Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain

While researching for my paper, I came across the BBC website section dedicated to the History of Victorian Britain. There is a huge article entitled Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain by Lynn Abrams which outlines all the responsibilities and ideals of womanhood during this era.

This is pertinent to my paper regarding Alice Elgar for comparing her as the enigmatic Victorian woman that she was to the ideal Victorian woman. This article has actually been a great source for understanding what women stood for and what was expected of them during this time period. I read it in tandem with Percy M. Young’s book Alice Elgar, Enigma of a Victorian Lady. By reading them together, I could better understand Alice’s puzzling life and what she struggled with.

During this time it a women’s place was in the home and a man’s place was in the public business world. Abrams begins her article with a brief discussion of the icon of the Victorian era, Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria characterized this era by her femininity that was centered around family life and domesticity. She was a mother to a total of nine children with her husband, Prince Albert, but also considered the “mother of the nation.” She became the icon of the middle class marital stability and family life.

Abrams continues her article with an outline of the ideal Victorian woman; a woman who carried out her duties as wife, mother and basically household manager. She was to be good and virtuous, such as Mrs. Goodby (a Preacher’s wife who Abram’s mentions), and her life was to revolve completely around family and domestic life. Abrams mentions this woman because she had a constant devotion to her husband to to God, which made her an ideal woman. [In essence, this is what Alice Elgar did to support her husband, but I think his life was so different than the ideal man that it seemed the puzzle pieces just didn’t fit.] The women’s role was that of “helpmeet and domestic manager.” [Alice Elgar was surely a helpmeet to Edward.] The domestic role women played was a duty to society as much as it was to their families. Adams points out that the ideal woman during this time was not a meek, tea sipping, passive creature, but a busy, able women who “drew strength from her moral superiority and whose virtue was manifested in the service of others.”

In the next section of the article, Adams discusses home life and work life being very separate and the importance of creating that distinction in the decor of the home and the way women dressed. The middle class household was well decorated in the latest trends and had comfortable furniture. Upper class citizens could afford heavier, more elaborate fabric for their furnishings. Adams makes an interesting comparison between the way women decorated their homes and the way they dressed. She says that women’s clothes began to mirror their function in the home. The clothes were highly sexualized with oversized bustles, undergarments like corsets and hoop-skirts that shrunk the waistline and shoved breasts up and in. She says “the female body was dressed to emphasize a woman’s separation from the world of work.” [It’s interesting to think about Alice Elgar in this manner. From accounts I have read, she was not considered a physically beautiful woman. In Percy Young’s book, he does mention Carice’s comment that her mother wishes she could have been more beautiful for Elgar’s sake.]

Within the household, women were pressured by publications as to the proper way to run the household. Most middle class women had one servant [in the Elgar’s case, they had one servant who was “passed down” from Alice’s mother after she died.] At this point, working class women also began to demand privileges for themselves in the home. Domestic industry grew so that women could be paid for working in their own homes (albeit with a very low paying salary), while keeping up the front of this ideal domesticity. [Similarly, Alice Elgar found her place within the domestic industry as her husband’s manager. She took a twist on this idea of working within the home and found her own place.]

Motherhood during the Victorian era was completely different than what it used to be. Motherhood (and womanhood) was now characterized by mother’s bonding with their children, breastfeeding, educating and creating an better life for the child by incorporating them into the daily routine. Adams says womanhood was achieved if they “responded emotionally to their infants.” A women who did not have a child was “pitied.” [Alice Elgar “finally” accomplished this feat of womanhood when she gave birth to Alice at the age of 41. Percy Young wrote in his book that Alice taught her daughter, Carice, to read by the age of four.] Adams also writes that motherhood became something of a social responsibility and was no longer natural, but had to be learned. [This fits right in with Alice Elgar’s life. She gave up her life completely to what was the “ideal” during the time, not to what came natural to her- becoming a writer and a career woman. But Alice was so loyal to her family and so was committed to maintaining the life she had chosen, though it seems she became bored and depressed with the pressures of domestic life and responsibility, as Young points out.]

Lynn Abrams also discusses women’s social and political missions during this era. She discusses women reaching out to the poor and doing charity work and also their push towards equal voting rights for women. She says “women believed that the key to philanthropy was the personal touch, so the lady reformer ventured out to those in need.” [I think charitable causes that women were interested in are amusing to mention here since Alice essentially took Elgar under her wing. It is almost as if he was her charitable cause. I wonder if this is what the other women may have also thought about Elgar. Was he everyone’s charity case?]

Collaboration Take 2: Trial by Jury the true start of the Savoy Operas

William S. Gilbert and Arthur S. Sullivan first collaborated in 1871 on Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old.  While this show, a holiday entertainment, was relatively successful (it played for 63 performances), the score has since been lost.  Because the show did not result in a long run, the two went their separate ways for the next several years.  However, when fate brought the two together again with Trial by Jury in 1875, a new era of British lyric theatre began.  This is the story of how that show came to be, beginning the dominance of the Savoy Operas of the British stage for the final quarter of the 19^th century.

THE BEGINNING:  A STORY WITHOUT A SETTING

Gilbert first conceived Trial by Jury as one of his “Bab Ballads”, and it was published in 1868 in Fun magazine.  The original ballad can be found here:  http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/bab_ballads/html/trial.html.  The Bab Ballad calls the work an operetta, but the score in its final state is self-classified as a ‘dramatic cantata’.  Either way, the work was originally not meant for collaboration with Sullivan for D’Oyly Carte, but rather for another impresario.  Carl Rosa engaged Gilbert to expand the one-page Bab Ballad, with the intent of the show being a vehicle to feature his wife.  However, with her death before the collaboration began, Gilbert found himself in need of a new composer.  Richard D’Oyly Carte made the suggestion that Gilbert approach Sullivan with the piece.  When Sullivan agreed to set it, history was in the making.[i]

THE LEGAL FOUNDATION

Trial by Jury tells the story of Angelina (the Plaintiff) and her lawsuit against Edwin (the Defendant), her former fiancée.  The suit is over a charge of ‘breach of promise of marriage’, a charge that could be filed by a woman against a man but not vice versa.  The charge alleges that the man promised marriage to the woman, and then rescinded that promise.  This law was created because it was believed that women were more likely to give themselves conjugally before marriage if they were engaged.  To break off the marriage after such a thing occurred would cause the woman to become ‘damaged goods’, greatly reducing her appeal to other future husbands.  In turn, this could cause financial hardship upon the woman, thus making a suit for monetary settlement a reasonable legal recourse.

THE CHARACTERS

Besides Edwin and Angelina, the principal characters of Trial by Jury are The Learned Judge, the Usher, the Counsel for the Plaintiff, and the Foreman of the Jury.  The Learned Judge is the patter character, and a true template for the patter roles to come.  (An interesting side note, the man who sang this role in the original production was Fred Sullivan, brother of the composer.  Fred also had a principal role in Thespis, and all indication point towards him being the lead patter man in the future collaborations.  However, tragedy struck and Fred Sullivan passed away before the role of John Wellington Wells was written in The Sorcerer.  That role was created by George Grossmith, who would go on to create most of the patter roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.)

The characters are presented almost as stereotyped mockeries.  Edwin, the tenor, is a womanizing jerk who leaves his fiancée high and dry, and sings about falling in love with another woman.  In some productions, he is even staged as arriving with another woman (this concept of ‘the other woman’ has seen many various incarnations, including an impromptu ‘pick-up’ performance at the 2010 International Festival’s Festival Club featuring 3 ‘other women’ on the arms of Edwin at his trial; I am happy to say I was the Edwin in that evening’s entertainment, and got quite a few laughs from the absurdity of it).  Angelina is portrayed as a woman only interested in the materialistic side of her jilting; she is perfectly happy to accept the ‘damages Edwin must pay’ in lieu of getting her man back, and happily goes for the wealthy judge instead at the conclusion of the opera.  The judge sings an entire song about the less-than-ethical path to his current exalted position, while the Counsel proves to be rather inept when he declares the marrying of two women to be the illegal offense of burglary (rather than bigamy).  Perhaps the inspiration for this portrayal came from Gilbert’s own background.  He was a lawyer, and notoriously unhappy with the legal state of the UK.

RECEPTION

Trial by Jury premiered as an after piece to Offenbach’s La Périchole, part of a 3-show evening’s entertainment.[ii]  The piece was an immediate success with critics and the public alike, performing for a total of 131 times during its opening run.  The critic for The Times commented specifically on the performances of Nellie Bromley (the Plaintiff) and Fred Sullivan (the Judge), as well as the authentic costuming of the characters.[iii]

The critic from The Era felt all the principals did well, mentioning a word of praise for each.  Again, the visual presentation, and the authenticity thereof, is mentioned.  Also, this particular article makes reference to another way in which Trial by Jury was a landmark work.  According to this article, many versions of a trial on stage existed before Trial by Jury, but this critic makes it appear that the concept of actually setting such a show to music is new.[iv]

CONTINUED LIFE

Trial by Jury continues to be a staple of the G&S repertoire for any society, and many non-G&S specific performing groups as well.  This summer, the Ohio Light Opera will present Trial by Jury as part of a triple bill.  The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (NYGASP) in New York City have Trial as the opening show in a G&S gala evening.  The Savoy Company of Philadelphia (America’s oldest G&S society) will be partnering with The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Chester County from West Chester, PA in a production of Trial by Jury at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Gettysburg, PA (I will be singing the role of the Defendant in this production).  In this way, the earliest extant collaboration between W.S. Gilbert and A.S. Sullivan continues to thrive on the stages of the 21^st Century.

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[i] This brief history of the early collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan comes from a discussion with Sam Silvers, a New York City native who has compiled information about all the shows and volunteers much of his time to editing the Wikipedia articles on the Savoy Operas and related topics.

[ii] The opening piece was an obscure work entitled Cryptoconchoidsyphonostomata and has also been a recent Savoynet thread (for more on Savoynet, please see my other blog posting).

[iii] First Night Review from The Times, Monday, March 29, 1875 (found at:  http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/trial/html/times75.html )

[iv] First Night Review from The Era, Sunday, March 28, 1875 (found at:  http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/trial/html/era75.html )

Mount Holyoke College

Please enjoy these ground plans and photographs of Mount Holyoke College. Founded in 1837, Mount Holyoke College is the first all-women's college in the US, which makes the school a Victorian institution. Frederick Law Olmstead (1822-1903), who is best known for his plans for Central Park, designed the original grounds. The school's meandering paths, forests, and rolling streams are reminiscent of this fact. I read somewhere that Olmstead also modeled the Mount Holyoke ground after an insane asylum. The meandering paths and water are supposed to calm women's nerves. I would have to return to the Mount Holyoke archives in order to find a citation, so for now, consider this tidbit juicy folklore.

Image 1: http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/help/popmap.html
Image 2: http://www.thefullwiki.org/Timeline_of_women's_colleges_in_the_United_States
Image 3: http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=55831
Image 4: http://www.bogoboo.com/5-beautiful-colleges-usa/

Music Trade Review from Our Boston Headquarters

http://www.arcade-museum.com/mtr/MTR-1912-55-13/MTR-1912-55-13-32.pdf

At the link above you will find a page from the Boston Music Trade Review dated September 24, 1912. On the page there are two small articles that mention John Anderson. The first article reports that business is picking up the Everett Piano Company. The second article announces the invention of a wooden game table, in which players can remove the center section of the table and insert other games. Although this is obviously not a piano, John Anderson is selling these tables at the Everett Piano Factory.

Romanticizing Little Women

I would like to take this opportunity in this blog to explore an article that I have read for my final paper for the semester. I found the article “A Feminist Romance: Adapting Little Women to the Screen,” by Karen Hollinger and Teresa Winterhalter immensely interesting while trying to digest all of the text and what I think about the novel and relate this all to the adaptation of the opera. I was particularly intrigued because in this article they analyze the adaptation of the novel to the 1994 movie. Hollinger and Winterhalter argue that in that Robin Swicord, the screenwriter for the adaptation, openly admits and then follows suit with an adaptation of the book that is applicable to the women of today. They quote that she wanted to express, “what was important today… to say what was not being said, particularly to young women and about young women.” (pg. 173 Hollinger and Winterhalter) Further they add that “Swicord may have rewritten the novel the way contemporary women wish Alcott had written it.” (pg. 173) Although I believe that there are different motives behind the libretto that developed into the opera Little Women, I would also argue that the preservation of the sentiments of the original text seem to be skewed in many ways to romanticize and idealize Mark Adamo’s interpretation of the text instead of conveying possibly the original intent of Alcott’s novel.

Even though Swicord intended to adapt the story for an audience of today, she still intended to tell the “true adaptation” of the story. This concept brings up the issue of what do we as an audience of today take from this story. Hollinger and Winterhalter argue that many of the original intentions of the text are lost through the translation to this other adaptation. In many ways Alcott’s novel reads very conservatively. The text is an allegory to conforming to the patriarchal driven Victorian society. As Patricia Meyer Spacks criticizes in the article “Little women’s didacticism shows how completely women can incorporate unflattering assumptions about their own nature using such assumptions as moral goads… women are foolish, vain and lazy. They must be laboriously taught to be otherwise.” (pg. 174) Once the “little women” acquire “goodness” they are then rewarded through different ways all of which result in a fitting husband. Later in the article Hollinger and Winterhalter explore the ways in which the women are “rewarded.” In Alcott’s novel it is very clear that Amy is rewarded for becoming virtuous and adapted to the society of the time. The reasoning that she is chosen to accompany Mrs. March to Europe in the novel is because Mrs. March has recognized her ability to conduct herself in a manner that fits within society. In the movie, this topic is barely touched on. It is dismissed and understood by Jo that the reason why she is not able to go to Europe is because Amy had been the most recent caretaker of Mrs. March so she is the logical choice. This is also interesting because in the opera this issue is also glazed over. It seems again as though Adamo’s “little women” like Swicord’s are trying to express something different with the story at hand.

Another scene that has received many interpretations depending on the adaptation is the death of Beth. As Hollinger and Winterhalter point out in their article Beth is the ultimate “little woman.” She represents all that is Victorian and “good” for women. “Beth is the only March sister to achieve completely the self-abnegating femininity that Marmee hopes to inculcate into all her Girls She is the Victorian ‘angel in the house,’ who in both novel and film lives a life of total submission to the will of others and whose early death enshrines her as a family saint.” (pg.182-183). It is then too fitting too that she fulfills the duty of the “musician” of the household. As we discussed with the article about the duties of the Victorian girl at the parlor piano, Beth too is responsible and seamlessly cares for the family first and foremost. It is interesting that the accounts of her death in the book and the movie are very different. The authors point out that the novel reflects a very different occurrence of her death. One that preserves her shy demeanor that is so prized as a well groomed Victorian woman. Alcott says, “Seldom except in books do the dying utter memorable words, see visions, or depart with beatified countenances, and those who have sped any parting souls know that to most the end comes as naturally and simply as sleep. As Beth had hoped, the ‘tide went out easily,’ and in the dark hour before the dawn, on the bosom where she had drawn her first breath, she quietly drew her last, with no farewell but one loving look, one little sigh.”(pg. 404-405) On the contrary in the movie, and strangely in the opera as well, the adaptor of the story uses this opportunity to remind us almost to say that Beth was the sister that was left behind. In the opera Beth says in some of her final words, “You are tomorrow’s child. I am not. Of course, I I never had a future planned we’d thought that odd, remember?” (pg. 252) This attitude seems to reflect the same feeling that Swicord’s Beth had in her own dying words. She too chose to point out that she was the sister that was never expected to become anything. This seems to argue the opinion that women that became the Victorian ideal were doomed to follow the same fate as our dear Beth. As Hollinger and Winterhalter say, “Here, death provides Beth with a final opportunity to show the courage that she envies in her more accomplished sisters. Swicord and Armstrong thus manage to convert even this scene, which represents the novel’s ultimate celebration of self-sacrificial femininity, into a symbolic enactment of female strength and determination as Beth goes off to death heroic and unafraid.” (pg. 185)

SavoyNet: The Online, World-Wide Gilbert and Sullivan 'Society'

Earlier in the semester, I posted about Savoynet in my personal blog.  Savoynet is the online, world-wide Gilbert and Sullivan 'Society'.  Although it is primarily a discussion forum, many of the members (myself included, consider it more of a society.  We even go as far as having the 'Savoynet Performing Group'.  However, more of this later.

Savoynet was begun in 1992 by Bill Venman.  It was a response to the lack of information available online at that time about Gilbert and Sullivan.  Originally housed at the University of Massachusetts, it soon moved to Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia.  Ralph MacPhail, Jr., arguably the leading academic authority on Gilbert and Sullivan in North America, was the list master for several years.  In 1998, that position passed to Marc Shepherd, who has managed the list ever since.[i]

THE MEMBERSHIP

Savoynet is a wonderful resource for the exploration and discussion of all things related to Gilbert, Sullivan, D’Oyly Carte, and their world.  Membership numbers over 700, and ranges from those of small to moderate interest (the majority of the membership would comprise of these individuals, I believe) to die-hard enthusiasts and scholars.  A message to the Savoynet list will reach college students, professors of all fields, professional performers, and most of the leading names in Gilbert and Sullivan scholarship.

Members are found from all over the world.  We have Savoynetters from Australia, South Africa, Belgium, Canada, USA, and the UK, just for an example.  This allows for easy dissemination of ideas from all corners of the world.

THE DISCUSSIONS

As previously mentioned, the primary purpose of Savoynet is the discussion of Gilbert and Sullivan, their lives, their works, and other related threads.  The discussions can get very interesting, and sometimes even rather hotly debated.  I will discuss a few of the most recent major threads to travel the list.

Many of the currently pre-eminent Gilbert and Sullivan authors are members of the list.  Andrew Crowthers, a UK member, recently had a book published about Gilbert, entitled Gilbert of G. and S.  The author attended and spoke at a recent meeting of The Gilbert and Sullivan Society in London, after which a number of Savoynetters purchased his book; the early reviews seem very favorable.  Possibly the most-published Gilbert and Sullivan scholar in the world is Dr. Ian Bradley, a professor in multiple fields at the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland.  I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Bradley this summer at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England, and was delighted to find that he, too, is a member of Savoynet.  Though not a frequent contributor, it is always quite enjoyable when he deigns to put in his oar.

A popular genre of thread on Savoynet is the discussion of obscure details of Gilbert’s lyrics. Sometimes these are references to actual issues / happenings of the Victorian society in which Gilbert lived.  At other times, these are words devised by Gilbert himself.  For example, last summer a discussion was had about a phrase in the Act 1 Finale of Iolanthe, in which the Fairy Queen states that Strephon “shall prick that annual blister; marriage with deceased wife’s sister!”  This refers to an arcane legal issue, in which it was illegal for a man to marry the sister of his deceased wife.  It seems that the House of Commons repeatedly passed a bill repealing this law, but each year it was voted down by the House of Lords.  Of the other type of discussion, I reference a thread that has been occurring over the previous few days.  In a discussion about the word ‘caravanserai’, which occurs in Iolanthe, one member posted that they had gone through the electronic version of the completed Oxford English Dictionary and were able to look up how many words contain citations to the Gilbert and Sullivan shows.  This member listed the citations by show, and of the 14 operettas (there was even one citation for Thespis, the non-extant first collaboration of Gilbert and Sullivan) there were a total of 172 citations.

Although these are examples of the most common threads found on Savoynet, the list goes on and on.  Performances are reviewed, staging ideas are shared, and events are advertised.  Discussions focus of course on the Savoy Operas, but often include SWOGs and GWOSs as well.  (For the uninitiated, those acronyms stand for Sullivan WithOut Gilbert and Gilbert WithOut Sullivan shows, respectively).  On occasion, more distantly related music / shows are discussed as well.  Most recently, there has been a big discussion of The Mendelssohn Project, as one of the lists more frequent contributors, Robin Gordon-Powell, is a member of this project.  Mendelssohn was one of Sullivan’s teachers, and much of Sullivan’s music can be seen to be influenced by his work.  Thus, it has its place in discussion on Savoynet.

THE SAVOYNET PERFORMING GROUP

In 1993, the first International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival was held in Buxton, England.  Beginning in 1997, Savoynet began sending a production of their own to the Festival.  The Savoynet Performing Group is an off-shoot from the discussion list, and provides a rather unique performing experience for its cast members.  The group meets in Buxton at the Festival a week before the date of their performance.  Principals and chorus are cast months in advance via taped auditions.  While some people send in DVDs of themselves, the popular method for audition in recent years has been emailed recordings or posting their audition on Youtube.  This summer will mark a major accomplishment for the Performing Group:  with their upcoming production of The Mikado, they will have completed a full presentation of the canon.  Last summer, the Performing group presented The Gondoliers.  I was fortunate enough to be cast as Marco Palmieri, the principal tenor part, with this group.  The experience of staging a show in a week and then performing / competing in an international venue was a real memory maker.  The group has a history of success in this competition, and last year was no exception:  we were nominated for several awards, winning two.

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[i] Background information on SavoyNet was found on the SavoyNet homepage:  http://savoynet.oakapplepress.com

Personal Correspondence of John Anderson.

I found the letter below amongst a pile of papers about my great-great grandfather. This letter, written some time in the 1920s (the final number of the date is cut off of the photocopy) is for Anderson's son. Throughout the letter Anderson gives his son work advice, and also reminisces about memories and hardships from his childhood. There are some spelling errors and run-on sentences which I have kept in order to maintain the letter's authenticity. (English was not my grandfather's first language, as he moved to America from Sweden.) Enjoy!

Dear Arthur and May,

            I wish to thank you May for the nice meals you put up for us at my pleasant visit to you. My whole trip was pleasant and furnished much good for thought, and on my trip on the train alone I was trying to read but could not on account of my own reflections over the past and present. I am glad you spoke to me Arthur about conditions as they are and have been at your place of business. I have been too easy relying that the future would bring things right, but it does not, and it don’t do to wait, for when we hand something to a vulture it only wants more. The best way to set such men to think right is to find a way to get them placed in where they would have to think what they would do without us. That was the only way that I got anything from Lee and the Everett Piano Company and if I had not I would not have had much to draw on today. So take my word for it. It will be well for you to intimate that in as much as they do not now want to share fairly with you when they are only making a little money it is clear to you that they will never do it when they are making more for the faster a tree grows the faster it requires more to sustain it and as long as their desire is to get a head of you, you better look at some other field before too late. My feeling is that you take a strong stand without offending them. Just give them to understand that you expect them to know what is best for them and that you at present only have their best interests at heart and that that can only be showed by working together as outlined by [drits?] from the start, but if they now want to make a change of the program, you of course think that it is about time to take the hint without investing any more of your valuable time and experience if there is not a field for you to grow with the rest. If they get ahead of you they will never allow you to pale up ever or anywhere. As you said all of them a fair share for the start they had but that you must have something in return for the future and the first period with them when you only got a workman’s pay.

Hard as our struggles are they are in latter years our most pleasant reminiscence providing we manage to win out over the seemingle overwhelming difficulties.

            When I was a little boy by Edeby I heard men all around me saying that they could see no way out of their difficulties for at that time people got only a bare living. I heard it, wondered and thought if there was no way out of it, and when I in the summer time carried drinking water to the men moving in the thick cloverfields and in walking over that stiff stubb until my chubbe little bare feet were bleeding I wondered if I ever would get another pair of shoes, and when I got them I was happier than at anything I could get now. Just because it seemed so unbelievable and at the same time I made up my mind get out of it, as well as some day get my father and mother out of it, and I did but slow. When I was twelve my chance came to learn the farm and I left hard as it was for a little fellow to leave home and the only ones who cared for you. I can see my mother yet in the doorway looking after me almost saying return, oh no but I was proud and determined and when I turned around she had gone in the house and I wondered if I really was never to return home to stay anymore. I was not.

            But my struggles were not over they only became more and more difficult by each change and move so that my only and greatest pleasure often has been to master difficulties and in that there is joy such as we can not find in an easy life.

            The nearly five years I spent learning the Cabinet makers trade at $1.62 a week and only a place to sleep was a struggle for after clothing ourselves well, and brother Gust, and I always brought something with us home for the holidays and sent something in between. Then after the period spent my travel in foreign lands brought uncertainty and sacrifices in leaving the advantage of a good name behind and then start all a fresh making a new one and besides to learn or get along with a new language. Then back home doing well, but taking a chance to start for America and start all over with empty hands and no one who knew me after all I already had mastered and overcome. But for all this I feel happy and have something that one only can get that way.

([On the side of the page 5:]  Monday evening we had a gale here moot of the day it was hard to walk against the wind and to night is 16 above. Ma and Schue just got back from the picture show with red cheeks.)

            In comparison your advantages are tremendous over what I had when I started and still the struggles we must meet are similar. Just study what is right and fair and insist on being treated that way if they ignore your real worth let them suffer.

            I stopped off at Dudley St. and saw Gruff & Byrne they were nice but Mr. Byrne said he thought he was right about the price. I told them I would not take less the $1300 but would rather rent it. Then I went and got my ticket, got some money from the Bank, Law, my tailor called at Tellstroms office but he was out. Before I took the train I went in and found James Lawyer he was busy but gave his time. I told him that if I had wanted to rent the house we could have done so to a boarding house keep whom also could have used the rooms over the barn, but that I wanted to sell. I asked him to make me an offer, but he retorted what do you take? I said I would sell him the house alone for $9,000 and $13,000 for all. He said that they moved in to Renneallys at the corner but did not like it. Two of his children were sick now from it being too cold. He said he would talk with his wife and then write me. I feel that I  may sell it to them in the end. Monday evening. I held this over to see if my salary would come, but no. I only enclose your check for $37.60. Thirtyfive for Bertil that makes it $100 and $2.60 for telephone charges. I will probably get so that I will send you the $200 soon. With love from us all. Your father,

                                                                        John Anderson

([On the side of the page 6:] I have written a letter of nearly 5 pages to Herbert and Jennette and one to Bertel of 2 pages and this to you longer still but you know I like to talk or express myself best I can.]

The Piano in America, 1890-1940 by Craig H. Roell

Craig H. Roell’s The Piano in America, 1890-1940 explores the piano industry’s apex at the turn of the 20^th century. Roell uses the piano industry to convey the shift from nineteenth century Victorian ideals to twentieth century consumer culture. Furthermore the author examines how this shift in thought affected society’s perceptions of music, and specifically perceptions of the piano. Published in 1989 while Roell was a Samuel Davis Fellow in Business History at Ohio State University, The Piano in America remains the most cohesive account of America’s piano trade history. Roell gathered his resource from numerous scholarly sources, including trade publications, newspapers, correspondence, government documents, and classic books and articles in the fields of business history and music appreciation. Although targeted toward musicians, his clear and well-organized writing makes this book accessible to music enthusiasts as well.

            Roell organizes his research into six chapters, which chronologically convey the American piano industry’s successes and failures. The chapters are entitled,  “The Place of Music in the Victorian Frame of Mind,” “The Origins of a Musical Democracy,” “Halcyon Years of the American Piano Industry,” “Strategies of Piano Merchandizing,” “Industrial Bankruptcy in a Musical Age,” and “Depression, Reform, and Recovery.” While all chapters are informative, Roell’s thoughts on the piano’s role as America shifted from a Victorian to a consumer based culture are particularly fascinating.

In Chapter 1, Roell establishes the piano’s place within the Victorian Era, the era from which the piano was born. Known as the “altar to St. Cecilia,”[1] the piano became a quintessential object in the Victorian home. Roell writes,

The piano became associated with the virtues attributed to music as medicine for the soul. Music supposedly could rescue the distraught from the trials of life. Its moral restorative qualities could counteract the ill effects of money, anxiety, hatred, intrigue, and enterprise. Since this was also seen as the mission of women in Victorian society, music and women were closely associated into the twentieth century. As the primary musical instrument, the piano not only became symbolic of the virtues attributed to music, but also of home and family life, respectability, and woman’s particular place and duty.[2]

Roell is referring to the cult of domesticity as it related to piano culture. Victorians valued a strict work ethic, which for a woman manifested in the way in which she kept her home. Victorians also valued aesthetic beauty. Virtuoso piano players because increasingly popular in the nineteenth century. Inspired by the professionals, many amateur piano players would practice endlessly in order to perfect their craft. Roell confirms, “Increasingly common throughout the mid to late nineteenth century was the trend to turn amateurs into performers. The goal of music teachers was to produce the virtuoso.”[3] Apart from these large-scale societal trends, Roell offers details that illuminate these trends. For example, businesses brought aesthetic beauty to the workplace as a means to enliven the workers. The Baldwin Piano Company hung flowerboxes in the windows. Many factories played music during the work hours, as they thought it would make the workers happier.[4] Music also enforced strong moral character. “Like religion, music could save souls.”[5] Roell concludes Chapter 1 with a foreshadowing of what is to come: the Great War, the player piano, and the end of hard work.

            The title of Chapter 2, “The Origins of Musical Democracy,” is particularly fitting because music, once a recreational activity for the elite, in the early 20^th century became accessible to all social classes. With the invention of the player piano, one no longer needed private piano lessons and countless hours of practice in order to become a virtuoso. Roell writes, “…it was the player piano – with its significant link to Victorian culture, its superior fidelity, and its mass-production by an influential industry already entrenched in American musical and industrial life – that was the most powerful force toward establishing a musical democracy in the Victorian twentieth century.”[6] Although there existed an initial resistance to the player piano, music educators supported the player piano for its educational benefits. Roell brilliantly ties the piano player into larger social trends. The Victorian work ethic diminished as the Industrial Revolution created efficiency in the work place, a rising middle class, and increased recreational time. While Victorians emphasized the value of each unique moment, the invention of the camera made a moment unoriginal. In relation, the general population no longer valued the inspired and unique power of a single musical performance. With the player piano and the phonograph, Americans heard the same interpretation of the same composition countless times. Roell concludes that it was through the invention of the player piano that the debate between recorded versus live music began. He writes, “Such battles lines inevitably resulted when the Victorian-producer ethic clashed with the culture and technology of consumption, and when the advertisements of a Victorian-rooted industry espoused the advantages of ‘easy-to-play’ technology.”[7]

            Throughout Chapter 4 Roell examines the evolution of piano advertisement. It is in this chapter that Roell arrives at his most profound hypotheses. Roell initially explains how the role of advertising changed to adapt to consumer ideology. Initially advertisement simply named the product. However in the early 20^th century the benefits of owning the product became increasingly important. Brand loyalty became the fashion, although Roell divulges that brand loyalty was always a component of piano advertisement, even in the Victorian Era. Celebrity endorsement was the most effective means through which to advertise a piano.  Piano companies hoped that virtuoso pianists, opera singers, and even political figures would prefer their brand. While player piano advertisements gave into the ideals of the 20^th century (i.e. it’s easy to play!), straight pianos continued promoting Victorian principles. Steinway, named the “Instrument of the Immortals,”[8] represented their pianos as symbols of high art. Roell elucidates, “Those purchasing a Steinway thus were not buying merely a piano, but something akin to great painting or sculpture. References to touch and tone – that is, the piano’s useful functions – were nothing compared to the basic uselessness that allowed the Steinway to thrive in the consumer’s imaginations.”[9] Roell’s most profound realization, however, is that the reason the piano industry survived through the Great War and The Depression, is not because it surrendered to consumer culture, but because the piano industry uncompromisingly maintained its Victorian origins. While player pianos, a product of consumer culture, disappeared from popular culture by the late 1920s, straight piano became a symbol of traditional, centered values that were difficult to establish in a fast-paced consumer-driven culture. Roell writes, “In a real sense all traditional straight pianos are Victorians out of their time. That is, they are artifacts of an age preceding mass society, in which the home and family rather than business interests and consumerism governed society.”[10] The piano symbolized an escape from worldly affairs, a means for transcendence.

            While Roell so clearly and effectively depicts the piano trade’s history, the one criticism of his book is that at times it is redundant. The redundancy is a means through which the author hopes to tie all of his research together through the same two or three large concepts. At times this repetition is unnecessary. Regardless, Roell’s scholarly work The Piano in America, 1890-1940 presents an impressive breadth of information with carefully crafted and provocative hypotheses. In the Epilogue, Roell summarizes his findings:

The significance of the American piano industry’s confrontation with the consumer culture from 1890 to 1940 lies in its successful cultivation of the amateur spirit in music and its appreciation of productive values in a consumer age. The irony is that the trade accomplished this through promoting the values of the Victorian culture as a commodity, yet appealing at the same time to the values inherent in the consumer culture.[11]

Roell’s research not only encapsulates the piano’s history. Roell furthermore frames the piano’s industry within significant historical events and subsequent social evolution. It is this feature of his writing that renders this book accessible and relevant today.

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[1] Craig H. Roell, The Piano in America, 1890-1940 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 5.

[2] Ibid., 5

[3] Ibid., 8

[4] Ibid., 12

[5] Ibid., 21

[6] Ibid., 32.

[7] Ibid., 54

[8] Ibid., 177

[9]Ibid.,  177

[10] Ibid., 180.

[11] Ibid., 276.

Liza Lehmann: Composer

See previous post for background information about Liza Lehmann

Liza Lehmann’s song cycle, In a Persian Garden, uses texts from the English version of the Persian text Rubáiyát by Hakim Omar, translated and rephrased by Edward Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald took twenty years to create his own version and interpretation of these poems from the year 1100, all of which meditate on life, death, and spirituality[1]. In an article reviewing the work, Professor Edward Dickinson from The Musician, based in Philadelphia, wrote, “…this collection of verses now stands as the finest elegiac poem that has appeared in English since In Memorian, which it even surpasses in felicity of diction, perfection of form, boldness of imagery, and in its attitude of unfaltering courage in the face of the most appalling mysteries of reality[2].”

Lehmann’s husband, Herbert Bedford, suggested that parts of the Rubáiyát would make a wonderful cantata[3]. After looking over the texts, Lehmann felt that a song cycle would make a better form for the poetry. Within a few weeks, she was able to sketch most of the composition[4]. The work is written for soprano, contralto, tenor, and bass with piano accompaniment. There are sections of recitative and aria for the various parts, and some sections of quartets and duets. Lehmann decided on the title In a Persian Garden because the Persian word for “garden” is the same as the word for “poem”[5]. At first, she had difficulty getting it published – most publishers thought it was too difficult and that “…they saw no possibility of there being a demand for chamber music involving so many singers”[6]. It was eventually published by Metzler and Company in 1896[7]. Shortly after the first performance, Hermann Klein of The Sunday Times said, “The music was quite a revelation – not of mere talent, but of unsuspected power and variety of expression, of depth of melodic charm and technical resource”[8].

The poetry is narrative, and each section of the piece makes sense following the previous section. It focuses on the loss of youth and life, no matter what one does to prevent it. Lehmann’s setting begins and ends with all of the singers in a quartet. The opening piece states,

Wake! For the Sun who scatter’d into flight

The Stars before him from the field of night,

Drives night along with them from Heav’n, and strikes

The Sultan’s turret with a shaft of Light.

The final piece ends,

Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose,

That Youth’s sweet-scented Manuscript should close!

The Nightingale that in the Branches sang,

Ah, whence and whither flown again, who knows?[9]

Throughout the music, Lehmann indicates what various phrases mean. For example, in the second tenor solo, she defines “Irám” as “a garden planted by King Shaddád, and now sunk somewhere in the sands of Arabia”[10]. In a contralto solo, she explains the line, “Ah! not a drop that from our Cups we throw For earth to drink of” as “The custom of throwing a little wine on the ground before drinking still continues in Persia”[11]. Though Lehmann took on the arduous task of setting poetry that references a land she admittedly never visited[12], she clearly did extensive research when setting these poems.

I find that this song cycle is imitated in modern music with John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs. It is an extremely similar example – a Westerner (Harbison or Lehmann) taking English versions of Eastern poetry (Mirabai or Omar) and setting them as Western music with a mildly Eastern feel. A major difference between these two cycles is that the Mirabai Songs focus on the narrative of one individual, performed by one singer. Lehmann’s cycle is more of a collective experience – it is sung by soprano, contralto, tenor, and bass. The text focuses on the universal experience of life and death, whereas Mirabai focuses on the individual experiences of one woman who was ostracized yet empowered by her own convictions.

Mirabai was an independent thinker living in a culture where women followed rules created primarily by men. Throughout her life, she sang songs, wrote poetry, and danced in honor of the god Krishna, whom she considered her husband. Krishna, though one of many gods, can often represent the one, singular God. He is said to have lived amongst cowherds and shepherdesses, eventually saving them from tragedy by lifting up the mountain on which they lived.[13] Her religious devotion and spiritual connection with Krishna makes her one of India’s most recognized poet-saints.[14] She was born into a wealthy family in Kudaki, a northern region of India, in 1498.[15] Early on, she was fascinated by Krishna and carried a figure of him with her everywhere.[16] At 27, her husband died in battle after a few short years of marriage. In her culture, wives were expected to commit Sati, the tradition of a wife throwing herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. Mira refused to do this, as she recognized Krishna as her husband, not the man who had died.[17] After his death, her conservative family looked down on her for rejecting the ritual. They did not like her association with men, though they were religious men.[18] They slandered her, abused her, and even tried to kill her. There is a story that her family sent her a vial of poison, telling her it was liquid from a statue of Krishna. She gladly drank it, and her faith turned the poison to ambrosia in her throat and made her stronger.[19] Outside of the house, she was treated much in the same way. The community snubbed her for her religious practices, leaving her on the outskirts of society.[20]

One can see through this description of Mirabai that her story could never be the same as the story told in the Rubáiyát. It is too personal, too individualized, to be as universally understood as the questions of life and death. However, Mirabai’s narrative is relatable to any person who has ever been criticized for her beliefs or actions, simply because they lie beyond the realm of societal conventions. Though these two cycles use text with different intentions, they are both foreign ideas being seen through a different lens.

In my paper, I hope to compare these two cycles on a more in-depth basis, or perhaps focus on one song from each set.

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[1] Lehmann, Liza. The Life of Liza Lehmann. 80.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid. 70.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid. 72.

[6] Ibid. 75.

[7] Ibid. 76.

[8] Ibid. 77.

[9] Lehmann, Liza. In a Persian Garden.

[10] Ibid. 9.

[11] Ibid. 18.

[12] Lehmann. The Life of Liza Lehmann. 88.

[13] Bly, Robert and Jane Hirschfield. Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004. 71.

[14] Ibid. 67.

[15] Pandey, S.M. and Norman Zide. Mirabai and her contributions to the bhakti movement. History of Religions 5/1 (Summer). 55.

[16] Bly. Mirabai. 76.

[17] Bialosky, Marshall. Review of Mirabai songs, by John Harbison. Notes 48/2 (December). 691.

[18] Pandey. Mirabai. 56.

[19] Bly. Mirabai. 77.

[20] Pandey. Mirabai. 59.

Liza Lehmann: Pedagogue

Liza Lehmann was a successful soprano, voice pedagogue, and composer in the late Victorian era[1]. Her mother was a naturally talented musician, having studied with Manuel Garcia (a notable pedagogue), and was her first voice teacher[2]. She later studied with Jenny Lind. After studying for several years and performing in small recitals, she realized that her voice and body were not meant for the operatic stage, but that she was well-suited to give recitals. Not only did she give recitals, but also travelled all over the United Kingdom and sang for the Novello Oratorio Concerts, Crystal Palace Orchestral concerts, the London Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and sang under the baton of Charles V. Stanford in a performance of the Brahms’ Requiem.

Lehmann retired from the public stage around the time she married Herbert Bedford. It is interesting that she gave up a performance lifestyle at the onset of her marriage, but she also notes that she suffered a temporary facial paralysis at the same time, which lamed some of the muscles of her throat and ended her consistency in singing. Her descriptions of her husband paint him as very supportive and in awe of her abilities. She began composing on their honeymoon, and composed her very successful song cycle In a Persian Garden within a year[3].

Lehmann was approached by the publishers Enoch and Son, who were interested in a voice pedagogy text[4]. In the introduction, Lehmann begins by stating, “When I was asked to write a book on Singing, I felt reluctant to comply. There are so many admirable technical and scientific books upon the subject of singing, written by men and women who have spent their lives in training voices. Can anything new be said? Perhaps not. …possibly the circumstances of my life and career…may enable me to offer some additional “hints” of a purely practical nature.[5]” Though the text is over one hundred pages, more than half of it is made up of musical examples taken from Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, etc. and vocalises of her own for each voice type. Very little of the book is devoted to her actual beliefs about singing and pedagogy; what little information she does offer aligns with other voice pedagogues. Lehmann claims in her autobiography that she read about other methods of teaching after she had written the text[6], but within the first few pages she admits that her ideas are most similar to those put forth by Lilli Lehmann, no relation, in her book How to Sing.[7]

It is my intention to compare Liza Lehmann’s pedagogical ideas with those of Mathilde Marchesi and Lilli Lehmann, two other esteemed female voice pedagogues. Marchesi is famous for writing thirty-six vocalise books. Lehmann references them in her text,[8] proving that she had done at least minimal preparatory research before writing. Lehmann also includes some of her own vocalises in her book. A major difference between Marchesi and Lehmann is that Marchesi only worked with females, and had no ideas about the male voice. Lehmann includes a section on male voices in her text. Marchesi believed that there are three female registers to the voice: chest, medium, and head[9]. Lehmann also describes three registers: chest, medium, and head[10]. Both Marchesi and Lehmann suggest that the female chest voice be taken up no higher than the e above middle c[11]^,[12].

Conversely, Lilli Lehmann, the pedagogue Liza most closely identified with, had slightly different beliefs. She believed in voice registers, but she opted not to address them. She felt that the terminology was a huge part of the issue in unifying the registers as a student[13]. She also believed in the importance of the head register, saying that it was essential in surviving a lengthy career or when rejuvenating the voice[14]. Similarly, Liza Lehmann puts quite a bit of emphasis on the head register, stating that “One of the ‘secrets’ of successful placement and preservation of the voice is…the proper use of the ‘Head voice’ and the capacity to use it throughout the whole compass[15].” The two disagreed about the [a] vowel, however. Lilli said that this vowel was treacherous: “…one should never attempt to sing an open ah, because on ah the tongue lies flattest[16].” Liza, on the other hand, states that the best vowel sound for practice was the open Italian ah. She said, “…a good ‘ah’ is the best foundation[17].”

Though Practical Hints for Students of Singing is filled with many useful ideas, there are also some statements that are not quite pedagogically correct. Lehmann references the uvula and its importance in singing. She writes, “Its mobility, and the power to raise it, are of inestimable importance in controlling the voice and adding resonances[18].” There are two things wrong with this idea: first, the ability to raise the uvula; second, the idea of adding resonance. I assume that by “uvula” she includes the soft palate, or solely means the soft palate. While it is true that the soft palate needs to be raised during classical singing, it can only be raised so high and only by employing the correct breathing techniques. It is not an all-powerful muscle that can be trained. One raises the soft palate in a yawn – it is much the same idea in singing. By raising the soft palate, the singer closes off the nasopharynx and avoids any nasal resonance. Resonance, while very important in singing, cannot be “added” to sound. Resonance is a result of proper technique. It involves the breath, the vibrating vocal folds, and the proper shape of the vocal tract[19]. It only happens when everything else is aligned.

Liza Lehmann was an important figure in the musical world, especially as a female performer, composer, and pedagogue. She was well-respected and well-connected during her life, and did many things to further the education of women in music during the Victorian era.

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[1] Lehmann, Liza. The Life of Liza Lehmann.

[2] Lehmann, Liza. Practical Hints for Students of Singing.

[3] Lehmann, Liza. The Life of Liza Lehmann.

[4] Ibid. 183.

[5] Lehmann, Liza. Practical Hints for Students of Singing. 1.

[6] Lehmann, Liza. The Life. 185.

[7] Lehmann, Liza. Practical Hints. 2.

[8] Ibid. 9.

[9] Coffin, Berton. Historical Vocal Pedagogy Classics. 34.

[10] Lehmann, Liza. Practical Hints. 10.

[11] Coffin. 34.

[12] Lehmann. Practical Hints. 10.

[13] Coffin. 116.

[14] Ibid. 116.

[15] Lehmann. Practical Hints. 2.

[16] Coffin. 117.

[17] Lehmann. Practical Hints. 8.

[18] Ibid. 3.

[19] McCoy, Scott. Your Voice: An Inside View. 27.