122
SPOTLIGHT ON HISTORYSPOTLIGHT ON HISTORY
Orchestras on Tour
A
mong the fi rst European orchestras to tour
the United States was the Austrian Steyer-
mark ensemble, which arrived in Boston
in 1846, twenty men strong (women orchestra play-
ers were rare throughout the nineteenth century).
A Boston musician later recalled that they played
“mostly light dance music, overtures, potpourris,
and solos”—a program not much different from a
typical band concert. W hen the Germania Musical
Society, a polished twenty-fi ve-man ensemble from
Berlin, arrived in New York in October 1848, audi-
ences heard somewhat more substantial programs.
Playing more than nine hundred concerts in North
America, for audiences of up to three thousand, the
Germanians mixed dance music by Johann Strauss
and others with overtures by Mozart and Rossini
and more demanding works such as Beethoven sym-
phonies. Even after the orchestra disbanded in 1854,
its infl uence continued, for many of the members
settled in American cities. One ex-Germanian led
the New York Philharmonic for two decades, and
another conducted the Boston Handel and HaydnSociety from the 1850s through the 1890s. In this and
in other ways, German immigrant musicians signifi -
cantly improved the quality of classical performance
and programming in nineteenth-century America.
Another landmark orchestral tour begin in the
summer of 1853, when French-born conductor Louis
Jullien arrived from England with twenty-six instru-
mentalists, to whom he soon added sixty American
players. This huge orchestra and Jullien’s fl amboy-
ant charisma made a vivid impression at the more
than two hundred concerts they presented in ten
months. Jullien’s programming was not much dif-
ferent from that of other bands and orchestras of the
time, but the size and quality of his orchestra made
a profound impression on the critic John Sullivan
Dwight, who warmly praised a New York concert
he heard in October 1853: “To hear the great works
of the masters brought out in the full proportions of
so large an orchestra, where all the parts are played
by perfect masters of their instruments, is a great
privilege and great lesson.” Less discerning listeners
could enjoy lighter pieces such as Jullien’s own com-
position “American Quadrille,” a
dance medley based on “Yankee
Do od le,” “Ha i l C olu mbia,” “Ha i l
to the Chief,” and “Old Folks at
Home.” They also thrilled to Jul-
lien’s showmanship: at a “mon-
ster concert” given just before his
return to Europe, the New York
audience heard his “Firemen’s
Quadrille,” whose fi nal section
featured a real blaze, complete
with clanging bell and a battal-
ion of fi refi ghters rushing in to
quench the fl ames.KConductor Louis Jullien’s New
York concerts created an enthusiasm
that, as these fanciful cartoons show,
stopped short of artistic reverence.172028_05_106-131_r3_ko.indd 122 23/01/13 8:21 PM