Arthur T. Cremin: American concerto fantasy

[violinconcerto]

The piano reduction of the "American concerto fantasy, for violin and orchestra" by Arthur T. Cremin (1900-1985) is now available for free download from my website:

http://www.tobias-broeker.de/rare-manuscripts/violin-concertos/arthur-t-cremin/

Arthur T. Cremin was born in 30 June 1900 in New York. He studied violin privately with Stevo Stoianovitch (1885-1960), a Serbian violinist, graduate of the Prague Conservatory and pupil of Otakar Sevcik. In 1921 Arthur Cremin founded the ,,New York Schools of Music". Nearly immediately this music school became a successful and famous institution, a newspaper article from 1934 remembers:

,,Years ago Cremin, a youth with a flaring shock of red hair, nailed up a sign above his Stanton street alcove offering music-lessons for the small sum of twenty-five cents. Deans of music jeered and rivals snickered that it couldn't be done. The little alcove has become one of the largest music conservatories in the world, The New York Schools of Music."

Arthur Cremin served as the director of the New York Music Schools and as the president of the ,,American Creative League of Music Students" for many years and was a businessman as good as a musician. In 1937 he offered music lessons ,,on wheels" in trailer trucks and founded a ,,Reminder Service Inc.", a company to remember people about things.
He also wrote educational books on music, for example a graded violin method. And the newspapers from the 1930s and 1940s loved his controversial thoughts on music (check my website for some very interesting examples) and wrote a lot about his ideas.
Arthur Cremin also composed music, but it is little known about his output. A composition called ,,The Story Teller" was announced for performance at Carnegie Hall in 1934. After his retirement from the head of the New York Schools of Music Arthur Cremin still worked a few days a week at his music school until his death. The other time he took care of his wife and wrote poetry. Arthur T. Cremin died on 20 March 1985.

The ,,American concerto fantasy" was written most likely around 1940. The manuscript mentions Barnabas Istok as an editor of the work (some fingerings and additions in a different handwriting - most likely Istok's hand - are in the manuscript). Barnabas Istok was a violinist and became faculty member of the violin section of the New York Schools of Music in 1936. The concerto fantasy consists of three movements: I. Rocky Mountains; II. Grand Canyon and III. New York City.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Tobias. A quicker reminder, however: we need to be sure that any composition written in 1940 is in line with this website's criteria...

[Double-A]

Listening to the partial (2min) realization on violinconcerto's web site makes me suspect that it is if anything too compliant with our criteria.

[Alan Howe]

Oh, good. I think...

[Mark Thomas]

The word "bland" comes to mind...

[minacciosa]

Tobias, we truly appreciate your herculean efforts to catalog and reveal the concerto literature. It is of invaluable help!

[Alan Howe]

Agreed. But that doesn't mean that everything catalogued is worthy of one's attention...

[minacciosa]

You just had to go qualify it. Just say thank you and leave it at that. Geez.

[violinconcerto]

A short note on that from my side: I don't think that music can be judged into "good" or "bad". It is always just a personal decision (I know too many people - and you for sure as well - that listen to (imho) bad music - and these people love it). So who are we to judge on that? My passion is to preserve violin concertos from getting lost and it is insignificant if I like, love or hate the work. Maybe others will love it and so that will be fine.

So if you don't like the Cremin work - fine, your opinion and respectfully acknowledged. Maybe my next uploaded work will fit your wishes better, or maybe not. Thats how it works with music: sometimes you like it and sometimes not.

[Mark Thomas]

Very well put, thanks.

[Alan Howe]

Oh, I'm grateful too. And of course the cataloguer does invaluable work because as a result we have access to all manner of works which would otherwise be lost, or at the very least hidden away somewhere.

My point was an entirely different one, though: once a work has been catalogued, the next question is whether it is worth spending time to study or perform it. Of course, one wouldn't know unless it were made available in the first place, but we have to remember one important thing: some music is just not very good. And that's where I depart from the notion that music can't be judged as to its quality.

An example: am I grateful to those who preserved the score of Prout's Symphony No.4? Yes, of course. Do I think it's any good? No, I'm afraid I don't.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree with what you say, Alan. However, I haven't had a chance to look at the score of Cremin's work yet and I doubt it is fair to make a judgement on the basis of the short realization extract available. Moreover, what can sometimes seem undistinguished when heard in the violin/piano score may be much more impressive when clothed in its orchestral garb. So, let's not be too hasty. Which leads me to ask the question: does the orchestral score exist?

[violinconcerto]

does the orchestral score exist?

No. That is even the only complete score of a Cremin work that exists, as far as I know.

[Alan Howe]

Agreed, Gareth. I was simply trying to tease out the difference between cataloguing (an essential and invaluable task) and assessing a catalogued work for performance (i.e. coming to a view as to the value of said work). I have no opinion on Cremin's composition.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Quite.