packed the cavernous Civic
Auditorium with an eclectic audience. The People’s Philharmonic, beaten at its own game,
soon dissolved. Hertz fought an elitist faction on the symphony’s board for years and mustered
wide popular support; when he attempted to resign in 1922, $10,000 was raised in fifteen
minutes from enthusiastic audience members. In the same year, Hertz conducted the Hollywood
Bowl’s first season against the advice of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s conductor, who
viewed this outreach to the “masses” as demeaning.
After Hertz retired in 1930, the Symphony fell on hard times, but public support saved the
orchestra through a property tax passed by the voters in 1935. Two years later Hertz came out
of retirement to direct Northern California’s Federal Music Project (part of the WPA). He
diversified the project’s local offerings by featuring a Bay Area Negro Chorus and engaging
for the FMP’s orchestra a female conductor, Antonia Brico, to direct a series of Dime Concerts;
through vibrant programming and bargain admission prices, this eight-concert series
attracted an average of 7,000 people per performance.