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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
The earliest recorded concert in the State was in 1799, when permission had to be obtained from the local magistrate in Newark. Singing societies, recreational rather than commercial ventures, formed the backbone
of musical enterprise until about 1850. There were half a dozen choral
clubs in Newark by 1840, and others were scattered throughout the State.
They sang the works of Handel, Bach, and Mozart, which also were the
most popular program pieces for the few instrumental groups.
Such organizations aroused a lasting interest in music in the upper
levels of society and created fertile ground for the mid-century drive for
popular musical education. It was fortunate for New Jersey that in 1853
Lowell Mason (1792-1872), the dynamo of the movement to make music
a part of the public school curriculum, chose to live in Orange. Fresh
from his successful preachment of music for the masses in New England,
Mason continued his educational work in New Jersey by lectures and
concerts, and by training large choral groups. He was largely responsible
not only for the spread of musical participation but also for the continuance of the religious influence. Known as "the father of American
church music," Mason returned to the earliest New England traditions
and composed many hymns that set the pattern for the stately hymnology
of the American Protestant Church. Among his better-known works are
"Nearer My God to Thee" and "From Greenland's Icy Mountains." In
1855 New York University awarded him the first honorary degree of
doctor of music in America.
While Mason was broadening the audience for music, William Batchelder Bradbury (1816-1868) plunged into the equally necessary task
of training music teachers. He organized the first convention of music
teachers in Somerville in 1851, and later, as a resident of Bloomfield, he
became an important adjunct to Mason's Nation-wide work. Also a force
in the Sunday School music movement, Bradbury edited many song collections, among which The Golden Chain sold 2,000,000 copies.
Contemporaneous with the growth of American singing clubs and
school music was the rise of the German singing societies. The Concordia,
Germania, and Schwabischer Sangerbund added a gay and lusty note to
the rather formal and still churchified American singing. These groups,
fed by large waves of immigration, became the workingman's chief con-
tact with music in Newark, Trenton, Hoboken, Bayonne and Jersey City.
National Sangerfeste attracted thousands of participants to northern New
Jersey, long recognized as the American center for German music. Bands
and small orchestras quickly followed the vocal groups and in 1855 a
touring opera company played Weber's Der Freischutz in Newark. In
the same year was founded the Newark Harmonic Society, the city's most
famous singing group.
When this society was directed in 1865 by Leopold Damrosch, perhaps
the greatest conductor of his day, and when five years later he selected a
large number of singers from Newark and Jersey City for the first of his
May Music Festivals, New Jersey music achieved maturity and national
significance. Although Damrosch and Theodore Thomas later brought
their symphony orchestras to the large cities, they did not inspire the development of instrumental groups comparable to the singing societies.
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