Now we turn to the second unsung hero, Arthur P. Schmidt. Schmidt and his publishing company were notable for their support of contemporary American composers in the early 20th century, and for our purposes, particularly notable for their support of women composers of the time. The company's extensive archives are housed at the Library of Congress. In an uncharacteristic (and perhaps unintentional) display of humor, the library's website lists the following description of the collection:
Linear feet of shelf space occupied: 212
Number of Containers: 514
Approximate number of items: ?????
In addition to a catalog of the company's archives housed at the Library of Congress, the website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/music/eadxmlmusic/eadpdfmusic/mu2005.wp.0035.pdf
also provides the following biography of Schmidt:
"Arthur Paul Schmidt was born in Altona, Germany on 1 April 1846 and came to the United States in 1866. He worked for the G.D. Russell publishing house in Boston before opening his own retail and foreign music importing business in 1876. The A.P. Schmidt company soon gained a reputation for publishing works of many distinguished American composers. And, with branches in New York from 1894 to 1937 and in Leipzig from 1889 to 1910, it would become one of the largest music publishing and importing firms in the United States. Mr. Schmidt died on 5 May 1921 but the firm continued until it was absorbed by the Summy-Birchard Company of Evanston, Illinois in 1960. The influence of the A.P. Schmidt Publishing Company on the development and dissemination of American music is immeasurable."
One aspect to appreciate about Schmidt's championship of American composers in that time is that he did so with little expectation of financial reward. His support extended to composers of the New England school such as Amy Beach, George Whitefield Chadwick, Arthur Foote, John Knowles Paine and Horatio Parker, and also Edward MacDowell (who was more lucrative). He was the first American publisher to publish an American symphony, Chadwick's Symphony No. 2, in 1888. In addition to Amy Beach, women published by Schmidt include Florence Newell Barbour (1866-1946), Marion Bauer (1887-1955), Gena Branscombe (1881-1977), Mabel Daniels (1878-1971), Helen Hopekirk (1856-1945), Lucinda Jewell (1874-?), Margaret Ruthven Lang (1867-1972), Frances McCollin (1892-1960), Edna Rosalind Park, Olga von Radecki (fl. 1882), Anna Priscilla Risher (1875-1946), Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844-1931), and Mildred Weston. A scroll through the music archive pdf (at the website listed above) reveal many less-celebrated names of women: Mildred Adair, Mrs. Crosby Adams, Blanche Ray Alden, Emma Ashford, Alice H. Baker, Mertena Bancroft, Charlotte Barnard, Gertrude Bartlett, Irenee Berger, Helen Lee Bidwell, Sarah Coleman Bragdon, Minna Brinkman, Radie Britain, Gail Ridgway Brown, Kate L. Brown, Mary A. Browne, and Carrie Bullard, just to name those in the A's and B's.
After Schmidt's death, the company continued its enlightened policy towards women, especially as it turned to publishing more "educational" works. In addition to the three works of Kemp Stillings discussed in a previous post (and I just saw a fourth one on the list I hadn't known about till now), pedagogical works by the intriguingly-named Ida Mae Crombie (Scale Stories and three other works-- I don't know why, I just love to say her name), Ruth Laighton (First Steps in Shifting and four other books), Edith Hatch (Melodious Etudes in Double Notes and Octaves, a scale book, and 18 character pieces), and Lillian Shattuck (Bowings for Three-Octave Scales, and The Very First Lesson for Violin) can be found on the archive list. There are other composers with numerous descriptive titles to their credit, but there is no way of telling the instrumentation from the information provided. Field trip...
Speaking of field trips, I did say I would find out how Harvey Whistler's personal music collection ended up at Arizona State University. Jacob Dakon, author of the article from which I quoted extensively, let me know that "it was started by Georgeanna Whistler (his wife) after his death. She was looking for someone to take his music and ASU stepped up to the plate." The collection Jacob started at Ohio State contains Whistler's methods, theses, research articles, personal documents, etc. He says they are waiting for a few boxes from California to complete the collection. If you're in Columbus, stop by and have a look!
Linear feet of shelf space occupied: 212
Number of Containers: 514
Approximate number of items: ?????
In addition to a catalog of the company's archives housed at the Library of Congress, the website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/music/eadxmlmusic/eadpdfmusic/mu2005.wp.0035.pdf
also provides the following biography of Schmidt:
"Arthur Paul Schmidt was born in Altona, Germany on 1 April 1846 and came to the United States in 1866. He worked for the G.D. Russell publishing house in Boston before opening his own retail and foreign music importing business in 1876. The A.P. Schmidt company soon gained a reputation for publishing works of many distinguished American composers. And, with branches in New York from 1894 to 1937 and in Leipzig from 1889 to 1910, it would become one of the largest music publishing and importing firms in the United States. Mr. Schmidt died on 5 May 1921 but the firm continued until it was absorbed by the Summy-Birchard Company of Evanston, Illinois in 1960. The influence of the A.P. Schmidt Publishing Company on the development and dissemination of American music is immeasurable."
One aspect to appreciate about Schmidt's championship of American composers in that time is that he did so with little expectation of financial reward. His support extended to composers of the New England school such as Amy Beach, George Whitefield Chadwick, Arthur Foote, John Knowles Paine and Horatio Parker, and also Edward MacDowell (who was more lucrative). He was the first American publisher to publish an American symphony, Chadwick's Symphony No. 2, in 1888. In addition to Amy Beach, women published by Schmidt include Florence Newell Barbour (1866-1946), Marion Bauer (1887-1955), Gena Branscombe (1881-1977), Mabel Daniels (1878-1971), Helen Hopekirk (1856-1945), Lucinda Jewell (1874-?), Margaret Ruthven Lang (1867-1972), Frances McCollin (1892-1960), Edna Rosalind Park, Olga von Radecki (fl. 1882), Anna Priscilla Risher (1875-1946), Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844-1931), and Mildred Weston. A scroll through the music archive pdf (at the website listed above) reveal many less-celebrated names of women: Mildred Adair, Mrs. Crosby Adams, Blanche Ray Alden, Emma Ashford, Alice H. Baker, Mertena Bancroft, Charlotte Barnard, Gertrude Bartlett, Irenee Berger, Helen Lee Bidwell, Sarah Coleman Bragdon, Minna Brinkman, Radie Britain, Gail Ridgway Brown, Kate L. Brown, Mary A. Browne, and Carrie Bullard, just to name those in the A's and B's.
After Schmidt's death, the company continued its enlightened policy towards women, especially as it turned to publishing more "educational" works. In addition to the three works of Kemp Stillings discussed in a previous post (and I just saw a fourth one on the list I hadn't known about till now), pedagogical works by the intriguingly-named Ida Mae Crombie (Scale Stories and three other works-- I don't know why, I just love to say her name), Ruth Laighton (First Steps in Shifting and four other books), Edith Hatch (Melodious Etudes in Double Notes and Octaves, a scale book, and 18 character pieces), and Lillian Shattuck (Bowings for Three-Octave Scales, and The Very First Lesson for Violin) can be found on the archive list. There are other composers with numerous descriptive titles to their credit, but there is no way of telling the instrumentation from the information provided. Field trip...
Speaking of field trips, I did say I would find out how Harvey Whistler's personal music collection ended up at Arizona State University. Jacob Dakon, author of the article from which I quoted extensively, let me know that "it was started by Georgeanna Whistler (his wife) after his death. She was looking for someone to take his music and ASU stepped up to the plate." The collection Jacob started at Ohio State contains Whistler's methods, theses, research articles, personal documents, etc. He says they are waiting for a few boxes from California to complete the collection. If you're in Columbus, stop by and have a look!
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