Beethoven and the USA

[robert newman]

My first reaction to having looked for the progress of orchestral and chamber music in the USA was genuine suprise that so very little seems to have existed in the late 18th and early 19th century despite its extraordinary potential as a newly founded nation for music making/concert making. Whole immigrant populations were arriving from Europe many of whom were very knowledgeable about music in every form. Take for example a German named George Willig (although many others could be refered to).

Willig was born in Germany in 1764. By the age of 30 he had come to Philadelphia and had taken over the pioneering music publishing business of John Christopher Miller and Henri Capon (this supposedly the first music publishing firm in the whole history of the USA). Willig had firm ideas about the music business and he was to publish mostly popular sheet music until the 1840's. His son (George Junior) also became active in the same business and was able to manage a new branch of the company in Baltimore from 1829 until his death in 1879.

(It appears Willig was the first company in the USA to offer a catalogue of its publications, the first of these appearing in 1807 and a second in the year of Beethoven's death, 1827). The company was to be be quite successful in the 19th century in catering for amateur music makers but does not appear to have published European orchestral or chamber music and few bound books other than keyboard tutorials and easy theoretical works. (Perhaps the great Euroopean publishers of Artaria and B&H already had their own import agents in the USA ?) In any event it was around the 1840's when moves to towards founding orchestras and chamber groups really took off. The New York Philharmonic pioneered and its success was soon followed by many others. (Penn Library holds in its archives more than 400 examples of Willig's sheet music).

So the the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven (both in its creation and the wider development of its appreciation) seems to have required the one thing that the USA in its infancy could not possibly guarantee - peace and tranquillity. The potential was there but such matters were simply not practical and musically educated men like Willig realised it. The USA had been born in turbulent times and this in turn is reflected by the activities and the products of these early American music publishers. America's music lovers were not retreating in significant numbers to a musical paradise (one described by the great composers of Europe) but was bravely and even brashly facing reality. (I personally found this to be a remarkable fact when I recently made enquiries about the subject).

When Beethoven hid from the bombardment of Vienna by the French, and again when he supposedly shook his fist against a thunderstorm he may have been doing nothing more than searching for peace. In a strange way Beethoven's natural reaction to the noise of war and turbulence is mirrored by the reception of his great music and that of others in the USA.

Robert

[Droell]

Originally posted by robert newman:


My first reaction to having looked for the progress of orchestral and chamber music in the USA was genuine suprise that so very little seems to have existed in the late 18th and early 19th century despite its extraordinary potential as a newly founded nation for music making/concert making. Whole immigrant populations were arriving from Europe many of whom were very knowledgeable about music in every form. ...

For one thing, we were a poor country. For another, we were starting from scratch. So we had neither an aristocracy nor a moneyed class to support composers, or orchestras, or, for that matter, trained musicians. Until the early 20th century, almost all of this was imported.

So far as immigrants were concerned, I don't recall significant waves of immigration before the late 19th century. And while people from all social strata eventually arrived, most of them were disappointed with what they found. Many of the ones with money in their pockets promptly returned home.

The educational system out west was so very grave that Andrew Carnegie took it upon himself to personally fund public libraries in towns in half the entire country. This was in conjunction with land grant colleges (established by the various states), which, initially at least, were little more than agricultural schools. Were it not for these two, I suspect America would hardly be a literate nation, to this day.

Artistic & musical development, as an organic outgrowth of the population itself, has yet to spread out of New England. As imports, they are found throughout the country, but, as imports, their existence is tenuous. New York, Austin, New Orleans, Nashville, southern California, Seattle, all have lively music scenes, but only in New York does this include classical music as an organic part of the local whole. Symphony orchestras in many other American cities are, literally, at death's door. They have little local support, despite the efforts of their many well-wishers.

Art & culture did not appear overnight in Europe. They were outgrowths of many centuries. It is unreasonable to think the process will be any faster over here.

Dirty little secrets about America.

[robert newman]

I think it was Oscar Wilde who spoke of some people 'knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing'. It angers me that politicians (even here in the UK as well as elsewhere) can rubber stamp military ventures and occupy other nations, this at tremendous cost, and cannot prioritise the tiny amounts need to properly fund libraries and orchestras. The awful truth is that a missile of the kind that might be fired a hundred times a day in a war zone costs around the same as funding a typical city orchestra for about 1 year. If I was ever in position to determine the finances of my country I would transfer (before I was fired) the budget for the military to the arts and the budget for the arts to the military.

It is a great incictment against our civilization not so much that we choose to be ignorant of great literature or art - since that is every man's choice - but that we so easily give priority, time and credibility to ventures which bring untold suffering and misery on ordinary people beyond our shores.

Others disagree. They say that all projects must pay their way in the real world and that this means profit and loss accounts. They argue that we do not live in an idea world. They, who themselves want nothing close to ideal. In that case let the missile silos and the warmongers pay their own way and do not send bills for people other than themselves to pay. Certain things are beyond accountants to reckon and these are amongst the most valuable of them all.

I am sorry to hear that the orchestras of the USA are forever fighting to survive, financially. This may be typical of everywhere. But music can do more than many battalions.

Is this pacifism ? Not at all. If one is attacked that changes things. The perversity is that in modern times we are so often attacking ourselves.

R