26
March 29, 1923
MUSICAL COURIER
HOTEL BETHLEHEM
But the portion of the work that will naturally be of greatest direct interest to readers of the Musical Courier is the chapter dealing with music in Bethlehem.
This chapter is prefaced by the following quotations from the press: “The Bethlehem Festival occupies a most important place in the musical activities of the United States,” William J. Henderson in the New York Sun; “The Bach Festivals at Bethlehem are a national institution,” Pitts Sanborn in the New York Globe; “In the eighteenth century the highest musical activity in the country existed in Bethlehem,” Annals of Music by Goepp; “Music festivals there are aplenty throughout the country every spring and summer, but what is heard in them is equaled or surpassed in the metropolis. Bethlehem alone offers what cannot be, or at any rate is not, duplicated elsewhere,” Henry T. Finck in the New York Evening Post.
This music life that has had such a remarkable development in recent years really began with nothing more significant than the first singing-hour of the Mi ravian settlers in 1742. The very name of the community was due to music, for it was the singing of a hymn at the Christmas Eve Vigils of 1741 which suggested the name of Bethlehem.
Contrary to the practice of the New England Puritans, who restricted music to psalmody, the Moravians of Penn-
In 1911 he returned to Bethlehem and reorganized the Bach Choir. Charles M. Schwab gave the choir his support and financed trips to New York in 1917-18-20-21. Concerts were also given in Philadelphia. The choir draws music lovers from all over the .country to Bethlehem each spring. It has been called the best choir in the United States and Dr. Wolle the foremost exponent of Bach now living.
The forthcoming festival in Bethlehem, May 25 and 26. is the twenty-fifth to be given there, all of them having
THE BACH CHOIR
sylvania made music an important part of their religious services. In 1746 the spinet was replaced by a small organ, and in 1751 by a large organ. One of the early organs is kept in the museum of the Young Men’s Missionary Society at Bethlehem and still emits musical sounds.
The first complete quartet of trombones (!) in America was brought to Bethlehem from Europe in 1754, and the custom of using trombones for the playing of chorals seems to have been continued to the present day. Also violins, flutes, horns and other instruments were used to accompany the singing of hymns, and before 1760 entire services were conducted to music composed by the settlers themselves. Benjamin Franklin speaks of the “very fine music” he heard in the Bethlehem church during a visit in 1756.
In 1744 the symphony orchestra numbered fourteen players, and later ranged from fifteen to twenty. Orchestra music was rendered at every important church service. Many instrumental and vocal concerts were also given, sometimes as many as thirty-six in a year (1809). It is an unquestionable fact that the first renditions of Mozart in America were at Bethlehem. The music archives of the Bethlehem church contain manuscripts of six Mozart trios for strings and ■three Mozart symphonies, all dated prior to 1785.
The leader of the orchestra was the Rev. Immanuel Nitschmann, who brought from Europe the earliest copies
BETHLEHEM AND
Bethlehem, the Pennsylvania city which has been made musically famous by Dr. J Fred Wolle and the Bach Choir, has “got its name in print” in the shape of a most excellent and interesting book entitled Bethlehem Long Ago and Today by Raymond Walters, Dean of Swarthmore College, formerly registrar and assistant professor of English, Lehigh University. This work, as the publisher’s note sets forth, tells a story of the European background of the Moravians and their pioneer missionary work among the Indians, to which Washington and Roosevelt paid beautiful tributes; pictures the idyllic community life at Bethlehem -m Colonial days; portrays the Revolutionary War period, when the Continental Hospital was located at Bethlehem, and Washington, Lafayette and many other celebrities visited the community; tells of Bethlehem’s, educational institutions from the first girls’' boarding school in America to Lehigh University; recounts the musical traditions of Bethlehem from the town’s symphony orchestra of the 1790’s to the famous Bach Choir of today; sketches authoritatively the history of the Bethlehem Steel Company and the career of Charles M. Schwab, and depicts the life of the city of the present, the Bethlehem of industry and civic zeal.
The preface says that Bethlehem is a name which is known in every capital in the world, a name which, as an industrial trade-mark, is valued at millions; a name which, in the world of musicv has become as renowned as Bay-
Bell House 17Ì6
A Double Celebration
On April 4, in the Liberty High School Auditorium in Bethlehem, Pa., a community celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the organization of the Bach Choir and the sixtieth birthday anniversary of Dr. J. Fred Wolle, its only leader, will be celebrated. April 4 is the date of Dr. Wolle’s birthday.
The annual Bach Festival will be held on Friday, May 25, and Saturday, May 26, in the Packer Memorial Church, Lehigh University, Bethlehem. As at the other festivals, Dr. Wolle will conduct the choir of 250 voices, and there will be soloists of high rank, orchestra, organ and the Moravian Trombone Choir. On Friday afternoon and evening the St. John Passion will be given, the soloists being Emily Stokes Hagar, soprano; Merle Alcock, contralto; Nicolas Douty, tenor, and Fred Patton, bass-baritone. On Saturday at 1:30 the Kyrie and Gloria of the Mass in B Minor will be given and at 4 p. m. the remainder of the Mass will be heard. The soloists for the Mass will be Mildred Faas, soprano; Mabelle Addison, contralto; Nicholas Douty, tenor, and Fred Patton, bass-baritone.
Many inquiries from various parts of the country have been received from music lovers wishing to attend the festival. The sale of tickets to founders and guarantors extends from April 3 to 16. The general sale of course tickets opens on Friday, April 20. Orders for single tickets will not be accepted until May 7.
THE BACH CHOIR
of Haydn’s quartets and symphonies. Perhaps the first oratorios given on American soil were the Messiah and the Creation in 1811, and Bethlehem has to its credit several other first American performances. In 1820 the old Collegium Musicum was reorganized as the Philharmonic Society, a joint body of singers and ■players, which endured for nearly seventy years. In the early eighties the chorus of the Philharmonic Society dwindled away (it is a pity the book does not give the reason) and J. Fred Wolle, then a youth of nineteen, formed the Bethlehem Choral Union in 1882, an organization that began the Bach movement and later became the Bach choir. This chorus gave Bach’s Passion According to St. John for the first time in this country in 1888. The Bach Choir came into being in 1898 and the first concert was given in 1.900. So successful was it that a more ambitious festival was planned for 1901. Of this festival the late H. E. Krehbiel wrote in the New York Tribune: “Mr. Wolle’s singers accomplish miracles.”
In 1905 Dr. Wolle was called to the chair of music in the University of California and there served six years.
reuth ; a name which, in the field of education, has wide reputation; a name which, in several branches of athletics, has become famous. The inception of the book is due to the Historical Group of the Thursday Evening Club of Bethlehem, and its publication to the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce.
Every chapter in the book is of absorbing interest. The story is well told, a straightforward tale of events without excessive verbiage or fine writing. The gradual growth of the city is clearly set forth so that one sees the events that led to it and appreciates the energy of the splendid men who made it what it is today. Especially moving is the story of the growth of thè steel industry, which is a first-rate picture of Americanism, and worth thinking about.
Old Chapel 1755
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Moravian Church 1806
DR. J. FRED WOLLE,
director of the Bach Choir since its inception.
been under the direction of Dr. Wolle. On May 25 the Choir will sing the Passion According to St. John and on the following day the B minor Mass, on both occasions assisted by the Philadelphia Orchestra and prominent soloists. In commemoration of the facts that this is the twenty-fifth festival and the sixtieth birthday of Dr. Wolle, a celebration is to be held in Bethlehem on April 4.