USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 1 > Part 40
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Three Boston papers, the Herald, the Transcript and the Post are one hun- dred years old; the Globe is an old and influential New England newspaper. The old Courier and the Journal are gone, and the Advertiser keeps the old name but not the tradition.
It will be seen from this incomplete list that in some branches of literature Boston is as strong as it ever was, although in the literature of the imagination it shows an undoubted falling off, the result partly, at least, of the fact that the richest literary rewards, particularly in the magazine field, are to be reaped in New York. Yet as I write, the news comes that of the ten best selling novels of the past year, five were published by Houghton Mifflin Company and Little, Brown and Company.
The strength of Boston in literature, indeed, is largely due to its publish- ing houses. The "Atlantic" is the only major magazine still published here, but the two firms named above, plus L. C. Page and Company, still play a large part in American publishing.
The two great educational institutions in Boston have also contributed their quota to our literature, since many of our well-known writers have been on the staffs of either Boston University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Connected with Boston University have been Brooks Adams, radical brother of Henry Adams and author of the daring "The Emancipation of Massachusetts"; Clara Barrus, biographer of John Burroughs; E. Charlton Black and his wife, Agnes Black, writers and teachers in English literature; Alice Stone Blackwell, long editor of the "Woman's Journal," biographer of her famous mother, Lucy Stone; Jeannette Phillips Gibbs, novelist; Henry Norman Hudson, Shakespearean scholar; Alice Maude Lawton, journalist; William Ellery Leonard, poet; Gladys Locke Edson, novelist; Elizabeth Stuart
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REPRESENTATIVE BOSTONIANS - WRITERS AND SCHOLARS HENRY CABOT LODGE JUSTIN WINSOR
HENRY ADAMS
JULIA WARD HOWE
GAMALIEL BRADFORD
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Phelps, novelist; James Henry Powers, cditor on the Boston Globe; Arthur Somers Roche, novelist; Sarah G. Rugg, author; Dallas Lore Sharp; William L. Stidger, clergyman and poet; Lothrop Stoddard; William Fairfield Warren. Perhaps the most famous name connected with Boston University during this period is that of Borden Parker Bowne, liberal thcologian and religious writer.
Technology, as might have been expected, has a smaller contribution to make than either Harvard or Boston University. Among some of the men of letters connected with it, however, are Francis A. Walker, economist; Arlo Bates, novelist; Ralph Adans Cram; Louis H. Sullivan; James Phinney Munroc, publicist; H. W. Tyler and W. T. Sedgwick, historians of science; Henry G. Pearson, biographer; Hervey W. Shimer, geologist; Francis R. Hart and Henry L. Seaver, historians; Eric Hodgins, editor of "The Youth's Companion" and co-author with F. Alexander Magoun, of the popular scientific works, "Sky High" and "Behemoth." The best known man of letters cver connected with Technology was probably Gelett Burgess.
In certain fields of literature Boston has naturally becn poorly represented, in drama, for instance, since plays arc written usually where plays are pro- duccd. But we can number the following figures: Thomas Bailey Aldrich, author of "Judith of Bethulia"; William Lindsey, author of "Red Wine of Roussillon"; Alice Brown, author of the Winthrop Amcs prize play, "Children of Earth"; Beulah Marie Dix and Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland, co-authors of "The Road to Yesterday"; Josephine Preston Peabody, author of "Marlowe" and "The Piper"; Thomas Russell Sullivan, who dramatized "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" for Richard Mansfield. Authors of many pageants arc Virginia Tanner Green, Esther Willard Bates and Eleanor Wood Whitman.
This is as far as a brief sketch of this sort can carry the subject. The observer is forced to admit that so long as New York remains the magazine and book publishing center of the country, and the theatrical center, there is little hope that Boston will be noted for its imaginative and creative writing.
On the other hand even this brief survey makes it perfectly clear that in nonfiction, in history and biography, works of information and discussion, criticism and belles-lettres, Boston is more than holding its own. Boston writers are getting a good share of the Pulitzer prizes, whatever that indication may be worth. The fountain head of the Humanist movement and some of its strongest supporters are in Boston and Cambridge. Boston still goes its own way and is genuinely influential in American thought and the literature of thought.
It is difficult to generalize about the present, impossible to predict the future. In spite of the presence of vast numbers of the foreign-born in Boston, and of citizens of the first American generation, it must be acknowledged that her literature is still being written by men and women of the old New England stock, weakened though that stock may seem to be. But it is not too early to affirm that the raccs who came later, largely occupied in the past with the struggle for an economic footing, will, as time goes on, contribute their sharc to the higher life of Boston and produce writers of distinction. The record of many of them in their homelands and elsewhere in this country makes this not at all unlikely. In fact, there are already signs that we are approaching
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a new stage of development here. To take a single people, among the Jews of some literary distinction who have belonged in the past to Boston, or are still living here, the following deserve mention, in addition to Berenson and Goldberg: Jacob de Haas, first editor of the Jewish Advocate, now edited by Alexander Brin; Professor Leo Wiener of Harvard, student of Russian litera- ture; Dr. Milton Rosenau; Horace M. Kallen, sociologist and philosopher; Professor Harry A. Wolfson, author of a recognized critique of Aristotle; Dr. . Nathan Isaacs of Harvard; Dr. A. S. Roback, psychologist, and Dr. Abraham Myerson, neurologist. Rabbi Charles Fleischer and his successor, Rabbi Harry Levi, and Rabbi Louis Epstein are authors of books on religious and social subjects. Lee M. Friedman has written upon the history of the Jew in Boston and in America.
Emma Lazarus, perhaps the most famous Jewish poetess, and Mary Antin were both connected with Boston; Lillian Gertrude Shuman made a promising beginning in poetry. Other names are Harry Burroughs, who has written a memorable book of his early life in Poland, Mrs. Hannah London Segal, Meyer and Daniel Bloomfield, Maurice Lieberman and Stephen Lawrence Bailin; Dr. Henry Schnittkind, head of the Stratford Company, publishers. Miss Fanny Goldstein, librarian of the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library, is a recognized authority on Jewish literature and has published a bibliography entitled "Judaica," which is No. 44 in the library's "Brief Reading Lists."
The historian of Boston literature who writes fifty years hence will prob- ably have many more names to record of this people and of others not yet represented. It would be strange if he did not. The real question is, What new turn will be given by these influences to the thought, what new color to the mood, of Boston? That, of course, only time can answer.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to acknowledge generous aid in the preparation of this material from the following persons: Miss Gibbs of the Reference Department of the Boston Public Library; Miss Whittemore, assistant librarian at Boston Uni- versity; Dr. H, Addington Bruce, president of the Boston Authors' Club; Miss Goldstein, librarian at the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library, and Messrs. Warren of the Houghton Mifflin Company and Healy of L. C. Page and Company. The editors for the Committee on the Memorial History have corrected many errors and added many important items to my manuscript.
REFERENCES
The Later Years of the Saturday Club, by Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1927.
Creative Writing, by William Webster Ellsworth. Funk and Wagnalls, 1929.
Metropolitan Boston, edited by Albert P. Langtry. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York.
Who's Who Among North American Authors. Golden Syndicate Publishing Company, Los Angeles, 1929.
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Literary Landmarks of Boston, Lindsay Swift, revised by Caroline Ticknor. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922.
Literary Boston of Today, Helen M. Winslow. L. C. Page and Company, 1903.
The Future in America, H. G. Wells. Harper and Brothers, 1906.
Famous Families of Massachusetts, Mary Caroline Crawford. Little, Brown and Company, 1930.
Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, Albert Bushnell Hart, editor; Volume 5.
American Literature, Ernest E. Leisy. Crowell, 1929.
History of American Literature Since 1870, Fred Lewis Pattee. Century, 1915.
The New American Literature, 1890-1930, Fred Lewis Pattee. Century, 1930.
MAGAZINE REFERENCES
New England Women Humorists, Kate A. Sanborn. New England Magazine, October, 1906. Contemporary New England Humorists, R. Darrell. New England Magazine, February, 1906.
Winter of the New England Poets, C. Johnson. New England Magazine, December, 1909.
Makers of American Drama, Brander Matthews and Clayton Hamilton. The Mentor, November, 1923.
Younger Poets of New England, J. L. French. New England Magazine, December, 1905.
Boston As a Literary Center. Atlantic Monthly, September, 1903.
Literary Age of Boston, G. E. Woodberry. Harpers, February, 1903.
Boston Journalism in the Nineteenth Century, E. H. Clement. New England Magazine, n. s. 35, page 277-281.
Boston's Book Censorship. Literary Digest, April 2, 1927.
Banned in Boston, R. T. Bushnell. North American, May, 1930.
New England Does Not Choose, D. Yorke. American Mercury, September, 1928.
Out of New England. Saturday Review of Literature, April IS, 1925.
New England and the Novel, Robert Herrick. Nation, September 18, 1920.
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MUSIC
By GEORGE W. CHADWICK
CONDITIONS BEFORE 1880
There is a general impression that the supremacy of Boston as a musical city is largely due to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. While this may be true at the present time, the inception and organization of this splendid orchestra came from the general interest in orchestral music in Boston, as well as from the public spirit of Mr. Henry L. Higginson, and this interest had already found expression in more than one active organization. The Harvard Symphony Association, which had struggled bravely through the dark days subsequent to the Civil War, kept orchestral music alive in Boston for more than seventeen years. This, too, in competition with Theodore Thomas, who brought his "unrivaled orchestra" to Boston for an annual and sometimes semi-annual series of concerts, and also gave great festivals devoted to Wagner and other composers, with eminent foreign and American artists. In 1881 the Philharmonic Society, supported by public subscription, was formed and for two years gave some interesting concerts; but, as they were not much better than the old Harvard Symphony concerts, after the establishment of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with its stricter discipline and larger forces, they were discontinued.
The orchestra of the Harvard Musical Association was of great assistance to the four choral societies of Boston. Through its co-operation the Handel and Haydn Society, the Apollo Club of male voices, the Cecilia Society and the Boylston Club were enabled to give performances of secular works with orchestra, which were well supported by the general public. In this way such works as Berlioz's "Te Deum, " Bruch's "Odysseus, " Mendelssohn's "Antigone" and others came to a hearing at an early date. Some time later Elgar's "Dream of Gerontius, " Rheinberger's "Christophorus" and Chadwick's "Phoenix Expirans" were performed.
Beginning in 1868 the Handel and Haydn Society gave triennial festivals. Four days of afternoon and evening concerts were devoted to the performance of the great oratorios and symphonic works, which included in 1869 a performance of John K. Paine's oratorio, "St. Peter," and in 1871 "a considerable portion" of Bach's "Passion Music." J. C. D. Parker's "Redemption Hymn" was also heard for the first time at these concerts. For these occasions the orchestra was much enlarged; the soloists were the best that could be obtained. The audiences were large and enthusiastic. The festivals were financially successful, or nearly so. The chorus of the Handel and Haydn Society eventually became the nucleus of the gigantic chorus of the Peace Jubilees of 1869 and 1872. These great popular demonstrations, with their huge choruses of 5,000 and orchestra of 500, their foreign bands and eminent German and English artists, their anvils and cannons, were of little artistic importance, but they
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stirred up a great interest in choral singing among the people of New England, who flocked to Boston from far and near to sing in the chorus and to hear the performances.
In 1852 the old Music Hall was built. It was an imposing structure, some- what too lofty for the best acoustical effect with the comparatively small orchestras which usually played there. It was very poorly ventilated and drafty, but it was commodious and included a smaller hall which was admirably adapted for rehearsals, both for chorus and orchestra. The Music Hall at once became the focus of all musical activities in Boston. Being connected with the New England Conservatory of Music, it became a sort of temple in which inusic students worshipped. In 1863 the great organ was installed in this hall. It was built by Walcker in Ludwigsburg, Germany, and was paid for by public subscription. It was said to be the largest organ in the United States at that time and one of the largest in the world. The case, which alone cost $60,000, was a magnificent specimen of the woodcarver's art and a most imposing object. The organ occupied one entire end of the hall. It was one of the sights (as well as sounds) of Boston, and attracted many visitors. It was played regularly, or at least frequently, by the best organists of Boston, including John K. Paine, Eugene Thayer, B. J. Lang, Dudley Buck and others. This gave a great impetus to the art of organ playing in Boston. Organ recitals became frequent in the churches and church music was much stimulated. It is interesting to note that many of the American composers who developed during this period were organists, although MacDowell was an exception. It was the ambition of all young organists (including the writer) to play this organ. The quarterly concerts of the New England Conservatory gave them this opportunity. Perhaps the most effective use of the organ was in the great oratorio choruses. The "Hallelujah " and "Thanks be to God," with a back- ground of the organ diapasons and thirty-two-foot pedals, were very thrilling.
The years 1870-80 were made noteworthy by many memorable events in the musical life of Boston. First among them was the coming of Anton Rubin- stein, the great pianist and composer; with him came Henri Wieniawski, hardly less celebrated as violinist and composer. These two famous musicians came to this country under the patronage of the Steinway firm and made a long tour in the United States with Theodore Thomas and his orchestra. Then came Hans von Bülow, an equally great musician, but of totally different style. He brought with him the Tschaikowsky Pianoforte Concerto in B flat minor, and played it for the first time with the local orchestra under the direction of B. J. Lang. It was said that the good doctor was so annoyed by the insecurity of the orchestra that he frankly commented on their performance in very uncompli- mentary language. He afterwards visited Boston repeatedly, giving a series of interesting recitals, and made himself very much at home with our musicians. Other fine pianists of this period were Anna Mehlig, a great favorite of Theodore Thomas, and Madeleine Schiller, a most refined and sensitive artist, who eventu- ally settled in Boston. Also the bewitching Teresa Carreño, not yet the great empress of women pianists she afterwards became, but already a brilliant and interesting player. On one occasion she sang the part of Zerlina in a performn- ance of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" with the Mapleson Opera Company. This
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was her only appearance as a singer, it was said. The excellent violinists, Mme. Camilla Urso and Emile Sauret, and the unique Ole Bull, also played in Boston at this time.
Chiefly beeause of the influence of the Handel and Haydn Society and their triennial festivals, many great singers were attracted to Boston. At an earlier date Jenny Lind had given eoneerts which were the sensation of the time. In Boston, too, she found her kismet and married her aceompanist, Otto Goldsehmidt. Mme. Parepa-Rosa beeame almost an institution in Boston, where for many years she thrilled her audiences with her performanees in "The Messiah" and "Elijah." Mme. Erminie Rudersdorf, too, a great dramatie artist of the old school, eventually settled in Boston as a teacher of singing. Mme. Julia Houston West, our own townswoman, a fine artist with thrilling voice, was also a great favorite at the time. For one Handel and Haydn festival eame the English singers, Mme. Patey, Mme. Edith Wynne, Mr. W. H. Cummings, and the great baritone, Charles Santley.
Boston was not without composers before 1881. Dudley Buek's overture to "Don Munio," a eantata for ehorus and orehestra, was performed by the Harvard Musieal Association; J. C. D. Parker's "Redemption Hymn" by the Handel and Haydn Society. This rather Mendelssohnian choral work made a great appeal to the Handel and Haydn publie by its elegiae style and sincerely religious atmosphere. The program at the festival of 1874 included John K. Paine's oratorio of "St. Peter," which had been performed in Europe and in Portland, Maine. In 1876 Theodore Thomas played Paine's First Symphony, in C minor, for the first time. The Department of Musie, with Professor Paine at the head, had recently been established, not without some opposition, in Harvard University, and this beautiful work not only did much to establish Paine's reputation as a symphonie composer, but was a great stimulus to the ambitious younger Boston composers who were soon to follow his leadership in the higher walks of serious musical composition. To Paine's influence and to this Department of Musie may be attributed the important list of Harvard graduates whose names now honor the musieal profession. Some of them are Arthur Foote, John Alden Carpenter, Frederick S. Converse, Edward Burlin- game Hill, Philip Greeley Clapp, Daniel Gregory Mason and Carl MeKinley. To this list should be added the name, as a remarkable executive, of Archibald Davison, whose reorganization of the Harvard Glee Club has brought it inter- national fame as a serious artistic organization.
Paine followed this early symphony with another in A major (Spring), performed at the Harvard Musical Association concerts in 1882. A more important work was his noble musie to Sophoeles' "Oedipus Tyrannus," which was produeed at Harvard University in 1881. It was subsequently played by a professional company (in Boston and New York) condueted by the present writer. Sueh was the state of musie in Boston in the year 1880. It would seem to be enough to justify her reputation as a musieal town.
THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
But Henry L. Higginson had a vision. It was of an ideal symphony orchestra - an orehestra of artists as far as possible, or, at least, of highly
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trained, skillful players, conducted by the best musician that could be found, whose word was to be law. No professional engagements or private business were to be allowed to interfere with the work of this orchestra, which was to give twenty concerts per year after as many rehearsals as were necessary. The last one was to be public, and would be practically another concert. The scats were to be sold at prices ranging from five to ten dollars for the series; twenty-five cents for single seats in the gallery, where the seats were not reserved. So great was the demand for tickets that they were eventually sold at auction and brought very high premiums.
Boston was not alone to have the benefit of this liberal musical enterprise. With wise foresight Mr. Higginson divined that no better place could be found than Harvard University in which to create an interest in classical orchestral music. Therefore he instituted a series of monthly symphony concerts in Sanders Theater in Cambridge, an auditorium singularly favorable to music. More than two generations of Harvard students have now profited by these concerts. They have been a sort of laboratory for the Music Department of the University. Concerts were also given from time to time in the neighboring cities of New England; and after the orchestra passed into Mr. Gericke's hands regular monthly concerts were given in New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. For several years annual journeys were made as far west as Chicago, playing the larger cities on the way. In 1915 the orchestra made an extended journey to the Western Coast, being everywhere received with the greatest enthusiasm. It had now become a national institution, having no superior either in America or Europe.
One stipulation Mr. Higginson madc. It was that the orchestra should be subject to the will of the conductor only and to no other domination whatever. Therefore, no member could belong to the Musicians' Union. It is the only professional orchestra in the United States which is not so affiliated. There came a time when this proviso was to cost Mr. Higginson dear, but the orchestra weathered the storm and emerged from it in better condition than ever.
Mr. George Henschel, a famous concert singer, a good pianist, a student of classical music and a friend of Brahms, gave several concerts in Boston in 1880-81. At one of the concerts of the Harvard Musical Associa- tion he conducted an overture of his own composition. This seems to have made such an impression on the enthusiastic amateurs that Mr. Henschel was appointed as the first conductor of the new orchestra. He had had very little experience as an orchestra conductor; a single performance of Brahms' "Triumphlied" in London was the most important accomplishment to his credit. Many of the members of the new orchestra were veterans, an inheri- tance from the Germania Orchestra of 1850. They had many friends in the audience. They were impatient of Mr. Henschel's discipline and some of his ideas. His position was not a bed of roses. There was much beside har- mony in the orchestra. All this is amusingly related in Mr. Henschel's book, "Musings and Memories of a Musician." However, he was an excellent pro- gram maker. Brahms was his god and he gave many performances of that master's works. (The third and fourth symphonies were not yet composed.) All the Beethoven symphonies, Wagner overtures and excerpts and the classics
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made up the rest. To the local composers just coming to the front he was very friendly and helpful. The first piece of local composition which he played, a Scherzo in F by the present writer, was rewarded with an encore - a pro- cceding not since repeated, with one exception. He also added materially to his popularity by marrying a Boston lady, Miss Lillian Bailey, who was an excellent singer and a very fine young artist.
It was not easy for players who had been accustomed to a "Kapellmeister music" standard of performance to appreciate the necessity of greater technical and artistic effort. With regular and vigorous rehearsals, however, the organiza- tion steadily improved, and so did the conductor. Though it could hardly be called an orchestra as yet, except in the sense of being a group of players, it was the most efficient organization of the kind we had ever had in Boston. At the end of three years Mr. Henschel resigned and returned to Europe, where he became the conductor of the Scottish Orchestra in Edinburgh, a position which he held for many years.
It was not to be expected that such an enterprise as the Boston Symphony Orchestra should be commercially profitable. Mr. Higginson was the last man to expect such a result, but as time went on the deficit became very heavy, especially after the Western journeys were begun. At an early date the rule was made that the members of the orchestra were not to play under any other conductor than Mr. Henschel, except in the case of concerts with the Handel and Haydn Society. This, of course, put an end to any further performances of works for chorus and orchestra by the Cecilia, Boylston and Apollo Clubs. The Harvard Musical Association and Philharmonic concerts had already been discontinued. The Symphony Concerts absorbed most of the musical interest of Boston.
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