Evening star., 1933-01-22
death last week OF DR..
J. Fred Wolfe, director of
the Bethlehem Bach FeS-

j. FreQ WOllS, OlIeClOl VI
the Bethlehem Bach FeS-
tival, not only leaves va
cancy in the musical life of Amer
lea, but threatens the existence
of one of our most important mu-
sical organizations. For 33 years
the festivals at Bethlehem have
been the pride of this country
and have received the praise and
respect of the entire world. They
have not only given a sense of
Solidity to our musical endeavC.~S,
but they have challenged the
Scepticism of critics of our mu-
steal taste and silenced them. In
answer to any assertion of the
weakness of our love of good
music we have been able to point
to the Bach festivals and demol-
ish every criticism.
Too much honor cannot be
paid the man who originated
them and kept them alive for so
many years. With unerring judg-
ment and unWaveTing standfast-
ness, DR.. Wolfe held to his ideals
and was rewarded by the aWak-
ening and growth of appreciation
of Bach which he had foreseen.
He had faith in us and, like a
kindly teacher, he repeated his
lessons of beauty until he had
driven home and made apparent
the grandeur of the music he
espoused. In all our restless life
and straying after each new at
traction he, alone, concentrated
on his ideals of good music. Many
wandering and dissatisfied
sheep he has brought back into
the musical fold and given a re-
newal of faith. In this day, when
eagerness to accept the unusual
and alluring is universal, the loss
of one who held on to the tried
and true is catastrophe.
DR.. Wolfe had the good fortune
to be born in a community where
serious music had always been a
part of daily life and to have an
ancestry that prepared for him
his deep love and respect for its
most serious exponent. It is not
difficult to understand the en-
thuSiasm which filled him when,
as a young student in Munich, he
heard Bach given in the grand
manner. The ideas that came to
him at that time he began to put
into shape on his return home.
Enlisting the interest of the lis
singers in the Bethlehem Choral
Union, which he had formed be-
fore leaving for Germany, he pre-
pared and in 1892 gave both the
st. Johns and the st. Matthews
Passion" After this decided sue
cess, he wished to give the mass
in B minor, but its difficulties
frightened the singers and rather
than give himself to the produc-
ton of other works, he agreed to
the disSolving of the organization.
For five years there was no Bach
given in Bethlehem on a grand
scale. -,t
When, in 1898, a group of ladies
asked DR.: Wolfe to direct a mu-
sical club they had formed, he re-
fused unless it be devoted to the
study of Bach. 1t was then that
a number of singers in and near
Bethlehem were approached and
eventually a large enough chorus,
willing to learn Bach, was formed.
After IA months Of intensive
study, DR.. Wolle's great wish was
realized and the mass was given
at the first. Bach festival in
March, 1900. Since then, at each
festival, it has been an estab-
lished part of the program.
Active in assisting DR.. Wolfe to
organize the first chorus and
soloist at the first festival was
Lucy Brickenstein of Washington.
Miss Brickenstein has continued
to serve on each succeeding COM
mittee and to sing the soprano
solos of the great mass. Another
Washingtonian whose fine voice
was often heard there is Charles
Trowbridge Tittmann.
DR.. Wolfe had not only the
genius to see the value of an in
tenSive study of Bach, but he had
the executive ability to carry out
the business arrangements neces-
sary to such an important per-
fcrmance. He bore the burden of
the financial direction as we'll as
the arrangement and direction of
the music. He made it a one
man job and assumed this re-
sponsibility over a period of
years. The Bethlehem Bach Fes-
tival and DR.. Wolfe are synony-
nous.
He garnered the music lovers
from all the surrounding country
and held the interest of these un-
trained singers. His tact and un-
derstanding of the psychology of
the people he taught are illus
trated in the me thod he employed
in reducing the difficulties of the
study of the long choruseS. Be-
ginning with the last line of the
last chorus, he proceeded back
ward to the beginning, realizing
that there is subtle encourage
ment in mastering the climaxes
first. Many singers of note were
soloiSts with the yearly festivals,
and celebrated musicians from all
over the country made pilgrimage
to assist in reverent silence at the
faithful and sincere rendering of
the works Of the great father OF
music.
With the passing of DR.. Wolfe,
the Bach festivals remain with
out a guiding hand. 1t will be
difficult to find a successor to the
man whose simple and uncom-
promising attitude, deep musi-
cianship and true love for music
has served as pioneer and as re-
lentless upholder of the value of
Bach as a constant educator and
stabilizing influence in our musi-
cal life. Surely the spirit of DR..
Wolfe must be in accord with the
sentiments of the famous war
poem:
TO you from failing hands Ue
tHrOU