USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 57
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97
1 These hundred programmes contained :- SYMPHONIES. - All the nine of Beethoven, repeatedly; twelve by Haydn; six by Mozart ; the Weihe der Töne, by Spohr; Schubert's, in C (six times), and the Unfinished ; Mendels- sohn's Scotch, Italian, and Reformation ; the four of Schumann, three or four times round, besides the Overture, Scherzo, and Finale ; Gade, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4. Nearly all of these repeatedly, and many of them for the first time in Boston.
OVERTURES. - Gluck : Iphigenia. Mozart : Idomeneo, Figaro, Zauberflöte, Tito. Beethoven : Prometheus, Coriolan, Egmont, Leonore (Nos. I, 2, and 3), Fidelio, Namensfeier, and Weihe des Hauses. Cherubini : Anacreon, Wasserträger, Les Abencerrages, Medea, Faniska, Lodoiska. Spohr : Jessonda, Faust. Schubert : Fierabras, Alfonso and Estrella. Weber : Ruler of the Spirits, Pre- ciosa, Freyschütz, Oberon, Euryanthe, Jubilee. Spontini : La Vestale. Rossini : Tell. Men- delssohn : Midsummer Night's Dream, Hebrides,
-
447
THE HISTORY OF MUSIC IN BOSTON.
season (1874) an effort was made to increase the interest of the concerts by incorporating a new feature, - a large chorus of mixed voices (which was called the Cecilia, with Mr. Lang for its conductor), to relieve the instru- mental uniformity by the occasional performance of cantatas, and other larger and smaller works for solo voices, orchestra, and chorus. This lasted for two seasons, during which were sung (with more satisfaction to the hear- ers than the singers, who could not feel themselves at home, surrounded as they were, and " covered up " by the strange " overpowering " element, the orchestra) Mendelssohn's Walpurgis Night (twice), Lorelei fragments, motet, Laudate Pueri, for female voices; Schumann's Paradise and the Peri ; the Magnificat by Durante; finale to the first act of Weber's Eury- anthe ; Gade's Spring's Greeting and Comala; Schubert's Twenty-third Psalm, for female voices; three-part canons by Hauptmann ; Bach's great
Melusina, Ruy Blas, Meeresstille, etc., Athalie, Trumpet Overture. Schumann : Genoveva, Man- fred. Gade : Ossian, Im Hochland, Concert Over- ture, opus 14. Sterndale Bennett : Naiads, Wood Nymph, Paradise and Peri. Taubert : Tausend und eine Nacht. Rietz : Concert Overture. Wag- ner : Tannhäuser, Lohengrin. Reinecke : Dame Kobold. Bargiel : Medea. Goldmark: Sakun- tala. Dudley Buck: Don Munio. Most of these repeatedly, and at least half of them for the first time here.
MISCELLANEOUS FOR ORCHESTRA. - J. S. Bach : Suite in D; Organ Toccata in F, and Pas- sacaglia, arranged by Esser. Handel : Pastoral Symphony. Gluck : Chaconne, from Orfeo. Beet- hoven : Adagio and Andante, from Prometheus ; Turkish March ; March from Fidelio. Cheru- bini : Introduction to fourth act of Medea. Mendelssohn : Priest's March from Athalie. Schumann : Entr'acte and Incantation from Manfred. F. Lachner : First Orchestral Suite, D-minor. Liszt : Les Preludes, Tasso. Raff : Suite in C.
CONCERTOS. - Handel : For Oboe, G-minor. Mozart : For two Pianos (Lang and Parker); No. 20, in D (H. Daum) ; No. 8, D-minor (Miss Mehlig, Richard Hoffman) ; in C-minor (Leon- hard) ; in B-flat (J. C. D. Parker) ; Sinfonie Con- certante for Violin and Viola (C. N. Allen and H. Heindl) ; Violin in D (Camilla Urso). Beet- hoven : Violin (Carl Rosa, Mme. Urso, B. Liste- mann) ; For Piano; No. 1 in C (B. J. Lang) ; No. 2, B-flat (B. J. Lang) ; No. 3, C-minor (Lang, Alice Dutton, Parker) ; No. 4, in G (H. Leonhard, five times) ; No. 5, E-flat (Dresel, Perabo, Miss Mehlig, Miss Krebs, Mme. Schil- ler) ; Triple Concerto (Lang, Perabo) ; Choral Fantasia (Perabo). Hummel : Piano, A-minor (Parker) ; Septet (Perabo). Schubert-Liszt : Fantasia, opus 15 (Lang). Weber : Concertstück (Miss Dutton, Miss Mehlig) ; For Clarinet A- flat (G. Weber). Moscheles : G-minor (Parker).
Mendelssohn; Piano in G-minor (Lang, Parker) ; D-minor (Dresel, Parker, Mehlig) ; Serenade and Allegro - Giojoso (Parker, Leonhard) ; Rondo, opus 29 (Perabo) ; Capriccio (Miss Finkenstädt) ; Violin (Rosa, Urso, Miss Teresa Liebe). Schu- mann: A-minor (Dresel, Leonhard, Marie Krebs); Concertstück (Lang, twice). Chopin : E-minor (Leonhard, Miss Alide Topp, Miss Mehlig, Mme. Schiller) ; F-minor (Mehlig, Leon- hard, G. W. Sumner); Andante Spianato and Polonaise (Leonhard) ; Krakowiak (Leonhard, twice). Henselt : F-minor (C. Petersilea). Nor- bert Burgmüller : Piano (Perabo). Bennett : No. 4, F-minor (Perabo) ; Capriccio in E (Lang). Rietz : For Oboe, F-minor (A. Kutzleb). Li- pinski : Military, Violin ( B. Listemann). Vieux- temps : Ballade and Polonaise, . Violin (Urso). F. David : Andante and Scherzo (Miss Liebe). Joachim : Hungarian Concerto, first movement (Listemann). Rubinstein : Piano, No. 3, in G (Lang). Goltermann : For 'cello, A-minor (A. Hartdegen). Gernsheim : C-minor (Perabo). Svendsen : Violin in A (August Fries).
Singers like Mme. Rudersdorff, Miss Clara Doria (Mrs. H. M. Rogers), Mme. Johannsen, Mrs. Houston-West, the lamented Miss A. S. Whitten, Miss Whinnery, Mrs. Flora E. Barry, Miss Alice Fairman, Mrs. Kempton, Miss Ryan, Messrs. Kreissmann, George L. Osgood, Nelson Varley, C. Gloggner-Castelli, M. W. Whitney, P. H. Powers, and F. Rudolphsen furnished a rare collection, mostly new to our concert-rooms, of arias from Bach's cantatas, Christmas Oratorio and Passion ; many from Handel's Italian operas, his L'Allegro, etc .; many of Mozart's concert arias, as well as from his operas; and songs by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Robert Franz, etc., with unsurpassed piano-forte accompanists. In the earlier seasons there were sometimes choruses for male voices from Mendelssohn's Antigone and Œdipus, from the Magic Flute, the Ruins of Athens, etc.
448
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
cantata, Ich hatte viel Bekümmerniss ; besides some madrigals and part- songs. After this the Cecilia withdrew, and became a concert-giving society upon its own account.
From the year 1872, and onward, the Harvard Concerts began to lose somewhat of their prestige; and very naturally, since until then they had occupied the field alone. This advantage could not last forever. Their suc- cess invited competition both in their own and other fields, and in other kinds of musical attraction. Their triumphant tide was checked in several ways; as (1) By the necessity of afternoon instead of evening concerts, owing to the engagements of musicians in the theatres; (2) Jealousy caused by the privilege of the "nucleus," or guarantee subscribers, in the choice of seats ; (3) A diversion of the tide of sympathy for a time toward the new vocal clubs (Apollo, etc.), in which so many young men could take active part themselves, while their invited or " associate member" friends preferred to hear glees and part-songs rehearsed to the utmost finesse of expression, to the greatest symphonies by a half disciplined, imperfect orchestra; and (4) An orchestra too small and of inadequate intensity of tone for the great spaces of the Music Hall. But more than all, there had already come re- peated visitations of a better orchestra, one trained to sensitive and abso- lute obedience to a masterly and most energetic leader, Theodore Thomas ; an orchestra whose performance, in unity, precision, all the technical refine- ments, light and shade, and unmistakable expression, contrasted greatly to the disadvantage of our local band, made up as it had to be of musicians who worked in the theatre, street, and ball room, or perhaps in teaching, for their daily bread, and who could only give a few jaded hours now and then for the rehearsal of programmes full of difficulty. If the brilliant example turned attention somewhat from the programme to the nicety of execution, making the manner more regarded than the matter, yet there was no denying that it was just the example which Boston needed. It was Germania versus Musical Fund again, upon a larger scale. It was a needed lesson. Here was the kind of orchestra for which Boston concert-goers had so often sighed. Here was an orchestra always, the whole year round an orchestra, with this for the one business of its members' lives. Such had we longed for, but almost without hope, for our own. Never was the want so keenly felt; for Boston, to become in truth a musical city, must be self- dependent in this great matter of orchestral music, and not have to take its symphonies as it takes its operas, by the chance favor, not always timely, of travelling impresarios and artists.
The Thomas Concerts have contributed to musical development in Bos- ton. They have sharpened musical perception. They have created a new audience and a new interest for orchestral music in hundreds dead to it before. They have greatly raised the standard of excellence in execution. They have made the public demand more, and our own conductors and musicians try more. The effect is seen in the improvement, year by year, of our home orchestra. Moreover, the Thomas Concerts have to a great
449
THE HISTORY OF MUSIC IN BOSTON.
extent chosen a field so distinctive in respect to programmes as almost to render competition idle. While they have not slighted tastes conservative and classical, they have ministered largely to the curiosity to know more about the famous new composers, introducing many strange and brilliant novelties of the most modern school. We may or may not come home again with a new relish to our old favorites; it is well to have the oppor- tunity of choice, to see and judge each for himself, -" try all things, and hold fast to that which is good."
The Harvard Musical Association has, as we have seen, chosen for itself the conservative ground in its concerts. Whatever else of good or evil may come up, there can be no doubt that somebody should hold that ground. We have only here to complete the record of its work. With all the new quickening influences, and under all discouragements of fluctuating and inadequate support, it has continued to seek the approbation of the few, if it could not attract the many. Not only has it kept the immortal mas- ter-works within thought and hearing, but also in the concerts of the last six years, since conservatism can so well afford to be generous, it has pre- sented what it conceived to be a judicious, on the whole a large, allowance of the modern works.1
1 In the list of symphonies have figured two by Raff, the two by Brahms, the Ocean by Ru- binstein, the Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz, the Second, in A-minor, by Saint-Saëns, the Post- humous Symphony in F by Goetz; also the two by our own Harvard professor, J. K. Paine, and the Second (Sardanapalus) Symphony by Dr. F. L. Ritter, the learned and genial musical profes- sor at. Vassar College ; also several by older mas- ters, here given for the first time, -as Schubert's Grand Duo, opus 140, arranged as symphony by Joachim ; Spohr's Irdisches und Göttliches, for double orchestra; three of the less known by Haydn, including that written for his degree at Oxford. Of overtures, for the first time here, may be named that by Rietz, called Hero and Lean- der ; Paine's to As You Like It ; J. C. D. Parker's to Hiawatha ; Schubert's to Rosamunde ; Schu- mann's to Julius Cæsar ; Gluck's to Alceste ; Goldmark's to Penthesilea; G. W. Chadwick's Rip Van Winkle ; and a Concert Overture (1870) by Henschel. Of miscellaneous orchestral works, - Bach, Pastorale, from the Christmas Orato- rio, and Violin Chaconne in D-minor, adapted by Raff; Weber, ballet music from Preciosa ; Schubert, orchestral arrangements of the Heroic March in A-minor, and of the Reiter Marsch (the latter by Liszt) ; Mendelssohn's Octet (by all the strings) ; the Phaéton of Saint-Saëns ; Wagner's Siegfried Idyl ; Marche Nocturne, by Berlioz, etc. The piano concertos added in these years have included : Hummel, Concerto in B-minor (played by Mme. Schiller) ; Saint-Saëns, No. 2, G-minor (Mr. Lang, Mme. Rivé-King), No. 4, C-minor (J.
A. Preston) ; Schumann, Concert Allegro (H. G. Tucker); Rubinstein, No. 4, D-minor (C. Peter- silea) ; Grieg, A-minor (William H. Sherwood) ; Mozart, Concerto in A (Tucker) ; Liszt, Ilunga- rian Fantaisie (F. Rummel) ; L. Brassin, Con- certo in F (Miss Cochran) ; HI. von Bronsart, Concerto in F-sharp minor (Lang) ; Liszt, No. 2, in A (Max Pinner); L. Maas, Concerto in C- minor, played by himself. Also the Bach Con- certo for three pianos, in C, has been played by Messrs. Lang, Parker, and Foote, and that in D-minor by Messrs. Sumner, Foote, and Pres- ton. The First Violin Concerto of Max Bruch has been played by Mr. T. Adamowski, and a Con- certo for violoncello of Saint-Saëns, by Mr. Wulf Fries. Many important opera and concert arias by Handel, Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendels- sohn, Rossini, Schubert, and others, owe their first hearing in Boston to the Symphony Con- certs of these six years, and to such singers as Miss Thursby, Miss Fannie Kellogg, Mme. Emma Dexter, Miss Lillian Bailey, Miss Lizzie Cronyn, Miss Ita Welsh, Miss Emily Winant, Miss Louie Homer, Miss Fannie L. Barnes, Miss May Bryant, Mr. Georg Henschel, Dr. Langmaid, Mr. Alfred Wilkie, and others ; also fresh bou- quets of song from Schubert, Schumann, Franz, Grieg, Jensen, and many more. We are sum- ming up the account of what Boston has been doing for herself in this way, through her own Symphony Society. It would be easy to show a very rich list also of the works which we have heard performed by the fine orchestra of Mr. Thonias.
VOL. IV. - 57.
450
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The " orchestral problem" has become here one of urgency, so much so that its practical solution cannot be far off. New organizations are already in the field, pursuing the same end with the Harvard, but by differ- ent business plans. Another Philharmonic Society, begun on a small scale by Mr. Bernhard Listemann, has been taken up by a large committee of amateurs and musicians, and placed upon the footing of associate-mem- bership subscriptions, whereby concerts, at a low price, and by a large and well trained orchestra, are made to fill the largest hall. Its first year has proved successful. More important is the generous movement of a public- spirited and wealthy friend of music, Mr. Henry Lee Higginson, who, self- inspired and at his sole risk, undertakes the whole burden, for the next year at least, of a course of twenty classical orchestral concerts, with twenty public rehearsals, for which Mr. Georg Henschel is to be the conductor of an orchestra of over sixty musicians kept in constant practice, and with the prices of admission on so low a scale as to place this rare resource within the reach of the most slender purses. This looks like the beginning of a permanent first-class orchestra for Boston. The three orchestras will be essentially identical, though under different names and leaders, inasmuch as the sixty men whom Mr. Henschel has to train will also constitute the working force of both the Philharmonic and the Harvard concerts. Together the three bodies offer about sixty concerts (with a symphony in every one) for the next season; so that the musicians will be kept busier than ever before in work worthy of their best artistic skill and effort. Thus Boston will be self-dependent in this important sphere of musical activity, which naturally holds the primacy among all the rest.
With our old Oratorio Society this has been a period of triennial festi- vals. The successful experiments of 1857 and 1865 led to their regular recurrence, as an institution, at intervals of three years, after the manner of those at Birmingham. Five have been given in the Music Hall, and all with gratifying success, resulting in a well-invested trust fund, now amount- ing to about $22,000, which guarantees their future. The first was in May, 1868, which occupied six days, and consisted of five oratorios, four miscel- laneous, and one organ concert. There was a chorus of seven hundred voices, an orchestra of over one hundred instruments, with Mr. Lang at the Great Organ, and Carl' Zerrahn, conductor. The leading singers were Mme. Parepa-Rosa and Miss Houston; Miss Adelaide Phillipps and Miss Cary; Messrs. George Simpson and James Whitney; Messrs. M. W. Whitney, J. F. Winch, J. F. Rudolphsen, and H. Wilde. There were piano- forte solos by Miss Alide Topp, and for the violin by Carl Rosa. The pro- grammes included Nicolai's Choral Fest Overture ; Mendelssohn's St. Paul, Hymn of Praise, and Ninety-fifth Psalm; Handel's Samson, and Messiah ; Haydn's Creation ; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony ; Mendelssohn's Reforma- tion Symphony ; and a great variety of vocal, orchestral, and organ music.
In the four succeeding festivals the chorus has varied from seven hun- dred to five hundred voices ; the instrumentalists from one hundred to about
451
THE HISTORY OF MUSIC IN BOSTON.
seventy ; and the number of day and evening concerts from nine to five, - the riper judgment tending to the shorter term and number. Experience teaches the society that quality is of more consequence than quantity; that three days may be more inspiring than a whole week of the exceptional; and that five hundred, or even four hundred, true, effective, well-trained voices may do better work in chorus than one thousand. The real and enduring good residing in these stated festivals is that they stand before the singers as high-water marks for their ambition to surpass themselves in better and better work. They keep up the standard of thoroughness in study and excellence in performance. Best of all, they incite to study and performance of great works, before unattempted, both by old and new com- posers. The additions to the repertoire during these fifteen years have been mainly owing to the festivals. Far above all these attempts, in intrin- sic value and unfailing inspiration, has been that most courageous venture in the history of this or any choral body in America, -its resolute grappling with the difficulties and the doubtful popularity of the St. Matthew Passion Music of Sebastian Bach. After many intermittent hours of practice and rehearsal, selections from this great work (less than half of it) were first brought out in the second triennial, May 13, 1871. More generous selec- tions were given in 1874; and finally, in April, 1881, by far the larger part of the whole work was interpreted more admirably than before, Mr. Georg Henschel lending his artistic and expressive talent in the recitatives of "Jesus," with the co-operation of other excellent singers, -notably Miss Annie Louise Cary. But it was not in a festival, -it was on Good Friday, 1879, that this Passion Music was given here with a completeness such as we do not read of even in Germany or England. In two performances on that one day the entire Part I., and the entire Part II. without omission or abridgment of a single number, were performed before two audiences which filled the Music Hall to overflowing. The spiritual depth and tenderness, the wonderful sublimity and beauty, the dramatic vividness and truth of the Bach music has at length made it felt and loved among us. His exquisite Christmas Oratorio likewise was introduced (Parts I. and II.) in the Festival of 1877, and has been repeated in several concerts of the society.1
Perhaps the best lesson and best influence of these Triennial, regularly instituted Oratorio Festivals is that they show the true limits of great fes-
1 Among other choral novelties which have come up in these festivals are Handel's Utrecht Jubilate ; Marcello's Eighteenth Psalm ; Men- delssohn's Christus, and several Psalms; Ber- lioz's Flight into Egypt ; Costa's Naaman ; Bennett's Woman of Samaria ; Hiller's Song of Victory ; the Noël, by Saint-Saëns ; Sullivan's Prodigal Son ; Verdi's Manzoni Requiem ; while of the works of our own native composers, first hearings have been accorded to Professor Paine's oratorio, St. Peter, to Dudley Buck's Forty-sixth Psalm, and to J. C. D. Parker's Redemption
Hymn. These have not prevented frequent reproduction of the well known grandest ora- torios, besides great symphonies, etc. Besides the leading singers already named, the fol- lowing distinguished artists have lent lustre to the festivals and concerts : Mme. Ruders- dorff, Mme. Christine Nilsson, Miss Edith Wynne, Miss Clara Louise Kellogg, Miss Emma C. Thursby, Mme. Patey, Miss Antoi- nette Sterling, Miss Emily Winant, Mr. W. H. Cummings, Signor Campanini, Mr. William Courtney, and Mr. Santley.
452
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
tivals, and what a proper musical festival should be. They form at once the safety-valve and steady-going balance-wheel for the protection of musi- cal art against the wildfire enthusiasm and extravagance of "monster " festivals like the Peace Jubilees of 1869 and 1872, which try to do things on a larger scale than the conditions of true art permit. Such world- challenging exceptions prove the rule, - the wholesome, common, modest rule, - which institutions like the Handel and Haydn Society, at once pro- gressive and conservative, have wisely chosen to observe.
A prominent feature of this fourth period has been the springing up and prosperous continuance of so many vocal clubs, composed mainly but not entirely of amateurs. The three most important- the Apollo, the Boyl- ston, and the Cecilia-have done not a little to improve the style of chorus singing, to create a love for this refining, wholesome, social practice, and to introduce to general acquaintance many beautiful creations of musi- cal genius, of which the interest will not soon wear out. Originally part- song clubs, for male voices, they have soon found out the limitations and monotony of that small form, and have by preference devoted themselves to the more rewarding study of larger compositions, like cantatas; and not content with the mere outline accompaniment of the piano-forte, they have sought to produce such works in their full character with orchestra. The business organization of these clubs, beginning with the Apollo, has been original and fruitful. These enthusiastic amateurs knew well the interest their friends would take in their endeavors and achievements, and to them they made appeal for the material support and guarantee, upon the system of "associate membership,"- the associates paying an annual fee for the privilege of a certain number of admissions to all concerts and rehearsals. The plan has uniformly insured full audiences and sympathy unfailing.
In former days we had the numerous glee-clubs in Boston, Cam- bridge, but especially in Salem, whose glee-club, under the quickening lead of General H. K. Oliver, then a distinguished classical teacher and fitter of boys.for college, had a long and genial career, with an almost exhaustive library of all the famous English madrigal and glee composers. But the immediate forerunner of the present Boston clubs was the first Liedertafel club of our German fellow-citizens, founded many years ago, now called the Orpheus Musical Society. It was purely a part-song club, true to the traditional associations of the male part-song with beer and smoke and un- conventional good-fellowship. For some years it has ceased to be a con- · cert-giving society ; but in the older days, under the inspiring leadership of Kreissmann, it often sang choice programmes to delighted listeners, some- times including choral works of magnitude.1
1 We are tempted here, in view of the recent notable achievement in the Sanders Theatre at Cambridge, to introduce a sentence we have chanced to light upon in turning over an old vol- ume of Dwight's Journal of Music (April 28, 1860), where, in noticing a concert given in Cambridge
a few evenings before by Otto Dresel, in which the Orpheus sang choruses from Antigone and Œdipus, the editor remarks : "The three Greek choruses were certainly in place; they were greatly relished by the audience, and especially by the genial president, late Greek professor
453
THE HISTORY OF MUSIC IN BOSTON.
The Apollo Club (male voices) was formed in July, 1871. Some fifty gentlemen, of the youthful and the middle period of life,-the best of the singers in oratorios, choirs, and glee-clubs, -were drawn together by the de- sire to practise vocal harmony with an aim to the highest technical perfec- tion and expression, and to realize, if possible, an exquisite refinement in the sphere of song to which they were attracted. And their success has been acknowledged first and last. The number of active members is now seventy-one. The number of associate members reached at once the pre- scribed limit of five hundred, which it has always kept. To the careful training and conductorship of Mr. B. J. Lang the club has always owed a great part of its success. It has given sixty-eight concerts to its associates and friends, besides singing on several patriotic and memorial occasions.1
In the selection of its active members the Apollo has been most exacting as to quality of voices, facility in reading music, musical temperament and feeling, and esprit du corps. In its recent public efforts a striking feature has been a certain Anacreontic freshness, alike of voice and enthusiasm, well preserved among its oldest members.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.