Music of Maryland
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The most famous contribution from the music of Maryland is perhaps Francis Scott Key, who wrote the national anthem of the United States, "The Star-Spangled Banner". Famous musicians from Maryland range from pop punksters Good Charlotte and blues singer Billie Holiday.
Modern Maryland is home to many well-regarded music venues, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Opera, and the Peabody Institute's Conservatory of Music. Outside of Baltimore, Frederick Weinberg Center for the Arts and Rockville's Strathmore are also important regional venues. The Merriweather Post Pavilion hosts most of the largest concerts in the area, while the annual HFStival is one of the most consistently popular concerts in the DC metropolitan area.
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Music institutions
Most of the major musical organizations in Baltimore were founded by musicians who trained at the Peabody Institute's Conservatory of Music. These include Baltimore Choral Arts and the Baltimore Opera, as well as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) [1]. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra formed in 1916 and was the only orchestra in the country to operate as a branch of the city's government [2]. In 1942, the orchestra was reorganized as a private institution. The Orchestra claims that Joseph Meyerhoff, President of the Orchestra beginning in 1965, and his music director, Sergiu Comissiona, began the modern history of the BSO and "ensured the creation of an institution, which has become the undisputed leader of the arts community throughout the State of Maryland" [3].
Aside from the prominent Baltimore Symphony, Maryland is also home to several other institutions. The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1962, is a well-known organization that has hosted guests like Cuban violinist Guillermo Perich and Charlie Byrd; the Annapolis Orchestra inspired composer David Ott to create the Annapolis Overture, which debuted in 1995 [4]. The Rohrersville Cornet Band, part of Maryland's cornet band heritage, claims to be the oldest continually performing community band in the state, having been founded in 1837; it now performers in a dedicated music hall in Rohrersville, Maryland [5]. The Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras (MCYO) was formed in the 1946 to "nurture, develop and advance young talented musicians in a quality orchestral program". Beginning in 1964, the Orchestras began to offer new programs, such as a summer camp that eventually became the Maryland Center for the Arts [6].
Music venues
Music venues in Maryland include the Merriweather Post Pavilion, opened in 1967 and designed by architect Frank Gehry to avoid disturbing as much as possible the surrounding Symphony Woods; it is an outdoor performance area, home to most of the largest concerts that come through the area [7]. The annual HFStival, a music festival held by the WHFS radio station, is a major draw across the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area [8]. The Takoma Park Folk Festival is well-known among folk music aficionados, and has been held annually since 1978 in Takoma Park, Maryland [9].
Baltimore is home to Concordia Hall, founded in 1867 by German musical societies, which were then a large portion of Baltimore's population [10]. The Lyric Opera House is also in Baltimore; it was founded in 1894, which has hosted many of the most famous performers and public speakers to come to Baltimore [11]. The city of Frederick is home to the Weinberg Centre for the Arts, which shows various kinds of theatrical and musical productions. The Weinberg was originally a large movie theater called the Tivoli, opened in 1926; the Tivoli was destroyed in a flood in 1976, and was reopened as the Weinberg Center two years later [12]. North Bethesda's Strathmore opened in 1976, and is now a home for numerous programs, including the largest of its music venues, the Music Center at Strathmore; the Strathmore has hosted well-known musicians and composers like the cellist Steven Honigberg, pianist Christopher Taylor, jazz singers Nnenna Freelon and Luciana Souza and composers Virgil Thomson and Gunther Schuller, as well as DC-area cult acts like the founder of go go Chuck Brown and the reunited punk band The Slickee Boys [13].
Music history
The documented music history of Maryland begins during the colonial era, in the 18th century. Prior to that, Native Americans lived in the state, but left behind few traces of their musical life. The city of Annapolis was a major center for music during the colonial era; the city's Tuesday Club left behind documentation of musical life in Annapolis, one of the most complete sources for musical knowledge about that era in the United States.
The larger city of Baltimore eventually replaced Annapolis as a center for music in Maryland, and eventually became home to most of the prominent music institutions in the state, especially the Peabody Institute. Later still, Baltimore's Pennsylvania Avenue became a very well-known home for African American music, especially jazz, while Maryland began producing popular musicians like The Orioles. In modern times, Maryland has been a home for styles including emo and hardcore punk.
Colonial-era music
There is little historical record of music in Maryland prior to the 18th century; the Native Americans of the area left little or no trace of their musical life. A few instruments, such as drums and trumpets, are known to have existed in the early history of the Maryland colony, probably as a functional means "of calling the populace to church or to market, or in serving as symbols for sea captains and those from the military"; some folk dancing and ballad singing is also substantiated by the historical record. The early colonists had little tradition of any performance art, due to the small number of individuals, their low standard of living and great poverty and disease [14].
With the arrival of large numbers of slaves, however, some white plantation owners earned enough wealth to invest in music and dance. The upper class used instruments like the flute, violin and harpsichord and danced formal dances like the stately minuet or country dance, while the lower classes preferred reels and jigs, accompanied by various kinds of guitars, drums, banjos, transverse flutes and recorders, as well as, more rarely, hammered dulcimers and harpsichords [15].
Local music groups during the colonial era did much to sponsor musical development. Annapolis, a major center for colonial music in North America, was home to the Homony Club and the Tuesday Club, while the Freemasons held balls and concerts across Maryland [16]. Unlike the northern United States, religious music did not prosper in Maryland until the end of the colonial period, and then only in Baltimore in the German communities of Carroll, Montgomery and Frederick countries [17]. Tavern owners frequently sponsored dances and concerts during the colonial era. Beginning in 1752, theater became a major part of Maryland culture for colonists of all classes; performances included light dance and incidental music, ballad operas and the works of William Shakespeare [18]. Aside from the cultural capital of Annapolis, the cities of Baltimore, Upper Marlboro and Chestertown were major homes for Maryland theater, home to the debuts of the latest and most popular dances [19]. With the French and Indian War and then the American Revolution, soldiers brought back home to Maryland military band music, especially fife and drum ensembles.
Early independence and 19th century
Professional theater in Maryland died out during the Revolution but was reestablished by 1780, now with Baltimore having replaced Annapolis as a cultural capital in the state [20]. The Holiday Street Theater in Baltimore opened in 1793 and was one of the first large theaters in the country, showcasing light theater, opera, and concerts [21]. In 1822, Arthur Clifton from Baltimore debuted his opera The Enterprise, while religious music flourished after the 1821 opening of the Catholic Cathedral in the country. The African Methodist Episcopal churches in Maryland were home to singing traditions using the shape-note method [22].
By the turn of the century, the middle classes of Maryland were holding regular dances featuring the cotillion, quadrille, schottische, polka and waltz. Eastern European dances were also popular, brought by immigrants from various countries. Many immigrants in Maryland moved to Baltimore, forming their own distinct neighborhoods with German liederkranz singing societies, and Irish St. Patrick's Day parades and Jewish chants flourished among their respective communities. Maryland was home to several folk traditions, including the work songs of rail and canal diggers and the crab- and oystermen of the Chesapeake Bay, whose repertoire varied from hymns to risqué songs and Bahaman shanties [23].
By the middle of the 19th century, Baltimore was a major center of sheet music publishing, home to Joseph Carr, F. D. Benteen, John Cole and George Willig, as well as the piano-building businesses of William Knabe and Charles Steiff [24]. This period also saw the rise of blackface minstrel shows, featuring the pseudo-African American songs of composers like Dan Emmett and Stephen Foster.
During the Civil War, Maryland was a border state, home to people who sympathized with both sides of the conflict. Federal troops occupied Baltimore, and some people who wrote music that favored the Confederacy were jailed; these pieces included "The Confederacy March", "Stonewall Jackson's Way" and "Maryland, My Maryland!", the last later becoming Maryland's state song. The Civil War left several lasting effects on American music nationwide, most importantly the normalization of white and black cultural mixing, especially in music, caused by the mixing of soldiers in multiracial units; military brass bands became a popular part of the music scene during and after the war, one of the first being the Moxley Band from Frederick [25].
The middle of the 19th century saw a wave of immigration from Europe into the United States, including a large number of German musicians who settled in Baltimore; the presence of these musicians, as well as the general growth in urban population with the industrial revolution and the continued rise of the music publishing industry, helped make music training more affordable for more Americans [26].
Conservatories, institutes of music education, were introduced to the United States in the mid to late 19th century, beginning with Baltimore's Peabody Institute's Conservatory of Music, founded in 1857. The Peabody trained numerous musicians who went on to found most of Baltimore's major musical organizations, including the Baltimore Opera, Baltimore Choral Arts and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra [27]. Though founded in 1857, the Peabody Institute did not hold an orchestral concert until after the Civil War, when James Monroe Deems directed a concert; Deems was a musician and composer, known for Nebuchadnezzar, one of the first American oratorios. He was succeeded by Lucien Southard, who failed to organize the Institute (then known as the Academy of Music), blaming the lack of a "proper musical atmosphere" in Baltimore [28]. It was not until Asger Hamerik's reign that the Peabody Symphony Orchestra finally became successful, one of only five professional orchestras in the country at the time. Hamerik was an advocate of American music and regularly included the works of American composers, eschewing the more typical European programs [29].
The Peabody during Hamerik's leadership produced such noted individuals as Otto Sutro, publisher, music store owner and host of a music society called the Wednesday Club, and with fellow Peabody alum Fritz Finke, founded of the Oratorio Society [30]. In 1871, Ford's Grand Opera House opened, followed three years later by the Academy of Music; this new Academy of Music shared the name with the Peabody Institute's organization, but in the same year changed to the Conservatory of Music [31]. The Academy's conductor, Adam Itzel, Jr. was a very popular composer, known for the national hit light opera The Tar and the Tartar [32].
Early 20th century
There were a number of mostly informal musical societies in Maryland by the end of the 19th century, including the famous Saturday Night Club of Henry L. Mencken and the influential Florestan Club, which hosted such musicians as Mischa Elman, Leopold Stokowski and Walter Damrosch [33]. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was the first permanent orchestra in the city since 1895, when the Peabody Orchestra dissolved; it opened in 1916 with conductor Gustav Strube; this came only three year's after the formation of the short-lived Baltimore Opera Society, which was eventually replaced by the Baltimore Opera in 1927 [34].
While the largely white middle- and upper-class Baltimoreans supported the orchestras and other societies, the city's African Americans formed their own Coloured Symphony Orchestra in 1931, which was municipally supported just like the BSO; the first performance included Ellis Larkins and Anne Brown, the latter known for creating the role of Bess in Porgy and Bess [35]. At the time, Pennsylvania Avenue (often known simply as The Avenue) was the major scene for Baltimore's black musicians, and was an early home for Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, among others [36].
Folk music
Maryland's folk music heritage remains little studied. There have been no major musicological studies in Maryland, though some Anglo-American folk songs have been documented. Some of the German communities of central and western Maryland have long performed traditional-styled German music. Cornet bands, such as the Rohrersville Cornet Band, are also a prominent part of Maryland's folk heritage. The oystermen and others who work on the Chesapeake Bay are known to have their own distinct folk song styles which includes hymns and work songs. Tom Wilsner is a famous folk musician from the Chesapeake area; he has appeared on recordings by the Chesapeake Music Institute, which exists to promote Chesapeake folk music.
The Piedmont blues, a style of African American blues music, is most closely associated with the music of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina, but also exists in Maryland, which has produced modern performers like Warner Williams and Jay Summerour. The Piedmont blues arose from a mixture of black gospel music with white string ensembles, and is characterized by a style of guitar playing influenced by ragtime and country music [37].
Popular music
Maryland has produced popular musicians from many fields, including doo wop and hardcore punk, as well as the gangsta rap of Tupac Shakur, the contemporary R&B of Toni Braxton and the pop of Cass Elliott. The quirky, genre-crossing Frank Zappa was also from Maryland, as were many renowned jazz musicians, like Eubie Blake, Elmer Snowden and Billie Holiday. Though doo wop can be traced to many urban areas across the United States, especially New York City, a 1946 band called The Vibranaires, led by Sonny Til, can be considered the first doo wop group, later known as The Orioles [38].
Baltimore's hardcore punk scene was overshadowed by DC's, but included bands like Law & Order, Bollocks and Fear of God. The city also saw some New Wave action, including Ebeneezer & the Bludgeons and Null Set. Later in the 1980s, emo bands like Reptile House and Grey March had some success and recorded with Ian MacKaye in DC [39].
References
- ^ "The Beginning". All Doo Wop. URL accessed on August 26, 2005.
- ^ "History". Annapolis Symphony Orchestra. URL accessed on September 18, 2005.
- ^ "Thin Blue Line". Baltimore City Paper. URL accessed on September 21, 2005.
- ^ "Baltimore Symphony Orchestra History". Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. URL accessed on August 26, 2005.
- ^ Blush, Steven. American Hardcore: A Tribal History. 2001. Feral House. ISBN 0-922915-717-7
- ^ "Study Guide for the "Music of Colonial Maryland" Program". Colonial Music Institute. URL accessed on August 26, 2005.
- ^ "HFStival". HFStival. URL accessed on September 12, 2005.
- ^ "History of Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras". Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra. URL accessed on August 26, 2005.
- ^ "Music and Theater". Maryland History and Culture. URL accessed on September 12, 2005.
- ^ "Welcome to Merriweather Post Pavilion". Merriweather Post Pavilion. URL accessed on September 12, 2005.
- ^ "About Strathmore: History". Strathmore. URL accessed on September 12, 2005.
- ^ "Takoma Park Folk Festival: Homegrown and Proud of It". Takoma Park Folk Festival. URL accessed on September 21, 2005.
- ^ "The History of the Weinberg". Weinberg Center for the Arts. URL accessed on September 12, 2005.
- ^ "History". Lyric Opera House. URL accessed on September 24, 2005.
Notes
- ^ Maryland History and Culture The founding of the Peabody in 1857 would dramatically change the musical life of Maryland. Nearly all of Baltimore's major musical organizations - the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Opera, Baltimore Choral Arts, and a host of smaller organizations - owe their existence to Peabody musicians.
- ^ Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Meyerhoff appointed Romanian-born conductor Sergiu Comissiona as music director; together, the visionary philanthropist and the charismatic conductor ensured the creation of an artistic institution, which has become the undisputed leader of the arts community throughout the State of Maryland.
- ^ Maryland History and Culture The few drums, trumpets, and other musical instruments recorded in seventeenth-century Maryland most likely played a functional role in calling the populace to church or to market, or in serving as symbols for sea captains and those from the military. A few references to ballad-singing and informal dancing pre-date 1700; there is no evidence of theatrical activities at this time.
- ^ Maryland History and Culture David K. Hildebrand and Elizabeth Schaaf date the first theatrical seasons in Maryland as 1752, 1760, and more regularly from 1769 to 1773
- ^ Maryland History and Culture Although the fear of war forced theater troupes to leave Maryland by 1774, theatrical activities resumed with renewed vigor in the early 1780s in Baltimore, the new state's post-Revolutionary cultural capital.
