November 1917: The End of the Long Nineteenth Century in American Music
The Long Nineteenth Century (1789–1914), as postulated by Eric Hobsbawm, has proven to be a useful historical construct for musicologists, encompassing music from late Haydn to early Schönberg. The era was dominated by Austro-German aesthetics and composers, many of whom rode the coattails of Beethoven and Wagner. Their world came to an end with the outbreak of
World War I in July 1914, effectively bringing to a close the era of large orchestras and opera companies performing opulent Romantic scores in cosmopolitan style.
Music in the United States followed a similar pattern, but the country’s late entrance into the war extended nineteenth-century musical culture for three years. From 1914 through 1917, America was a haven for exiled European artists, and Americans enthusiastically supported large-scale orchestral and operatic performances in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and other major cities. Audiences enjoyed an embarrassment of riches through the presence of Austro-German performers and conductors seeking refuge in this neutral country. When the U. S. Congress finally declared war on Germany in April 1917, there was widespread speculation about how this might impact musical culture but little immediate effect. The dramatic break with the musical past occurred in November 1917, when the country was seized by a paroxysm of patriotism that chased Karl Muck, Fritz Kreisler, and other Austro-Germans from American stages and forced the Metropolitan Opera to eliminate German-language productions from its repertoire. This sea-change opened the field for newly exiled French and Russian musicians, who would establish new repertoire and aesthetic directions that eventually gave rise to an influential generation of American composers in the 1920s. This paper will examine the historical moment in November 1917 when the old world imploded amid the noise of war.
The Long Nineteenth Century (1789–1914), as postulated by Eric Hobsbawm, has proven to be a useful historical construct for musicologists, encompassing music from late Haydn to early Schönberg. The era was dominated by Austro-German aesthetics and composers, many of whom rode the coattails of Beethoven and Wagner. Their world came to an end with the outbreak of
World War I in July 1914, effectively bringing to a close the era of large orchestras and opera companies performing opulent Romantic scores in cosmopolitan style.
Music in the United States followed a similar pattern, but the country’s late entrance into the war extended nineteenth-century musical culture for three years. From 1914 through 1917, America was a haven for exiled European artists, and Americans enthusiastically supported large-scale orchestral and operatic performances in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and other major cities. Audiences enjoyed an embarrassment of riches through the presence of Austro-German performers and conductors seeking refuge in this neutral country. When the U. S. Congress finally declared war on Germany in April 1917, there was widespread speculation about how this might impact musical culture but little immediate effect. The dramatic break with the musical past occurred in November 1917, when the country was seized by a paroxysm of patriotism that chased Karl Muck, Fritz Kreisler, and other Austro-Germans from American stages and forced the Metropolitan Opera to eliminate German-language productions from its repertoire. This sea-change opened the field for newly exiled French and Russian musicians, who would establish new repertoire and aesthetic directions that eventually gave rise to an influential generation of American composers in the 1920s. This paper will examine the historical moment in November 1917 when the old world imploded amid the noise of war.