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  • “Something New in the Musical Line”: The Emergence of the Song Recital during the 1870s and 1880s
  • Heather Platt (bio)

Despite the burgeoning field of transatlantic studies, the incorporation of Lieder into American concert life has been ignored. While Nancy Newman has identified persistent gaps in our understanding of “the precise mechanism by which the ‘classical,’ predominantly German, repertory of instrumental works found its way into American concert halls,” we know far less about the American adoption of the Lied.1 Ironically, musicologists have repeatedly acknowledged the contributions of the likes of Theodore Thomas (1835–1905), Carl Wolfsohn (1834–1907), and John Sullivan Dwight (1813–93) in disseminating German instrumental music, but they have overlooked these men’s interest in Lieder, a genre that was central to the German Romantic movement. Yet one of the chief “mechanisms” through which the Lied began to be assimilated into US concert life centered on the collaborations between Thomas’s and Dwight’s extended network of like-minded musicians and singers such as August Kreissmann (1823–79), Fanny Raymond Ritter (ca. 1840–90), George Werrenrath (1838–98), George Henschel (1850–1934), and Max Heinrich (1853–1916). Through their advocacy of the Lied, these vocalists led the way in establishing song recitals. As in Europe, the singers who initially championed Lieder were mostly concert singers and not operatic soloists, and unlike vocal concerts comprised of popular arias, their song recitals highlighted nineteenth-century art songs and sometimes included a few numbers from earlier centuries. Although singers [End Page 454] were likely inspired by renowned Lieder exponents in Europe, notably Julius Stockhausen (1826–1906), they developed programs independently and in ways that responded to conditions in the United States. Critics frequently praised the high quality of their repertoire and noted the musically educated audiences who attended their performances.

In a 1965 article, Edward Kravitt dated the initial period of the incorporation of Lieder into European public concerts to 1830–75, marking Gustav Walter’s (1834–1910) 1876 Schubert Abend as prompting a flood of Viennese recitals titled Liederabend.2 The term Liederabend did not gain currency in the United States during the nineteenth century; the alternative designation of “song recital” was likely used to accommodate songs in a variety of genres and to attract the attention of Anglophone audiences. William Weber traced the use of the word “recital” back to Liszt’s solo appearances in London in 1840 and to the 1846 piano recitals of Marie Pleyel (1811–75) in the same city. Recently he joined Simon McVeigh in surveying some of the types of concerts that programmed Lieder in London prior to the 1890s and the subsequent “explosion” of concerts and recitals featuring Lieder at the turn of the century.3 Although Weber researched early “vocal concerts” in the United States, he has not considered song recitals.

Examinations of US concert life during the nineteenth century have similarly neglected song recitals, with Nancy Reich’s study of US performances of Schumann’s music being one of the few to briefly consider Lieder.4 Other studies of the transatlantic transfer of German operas and symphonies only sporadically mention Lieder; though to be sure they detail the development of cultural life and infrastructure that facilitated the emergence of song recitals.5 In contrast to studies of concert life, Armin W. Hadamer has explored the ways in which German songs were assimilated into US culture by focusing on printed scores produced for the domestic market.6 While the dissemination of sheet music impacted the selection of Lieder performed in public concerts and recitals, and performers and critics such as Jenny Lind (1820–87), Max Heinrich, and Dwight were involved in various aspects of the production of scores, the focus of the following article is on concert performances.

Sources documenting public performances of Lieder are far more numerous than those describing performances in private homes or in private concerts sponsored by German organizations such as Männerchöre. Indeed, William Steinway’s (1835–96) diary documenting some of the Lieder that he sang at home stands in stark contrast to the dearth of information about the customs of other German immigrants singing with friends and family members.7 In...

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