New-York tribune., 1921-03-13
A Valuable Contribution to
History of Music i'm America
New Supplementary Volume of Groves Dictionary Is
Devoted to American Composers, Inst
tutions and Activities

performers were almost wholly Eng
lish; thereafter they came also from
france. Congregational singing was
improved and became influential
through the establishment of singing
schools, musical instruments were i'm
ported in greater number and BEGIN
nings were made in commercial manu-
facture, and with Francis Hopkinson
composition had its beginning. "But
the line of contributors to psalmody
was we'll established before 1900"
Much interesting information, largely
drawn from Mr.. o. G. Sonneck's in
valuable works on early American con-
cert and operate activities, is pre-
sented in the Chronological Register.
Era of Expansion
There follows what the editors call
"The Era of National Expansion"-
from 1900 to 1S60-in which the ma
tional domain was increased at least
skiold, until its area was nearly as
large as all Europe, great stream of
immigration set in, cities were multi
piled, industrial and commercial en-
terprise grew enormously, as did
wealth, also. Thousands of miles of
railways were opened and original i'm
pulse in the fields of science, letters
end the fine arts became noticeable. In
the evolution of musical culture the
advance was marked by a decided in
crease in the number of visiting per-
formers and resident teachers, and q
promising activity set in in respect of
church music, concert undertakings,
cperatic enterprises; the cultivation
i psalmody spreads in the directions
southwest and west, stimulating choral
and solo singing, the study of compost
ton; the manufacture Of musical in
struments, especially pionafortes, grows
in energy (the product in 1850 amount
ing to nearly s2,600,O0O). About 1870
,--e influence of Germany begins
markedly to be felt-in pianoforte
manufacture, musical performances,
etc.,, notable incidents being the visit
Of the Germania Orchestra In 1848 and
the arrival of the boy Theodore Thomas
il 1646. In connection with this, the
{; ming of Carl Zerrahn and Carl Berg
mann ought also to have been recorded,
since their great influence in Boston
and New York antedated that Of Mr..
Thomas and was scarcely inferior. In
fact, it was from the Boston Handel
and Haydn Society, conducted by Mr..
Gcrrahn, that stimulating impulse in
choral culture went out over the coun-
t-y, and it was under Mr.. Bergman
that Mr.. Thomas developed his capacity
as an orchestral leader. The period also
was signalized by the organization of
tne Handel and Haydn Society in Bos-
ton (1815), the Musical Fund. Society
of Philadelphia (1820) and the New
York Philharmonic Society (1842). 1t
saw also the building of the New York
Academy of Music G854), the Boston
Music Hall (1S63) and the finest of q
series OF opera houses (the first in
1909 in New Orleans 1850.
Musical Development After tho Civil
The phases Of musical development
in the first period marked off after the
Civil War are credited to the influence
OF organized education. at was in this
period that instructors and professors
OF music began to become common IN
colleges and universities, that instruc-
ton in music in public schools began
to be widely and permanently adopted,
that responsible music schools began
to be founded, that the occupation of
music teaching began to be recognized
as a 'profession,' that regular concert
and opera series began to be estab-
lished, that choral societies and or
chestras began to be organized in such
a way as to continue, that influential
musical periodicals and books began to
multiply and thus that the whols social
and intellectual status of musical art
began to acquire general significance
With this came, Of course, a great un-
folding of artistic power in perform