Was erzählt Fritz Kreislers Geige?

This short contribution shows the relevance of audiovisual sources for the history of 20th century music. It traces the role played by the violinist Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962) in shaping the widespread cliché of the “Viennese sound” via an examination of audiovisual sources. The sources stored in different online archives or social media portals play a key role, but the traceability of a given agent is not guaranteed. For this reason, controlled vocabularies and a digital tool which enable the addition of new metadata to already existing sources should be developed in the near future. This would enable researchers to trace agents, such as institutions and artists, and to connect them with places, repertoires and cultural topoi.

Making Music American

Nineteen seventeen, the year the United States entered World War I, was transformative for American musical culture. The European performers who had dominated classical concert stages for generations came under intense scrutiny, and some of the compositions of Austro-German composers were banned. This year saw the concurrent rise of jazz music from a little-known regional style to a national craze. Significant improvements in recording technology facilitated both the first million-selling jazz record and the first commercial recordings of full symphony orchestras. In a segregated country, as the US military wrestled with how to make use of several million African Americans who had registered for the draft, James Reese Europe broke down racial barriers with his Fifteenth New York National Guard Band. This book tells the story of this year through the lives of eight performers: orchestral conductors Karl Muck and Walter Damrosch, violinist Fritz Kreisler, pianist Olga Samaroff, contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink, jazz cornetists Dominic LaRocca and Freddie Keppard, and army bandmaster James Reese Europe. Their individual stories, traced month by month through the eventful year of 1917, illuminate the larger changes that convulsed the country’s musical culture and transformed it in uniquely American ways.

Fallout

In a 2 December article entitled “Rising Tide of Sentiment against German Music,” critic W. J. Henderson detailed the ways that musical attitudes in the United States had been altered in recent months. Fritz Kreisler and Karl Muck were restricted in their performances, while Schumann-Heink took a temporary break from public concerts. Walter Damrosch and Leopold Stokowski took pains to emphasize their loyalty, but Damrosch’s new arrangement of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was criticized for being too ornate. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band and the Original Creole Band continued to ride the wave of jazz popularity. After further delays, the Fifteenth New York National Guard Regiment finally crossed the Atlantic Ocean and prepared to join the war in France.

Implosions

The refusal of the Boston Symphony Orchestra management to program “The Star-Spangled Banner” in Providence, Rhode Island, on 30 October led to nationwide outrage against Karl Muck in early November. Anti-German sentiment ran high as concerts by Muck’s orchestra were cancelled in Baltimore and concerts by Fritz Kreisler were banned in Pittsburgh. The Metropolitan Opera dropped all German operas from its repertoire. Both Walter Damrosch and Ernestine Schumann-Heink went to great lengths to prove their patriotism, but Schumann-Heink broke under the strain and withdrew from the stage for six weeks. The Fifteenth Regiment had orders to ship out to France but was delayed twice in November. This month was a significant turning point in American attitudes, as jazz became increasingly popular and European music and musicians were viewed with suspicion and disdain.

Noise

As the revelation of the Zimmermann telegram pushed the United States closer to war, jazz continued to grow in popularity. The Creole Band and Original Dixieland Jazz Band played simultaneous engagements in New York, and numerous journalists reported on the new musical genre. Fritz Kreisler played to loyal audiences of German Americans, while Karl Muck continued to emphasize Austro-German music in his Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts. Patron Henry Lee Higginson weighed the pros and cons of renewing Muck’s contract in light of the conductor’s frankly expressed loyalty to Germany. Walter Damrosch seized the moment by prominently featuring “The Star-Spangled Banner” in his concerts with the New York Symphony, which embarked on a ten-week national tour in mid-March.

The Old Order

At the height of the concert season, Karl Muck and Walter Damrosch toured the East Coast with their orchestras, while Fritz Kreisler, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, and Olga Samaroff performed in recital and as orchestral soloists. The economics of funding symphony orchestras is explored, as the patronage of wealthy guarantors was essential. In order to meet James Reese Europe’s demands for a similar guarantee fund for his regimental band, Col. William Hayward convinced millionaire Daniel Reid to underwrite the costs. At the same time, midwestern audiences heard a new style of jazz music in the vaudeville performances of the Original Creole Band and the cabaret performances of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, whose historic New York debut occurred at Reisenweber’s 400 Club on the evening of 27 January 1917.