The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-02-15
THE PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY.

THE PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY.
ESQ.
= very kind Of You, my friends, to greet
ne 20 cordially, and I hope Won will greet
ne proposition shall have the honor to sup-
Geet 70 you - cordially as you have me.
IN more than one occasion in the past. nv
friends. the Germania Qaartette have kindly
Rot me forward o. Q sort of social creator.
nut the only audience ON those occasions was
IN audience Of gentlemen. 1t is true thew
osoned for their misfortune in being men. "a
!sr - they could, by hearty and discrimina-
ing love OF music, but even that could not
entirely expiate the calamity of their gender.
bot now the Quartette have crowned me with
: much higher proof of their favor. Thew
have promoted me, they have entrusted ne
with more delicate functions, they have given
No IN audience Of ladies. l am sensiblv
showed by this token Of regard, and believe
that cannot more gratefully respond to it
than by briefly telling you who and what the
philharmonic Society are. and what thew
sealously aspire to be.
In 1869 few German gentlemen of this
city, drawn together by the affinity of Kindred
tastes, met in consultation and formed mu
eacai club. From these few elements, thus
informally united, but homogeneously con-
Sns9ted. sprang the Germania Quartette.
Ihear purpose ct first was Q very modest and
limited one. It embraced nothing more than
their own qualification and culture. But this
purpose soon became too narrow to contain
them. The principle Of evolution seems to
% universal in oil natural and healthy organ
asma, and therefore in the GermAnia Quar-
tosse It was alive and potential As they grew
IN number and in power of performance, their
ambition expanded. It ceased to be merely
PeEsona and selfish; it became philanthropic
= we'll e philharmonic, and sought to carry
ne JOY OF music to all Of the friends Of the
Quartette.
With what fullness of result that generous
ambition was crowned, what fountain of
unexpected pleasure it unsealed, and what
streams Of pure enjoyment flowed thence for
those fortunate friends, all Of them WHO hear
me tonight will gratefully bear witness. The
revelation of q new world was made to u.s.
They unlocked for us the cloudy portals Of Q
magic realm, amid whose pure entertainments
the coarse, the material and the visible Of life
Aoated away beyond the utmost verge Of con-
temptation. They came to us as the evangels
of new faith, under whose eloquent preach
ing the shallow dogmas of our former musical
creed were expelled, and in their place the
doctrines of . more spiritual belief we're sub
stituted. They spoke to rs with the universal
tongue Of music, and became our interpreters
Of those divine masters of song who, in their
far off he mes in the fatherland, direct the
musical thought and sway the hearts Of the
civilized world.
This is what the Germania Quartette did
for their friends. But after that q wider and
loftier ambition fred their hearts. They de.
termlned to domesticate in America the music
~ IN, Cd 70 Ann
understanding Of her wondrous harmonies,
and melt American hearts with the pathos OF
her divine melodies. Nor was even this their
ultimate goal. Forming, in themselves, the
live harmonic nucleus. they sought to aggre-
gate about themselves such mass Of high,
disciplined, and various ability that New Or
leans should become, what she Of right ought
to be, the musical metropolis Of America.
But the very light itself of their own shining
purpose disclosed to the Quartette q defect in
their organization. Brought face to face with
they discovered the undergraduates of their
projected means. True, they possessed en-
thusiasm, devotion, siDgleness Of aim, and
high function, and they gloried in q master |
capable Of turning all these to their noblest |
account. But even all these, they realized, |
were not sufficient They felt the same
sense of want that Adam felt, when he broke |
the solitude Of Eden with his complaints; and |
the relief Of their want came to them in the |
same form that Adams came to him.
The history of the Germania Quartette thus |
shows, my friends, what all Of us are bound
to concede. that the highest in no co.opera- |
tive effort is attainable except with woman's
help. Even in 80 sexless . thing as music, |
they found that the incorporation Of the f.
male element was indispensable. Success as
suredly they had achieved, high, substantial,
Aattering success. But the very heights them
selves, to which they had so bravely climbed, |
only served to show yet loftier heights,
which they could not hope to scale with the
help of male agencies alone. But the Ger
mania Qusrtette were ambitious. They we're
not satisfied with anything lower than the
highest and 30, being wise men as well as
They overcame the conceit Of masculine self
most heroic effort-and frankly
appealed to the only source from which the |
needed help could come. They enlarged the
narrow precincts of their bachelor estate, and
committed musical matrimony, and their
married name, my friends, is the "Philhar-
monte Society"
In rendering you this brief sketch of the
Germania Quartette, should leave my task
most lamentably incomplete did I fail to
mention the one to whom, above all others,
the rise, progress, and success of the Quar- !,
tette are due. First-class material is essen
tial to Arst-class reeults, but even the best
material is inert and dumb until the hand Of
the great artist is laid on it, and transfgures
il to images of life and beauty. The rank
md file of the Germania Qdartette furnished
the material, but it remained an unshaped
and formless mass until the master hand of
Groenevelt touched it aud gave it organiza-
hon, faculty and vital form. Actuated alone
- o~n1 lonv,