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WELLESLEY COLLEGE LIBRARY
PRESENTED BY
the Library of
•am*"*
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries
http://www.archive.org/details/onehundredfiftyyOOfish
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY
YEARS OF tMUSIC "PUBLISHING
IN THE UNITED STATES
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY
YEARS OF tMUSIC "PUBLISHING
IN THE UNITED STATES
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An Historical the pioneer publisher |
Sketch with special reference •, Oliver Ditson Company, |
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boston OLIVER DITSON COMPANY, INC.
*933
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Copyright, mcmxxxiii, by Oliver Ditson Company, Inc. Copyright, mcmxxxiv, by Oliver Ditson Company, Inc.
,C
zACKNOWLEDgMENT
IN the preparation of this book special acknowledgment is due to Mr. Walter Kendall Watkins, Secretary of the Society of Colonial Wars, for his invaluable knowledge regarding early Boston. 'The chapter on "Some Early Book and Music-Shops" is due to his research.
Thanks are also due to Mr. Julius H. Tut tie of the Massachu- setts Historical Society, Mr. Charles F. Read of the Bostonian Society, and Miss Mary Alden Thayer of the Harvard Musical Association for courtesies extended.
The author is also indebted to Mr. Joseph M. Jennings of the Old Corner Bookstore, Mr. J. M. Priaulx and the late Mr. H. J. Haney for illustrations, and to the late Mrs. George Whitefield Stone for the portrait of her grandfather, Gottlieb Graupner, and for information regarding him.
The text of the book is based directly upon the research of the author in a careful study of the files of the eighteenth cen- tury and early nineteenth century newspapers of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston, S. C. The direc- tories of the first four cities have been carefully collated, and surviving publications of the earlier periods have been studied.
The author also acknowledges his indebtedness to the invalu- able bibliographies of the late Mr. Oscar G. Sonneck on "Early Concert-Life in America'' and "Early Secular American Music" and to Mr. Frank J. Metcalf's "American Psalmody"
W. A. F.
[vii]
CONTENTS
Acknowledgment vii
List of Illustrations xi
List of Music reproduced xii
List of Portraits xii
Boston Common, a prefatory note xiii
Seventeenth Century, The I
Eighteenth Century, The 6
First Music-shops and Publishers, The 23
Philadelphia Publishers 23
Baltimore Publishers 27
New York Publishers 28
Early Boston Book and Music-shops 32
Nineteenth Century, The (Boston) 45
Seventy Years More (Ditson) 71
Nineteenth Century and After, The 86
Philadelphia Publishers 86
Baltimore Publishers 93
New York Publishers 95
Boston Publishers 114
Cincinnati Publishers 128
Chicago Publishers 132
Conclusion 135
Index 137
[«]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
^Buildings, "Views, and oJYCaps
Page
Beacon Hill and Boston Common in 1838 54
Bonner's Map of Boston in 1722 Frontispiece
Boston from Pemberton Hill in 18 16 41
Boston Common and Vicinity in 1722, from Bonner's Map 83
Boston Common in 1804, from the painting by Dobbins xiii
Boston Common and State House about 1820 45
Boston Common and State House in 1830, from the
water-color by George Harvey . 44
Boston Common and Public Gardens about 1850, bird's-eye view 63 Common Street (Tremont Street) in 1798, Robertson's view of 146 Concert Hall, Hanover Street, Boston 17
Ditson Buildings, various 56, 72, 73, 77, 78, 84, 85
Great Organ in Music Hall, Boston 67
Holden's Organ 15
House in which Jenny Lind was married 66
King's Chapel, Boston, about 1865 48
Old Corner Bookstore, Boston, about 1837 53
Providence and Worcester railroads, Intersection of 54
State House, old, Boston, in 179 1 22
State House and State Street in 180 1 32
Tremont Street, Boston, March, 1918 82
Washington Street, Boston, West side in 1845 54, 55
[ » ]
zJtCusic
Page Adams and Liberty, from Boston Musical Miscellany, 1815 38
Cambridge Short Tune, from Bay Psalm Book, 14th edition, 1709 3
Hollis Street, from Billings' New England Psalm Singer, 1770 13
Medfield Tune, from New England Psalm Singer, 1770 13
Windsor Tune, from Bay Psalm Book, 9th edition, 1698 3
Windsor Tune, from Bay Psalm Book, 14th edition, 1709 3
Windsor Tune, from Walter's Grounds and Rules of Musick, 1 72 1 7
York Tune, from Bay Psalm Book, 9th edition, 1698 3
York Tune, from Walter's Grounds and Rules of Musick, 1 72 1 J
Buck, Dudley Carrefio, Teresa Church, John Ditson, Charles Healy Ditson, Oliver Dwight, John S. Eichberg, Julius Fischer, Carl Graupner, Gottlieb Grisi, Giulia Haynes, John C. Healy, P. J.
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Higginson, Henry Lee |
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Lang, B. J. |
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Lind, Jenny |
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Paine, John K. |
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Presser, Theodore |
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Rudersdorff, Hermine |
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Schirmer, Gustav |
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Schirmer, Gustave, Jr. |
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Schmidt, Arthur P. |
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Urso, Camilla |
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Wood, B. F. |
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Zerrahn, Carl |
64 |
1>]
"BOSTO^ COMMON
A PREFATORY NOTE
1 he buildings that face Boston Common look out upon open acres set in the very heart of a city that has grown great about them.
On or near the Common much of interest in Ameri- can history has occurred, great men have walked there and near its borders great deeds have been done.
Near the southeast corner of the Common begins the Long Path that leads to Joy Street, made unforgettable through the charm of the ^Autocrat of the ^Breakfast Table; and, when Holmes was a youth of fifteen, Gen- eral Lafayette was escorted with pomp along Tremont
[ xiii }
Street, a throng of school children on the Common welcoming the hero by singing The ^Marseillaise, one of the young singers being Wendell Phillips. Now the broad walk along the Tremont Street side of the Com- mon is known as Lafayette Mall.
It may have been nine years earlier that young- Emerson is remembered to have driven the family cow down Beacon Street along the Common to an adjoining pasture, for it was not until 1833 that cows were excluded on complaint of the ladies. The boys always have used and still claim part of the Common as a playground, and Oliver Ditson, whose father's home still stands on Beacon Hill, played there, too, a hundred years ago.
On the knoll where the tall Soldiers' Monument stands, British artillery was stationed during the siege of Boston and, in the years preceding, British troops delighted in shocking religious Bostonians by racing horses on the Common on Sunday or causing their bands to play Yankee T)oodle outside church doors.
The waters of the Back Bay once lapped the Com- mon's marshy edge, and near the corner of Beacon and Charles Streets, where Blaxton had his wharf, the British troops, on the night of April 18, 1775, took their boats on the eve of the battle of Lexington, and with muffled oars rowed to the Cambridge shore: and in the little triangular burying ground, near the corner of Tremont and Boylston Streets, are graves of British soldiers killed at Bunker Hill. Somewhere
[xiv]
in the same enclosure is the unmarked grave of the patriot composer, William Billings.
Across the Charles River, when the provincial troops were quartered in the churches and college buildings of Cambridge, they took down the leaden window-weights and organ pipes of Christ Church to mould them into bullets used at Bunker Hill; and near this same church, on July 3, General Washington took command of the levies assembled there preparatory to the siege of Boston.
Directly across the Common, near the corner of Beacon and Spruce Streets, long ago stood the hut and orchard of the Hermit of Shawmut, the Rev. William Blaxton, the first inhabitant, and it was from him that the Town of Boston, in 1634, bought for ^30 all his rights in the peninsula, reserving forty-four acres as Commons for the freemen of the town for a "trayn- ing field" and for "the feeding of cattell."
In its vicinity were issued the first book printed in America, the first treatise on singing, the first printed music, the first music instruction book, and the first book wholly of American composition.
Not far from it the first singing school was held, the first organ erected, the first spinet built, the first public concert advertised, the pioneer orchestra organ- ized, the first complete performance of an oratorio given, and at the northeastern corner of the Common, in Park Street Church, <^ftCy Country, 'tis of thee was for the first time sung.
•*, \ A r xv 1
As inheritors of so significant a past, it is only right to acknowledge this debt on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Boston's old- est music-publishing house, the oldest in the United States. As the text will show, this historic house is also linked directly to the beginnings of music- publishing in Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Chicago, and Cincinnati. This sketch has therefore been broadened to include the chief publishers in the country, and to link the forgotten names of those who in the past struggled, lost or won, to the men who are carrying on in the living present.
Boston, February 22, 1933.*
* Fifteen years ago to a day the author completed the manuscript of his Notes on zJlffusk in Old 'Boston, published in 191 8. The new book is a revision and extension of the earlier work, broadening its scope and excluding many pages no longer relevant.
[xvi]
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Between the pioneer settlements at Jamestown in 1607, Plymouth in 1620, and Boston in 1630, and the establishing of music-publishing as a definite busi- ness, more than one hundred and fifty years elapsed. If the rough company of men that settled Jamestown and well-nigh perished in the attempt brought any music with them, it must have been only the memory of a few English folksongs, a sea-song or two, and possibly the tunes of a few hymns.
The Mayflower Pilgrims of 1620 brought to Plym- outh their own psalter, translated for them by the scholarly Henry Ainsworth, and the forty-eight un- harmonized tunes bound with it. This was first pub- lished in Amsterdam in 161 2. Of other music brought to Plymouth Colony there is no record. The Ainsworth Psalter was used by the Pilgrims even after the Colony was merged with Massachusetts Bay in 1691.
When the small group of Hollanders that settled New Amsterdam began to hold the services of the Dutch Reformed Church in 16 2 8, they sang the Psalms in unison from the diamond-shaped notes of the Dutch psalter, printed in Amsterdam; and in 1664 the Dutch Company sent out a schoolmaster and chorister to lead them.
The Puritan fleet of eleven ships that anchored in
[ > ]
Charlestown harbor in July, 1630, and under Gover- nor Winthrop settled Boston-town, brought with them the psalter of Sternhold and Hopkins which dominated the English field for a century after its publication in 1562. As this first group of settlers included many clergymen and men of education and fortune, they doubtless brought with them a few copies of the new and important psalter of Thomas Ravenscroft, which had grown in favor since its issue in 1621. Its four- part harmonizations of the most used tunes became the musical authority of the period.
The stiff and ungainly diction of Sternhold and Hopkins' "authorized version" of the Psalms brought its own reaction, and the spirit of independence of the mother-country, that from the first was manifest, led the Puritan divines of Boston, Roxbury, and Dorches- ter to prepare a new metrical version of the Psalms. Known as The Bay T'falm Book, and printed in Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, in 1640, it was, with the ex- ception of an almanac, the first book printed in the American Colonies. It contained no music, however. The five or six tunes then in use, when noted at all, were written in the back of the psalm-books. Many congregations had but three or four tunes they could sing passably, for singing by rote was the custom, the Psalms being "lined out" by the deacon.
If, as has been stated, music was printed about 1690 to be appended to the psalm-books, no specimens have survived; and it was not until 1698, after an interval
i * 1
of fifty-eight years, that the ninth edition of The "Bay Tfalm "Book, printed in Boston, contained thirteen tunes in two-part harmony. This crudely-printed book, with- out bars except at the end of each line, is the oldest existing music of American imprint. The diamond- shaped notes were cut on wood, which will explain the crude appearance of the page reproduced below at the left. A page from the fourteenth edition, issued in 1709, is given at the right. The latter edition con- tains the melodies only of twelve tunes, and in still later editions music disappears.
Pfal 71. 5H Tutu*
ft. fit r frWilr
gggjBjgffljs
■pfal. rig "Vtin&fat Tune,
asfe^dEfe^
I love j l*caufe Jchovub doth
gp5^5^
i (M tit* * fUi 1
llsflllB Hillf
my voice and prayer fac.tr. And in my days will<.-nll, becattft
1 H 1 1 W
tfffffl* fff*»*
P&l. I 16 mnifor Itmf.
* S 1 f I » 6% 6 i I B f if
he Low'-d to me his car« FfaJ. 70 Cambridge Short Tuae.
O Cod to refcuc we \
l!/ord to mine help roabe^iaile.
WhoTfelc mjrfo'ul aifluroM let "be
»«'»»»"» fefey^Hl
and let tbero "be abaflvd-
[3]
The custom of reading each line of a Psalm before it was sung was instituted by the Reformers in England at a time when few in the congregations had books and few could read them. The practice of "lining out" was transplanted to Massachusetts Bay and must have been taken up at an early date, for books were scarce, the music was without any instrumental sup- port, the few that could sing by note gradually died out, and the great majority sang by ear. It was only natural, therefore, that this crude and unmusical fash- ion should take root. The Psalms (there were then no hymns) were sung week after week in rotation with- out regard to their appropriateness to the sermon. The whole Psalm was sung through at one standing, a proc- ess that in the case of the longer Psalms took half an hour. In consequence, the few tunes used became well known and took on a certain sanctity and authority through long association. The introduction of new tunes was therefore strenuously opposed by the older people. Even the few tunes in use were sung differ- ently and, there being no organs, they were often tortured beyond recognition by the addition of ex- temporized grace-notes in which no two singers agreed. These abuses lingered long in the eighteenth century, but they only duplicated current practices in the mother-country. As an evidence of progress it should be noted that Brattle Square Church on Dec. 20, 1699, "Voted unanimoully that ye pfalms in our public Worfhip be fung without Reading line by line."
[ 4 ]
About the only evidence that merry-hearted singing and dancing were known in this early period is due to the fact that, as a seaport, Boston had many transient visitors, especially seamen, who indulged in such pleas- ure when ashore. Their conduct, made noisy no doubt by "much wafte of Wine and Beer," resulted, as early as 1 646, in a law forbidding dancing in ordinaries and inns under penalty of rive shillings for each offence.'
In those days the very name "musician" was one of reproach but, stern as were the events and condi- tions of the period, surely some mother-hearts crooned lullabies as they rocked the cradle, or over their house- work hummed in soft undertone some unforgotten folksong.
The Colonial literature of the last half of the seven- teenth century, mostly an arid waste of forbidding the- ology, reflects the sombreness of the period. At the same time the growing material prosperity, coupled with echoes from the reaction against Puritanism the Restoration had brought in, the establishment of the Church of England in Boston, the presence of an aris- tocratic official British class, and other influences, had a mellowing effect and bigotry gradually weakened.
(M»
I 5 ]
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
I n 1 700 Boston had become a thrifty town of grow- ing prosperity, with a population of perhaps 7,000. Two years before the first music of American imprint had appeared and with the advent of printed music the "new way" of singing by note came in.
The first book issued to meet this new want was en- titled : "<^[ very plain and eafy Introduction to the zArt of Singing Pfalm Tunes: With the Cantus, or Trebles, of Twenty-eight Pfalm Tunes contrived in such a man- ner as that the Learner may attain the Skill of Sing- ing them with the greater!: eafe and Speed imaginable. By Rev. Mr. John Tufts. Price, 6d. or js. the doz."
This little book of a few pages, the first American book of sacred music published, was issued in Boston in 1714 or 1715, and was so successful, in spite of its substitution of letters for notes, as to reach its eleventh edition in 1744.
The innovation of note singing raised a great tem- pest among the older people, who regarded it as a plan to shut them out from one of the ordinances of wor- ship. It was bitterly objected to as "Quakerim and Popifh, and introductive of inftrumental mufick; the names given to the notes are blafphemous; it is a need- lefs way fince their good Fathers are gone to heaven without it; its admirers are a company of young up-
[ 6 ]
ftarts; they fpend too much time about learning, and tarry out a-nights disorderly," with many other equally strenuous and weighty reasons.
One of the valiant defenders of the "new way" was the Rev. Thomas Walter of Roxbury, who brought out in 1 72 1, The grounds and %ules of Mujick explained, or an introduction to the art of finging by note. This, the first practical American instruction book and the first engraved music with bar-lines printed in America, was from the press of J. Franklin, at a time when his younger brother Benjamin, then a lad of fifteen, was learning the printer's trade as his apprentice.
'<3 Cm&m.
1 11 .. »oi4r~T"
^<S7ii/n&.
^jiy j m 11 % t mil t 1 1 j j j a \ g i m*
'^m^4w^^^ l \\^m" 1 1 j t hI"
^MiinhPilu-Yirt^u^H^^p
CatitUi.
York Tune.
y^rljiiYlJlJylif^t#TlT#^^^i
Page, reduced, from Walter s "Grounds and Rules of Musick''''
The gradual victory of the advocates of the "new way" led to the establishment of singing schools, and as early as 171 7 one is said to have existed in Boston. Judge Sewall records in his diary, under the date
[ 7 ]
March 16, 1721: "At night Dr. Mather preached in the School-House to the young Musicians, from Rev. 14.3. 'No man could learn that Song.' — House was full, and the Singing extraordinarily Excellent, such as has hardly been heard before in Boston. Sung four times out of Tate and Brady."
This is the earliest mention of the use of the "New Version," as Tate and Brady's metrical translation of the Psalms was called. First issued in London in 1696, its fluent and rhythmical paraphrase of the Psalms had greater appeal to the liberal minded than the more literal text of The Bay cPfalm Book, to which the ma- jority still clung through custom and affection. It was not until after the middle of the century that its use became general enough to warrant a Boston reprint in 1755. This was followed by rival editions during the next twenty years.
The Rev. Cotton Mather, Sewall's uncle, wrote in his own diary of the same date: "In the Evening I preached unto a large Auditory, where a Society of persons learning to Sing, began a quarterly solemnity." It is interesting to remember that when a few ven- turesome Bostonians, at the risk of learning ungodly songs, first met to sing in a class together, the mighty Handel, under the patronage of George the First, was dominating London's musical life, and the modest Bach was living the quiet life of Kapellmeister to an obscure German prince.
The music, or rather, the psalm singing (for there
C « ]
was little else) was of course without the aid of instru- ments. When in 1 7 1 3 Thomas Brattle, Esq., of Boston, willed the Brattle Square Church an organ, they de- clined it. He had provided, however, that in this event it was to be given to Queen's Chapel (known since the reign of Queen Anne as King's Chapel), but so great was the prejudice that the organ remained seven months in the porch of the church before it was unpacked. This instrument, set up in 1 7 1 4, was the first pipe organ used in a church in New England, and it was bitterly denounced by Dr. Cotton Mather and other dignitaries of the day. In 1733 the second organ in New England was set up in Trinity Church, Newport. In 1790 the Brattle Square Church, having taken seventy-seven years to change its mind, ordered an organ built in Lon- don, but even then one of its leading members offered to reimburse the church for its outlay and to give a sum to the poor of Boston if they would allow him to have the unhallowed instrument thrown into the harbor. As late as 1 8 1 4 there was no organ in Park Street Church, Boston, the singing being supported by a flute, bassoon and 'cello. Thomas Ryan of the Mendelssohn Quin- tette Club, who came to Boston in 1845, played the clarinet for two years in Father Streeter's Church in Hanover Street, the other instruments being a double- bass and ophicleide. There was then, he records, no organ in this and several other Boston churches.
The earliest reference to the use of an organ in any church in the Colonies is to the organ in the gallery
[ 9 ]
of Gloria Dei Church, the Swedish Lutheran Church, dedicated July 2, 1 700, that still stands in Philadelphia. When the saintly Pietist, Justus Falckner, was ordained in this church on November 24, 1703, it is recorded that:
" 'The service was opened with a voluntary on the little organ in the gallery by Jonas, the organist, supple- mented with instrumental music by the (^Mystics on the viol, hautboy, trombones, and kettle-drums."
This earlier record makes the Brattle organ of Bos- ton the second to be used in church services in the Colonies. As to which of these organs crossed the Atlantic first there is at present no proof, although it is not improbable that the wealthy Mr. Brattle may have brought his organ from London on his return trip in October, 1689.
In 1727 music-loving William Burnet, Governor of New York, gave an organ to the Low Dutch Re- formed Church of New York and appointed Hendrick M. Koek as organist. The fourth organ of record was that purchased in 1728 from Ludovic Sprogell, the mystic, for Christ Church, Philadelphia. The fifth organ, as far as known, was that in St. Philip's Church, Charleston, S. C. The church was built in 1723, but the records are silent as to when the organ was set up. We only know that John Salter was its organist as early as March, 1732. He may have filled this posi- tion earlier.
The sixth organ was that set up in Trinity Church,
[,0}
Newport, R. I., in 1733, the gift of Bishop Berkeley, the philosopher. The records of old Petsworth Church in Gloucester County, Virginia, show that "great sub- criptions" were made in 1735 for the purchase of an or- gan. If set up in this year the organ would rank seventh or eighth in order, for Trinity Church, Boston, in this same year had "A neat little organ, prettily embel- lished." The organ brought from Newport, R. I., and erected in Christ Church, Boston, in 1736, would be the ninth, while the organ built by Johann G. Klemm of Philadelphia in 1 74 1 for Trinity Church, New York, would be the tenth Colonial organ of record. It should be remembered that, with one possible exception, these early organs were without pedals for, although invented in Germany in the early fifteenth century, pedals were not introduced in England until near the close of the eighteenth century.
In 1764 Josiah Flagg of Boston, published A Collec- tion of the bejl Pfalm Tu?ies, in two, three, and four-parts, the largest collection up to this time printed in New England. This volume of about eighty small oblong pages is notable in that for the first time light music was intermingled with psalm-tunes, and because the music was engraved with skill by the noted silversmith, Paul Revere — and further, that it was printed on paper made in the Colonies, which fact Mr. Flagg hopes "will not diminifh the value of the work in the eftima- tion of any, but may in fome degree recommend it, even to thofe who have no peculiar relifh for the mufic."
This Josiah Flagg was a man of energy and enthusi- asm, and for some time the most important local musi- cian. He gave concerts of quality, and as early as 1771 the name of Handel appears on his programs.
As some of the members of the Puritan congrega- tion became more proficient in singing, they naturally drew together and later were assigned special seats. In this way choirs gradually came into existence before the sterner opposing faction realized the transition. Vocal collections increased in number and by the end of the eighteenth century nearly eighty had appeared in New England alone.
The first Philadelphia publication of historic im- portance was Rev. James Lyon's Urania, containing seventy wordless psalm-tunes, fourteen hymns, and twelve anthems, making it the largest collection of church music thus far published in the Colonies. The bulk of the music was taken from current English col- lections, but at least six of the tunes were by Lyon himself. It was issued to subscribers in 1761 or 1762.
As in the case of Urania, little of the music in the many collections issued at this time was original, al- though native composers began to appear. The first New Englander of note was the eccentric, one-eyed, snuff-taking tanner's apprentice, William Billings. He was born in Boston, October 7, 1 746, four years after Handel produced The zM'essiafi in Dublin, and ten years before Mozart saw the light in Salzburg. Bil- lings' first book, The J\(ew England ^fahn Singer, ap-
[12]
peared in the year of Beethoven's birth, 1 770. Thus, one hundred and forty years after the founding of Boston, the first book of native music was issued, and with it the publishing of American composition may be said to begin. It contained one hundred and eight pages and presented one hundred and twenty tunes, and several anthems, as well as twenty-two pages of ele- mentary instruction, and an essay on the nature and
H0LL1S Street. Wards by the Rev'd Dr Byles:
M3s
PM.
(UnheinthePraifeof Jefus ourKing,^ (& tuneful hofannas eternalyfh
Let angels above& faints herebelow . J ( Let all the ereation wit h gratituo'eglo w,
cfir
M-EDF1ELD. Words by the late S«n,byles. M D. LM.
( What a kind god has done. for me, ) ( I H lovijthefpringfrom whencethey
When I fay various bleffinfes fe& ) ( myheartwithgratitudefhouldglow,)
Page from Billings' "Ne<w England Psalm Singer''''
properties of musical sound. In 1 778 Billings published a revision and abridgment of his first book entitled The Singing M 'aft xer 's Ajjistant, which soon became known as "Billings Best." In his naive preface to the new book, Billings characterizes his first book as "this infant pro- duction of my own Numb-Skull," and further on says,
[13]
"I have difcovered that many of the pieces in that Book- were never worth my printing, or your infpection."
Billings' music with all its uncouthness was, in com- parison with the prevailing style, melodic, cheerful and rrrythmic. In 1779 he issued <JKCuJic in ^Miniature, and two years later, The 'Pfalm- Singer s zAmufe?nenty which also became popular. His sixth and last book, The Continental Harmony, was published in 1794. He died in Boston, September 26, 1 800. Billings is said to have been the first to introduce the violoncello in New England churches, as well as the first to use a pitch- pipe to "set the tune." The singing class of forty-eight residents of Stoughton, Massachusetts, he taught in 1774, was formally organized November 7, 1786, shortly after the Revolution, as the Stoughton Musi- cal Society, and still exists.
The fuguing style of Billings' music and its crudities may now provoke a smile but, after a century and a half of the dull and monotonous drawling of a few threadbare psalm-tunes, the spirited style which Bil- lings introduced must have delighted the young people of his day. He gave to local music a new meaning, a fresh impulse, a greater freedom.
Another notable figure in the musical life of this period was Oliver Holden, born in Shirley, Massa- chusetts, in 1765. He settled in Charlestown, Massa- chusetts, in 1788, as a carpenter and joiner, and then dropped his tools to become a music-teacher. He is remembered to this day by his stirring hymn tune,,
Coronation, which ap- peared in The ^American Harmony, published by Holden, in 1792. He prospered, and his fine house in Pearl Street, Charlestown, where he wrote Coronation, is still standing. The little pipe organ he used is now in the custody of the Bostonian Society in the old State House. In 1797 Holden pub- lished The Worcester Holden" s Organ and Portrait
Collection of Sacred Harmony, which had a wide and long-continued influence. It was printed from mov- able types by Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, who adver- tised in the Boston Independent Chronicle of January 26, 1785, that he "has received from England a beau- tiful fet of mufic types whereby he is enabled to print any kind of Church or other mufic in a neat and elegant manner, cheaper than heretofore done from copper and pewter plates. Specimens to be seen at Battelle's Bofton Book Store, State Street." (See p. 34.) In the latter half of the eighteenth century, because of the victory of choirs and singing schools over "the old way," books of music appeared in profusion. The secular spirit is most manifest in The Columbian Song-
[is]
Jler and Free ^hCafon's docket Companion, published by E. Larkin, No. 47 Cornhill, Boston, in 1798. "A col- lection of the neweft and moft celebrated Sentimental, Convivial, Humorous, Satirical, Paftoral, Hunting, Sea and Mafonic fongs, being the largeft and beft collec- tion ever published in America." This collection, like many of its type, consisted of text only, the air to which each number fitted being named but not printed.
While psalmody was predominant in the early mu- sical life of Boston it must not be thought that music for recreation and entertainment had no place, for the first half of the eighteenth century brought to Boston men of rank in the British Navy and Army who were accustomed to the life of English and Continental society. Moreover, the various military expeditions to Canada against the French gave New England a taste of the roving life of the soldier and sailor. These con- ditions, together with increasing prosperity, naturally gave rise to a demand for public entertainment.
The first advertisement of a public concert in Amer- ica, thus far discovered, appeared in the weekly 'Bojlon News-Letter of December 16-23, I 73 1 : "There will be performed a Concert of<^hCuJic on fundry Inftruments at Mr. Pelham's great Room, being the Houfe of the late Doctor Noyes near the Sun Tavern." The next concerts of record are those of November 23 and December 28, 1732, advertised in the New England Weekly Journal
[16]
■/■'■:• - ■
of November 13 and December 15, as "Conforts of Mufick performed on fundry inftruments at the Con- cert Room in Wing's Lane near the Town Dock." This was a room in the George Tavern on what is now Elm Street. The generosity of Peter Faneuil in giving the town Faneuil Hall, finished in 1742, fur- nished a room in 1744 for a vocal and instrumental concert. Ten years later, Gilbert Deblois, organist of King's Chapel, and his brother built a brick building on the east corner of Hanover and Court Streets. Their shop, the sign of the Crown and Comb, was on the ground floor. Above was a hall fitted in a handsome
manner for concerts. This was known as "Concert Hall" and for nearly a century was the resort of Bostonians on pleasure bent. It was torn down in 1869 when Hanover Street was widened. The Lof- ton Chronicle, in No- vember, 1768, adver- tises concerts at the "Mufic-Hall in Brattle Street, oppofite Dr. Cooper's Meeting-Houfe."
Concerts at this period were advertised to begin at six o'clock, and the tickets were usually half a dollar or "two shillings — lawful money." At a concert of
['7]
sacred music performed at the Stone Chapel (King's Chapel), December 11, 1789, under the direction of Mr. William Selby, the chapel's organist, the choruses were by "The Independent Musical Society, the in- strumental parts by a Society of Gentlemen, with the band of His Most Christian Majesty's Fleet." This William Selby, harpsichordist, organist, composer, music -teacher, active concert -manager, and during the stringency of the Revolution a grocer, was one of the chief figures in Boston's musical life between 1772 and his death in December, 1798.
Most of the early concerts seem to have been for the benefit of the poor of the town and were given by permission of the Selectmen. The name of Handel began to appear in 1 770, and occurs not infrequently as the "late celebrated Mr. Handel." The French Revolution drove a number of musicians to the Colo- nies, and after 1793 programs in Boston and else- where were in consequence lighter in character.
Concert-giving in the pre-Revolution period con- sisted either of the sporadic efforts of more or less itin- erant musicians to gain sustenance and public attention, or the attempts of music-lovers among the well-to-do to maintain strictly private concerts, usually concluded with a ball. Concerts, therefore, were then primarily social functions. The year 1783, when the treaty of Paris was signed, marked the resumption of normal activity in all lines, with an increase in concert-giving and an improvement in their quality.
[18]
As already noted, the first concert of record in the Colonies was that advertised in the Boston News- Letter of December 16-23, I73 I>"to be held at Mr. Pelham's great Room." New York's first advertised concert was the Consort of zJktusick, Vocal and Instrumental, for the ^Benefit of Mr. Pachelbel, to be given on January 2 1 , 1736. In Philadelphia, because of social conditions and religious prejudice, its public concerts prior to the Revolution were few in number. The first advertised concert was that of January 25, 1757 — <tA Concert of <^hCusic, under the direction of Mr. John Palma. In Balti- more, concert-life did not begin until after the Rev- olution, when William Brown, the flutist, gave *A Concert of Instrumental zJxCusic on January 30, 1784. Pleasure-loving Charleston, S. C, had an independent musical life of considerable importance. Its fashionable St. Coecilia Society was the nucleus of much musical activity, and the love of the theatre was less restricted by prejudice than in the towns of the North. Its first public concert of record was that given in mid-April, 1732, zA Consort of zJxCusick at the Council Chamber, for the benefit of Mr. Salter.
Although music in the churches had advanced greatly during the century, a sidelight is thrown upon it by a writer in the ^American ^Apollo of April 20, 1 792. In "Lines written, rather out of temper, on a Pannel in one of the Pews of S — m Church," he says:
"Could •poor King David but for once To S — m Church repair,
['9}
And hear his Pfalms thus warbled out, Good Lord, how he would /wear!"
The dawn of a polite interest in music as a social accomplishment is indicated by the first advertisements of the teaching of music. These appeared in the news- papers of Boston in 171 2, Philadelphia in 1730, Charles-town, S. C. in 1733, and in New York in 1745. In this early period, musicians were regarded more or less as vagabonds, and had little opportunity beyond playing the fiddle for dancing, and teaching the flute to a few gentlemen amateurs, or the spinet to young ladies in aristocratic families. After the Revo- lution music-teachers gradually increased in number and favor and instrumental music began to find a place in the home. A French visitor, Brissot de War- ville, writing in 1788 regarding Bostonians, says: "Music, which their teachers formerly proscribed as a diabolical art, begins to make part of their education. In some houses you hear the forte-piano. This art, it is true, is still in its infancy."
The first publication Tlie New and Favourite
of a separate song in LIUi^K. 1 Y SONG,
l-Vie Polonies ws<; nd I* FREEDOM we're Born. ire.
tne colonies was aa- Neatly e„ferraved on corrER-rtATE, the
vertised, as here given, fiworhaif* n.eet of Paper,
. , ' „j . , Set to MUSIC for the VOICE,
in the Boston Lnronicte Aud to which is aifo added,
r,f Ann-no* on ttAR A Set ofNOTES adapted to the
ot August 29, 1768, G£RMAN FLUTEandPvioL]Nr and in other papers: hjutt puMiOird and to be sold at th©
LON.DON Book-Jloic, Kmg-ftrect, Bojlon, Price Sixpence Lawful Pirvgle, arid,
It is to be regretted
that no Copy of this FourMul lings Lawful, the dozen.
[ao]
initial "Song for American Freedom" has yet come to light, for it was not only the first patriotic song pub- lished, but the first separately printed piece of sheet music issued. The text was written in the troubled year of 1768, by John Dickinson, the Philadelphia patriot known as "the penman of the Revolution." Set to the music of the familiar song, Hearts of Oak, written in 1759 by the English composer, William Boyce, it was sung throughout the Colonies, for the words were widely printed, north and south.
The publication of secular music prior to the Revo- lution was very slight; the years of war put a stop to even this, and the period of readjustment and struggle for National Government that followed was equally unfavorable. The opening of the first Congress in 1 789 marked the turning point, the old order faded out and in this very year secular music-publishing took a start in Boston and Philadelphia, while New York became active in 1793.
Much of the secular music issued was patriotic, or echoed passing events, the bulk of it being altogether ephemeral. Naturally much English music was re- printed, chiefly the songs of Hook, Dibdin, Shield, and Storace. Reprints of the music of Haydn, Gluck, Pleyel, Mozart, and Handel were few in number al- though their names appear with increasing frequency on concert programs.
While Boston was behind Philadelphia and New York in the publication of secular music, in the out-
put of sacred music it greatly exceeded the rest of the country, while the neighboring towns of Dedham, Newburyport, Salem, Northampton, and Worcester added their quota.
It was not until the close of the century that music- shops, under the name of "magazines" or "empori- ums," began to appear, but the constant removals of these early music and book-shops and the frequency with which they changed hands suggest a somewhat precarious existence for the pioneers.
■"*»:S5rfcJ.
[22 J
THE FIRST ^MUSIC-SHOPS AND "PUBLISHERS
irior to the Revolution such music as was sold was to be had of book-shops and stationers, while the pub- lishing of music was the private affair of the composer usually backed by subscriptions. Psalm-books and church music were distributed by the printers of the books, but the cost of publication was borne by the composers or compilers. In other words, before 1786 there were, with a single exception, no music-shops nor any music-publishers as such. This single exception was in Philadelphia.
PHILADELPHIA PUBLISHERS
From 1750 the musical life of this city advanced rapidly and as in 1760 and even in 1800 it was the largest city in the country, as well as its political cen- ter, it is only natural that the first music-shop of record in the country should be opened there. This was opened late in 1 759 by Michael Hillegas, at his house in Second Street, where he kept quite an extensive assortment of instruments, music, and music-paper. His stock of music as advertised in the Pennsylvania Qazette of Jan- uary 5, 1764 is remarkable, but there is no record of his publishing any music. This shop was not long con- tinued after 1765, for Hillegas was a man of affairs and
C»3]
became so important as to hold office as the first Treas- urer of the United States.
The first publishing of music in Philadelphia at the composer's risk and expense was by Thomas Dobson, who, from 1791 until 1798 or 1799, was a printer and book-seller at 41 North Second Street. In August, 1 787, he printed for the arranger and compiler, Alexander Reinagle, a Select Collection of the most favorite Scot's tunes with variations for the pianoforte or harpsichord. In 1789 Dobson printed another book for him — a Collection of Favorite Songs. Reinagle's abilities as pianist, composer, and theatrical manager made him prominent in the musical life of Philadelphia for more than a decade from 1786.
It was Dobson who also printed what, so far as known, was the first publication of secular music by an American -born composer, the book of Seven songs for the Harpsichord or forte piano by Francis Hopkinson, jurist, poet, painter, musician, and man of affairs, whose claim to be the first native American composer seems now well established. This oblong, quarto book of eleven engraved music-pages, containing eight songs, was advertised in the Federal Cjazette of November 29, 1 788, as "This day published and to be sold by Thomas Dobson, at the Stone House in Second Street, between Chestnut and Market Streets."
Dobson, however, was a stationer and book-printer, and the first Philadelphia publisher of music only was the firm of Moller & Capron, who had a music and
[24]
piano store combined with a music-school at 1 63 North Third Street, and in the Federal Cjazette of March, 1793, advertised for subscribers to a series of monthly num- bers, of six pages each, to contain all "the newest vocal and instrumental music." At least three such numbers were issued. John C. Moller, a German organist, pian- ist, and composer, appeared in New York concerts in 1790 as a harpsichordist, and came to Philadelphia the same year; while Henry Capron was a French 'cellist and composer of prominence who first appears in Philadelphia's concert life in 1785. The firm, how- ever, was short-lived and the credit of establishing music-publishing in Philadelphia must be given to Benjamin Carr, the English singer, pianist, organist, conductor, and composer, a well-schooled, all-round musician of fine breeding, and a pupil of Dr. Samuel Arnold, who, from his arrival in Philadelphia in 1793, at the age of twenty-four, to his death on May 24, 1 83 1, was a vigorous force in the musical life of the city. Under the name of B. Carr & Co., he opened a "Musical Repository," "for the sale of music and musi- cal instruments of all kinds," in July, 1 793, at 1 36 High Street, removing in November of the same year to 1 22 Market Street, where, after the autumn of 1 794, Carr carried on the business alone. Apparently the business ceased about 1 800, though for a time thereafter he had as partner the Scotch 'cellist, J. G. Schetky, under the firm name Carr & Schetky. Besides original songs by Carr and Raynor Taylor of Philadelphia, songs by
[25]
Dibdin, Hook, Shield, Storace, Dr. Arnold, and Dr. Jackson were reprinted, together with pieces for the pianoforte and "Elegant extracts" for the flute or violin. In April, 1 798,Carr issued the original edition of Hail! Columbia; and in 1 799 he advertises the publication of Haydn's Canzonets, the first American edition, and a song by Mozart, whose name was then little known.
John Aitken, the music-engraver, had for a while a music-store on South Third Street, and published some music. In 1793 George E. Blake came over from England, taught the flute and clarinet, and later pub- lished music. Another musician who tried his hand at publishing was Robert Shaw, a ballad-singer, oboist, bassoonist, and composer, who kept a music-shop in 1794 as Shaw & Co., and with various changes and removals continued until 1803.
In November, 1794, George Willig opened his "Musical magazine" "at 163 North Third Street, in the house formerly occupied by Mr. Moller." In March, 1795, we find him at 165 Market Street, and though publishing songs then in vogue he seems to have given more attention than his rivals to instrumental music. Willig outlasted his early contemporaries and continued selling and publishing music in Philadelphia until his business was absorbed by Lee & Walker in 1856. This large concern was active until 1 875, when their catalog and stock were purchased by Oliver Ditson & Co. of Boston, thus linking the Ditson house to the beginnings of music-publishing in Philadelphia.
BALTIMORE PUBLISHERS
The wave that initiated music-publishing as a sepa- rate business in this country reached the centers of pop- ulation almost simultaneously. In the closing decade of the eighteenth century Baltimore grew rapidly, for its population increased from 13,500m 17901026,500 in 1800.
While credit has just been given to Benjamin Carr as a pioneer publisher in Philadelphia, similar credit must be given to Joseph Carr, his father, who had been a music-publisher at Middle Row, Holborn, in London, for initiating music-publishing in Baltimore but a year later. He opened his Musical Repository on Market Street, near Gay Street, in 1794, and the ^Maryland Journal of August 6, 1794, advertises "J. Carr, Music Importer, lately from London, Respectfully informs the public that he has opened a Store entirely in the Musical line, and has for sale, Finger and barrel or- gans, double and single key'd harpsichords; piano fortes and common guitars." He started out bravely as a dealer in music and musical instruments, but in 1795 he also advertises blankets, looking-glasses, and black beaver hats. From 1795 J. Carr's address was No. 6 Gay Street. The Directory of 1807 locates him at 48 Baltimore Street. His two most notable publica- tions, from an historic point of view, were Francis Hopkinson's Ode from Ossian's 'Poems, and the first edition of The Star-Spangled banner "(adpd. and arrd. by T.C.)", in other words, adapted and arranged by
Thomas Carr, his son. This son was a well-trained musician, and from 1 798 to 1 8 1 1 the organist of Christ Church. As the pioneer publishing-house of Carr car- ried on, through its successors, into the middle of the nineteenth century, its story is continued in a later chapter.
NEW YORK PUBLISHERS
At the beginning of the last decade of the eight- eenth century the proud city at the mouth of the Hud- son had, according to the first census (1790), a popu- lation of 33,131, while Philadelphia listed 42,444, but by 1 8 10 New York had taken the lead it has since maintained. Which of these two cities can claim priority in establishing a regular publisher of music is somewhat in doubt.
In May, 1786, John Jacob Astor opened a stock of "Musical instruments, music-books, and papers, and every other article in the musical line." This venture was but temporary, a mere interlude before Mr. Astor went into the fur business upon which his fortune was founded.
As early as January, 1787, George Gilfert (GifFord, GifFert), the violin player, kept a Musical Magazine, in other words a music-shop. He was also organist of the New Dutch Church, kept a tavern, and then a boarding-house. In January, 1795, he began to publish music, the firm continuing until 18 14.
In January, 1790, P. A. von Hagen, who a few
1^1
years later became Boston's first publisher of secular music, advertised instruments and music for sale at his lodgings.
Early in 1793 young Benjamin Carr, singer, organ- ist, and composer, and son of the London music-pub- lisher, Joseph Carr, arrived in New York. He seems to have opened a music-shop almost immediately, for in April he advertised Freedom Triumphant, a new song, just published by B. Carr, No. 1 3 1 William Street. In July he moved to Philadelphia where, as already stated, he opened a Musical Repository. For awhile he main- tained both shops, but in 1797 he sold his New York branch to James Hewitt and confined his activities to the Quaker city, where he played an important part in its musical life.
In July, 1793, James Harrison opened a music-store at No. 38 Maiden Lane, in August he announced the issue of two songs, and in December the opening of a "Musical Circulating Library," the first of its kind, so far as known.
In 1792 James Hewitt, the English composer, con- ductor, and violinist arrived from London in com- pany with Gehot, Bergman, Young, and Phillips as "Professors of music from the Opera house, Hanover Square, and Professional Concerts under the direction of Haydn, Pleyel, etc., London." In 1794 he began to publish music, although it was not until four years later that he was fully established as a publisher at 1 3 1 William Street. In 1797 he took over the New York
i>9]
store of Benjamin Carr. He was still in business in i 8 1 1 at 59 Maiden Lane, but the directories of 1 8 1 8 and 1 8 19 list him only as "Musician." A few years later he went to Boston with his son James L. Hewitt and died there in 1827.
Another pioneer publisher was John Paff who had a music-store at 1 12 Broadway in 1798, and as John & M. Paff, and later ( 1 8 1 1 ) without this relative, continued until 1 8 1 7.
But little of the published eighteenth century music has survived. Some of it is doubtless still hidden in dusty attics and old trunks, but most of it went long ago to the junk-man or the dust-heap. These pioneer publishers naturally issued the music then in demand, the bulk of it English songs, many of them taken from the London Ballad-Operas of Arne, Arnold, Attwood, Dibdin, Hook, Kelly, Linley, Reeve, Shield, Storace, and others. These operettas and pasticcios were well performed in the chief cities by the itinerant Old American Company and its successors and rivals in the days when nearly every actor and actress was a singer and every singer an actor. These well-routined groups were mostly from London and included such stars as Mrs. Pownall, not only a great actress but a singer of genuine artistry; the versatile and popular John Hodg- kinson; his skilled wife Arabella Brett; the accom- plished Miss Broadhurst; the famous Mrs. Oldmixon; the beautiful Maria Storer; the sterling character-actor Thomas Wignell, and others.
[30]
An idea of the character and volume of the secular music published in the eighteenth century may be gained from an analysis of the late Oscar Sonneck's valuable monograph, Early Secular ^American zJkCustc.
Basing his study on a careful examination of the files of available eighteenth century American news- papers and magazines, surviving music and books to be found in our chief libraries, and the few bibliograph- ical works covering the period, Mr. Sonneck printed a list of titles not only of secular music advertised as published or announced for publication, but the titles of works performed prior to January i, 1800, whether known to be published in this country or not.
By confining the items to music and books known to have been published, the following figures summa- rize the issue of secular music in the eighteenth cen- tury in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston:
a. Books and Collections of Music (secular only) 46
*b. Published in the few magazines of the period 68
c. Separate publications of sheet music 329
Total 443
Of these 443 titles but three were published prior to 1780, and the bulk of the items were issued in the closing seven years of the century.
* Massachusetts Magazine and Boston Magazine , the New Yort Magazine, and the Musical Asylum of Philadelphia.
[31}
EARLY "BOSTON "BOOK AND ^MUSIC-SHOPS
1 n the early days there was neither the population nor the publication to sustain music-shops. Books of psalm- ody and the few instruction books were as a rule issued to subscribers and distributed by the author or compiler himself, by his printer, or through book-sellers. The latter were the chief purveyors of music and music- books and continued to be so until the close of the eighteenth century. In fact, this combination of book- selling and music-selling carried well over into the first third of the nineteenth century, when it was fre-
State Street in 1 8 o i
quently mixed with the sale of umbrellas and parasols, together with even more mundane articles.
The sale of music was not even confined to book- stores, for the Lofton Qazette of January 12, 1767, ad- vertises that "Tanfurs Royal zJtiCelody Compleat, the laft and beft Edition, may be had at John Perkins's Shop in Union Street. N. B. At the fame Place may be had a large affortment of Paper Hangings for Rooms."
A prominent mid-century book-shop was the J^ondon 'Book-Store, located on the north side of King Street (now State Street), across from the old State House. In 1762 it was kept by James Rivington, afterwards a New York publisher, and then by Rivington and Mil- ler. In 1765 it was kept by John Mein, who had been a book-seller in Edinburgh. His circulating library consisted of above 1 200 volumes "in most branches of polite literature, arts A ., «-
r A . ,, T, April Magazines,
ana sciences. 1 ne lt iawfuUdCh> ja(iarr;ved,a.heLyDiA. Csptafe character of his music j f St0T' t0£hjt°f . stock is shown by the JOilll iVlClHj
advertisement (part of a At the London Book Store> King.
full column ad.) repro- fire^ Bofton *
j j c u ct> a Williams's Unlverfal Pfalmodift, # #£w
ClUCea irom the BOjton Edition carefully wrtfed and improved, v>H6 en ~ . Addition of near 40 new Tunes and Anthems that
KjtlZCttC OI July I7> have mot -with univerfal Approbation among tit mu->
Jicai Societies.
1 76 °- Knapp s new Set of Pfalms and An-
T /• -I. «• . thems, itiitb a Pajioral Hjmn ty the famous Mr.
In 1709 Mein was Addihn
11 1 r 1 • .. Arnold's Complete Pfalmodifh or
mobbed for his utter- Pfalm Gog„,9 companion, '
ances in favor of the ^^ Mufic reformed
— — Leicefterlnire Harmony British Government in Green's Body of Pfalmody
£ 33]
his paper the Bojlon Qhronicle, and his failure two years later gave young Henry Knox his opportunity, for he opened a new J^o?idon Book-Store on Cornhill (Wash- ington Street^, where the office of the Boston Qlobe now stands. Knox was popular, and his shop became a great resort for British officers and Tory ladies. When the loyal Knox left town at the outbreak of the Revolution in April, 1775, to attain renown as a General and later as Secretary of War, his store was robbed, pillaged of its stock by the Royalists and his business as a book- seller ended.
During the war, business was dislocated, foreign im- portation of books and music was suspended and book- selling was reduced to the small output of a few printers M U S 1 C L of American books.
Lately received, and SOLD at . r .
E. BATTELLE's Book-Store,. After the war, in
A viIV*BLE"c5&W rf '783, Colonel Eben- J\ MUSiCKECKDKS.confiaingoi Airs> ezer Battelle, a native
Songs, Country-Dances, Minuets andMarches.
—Symphonies, Quanellosj, Concertos, Sc- of Dedham, opened at
nataSj Divertilementos, Duettos, Solos, Trios, tvt o r> o /
Oratorios, &c. for the Organ, Harpfichord, JNo. 0 btate btreet (no
Clarineti, French-Horn, Hautboy, Flute, , tt- • o \ t_
violin, Violinccilo, Harp, Piano-Forte, longer King btreet) the Voice, &cp SALMQDY% Bojlon Book-Store. His
EFts hZZ. music stock is indicated
——;$ Cojieftion of Hymns* -m the advertisement
— — s Rules of Pfalmody with Tunes and
C haunts annexed. reproduced here from
— - — s Self ft tunes. r
N. B. Books and Stationary as ufual, the zJtCaJfachufetts Qen- tinel of November 6, 1784.
Colonel Battelle was a graduate of Harvard, served during the Revolution in the Massachusetts Militia,
[34]
Imported, in the lafl veffelfrcm London,
AND NOW SELLING, ty
Guild,
was made Captain in 1 778, Major in 1 780 and Colonel of the Boston Regiment in 1784. His military pro- clivities interfered with his book business, which did not prove profitable, especially under the depreciation of Continental currency, for $4,000 in bills of credit were worth but $100 in silver. On February 1, 1785, Battelle moved to 10 Marlboro Street, but sold out his music and circulating library at 8 State Street to Ben- jamin Guild. In 1788, as a pioneer member of the Ohio Company, he settled at Marietta, and died in Newport, Ohio, in 1 8 1 5.
In the Independent Qhronicle of December 1, 1785, Guild advertises his lat- est importations.
The following year Guild moved his book- store to 59 Cornhill, "Firft door South of the Old-Brick Meet- ing-Houfe," according to his advertisements in October, 1786.
After Guild's death, in 1792, his adminis- trator, William Pinson Blake, continued the business at 59 Cornhill, being succeeded in 1796 by William Pelham, at the same location where
[35]
amin
At the BOSTON BOOK-STORE,
No. 8, State-Street,
GUTHRIE's&Tom Jones, Geographical Cram- 1 GiU Blafs rnar, publtflved hft May, | Churchilfe Poerm, with large additions aJid.A,Qoldfniith's LiTar*, improvements, j Swi/t'g Polite Cunrcrf*-
Elegart Extracts, new edi- ? tion,
tion, VTtiomfon's Seafodj,
Buchan's Family Priyficlan,4iT,*Ga£'s FatLa,
new edition, | Hudibrifi,
Pulpjl and faultily folio Bi- A Shenftone's Poetical Workt
W«, wrtK iwfcei and cuts.^j "Moore's fables, Peregrine Pickle, | Roderick Ranjora,
Triftrasai Shancta, • Jof^ph Andrews,
Sentimental Journey,- JJiParadifc Loft.
AlJox may hi had, fltfidis a general ajjl'-tfr.ent cf lools )
TheM3ffachuTettsRegiftcr;Tlioinas's,
Bickarftaff't, George's, Low's and V/eatlierw>'fe's Al» manacks, for 1786 ; a large and elfo-ant afTortmcnt of Account and other Ulank-books ; Alphabets; Vifjung Car**; Ink and lnk-Powdc-r ; Ink-Stands; Per.c.ls ; counting-houfe znd other Penknives ; Slates ; caffs of Snrveyin- Inflrtmienrs ; i^ory Folders; Jpy-Giafirs t Money-Soles; po,ket-Eooks , Maps; C1..K:.; and a great variety of 01 her articles.
0- A few patent LAMPS.
his relative, William Price, previously lived and had a book-store.
William Pelham, born in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1759, was a grandson of the Peter Pelham who married Mary Copley, mother of the painter, John Singleton Copley. The building at 59 Cornhill (now 219 Washington Street), the original site of Thomp- son's Spa of today, had been purchased in 1736 by William Price, who published in 1743 his "View of ^Bojion. Price also dealt in music, for in 1769 he ad- vertises on his map of Boston, "Flutes, Hautboys & Violins, Strings, Mufical Books, Songs, &c."
With the exception of the J^iberty Song, issued in September, 1 768, by the London Book Store (see p. 20), none of the Boston shops thus far mentioned published music. Although the Puritan town greatly exceeded all other sections in the issue of psalmody, it lagged behind both Philadelphia and New York in the issue of secular music and in establishing a regular music- publisher.
Boston's first established music-publisher was the organist, pianist, violinist, composer, and conductor, Peter Albrecht von Hagen, of Rotterdam and London. He came to Charleston, S. C, in 1774, but the out- break of the Revolution drove him back to Holland. In 1789, with his accomplished wife, daughter, and son, he came to New York, where they at once be- came active in its musical life. In September, 1796, both father and son came to Boston, the senior as leader
[36}
of the orchestra of the Hay-Market Theatre, and the junior as one of the violin players. They at once opened a "Musical Academy" at No. 62 Newbury Street (Washington Street), joined later by Mrs. von Hagen, pianist and teacher, who had lingered in New York. Here they also had their "Warranted Imported Piano Forte Ware House," and here, as P. A. von Hagen & Co., they began, late in 1797 or early in 1798, to publish music.
In May, 1798, Benjamin Crehore, the maker of 'cellos and basses, harpsichords and pianos, joined the firm, which became P. A. von Hagen Jun. & Co. In March, 1799, they moved to No. $$ Marlboro Street, as another section of Washington Street was then called; and again in May to No. 3 Cornhill. Here, as P. A. von Hagen & Co., the firm remained, maintaining until 1 802 a separate "Piano Forte Ware House" at No. 4 old Massachusetts Bank, head of the Mall. On October 20, 1803, Peter von Hagen died at the age of forty-eight. His widow then re- moved to Common Street, and in 1806 to the cor- ner of Short and Essex Streets. Among their publica- tions are zAdams and J^iberty, zAdams and Washington, To zArms, Columbia, and other patriotic songs of the day, besides the sentimental songs then in vogue and easy marches and dances.
Of the many patriotic songs of this troubled period, the most popular was Hail! Columbia, only rivaled by ^Adams and J^iberty.
[37]
On Monday Evening, June 4, 1798, Mr. Barrett, the actor-manager, at his benefit at the Hay-Market Theatre sang Robert Treat Paine's song, ^Ada??is and J^iberty, which had been published in Boston three days before. It was then advertised and afterward widely known as "The Boston Patriotic Song." Mr. Barrett
wiwwm a - ■- 1 1 a iff . Q m ■ - -■ -i
ADAMS AJVD LIBSSTT. •&-*- ^~ » Wl ' '
scended, 'MM the reign of mild peace, M«y your
■WZlTTtS BT B. T. PATSB, IS 4. IB 1793.
;^|gi^^a S3
He:
tert
^E^
Ye sons of Columbia, who bravely have
naiion increase, With the glory of
ISSi
adts
I
fought, For those rights which unstain'd from your *r-r-; 1 r-
Eome, And the wisdom of Greece. Chobtts.
HUppplil
^J^EBe
w« <wj- *m- *»-
Bires had descended, May you long1 taste the
mwm
And ne'er may the
/Tv-
zvzmz
HHiiifEl!
blessings your valor has bought, And your
lumbia be slaves. While the earth bears a
:ts:
— -r-j — -K tem l 'hi 3cz:: — f*^-*
jC
H
sons reap the soil, which your fathers . dg> plant, or the sea foils its waves.
From (l "Boston zJitusical <J&iscellany,*'' 1815
also sang on this occasion "The Philadelphia Patriotic Song" — Hail! Columbia; and Mrs. Catherine Graupner sang, "accompanied on the Hautboy by Mr. Graup- ner." When President Adams attended the Hay- Market on June 5, 1799, John Hodgkinson, the emi- nent actor-vocalist and manager of the theatre, sang ^Adams and JFjberty. This patriotic use of John Stafford
[38]
Smith's music became so popular that when Key's Star-Spangled ^Banner appeared in Baltimore in 1814 it was labelled "to be sung to the tune oizAdanis and liberty."
In the Independent Chronicle of October 22, 1804, Pelham makes the following announcement:
William Blagrove w< PELHAM,
\tt-oc n cr\rt r\f Pslkom'c 7} ESPECTFULLY apprifes his friends and cuftomers
was a son 01 remam s j^_ ofthe R(,moval of his-
o i -n it. CIRCULATING LIBRARY,
sister, oaran relnam. fromNo.59, comhiiutoNo. 5, school-street.
W. P. havjng placed this branch of his bufinels en- In IoOO he WaS at 6l t!re,y under the direction of Mr. WILLIAM BLAG-
ROV£, folkits a continuance of thofe favors he has r^r>rn Villi onrl flip nPYf been accuftomtd to receive during eight years paft, the V^Ullllllll, 0.1XU. U1C UCAL greater part of which rime he has been conftantly affifted q 1 1 O by Mr. Blagrove, whofe hibitrfal attention to the wifhes
Vear at 3 OCIIOOI Otreet. ©f his Cnftomers precludes the necefluy of recommenda- tion. Since the publication of his Uft Catalogue, many C) n Tj e C e m b e r IO new aad valuable books have been added to the Collec-
y ' tion. ■■■ ■ A new Catalogue contaiuing all the lste addi1- ,QTft U f* o rhr^rf-ic^c i n tioa9' "'* fo™ar<3nes,.and will fhortly be jjublifhed. I 0 I O, ne advertises in ^ BOOKS and STATIONARY for Sale, as
1 sy J 7 ' c 7 as ufual.at No. 59, Cosnhill. Oct. U.
the Columbian sentinel
the sale of Loo counters, playing cards, chess men, 50 gallons of black sand, and books, including 500 flair's Cjrave in sheets, and 200 Curfew, a. play in sheets. The music advertised was "A lot of music, consisting of Songs, Marches, Sonatas, etc. (a Catalogue of which may be seen), amounting to $400 or upwards, will be sold in sums of 10 dollars at 25 per cent discount, in sums of 50 to 100 dollars at 33 per cent discount from the retail price."
On April 27, 181 1, the notice reproduced on the following page appeared in the Columbian Sentinel.
Samuel Hale Parker was born in Wolfboro, N. H., in 1 78 1, the son of Matthew Stanley Gibson Parker. His uncles were Judge William Parker and Sheriff
t39]
John Parker of New Hampshire, and Bishop Samuel Parker of Boston. His Un;on Circulating Library,
brotherswereMatthew Samuel h parker, mpSi^SS!\h
o 1 TO 1 l, • patrons of thi» establishment and ihe public, that fe
otanley JrarK.er, CaSnier has undei taken (he future management of tlie busines
r 1 ' n rt* 11 T» (Mr. Blagrovi having relinquished i\) and solicit,}
Of the Suffolk Bank, continuance of the distinguished patronage it hashitl
erto experienced. Cdpstant attention will be paid t
artr\ W^illinm Sewn 11 the wishes of his customers, and large ADD* HON! dna VV lllldlll OCWdH are coruemphued to be made during the su.nmer. 0
Parker a honk -seller — °c-k of circniatingjoojg. »EL2I.
x til Jvcl , a. UUUK.- ociici NOTICE
f nprr.-r7 VT V Wf BLAGROVE having relinquished Ihe managf-
Ui llUy, 1> . 1 . VV • mental the busines* of the Union Circu-'ulng
» £ . Ifibrary^ respectfully calls upon those ofhis late cu»tou-
Xilter Serving an ap— era from -whom small arrearages are'still due, for im- mediate settlement, as he is about closing his accuuuw
prenticeship tO a book- with ,he Proprietor of the Establishment.
* -T •.'Books which have been detafned ootr one trt,n^
rtin^prin iQno Qorr»n#»l must be. returned ; and .ill detained over 6 weeks Wr
DlllUCr 111 1 O O L , OdIIl UCl fc miwlendiUimfdmedt according to the condition!,
HT> i i unless immediately sent home. apr 27 . Parker began as a '-
book-binder on Court Street, continuing that business until he took over the shop of William Blagrove in 1 8 1 1 . This shop was on the south side of School Street, three doors from Marlboro (now Washington Street). He continued at 3 School Street until he moved to 4 Cornhill, where he temporarily joined his interests with the book-sellers, Munroe & Francis, under the name Munroe, Francis and Parker, who so advertise in the Columbian Sentinel of September 13, 1815. The Sentinel of December 23, 1 8 1 5, advertising the first concert of the Handel and Haydn Society states: "Tickets of admission may be obtained at the Book- stores of Munroe, Francis and Parker," and others, including "G. Graupner, Franklin Street." In 18 16 Parker withdrew from the firm but remained at the corner of Water Street and Cornhill.
From time to time Parker advertises various book
[40]
publications, and October 18, 1817, he announces in the Columbian Sentinel: "Three Sacred Songs by Moore delightfully set to music by Oliver Shaw of Providence and sung by him at late Oratorios. This World is all a Fleeting Show, (^Mary's Tears, and Thou art, 0 Qodl the Life and Light, for sale at Parker's Circulating Library, 4 Cornhill." The same advertisement tells the public
Vietu from 'Pemberton Hill in i%i6,from the painting by Salmon
that he has "Just received a fresh supply of Vancouver's Iron Cement for mending glass and crockery."
The next year, 1 8 1 8, his circulating library and mu- sic-store were moved to 1 2 Cornhill, one door south of the shop formerly occupied by Henry Knox. Here, in 1822, he advertises his "just published" edition of the Waverley Novels. Concerts of the period advertise "Tickets to be had at Mr. Parker's Music Store, No. 12 Cornhill, and at Mr. Graupner's Music Store, Franklin
[41]
Street." In 1825 Parker moved to 164 Washington Street, between Milk and Franklin, where he remained until fire destroyed the premises.
In the Boston Transcript of November 1, 1833, the following item appeared: "Fire. About half past three o'clock this morning fire was discovered in the cellar of building No. 1 64 Washington Street, owned by Mr. Benjamin Guild; insured for $7,500. The lower floor was occupied by Mr. Samuel H. Parker for a library and music-store, and John Price, optician. The second story was occupied by Mr. Benjamin Bradley, book- binder, and Mr. Charles Bradlee, music-publisher, and the upper stories by Mr. Parker as a printing-office. Mr. Parker was insured for $10,000 in book-stock and $3,000 on printing-stock. A large portion of his libra- ry was destroyed, together with two valuable pianos, two printing-presses, and a large amount in sheet-stock. We are happy to learn, however, that none of the valu- able stereotype plates of the Waverley Novels were lost, excepting one or two works which were in the process of being printed. The residue were stored in another place. Still his loss is severe, and just at the time he was upon the point of realizing the fruit of eight or ten years' hard labor in completing his edition of Scott's Novels, which would have been finished and come to market in December. Mr. Charles Bradlee lost a large portion of his sheet-music and plates."
In the Transcript of January 4, 1834, Parker ad- vertises "Piano-fortes just received and for sale," at
[42]
io School Street, but in the issue of April 5 "Sam'l H. Parker informs his friends that he has taken half of the store occupied by Mr. L. C. Bowles, 141 Wash- ington Street, where he will renew the sale oizJxCusic and publishing the Waverley Novels which have been so unfortunately discontinued by the loss of his stock at the late fire," etc., etc. This location was three doors south of School Street. On July 1 he advertises that "He will have for sale all the Music published by Mr. C. Bradlee, with a constant supply of the new and fashionable Songs and Piano-forte pieces published at the South."
Parker's store became more and more a musical center, and on December 11, 1834, the Transcript states that "S. H. Parker has removed his music-store from 141 to 107 Washington Street." This shop, on the south corner of Williams Court, was shortly after occupied in part by the music-store of Oliver Ditson, who had some eight years earlier been in his employ.
At about the same time (January 20, 1835) the building into which Parker had moved was purchased by James A. Dickson who, as an actor, had come from England in 1796 to appear at the opening of the Hay- Market Theatre. Later he was manager of the Boston Theatre on Federal Street up to 1 820, when he opened a "music saloon" on Market Street (now Cornhill), which had been recently made a thoroughfare. He was located there at the corner of Franklin Avenue for twenty years, but about 1835 Dickson turned his
[43]
activities more and more from selling music to mar- keting Day and Martin's blacking and Crosse and Blackwell's jam.
[44]
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
State House and Common about 1820
In 1800 Boston was a town of about 25,000 inhabi- tants, the earlier provincialism was passing, and evi- dences of interest in music for its own sake were be- coming manifest. Music teachers had been increasing in numbers since the close of the Revolution, while growing prosperity and population gradually made it possible for shops for the sale of music and musical instruments to exist without the aid of other commodities. The
" change, however, was slow and the II . ,
! venturesome pioneers were as a rule musicians of standing in the com- fm munity. Such was Gottlieb Graup- t§H| MBik'jHJPF ner who, about 1 8 00, began to pub- lish music. This he engraved and Gottlieb Graupner printed with his own hands and
sold at his "Musical Academy," No. 6 Franklin Street,
[45]
where he also sold pianos and other instruments until February, 1820. According to The Eutei-piad, his tal- ented wife, Catherine, was "for many years the only female vocalist in Boston." She died in 1821, and Graupner in 1836.
Graupner was an all-round musician, at home on many instruments, and thirty years of age when, in 1797, he settled in Boston, where from 1798 until 181 5 he was "the musical oracle." In 18 10 the few instrumentalists of professional experience then living in Boston, together with a few amateurs, were organ- ized by Graupner into The Philharmonic Society.* He had been oboist in Haydn's orchestra in London in 1 79 1 -1 792, and soon his little orchestra practiced Haydn's symphonies for its own gratification and gave concerts of which that on Nov. 24, 1824, was the last.
These pioneers, von Hagen, Graupner, Lane, Pren- tiss, Keith, Hewitt, and Bradlee, helped to prepare the way for larger things, but the music-publisher in a national sense was yet to come, and there is little doubt that Graupner influenced his early career.
Oliver Ditson was of a family of Scotch descent living in Billerica, Massachusetts, in the last years of the seventeenth century. His grandfather, Samuel Ditson, was a Revolutionary soldier, living in Burling- ton, Massachusetts. Oliver's father, Joseph Ditson, born therein 1772, married in 1797, Lucy, the daughter of
*This name is also given as Phil- according to a notice in the Colum- harmonio and Philo Harmonic. A Man Centime I of April 6, 1799. Pos- Philharmonic Society existed in 1799, sibly it was the same society.
[46]
Solomon Pierce of Lexington, who was wounded on the morning of April 19, 1775, and later took part in the battle of Bennington.
Upon his marriage Joseph Ditson came to Boston. At that time property on the north side of Beacon Hill was being developed. Harrison Gray Otis had just finished his house, still standing on the corner of Lynde and Cambridge Streets. The Suffolk Registry of Deeds records that Joseph Ditson purchased of Appleton Prentiss a lot 40 x 70 feet on the newly laid out street between Russell and Irving Streets. Here he built a house in which he lived until 18 10 when he moved to 74 Prince Street, near Copp's Hill, where on October 20, 181 1, his fifth child, Oliver, was born. This house, now numbered 114, is on the west side of Prince Street.
The year 1 8 1 1 was notable for the birth of Liszt and Thackeray, Charles Sumner and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The year before Chopin, Schumann, and Ole Bull were born. Of men destined to be significant in Boston's life, Emerson was then a lad of eight attend- ing the public grammar school, Hawthorne was seven years old, Garrison six, Longfellow and Whittier four, and Oliver Wendell Holmes a baby of two. The year following, 1 8 1 2, saw the outbreak of war with Eng- land as well as Napoleon's retreat from Moscow.
On Washington's Birthday, 1 8 1 5, a musical jubilee was held in King's Chapel to celebrate the Peace of Ghent which concluded the war of 1 8 1 2. Out of this
[47]
originated, a few weeks later, The Handel and Haydn Society. One of the organizers and a member of the first board of trustees was Samuel H. Parker, then a member of Trinity choir. Another of the founders was G. Graupner, at whose Music Hall, 6 Franklin Street, the first meetings to organize the Society were held. It gave its first public concert in King's Chapel on Christmas Eve, 1815, and in 1818 gave the first complete performance of an oratorio in this country when it presented The zJtCessiah. It was this society that in 1821 (dated 1822) published Lowell Mason's first collection of music after the publishers of Philadelphia and Bos- ton had declined it. This was the very sue- Kin?s chapel
cessful Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church zMusic.
It was in 1823 that young Oliver Ditson having finished his school life in the Eliot School on North Bennett Street, entered the employ of Colonel Parker, then at 12 Cornhill (Washington Street).
In 1824 the Public Garden was created on what had been an unsightly batch of mud on the west side of Charles Street. Boston was at this time a veritable garden city, and Summer Street with its overshadow-
[48]
ing trees, lovely gardens and fine mansions, well merited its name.
In 1826 Lowell Mason settled in Boston, was next year made president and conductor of The Handel and Haydn Society, and thus began his notable public ca- reer not only as "The Father of American church music," but as the pioneer in inaugurating and develop- ing the teaching of music in the public schools, for- mally introduced in 1 8 3 8 as a regular branch of study in the Boston schools after two years of experimental work by Mason and his associate, Wm. C. Woodbridge.
In was in 1826 that young Ditson left S. H. Parker to apprentice himself to Isaac R. Butts, then printing The ^(arth ^American Review. Later he was with Al- fred Mudge, and while there had charge of the print- ing for Colonel Parker, his former employer. At this time Ditson lived at 10 Province House Court, across the way from the prominent musician, Gottlieb Graup- ner, who then lived at No. 1. His son, John Henry Howard Graupner, and Oliver Ditson had been boys together, and the daughter of the former records the fact that her father carried for life a scar resulting from a wound given him by Oliver in some boyish rough and tumble play.
Mr. Ditson's innate fondness for music, his three years' training with Colonel Parker in the book and music business, his seven years' training as a printer, and possibly, also, his friendly relationship with the Graupner family, led him in 1835 to start in the music
[49]
business at 107 Washington Street, just south of Williams Court.
He was at this time organist and choirmaster of the Bulfinch Street Church. The Transcript of October 13, 1834, advertises "Sacred Concert. The Singing Choir attached to Rev. Mr. Deane's Church in Bul- finch Street will perform a Concert of Sacred Music on Sunday Evening next, Oct. 19th at 6 1-2 o'clock. Tickets at 25 cents each, may be procured at S. H. Parker's Music Store, 141 Washington st; J. M. Smith's, Druggist, corner of School and Tremont sts. ; and at the door on the evening of performance. Oliver Ditson, Sec'ry."
In December, 1834, as mentioned above, Colonel Parker moved from 141 Washington Street to No. 107. This brought him and his former employee together again under the same roof. Boston's popula- tion was then about 75,000. Postal rates were high, for it cost 18 3-4 cents to send a letter of a single sheet from Boston to New York. These were the days of the stage-coach, although they were soon to decline through the advent of railroads. It is recorded that in 1832 there were ninety-three stage lines running out of Boston.
What is, perhaps, the first mention of Oliver Ditson as a publisher appears in the Saturday Evening Qazette of June 6, 1835, which states in a reading notice: "Mr. Oliver Ditson has just published a new song en- titled There's not a Leaf within the 'Bower. It was com-
[50]
-c rm KtTK ytrABJftS m n
posed by F. Valentine, and arranged as a duet by Ch. Zeuner. It is for sale at Parker's Music Store." This
was copyrighted June 5th by Oliver Ditson. The 'Transcript of June 20, 1835, says: "Ditson has in press The City Quards Quick-step, composed by Walch, and arranged as a duett for two flutes by Zeuner," and on July 9th advertises the same num- ber as "Just published and for sale by S. H. Parker." This number was also copyrighted in the name of Oliver Ditson.
At this time Charles Zeuner was organist of Park Street Church and for the Handel and Haydn Society, and one of Boston's chief musicians. To him Mr. Dit- son turned for editorial work, as the two publications just mentioned show, and in his first venturesome year of business the young publisher issued four or more songs by Zeuner — The Songs of our Fathers and A Part- ing Song (Mrs. Hemans), Her last words of parting (Thomas Moore), and The lover s echo, together with several of his instrumental numbers.
The Qazette of November 14, 1835, advertises a concert of the Handel and Haydn Society — "Tickets at Oliver Ditson's" and the Transcript of December
[51]
OKATOHIO OF DAVID. NEUkOMMS celebrated Sacred Drarraric Oratorio ol David, now p rforn.ine with unprecedented success by ihe Handel & H lyiln Society, has been pu Wished by Ihem, anil may be obtained at DITSON'S Music Store. 107 Washincion street, by the dozen or sinjle. Is2w march 30
22, 1835, advertises a performance of The zJtfessiah by the same society — "Tickets at Ditson's Music Store."
The same paper in its issue of March 30, 1836, advertises the Oratorio of T)avid, just published, as for sale at "Ditson's Music- Store, 107 Washington Street," and that tickets for its approaching performance by the Handel and Haydn Society are to be had "at the Music Store of O. Ditson." Tickets for a concert by the Boston Academy were advertised in the Boston Courier of April 3d, "for sale at O. Ditson's."
On April 6 th, the song, zMy Heart's in the High- lands, is advertised in the Transcript as for sale at "Ditson's Music Store." Apparently the younger man, by his energy and enthusiasm, was gaining precedence over his senior, who solved the problem by making Oliver his partner. The Transcript of April 5, 1836, contained the notice of copartnership.
The growing business of the new firm led them to seek better quarters, and in 1838 they had the
CtftPARTNKRSHIPNOTICE. S.H.PAR- j KEfl having associated MR OLIVER DITSON with him in the Music and Piano Fore business, thai depart- ment will be conducted at 107 Washington street. In fu- ture, under the firm of PARKER & DITSON — who have now on hand a large collection of Music, and are con- stantly pubushln^ and receiving ii»m the other nrbhsh- ers In the United Street, the fa hionable ami popular Music of the time. SAMUFL H PARKER.
OLIVER DITSON.
Boston. April S. 1836.
S. H. P continues to i-ubilsh the Waverly Novels, as usual, from his stereotyped cd/iion. and orders will be received for them at the above store, either in wholesale numbers from the trade, or by single copy, folded or bound. is3t apnl6
PARKER &. BI?SOJ4:
Dealers in
good fortune to locate Piano Fortes & Sheet Music,
107 Washington Street, Boston.
sept 30
b)Gm
in the old gambrel- roofed building that since 1 7 1 2 had stood on the site of the home of Anne Hutchinson, the first woman champion of intellectual freedom in America. In this
[50
TO THE MUSICAL PUBLIC.
REMOVAL. PARKER & DITSON, Dealers in Piano Fortes and Sheet Music, have removed to 135 Wash- ington st, corner of School st. where may be found all the fashionable Music of the day.
N. B. — Connected with the store, P. & D. have an exten- sive Waroroom for the sale of new and second hand Piano Fortes. Pianos to let. is4t may 5
old shop, at the corner of Washington and School Streets, books were sold continuously from 1828 to
July, 1903. In 1837 the book-seller was William D. Ticknor, but it was in the days of James T. Fields that The Old Corner ^Bookstore became a gathering place for "the New England circle which compelled the world to acknowledge that there was an American literature." This location was then No. 135 Washington Street. In 1840 Mr. Ditson married Miss Catherine Delano, a descendant of William Bradford, sec- ond Governor of Plym- outh Colony. It was in this year that Boston was chosen as the terminus of the Cunard Line and the first regular trans- Atlan-^ R*
tic Steamer Service began. The Old Corner "Bookstore
Railway connection with Worcester, Lowell, and Providence had been made in 1835, but with Albany not until 1841. There was not then a telegraph line in the world; Boston had a population of 93,383, New York 312,710, Philadelphia 93,665; Chicago was a frontier village of 4,479, while Kansas City, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and San Francisco had not been heard of.
[53]
Intersection of the Providence and Worcester railroads, 1838
It was just at this time that Henry Russell, the Eng- lish ballad-singer, visited Boston, and his songs, The Ship on Fire, The zJxCaniac, The Cjambler s Wife, and others, were being sung with fervor in drawing-rooms; while, on the other hand, Margaret Fuller was holding her famous "Conversations" at Miss Peabody's rooms on West Street, and the Transcendentalists were making their Brook Farm experiment, with John S. Dwight as teacher of Music and Latin.
(No. 135) West side of Washington Street in 1845 (No. 107)
[54]
In 1842 Mr. Ditson acquired the interests of his senior partner, as appears in the Dissolution of Co- partnership notice, dated March 17, and printed in the 'Transcript the same day.
In need of larger quar- ters, Oliver Ditson moved in 1844 from the Old Cor- ner Bookstore to a neighbor- in P* location ^°' Il$ t0 ^°' io7 Washington Street in 1845
at 1 1 5 Washington Street, four doors south of Williams Court. In the previous view of the west side of Wash- ington Street the building at the right is No. 1 07, where Parker & Ditson were first located; the building at the left is No. 135, the Old Corner Bookstore location; while the sign to the right of the lamp post is that of Oliver Ditson at No. 115. In 1845 Mr. Ditson took into his employ a lad of fifteen, John C. Haynes, at the weekly stipend of $1.50. Eight years later, in 1853, the value of the young man was recognized by giving him an interest in the business, and on January 1 , 1857, he was admitted to copartnership and the house name
[55]
changed to Oliver Ditson & Co. In this year Mr. Dit-
son erected for his firm a build- ing at 277, now 45 1 Washing- ton Street.
It should be noted that Oli- ver Ditson's early friend and neighbor, John Henry How- ard Graupner, had charge of his music-printing and engrav- ing department from 1850, or earlier, until 1880. He was a good pianist and trained mu- sician and son of the pioneer, Gottlieb Graupner, who taught
iSMfcSBKI ip|i if % iff
iS
9 -SI:
No. 277 Washington Street
him music-engraving
Probably the earliest American folio collection of glees and catches for two, three, and four or more voices was issued by Samuel H. Parker about 1823, the year when Oliver Ditson, as a boy, entered his employ. Its generous pages (10 x 14I4) contained such numbers as Danby's Awake, Aeolian Lyre, Mornington's Here in cool grot, Webbe's When winds breathe soft, and Maz- zinghi's Te shepherds tell me, together with others by Mozart, Shield, and Doctors Arne, Clarke, Calcott, and Stevenson. In his first venturesome years Oliver Ditson added a second series, and Parker & Ditson added a third series with the additional names of Bay- ley, Bishop, Horsley, and others.
[56]
Boston was then and for years after the chief center of choral activity in the country. It gave the first com- plete performance of Handel's zJkCessiah in 1818, Haydn's Creation in 18 19, Mendelssohn's Elijah in 1840, Rossini's Stabat <^YCater in 1843, Handel's Sam- son in 1 845, yudas <^hCaccabeus in 1 847, Mendelssohn's Hymn of 'Praise in 1862, John K. Paine' s St. Peter in 1 847, Handel's Joshua in 1 876, Bach's Christmas Ora- torio in 1 877, and Bach's St. zJxCatt/iew Passion in 1 879.
The first American edition of Haydn's Creation was issued by Oliver Ditson about 1845. Its large folio pages (10x15) must have been conspicuous when held up by a large chorus.
In addition to a long list of reprints of the standard oratorios, cantatas, and operas, from time to time new and important works were issued, for instance, the ora- torio by George F. Bristow entitled, Praise to Qod, pub- lished in i860; Eugene Thayer's Festival Cantata, 1872; J. C. D. Parker's choral ballad, The ''Blind King, 1883; John K. Paine's oratorio, St. Peter, 1874; Dud- ley Buck's 4.6th Psalm; J. C. D. Parker's Redemption Hymn, 1877; Dr. Leopold Damrosch's oratorio, Ruth and Naomi, and other choral works. Important was the issue in 1 869 of the first American edition of Bach's Passion oJWusic, according to St. ^hCatthew, with a new and masterly translation by John S. Dwight.
In 1853 Nathan Richardson, who had been a pupil of Alexander Dreyschock for nearly two years, published with the endorsement of William Mason, then in
1 57}
Weimar, the ^Modern School for P>iano-Forte, a technical work that included a series of large anatomical plates of the hand and forearm. Mr. Richardson published this purely technical work himself. It was but the fore- runner of his enormously popular work, Richardson's New ^hCethodfor the 'Piano-Forte. This work, published by Ditson in 1859, was a simplification of the earlier work, discarding its complexities and adapting the book to the needs of beginners ; but the feature that gave it such extraordinary vogue was the abundant use of so-called "Amusements," tuneful, recreative music that gave the pupil a happy relief from the "Studies" and purely technical work. This was a new feature in instruction books for the piano, and brought a rich re- ward to both the author and the publisher.
In November, 1863, the dedication of the great concert-organ in Music Hall, Boston, gave marked impetus to the serious study of this instrument. This was followed soon after by the publication of another important pedagogic work — the first complete edition of Rink's Organ School, at that time the chief work of its type.
That New England was long the chief center for the publication of church and choral music has already been indicated. This lasted for over a century, from Josiah Flagg's Collection of the Best Psalm Tunes, Bos- ton, 1 764, through the era of Billings, Law, Holden, Holyoke, Belknap, Kimball, Morgan, Read, Swan, Shaw, and more than a dozen other native composers;
[58]
to the period of Lowell Mason, the master-spirit of a new group which included George J. Webb, Thomas Hastings, Isaac B. Woodbury, George F. Root, L. O. Emerson, William B. Bradbury, and others. A long list of these oblong anthem and hymn-books carried the imprint of Oliver Ditson & Co. Important were The Ancient Lyre by Charles Zeuner, 1836, taken over later by Mr. Ditson; The "Boston Qlee "Book by Lowell Mason and George G. Webb, 1838, Carmina Sacra (Boston Collection of Church Music) issued by Lowell Mason in 1 84 1 and later taken over. In the first ten years over 400,000 copies were sold of this outstanding book. In 1855 a revision was issued as The New Carmina Sacra. Under the sanction of the Musical Fund Soci- ety of Philadelphia, Cantus Ecclesiae, by H. W. Darley and J. C. B. Standbridge, was published in 1844 an(^ later taken over by Ditson. Greatorex' Church <iM~usic, 185 1 , was also taken over, as was The Shawm by William B. Bradbury and George F. Root, issued in 1852.
The purchase of the catalog of Mason Brothers of New York brought in Lowell Mason's The Hallelujah, first issued in 1 854, and The Jubilee of William B. Brad- bury, of 1858, with many similar works. Mr. Ditson issued L. O. Emerson's Harp of Judah in 1863, and "Perkin 's zAnthem "Book in 1874. The books named are but typical examples of the many issued in this period.
This period of oblong board-bound books (6^> x 9J4) was followed by a group of larger oblong books (9^ x ii?4). Typical examples were the earlier "Boston
Academy s Collection of Choruses, 1836, and the Acad- emy ^Vocalist of George F. Root, 1852, both taken over by Oliver Ditson & Co. Better remembered are Baum- bach's Sacred Quartets, 1861, his New Collection of Sacred <JxCusic, 1871, and Dudley Buck's ^YCotette Col- lection, 1 864. Mr. Buck was then organist at the North Congregational Church of Hartford, Connecticut. His Seco?id ^hCotette Collection was issued in 1 8 7 1 .
The period of cumbersome choir-books was fol- lowed by the convenient octavo-sized issue of single numbers initiated in England by Novello & Co. The Ditson house was for some years their American agent. As early as 1 869 the octavo list of English glees and part songs, and the most popular oratorio choruses, numbered about 150. In 1876 the present numbered series of octavo choral publications was initiated with the reprinting of English church music, together with the work of American composers, and since that date nearly 1 5,000 octavo numbers of sacred and secular choral music have been issued.
As already stated, the study of music in the public schools of America was officially inaugurated by Lowell Mason in Boston in 1838, after two years of experimental work. In the report of the Boston Acad- emy of Music for July 1,1839, tn*s acti°n of the Boston school-board in the face of a long and determined op- position was referred to as "The Magna Charta of musical education in this country." This teaching, at first confined to the grammar grades, was not system-
[60]
atically taught in the primary grades until 1864, nor in the high schools until Julius Eichberg's regime as supervisor, which began in 1869. In these early days the publishing of school-music books had not become a specialty and the field was open to the general music- publisher. Always alert for opportunities, Oliver Dit- son was quick to enter this new field. Mason and Webb, as pioneers, had issued The "Juvenile Singing School in 1837, and Lowell Mason issued The 'Boston School Song Book in 1 841. Other cities cautiously followed the ex- ample of Boston, but over ten years elapsed before eight or nine important cities had introduced vocal music study. It took much longer than this before music had filtered into general educational thought; in fact, the methodical teaching of public school music was not firmly established until well after the Civil War. In 1 856 Ditson issued the Qolden Wreath, by L. O. Emer- son, a book so popular that before 1872 over 300,000 copies had been sold. In i860, The Nightingale, by W. O. & H. L. Perkins was published; followed by The Qolden Robin of W. O. Perkins in 1 868, The zMock- ing Bird in 1 87 1 , and The Whip-poo?~-will in 1 876. In the period 1 860-1 880 a vast number of these and sim- ilar small, oblong school singing-books were circu- lated over the country.
The advertisement reproduced on the next page is taken from the issue of January 16, 1872, of The Woman s Jownal of Boston, a weekly paper edited by Julia Ward Howe, Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell,
[61]
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and Mary A. Liver- more, truly a notable and forward marching group. This compact advertisement throws a side-light on the Ditson choral oyVER ^^ & ^^
publications sixty STANDARD MUSICAL WORKS,
years ago, many of cheap: unexcelled::
Beautiful Octavo Edition of Oratorios &. Cantatas,
Stabat Mater 45
yam of Praise 50
alpurgis Night 75
the works listed being Creation $ 50
i r « • Messiah „■■ ' .50
the first American re- Israel in Egypt 50
prints to appear. The year 1872 was cho-
B> * ■ Bordese's Mass in F. . .76
OStOn S glgantlC Concone's Mass in F.
Farmer's Mass in B
Hymn of Praise 50
Walpurgis Night 75
As the Hart pants (42 Ps).38
Come let us sing- (96 Ps) .38 Ninety-Eighth Psalm .75 Woman of Samaria. . 1.00 Hear my Prayer 38
Judas Maccabasus. . ., .50
Samson ......... .75
St. Paul., 75
Elijah 1.00
Athalia 1.00
Oratorio Choruses separate, 6 cts. each. 60 cts. per doz.
rally notable through „ „ Beautiful Octavo Edition of Masses. o Beethoven's Mass in C8 .50|Mozart's 15th (Requi- em) Mass 50
» Mozart's 2d, 7th and
9th Masses each... ,76
flat 75
Gounod's Mass Solen-
nelle 75
.45
Mercadante's Mass, 3 voices .76
Niedermayer's Mass
in D 1.25
Rossini's Mease Solen- nelle 1.G0
Weber's Mass In G.. .50
Peace Jubilee which
nnt-jit* , i represent Haydn's 3d Mass 4
I Haydn's 1st, 2d, 3d,
the culmination of i£u™eS..!* .75
Haydn's 16th Mass. .. 1.00 Weber's Mass in E flat .75
America s first choral ge M°nti's **** $Sou«hard'\^a?Bl?F, •*
Mozart's 1st Mass 60 " short Mas3
jo n Mozart's 12th Mass.. .45' in D .38
period, ibic-1072, „ , . n ,, „ „ , «,
r J 1 ' Complete Operas, Full Vocal Score.
the fifty-seven years including recitatives, $1.00 each.
, . -11 Paust, Fidelio, Martha, Traviata, Somnam-
that began With the kttla, Don Giovanni, Marriage of Figaro, Nor*
o *£A. Ernani, Preciosa, Trovatore, Era DIa-
IVTnci^al TnKil^f V»^1r1 volo, Locretia Borgia, Lucia.
iVlUblCd.1 J UDliee neia »„* The above can be had of any Music Dealers. or
XT" * <*>U 1 the Publishers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price.
in -King S Chapel On Oliver Ditson & Co., I C. H. Di«so» & Co.,
- . * Boston. | 711 Broadway, N. T.
Washington s Birth- Mar-16- *
day, 1 8 1 5, out of which sprang the Handel and Haydn Society. It was the close of the War of 1812 that led to the first event, and the close of the Franco- Prussian War in 1871 that led to the second.
The year 1841 is notable in that Beethoven's sym- phonies, the First and Ftfthy were then first heard in Bos-
[64]
ton. They were performed by the Academy of Music Orchestra, of from twenty-five to forty players, which for seven winters gave a series of six to eight concerts, the last in the spring of 1 847. It was at one of its con- certs, March 7, 1846, that Wm. Mason, then seven- teen, made his first appearance as a pianist.
Bird's-eye <vie<w of the Public Garden and Common, about 1850
These concerts were succeeded by those of the Mu- sical Fund Society, which for eight seasons gave or- chestral concerts in the old Tremont Temple, its last concert being given April, 1855, in the then new Bos- ton Music Hall.
A still better organization, rich in soloists, was the Germania Orchestra, which from 1848 to 1854, trav- elled, but gave from eighty to ninety of its concerts in Boston, where they made their first appearance April 14, 1849, and gave twenty-two concerts in six weeks. This little orchestra of twenty-three was sometimes doubled by the addition of local musicians. The pre- cision, delicacy and beauty of their performances of the best music left a lasting influence.
[63]
Carl Zerrahn
It was this orchestra that brought Carl Zerrahn to Boston as its first flute. In 1854 he became conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society, and in 1855 he organized the Philharmonic Orchestra, which gave regular concerts until 1863. In 1865 Zerrahn was made conductor of the or- chestra of the Harvard Musi- cal Association, which for seventeen years maintained symphony concerts of a high standard.
In the musical life of America for many years no single man wielded so potent an influence lor musical righteousness as Theodore Thomas. He had a whole- souled belief in the power of good music and devoted
his life to making it known. The irequent visits of his or- chestra to Boston overshad- owed the less disciplined and imperfect local body, sharp- ened musical perception, and wakened concert-goers to the need of an orchestra of like technical refinement and mas- terly leadership. This need was
Henry Lee Hipginson i . % ■% r t t
s& generously met by Mr. Henry
Lee Higginson when he founded the Boston Symphony
[64]
Orchestra, which gave its first concert under Georg Henschel, October 22, 1881, and under Gericke, Nikisch, and their successors, has developed into the present unique organization.
It was the Harvard Musical Association, organized in 1 837 by John S. Dwight, Henry K. Oliver, William Wetmore Story, Christopher P. Cranch, and others, that by its regular soirees from 1844 to 1850 initiated Boston into the beauties of chamber music. Stimu- lated by these affairs the Mendelssohn Quintette Club was organized with Thomas Ryan as its leading spirit. It was the first chamber music organization of its type in the country and gave its first concert December 1 4, 1849. For neai"ly fifty years this club travelled over the United States, making classical music known to multitudes for the first time.
It was also the moral back- ing ot the Harvard Musical Association that led John S. Dwight to estab\ish<Dwzgfit' s Journal of Music in 1 8 5 2 . For six years he was editor, pub- lisher, and proprietor, when, in 1858, the magazine was taken over by Oliver Ditson & Co., who published it until
the end of 1 878, Mr. Dwight continuing as editor. It was carried on by other publishers until 1 88 1, when it
[65]
ceased to exist. Its first number was issued April i o, 1 8 5 2; its last, September 3,1881. This pioneer magazine was a notable factor in moulding musical opinion and its pages are the history of music in the United States during the twenty-nine years of its existence.
Jenny Lind in 1850
host of lesser singers. It was in February, 1853, that Jenny Lind was married to Otto Goldschmidt, her ac- companist, in the house in quaint Louisburg Square, at the left in the illustration. It stands
Giulia Grisi
While foreign artists had come and gone, the year 1850 ushered in a notable galaxy, beginning with Jenny Lind and her memo- rable concerts, the lovely Sontag, and the great Alboni, followed by Patti, Grisi and Mario, Adelaide Phillips, Brignoli, Parepa Rosa, and a
[66]
Urso at ii
Teresa Carreiio, Anna Mehlig, Rubinstein, von Biilow, Essipoff, and others.
Of violinists, Vieux- temps, Ole Bull, Sivori, and Camilla Urso, "the girl violinist," were early comers, followed
almost on the site of the apple orchard of Boston's first inhabitant.
Of pianists, Thalberg, who came in i 8 5 7, was perhaps the first of great rank. The early sixties brought home from Europe, Gottschalk; then came the war and a lull, fol- lowed by the girl wonder,
Carreiio at 10
Great Organ in Music Hall
by Wieniawski, Wilhelmj, Remenyi, Sauret, and others.
Organ playing in the country was given a stimulus when the great organ in Boston Music Hall was opened November 2, 1863. This large instrument was
[67]
B. J. Lang
the first thorough concert organ in the country. A
notable group of organists, B. J. Lang, John K. Paine, Eugene Thayer, S. P. Tuckerman, John H. Wilcox, and George W. Morgan were the first to play upon it.
The sensational event of 1 869 was the monster Peace Jubilee, organized by P. S. Gilmore; Carl Zerrahn was general director; John K. Paine and Dudley Buck conducted compositions of their own; Julius Eichberg wrote for the occasion his To Thee, 0 Country, now sung in the schools everywhere, and Ole Bull and Carl Rosa played in the big orchestra, while Parepa Rosa and Adelaide Phillips were the chief singers. A festi- val building large enough to seat thirty thousand persons was erected near the site of the pres- ent Copley Plaza Hotel; the or- chestra numbered one thousand, and the chorus ten thousand. The sensitive John S. Dwight refused to endorse the Jubilee in his y ournal of zJXCusic and fled to Nahant to escape the cannons, anvils, bells, big organ, eighty- four trombones, eighty-three tubas, as many cornets, and
[68]
Julius Eichberg
seventy-five drums, which with three hundred and thirty strings and one hundred and nineteen wood-wind, made "an ensemble of fearful and wonderful sonority."
The ambitious Gilmore found another opportunity at the close of the Franco-Prussian War when he or- ganized on a still larger scale the International Peace Jubilee of June, 1 872. This time the auditorium seated fifty thousand; the chorus, collected from over the country as far west as Omaha, numbered twenty thousand and the orchestra two thousand. Johann Strauss and Franz Abt led their own com- positions. Mme. Rudersdorff was the chief singer, and famous bands from London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Washington, and New York were features. Though the first Jubilee cost $283,000, it left a balance of nearly $10,000 in the treasury; the second "colossal musical picnic" left a deficit of $100,000 to be made up by the guarantors, among them Oliver Ditson.
In contrast to these monster festivals were the smaller and musically more important triennial festivals of the Handel and Haydn Society. It was at the festival of 1 871 that about half of Bach's St. zJYCatthew Passion <^hCusic was given for the first time in America, still more was given in 1874, and on Good Friday, 1879,
[69]
Hermine Rudersdorff
the entire work had a notable performance in a two- session concert.
How recent serious com- position in the larger forms is in America, is indicated by the fact that our pioneer sym- phonist, John K. Paine, left us as recently as 1 906. It was in the year of MacDowell's birth, 1 86 1 , that he returned to Cambridge from study
r> tt" r John K. Paine
in Lrermany. His first sym- phony was played in 1876, and when those in charge of the Centennial Exposition sought the two native composers of greatest prominence to write the music for the opening ceremonies they selected John K. Paine
and Dudley Buck.
Since then a notable group have enriched American com- position with symphonies, or- chestral works, chamber music and choral works, while a host have written in small forms; but to speak of men until recently with us or of the many now active in creative work, interpretation
Dudley Buck . . . . .
and education, is beyond the scope of this brief sketch of a bygone day.
[70]
SEFED^TY YEARS <MORE
In i860, Mr. Ditson established in Cincinnati, Mr. John Church, a young man who had been with him from boy- hood. The business successfully launched was in 1 87 1 sold to Mr. Church, and is now well known as the John Church Company. In 1864, two young men, Mr. P. J. Healy and Mr. George W. Lyon, were established in Chicago by the capital of Oliver j0kn church
Ditson & Co., under the now honored name of Lyon & Healy.
p. After
On March 4, 1867, the firm purchased the music plates, stock and good-will of Firth, Son & Co. of New York City. This led at once to the establishment of a branch house in the metropolis, under the management of Oliver Ditson's eldest son, Charles, with the firm name of Chas. H.
J. Healy DitSOn & Co.
remaining a few months at 563 Broadway,
[71}
where Firth, Son & Co. had been located, more spa- cious quarters were taken at 71 1 Broadway. The pur- chase by the parent house of the music catalog and business of Wm. Hall & Son of New York, in 1875, and of J. L. Peters of New York, in 1 877, necessitated the taking of more spacious quarters, in 1878, at 843 Broadway.
In 1883, the property at the southwest corner of Broadway and Eighteenth Street was purchased and the Ditson Building erected. Here at 867 Broadway the firm remained until the constant uptown trend 01 retail trade led to the erection of a new Ditson Building at 8-1 0-12 East 34th Street. Into these hand- some quarters the firm moved in 1907, just forty years after its establishment.
P
In 1875, the purchase of the catalog of Lee & Walker of Phila- 8_ia East wh Street delphia, led to the opening of a branch house in that city under the management of another son, James Edward Ditson, under the firm name of J. E. Ditson & Co.
In 1879, the stock and music plates of G. Andre & Co. of Philadelphia, were purchased.
In 1 88 1, the uptown trend of business led to the removal from 922 to 1228 Chestnut Street. In the same year occurred the death of Mr. J. E. Ditson.
In 1 890, the entire catalog, stock and music plates of F. A. North & Co. of Philadelphia, were purchased.
In 1 9 1 o, changed conditions of business led to the discontinuance of the Philadelphia branch house.
In 1 877, the purchase of the catalog and good-will of G. D. Russell & Co. of Boston, and the constantly
expanding business of the par- ent Boston house compelled the taking of the adjoining store at No. 449 Washington Street, which had been erected expressly as an addition to No. 451.
With the issue of December 21,1 878, Oliver Ditson & Co. ceased to publish cDcwighfs Journal of zJtCusic and estab- lished the ^Monthly zM'usica/ l{eco7-d, which in 1 898 was suc- ceeded by the zJ&usical l^ecord, a high-class magazine under the brilliant editorship of Philip Hale.
In October, 1898, the issue was begun of a pocket- size monthly magazine to bulletin the publications of the house, under the name zJxCustc l^eview.
In January, 1 90 1 , this magazine was combined with the <^Musical l^ecord under the name zJxbisical 'l^ecord & T^eview, with Thomas Tapper as editor. After more than two years' issue in its enlarged form another com-
[73]
449-451 Washington Street
bination was made by the purchase from the Hatch Music Company of Philadelphia of the zM^usician. The smaller magazine was dropped and the new magazine in its present form issued under Mr. Tapper's editor- ship from November, 1903, to August, 1907, when he was succeeded by Mr. W. J. Baltzell, who con- ducted the magazine until December 31, 191 8. Through its purchase by a New York magazine pub- lisher, the issue of January, 19 19, appeared in the metropolis under new editorship and management. In May, 1922, the magazine passed into the hands of Mr. Paul Kempf, its present owner and editor.
As already indicated, the period 1 860-1 890 was a time of great expansion. Not only was the constant output of new publications large, but the purchase of over fifty other catalogs increased the bulk of the al- ready big Ditson catalog. As some of these publishers were the successors of still earlier houses, by their absorption into the Ditson catalog the house became directly linked to the early publishers of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. As a matter of record the more important of these publishing houses are listed:
Boston New York
L. W. Blanchard J. F. Atwill
Charles Bradlee Brentano Bros.
Charles H. Keith A. Cortada & Co.
A. & J. P. Ordway Firth, Son & Co.
J. F. Perry & Co. William Hall & Son
Carl Prufer Mason Brothers
G. D. Russell & Co. Martens Bros.
Russell Bros. J. L. Peters
E. H. Wade Spear & Denhoff
[74]
Philadelphia Baltimore
G. Andre" & Co. Henry McCaffrey
A. Fiot Miller & Beacham
Lee & Walker
F. A. North & Co.
W. F. Shaw
Buffalo
, A. Rottenbach
C.W.A.Trumpler J. H. Wahle & Son
Septimus Winner J
Louisville Cincinnati
H. Knoefel F. W. Helmick
Newhall & Evans San Francisco U\xs\c Co.
Matthias Gray Truax & Baldwin
The printed Ditson catalogs of 1 890, which culmi- nated the period of expansion, list 100,000 titles, classi- fied as follows: Vocal music, 45,000; Octavo music, 4,000; Instrumental music, 48,000; Books, 3,000.
Forty years later the printed Ditson catalogs of 1 930 included, in round numbers, 20,000 titles. In con- sidering this deflation it should be remembered that the catalogs of 1890 frankly stated that many of the titles were listed for completeness sake, were no longer active, and some of the numbers could not be supplied; moreover, the bulk of this great catalog included the accretions due to the purchase of many other catalogs. Fashions in music change, and after a few initial years of activity many numbers drop into desuetude. The catalogs of 1930 are therefore made up chiefly of new and active material, for the silent process of elimination of inactive publications is as continuous as the constant adding of new numbers. Moreover, the period 1897-
[75]
1920 was one of rehabilitation, when thousands of plates were re-engraved and old editions were super- ceded or discarded. The 20,000 titles listed in the Dit- son catalogs of 1 930 may be classified as follows: Vocal music, 3,450; Octavo, choir, and choral music, 6,800; Instrumental music, 7,180; and Books, 2,570.
On December 21,1888, Oliver Ditson passed away at the ripe age of seventy- seven. He had been not only a great music-pub- lisher, but for twenty years President of the Conti- nental Bank, director in various institutions, a con- stant though unostenta- tious promotor of good works in others, and the Oliver Ditson
quiet helper of many a struggling musician. On Sun- day afternoon, December 23, he was buried from Trinity Church, the Rev. Phillips Brooks officiating. Mr. J. C. D. Parker, the son of his early employer, presided at the organ. The surviving partners, John C. Haynes, Charles H. Ditson, and the executors of Oliver Ditson's estate then organized the corpora- tion, Oliver Ditson Company, with Mr. Haynes as President.
In 1 89 1, larger quarters being needed, the extensive
[76]
45 3 "4^3 Washington Street
property at 453-463 Wash- ington Street, known as the Dexter Building, was leased and occupied until 1901.
Mr. Charles H. Ditson having erected a modern ten-story building at 451 Washington Street, on the site of the five-story building erected by his father in 1857 for Oliver Ditson & Co., the business was in 1901 moved into it. Changing conditions and the necessity of still larger quarters caused the re- moval on January 25, 1904, to the new building con- structed for its special needs at 1 50 Tremont Street,
facing Boston Common. Upon the death May 3 , 1 9 o 7 , of Mr. John C. Haynes, after sixty- two years' connection with the house, the Presidency of the cor- poration and the di- rection of
[77]
45 1 y Washington St.
John C. Haynes
its great interests devolved naturally and fittingly upon the son of the founder, Mr. Charles Healy Ditson.
The eight-story building at 150 Tremont Street, prov- ing too cramped, Mr. Ditson erected a larger and thor- oughly modern ten-story building at 1 78-1 79 Tremont
150 Tremont Street
178-179 Tremont Street
Street, into which the busi- ness was moved in September, 1917.
On May 14, 1929, Mr. Charles H. Ditson passed on at the ripe age of eighty-four. He had been active in music- publishing for sixty-four years and a resident of New York City for sixty-two years, first as head of Chas. H. Ditson & Co. from its inception, and President of the Oliver Ditson Company for twenty -two years. Of unremitting activ- ity, unostentatious generosity,.
[78}
j ever seeking to avoid pub- licity, it was not disclosed until his will had been made public that he had bequeathed $800,000 to the cause of music educa- tion, giving $100,000 each to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia Universities, and a similar sum to the New England Conservatory of Music Charles Heaiy Ditson and other institutions.
In May, 1929, Mr. H. Hobart Porter of New York City succeeded to the presidency, and on February 2, 1 9 3 1 , the publishing business and the great Ditson cat- alog were purchased by the Theodore Presser Com- pany of Philadelphia, which in 1930 had purchased the John Church Company of Cincinnati, a house es- tablished in 1 860 by Oliver Ditson. Rooted in Boston, linked to its traditions and nationally known as a Bos- ton institution, the new directors wisely voted to pre- serve the autonomy of the Ditson Company and to con- tinue unchanged its established publishing policy and business methods.
Between the death of Oliver Ditson in 1888 and January 1, 1897, the publishing policy of the house continued along its accustomed lines, but realizing the need for a more clearly-defined and more progressive
[79]
policy, Mr. John C. Haynes, then President, brought to this task a young man who combined business ex- perience with trained musicianship and high ideals. His task was to raise the level and improve the quality of the publications, and to eliminate that which was below standard. Not only was the output greatly re- duced, out-dated publications withdrawn from the catalog, and standard works edited and re-engraved, but a notable series of educational works was initiated. Thus, without revolution but by a steady and gradual evolution, the catalog was remade and a high standard of publication firmly established. In 1897 the impor- tant series of pedagogic books, The zMusic Students J^jbrary, was begun and now includes over forty text- books.
The most notable of these various series of books is The <Musicians JPjbrary, begun in 1903. This unique series of nearly one hundred volumes was planned to include the masterpieces of song and piano music in volumes beautiful in engraving, typography, illustra- tion, printing, and binding, each book edited by a man of the highest authority in America or Europe. This truly notable series was made possible by the enthusi- astic and generous support of Mr. Charles H. Ditson. In 191 2 the upspringing of class-teaching of the violin and other instruments in our public schools gave rise to the pioneer series of <JWitche//'s Class ^Methods. In 1915a series of song-anthologies was begun, edited, not by critics, but by such famous singers as Calve,
[80]
Culp, Farrar, Gerhardt, Gluck, and Sembrich from their own repertoire.
In 1 91 8 the movement for granting credit to high- school students for the outside study of music made necessary a standard text that combined with piano study the correlative studies that make for musician- ship. Under the joint editorship of three educators of national reputation The zJkCusic Students Piano Course was issued in twenty books.
To the rapid expansion of the school-orchestra movement is due the 'Philharmonic Orchestra Series, the pioneer series to provide the conductor with a com- plete score for each number. This series, begun in 1 92 1, now contains over fifty numbers of genuine musical worth.
In 1924 the publication of the first correlated series of books on music appreciation was begun under the title, A Study Course in zM~usic Under standing. Although these five books by such able specialists as Gehrkens, Goetschius, Hamilton, Kelley, and Mason were writ- ten to fit the needs of the general reader and the National Federation of Music Clubs, they are widely used as text-books.
The demand for fully-scored band-music of a high type led in 1926 to the Symphonic Band Series. An im- portant educational series that has no duplicate is the ^Analytic Symphony Series, begun in 1927 under the scholarly editorship of Dr. Percy Goetschius. Nearly forty of the great symphonies have already been issued
[81]
in meticulously edited two-hand piano scores with analytical and critical notes on the structure, orches- tration, and place of the work in the composer's cre- ative development. A series of compact, low-priced original books of distinct educational value was begun in 1927 as The docket <Music Student. Fifteen of these books have already been issued. Enough has been said to indicate the distinctly educational character of the Ditson publishing policy, which has in no way been changed by the new ownership.
Tremont Street from West Street to Boylston Street, March, 191 8
£8*]
From Bonner's Map of Boston, 1722
(The arrow points to the site of the Hay-Market Theatre)
CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLIVE<B^<DITSO^jCOMPANY
1783 Ebenezer Battelle opens the Boston Book-Store at 8 State Street.
1785 Benjamin Guild purchases Battelle' s music and circulating library.
1786 Guild moves to 59 Cornhill (Washington Street).
1792 Guild dies and William Pinson Blake continues the business.
1796 William Pelham succeeds Blake at 59 Cornhill.
1804 William Blagrove takes Pelham 's business at 5 School Street.
1808 Blagrove moves to 61 Cornhill (Washington Street).
1809 Blagrove moves to 3 School Street.
1811 Samuel H. Parker succeeds Blagrove at 3 School Street.
1811 Oliver Ditson born in Boston on October 20.
1815 Parker moves to 4 Cornhill (Washington Street).
1818 Parker moves to 12 Cornhill (Washington Street).
1823 Oliver Ditson enters the employ of Colonel S. H. Parker.
1825 Parker moves to 164 Washington Street.
1826 Oliver Ditson becomes an apprentice to Isaac R. Butts.
1833 Fire destroys Parker's store, November 1.
1834 Parker reopens in January at 10 School Street. 1834 Parker moves in April to 141 Washington Street.
1834 Parker moves in December to 107 Washington Street.
1835 Oliver Ditson begins to publish and copyright
music at 107 Washington Street.
1836 Firm of Parker & Ditson formed on April 5.
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1857-1877
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1838 1842 1844 1845 1857 1857 1858 1860 1864 1867 1875 1877 1881
1889 1891 1901 1904 1907 1907 1917
1929 1929 1931
1931
Parker & Ditson move to 135 Washington Street.
Oliver Ditson acquires the interests of Samuel H. Parker.
Oliver Ditson moves to 115 Washington Street.
John C. Haynes enters the employ of Oliver Ditson.
Oliver Ditson & Co. formed by admitting John C. Haynes.
Mr. Ditson erects building at 277 (now 451) Washington Street.
Oliver Ditson Sc Co. take over Dwight's Journal of Music.
Mr. Ditson establishes John Church in Cincinnati.
Mr. Ditson establishes Lyon & Healy in Chicago.
Chas. H. Ditson & Co. established in New York.
J. E. Ditson & Co. established in Philadelphia.
Store at 449 Washington Street taken as an addition to No. 451.
Death of James Edward Ditson.
Death of Oliver Ditson, December 21.
Oliver Ditson Company incorporated, John C. Haynes, Pres.
Removal to 453-463 Washington Street.
Removal to new ten-story building at 451 Washington Street.
Removal to new and larger building at 150 Tremont Street.
Death of John C. Haynes.
Charles H. Ditson, President.
Removal to new building at 178-179 Tremont Street.
Death of Charles H. Ditson.
H. Hobart Porter, President.
Purchase by Theodore Presser Company.
Removal to 359 Boylston St.
1877-1891
1891-1901
1901-1904
1904-1917
[85]
THE 19™ CENTURY & AFTER
PHILADELPHIA PUBLISHERS
Of the eighteenth century publishers who carried on into the nineteenth, John Aitken lasted a few years at 76 North Second Street, and Ralph Shaw at 1 3 South Fourth Street is listed in the directory of 1803 and then disappears. The pioneer Benjamin Carr seems to have soon given up his music-shop and confined his activities to teaching, conducting, organ-playing, and composition. As Carr & Schetky he issued from time to time a <Musical "Journal consisting of music by Braham, Cimarosa, Hook, Pleyel, Shield, Carr him- self, and others. For years Carr was the chief figure in Philadelphia's musical life and was one of the founders of the Musical Fund Society in 1 820, and one of the choral conductors at its first concert, April 24, 1 82 1. He conducted the first performances in Phila- delphia of portions of the zJXCessiah and the Creation. Held in the highest esteem he passed on May 24, 1 83 1, at the age of sixty-two.
The only eighteenth century Philadelphia publisher linked to the present day is George Willig. Born in 1 764, he settled in Philadelphia about 1 793 and opened his Musical Magazine at 163 North Third Street in November, 1794. In 1 800 he was located at 1 85 High Street; from 1805 to 1816 he was at 12, then at 24
O]
South Fourth Street; and from 1817 he was at 171 Chestnut Street, and in 1854 at 518 Chestnut Street, until his catalog was taken over by Lee & Walker in 1856. In 1845 Julius Walker conducted a "library" at 1 20 Walnut Street, and in that year took into part- nership George W. Lee and added music to his stock of books. Soon music predominated and in 1849, at Chestnut Street below Seventh Street, they added mu- sical instruments to their stock and published music. In 1856 the firm, which now included William W. Walker, took over the catalog of Philadelphia's old- est music-publisher, George Willig, and continued at shifting Chestnut Street addresses until 1875 when the Lee & Walker catalog was purchased by Oliver Ditson & Co. of Boston. By this purchase the Philadelphia Willig of 1 793 was linked to the successor of the Bat- telle of Boston of 1783. This led to the establishment in 1 875 of J. E. Ditson & Co. at the old Lee & Walker address, 922 Chestnut Street. In 1881 the new house moved to 1228 Chestnut Street and in 1905 to No. 1632, where it remained until 1910 when this branch of the Boston house was discontinued.
Of the other Philadelphia publishers in the first half of the nineteenth century George E. Blake was impor- tant. Beginning late in 1803., or early in 1 804, at 1 South Third Street, from 1 8 14 to 1 840 he was located at 1 3 South Fifth Street, going thence to 25 South Fifth Street, where he remained until 1 871. Other publish- ers of this period were Allyn Bacon who, as A. Bacon
[87]
at 1 1 South Fourth Street in 1814, as Allyn Bacon & Co., again as A. Bacon, and in 1819 as Bacon & Hart, continued at the same address. In 1833 tne &Tm De~ came Bacon, Weygand & Co., and soon after they were absorbed by the older firm of Klemm & Bro. at 273 Market Street. It was in October, 1 8 1 8, that J. G. Klemm & Bro. began as "instrument and music-sell- ers" at 1 North Fourth Street. At various addresses this firm was active as dealers and publishers until 1880.
Of mid-century publishers are G. Andre & Co. of 19 South Ninth Street, then at 1 104 Chestnut Street and at No. 1228 from 1 8 5 1 until 1879, when the cata- log was bought by Oliver Ditson & Co. Francis A. North was a member of this firm until late in 1870, or early in 1 871 , when he established his own business at 654 North Eleventh Street. As F. A. North & Co. at 1026 Chestnut Street he absorbed, in 1872, the music and publishing business of Charles W. A. Trump- ler, a firm that started in 1865 at 632 Chestnut Street, going later to No. 926. North & Co. continued until 1890 at 1308 Chestnut Street, when the combined North and Trumpler catalogs were purchased by Oliver Ditson & Co.
Augustus Fiot of 264 High Street in 1834 com- bined with Leopold Meignen, the musician, in 1835 as Fiot, Meignen & Co. at 264 High Street. In 1837 they moved to 217 Chestnut Street, but from 1 843 to 1855 Fiot conducted the business alone at 196 Chest- nut Street. He was succeeded in 1855 by J. E. Gould
[88]
& Co. at 1 64 Chestnut Street, Mr. John E. Gould hav- ing been a music-publisher in New York at 297 Broad- way (1851-1853). They, in turn, were followed late in 1 856, or early in 1 857, by James M. Beck and Den- nis Lawton as Beck & Lawton. This firm lasted until 1863, when it became J. W. Lawton & Co. at 19 South Eighth Street and then disappeared. Later the Fiot catalog was purchased by Oliver Ditson & Co. W. H. Boner & Co. were at 1 102, 1 314, and 141 9 Chestnut Street for the thirty-five years, 1 865-1 900.
Mention should be made of a modest man whose un- usual name, Septimus Winner, became widely known as the publisher of vocal numbers issued over his pen- name, Alice Hawthorne. Three of these: J^isten to the Mocking Bird, Whispering Hope, and What is Home with- out a zJxCother? had an enormous circulation; and his series of compact, inexpensive, and popular methods for all the instruments, known as Winner's Eureka ^Methods, have given millions of beginners their first introduction to instrumental music. With his brother Joseph Winner he opened a music-shop at 348 North Third Street in 1845. ^n Y^55 **■ became Winner & Shuster at 1 1 o North Eighth Street, but in a few years Mr. Winner was again sole proprietor until in 1871, with his son J. Gibson Winner as partner, the firm name became Septimus Winner & Son. In 1885 they were at 545 North Eighth Street and in 1 887, or early in 1888, the catalog was purchased by Oliver Ditson & Co. and the Winner firm ceased to exist.
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This brief summary clearly indicates the precanous- ness of music-publishing of the miscellaneous type — a ceaseless issue of music of the style in vogue at the hour, but without a clearly outlined policy or a definite focal point. In the post-bellum period when war-songs were out of date and New York was becoming more and more the publishing center, there was obviously a lull in music-publishing in Philadelphia, and little did a tall, lank boy in a Pittsburgh music-store dream that some day he would own the largest music establish- ment in the Quaker city and that his name would be known in every city, town, and hamlet where music is taught. His musical bent led the eager youth in 1 872 to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and in 1 878 to the Leipzig Conservatory, in those days the Mecca of all ambitious students. Young Presser on his return taught music in several Ohio colleges and later at Hollins Institute in Virginia.
It was in 1 8 8 3 at Lynch- burg, Va., that Theodore Presser with $250 in cash and an intangible million in energy, pluck, and am- bition started The Etude. In 1 876 he had been the lead- er in founding the Music Teachers National Associ- ation and felt that if it was to expand it must have a
Theodore Presser
[90]
journal; he also saw the great need of music-teachers everywhere for plain, practical guidance and helpful stimulus. So in October, 1883, he left Lynchburg for Philadelphia and in June, 1884, opened an office at 1004 Walnut Street. In those days of struggle as edi- tor, owner, and publisher of this paper he was buoyed up by the hope that he would some day attain a monthly circulation of 5,000 copies — expecting to return to teaching when the magazine was established. In order to carry out his plans for the magazine he needed music for its pages — not music already pub- lished, but something new that would meet at once the need of the teachers he wanted to help. This need compelled him to secure and publish music, first in his beloved Etude and afterwards separately, but with Mr. Presser the magazine came first, the rest followed. The periodical was the pivotal center about which in ever widening circles the rest of the business revolved.
Nobody had ever worked in this way before. Musi- cal magazines had come and gone, most of them as house-organs for publishers where the music-publish- ing came first, and the magazine second, as an adjunct or prop to the business. With Mr. Presser, The Etude was the business itself, the music-publishing but the outcome of the magazine. Theodore Presser's unique and significant position in the music-life of America is due to his loyalty to his own vision worked out on individual lines.
He never forgot the struggling small-town music-
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teacher, his magazine carried her a message, and when she wanted music he made it easy for her to get it. He trusted her, he gave her long credit and low prices. Look at the result of this policy today with a maga- zine that in circulation far excels the combined distri- bution of all other music periodicals everywhere, while the Presser yearly output of new publications of music and music-books has been greater in volume than that of any other publisher in the world.
That potential million in pluck and energy naturally and logically expanded into a large fortune, which Mr. Presser decided to dedicate to the assistance of those who had devoted their lives to music and to the ad- vancement of the art. The first manifestation of this was the Home for Retired zJxCusic-Teachers now at Ger- mantown, where it occupies a property valued at one- half million dollars. This was founded in 1906. In 1 91 6 he decided to consolidate his other private phi- lanthropies and founded The dresser Foundation, which now embraces four major departments: I. The Presser Home. II. Department of Relief for Deserving Musicians. III. Department of Music Scholarships at Colleges. Through this department over five thousand students have already been assisted in securing musical educations. The Foundation makes grants only to col- leges which in turn have full power to select eligible students. Over two hundred colleges have these schol- arships, each amounting to $250. IV. The Depart- ment of Music Buildings at Colleges, which has helped
[92]
many colleges in the erection of suitable music buildings.
In 1886 The Etude and the music-publishing busi- ness (Theodore Presser) were moved to Chestnut Street above Seventeenth, where at Nos. 1712-1714 they now occupy a considerable portion of that block in the heart of Philadelphia.
In October, 1925, Theodore Presser passed on and James Francis Cooke, editor of The Etude and presi- dent of the Presser Foundation, became president of the company. In April, 1930, the Presser Company enriched their catalog by the purchase of the John Church Company of Cincinnati, a house established in i860 by Oliver Ditson. In February, 1 93 1, the great catalog of Oliver Ditson Company of Boston was pur- chased from the trustees of the estate of the late Charles H. Ditson. The addition of these two important prop- erties, added to their already extensive catalog, makes the Theodore Presser Company the owner of the larg- est music-publishing combination in the United States.
BALTIMORE PUBLISHERS
Baltimore's pioneer publisher, Joseph Carr, who opened his Musical Repository in 1 794, carried on into the nineteenth century, and his successors were active throughout the century.
From 1800 to 1805 Joseph Carr had charge of the music at Old St. Paul's Parish in Baltimore, while his son Thomas was organist of Christ Church from 1798
[93]
to 1 8 1 1 inclusive. To this son, Joseph conveyed the ownership of his music-store and publishing house in September, 1 8 19, dying a month later in his eightieth year. In 1822 Thomas Carr apparently gave up the business or sold it to George Willig, the Philadelphia publisher, who set up a music-store at 71 Baltimore Street in 1823. Thomas Carr then moved to Phila- delphia where he is listed as "professor and vender of music" to 1837, and then as "professor of music" to the year of his death, 1849.
In 1829 the Willig firm is listed as George Willig, Jr., at 74 Baltimore Street. Evidently Mr. Willig senior, being fully occupied by his Philadelphia business, put the Baltimore establishment into the hands of his Philadelphia-born son, George, Jr. In 1 8 3 1 the busi- ness moved to 149 Baltimore Street, removing to No. 197 in 1845, and to No. 1 North Charles Street in 1858. In 1868 Mr. Willig's sons Henry and Joseph E. Willig were added to the firm, which then became George Willig & Co. The father died December 10, 1874, and the sons carried on the business until 19 10, when it was taken over by the G. Fred Kranz Music Company at 327 North Charles Street.
One of the earliest music-publishers in Baltimore was John Cole, born in Tewksbury, England, in 1 774. He came to Baltimore in 1786 as a boy of twelve, and not only composed and taught music but learned the printer's trade and became a book-seller and then a music-publisher. He began to publish music some time
[94]
prior to 1808. In 1835 he associated his son George T. Cole with him as John Cole & Son at 137 Balti- more Street, and in May, 1839, they were succeeded by Frederick D. Benteen. William C. Miller was taken into partnership in 1 8 5 3 , or earlier, and the firm became Benteen & Co. at 181 Baltimore Street. In 1855, or 1856, Joseph R. Beacham entered the firm, which then became Miller & Beacham. Mr. Beacham dis- appears from the directory after 1863. In 1 872, or soon after, their catalog together with that of Benteen & Co. and whatever was left of the Cole catalog was taken over by Oliver Ditson & Co. of Boston, thus linking this historic house to the first decade of the nineteenth century in Baltimore's story of music-publishing. In 1 847 Henry C. McCaffrey, who had been clerk in a music-store, set up in business for himself. In 1853 he was located at 189 Baltimore Street. From 1858 to 1878 he was located at 209 Baltimore Street, moving in 1879 to 7 North Charles Street. Here, and then at No. 9, he continued until 1895, when he turned over his catalog to Oliver Ditson & Co.
NEW YORK PUBLISHERS
The three eighteenth century publishers who car- ried on in the nineteenth century have been mentioned in an earlier chapter: George Gilfert, the violin player, whose Musical Magazine at 1 jy Broadway and in 1 804 at 1 3 Maiden Lane, continued until 1814; John PafF who was active at shifting addresses on Broadway,
[95]
Maiden Lane, and Park Street until 1 8 1 7, when his music-store was located at 18 Wall Street; and James Hewitt, violinist, composer, conductor, concert-man- ager, and publisher, whose shop was at 59 Maiden Lane in 1 8 1 1 . His talents as a musician and fine social stand- ing gave him pre-eminence. His name disappears from the directories 1 8 1 2-1 8 1 7, but reappears in 1 8 1 8 and 1819 merely as "musician." Evidently the senior Hewitt went out of business late in 181 1, or early in 1812, but his son, as James L. Hewitt & Co., who in 1 825-1 829 was a Boston publisher, opened a music- store in 1830 and published music at 137 Broadway. James Hewitt the elder died in Boston in 1827. In 1839-1841 as Hewitt & Jaques they were at 239 Broadway, but from 1842 until 1847 as James L. Hewitt & Co., and in 1 844 as James L. Hewitt, they were at various Broadway addresses. The name disap- pears from the directory after 1 847.
These early publishers reprinted the most popular songs and piano pieces from London, mostly songs; and now and then the work of a local musician. The en- graving was crude and the music hand-printed without title-page or date. Although national copyright was enacted in 1790, and in 1802 the notice of copyright was required, the custom of printing the date did not follow until well into the nineteenth century. In his research the writer came across a song by Gilfert, For then I had not learned to love, published by E. Riley, New York, bearing the notice: "Copyrighted June 1 5,
[96]
in the thirty-eighth year of the independence of the United States of America," in other words 1814.
A few titles will indicate the type of music in vogue in this sentimental period: ^Arabella the Caledonian zJtCaid, The Contented Cottager (composers not men- tioned, as was often the case) and Shields' song, J^ovely Jane, issued by Gilfert; Pucitta's Strike the Cymbal and Cope's song, zJxtark the busy insect playing, issued by Paff; Arne's The Soldier tired, Davy's Crazy Jane (both favorites), Kelly's zAhl what is the bosom s commotion, and Hewitt's own thrilling song, Five chiefs of renown by his hatchet lay dead, published by Hewitt.
One of the earliest organ-builders in New York was John Geib, who is listed as such in 1798, and as John Geib & Co. in 1 800. He was son of the London piano- maker of the same name. Adam, his brother, a music- teacher, and his own son William became associated with him later, for in 1 8 1 6 John and Adam Geib & Co. had a music-store and sold pianos at 23 Maiden Lane where they also published music. This firm with some changes continued at this address until 1843, anc^ with various moves existed until 1872; though from 1842 their chief if not sole business was as piano- makers and dealers. The fact that a portion of the pub- lishing catalog of Geib & Walker (1 829-1 843) was absorbed by the house of S. T. Gordon links this early firm to the present day.
Mention must be made of Edward Riley, the music- teacher and engraver, who first appears in the directory
[97]
of 1 806. Whether he was the Edward Riley who from 1799 to 1802 published and engraved music in Lon- don is probable though not definitely known; but his name appears as engraver on much music of the period, and Riley & Adams were copper-plate printers at 23 and also 29 Chatham Street, while E. Riley from 1 8 14 to 1 83 1 was a music-publisher at the same address. In 1832 his widow Elizabeth carried on the music-store at 29 Chatham Street, followed by the sons Edward C. and Frederick, who continued the business until 1 85 1 when they were succeeded by J. E. Gould & Co., then by Gould & Berry, who in 1854 were absorbed by Berry & Gordon (Thomas S. Berry and Stephen T. Gordon) at 297 Broadway. (Mr. Gordon's further career is given on page 102.)
Another pioneer publisher was the French clarinet- tist, singer, and composer, William Dubois, who came to this country about 1795. He opened a music-store at 3 3 White Street according to the directory of 1 8 1 3, and on Broadway as Dubois & Stodart (1 822-1 834), Dubois & Bacon (1 835-183/8), then alone (1839- 1849), Dubois & Warriner (1 850-1 852), and again by himself until 1854.
A pioneer house linked to present-day activities is that of John Firth, born in England in 1789, who came to New York and from 1815 to 1820 made and dealt in musical instruments. In the latter year with William Hall as partner they published music under the name of Firth & Hall at 362 Pearl Street. In
[98]
1832 Sylvanus B. Pond, who in 1820 had formed in Albany, N. Y., the firm of Meacham & Pond, moved to New York at the invitation of Firth & Hall, and in the latter part of the year the firm of Firth, Hall & Pond was established at No. 1 Franklin Square in a house formerly occupied by General Washington. In 1848 General Hall withdrew to form the firm of William Hall & Son at 239 Broadway, which moved in 1859 to No. 543 and in 1871 to No. 751 Broad- way, until in 1875 tneir catalog was purchased by Oliver Ditson & Co. of Boston.
Meanwhile Firth, Pond & Co. continued at No. 1 Franklin Square, and in 1850 S. B. Pond retired, turning over his interests to his son William A. Pond. In 1856 the firm moved to 547 Broadway. In January, 1863, John Firth withdrew and as Firth, Son & Co. published music at 563 Broadway until 1866 when as Thaddeus Firth the business ceased. Part of the cata- log of Firth, Pond & Co. was taken over by S. T. Gordon, but the music-plates and stock of Firth, Son & Co. were purchased on March 4, 1867, by Oliver Ditson & Co. of Boston. This led Mr. Ditson to send his eldest son Charles to New York to open at 563 Broadway a branch house under the name of Chas. H. Ditson & Co. The old Firth quarters proving inade- quate they moved in a few months to 7 1 1 Broadway, and in 1878 to 843 Broadway, for the purchase of the business of William Hall & Son in 1875 and that of J. L. Peters in 1877 again necessitated larger quar-
[99 1
ters. From 1883 Chas. H. Ditson & Co. were at 867 Broadway until Mr. C. H. Ditson erected the new Ditson building at 8- 10- 12 East Thirty-fourth Street, into which the firm moved in 1907, where it re- mained until February, 1 93 1, when, after the death of Mr. Ditson, the Oliver Ditson Company was pur- chased by the Theodore Presser Company.
On January 31, 1863, after dissolving the firm of Firth, Pond & Co., William A. Pond with John Mayell as partner formed the firm of William A. Pond & Co., which continued at the old location, 547 Broadway, until 1877 when they moved to 25 Union Square where the business grew and prospered. It was in 1843 that organized negro minstrelsy came into existence and grew rapidly into popularity. Edwin T. Christy with his famous troupe was the man who more than any other stereotyped the minstrel show. His minstrels and many similar companies carried the songs they made popular all over the land, and Pond & Co. were among the first to publish them.
When Stephen Foster be^an to write his unique songs Colonel Pond made a five-year contract with him that proved so satisfactory to both that it was renewed three times in succession. Foster's much loved song, Old Folks at Home, sold in one month over 100,000 copies, something never before heard of. The house of William A. Pond & Co. moved in 1896 to 124 Fifth Avenue, in 1898 to 148 Fifth Avenue, and in 1909 to 18 West Thirty-seventh Street, where the business is
[100]
at present conducted by Mr. G. Warren Pond, son of William A. Pond.
Of John Appel (i 812-18 15); Joseph F. Atwill (1 833-1 850); Thomas Birch, music-engraver and printer as well as publisher (1 820-1 842); Charles E. Horn, known today as the composer of the charming song, I'd be a butterfly, (183 9- 1843); Edward I. Jaques and his brothers James M. and John D. (1 839-1 857); William E. Millet and his sons (1 835-1 879); Horace Waters, Joseph Willson ( 1 8 1 5- 1 8 2 1 ), and William C. Peters, mention should be made.
The publishers of the period 18 20- 1840 reprinted the songs of the composers then popular — Bishop, Horn, Cooke, Alexander Lee, John Barnett, Samuel Lover, and Henry Russell, whose descriptive ballads, The zJtfaniac, The Ship on Fire, and The Cjamblers Wife were being sung with melodramatic fervor in fashion- able drawing-rooms.
It was in 18 19 that Rossini's ^Barber of Seville was sung in English in New York; in 1823 Mozart's ^(Car- riage of Figaro was also given in English, and Weber's T)er Freischiltz in 1825. It was in this same year that Garcia's opera company, including the great Malibran, introduced Italian opera to New York in a series of seventy-nine performances.
From this date on began the zest for operatic airs, transcriptions, and fantasias which gradually replaced the simpler "airs with variations" of the preceding period, and the simpler songs from English ballad-
[101]
operas. The years from 1 820 to 1 840 also saw consid- erable development in the manufacture of pianos and organs, an evidence of the constant growth in musical activity.
A New Hampshire boy of musical bent, Stephen T. Gordon, born in Exeter, September 22, 1 820, went to Boston at the time when Lowell Mason was its domi- nant figure. Through Mason's aid and friendly advice he went to Hartford, Conn., where he was further en- couraged by Dudley Buck. In 1 846 young Gordon started publishing music in New York. In 1854 with the financial co-operation of Oliver Ditson and the partnership of J. E. Gould and T. S. Berry, whose busi- ness as Gould & Berry was merged with his, S. T. Gor- don & Co. moved to the corner of Broadway and Spring Street. In May, 1855, Gordon bought out his part- ners, at the same time purchasing the catalog of Rus- sel & Tolman of Boston. By 1861 S. T. Gordon, then at 706 Broadway, had absorbed the catalogs of twenty- four publishers. In 1876 Mr. Gordon took his son Hamilton S. into partnership under the name of S. T. Gordon & Son. After the death of the senior Gordon in December, 1890, the business was continued by Hamilton S. Gordon, and since his death in June, 1 9 1 4, the business has been carried onati4i-i45 West Thirty-sixth Street, by the three grandsons of its founder — Leslie, Hamilton A., and Herbert Gordon, Among the widely known publications of the house are the songs, Silver threads among the gold, by H. P.
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Danks, Under the daisies, by Harrison Millard, and some of the latter's popular masses.
In 1 844 Scharfenberg & Luis opened a music-store at 361 Broadway, specializing in foreign music and doing some publishing. They continued in business un- til 1 866, by which time they had in the upward trend reached No. 758 Broadway. They are mentioned because they took into their employ a young man who was destined to become a great national figure in music publishing — Gustav Schirmer. Born in Konigsee, Saxony, September 19, 1829, the son of a piano-maker, he came to New York a boy of ten in 1840. In 1854 he be- came manager for Kerksieg & Breusing, a house estab- lished in 1848 at 421 Broadway. At about this same date Mr. Evich Kerksieg seems to have withdrawn, for the business was carried on alone by Charles Breus- ing until 1 86 1 when it was bought out by Gustav Schirmer and B. Beer, who for five years carried on the business as Beer & Schirmer at 701 Broadway.
In 1866 Mr. Schirmer obtained complete control and as G. Schirmer continued the business at the same address until his constant expansion compelled him to erect in 1880 the building at 35 Union Square. Here the ever increasing business continued for nearly thirty
[io3]
Gustan: Schirmer
years. Finally, having again outgrown its quarters and following the general uptown trend of New York's retail trade, the firm erected in 1909 the seven-story fireproof building at No. 3 East Forty-third Street it occupies today.
In was in 1885 that Mr. Schirmer's two sons Gus- tave, Jr. (1864- 1907) and Rudolph E. (1 859-1919) became partners in the business, making it one of the great music-houses of the world.
The founder of the house dying on August 6, 1893, the business was incorporated as G. Schirmer, Inc., with the senior son Rudolph as president, a position he maintained until his death, August 20, 1919. His nephew Gustave Schirmer, 3d, succeeded him until, upon his resignation, April 27, 1 92 1 , Mr. W. Rodman Fay was elected president, and Mr. Oscar G. Sonneck, musicologist, critic, and editor was made vice-presi- dent, a position he held until his death, October 30, 1928. Mr. Carl Engel became president on May 7, 1929; an office he relinquished in 1932 in order to resume his important duties as chief of the music divi- sion of the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C. His successor Mr. Hermann Irion took office January
*> J933-
The name of the Saxon boy who arrived in New
York on the ship, Antoleon, October 8, 1 840, has now
for many years been stamped on music of quality, for
it was his aim and the aim of those who followed
him to keep pace with the ever increasing demand for
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the best in music, issued in a style befitting its worth.
Mention should be made of the establishment in 1 9 1 5 of The ^Musical Quarterly under the editorship of Mr. O. G. Sonneck. This unique and idealistic mag- azine of high quality and international scope treats musical topics in scholarly fashion from an historical and critical basis. Upon the death of Mr. Sonneck, October 30, 1928, the editorship was put into the able hands of Mr. Carl Engel, composer, musicologist, and litterateur.
In 1 892 two energetic and experienced music-clerks George Belder and George C. Luckhardt joined their forces and, as Luckhardt & Belder, opened a music- shop at 10 East Sixteenth Street and began to pub- lish music. In 1 9 1 3 Mr. Belder passed on, and on May 23, 1925, the catalog was purchased by the young pub- lishing firm of Harold Flammer, Inc., which had been established on June 6, 191 7. Mr. Flammer's fast- growing catalog was taken over as a distinct unit by G. Schirmer, Inc. on November 1, 1929, and on the same day Mr. Flammer became vice-president and business manager of G. Schirmer, Inc.
In 1872 Carl Fischer, a vigorous young Saxon of twenty-three, trained in the manufacture and sale of musical instruments, came to New York and immedi- ately engaged in the music-business at 79 East Fourth Street. As he was a performer on the violin, double- bass, French horn, and bassoon he at first supplemented the earnings of his then modest business by professional
[■05]
engagements. His sale of band and orchestral instru- ments led him at once to publish music for them and, from the beginning, these two departments have grown to- gether to their present great pro- portions. His first publication was an arrangement of a Strauss waltz for orchestra, for he had discovered the great lack of properly arranged orchestra music especially for small instru- mental combinations. Among the very first issues for military Carl Fischer
band was the Turkish Patrol, by Michaelis, and an arrangement of the 'Poet and Peasant overture by Suppe. In 1878 the business was moved to 386 Bowery, in 1880 to 26 Fourth Avenue, and in 1882 the need of still larger quarters caused the removal to Cooper Square.
The strength of the catalog' in band and orchestra music led Carl Fischer to establish in 1 885, T he zJXCetro- nome, a journal devoted to the interests of this expand- ing field. From band and orchestra music Carl Fischer gradually widened the scope of his publications to cover every department of musical activity. This led to the establishment, January, 1 907, of The^JYCusical Observer, a monthly magazine for teachers, students, and lovers of music. In 1922 the fiftieth anniversary of the found- ing of the house was celebrated and on February 1 4,
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1923, its founder, born December 7, 1849, passed on. His son Walter S. Fischer, long associated with his father in the management of the business, succeeded him as head of the house. The cramped quarters of the building on Cooper Square, occupied with additions since 1882, led to the erection of a large twelve-story building next door, into which the house moved in September, 1923. In October, 1930, the firm took over the American representation of the music publi- cations of the Oxford University Press.
It was in 1 864 that a young schoolmaster and musi- cian, Joseph Fischer, established in Dayton, Ohio, the firm of J. Fischer & Bro. His experience as an organ- ist, together with his devoutness, interested him natu- rally in music for the Catholic church, and it was the offer of the position as organist at the church of the Most Holy Redeemer in 1 876 which brought him and his then modest publishing-business to New York. His ardor for church music led him to specialize in this branch, particularly in music for the Catholic services. In 1 876 the firm was located at 226 East Fourth Street. In 1884 J. Fischer & Bro. moved to the Bible House, Astor Place. On the death of Mr. Joseph Fischer in 1 90 1 the business was continued by his two sons, George and Carl T., and in 1906 the present corpora- tion was formed with George Fischer as president and Carl T. Fischer as secretary-treasurer. In 1925, follow- ing the uptown trend, they moved to 1 1 9 West Fortieth Street. Under their management the house has broad- ly0?]
ened its field, building up an extensive organ catalogs adding an important list of operettas, and progressing more and more into general publishing.
The firm of Schroeder & Gunther, Inc. was founded in i 891 in New York City by John Henry Schroeder. He began business at 1 2 East Sixteenth Street as a com- bination publishing and retail music company under the firm name of J. H. Schroeder. Associated with the business was Mr. John Ferdinand Schroeder, a brother, who fell heir to the business in 1 9 1 6 on the death of Mr. John Henry Schroeder. The original firm name was continued until 1920 when Emil A. Gunther pur- chased a half-interest in the business, whereupon the firm became a partnership under the name of Schroeder & Gunther. In 1921 a son Edwin L. Gunther joined the firm. In 1924 the partnership incorporated under the name of Schroeder & Gunther, Inc., with three stockholders, namely, John F. Schroeder, Emil A. Gunther, and his son Edwin X-. Gunther.
From the beginning this firm has pursued a policy of publishing educational material and in later years specialized almost exclusively in the publication of piano-teaching material. Since 1901 the firm has been located at 6 East Forty-fifth Street.
Born in Brighton, England, in 1 868 Mr. H. Willard Gray came to New York in 1 8 94 as the American agent for the historic London publishers, Novello, Ewer & Co., founded in 181 1. Mr. Gray's headquarters were first at 21 East Seventeenth Street. In 1906 the H. W.
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Gray Company was formed and purchased the American branch of Novello, Ewer & Co. Mr. Gray was elected president of the company, which office he still holds. In 1 9 1 3 the company moved to 2 West Forty-fifth Street, and in 1923 to 159 East Forty- eighth Street, the present offices. In 1901 the firm began the publi- cation of the Church zJxCusic Review, as the official organ of the American Guild of Organists. The name was changed to the New zJWusic Review and Church zJxCusic Review in 1904. In 1922 the Gray Company took over the publication of the American Organ Quarterly. From its inception the house has made, as its specialty, music for the church and has published much choir music by American composers.
Another prominent London publisher, Boosey & Co., Ltd., established their own agency in 1892 at 9 East Seventeenth Street, moving in June, 1925, to Steinway Hall, 113 West Fifty-seventh Street. They have enriched their catalog by publishing quite a num- ber of songs and duets by American composers.
The great Italian music-publishers, G. Ricordi & Co., established in Milan in 1808, opened a branch in New York at 9 East Seventeenth Street in 1897. Two years later, under the management of George Maxwell, they began to publish American composi- tions and have continued to do so ever since. Mr. George Maxwell died in Paris on June 29, 1 93 1, and was suc- ceeded as managing director by Dr. Renato Tasselli, who came to New York from the London branch of
Cio9]
Ricordi & Co. In order that it might more freely de- velop its growing catalog of the works of American composers, the New York branch was converted into a corporation in 1 9 1 1 and the headquarters were moved to 14 East Forty-third Street. In 1932 the establish- ment removed to 1 2 West Forty-fifth Street, where it is now located.
Reference has already been made to the rise of negro minstrelsy in the eighteen-forties. The songs carried over the land by this popular form of entertainment sung by the Christy Minstrels in the early period, and by Harrigan and Hart, and Thatcher, Primrose and West in the closing period, to mention but three of a host of such groups, form part of the history of music- publishing in this country, but when gorgeousness and glitter took the place of negro characterization the min- strel show declined and died. It had degenerated into a musical variety entertainment which in its artificiality lost touch with plantation life.
Its native place was taken by a form of entertain- ment imported from the cafes of Paris and the music- halls of London — the vaudeville — which brought in its train a new type of song and with it the co-called "popular" publisher came into being.
When Julius P. Witmark, then the most popular boy soprano in vaudeville, was filling an eight months' engagement at the Eden Musee on Twenty-third Street, New York, at that time the largest house of its kind in
the country, he "made" the song, Always take a mother's advice. It was published by the Willis Woodward Com- pany, then the biggest factor in minstrel and popular songs. Young Witmark was so dissatisfied with the treatment he received from this concern that he de- termined to start music-publishing with his musical brothers.
So when Julius was twelve and Isidore almost fifteen they set up the type and printed their first music at home. The two boys, assisted by their younger brothers, then sold or tried to sell their music to the stores. The firm name was Witmark Brothers but because as minors they could get no bank account under this name they changed it to M. Witmark & Sons.
The first song they issued was written by Isidore Witmark, Til answer that question tomorrow, published in 1885. A later success, also written by Isidore, was A mother is a mother after all. Julius had made most of his success singing "mother" songs, and as a boy bari- tone in 1886 he continued on this line. Later Julius Witmark made a hit with The picture that's turned to the wall, which he sang for two years in Hoyt's show, A trip to Chinatown. To successful publishing of "popu- lar" music the Witmarks added a type of song midway between the "art-song" and the "popular" song. Known as the "semi-popular" song it is characterized by words of the sentimental or ballad type with music that is simple, singable, and melodious.
Located for many years at 144-146 West Thirty-
seventh Street, in July, 1923, the house of M. Wit- mark & Sons moved to 1650 Broadway. On Janu- ary 1, 1929, the business was purchased by Warner Brothers, but it continues to operate under the origi- nal firm name at 1650 Broadway, with an educational department and stock rooms at 6 1 9 West Fifty-fourth Street. Mr. Julius Witmark died June 14, 1929.
Obviously music-publishers are naturally divided by diverse aims and methods into two distinct types: the so-called "standard publisher" and the "popular pub- lisher." The first group is primarily educational in aim, in that it publishes music and books of pedagogic value, and also music that has no avowed educational purpose, for its raison d'etre is primarily aesthetic, although its sale depends more upon the music-teacher than upon that somewhat nondescript person, "the music-lover." The second group is not at all concerned with music- pedagogy or so-called "art-music," but with music written for no other purpose than entertainment.
The first publishes staple, comparatively slow-going music, the sale of which may cover a long period of years. The second type issues, or seeks to issue, "hits" which are vigorously exploited by every possible means, have an immediate and ephemeral success sometimes running into sales of a million or more, then disappear. This is of course a speculative game with large and quick returns, and also large losses. In the nature of things publishing of this type is linked directly to the stage and, as New York is the stage and vaudeville
[112]
booking and production center of the country, the "Broadway" publisher finds his natural habitat there. Perhaps it was a Chicago critic who first dubbed these publishers "Denizens of Tin-Pan-Alley"; at any rate the name has stuck and the press representative of one of the most successful of them does not hesitate to use it in describing his own firm.
In September, 1897, a young star corset salesman, Leo Feist by name, with a knack for writing catchy airs, having had his efforts at writing a popular song turned down, hired a small room at 1227 Broadway and with a piano and a partner began publishing his own song, T)oes true love ever run smooth?
That one-room office grew into two buildings with branches in all the principal cities. In recent years the publisher of Smoky zJXCokes, Anona, 'Peg d my heart, Qood- bye ^Broadway, Over there, Three 0' clock in the morning, Ramona, zJWy blue Heaven, and many other successes, has also become a factor in the publication of musical comedies such as Irene, Blossom Time, and Rio Rita. Though not generally known, Mr. Feist is the owner of the low-priced Century Edition of standard and "class- ical" music. The present location of Leo Feist, Inc., is at 56 Cooper Square.
Lack of space forbids more than mention here of Irving Berlin, Inc.; T. B. Harms, Inc.; Shapiro, Bern- stein & Co., Inc.; Remick Music Corp.; Robbins Music Corp., and E. B. Marks Music Company.
The story of "Popular Music" in America has its
[>'3]
indisputable place in any complete history of Ameri- can music, for the songs of forty-year old Tin-Pan- Alley record, with a humor that never suffers from over-refinement, or a pathos that is often bathos, the passing moods and modes and noisy trivialities of the seething human mass that nightly surges up the Great White Way. The Alley's strident songs and nervous dance-tunes, its blurbs and ballads and banalities are as evanescent as the encircling smoke in which they are ground out in accordance with constantly chang- ing recipes and anti-routine formulas. In one essen- tial, however, there is no change, for this frankly commercial pursuit involves a ceaseless and eager fol- lowing of the taste of the crowd — the indiscriminate and undiscriminating crowd — an inseparable part of the American scene.
An illuminating essay on the unconscious growth of public taste in its gradual acceptance of harmonic subtlety and rhythmic variety might be based on an analysis of the great popular successes from the plain, even-gaited rhythms and simple harmonies of the songs of the eighteen-sixties to the complicated rhythms, augmented triads, chords of the ninth and secondary sevenths of the present-day vogue.
BOSTON PUBLISHERS
Of the two pioneer publishers, Peter Albrecht von Hagen and Gottlieb Graupner, account has been given in an earlier chapter.
[»4]
Another pioneer, Francis Mallet, singer, organist, and pianist in Boston from 1793 to 1832 was for a time associated with Graupner in his "Conservatorio" and in publishing as Graupner & Mallet. After with- drawing from this connection, Mallet in 1 805-1 807 had his own music-shop in Devonshire Street, where he did some publishing. Judging from what has sur- vived, Graupner's output was more extended than that of his predecessor and contemporary von Hagen, and he ventured to publish some larger and more impor- tant works.
The followers of these doughty pioneers were more cautious. To combine the selling of music with books was natural, but the curious combination of music and umbrellas seems peculiar to Boston in the period 1825- 1845. John Ashton, Jr., and John Ashton & Co. (E. H. Wade) umbrella-makers, from 1 820-1 843 at 18 Marlboro Street and 197 Washington Street, may have set the fashion of adding music and musical in- struments to their stock in trade, a step they took in 1825. They were followed by Frederick Lane, the umbrella-man of Court Street, 1821-1837; Henry Prentiss who, having been an umbrella-maker from 1825 to 1833 on Court Street, added pianos and music in 1834 and published music as well until 1845; and Charles H. Keith, another Court Street umbrella- maker from 1833, who added music and instruments to his stock in 1835, in 1840 took in a partner for two years as Keith & Moore, and as music-dealer and
["5]
publisher under his own name continued until 1 846, when the catalog was purchased by Oliver Ditson & Co. A shorter-lived umbrella and music-store was that of a former partner of John Ashton, Eben H. Wade, who, at 197 Washington Street, did some publishing between 1847 anc^ 1 856.
A short-lived but important concern, James L. Hewitt & Co. (James A. Dickson) 1 825-1 829, at No. 34 Market Street, advertised in September, 1826, "Elegant London Piano Fortes, etc.," and in another column on the same page:
"DAY AND MARTIN, REAL JAPAN BLACKING, 100 casks of the above, variously assorted always kept on hand, for sale by Wholesale or Retail at the Music Saloon No. 34 & 36 Market St., Boston."
Mr. Dickson, prior to joining this firm, had a "Music Saloon" from 1 8 1 6 and when James L. Hewitt moved to New York, Dickson continued alone, mov- ing in 1830 to No. 34 Cornhill. His name disappears after 1839.
Following the umbrella period are two publishers who must be mentioned because they were at times in friendly association and because both are linked directly to the present. One was Charles Bradlee who began music-publishing in 1829 at 164 Washington Street and continued at various addresses until 1846, after which his name disappears from the Boston directory. His catalog was taken over by Oliver Ditson. The other publisher was Samuel H. Parker who in April, 181 i,
[1.6]
took over the Union Circulating Library and shop of William Blagrove at No. 3 School Street. This busi- ness was the direct successor of Ebenezer Battelle's Boston Book Store, opened in 1783 at No. 8 State Street. Parker's relationship with Oliver Ditson, who became his successor, has already been told. His in- terest in the firm of Parker & Ditson was purchased by the junior partner in 1842.
Of the mid-century period only Oliver Ditson & Co. survived. Mention must be made of W. H. Oakes at 3831/2 Washington Street (1 840-1 851), and A. & J. P. Ordway at 339 Washington Street (1 846-1850) whose catalog was purchased by Oliver Ditson. More impor- tant and longer-lived was George P. Reed and his vari- ous successors. In 1839 Mr. Reed opened his music- store at 1 7 Tremont Street where he published music. In 1850 he took his chief clerk, George D. Russell, into partnership as George P. Reed & Co. In 1859 Mr. Russell left Mr. Reed to go into partnership with Nathan Richardson, who had owned a "Musical Ex- change" since 1854, as Russell & Richardson at 291 Washington Street, successors to G. P. Reed & Co. and Nathan Richardson. For a short time the firm was known as Russell & Fuller. In 1859 Richardson with- drew and Henry Tolman, dealer in musical instru- ments and umbrellas, became partner as Russell & Tolman. They were succeeded by Henry Tolman & Co. at 291 Washington Street.
In 1863 Joseph M. Russell, who since 1850 had
["7]
conducted a rival establishment at 6 1 Court Street with P. S. Gilmore, the noted bandmaster, as partner, and then as Russell & Patee at 108 Tremont Street, joined his brother George and the firm became G. D. Russell & Co. at i 26 Tremont Street. In 1 877 they separated, Joseph M. going to 59 Bromfield Street. In 1 884 they reunited as Russell Bros, at 1 26 Tremont Street, but in two or three years they again separated, Joseph M. going to 10 Hamilton Place. After 1889 his name dis- appears. Meanwhile G. D. Russell continued at 126 Tremont Street until 1888 when, upon the death of Mr. Russell, the extensive catalog and business was taken over by Oliver Ditson & Co. The catalog con- tained much of musical worth. This firm of varied for- tune is mentioned not only for their forty-nine years of activity, but because in their best days in the early seventies they employed, in their retail department, a young man destined to make a distinguished place for himself among American publishers. This young man, Arthur Paul Schmidt, born in Altoona, Germany, April 1, 1846, came to Boston in January, 1866. In 1876 he opened a retail music-store at No. 40 Winter Street and, though at first he specialized in the importation of foreign music, he saw with discerning eye the dawn- ing era of the native composer and more and more identified himself with it. Mr. Schmidt's first publica- tion was issued in 1877, and from that time until his death, May 5, 1921, he increasingly devoted his time and energy to the development of American music.
With remarkable vision he was the first to recognize the gifts of Paine, Chadwick, Foote, MacDowell, Mrs. Beach, and others. Familiar as these names are
to us now, Mr. Schmidt was willing to publish their works before they had achieved their present notable place in Ameri- can music, and when such pub- lications were a decided risk, a venture made on faith in the future of this uncommercial group. The publication in 1880 Arthur Paul Schmidt of John K. Paine's Spring Sym-
phony marked the first issue in this country of the score and parts of a large orchestral work by a native com- poser. Arthur Foote's Francesco, da Rimini, G. W. Chad- wick's second and third Symphonies, not to mention other orchestral works and chamber-music, were prod- ucts of those early days. In order to devote the whole of his time to the publishing business Mr. Schmidt in 1889 sold out his retail business, then at 1 3 and 15 West Street, to Miles & Thompson, succeeded later by C. W. Thompson & Co. It was then he moved to 154 Tremont Street, later to 146 Boylston Street, and in April, 1903, to No. 120 where the firm now is. It was in 1888 that Edward MacDowell returned from twelve years' absence in Europe, and was so little known in his own country he could find no New York house willing to risk the publication of his works.
£"9]
Here again Mr. Schmidt ventured where others hesi- tated, and brought out the long series of compositions that have since given MacDowell his pre-eminent place in American music.
While other publishers were continually reprinting the non-copyright and therefore competitive works of foreign composers, Mr. Schmidt's consistent policy was devoted to building up a notable catalog of copy- right music. While foreign writers of merit are in- cluded, the great bulk of the Schmidt catalog is the work of native composers.
In 191 6 Mr. Schmidt in great measure withdrew from active participation in the business, and formed the Arthur P. Schmidt Company of his co-workers and tried helpers — Mr. Harry B. Crosby, Mr. Henry R. Austin, and Miss Florence J. Emery. On May 5, 1 92 1, with his house in order and his work as cham- pion of the American composer done, Arthur P. Schmidt passed on.
The firm of Koppitz, PriirFer & Co. began business at 30 West Street in 1869. Carl Pruffer had for three years been foreign music-clerk for Oliver Ditson & Co., and Charles Koppitz was musical director of Selwyn's Theatre and later of the Globe Theatre. The firm con- tinued as Carl Pruffer until soon after his death, De- cember 16, 1886, it was absorbed by Oliver Ditson & Co.
Charles A. White, born in Dighton, Mass., played the violin at an early age and starting out as a dancing-
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master, was at one time professor of dancing and fenc- ing at the United States Naval Academy when it was located at Newport, R. I. It was at this time that he wrote a number of successful songs which were pub- lished by Oliver Ditson & Co. The popularity of his songs led him in 1867 to form with W. Frank Smith, previously a retail clerk of Ditson's, and John F. Perry of New Bedford, the publishing firm of White, Smith & Perry at 298 and 300 Washington Street. In 1874 Mr. Perry withdrew and the firm continued as White, Smith & Co., while John F. Perry carried on as a separate dealer in music and pianos until 1883.
It was in this period that Mr. C. A. White's songs, Tut me in my little bed, I'm goin' back to Dixie, When the leaves begin to turn and, best known of all, zJxCarguerite , reached a nation-wide sale. During his career Mr. White wrote, it is reported, more than fifteen hundred compositions, many of them published under various pen-names.
Upon the death of Mr. Smith in June, 1 89 1 , his in- terests were bought by Mr. White who then took his son Daniel L. White into partnership. After the death of Mr. C. A. White, the corporation styled the White- Smith Music Company was formed in April, 1897, with Daniel L. White as president. Upon his death in August, 191 9, his only son Charles A. White, grand- son of the founder, became and still is president of the company. Their office and music-printing establish- ment were for many years located at 62 and 64 Stan-
[12,]
hope Street, but in October, 1919, they moved to 40-44 Winchester Street, where they are still located.
Gustave Schirmer, Jr., the second son of the founder of the great publishing house of G. Schirmer, was born in New York, February 18, 1864. At the age of seventeen he was sent abroad for a thor- ough apprenticeship in rnusic- publishing and for the study of music itself. After five years' preparation he returned to this country and in the autumn of 1885 established the Boston Music Company at No. 2 Bea- Gmtatve SMrmer> Jr-
con Street, where the young man of twenty-one was everything from president to bookkeeper and office- boy. In 1886 G. Schirmer, Jr., issued his first publi- cation, a Concert Etude, by Arthur Whiting. In the latter part of this year he moved to 28 West Street, and four or five years later expanding business made the occupation of No. 26 West Street necessary.
In 1888 Mr. Schirmer's important association with Ethelbert Nevin began with the publication of his three songs, Opus 3 — T)eep in a rose's glowing heart, One Spring morning, and T)oris. Nevin's widely popu- lar Sketch "Book was issued this year, followed in 1891 with Water Scenes, containing the enormously popular Narcissus. When Nevin wrote the Rosary he happened to be in New York and so submitted it to Mr. Rudolph
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Schirmer. The latter saw his brother Gustave the next day and handing the manuscript to him said: "Here's a charming little song which I think you should be permitted to publish in the Boston Music Company catalog, for you have most of Mr. Nevin's other com- positions." With these words he turned to G. Schirm- er, Jr., the song which has sold the greatest number of copies recorded in modern times. Thus upon a gen- erous impulse one brother gave a fortune to the other.
In 1890, owing to the serious illness of Gustav Schirmer, Senior, the son returned to New York to carry on with his brother Rudolph the management of G. Schirmer, Inc.
The sudden taking off of Gustave Schirmer, Jr., July 15,1 907, robbed American publishers of a man of high ideals and catholic taste who looked upon music- publishing not as a mere business for profit but as a profession and a service to the art he himself loved so deeply and genuinely.
Upon his death the control of the Boston Music Company passed into the hands of his son Gustave who, on December 1, 1922, moved the publication head- quarters to 1 1 East Forty-fourth Street, New York, while the business itself was continued at 26 West Street, Boston, until, on March 1, 1926, it was moved to 1 1 6 Boylston Street.
The ship that in August, 1840, brought Gustav Schirmer as a boy of ten from Thuringia, Saxony, to New York to found later the publishing house that
[I23]
bears his honored name, brought his younger brother Edward Schirmer, a boy of eight. In 1878 Edward's son Ernest C. Schirmer, then thirteen years old, be- came an apprentice in the music-store of his uncle Gustavat7oi Broadway, New York. In October, 1891, he became business manager of the Boston Music Company founded by his cousin, G. Schirmer, Jr., and was admitted to partnership in January, 1 902. In 1 9 1 7 Mr. Ernest Schirmer withdrew from the Boston Mu- sic Company, and in 192 1 founded the E. C. Schirmer Music Company at 221 Columbus Avenue, where the business is still located. With the friendly co-operation of Dr. Archibald T. Davison of Harvard University and Mr. Thomas Whitney Surette of Concord, Mass., the company has specialized in publishing choral music of a high type, giving special attention to a cappella music.
The reader must have already noted the fact that all of the more important publishing houses have had their origin in the musical knowledge and enthusiasm of their founders. Business routine and ability, both essen- tial to success, develop with experience, but the great publishers were primarily great music-lovers.
The founder of the B. F. Wood Music Company was no exception to this rule. Born in Lewiston, Me., March 27, 1849, where he first studied, he then be- came a student at the New England Conservatory of Music. Completing his course there he returned to Lewiston, where for some years he taught piano and
tI24]
organ and served as organist and choir-director in the churches of that city and Auburn, Me.
The restrictions that seemed to hamper Mr. Wood's career in those days, and the scarcity of teaching ma- terial of the type he needed for his pupils, brought him into con- tact with Arthur P. Schmidt of Boston and for about three years he was associated with him as his general manager. This ex- perience in publishing, coupled with his own knowledge as a practical teacher, led Mr. Wood b. f. Wood to establish, in 1893, tne B. F.
Wood Music Company, at no Boylston Street. In this venture his partner was Mr. John Aiken Preston, also an experienced piano -teacher. The aim of the new house was to supply piano-teachers in particular with an abundance of easy teaching material that combined melodic interest with pedagogic value. On this Mr. Wood concentrated his efforts, supplementing his copyrights with volume reprints of the standard and classic teaching material in the Edition Wood, which now numbers over one thousand volumes. Another feature of Mr. Wood's policy was his belief that teachers' needs could best be served by their local dealer. Accordingly he based his selling policy on the protection of the dealer's interests, referring all orders to him.
On July 22, 1 914, Mr. Preston died, and on July 19, 1922, Mr. B. F. Wood also passed on. The busi- ness is now conducted by his nephew Mr. Harold W. Robinson as president, and Mr. W. Deane Preston, Jr., nephew of Mr. Wood's first partner as vice-president. When the business had outgrown its first quarters it was moved to 221 Columbus Avenue, and in 1901 to 246 Summer Street. Still expanding, the firm moved in October, 1920, to its own commodious building at No. 88 St. Stephen Street, where it is still located.
For many years the publication of music for the Catholic church was carried on by the chief publishers in connection with the music they issued for Protes- tant choirs, but in 1903 the promulgation of the iM'atu cProprio of Pope Pius X inaugurated a reformation in Catholic music, and banned many of the masses of the florid type long popular. This break with conventional usage made the publishing of liturgical music for the Catholic service a specialty. In this significant year, 1904, Mr. James M. McLaughlin, who had been supervisor of music in the Boston schools, and Dr. James A. Reilly, singer and choir-master, formed the firm of McLaughlin & Reilly for the publication of music for the Catholic service. Beginning at 171 Tremont Street, they incorporated in May, 1909, as McLaughlin & Reilly Co., and moved to 1 00 Boylston Street where they are still located. In 1927 the firm acquired the catalog of William E. Ashmall of Arling- ton, N. J., founded in 1 877, and with it The Organist's
[i,6]
'Journal. In 1930 they acquired the liturgical catalog of John B. Singenberger of St. Francis, Wis., founded in 1874, and with it The Caecilia, a magazine of Cath- olic church music which they still publish. The Litur- gical Music Company, and Catholic Music Publishing Company have also been acquired.
For years Boston has been a center for the publish- ing of school-music. This is only natural, for it was through the great pioneer Lowell Mason that in 1838 music became a regular branch of study in the public schools of Boston. The rapid extension of music-study in our schools has been met by specialists in this depart- ment, such as Ginn & Co.; Silver, Burdett & Co., and C. C. Birchard & Co., all important publishers in this big field.
It was in 1900 that Mr. Clarence C. Birchard, after some years of experience that had made him thor- oughly familiar with the school-music situation in our public schools, founded the publishing firm of C. C. Birchard & Co. at 221 Columbus Avenue. Mr. Birchard was convinced that the time had come for the introduction of a better and more serious type of music than had hitherto been supplied American schools. He therefore enlisted the co-operation of some twenty-five of the best American composers who were invited to make choral settings of texts of literary value. The resulting volume, The J^aurel Song 'Book, was issued in 1901. The book also included a much larger proportion of art-songs than had hitherto been
[127]
available in collections of school-music and set a new standard in education. The policy then initiated of is- suing for school use music of genuine worth has ever since been maintained and has given the Birchard Company an individual place in its special field. In 1903 the first number was issued in their extensive octavo series for choral singing. In 1 9 1 3 the Birchard Company entered the field of low-priced assembly song-books in which they have been notably success- ful. In 1923 they began the publication of music for school orchestras, and followed this step in 1924 by the publication of symphonic works by American composers. Still under the direction of its founder, the company is active at the location where it began thirty-three years ago.
CINCINNATI PUBLISHERS
As far back as in the eighteen-forties Cincinnati had its music-publisher in the person of W. C. Peters, who carried on a branch house in Louisville, Ky. He was followed, in turn, by W. C. Peters & Sons, A. C. Peters & Bro., and Peters, Field & Co. A rival firm was conducted by J. L. Peters, followed by J. L. Peters & Bro. who had a branch house in St. Louis. This last-named firm was succeeded in the sixties by J. J. Dobmeyer & Co. who had their day until, to- gether with Peters, Field & Co., they were absorbed by J. L. Peters of New York, who sold out to Oliver Ditson & Co. in 1877. Two other Cincinnati cata-
[128]
logs, those of F. W. Helmick and the Newhall & Evans Music Co., were also purchased by Oliver Dit- son & Co., thus linking the Boston house to the begin- nings of music-publishing in Cincinnati.
In 1 849 a fourteen-year-old Rhode Island boy, John Church, entered the employ of Oliver Ditson of Bos- ton, then at 1 1 5 Washington Street. In 1869, need- ing someone to straighten out a business tangle with the firm of Truax & Baldwin of Cincinnati, Mr. Dit- son sent John Church, then twenty-five, who success- fully accomplished his mission- Seeing the business possibilities of this rising city, Mr. Church negotiated with Mr. Ditson for a half-interest in the concern taken over, and thus on April 21, 1859, the firm of John Church, Jr., was started with Oliver Ditson as senior partner. On March 1, 1869, Mr. Church pur- chased the half-interest of Mr. Ditson and with John B. Trevor, his bookkeeper, changed the firm name to John Church & Co.
In October, 1871, the publication of Church's zJtCusical ^Visitor, a monthly magazine, was begun and continued for twenty-six years. In 1873 the house purchased part of the catalog of George F. Root & Sons of Chicago who the year before had succeeded to the business of Root & Cady, established in 1858. This purchase added to their publications some of the famous war-songs of George F. Root and the popular song books: Song King, Song £>ueen, and others.
From 1862 to 1883 the house of Church special-
[129]
ized in popular stage songs, such as Qood Ttye, Charlie; Not for Joseph; Whoa Em?nal, and 'Baby oJACine, with others linked to the career of the comedian Sol. Smith Russell. They also issued the minstrel songs of J. K. Emmett, Billy Emerson, Gus Williams, Eddie Fox, and others, and at the same time the Moody & Sankey (gospel Hymns which had an unprecedented sale. In 1873 Church published a set of teaching pieces for the piano by the then unknown Theodore Presser.
Church's <^hCusical 'U ]isitor for February, 1877, gives an account of the first meeting of the Music Teachers National Association, the call for which had been issued by Theodore Presser, then teaching at Wesleyan Female College, Delaware, Ohio. It was attended by such notables as George W. Chadwick, Lowell Mason, Eben Tourjee, George F. Root, and others.
From successful song-books for singing-schools and so-called "Musical Institutes" the firm in 1 890 entered the professional operatic field, issuing many popular operettas by Sousa, Edwards, Flobart, de Koven, and others. Prior to this, and for some time after, the house published the popular marches of Sousa, Liberati,Innes, and other bandmasters. Later it was decided to pub- lish the better-class music of the American composer as well as foreign copyrights, and the present policy of the house is along these lines.
Mr. John Church died in Boston, April 19, 1890.* Mr. R. B. Burchard, his son-in-law, became president
*Mr. Church's portrait is on page 71.
and Mr. W. L. Coghill was made general manager of the publication department, April I, 191 9. In April, 1930, the entire catalog was purchased by the Theodore Presser Company and the business moved to Philadelphia.
On April 1, 1899, Mr. Charles H. Willis, who for twenty-seven years had been with the John Church Company, started in business for himself at 41 East Fourth Street. In May, 1901, he purchased the mis- cellaneous stock of sheet-music and books of the John Church Company's retail business and moved to their store at Fourth and Elm Streets. Associated with Mr. Willis was his son William H., with the firm name W. H. Willis & Co. Beginning with the publication of teaching material, especially for piano-teachers, the publishing policy gradually broadened its scope on general lines. In 19 10 the absorption of George B. Jennings & Co. led to the incorporation of the Willis Music Company. In 191 1 the firm moved to its pres- ent location at 1 3 7 West Fourth Street, and later the growth of business led to the occupation of the entire seven-story building. On July 1, 19 19, the control of the business passed into the hands of Mr. Gustave Schirmer of New York, son of the founder of the Boston Music Company and grandson of the founder of the house of G. Schirmer, Inc. This important Cincinnati house has made a specialty of teaching material together with school operettas, playlets, and cantatas, as well as octavo music, sacred and secular.
[130
CHICAGO PUBLISHERS
While Chicago is for all commodities a great dis- tributing center, it has not yet become equally impor- tant as a publishing center. In the eighteen-sixties, or late fifties, H. M. Higgins and then Higgins Brothers published music at No. 117 Randolph Street, but this catalog was taken over by J. L. Peters of New York City who, in turn, sold out to Oliver Ditson & Co. in 1877.
Chicago's pioneer publisher seems to have been Root & Cady (E. T. Root and C. M. Cady) established in 1858. The next year George F. Root of Massachu- setts, brother of E. T. Root, became a partner. As or- ganist, choralist, at one period a co-worker with Lowell Mason, and as a voice-teacher and composer, his associa- tion with the firm was invaluable. Upon the opening of the Civil War he began composing songs of enor- mous popularity, such as The Battle-cry of Freedom; Just before the battle, mother; Tramp, tramp y tramp, the boys are marching; The vacant chair, and many others. He also wrote cantatas of great popularity, among them The Flower- Queen; T>aniel (1853); The Tilgrim Fathers (1854); The Haymakers (1857), and Belshazzar's Feast (i860). The great fire of 1871 changed the firm to George F. Root & Sons, whose catalog was in part absorbed in 1873 by John Church & Co., of Cin- cinnati, as already stated; in part by Oliver Ditson & Co., who took over the cantatas just named; while the bulk of the catalog and plates were taken over by
ll3^
S. Brainard Sons Company, then of Cleveland, but later of Chicago and New York.
The last named firm was established by Silas Brain- ard, born in Lempster, New Hampshire, in 1814, who set up a music-store in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1836. Cleveland was then a frontier town with about four thousand inhabitants. By 1 845 it had nearly trebled in population and in this year Silas Brainard began to publish music. In 1864 he took into partnership his son Charles S. Brainard, who became president of the company on the death of his father in 1871. Two years later, as stated before, the firm took over the bulk of the catalog of George F. Root & Sons, the successors to Root & Cady. This purchase brought them the widely popular songs of Henry Clay Work (183 2-1 844), Kingdom Coming, Babylon is fallen, March- ing through Georgia, and others, together with the bulk of the widely- sung songs of George F. Root (1820-1895). In May, 1879, Charles S. Brainard moved the music-publishing business from Cleveland to 151 -1 53 Wabash Avenue, Chicago. Here were issued many of the compositions of A. P. Wyman, Oscar Mayo, Karl Merz, Wilson G. Smith, Emil Liebling, August Hyllested, W. C. E. Seeboeck, and others. In 1902 Mr. Brainard moved his business headquarters to New York City, but continued the Chicago house until 1928. From 1899 the general management was in the hands of Mr. Thomas Sidwell, and upon his death the business was carried on by his
I>33]
widow, now Mrs. Edward A. Stege located at Eldred, Sullivan County, New York.
Lyon & Healy published music for a while, in- cluding J. P. Webster's song, The Sweet Bye and Bye, and V. B. Aubert's (Silas G. Pratt) nocturne, Harp at zJxCidnight, and his Serenade, then turned over this department of their business to Oliver Ditson & Co.
Music-publishing languished in Chicago until one man of courage, with a background of experi- ence both as a music-teacher and as an employee of Lyon & Healy, felt that the time was ripe for a local publisher. Backed with stock supplied by the house of Schmidt, Schirmer, and Novello, Mr. Clayton F. Summy opened his establishment at 42 Madison Street on August 8, 1888. His slogan as dealer and publisher has been: "Music of the better class." Here again his experience as a teacher led Mr. Summy to work on educational lines, particularly in material for piano- teachers. During its forty-five years of business the Clayton F. Summy Company has occupied five differ- ent locations, each time moving south one block. For seventeen years the firm was located at 225 South Wabash Avenue. For the past thirteen years the Summy Company, with many of its original helpers, has been located at No. 429 South Wabash Avenue. On February 10, 1932, Mr. Summy died at his home in Hinsdale, 111. This involved no change in the busi- ness which had been reorganized in the summer of 1 93 1 with Mr. John F. Sengstack as president.
[134]
One Sunday evening in 1903 a music-lover and his wife were singing in church in the choir-loft the well- known duet, jQove "Divine, all jQove excelling, from Sir John Stainer's cantata, The Daughter of J aims, when, to their joint embarrassment, the unattached middle sheet of music dropped into the air but was recovered by a quick and undignified grab before it reached the floor. This awkward incident set the man, William M. Gamble of Chicago, to thinking of some practical plan that would prevent its recurrence. After several years of experiment, Mr. Gamble perfected his unique plan and the necessary machinery for hinging printed music at a minimum cost. Having sought in vain to interest leading publishers and distributors of music in his in- vention, Mr. Gamble opened his own music-store in 1 909 in the Wexford Building at the corner of Wabash Avenue and Van Buren Street. Six months later the Gamble Hinged Music Company moved to 64 East Van Buren Street, and in 1929 moved to their present location at 2 2 8 South Wabash Avenue. In their twenty- four years of publishing music, all of it hinged, Mr. Gamble and his son Eugene E. Gamble have built up a general catalog of music and books especially designed to meet the present-day needs of music-teachers, choir- masters, and schools.
CONCLUSION
While this outline of the history of music-publish- ing in the United States includes the chief names,
['35]
many, less significant, are omitted; nor has anything been said of the publishers in Buffalo, Detroit, Dayton, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Louisville, Memphis, Vicks- burg, New Orleans, Charleston, Washington, or San Francisco, for much of their output was sporadic and local rather than national. A complete history would require extended research and an elaborate volume. Too little has been said of the individual publications of the old-time houses. As to the active publishers of today, the general character and trend of their output is known to all.
The history of music and the history of music- publishing in this country are inseparable, for one finds its reflection in the other. Fashions and modes in music come and go and publishers come and go with them, but the great art of zJxCusic lives on, and the enduring publisher is the one who keeps pace with its ceaseless advance and change — the unresting publisher with the forward look in his eyes and the love of music in his heart.
£•36]
INDEX
|
Page |
|
|
A.BT, Franz |
69 |
|
Academy of Music Orchestra |
63 |
|
Adams and Liberty |
37-39 |
|
Adams and Washington |
37 |
|
Adams, President |
38 |
|
Ah! what is the bosom" s |
|
|
commotion |
97 |
|
Ainsworth, Henry |
1 |
|
Ai?isworth Psalter |
1 |
|
Aitken, John |
26 |
|
Alboni, Marietta |
66 |
|
Always take a mother" s advice 1 1 1 |
|
|
American Guild of Organists |
109 |
|
American Harmony, Holden |
15 |
|
American Organ Quarterly |
109 |
|
Analytic Symphony Series |
81 |
|
Andr£, G. , & Co. |
72, 75 |
|
Anona |
113 |
|
Antoleon, Ship |
104 |
|
Appel, John |
101 |
|
Arabella, The Caledonian Maid 97 |
|
|
Arne, Dr. Thomas A. |
30, 56 |
|
Arnold, Dr. Samuel 25, |
26, 30 |
|
Ashton, John, & Company |
115 |
|
Ashton, John, Jr. 115, 116 |
|
|
Ashmall, William E. |
126 |
|
Astor, John Jacob |
28 |
|
Atwill, J. F. |
74 |
|
Atwood, Thomas |
30 |
|
Autocrat of the Breakfast Table xiii |
|
|
Austin, Henry R. |
120 |
|
Daby Mine |
130 |
|
Bach, John Sebastian 8, |
57, 69 |
|
Bacon, Allyn |
87 |
|
Bacon & Co. |
88 |
|
Bacon & Hart |
88 |
|
Bacon, Weygand & Co. |
88 |
|
Baltimore |
xvi |
|
Baltimore Publishers 27, 28, |
93-95 |
Page
Baltzell, W. J. 74
Barber of Seville 101
Barnett, John 101 Battelle's Boston Book-store 15, 34 Battelle, Col. Ebenezer
34, 35, 84, 117
Battle Cry of Freedom 132
Baumbach, Adolph 60
Bay Psalm Book, The 2, 3, 8
Beach, Mrs. H. H. A. 119
Beacham, Joseph R. 95
Beacon Hill, Boston xiv
Beacon Street, Boston xiv, xv
Beck, James M. 89
Beck & Lawton 89
Beer, B. 103
Beer & Schirmer 103
Beethoven, L. van 13, 62
Belder, George 105
Belknap, Daniel 58
Belshazzar' s Feast 132
Benteen & Co. 95
Benteen, Frederick D. 95
Berlin, Irving, Inc. 113
Berry, Thomas S. 98
Berry & Gordon 98 Billings, William xv, 12-14, 58
Birchard, Clarence C. 127 Birchard, C. C. & Co. 127, 128
Birch, Thomas 101
Bishop, Sir Henry 101
Blackwell, Henry B. 61 Blagrove, William 39, 40, 84, 117
Blake, George E. 26, 87
Blake, William Pinson 35
Blanchard, L. W. 74
Blaxton, Rev. William xiv, xv
Blind King, The, Parker 57
Blossom Time 113
Boner, W. H., & Co. 89
I1 37}
Boosey & Co., Ltd. Boston Book- store Boston Common Boston Magazine
Boston Music Company 122-124, 131 Boston Publishers
36, 37, 40-46, 50-62, 71-82
Boyce, William 21
Bradbury, William B. 59
Bradford, Gov. William 53
Bradlee, Charles 42, 43, 74, 116
Braham, John 86 Brainard, S., Sons Company 132,133
Brattle Organ 9, 10
Brattle Square Church 4, 9
Brattle, Thomas 9, 10
Brignoli, Pasqualino 66
Bristow, George F. 57
Brett, Arabella 30
Broadhurst, Miss 30
Brooks, Rev. Phillips 76
Brentano Bros. 74
Breusing, Charles 103
Brown, William 19
Buck, Dudley 57, 60, 68, 70, 102
Bull, Ole 47, 67, 68
Billow, Hans von 67
Bunker Hill xiv-xv
Burchard, R. B. 130
Burnet, Gov. William 10
Caecilia, The 127
Cady, C. M. 132
Calcott, Dr. JohnW. 56
Calve, Emma 80
Cambridge xiv, xv, 2
Cambridge Short Tune 3
Capron, Henry 25
Carr, B., & Co. 25, 26
Carr, Benjamin 25, 27, 29, 30, 86
Carr, Joseph 27, 29, 93, 94
Carr & Schetky 25, 86
Carr, Thomas 28, 93, 94
Carreno, Teresa 67
Catholic Music Publishing Co. 127
Centennial Exposition 70
Page Page
109 Century Edition 113
34, 35 Charleston, S. C. 10
xiii-xvi Chadwick, George W. 119, 130
31 Chicago Publishers xvi, 71
Choirs 12
Chopin, Frederic 47
Christ Church, Boston 11
Christ Church, Cambridge xv
Christ Church, Baltimore 93
Christmas Oratorio, Bach 57
Christy, Edward T. 100
Christy Minstrels 110
Chronology of Oliver Ditson
Company 84, 85
Church, John 71, 85, 93, 129, 130
Church, John, Jr. 129
Church, John, Co. 71, 79, 130, 131
Church, John, & Co. 129, 132
Church Mttsic Review 109 Cincinnati Publishers xvi, 71, 75
City Guards Quick- step 51
Clarke, Dr. John 56
Coghill, W. L. 131
Cole, George T. 95
Cole, John 94
Cole, John, & Son 95 Collection of the Best Psalm
Tunes, Flagg 11, 58
Columbian Songster, The 15
Coticert Etude, Whiting 122
Concert Hall, Boston 17
Concerts of Music 16-19
Contented Cottager, The 97 Continental Harmony, Billings 14
Cooke, Benjamin 101
Cooke, James Francis 93
Copley, John Singleton 36
Copley, Mary 36
Coronation, Holden 15
Cortada, A., & Co. 74
Cranch, Christopher P. 65
Crazy Jane 97
Creation, The, Haydn 57, 86
Crosby, Harry B. 120
Culp, Julia 81
[138]
|
Page |
Page |
|||
|
Damrosch, Dr. Leopold |
57 |
Eden Mus£e |
110 |
|
|
Danks, H. P. |
103 |
Edition Wood |
125 |
|
|
Daniel, Root |
132 |
Edwards, Julian |
130 |
|
|
Darley, H. W. |
59 |
Eichberg, Julius |
61, 68 |
|
|
David, Neukomm |
52 |
Elijah, Mendelssohn |
57 |
|
|
Deblois, Gilbert |
17 |
Emerson, Billy |
130 |
|
|
Delano, Catherine |
53 |
Emerson, L. O. |
59, 61 |
|
|
Der Freischiltz, Weber |
101 |
Emerson, Ralph Waldo |
xiv, 47 |
|
|
Dibdin, Charles |
21, |
26, 30 |
Emery, Florence J. |
120 |
|
Dickinson, John |
21 |
Emmett, J. K. |
130 |
|
|
Dickson, James A. |
43 |
Essipoff, Annette |
67 |
|
|
Ditson Buildings |
Etude, The |
90, 91, 93 |
||
|
55, 56, 72, 73, 77, 78, ; |
84, |
85, 100 |
||
|
Ditson Catalogs |
75, |
76, 79 |
Falckner, Justus |
10 |
|
Ditson, Charles H. |
Faneuil Hall |
17 |
||
|
71, 76-80, 85, ' |
93, |
99, 100 |
Faneuil, Peter |
17 |
|
Ditson, Chas. H., & Co. |
Farrar, Geraldine |
81 |
||
|
71, 78, |
85, |
99, 100 |
Father Streeter's Church |
9 |
|
Ditson, James Edward |
72, 85 |
Fay, W. Rodman |
104 |
|
|
Ditson, J. E., & Co. |
72, |
85, 87 |
Festival Cantata, Thayer |
• 57 |
|
Ditson, Joseph |
46, 47 |
Fields, James T. |
53 |
|
|
Ditson, Oliver xiv |
, 43 |
, 46-53 |
Fiot, Augustus |
75, 88, 89 |
|
55-57, 69, 76, 79, |
84, |
85, 93 |
Fiot, Meignen & Co. |
88 |
|
Ditson, Oliver, & Co. |
Fischer, Carl |
105, 106 |
||
|
26, 56, 59, 60, 6= |
i,71 |
, 73, 77 |
Fischer, George |
107 |
|
85, 87-89, 95, 99, 116-118 |
Fischer, J., & Bro. |
107 |
||
|
120, 121, 128, 129, 132, 133 |
Fischer, Joseph |
107 |
||
|
Ditson, Oliver, Company |
Fischer, Walter S. |
107 |
||
|
76, 78, 79, |
85, |
93, 100 |
First Music-publishers |
23-31 |
|
Ditson, Oliver, Company, |
First Music-shops |
23-31 |
||
|
Chronology of |
84, 85 |
First Music-teachers |
20, 45 |
|
|
Ditson, Samuel |
46 |
First Music-type |
15 |
|
|
Dobson, Thomas |
24 |
First Song Published |
20 |
|
|
Does true love ever run |
Firth & Hall |
98, 99 |
||
|
smooth ? |
113 |
Firth, Hall & Pond |
99 |
|
|
Dreyschock, Alexander |
57 |
Firth, John |
98, 99 |
|
|
Dubois, William |
98 |
Firth, Pond & Co. |
99, 100 |
|
|
Dubois & Bacon |
98 |
Firth, Son & Co. 71, |
72, 74, 99 |
|
|
Dubois & Stodart |
98 |
Firth, Thaddeus |
99 |
|
|
Dubois & Warriner |
98 |
Five chiefs of renown |
97 |
|
|
Dutch Psalter |
1 |
Flammer, Harold |
105 |
|
|
Dutch Reformed Church |
1 |
Flammer, Harold, Inc. |
105 |
|
|
Dwight, John S. 54, |
, 57, |
, 65, 68 |
For then I had not learned of love 96 |
|
|
Dwight' s Journal of Music |
Foster, Stephen |
100 |
||
|
65, 66, |
68; |
, 73, 85 |
Fuller, Margaret |
54 |
ll39l
Page
Kjambler's Wife, The 101 Gamble Hinged Music Company 135
Gamble, Eugene E. 135
Gamble, William M. 135
Garcia, Manuel 101
Garrison, William Lloyd 47
Gehrkens, Karl 81
Gerhardt, Elena 81
Gericke, Wilhelm 65
Germania Orchestra 63
Geib, Adam 97
Geib, John 97
Geib, John and Adam, & Co. 97
Geib, John, & Co. 97
Geib & Walker 97
Geib, William 97
Gilfert, George 28, 95-97
Gilmore, Patrick S. 68, 69, 118 Gloria Dei Church, Philadelphia 10
Gluck, Alma 81
Gluck, C. W. von 21
Goetschius, Percy 81
Goldschmidt, Otto 66
Good Bye, Charlie 130
Gordon, Hamilton A. 102
Gordon, Hamilton S. 102
Gordon, Herbert 102
Gordon, Leslie 102
Gordon, Stephen T. 97-99, 102
Gordon, S. T., & Co. 102
Gordon, S. T., & Son 102
Gospel Hy7nns 130
Gottschalk, Louis M. 67
Gould, John E. 89
Gould, J. E., & Co. 88,98
Gould & Berry 98, 102 Graupner, Gottlieb
vii, 38, 40, 41, 45, 46, 48, 49, 56, 114
Graupner & Mallet 115
Graupner, John Henry H. 49, 56
Graupner, Mrs. Catherine 38, 46
Gray, H. W., Co. 109
Gray, H. Willard 108
Gray, Matthias 75
Greatorex, Henry W. 59
Page Grisi, Giulia 66
Grounds and Rules of ' Music k 7
Guild, Benjamin 35, 42, 84
Gunther, Edwin L. 108
Gunther, Emil A. 108
Wail! Columbia 26, 37, 38
Hale, Philip 73
Hall, William 98, 99
Hall, William, & Son 72, 74, 99
Hamilton, Clarence 81
Handel and Haydn Society
40, 48, 49, 51, 62, 64, 69 Handel and Haydn Society
Collection 48
Handel, George F. 8, 12, 18, 21, 57 Haney, H. J. vii
Harms, T. B., Inc. 113
Harrigan and Hart 110
Harrison, James 29
Harvard Musical Association 64, 65 Hastings, Thomas 59
Hawthorne, Alice 89
Hawthorne, Nathaniel 47
Haydn, Josef 21, 26, 29, 46, 57
Haymakers, Root 132
Haynes, John C. 55, 76, 77, 80, 85 Healy, P. J. 71
Hearts of Oak, Boy ce 21
Helmick, F. W. 75, 129
Henschel, George 65
Hewitt & Jaques 96
Hewitt, James 29, 96
Hewitt, James L. 30, 97, 1 16
Hewitt, James L., & Co. 96
Higgins Brothers 132
Higgins, H. M. 132
Higginson, Henry Lee 64
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth 62 Hillegas, Michael 23
Hodgkinson, John 30, 38
Holden, Oliver 14, 15, 58
Hollis Street Tune 13
Holmes, Oliver Wendell 47
Holyoke, Samuel 58
[l4o]
Page Home for Retired Music Teachers 92 Hook, James 21, 26, 30
Hopkinson, Francis 24, 27
Horn, Charles E. 101
Howe, Julia Ward 61 Hymn of Praise, Mendelssohn 57
I 'd be a butterfly 101 I'll answer that question
tomorrow 1 1 1
I'm goin' back to Dixie 121
Independent Musical Society 18
Innes, F. N. 130
Irene 113
Irion, Hermann 104
Jackson, Dr. William 26
Jamestown, Va. 1
Jaques, Edward I. 101
Jaques, James M. 101
Jaques, John D. 101
Jennings, George B., & Co. 131
Jennings, Joseph M. vii
Joshua, Handel 57
Judas Maccabeus, Handel 57
Just before the battle, mother 132
Keith, Charles H. 74, 115
Keith & Moore 115
Kempf, Paul 74
Kelley, Edgar Stillman 81
Kelley, Michael 30, 97
Kerksieg & Breusing 103
Kerksieg, Evich 103
Kimball, Jacob 58
King's Chapel, Boston 47, 48
Klemm, Johann G. 11
Klemm, J. G., & Bro. 88
Knoefel, H. 75
Knox, Henry 34, 41
Koek, Hendrick M. 10
Koppitz, Charles 120
Koppitz, Priiffer & Co. 120 Kranz, G. Fred, Music Company 94
Page
115 68
127 58 89 89
101
87
26, 72, 75, 87
90
Lane, Frederick Lang, B. J. Laurel Song Book Law, Andrew Lawton, Dennis Lawton, J. W., & Co, Lee, Alexander Lee, George W. Lee & Walker Leipzig Conservatory
Liberati, A. 130
Liberty Song 20, 36
Lind, Jenny 66
Lining out the Psalms 4
Linley, Thomas 30
Listen to the Mocking Bird 89
Liszt, Franz 47
Liturgical Music Company 127
Livermore, Mary A. 62
London Book- store 33, 34, 36
Longfellow, Henry W. 47 Love Divine, all Love excelling 134
Lovely Jane 97
Lover, Samuel 101
Lyon & Healy 71, 85, 132, 133, 134
Lyon, George W. 71
Lyon, Rev. James 12
Luckhardt & Belder 105
Luckhardt, George C. 105
MacDowell, Edward 70, 119, 120
Malibran, Maria 101
Mallet, Francis 115
Maniac, The, Russell 101
Marguerite, White 121
Mario, Giuseppi 66 Marks, E. B., Music Company 113
Mark the busy insect playing 97
Marriage of Figaro, Mozart 101
Marseillaise, The xiv
Martens Bros. 74
Mason Brothers 74
Mason, Daniel Gregory 81 Mason, Lowell
48, 49, 59-61, 102, 127, 130, 132
[•41]
Page
Mason, William 57, 63
Massachusetts Magazine 31
Mather, Dr. Cotton 8, 9
Mayell, John 100
Mayflower Pilgrims 1
Maxwell, George 109
Mazzinghi, Joseph 56
McCaffrey, Henry C. 75, 95
McLaughlin, James M. 126
McLaughlin & Reilly 126
Meacham & Pond 99
Medfield Ttme 13
Mehlig, Anna 67
Meignen, Leopold 88
Mein, John 33
Mendelssohn, Felix 57
Mendelssohn Quintette Club 65 Messiah, The, Handel
12, 48, 52, 57, 86
Metcalf, Frank J. vii
Metronome, The 106
Michaelis, Gustav 106
Miles & Thompson 119
Miller & Beacham 75, 95
Miller, William C. 95
Millet, William E. 101
Millard, Harrison 103
Mitchell's Class Methods 80
Modem School, Richardson 58
Moller & Capron 24
Moller, John C 25, 26
Monthly Musical Record 73
Morgan, George W. 68
Mornington, Earl of 56
Mozart, W. A. 12, 21, 26, 56, 101
Munroe, Francis & Parker 40
Music Hall, Boston 63
Music in Miniature, Billings 14
Musical Journal 86
Music Review 73
Music Students Library 80
Music Students Piano Course 81 Music Study in Public Schools 60 Music Teachers National
Association 90, 130
Page Musical Asylum, Philadelphia 31 Musical Fund Society, Phila. 63, 86 Musical Observer, The 106
Musical Quarterly, The 105
Musical Record, The 73
Musical Record and Review 73
Musical Visitor, Church's 129
Musician, The 74
Musicians Library 80
My Country, 'tis of Thee xv
IS1 arcissus, Nevin 122
Negro Minstrelsy 110
Nevin, Ethelbert 122
New Amsterdam 1
New England Conservatory
of Music 90, 124
New England Psalm Singer 1 2
Newhall & Evans Music Co. 75, 129 New Method, Richardson 58
New Music Review and Church
Music Review 109
New York xvi
New York Magazine 31
New York Publishers 28-31, 95-114 Nikisch, Arthur 65
North, Francis A. 88
North, F. A., & Co. 73,75,88
Note Singing, Innovation of 6
Notes on Music in Old Boston xvi Not for Joseph 130
Novello, Ewer & Co. 108, 109, 133
Oakes, W. H. 117
Ode from Ossian's Poems 27
Old Corner Bookstore 53, 55
Old Folks at Home 1 00
Oldmixon, Mrs. 30
Old St. Paul's Church, Baltimore 93 Oliver, Henry K. 65
One Spring Morning, Nevin 122 Oratorio of David, Neukomm 52 Ordway, A. & J. P. 74, 117
Organs, Use of xv, 9-11, 15
Organ, Great Music Hall 58, 67
[J42]
Organ Pedals Organist 's Journal, The Over there Oxford University Press
Pachelbel, Mr. 19
Paff, John 30, 95
Paff, John and M. 30
Paine, John K. 57, 68, 70, 119
Paine, Robert Treat 38
Palma, John 19
Park Street Church, Boston xv, 9 Parker & Ditson
52, 55, 56, 84, 85, 117 Parker, Col. Samuel Hale
39-44, 48-50, 56, 84, 116 Parker, J. C. D. 57, 76
Patti, Adelina 66
Peace Jubilee of 1869 68
Peace Jubilee of 1872 62, 69
Peg o' my heart 1 1 3
Pelham, Peter 36
Pelham, Sarah 39
Pelham, William 35, 36, 39, 84
Perkins, H. L. 61
Perkins, W. O. 59, 61
Perry, John F. 121
Perry, J. F., & Co. 74
Peters, A. C, & Bro. 128
Peters, Field & Co. 128
Peters, J. L. 72, 74, 99, 128, 132
Peters, J. L., & Bro. 128
Peters, William C. 101, 128
Peters, W. C, & Sons 128
Petsworth Church, Va. 11
Philadelphia xvi
Philadelphia Publishers 23-26, 86-93 Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston 64 Philharmonic Orchestra Series 81 Philharmonic Society, Boston 46
Phillips, Adelaide 66, 68
Phillips, Wendell xiv
Picture that's turned to the wall 1 1 1 Pilgrim Fathers, Root 132
Pitch-pipe 14
Page Page
1 1 Plain and Easy Introduction 6
126 Pleyel, Ignaz 21, 29, 86
113 Plymouth Colony 1
107 Pocket Music Student, The 82
Poet and Peasant, overture 106
Pond, G. Warren 101
Pond, Sylvanus B. 99
Pond, William A. ! )-l01
Popular Publishers 110-114
Porter, H. Hobart 79, 85
Pownall, Mrs. 30
Praise to God, George F. Bristow 57
Prentiss, Henry 115
Presser Company, Theodore
79, 85, 90-93, 100, 131
Presser Foundation 92, 93
Presser, Theodore 130
Preston, John Aiken 125
Preston, W. Deane, Jr. 126
Priaulx, J. M. vii
Price, William 36
Pruffer, Carl 74, 120
Psalm 46, Buck 57
Psalm Singer's Amusement 14
Public School Music 60, 61
Pucitta, Vincenzo 97
Puritan Congregation 12
Puritanism 5
Queen's Chapel, Boston 9
\\amona 1 1 3
Ravenscroft, Thomas 2
Read, Charles F. vii
Read, Daniel 58
Redemption Hymn, Parker 57
Reed, George P. 117
Reed, George P., & Co. 117
Reeve, William 30
Riley & Adams 98
Riley, Edward 96-98
Riley, Edward C. 98
Riley, Elizabeth 98
Riley, Frederick 98
Reilly, Dr. James A. 126
D«]
Page
Reinagle, Alexander 24
Remenyi, Eduard 67
Remick Music Corporation 113
Revere, Paul 11
Rink's Organ School 58 Richardson, Nathan 57, 58, 117
Ricordi, G., & Co. 109, 110
Rio Rita 113
Rivington, James 33
Rivington & Miller 33
Robbins Music Corporation 113
Robinson, Harold W. 126
Root & Cady 129, 132
Root, E. T. 132
Root, George F. 59, 60, 129, 130, 132
Root, George F., & Sons 129, 132
Rosa, Carl 68
Rosa, Parepa 66, 68
Rossini, Giacomo 57, 101
Rottenbach, A. 75
Rubinstein, Anton 67
Rudersdorff, Hermine 69
Russell Bros. 74, 118
Russell, George D. 73, 117
Russell, G. D., & Co. 74, 118
Russell & Fuller 117
Russell, Henry 54, 101
Russell, Joseph M. 117,118
Russell & Patee 118
Russell & Richardson 117
Russell & Tolman 117
Russell, Sol. Smith 130
Ruth and Naomi, Damrosch 57
Ryan, Thomas 9, 65
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Samson, Handel |
57 |
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Sauret, Emile |
67 |
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Scharfenberg & Luis |
103 |
Schirmer, E. C, Music Company 124 Schirmer, Edward 124
Schirmer, Ernest C. 124
Schirmer, G., Inc. 104, 105, 131, 133 Schirmer, Gustav 103, 122-124
Schirmer, Gustave, Jr. 104, 122-124
Page Schirmer, Gustave, 3d 104, 123, 131 Schirmer, Rudolph E. 104, 122, 123 Schmidt, Arthur Paul 118-120, 125 Schmidt, Arthur P., Company 120 Schroeder, John Ferdinand 108 Schroeder, John Henry 108 Schroeder & Gunther, Inc. 108 Schumann, Robert 47 Secular Music-publishing 21 Selby, William 18 Sembrich, Marcella 81 Semi- popular Songs 111 Sengstack, John F. 134 Seven Songs for the Harpsi- chord, Hopkinson 24 Sewall, Judge Samuel 7 Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc. 113 Shaw & Co. 26 Shaw, Oliver 41, 58 Shaw, Ralph 86 Shaw, Robert 26 Shaw, W. F. 75 Shield, William 21, 26, 30, 56, 86, 97 Ship on Fire, The 101 Silver, Burdett & Co. 127 Silver threads among the gold 1 02 Singenberger, John B. 127 Singing Master's Assistant 13 Singing Schools established 7 Sivori, Camillo 67 Sketch Book, Nevin 122 Smith, John Stafford 38 Smith, W. Frank 121 Smoky Mokes 113 Soldier tired, The 97 Song King, The, Root . 129 Song Queen, The, Root 129 Sontag, Henrietta 66 Sonneck, Oscar G. vii, 31, 104, 105 Sousa, John Philip 130' Spear & Denhoff 74 Sprogell, Ludovic 10 Stabat Mater, Rossini 57 Stainer, Sir John 134 Stanbridge, J. C. B. 59
[I44]
Page Standard Publishers 112
Star Spangled Banner 27, 39
St. Coecilia Society 19
Stevenson, Sir John 56
Strike the Cymbal, Puccita 97
St. Matthew Passion, Bach 57, 69 Stone Chapel, Boston 18
Stone, Lucy 61
Stone, Mrs. George Whitefield vii Story, William Wetmore 65
Stoughton Musical Society 14
St. Peter, John K. Paine 57
St. Philip's Church, Charleston 10 Storace, Stephen 21, 26, 30
Storer, Maria 30
Stowe, Harriet Beecher Strauss, Johann Study Course in Music
Understanding Sumner, Charles Supp6, Franz von Surette, Thomas Whitney Summy, Clayton F. Summy, Clayton F., Company Swan, Timothy Symphonic Band Series
1 ate & Brady's Version Tansur's Royal Melody Tasselli, Dr. Renato Taylor, Raynor Thackeray, William M. Thatcher, Primrose & West Thayer, Eugene Thayer, Mary Alden There' s not a leaf within the
bower Thomas, Isaiah Thompson, C. W., & Co. Three o ' clock in the morning Tin-Pan-Alley 1
To Arms, Columbia Tolman, Henry Tolman, Henry, & Co. Tourjee, Eben
47 69
81
47
106
124
134
134
58
81
33
109
25
47
110
57,68
50
15
119
113
13, 114
37
117
117
130
Pa^e
Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys
are marching 132
Trevor, John B. 129
Trinity Church, Boston 11, 76
Trinity Church, Newport 9-1 1
Trinity Church, New York 11
Truax & Baldwin 129
Trumpler, Charles W. A. 88
Tuckerman, S. P. 6S
Turkish Patrol 106
Tuttle, Julius H. vii
U nder the daisies 103
Urania, Lyon 12
Urso, Camilla 67
V acant Chair, The 132
Vaudeville 110
Vieuxtemps, Henri 67 Violoncello, introduced in
churches 14 Von Hagen, Peter Albrecht
28, 36, 37, 114, 115
Von Hagen, P. A., & Co. 37
Wade, E. H. 74, 115, 116
Wahle, J. H., & Son 75
Walker, Julius 87
Walker, William W. 87
Walter, Rev. Thomas 7
Warner Brothers 112
Warville, Brissot de 20
Washington, General xv, 47
Water Scenes, Nevin 122
Waters, Horace 101
Watkins, Walter Kendall vii
Webb, George J. 59,61
Webbe, Dr. Samuel 56
Weber, C. M. von 101
What is Home without a Mother f 89 W7ien the leaves begin to turn 121 Whispering Hope, Winner 89
White, Charles A. 120, 121
White, Daniel L. 121
White-Smith Music Company 121
[H5]
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121 |
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White-Smith & Perry |
121 |
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Whiting, Arthur |
122 |
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Whittier, John G. |
47 |
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Whoa! Emma |
130 |
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Wieniawski, Henri |
67 |
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Wignell, Thomas |
30 |
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Wilcox, John H. |
68 |
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Wilhelmj, August |
67 |
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Williams, Gus |
130 |
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Willig, George |
26, 86, 87, 94 |
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Willig, George, Jr. |
94 |
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Willig, George, & Co. |
94 |
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Willig, Henry |
94 |
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Willig, Joseph E. |
94 |
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Willis, Charles H. |
131 |
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Willis, William H. |
131 |
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Willis, W. H., & Co. |
131 |
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Willson, Joseph |
101 |
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Windsor Tune |
3, 7 |
Page
Winner, J. Gibson 89
Winner, Joseph 89
Winner & Schuster 89
Winner, Septimus 75, 89
Winner, Septimus & Son 89
Witmark, Isidore 111
Witmark, M. , & Sons 111,112
Witmark, Julius P. 1 10-1 12
Woodbridge, William C. 49
Woodbury, Isaac B. 59 Woodward, Willis, Company 111
Wood, B. F. 124-126
Wood, B. F., Music Co. 124-126
Worcester Collection, Holden 15
Work, Henry Clay 133
Y ankee Doodle York Tune
Zerrahn, Carl 64, 68
Zeuner, Charles 51, 59
xiv 3, 7
Common Street (now Tremont Street) Boston, in 1798
From the water-color by Archibald Robertson, the Scotch artist and the drawing-master of
Washington Allston. It was once the property of John Howard Payne, the homeless author
of Home, Siveet Home, who in his youth acted with success on the Boston stage.
[.46]
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Library Bureau Cat. No. 1137
781.98 F53
3 5002 00112 4440
Fisher, William Arms
One hundred and fifty years of music pub
ML 112 . F53 1934
Fisher, William Arms, 1&61- 194fi.
One hundred and ± ift.y years a± music publishing in -the
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