A gradual change in the status of American music and musicians
can be observed throughout the late eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. By this time large numbers of professional European
musicians had settled in major American cities. These professionals
supported themselves in a variety of ways-giving concerts, teaching,
performing with theatre companies, and by engaging in a number
of business pursuits. There was more stability for some professional
musicians by the 1820's,[1] and the 1840's
saw the establishment of what would become this country's first
professional symphony, the New York Philharmonic Society. Yet,
even at this time, instrumentalists survived through a combination
of resources, often involving themselves in several financial
enterprises.
Against this background, it comes as no surprise that so little
is known about bassoonists and bassoon playing in the United States
during this period. However, Benjamin Compton, in his survey of
amateur instrumental music in America, notes that although the
bassoon appeared in relatively few advertisements, evidence suggests
that it was widely played.[2] Orchestral
announcements from the late eighteenth century document the use
of bassoons in these performances. O.G. Sonneck's Early Concert
Life in America records several of these announcements, among
them the following:
Charleston, South Carolina, April 11, 1771
The St. Caecilia Society give notice that they will engage with, and give suitable encouragement to musicians properly qualified to perform at their Concert, provided they apply on or before the first day of October next. The performers they are in want of area first and second violin, two hautboys and a bassoon, whom they are willing to agree with for one, two, or three years.[3]
"Grand Musical Festival"
(Charleston, City Gazette, April 18, 1796)
For the benefit of Mr. Poiteaux, who informs the public that on or about the first of June next, will be performed at the Charleston Theatre, the celebrated Stabat Mater of Doctor Haydn, with a few selected pieces of instrumental music, as shall be more fully expressed in the bills of the concert ... Besides the vocal parts, the orchestra shall be composed as follows: one organ, twelve violins, three basses, five tenors, six oboes, flutes and clarinets, two horns, one bassoon, and two pair kettle drums, in all."[4]
Indeed, throughout this period, one may assume the presence of bassoonists whenever orchestral concerts were presented, for the bassoon was considered an essential member of the orchestral ensemble. There were also other ensemble combinations which utilized the bassoon, as seen in this announcement for a series of concerts sponsored by Vincent M. Pelosi of Philadelphia in 1786:
...that by the desire of several gentlemen, he has proposed that the summer-season to open a Concert of Harmonial Music, which will consist of the following instruments, viz.
Two clarinets
Two French horns
Two bassoons
One flute[5]
Thus, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, orchestral
and ensemble concerts required competent bassoonists. However,
although an ample number of programs and advertisements confirm
their presence, very few of the bassoonists can be identified
today. Among those who can be singled out are the following:
John Frederick Bourquin (fl. 1800): A Moravian bassoonist
associated with the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania settlement.[6]
Brunette, who performed "La Fille a Simonette,"
a piece for two violins and bassoon composed by Mr. Daguettey,
in Savannah, Georgia, 1796, and who later participated in a benefit
concert in Charleston in 1797.[7]
Gardenghi, a bassoonist with an Italian opera company touring
New York City in 1832.[8]
Thomas Pike, a bassoonist, horn-player, conductor and entrepreneur
of Charleston, noted for having performed concertos on both the
bassoon and the horn.[9]
William Priest (fl. 1796), an English bassoonist and conductor
who also held the principal trumpet position in a Philadelphia
concert of 1796, and who later published a book on his American
travels (London, 1802).[10]
J. D. Weisse, a bassoonist from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
who performed with the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia in
its earliest years, beginning in 1821.[11]
Youngblut, who performed a solo bassoon concerto and
as bassoonist in a double concerto for bassoon and clarinet in
a series of concerts given in Philadelphia during the 1792-93
season.[12]
Francis Mallet, also a performer on bass, pianoforte, and
violin as well as the bassoon, who emigrated to America in the
early 1790's and eventually settled in Boston.[13]
Simeon Wood, who played with the Handel and Haydn Society
orchestra of Boston during the 1817 season. However, within a
year Wood had lost his instrument, and he later misplaced his
orchestral folder, so that the Society may have done without his
services for a time.[14]
A. Kyle and A. Reiff the bassoonists in the first
professional American orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, in
its 1842 opening season.[15]
History has left us little more than these names and a few programs.
Undoubtedly, these were musicians of real ability and amazing
fortitude, able to withstand the trials of patching together a
living in the nineteenth-century American arts world. Their success
is attested to by the fact that many of us are here today, making
both music and a living as bassoonists.
[Georgia Peeples is Associate Professor of Music at the University
of Akron. She is principal bassoon with the Akron Symphony and
performs with the Solaris Quintet, Ohio Ballet, and Robert Page
Orchestra. With her col- league James Ryon, oboist, she performed
last summer at the IDRS Convention in Manchester.]
End Notes
1. Benjamin R. Compton, Amateur Instrumental
Music in America, 1765 to 1810 (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,
Louisiana State University, 1979), p. 82.
2. Ibid., p. 199.
3. Oscar G.T. Sonneck, Early Concert
Life in America (New York: Musurgia Publishers, 1949), p.
18.
4. Ibid., pp. 34-35.
5. Ibid., P. 99.
6. Raymond Walters, The Bethlehem Bach
Choir (New York: Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1923), p. 17.
7. Sonneck, Early Concert Life, pp. 15,
21.
8. Frederick L. Ritter, Music in America
(New York: Scribner's Sons, 1883), p. 207.
9. Sonneck, Early Concert Life,
pp. 15, 21.
10. Ibid., pp. 144, 156.
11. Louis C. Madiera, Annals of Music
in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1896),
p. 76.
12. Sonneck, Early Concert Life, pp.
89-90.
13. Harold Earle Johnson, Musical
Interludes in Boston, 1795-1830 (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1943), p. 203.
14. Ibid., pp. 126-128.
15. John Erskine, The Philharmonic
Society of New York, its First 100 Years (New York: MacMillan,
1943), p. 37.