Music In The Chautauqua Movement

The chautauqua movement was a truly American phenomenon, providing education and entertainment for millions of people and employing thousands of musicians in the process. While scholars have previously explored various facets of the chautauqua movement, this is the first book to trace the place of music in the movement from its inception through its decline. Drawing upon the rich collections of ephemera left by several chautauqua bureaus, this study profiles several famous musicians and introduces the reader to lesser-known musical acts that traveled the chautauqua circuits. In addition, it explores music’s role in defining the chautauqua movement as “high culture,” legitimizing the movement in the eyes of community leaders and setting it apart from vaudeville and other competing amusements. Finally, it addresses music’s role in establishing chautauqua’s identity as an American institution, specifically in the years surrounding World War I.

"This study of brass chamber music in lyceum and chautauqua fills a lacuna in brass history. It explores the forgotten phenomenon of the many chamber brass ensembles that entertained millions of Americans from coast to coast from 1877 to 1939 and presents histories of sixty-one ensembles that performed music for brass trio, brass quartet, brass quintet, and brass sextet for lyceum and chautauqua audiences. The author also writes about the large repertoire of music for small brass ensembles that he discovered was published in America from 1875 through the 1920s. This First American Chamber Brass School is discussed in one of five overviews of the principal eras in brass chamber music history that form the most comprehensive history of brass chamber music written in fifty years."--Publisher's website

From its inception in 1874 down to the close of World War I, the widespread popularity of the Chautauqua movement constituted one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of American adult education. Started by two Ohio men as a summer camp or assembly to train Sunday school teachers in pleasant surroundings on Lake Chautauqua in Western New York, the project grew to university proportions on its home grounds and during the height of its influence reached out to over 8,000 communities, which participated by means of correspondence courses, lecture-study groups, and reading circles. Providing a free platform for the discussion of vital issues and a means of bringing good music to people who previously had had no way of hearing it, Chautauqua was a major factor in the "great change" which brought to the Middle West the cultural standards of the Eastern seaboard. In so doing, it pioneered in introducing into American life many new concepts and ideas, including university extension courses, summer sessions, a university press, civic opera associations, and group activities such as the Boy Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, and similar youth movements. The influence of Chautauqua upon the pattern of higher education in the United States was also great, due mainly to the action of William Rainey Harper--one of Chautauqua's leading personalities--in practically duplicating Chautauqua's organizational structure at the then new University of Chicago when he was chosen by John D. Rockefeller to head that institution. In this connection Dr. Gould has had access to the uncatalogued papers of Dr. Harper in the Archives of the University of Chicago. The net result is a book of value to the serious student of American education as well as to the casual reader whose knowledge of Chautauqua may have been confined hitherto to the relatively unimportant "tent show" era of the movement.

Before radio and sound movies, early 20th century performers and lecturers traveled the nation providing entertainment and education to Americans thirsty for culture. These "chautauquas" brought politicians, activists, scholars, musical ensembles and theatrical productions to remote communities. A conduit for global perspectives and progressive ideas, these gatherings introduced issues like equal suffrage, prohibition and pure food laws to rural America. This book explores an overlooked yet influential movement in U.S. history, capturing the vagaries of speakers' and performers' lives on the road and their reception by audiences. Excerpts from lectures and plays portray a vibrant circuit that in a single summer drew 20 million in more than 9,000 towns.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Of the many brass bands that have flourished in Britain and Ireland over the last 200 years very few have documented records covering their history. This directory is an attempt to collect together information about such bands and make it available to all. Over 19,600 bands are recorded here, with some 10,600 additional cross references for alternative or previous names. This volume supersedes the earlier “British Brass Bands – a Historical Directory” (2016) and includes some 1,400 bands from the island of Ireland. A separate work is in preparation covering brass bands beyond the British Isles. A separate appendix lists the brass bands in each county