USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > Portland city guide > Part 21
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demy of Music, was formed in 1836. On May 24, 1837, this society pre- sented Haydn's Creation in its entirety for the first time in the State. Daniel Paine, assisted by an orchestra from Boston, was the organist; Arthur L. and Esther Ilsley were the principal soloists. The Portland Eastern Argus said in its editorial the next day: "The Oratorio was given in a manner which equalled and we think surpassed the most sanguine hopes of the friends of the Society." This group was the foundation of all other local musical societies in years to come and continued until 1854. In addition to the Creation, the society gave Handel's Messiah and his Samson. They also produced Neukom's David, Rossini's Stabat Mater, and other oratorios, all of which were well received.
In the first half of the 19th century Portland was notable for its number of musical families. The Ilsley family, composed of seven children, four boys, all of whom were tenors, and three girls, sopranos, did much for the progress of music. They were all church singers and members of the Sacred Music Society. The Thomas family also was unusually musical, George Thomas (1819-1907) being a flutist of uncommon ability. In the latter part of his life he frequently sat near an open window in his home on State Street and entertained passers-by with choice melodies from the operas and with his own improvisations. Many of Portland's musicians owe their ad- vancement in music to the encouragement and financial assistance of his sister, 'Aunt' Charlotte Thomas. Still another family group was that of the Pennells who sang at the Third Parish Church. Samuel Thurston (1825-1914) was prominently identified with music from 1850 to 1880 and during the time was a member of the First Parish Church choir and the musical societies of the day. To him belongs the credit for the introduction of music in the public schools of the city.
Portland had no organized male quartet until a group known as Shaw's Quartette was formed in 1845; it continued for several years. Another musical group was the Casco Serenading Club, composed of 12 members, each of whom could play an instrument and also sing. On moonlight nights they took a square piano on a wagon body and serenaded the people around town. Their efforts appear to have met with better reception than did those of another serenading club which was in existence in 1836, for a correspondent in the Portland Eastern Argus complained of this "Night Band" and expressed a "willingness to turn out and help put its members into the horse-pond"; to which the editor added, "We have no objections." An interesting musical organization known as 'The Mocking Birds' existed
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in 1838. Composed of young people, this organization had 20 members, each designated by the name of some bird. The ladies were known by such names as 'Nightingale,' 'Lark,' 'Goldfinch,' and 'Oriole,' but no lovely names were bestowed upon the gentlemen, who bore undignified titles such as 'Albatross,' 'Condor,' 'Crow,' and 'Bat.'
In the 1840's appeared one of Portland's most unusual musical characters, Professor F. Nicholls Crouch (1808-96), an Englishman, composer of Kathleen Mavourneen. Of him, Samuel Thurston wrote in his Musical Reminiscences: "He appeared on our horizon with a big blast of trumpets, blown by himself, a noted basso profundo, directly from the British Isles .... " Thurston also relates that one of Crouch's strange quirks of na- ture was a fondness for snakes; he had as many as a hundred reptiles crawl- ing around the room where he gave music lessons. Often when the pro- fessor appeared on the street Portlanders were horrified at seeing two or three snakes dart their heads in and out of his pockets. Despite his eccen- tricities, Crouch was well educated, polished, and refined, and at one time had a large class of pupils. However, his eccentricities and English man- nerisms caused him to lose his early popularity and he became estranged from the community. In 1850 the Sacred Music Society voted to engage him as their choral conductor, but the vote was later rescinded. According to George Thornton Edwards, who compiled Music and Musicians of Maine, the Crouch episode caused "incrimination and recrimination and threats of lawsuits followed; the members took sides for and against Mr. Crouch and the organization was nearly rent asunder."
When 86 years of age Professor Crouch penned in his diary: "I will now jot down a few events in the life of a man once at the head of his profes- sion, but now in the sere and yellow leaf of life; in the early days, one of the band of the royal household, the Hanoverian family occupying the throne of England; now passing out with the debris on the ebbtide leading to oblivion." Writing of his music masters, Crouch recorded that he was "personally acquainted with Carl Maria von Weber, Sir Henry W. Bishop, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Verdi, Balfe, Sir Michael Costa, Sir Jules Benedict, Sir George Smart, Paganini, J. B. Creamer, Czerny and Cipriani Potter, Charles Neate and Moscheles, all of whom were friends of Beethoven ... . " Without false modesty, he continued, "I played in quartet with most of these, and was, besides, intimate with all the authors, dramatists and jour- nalists of that day in England." His unhappy experiences in Portland led him to seek other fields, and when the Civil War began he enlisted in the
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Confederate Army, an act that further estranged his Northern friends. With the end of the conflict between the States, Crouch struggled unsuc- cessfully to follow his music profession in the South; a few years prior to his death he returned to Portland.
Perhaps the best remembered of Portland's musicians is Hermann Kotz- schmar (1829-1908). Born in Germany, Kotzschmar received his early training on the piano, violin, flute, clarinet, and horn from his father, a stadtmeister (town musician). Later young Kotzschmar went to Dresden, where he continued his studies on piano and organ, composition, and coun- terpoint. In 1848 he came to America with the Saxonia Band, but unable to speak English, the group could make no contacts and soon disbanded. Kotzschmar was discovered in Boston by Cyrus L. Curtis, father of the publisher. Appreciating the young musician's talent, Curtis was instru- mental in bringing him to Portland as leader of the Union Street Theatre orchestra. Kotzschmar was not particularly enthused over his new position, as it required only mediocre musical ability, but he needed the salary re- ceived for drumming out the popular tunes required of a theater orchestra. Two years after his Portland arrival he was engaged as pianist by the Port- land Sacred Music Society at $50 a year. This local acceptance of his ability soon led to other musical activities and young Kotzschmar became one of the leaders of the city. In 1851 he became organist at the First Parish Church and held the position for 47 years. During his long life in Portland Kotzschmar was associated with every musical endeavor and rec- ognized as the leading music instructor. During the early years of his Port- land activities, Kotzschmar was considered a pianist, organist, and accom- panist, but with the re-organization of the Haydn Association following the Civil War, he became the leader of the chorus and the orchestra and later that society's conductor. This was the dawn of a new day in the musical history of the city, for he immediately started serious study in oratorio, and under his baton the Haydn Association became one of the most noted in the country for performance of oratorios. Kotzschmar later became con- ductor of the Weber Club, and various other choral societies throughout Maine. His Te Deum in F has been widely sung in churches; among his other compositions are, Trois Mazurkas, Lullaby, Barcarolle, On This Glorious Christmas Morn, and Christ Is Risen.
No local musician has brought more glory to his home State and to the country than John Knowles Paine (1839-1906). Born in Portland, Paine came from a musical family, and at an early age was playing the organ un-
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der the tutelage of Hermann Kotzschmar. Attracting the attention of a group of local musicians who realized his unusual ability, Paine was sent to Europe for further study. Returning to this country at the conclusion of his musical education, Paine became the leading organist in America. His first great work in composition was The Oratorio of St. Peter, which created such a furore throughout the country that it became famous overnight, and he was immediately acknowledged as the foremost American composer. Regarding the presentation of this oratorio by the local Haydn Association, George Thornton Edwards wrote in his Music and Musicians of Maine: "On the evening of June 3, 1873, the Haydn Association, with a chorus of one hundred and twenty-five, performed in the City Hall of Portland, a musical work of such classic merit that it placed it for the time being in the forefront of all musical societies in the country, for not only was it the first presentation in the United States of America of a sacred oratorio by an American composer and the first oratorio to be written on American soil, but the work itself was the greatest musical composition by an American."
The general enthusiasm for Paine, his work, and its interpretation by the local Haydn Association, was expressed in the Atlantic Monthly of August, 1873: "The pleasant little town of Portland has reason to con- gratulate itself, first, on being the birthplace of such a composer as Mr. Paine; secondly, on having been the place where the first great work of America in the domain of music was brought out; and thirdly, on possess- ing what is probably the most thoroughly disciplined choral society in this country. More artistic chorus singing it has never been our lot to hear. Our New York friends, after their recent experiences, will perhaps be slow to believe us when we say that the Portland choir sang this new work even better than the old Handel and Haydn Society sing the old and familiar Elijah; but it is true. In their command of the pianissimo and the gradual crescendo, and in the precision of their attack, the Portland singers can easily teach the Handel and Haydn a quarter's lesson."
In 1862 Paine went to Harvard where he became director of music, col- lege organist, and choir master; he also gave a series of lectures on musical forms. A full professorship chair was created for him in 1875, the first chair of music to be established in an American university. Following his Oratorio of St. Peter, Paine's next work was the Symphony in C Minor. In 1876 he was one of two Americans invited to write a composition for the Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia, and his Centennial Hymn was an arrangement for John Greenleaf Whittier's verses. The music of John
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Knowles Paine was the first of any American composer to be played abroad. In 1867 he went to Berlin to wield the baton at a concert of the famous Singakademie, conducting an interpretation of his own Mass in D; in 1903 he returned to Germany for the Wagner Festival, having been selected as the one composer to represent America at this outstanding musical fete.
Many other compositions followed, but Paine's greatest work is con- sidered to be Oedipus Tyrannus, written especially for performance by Har- vard University students in 1881. Philip H. Goepp wrote in the Harvard Graduates Magazine, September, 1906: "From the purely musical stand- point, apart from its immediate purpose and effect, Paine's setting of the Oedipus choruses have today, after twenty-five years, the same potent charm as on their production. In view of the rapid changes which the art of music has undergone in this interval, such a test is proof of a high degree of beauty .... It proves the wisdom's of Paine's idea, to glorify the Greek poetry with all the resources of modern music, instead of giving a mere re- production of the primitive shifts of an archaic phase of art. There is a special alternation of tender beauty with dramatic power, with constant sur- prise of delicate rhythm and bold harmonies. We are struck with the blend- ing of melodic simplicity (necessary for amateur singing) with the highest plane of serious conception .... There are in the work the element of strik- ing originality and the fine perfection of inner detail that proves the high- est sincerity. The two are different-the beauty that strikes for the moment, or the charm that stays-that one is tempted to set the one against the other, to think them actually opposed."
Portland's old City Hall, whose auditorium was for many years the principal place for public performances and upon whose stage many celeb- rities appeared, was opened in September, 1859, with Rossini's Stabat Mater. Presented by the Haydn Association, this work heralded a long line of names great in the annals of American music. In 1862 Carlotta Patti, sis- ter of the famous Adelina, made her appearance; later came Gottschalk, the pianist; Brignoli, the Italian tenor, caused audiences to stand in the aisle and applaud; Mlle. Parepa Rosa thrilled Portlanders. Fire destroyed the famous old building in 1866, but rebuilt two years later, it again became the center of musical interest when it was opened with Brignoli's Italian Opera Company which presented Il Trovatore, Martha, and Ernani. Later Myron Whitney was heard in a concert, and the French Opera Company presented La Belle Hélene. In the fall of 1869 Annie Louise Cary, Maine- born opera singer, made her first local stellar appearance in old City Hall.
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Since the early years of 'The Neck,' when musically enthused towns- folk gathered to sing hymns in the early hours of the morning, the local musical picture has been enriched by the formation of many music appre- ciation groups. Outstanding among contemporary groups is the Portland Rossini Club. Organized in December, 1869, the Rossini Club is the old- est musical club in America composed entirely of women. This group, who define their objective as: "mutual improvement in the art of music," limits its active membership to 75, although other memberships are unlimited. At the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893 the Portland Rossini Club was awarded a Diploma of Special Honor by the Bureau of Music for being first in the field of women's amateur musical clubs. Today the club is one of the out- standing musical organizations in Maine, and is the most important single stimulus to local musical appreciation. Every four years, on his birthday, February 29, the Rossini Club honors its namesake, Gioachino Antonio Rossini, composer of The Barber of Seville, with a special musical pro- gram. Through the Emily K. Rand Memorial Scholarship Fund the club sponsors advanced study for worthy music students. The club also brings music to the Children's Hospital and other local institutions.
A musical club that has brought no little fame to the State is the Port- land Men's Singing Club, organized in March, 1914. The ideals of the club have always been to promote the love and appreciation of good music written for male voices. This club, while under the conductorship of Alfred Brinkler, entered several singing contests with leading men's glee clubs of New England, winning many first prizes. As a tribute to its founder and first conductor, Will C. Macfarlane, the club adopted his musical setting of Katherine Lee Bates' poem, America, the Beautiful, as its club song. The club is now under the direction of Arthur Wilson, who in 1938 formed the Portland Women's Chorus; in conjunction with the Symphony Orchestra these two groups have contributed much to the musical life of the city.
The Portland Polyphonic Society is a unique choral club that has given many notable performances. Organized in 1922 by Alfred Brinkler for the purpose of singing choruses of from five to eight parts, it produces choral effects not usually obtained by the ordinary four-part ensemble.
St. Luke's Cathedral claims the honor of having the oldest Cathedral Boys' Choir in the country, having been started in 1864. It consists of 31 voices, and has long maintained its individuality as an entirely male or- ganization. Since 1930 the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception has had a trained boys' choir of 60 voices, made up of students of the parochial
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schools; it gives two public concerts annually besides its regular choir work in the Cathedral.
Many orchestral societies have been active in Portland during the last century. In 1852 the Portland Orchestral Society was organized for "im- provement in instrumental music." The Ardon Coombs Orchestras, en- tirely composed of amateur musicians, were gathered in the 1870's, and were pioneers in chamber music in Maine. In 1876 the Orpheus Symphony Club was formed; the 20 members of this club were all pupils of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich ter Linden, familiarly known as 'Fred' ter Linden, who has been credited with being the first musician in America to play the saxo- phone. The Portland Philharmonic Orchestral Society, with Hermann Kotzschmar as director, was organized in 1882
About 1890 Deane's Orchestral Society, composed of amateur and pro- fessional musicians, flourished although it never gave a public concert. With the formation in 1898 of the Chamber Music Trio by Dr. Latham True, chamber music in Maine was revived; by 1903 the Chamber Music Club, with Hermann Kotzschmar as its president, had been formed. Al- though it continued only two seasons after its organization in 1913, Simp- son's Symphony Orchestra presented several notable concerts during its short life. In 1926 the Portland Flutist Society made an enviable reputation for itself through its rendition of the rare flute octette music.
In 1926 local musicians united to combine a symphony orchestra with the pipe organ, and the Portland Municipal Orchestra of 65 players was the result; Charles R. Cronham, city organist at the time, was the first conductor. From this first municipal orchestra grew the present Portland Symphony Orchestra of 85 players.
Band music in Portland can trace its beginnings to the period when America was engaged in its second war with Great Britain, for on July 4, 1813, a secret organization known as the Rub-a-Dub Society paraded through the streets of the city, accompanied by "solemn musick." Shortly after this John Knowles H. Paine, with the assistance of his son, at- tempted to organize a band here consisting of fife, tenor drum, a bass drum, bugle, and clarinet. The town was not at first inclined to take the band very seriously, but after much perseverance as a marching musical or- ganization it "commanded the respect of the town." Jacob S. Paine (1810- 56), son of John, became its leader, and in 1827 organized his musicians under the name of the Portland Band. It grew into a full military band and for many years was the leading organization of its kind in the western
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part of the State. Daniel Hires Chandler (1818-1902), often referred to as the father of band music in Maine, followed Paine as its leader in 1843. When the Civil War broke out, the Portland Band was chosen as the First Regiment Band. Some time prior to the Civil War the old Continental Band had been formed. Chandler's Band was formally organized in 1876 although the group had been playing together for about three years. Through the efforts of its leader, Daniel H. Chandler, this band had a wide reputation in New England and was considered one of the finest in the East. The Maine Fife and Drum Corps, organized in 1885, was long popu- lar with lovers of band music. Rigby's Band, originally the American Le- gion Band, organized six years after the termination of the World War, was at that time one of the best in Maine.
Portland was not always kindly disposed toward band music, and as late as August, 1891, the Board of Trade Journal editorially reflected the fol- lowing sentiment regarding Sunday band concerts: "There is a growing dis- position to desecrate the sanctity of the holy Sabbath of our fathers-a laxity in religious matters is growing more and more apparent even in good old New England Puritan communities, that is not a credit to a people en- joying the high, intellectual religious teachings of to-day.
"The persistence of the City Government of Portland to inaugurate a series of Sunday Band Concerts to attract people away from churches, and the congregation of large masses of people to disturb the peace and quiet- ness that has hitherto characterized the restful Sabbath of our good citizens, was ill advised and reprehensible since no good can come of it, and which must in the nature of things, open the door to abuses of various kinds that will follow under the guise of 'Sacred' entertainments, feasts, dances-in- deed there is no limit to what might as well come under these Sunday en- tertainments.
"We hope therefore that the City Government will respect the large num- ber of their constituency, who do not approve of such sacrilegious demon- strations, enough not to attempt these entertainments."
Today, however, Portlanders are greatly interested in the local band groups. The Fifth U. S. Infantry Band, at Fort Williams for 18 years and recently transferred, had a colorful past; it is the second oldest military band in the country. The motto of the regiment, "I will try, Sir," was the reply of the commander who, in the War of 1812, was directed to take an im- portant objective in the Battle of Lundy's Lane. This band made a world tour in the 1920's, and gained an international reputation. During the
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World War it was stationed at the Panama Canal, later crossing to Ger- many with its regiment in the Army of Occupation. The organization has a prized collection of musical trophies.
The Harold T. Andrews Post Junior Drum and Bugle Corps is one of four leading musical organizations of the kind in the country. Organized in 1934 with a group of 93 boys and girls, they appeared that year for the first time at the American Legion convention at Miami, Florida. The Class Thirteen Band of the St. Lawrence Church has been declared to be the equal of the best bands connected with religious organizations in the coun- try.
Well known among music-appreciation societies are several of Portland's organizations. The MacDowell Club, formed in 1908 by a group of local women, has aided considerably in carrying out the ideals of its namesake, the well-known American composer, Edward MacDowell. The Kotzschmar Club was organized January 11, 1900, when a group of local men gathered to discuss formation of a musical organization for men. Hermann Kotz- schmar was elected the club's first president, and today the club honors his birthday with a special musical program. Cultivation of an interest in music has been the dominant purpose of this club, and its membership includes the leading musicians of present-day Portland. The Maine Federation of Music Clubs, a Statewide organization, was formed through the efforts of the Rossini Club in 1921, and is instrumental in bringing young artists of ability to the attention of music lovers through musical contests.
The city has been the residence of a large group of musical composers, both native-born and others, who have produced numerous songs and in- strumental pieces, as well as given their individual interpretations to the works of the great masters. In the field of musical interpretation George W. Marston (1840-1901) had few equals. He came here as a young man from Massachusetts, studying with John Knowles Paine. Marston became a teacher and church organist, and his most productive years were spent in this city. His first composition to attract attention was the ballad, Across the Far Blue Hills, Marie. His dramatic cantata, David, and other anthems are still widely sung. During his life Marston composed more than sixty piano pieces and a like number of songs. Of him George Thornton Ed- wards has written: "His song accompaniments are nearly all distinctive, yet unobtrusive. His style could be exquisitely delightful, profoundly somber, or quaintly simple as he chose, yet all his compositions are replete with richest harmonies and embodied great depth of feeling .... Historians of
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music have devoted too little space to this composer whose writings include some of the loveliest phrases to be found in American music." The Mars- ton Club, organized as a private musical club for women in 1887, was named for this composer.
Among other composers who have done notable work in the city are George Thornton Edwards (1868-1932), John T. Fagan (1864-1930), Clifford E. Leighton (1882-1933), Edward H. Macy (1870-1935), and David Page Perkins (1850-1933). On the contemporary scene are Cora Emily Edgerly, Harold A. Loring, Fanning J. Maloney, Frank A. Nye, Sinclair Thompson, Dr. Latham True, and Elise Fellows White. Dr. James Alfred Spaulding (1846-1938), music critic, author, and pianist, was the author of Essays on Schubert, and Pronunciation of the Names of Mu- sicians. Clinton W. Graffam (1884-1933) wrote Essays on Music, Women and Music, and Stephens Collins Foster. Thomas H. Calvert, a resident of Portland, and for 19 years editor of the Portland Argus, served his paper in the capacity of music critic. Ellen F. Blodgett is an active critic of mu- sical activities for the Portland Press Herald, and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Music from Columbia University. Still active in the field of musicology are Marguerite Ogden, who wrote several articles on Greek Ecclesiastical Music' in Greeks in America; and Caroline W. Stevens, local newspaperwoman, who has reported every Musical Festival for 30 years.
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