Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Introduction: Toward a History of American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century
Deane L. Root
I. Ubiquity and Diversity
The Ubiquity and Diversity of Nineteenth-Century American Orchestras
John Spitzer
I.1. Building the American Symphony Orchestra: The Nineteenth-Century Roots of a Twenty-First-Century Musical Institution
Mark Clague
I.2. Modeling Music: Early Organizational Structures of American Women’s Orchestras
Anna-Lise P. Santella
I.3. American Orchestras and Their Unions in the Nineteenth Century
John Spitzer
II. The Orchestra and the American City
Orchestras: Local versus National
John Spitzer
II.1. Invisible Instruments: Theater Orchestras in New York, 1850–1900
John Graziano
II.2. Beethoven and Beer: Orchestral Music in German Beer Gardens in Nineteenth-Century New York City
John Koegel and Jonas Westover
II.3. Performances to “Permanence”: Orchestra Building in Late Nineteenth-Century Cincinnati
Karen Ahlquist
II.4. Critic and Conductor in 1860s Chicago: George P. Upton, Hans Balatka, and Cultural Capitalism
James Deaville
II.5. Amateur and Professional, Permanent and Transient: Orchestras in the District of Columbia, 1877–1905
 Patrick Warfield
III. Conductors, Promoters, Patrons
Marketing the American Orchestra
John Spitzer
III.1. Bernard Ullman and the Business of Orchestras in Mid-Nineteenth-Century New York
Bethany S. Goldberg
III.2. John Sullivan Dwight and the Harvard Musical Association Orchestra: A Help or a Hindrance?
Mary Wallace Davidson
III.3. The Leopold Damrosch Orchestra, 1877–78: Background, Instrumentation, Programming, and Critical Reception
Ora Frishberg Saloman
III.4. Gender and the Germanians: “Art-Loving Ladies” in Nineteenth-Century Concert Life
Nancy Newman
IV. America and Europe
Orchestras: American and European
John Spitzer
IV.1. “A Concentration of Talent on Our Musical Horizon”: The 1853–54 American Tour by Jullien’s Extraordinary Orchestra
Katherine K. Preston
IV.2. Ureli Corelli Hill: His European Travels and the Creation of the New York Philharmonic
Barbara Haws
V. Orchestral Repertory
Orchestral Repertory: Highbrow and Lowbrow
John Spitzer
V.1.Orchestral Programs in Boston, 1842–55, in European Perspective
William Weber
V.2. Theodore Thomas and the Cultivation of American Music
Brenda Nelson-Strauss
V.3. Thinking about Serious Music in New York, 1842–82
Adrienne Fried Block
Afterword: Coming of Age
Ronald G. Walters
Bibliography
Contributors
Index

About the Author

John Spitzer teaches music history at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is coauthor of The Birth of the Orchestra: History of an Institution, 1650–1815.

Reviews

“This superb collection of essays breaks new ground. The scholarship by preeminent scholars relies on new archival sources. The volume’s contribution to the history of music in America is unique. Readers in many fields will benefit from Spitzer’s collection: an encounter with the extent of amateur concert life, the history of musicians’ unions and touring ensembles, and the origins of today’s professional orchestras in Chicago, Cincinnati, and New York. The richness and variety of concert repertoire in America, much of it forgotten, come alive. Playing and listening to orchestral music in nineteenth-century America assume a significance long underestimated. This is a long overdue contribution to understanding music within urban and public culture in America before 1900.”
*Leon Botstein, Bard College*

“To a remarkable degree, the ‘symphony orchestra’ is an American invention, distinct from the pit orchestras of Europe. And yet our knowledge of nineteenth-century American orchestras remains amazingly incomplete. Surely this volume will help build momentum toward an adequate understanding of a vital, even heroic chapter in American cultural history.”
*Joseph Horowitz, author of Classical Music in America: A History*

“Highly recommended.”
*Choice*

 “The text in toto presents a sweeping view of orchestras from about the second quarter of the nineteenth century to the end of the century; it is a more complex and diverse view than one might gather from standard music histories. . . . [It] describes in compelling detail how the orchestral movement got started and managed to become, in the opinion of some, ‘the cornerstone of America’s musical culture in the twentieth century.’ It is highly recommended, especially for conductors, orchestral musicians, and nineteenth-century specialists.”
*Music Reference Services Quarterly*

 “If this collection of essays is any indication, we can rest assured that scholarship on nineteenth-century American music has sprung to life and will remain relevant well into the future. From cover to cover, it draws a detailed blueprint of the complex world of orchestral music and musicians across the century and constructs a sturdy foundation upon which to build new understandings of orchestras then and now.”
*Journal of the Society for American Music*

 “This collection of diverse essays reflects well the fits and starts of American orchestra development. . . . While American orchestras’ leadership is beyond question, the path by which they reached it is shown to be much less direct and far more compelling.”
*Journal of American History*