Symphony of the Arts

Bullard, Melissa Meriam

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-50176-5_5

Symphony of the Arts

Melissa Meriam Bullard²

Chapter
First Online: 11 April 2017

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Abstract

The Brooklyn Philharmonic Society (1857) and Brooklyn Academy of Music (1861) were brainchild of Luther Wyman and his wealthy, liberal, and civic-minded collaborators in Brooklyn Heights. The financial crisis of 1857 did not impede Brooklyn’s elite from founding a dozen signature cultural associations that characterized the city’s renaissance effort, including the Brooklyn Institute, Athenaeum, Mercantile Library, Horticultural Society, Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, Packer Institute, and Prospect Park. The Brooklyn Academy of Music, designed by Leopold Eidlitz, became centerpiece of Brooklyn’s renaissance. The Brooklyn Eagle heralded the private patronage and assiduous fund raising that enabled these institutions and downplayed the uncertainties, social tensions, political divisions, and financial struggles accompanying them at the outbreak of the Civil War. However, well-intentioned attempts at egalitarian seating and ticket pricing sparked controversy.

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Notes

1.
NYT, 15 January 1861, 2.
2.
More precisely thirty of the forty-two chief patrons. See the Appendix for a listing of the Brooklyn Renaissance’s principal patrons, their occupations, residential and business addresses.
3.
BE, 14 April 1857, 2. On the importance of music and the concert hall in haut bourgeois culture in the northern England, see Simon Gunn, The public culture of the Victorian middle class: ritual and authority and the English industrial city, 1840–1914 (Manchester; New York, NY: Manchester University Press, 2000), 134–54.
4.
Ibid. See also Maurice Edwards, How Music Grew in Brooklyn: A Biography of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006), 5.
5.
BE, 15 April 1857, 2. Committee members included Luther Wyman, Judge Greenwood, Robert Raymond, Edward Whitehouse, Paul R. Weizel, proprietor of a local music store, Carl Prox, Dr. A. Cooke Hull, Leopold Bierwirth, Charles Congdon, and Mr. Spies. See also the historical narrative printed in the “Constitution and By-Laws of the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn” (Brooklyn, NY: L. Van Anden’s Steam Presses, 1857), 1–9, BHS, Arc.172.6.
6.
Ibid., 7–9.
7.
The printed pamphlet, ibid., 8, says the board held its first meeting and officers were voted on 11 April, which may be a typographical error for May, since the slate had not been formed until after the 5 May meeting. The Brooklyn Eagle reported the results 18 May, BE, 3. The other officers included: Edward Whitehouse, First Vice-President; John Greenwood, Second Vice-President; Robert R. Raymond, Secretary; A. Cooke Hull, Treasurer. The Executive “Committee was composed of Messers Congdon, Weizel, Ripley, Newell, and Townsend,” ibid., 8–9. The minutes of the early board meetings reveal some jockeying and resignations of early elected officers. At the meeting on 29 May, Luther Wyman was unanimously elected president. He had served as interim secretary and teller before assuming duties of president, BMA, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Records, 1823–1980, Minutes of the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn, 1857–1917, (hereafter, BMA, BPS Minutes) 1: 21–22. Later minutes show he last attended a board meeting in October 1877, ibid. 2, unnumbered. He was re-elected president for the last time in May 1879. A memorial to him is recorded at the September meeting following his death in July.
8.
“Constitution and By-Laws of the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn” (Brooklyn, NY: L. Van Anden’s Steam Presses, 1857), 15.
9.
Conducted by Theodore Eisfeld of the New York Philharmonic, BE, 16 November 1857, 2; also listed in Edwards, How Music Grew in Brooklyn, 9. The program included a concerto for cornet by contemporary German composer Louis Schreiber, who performed his own piece. On Schreiber in New York, see John Erskine et al., Early Histories of the New York Philharmonic (New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 1979), 119.
10.
BE, 16 November 1857, 2.
11.
BHS, Arc. 172.6, “Programmes of the Second Season, 1858–9,” 5–14.
12.
Its first year the Society had taken in over $3,000 in receipts, and, after paying all expenses, had an excess of $105 cash plus the value of music, instruments, stands, etc., BAM, BPS Minutes, 6 April 1858, 1: 31; BE, 20 and 25 May 1858, 3. Luther Wyman and Paul Weizel’s “tastes and judgment” were specially praised.
13.
Quoted in ibid., 11 October 1858, 3.
14.
BE, 25 May 1857, 2. In its review of the Society’s first concert in November 1857, the Eagle had stated that the “success of the Philharmonic Society will in all probability lead to the speedy erection of a public Hall capable of accommodating a large assemblage,” Brooklyn lacking such a facility, ibid., 16 November 1857, 2.
15.
Barings, Liverpool sent regular reports to Barings, London of the decline in freight rates and profits for the packets. The slump also affected the passenger business, for by the end of the year “more passengers now coming from than going to America,” BAHC 3.35.21, 15 December 1857.
16.
BE, 25 May 1858, 2.
17.
The intimate collaborative spirit that characterized Brooklyn Heights is well conveyed in the preface to the Citizens Committee for New York City’s book on the neighborhoods of Brooklyn: “A neighborhood is more than a physical space; it is a social, cultural, and emotional home, an arena of civic engagement, a place people organize around—that they work to preserve and improve,” Citizens Committee for New York City, Kenneth T. Jackson, and John B. Manbeck, The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), xiii. Kenneth Jackson in his introduction called Brooklyn an “enigma” and a “mystery,” “an urban delight and…a center of culture,” ibid., xvi.
18.
Henry Reed Stiles, A History of the City of Brooklyn Including the Old Town and Village of Brooklyn, the Town of Bushwick, and the Village and City of Williamsburgh (Brooklyn, NY: by subscription, 1867), 2: 929; 3: 900–01.
19.
The large number of female subscribers helps explain why the collection contained so many fiction titles, a favorite genre among women. See Belinda Jack, The Woman Reader (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 228–31. Some regarded female fiction as corrupting, Kate Flint, The Woman Reader, 1837–1914 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), 265–91.
20.
Stiles, A History, 3: 901.
21.
BE, 4 January 1858, 3.
22.
The event raised over $1,000, ibid., 1 July 1858, 2; ibid., 8 September 1858, 3; ibid., 29 December 1858, 3.
23.
Ibid., 1 July 1858, 2.
24.
Ibid., 15 May 1858, 3. The preliminary organizational meeting had been held at Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute the previous day, 14 May.
25.
Ibid., 9 April 1857, 2.
26.
Ibid., 20 September 1858, 2.
27.
Ibid., 10 April 1858, 2.
28.
George Taylor, Esq.’s remarks, ibid., 20 September 1856, 2.
29.
Ibid.
30.
Plant sales and other commercial aspects of the horticultural shows kept the Society from receiving tax exempt status upon its incorporation in 1855, a situation that caused it financial hardship, ibid. 16 April 1855, 2; 12 June 1856, 2. The Eagle listed prizes won by cultivators in categories of plants in pots, cut flowers, baskets and bouquets, vegetables, and labeling. Other local horticultural societies were invited to participate.
31.
A Mr. Maynard, ibid., 16 April 1857, 3.
32.
E.g., ibid., 20 September 1860, 2.
33.
Ibid., 16 Apr 1858, 2.
34.
Ibid., 9 July, 1858, 3.
35.
Ibid., 4 February 1858. According to the Eagle, it had failed to awaken “the sympathy of the people at large,” and but for the financial support of a few, it would have struggled to exist, ibid., 9 April 1857. At the same time, however, the Eagle had bristled at the Society’s attempt to raffle a basket of flowers, claiming it contrary to New York’s gambling laws. The raffle had been part of the Society’s efforts to attract a larger audience to its exhibits, ibid., 18 April 1857, 2. There was also indication that some members were not paying dues, ibid., 13 May 1858, 2.
36.
Ibid., 5 June 1858, 2.
37.
Ibid., BE, 25 June 1858, 2.
38.
Ibid., BE, 15 June 1858, 5. For a fuller description of the floral displays, see ibid., 15 June 1858, 2.
39.
Ibid., 21 June 1858, 2. The ad for the promenade concert 24 June read, “the floral decorations are to be supplied by the Horticultural Society, and the music by the Philharmonic; presenting a combination of attractions to eye and ear such as has never before been offered to the citizens of Brooklyn,” ibid., 15 June 1858, 5, also ibid., 21 June 1858, 2.
40.
Ibid., 21 June 1858, 2.
41.
Ibid., 9 July 1858, 3.
42.
Ibid., “for their indefatigable exertions to make the late Concert of the deepest interest to the lovers of music, as well as to the Brooklyn Horticultural Society.” Unfortunately record of the musical program has not survived.
43.
Ibid., 25 June 1858, 2.
44.
Ibid., 1 September 1858, 2.
45.
Ibid., 21 June 1858, 2.
46.
Ibid., 9 April 1857, 2
47.
Ibid. The board assured that the event’s financial loss of $170 was “but a trifling consideration when placed in the scale as against the large amount of gratification which the undertaking afforded in other respects, and should not be regarded as a decided indication of the improbability of future success.”
48.
Ibid., 8 September 1858, 3.
49.
Ibid., 1 July 1858, 2; ibid., 20 September 1856, 2.
50.
Ibid., 20 September 1858, 2.
51.
Ibid., 25 June 1858, 2.
52.
Ibid., 22 September 1858, 3.
53.
Ibid.
54.
See BAM’s website, http://www.bam.org/about, “America’s oldest performing arts center.”
55.
NYT, 14 August 1858, 8, also lists the committee members.
56.
On Robert Sherwell, see Olive Hoogenboom, The First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, One Hundred Fifty Years: A History (Brooklyn, NY: The Church, 1987), 39. He served as church trustee in 1851–54.
57.
Ibid., 13 August 1858, 2.
58.
Ibid.
59.
Ibid.
60.
Ibid., 20 October 1858, 2.
61.
Ibid.
62.
Ibid.
63.
Ibid. The congressional election of 1858 was upcoming.
64.
Ibid., 6 October 1858, 2.
65.
Ibid.
66.
Ibid. He may have had in mind seven hundred attendees, for according to the Society’s annual report, the number of stockholders at the beginning of the second season was barely over 500, BHS, ARC 172.6.
67.
BE, 6 October 1858, 2.
68.
Ibid.
69.
E.g. ibid., 16 October 1858, 3. The officers were President Luther Wyman, Vice-Presidents, Edward Whitehouse and John Greenwood, Secretary Robert R. Raymond, and Treasurer A. Cooke Hull.
70.
Ibid., 22 October 1858, 2.
71.
Ibid.
72.
Ibid., 27 January 1859, 2.
73.
Ibid., 14 February 1859, 2.
74.
Ibid., 3.
75.
Ibid., 15 February 1859, 2.
76.
Ibid.
77.
Curiously, Henry Ward Beecher, Brooklyn’s most famous preacher/orator and abolitionist did not involve himself prominently in Brooklyn’s cultural endeavors other than the Art Association.
78.
See his autobiography: William Milburn, Ten Years of Preacher-Life: Chapters from an Autobiography (New York, NY: Derby & Jackson, 1859); John Howard Brown, Lamb’s Biographical Dictionary of the United States; (Boston, MA: James H. Lamb Company, 1900), 5: 473. His obituary mentioned his death in Santa Barbara, CA, NYT, 11 April 1903, 9.
79.
BE, 15 February 1859, 2.
80.
Revs. Kennedy and Storrs, ibid.
81.
Ibid., 15 February 1859, 2.
82.
Ibid.
83.
Ibid., 28 February 1859, 2.
84.
Ibid., 5 March 1859, 3.
85.
In its subsequent annual report and program for 1858–59, the Philharmonic summarized progress made as follows: “Under the call of the Committee so appointed, a succession of public meetings was held; our citizens promptly responded to the summons; the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was speedily subscribed; and we have now every reason to anticipate that before the close of another season, our eyes will be gladdened by the fair proportions of the Brooklyn Academy of Music rising in our midst; and our ears refreshed with the strains of a noble Philharmonic Orchestra resounding within its walls,” BHS, ARC 172.6. 7.
86.
At the 5 October 1858 board meeting of the Philharmonic Society, it was announced that Mr. Eisfeld, “had been severely injured…in the burning of the Steamer Austria, and although rescued, had been carried to Fayal, in such a condition, that his services could hardly be counted on at present,” BMA, BPS Minutes, 1: 34. Eisfeld’s absence also struck a blow to the New York Philharmonic, since the two societies shared conductors and many of the same musicians.
87.
BE, 18 April 1859, 11. The complimentary concert took place in June, ibid., 10 June 1859, 3. Instrumental solos on the piano, coronet, and clarinet, featured performers such as Louis Schreiber, who had figured prominently in the first season. Annual report and program for 1858–59, BHS, ARC 172.6.
88.
Edwards, How Music Grew in Brooklyn, 10; NYT, 15 January 1861, 2.
89.
Ibid., 18 April 1859, 11.
90.
Annual report and program for 1858–59, BHS, ARC 172.6. 21.
91.
Among them Luther Wyman, Judge Greenwood, and J. S. T. Stranahan, from the Academy committee. The Eagle printed the text of the bill, BE, 1 March 1859, 2.
92.
NYT, 7 June 1959, 5.
93.
Letter to the editor signed H. J. R., BE, 22 September 1859, 2.
94.
Ibid., 16 September 1859, 3. Also NYT, 16 September 1859, 8.
95.
Ibid., 23 September 1859, 2.
96.
For a summary of the arguments regarding the Ridgewood site, see ibid., 15 August 1859, 2 and 16 September 1859, 3. The Archives of Prospect Park, located in the Italianate Litchfield Mansion on Park property, include all their early reports. Wyman remained as secretary and member of the board for one year. James S. T. Stranahan, whose name is most closely linked to the development of the park, replaced Judge Greenwood as president and saw the project through its early development.
97.
BE, 23 September 1859, 2. Viele was an army engineer, schooled at West Point, who saw service in the Mexican American and Civil Wars. He became the chief engineer for Prospect Park and worked with landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvin Vaux, earlier designers of Central Park. See Biographical Directory of the United States Congress http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=V000097.
98.
Sociologists use homophily to describe the tendency of like-minded people to connect with one another. Zachary Neal identifies three types of modern connectivity, network, spatial, and social. See The Connected City: How Networks Are Shaping the Modern Metropolis, 1st ed. (New York, NY: Routledge, 2013), 21–23.
99.
BE, 5 September 1859, 3. On Eidlitz, prominent New York architect of Czech and Jewish descent, see “Christian Inquirer,” Christian Inquirer (1846–1864), 14 April 1860; Kathryn Holliday, Leopold Eidlitz: Architecture and Idealism in the Gilded Age, 1st ed. (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008), 50–55. According to Holliday, Eidlitz’s pioneering designs can be best described as organically functional and as striving to uplift and evoke an emotional response.
100.
BE, 5 September 1859, 3; 17 September 1859, 2.
101.
Ibid.
102.
Ibid.
103.
Ibid.
104.
Ibid., 5 September 1859, 3.
105.
Ibid., 14 September 1859, 2.
106.
Ibid., 17 September 1859, 2.
107.
Ibid. Their names were published next day in the Eagle. In addition to Chittenden, they included A. A. Low, C. H. Townsend, H. E. Pierrepont, A. H. Lowber, E. A. Lambert, C. H. Sand, A. M. White, G. F. Toomey, Senator Samuel Sloan, and William M. Richards—none with a pledge for less than $500.
108.
Ibid., 24 September 1859, 3.
109.
E.g. ibid., 22 October 1859, 3. Featured were the popular Mme. Gazzaniga, soprano and S. B. Mills, pianist.
110.
Perhaps envelopes enclosing statements of appreciation. The more familiar, modern green seals on Federal Reserve bank notes had not yet come into being.
111.
BE, 7 December 1859, 3.
112.
Ibid., 15 February 1860; also 15 May 1860, 4.
113.
Ibid., 4 April 1860, 3.
114.
Christian Inquirer, 14 April 1860, 14:29, 2; BE, 25 August 1860, 3.
115.
Ibid., 10 March 1860, 3.
116.
Ibid., 16 April 1860, 3.
117.
Patti (1843–1919), together with Jenny Lind was one of the most famous opera singers of the nineteenth century. See J. F. Cone’s biography, Adelina Patti: Queen of Hearts (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1993).
118.
Wyman remarked, “On behalf of the Society, and I may say on behalf of the audience, I desire to present you this slight token, to show that we are not unmindful of the great honor which you have conferred upon us in making your appearance for the first time in Brooklyn before the Philharmonic Society,” BE, 11 May 1860, 3.
119.
Ibid., 21 May 1860, 3. On Knaebel, see Karl Klauser, John Knowles Paine, and Theodore Thomas, Famous Composers and Their Works; (Boston, MA Millet Co., c. 1891), 4: 946.
120.
BE, 25 June 1860, 3.
121.
Ibid., 28 June 1860, 2.
122.
Ibid.
123.
Ibid., 30 June 1860, 3.
124.
Ibid.
125.
“Among those occupying the platform many anxious inquiries were made, and much sympathy manifested with this respected gentleman,” ibid., 2.
126.
Ibid., 2 August 1860, 3.
127.
Ibid., 15 December 1860, 2.
128.
Ibid.
129.
NYH, 14 January 1861, 5.
130.
For a street-view photo taken shortly before the disastrous 1903 fire, see: http://theatretalks.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/brooklyn-academy-of-music-176-montague-street-brooklyn-new-york/ and illustrations from Harper’s Weekly with a brief history of the original Brooklyn Academy of Music [accessed 2 October 2016]. See also Cezar Del Valle, The Brooklyn Theatre Index (Brooklyn, NY: Theatre Talks, LLC, 2010), 2: 22–26.
131.
NYT, 15 January 1861, 2.
132.
Ibid.
133.
Ibid.
134.
Ibid.
135.
BE, 31 December 1860, 2; NYT, 15 January 1861, 2.
136.
Ibid.; NYH, 14 January 1861, 5.
137.
NYT, 15 January 1861, 2.
138.
Ibid.
139.
From their advertisement in the Eagle, the group calling itself “The Artists Association” had engaged the Academy of Music for operatic performances, BE, 12 January 1861, 3.
140.
Ibid.
141.
Ibid., 31 December 1860, 2; 7 January 1861, 3; also similar remarks in NYH, 14 January 1861, 5.
142.
For a list of all the signatories, including such familiars as Brooklynites Luther Wyman, A. A. and Josiah O. Low, Henry E. Pierrepont, William and Alexander White, and S. B. Chittenden, and from New York shipowners Grinnell, Fish, Minturn, Marshall, and Lamson along with other notables such as Peter Cooper and the Astors, see BE, 12 January 1861, 2.
143.
NYT, 15 January 1861, 2.
144.
BE, 7 January 1861.
145.
Ibid., 16 January 1861, 2. Mme. Colson, and Signors Brignoli, Sussini, and Ferri sang.
146.
Ibid., 18 January 1861, 3.
147.
Ibid., 16 January 1861, 2.

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University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Melissa Meriam Bullard

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Bullard, M.M. (2017). Symphony of the Arts. In: Brooklyn’s Renaissance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50176-5_5

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50176-5_5
Published: 11 April 2017
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