American Music

[jowcol]

Music of Charles Wakefield Cadman



I've posted the following in the Downloads Section

Charles Wakefield Cadman-
Symphony # 1 "Pennsylvania" (Premiere)
Introduction by Composer, Andante Moderato, Allegro Scherzando, Allegroe con fuoco
Los Angeles Philharmonic/Albert Coates
March 7 1940

From the collection of Karl Miller

The backstory behind this broadcast is rather touching.  Cadman sounds like he was a very interesting person, and you can hear the pride with which he introduces the work-- and it seems that his life went downhill after this premiere, at least as it is described in the -Naxos biography I am reproducing below.


CHARLES WAKEFIELD CADMAN 
(1881 - 1946)
Best remembered as the composer of the art songs At Dawning and From the Land of Sky-blue Water, Charles Wakefield Cadman has been in virtual eclipse during the past half century. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, however, the American musical community seems much more tolerant of our musical ancestors and their quest to forge an American music idiom.

Although Cadman held his classical works in great esteem, his life-long association with the Indianist Movement in American music (circa 1880-1920) made it difficult for the works to be judged on their individual merits. His output includes five operas, orchestral suites, chamber works, cantatas, piano works, violin works and over 250 songs.

Cadman's musical background was completely American. One of the earliest American composers not schooled in the European tradition, his music reflects an independence of thought influenced strictly by Native American sources. If Arthur Farwell was the theoretician of the so-called Indianist Movement, then Cadman can be considered its most brilliant populariser.

Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on 24th December, 1881, Cadman traced his musical background to his maternal ancestry. His great-grandfather, the celebrated Samuel Wakefield (1799-1895), built the first pipe organ west of the Allegheny Mountains, wrote books on theology and music, and composed early-American sacred music. Cadman began piano lessons at the age of thirteen, and soon composed several simple pieces. Abandoning formal education the following year, he financed his musical studies as a church organist as an errand boy. In Pittsburgh, he briefly studied harmony and theory with Leo Oehmler (1902), orchestration with Luigi von Kunits (1908), concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and with Emil Paur, its conductor. This was the sum total of Cadman's musical education. In 1908, he was appointed music editor and critic of the Pittsburgh Dispatch.

Although Cadman was exposed to Indian lore as a youth, it was not until 1907, after reading Indian Story and Song by the ethnologist Alice Fletcher, that he began to compose works based on Indian melodies. In 1909, he ventured to Santa Fe in New Mexico, seeking a cure for a tubercular condition. Here he corresponded with Fletcher, who urged him to visit the Omaha Indians in Nebraska. Following her advice, he met Francis La Flesche, son of a French trader and an Omaha woman. Together, Cadman and La Flesche made cylinder recordings and transcriptions of Omaha tribal melodies for the Smithsonian Institution. Cadman learned to play their instruments and later "idealized" (adapting the melody into a nineteenth century harmonic idiom) their music for concert audiences. Striving to make the works "artistically palatable", he legitimized this in an article for the Musical Quarterly (July, 1915) on The "Idealization" of Indian Music.

Cadman's early works did not enjoy popularity until From the Land of the Sky-blue Water was given an encore by the soprano Lillian Nordica at a Cleveland, Ohio recital in 1909. His most successful song, At Dawning, written in 1906, followed a similar course, being popularised by the tenors John McCormack and Alessandro Bonci. The words of both songs were written by Nelle Richmond Eberhart (1877-1944), a neighbour of the Cadman household during his youth and the person who introduced him to Indian lore.

With the success of his songs, Cadman lived comfortably and pursued serious composition. His opera, Shanewis ('The Robin Woman'), based on authentic Indian melodies, was given by the Metropolitan Opera in 1918. It was the first American opera with a contemporary American setting staged at the Met, the first American opera with a libretto by a woman (Eberhart) at the Met, and the first American opera to be performed in a second season.

By the early 1920s, Cadman had become a self-proclaimed expert on American Indian music, and toured North America and Europe delivering his celebrated 'Indian Talk.' When not on tour, he returned to Los Angeles, where he had lived since 1916. He was a charter member of the founding organization of the Hollywood Bowl and a featured Bowl soloist seven times in his career.

With Hollywood close by, it was natural for Cadman to gravitate toward the film industry. In 1929, he was hired by Fox Studios to score motion pictures. His scores included The Sky Hawk, Captain of the Guard, Women Everywhere, and Harmony at Home. Before leaving Fox, he became embroiled in a public dispute with the composer Dmitri Tiomkin over the future direction of music for film. Cadman felt the music should be based on classical or traditional styles and was opposed to Tiomkin's popular jazz approach. Eventually, Cadman would relent but only after his severance with the studios was complete.

By the early 1930s, interest in the Indianist Movement had declined and Cadman saw his popularity erode. Sales of his songs had decreased and personal funds were depleted. Though he was voted the Most Popular American Composer of 1930 by the National Federation of Music Clubs, he recognised the change in public taste. European-trained American composers like Copland, Piston, and Harris were presenting a more sophisticated sound to the American public. Cadman intensified his classical output but the critics still stereotyped him as a composer of "Indian melodies."

As late as 1935, the California Pacific International Exposition at San Diego declared 4th September Cadman Day. It was based entirely on Cadman's past association with American Indian music. The following year, Cadman again received national prominence when he resigned from the American Music Committee of the Berlin Olympic Games Festival. He declared the Nazi régime 'repugnant.'

Cadman spent the last decade of his life composing and promoting his 'serious works.' These attained little acceptance beyond southern California. An exception was the 1940 national broadcast of the première of his Pennsylvania Symphony with Albert Coates conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. The symphony received enthusiastic acclaim but Cadman could not secure a second performance with a major Eastern orchestra. The problem was twofold. Cadman handled his own publicity ineffectively, and deteriorating political conditions in Europe had brought many talented European composers and conductors to American shores. Competition for performances was intense.

Living the last years of his bachelor life in semi-frugality at a modest hotel in Los Angeles, Cadman tried to persevere though in poor health and depression. He died on 30th December, 1946, a forgotten and "vanished" American.

Forgotten?  or Unsung?

[semloh]

What a great pleasure to be transported back to Hollywood in 1940 for these premieres, and to hear the interviews with the composers themselves. Marvellous stuff. Thank you! 

[jowcol]

Oops!  I forgot to say:

"From the collection of Karl Miller"-- but yes, I had the same reaction!

[Ser Amantio di Nicolao]

Music of Charles Wakefield Cadman

I am quite looking forward to this (once I get the time to sit down by the computer and listen to it.)  I have been a Cadman-iac since hearing his piano trio - such charming music.  Great fun.

[eschiss1]

According to Naxos' online description of Willson's 2 symphonies in Sternberg's recording of them the movements of the 2nd symphony are -
5.              I  Junipero Serra (Lento - Allegro)
6.         II San Juan Bautista (Andante)
7.         III San Juan Capistrano (Vivace)
8.         IV El Camino Real (Allegro, a la marcia)

which is interesting since this download has 3 tracks and that recording has 4. Will have to listen to rationalize the discrepancy...

[semloh]

According to Naxos' online description of Willson's 2 symphonies in Sternberg's recording of them the movements of the 2nd symphony are -
5.              I  Junipero Serra (Lento - Allegro)
6.         II San Juan Bautista (Andante)
7.         III San Juan Capistrano (Vivace)
8.         IV El Camino Real (Allegro, a la marcia)

which is interesting since this download has 3 tracks and that recording has 4. Will have to listen to rationalize the discrepancy...

Ah, well spotted, Eric!   

Looking at the timings, perhaps the 3rd (4m 57s) and 4th movements (6m 44s) listed by Naxos are here combined into a single movement (14m 52s - which is slightly longer, as it also is for the other movements, as it includes extra time for the lead-in/out, settling of the audience, etc). 

That said, the names of the movements are all different... so I am totally confused!! 

[jowcol]

According to Naxos' online description of Willson's 2 symphonies in Sternberg's recording of them the movements of the 2nd symphony are -
5.              I  Junipero Serra (Lento - Allegro)
6.         II San Juan Bautista (Andante)
7.         III San Juan Capistrano (Vivace)
8.         IV El Camino Real (Allegro, a la marcia)

which is interesting since this download has 3 tracks and that recording has 4. Will have to listen to rationalize the discrepancy...

That is why I didn't put the names of the movements that I had on the tracks.  I figured that some of our scholars would untangle this pretty quickly.

Has anyone heard the Naxos release?  It's on my to buy list...

[eschiss1]

It should be on mine, or on my to-download list once I have one, or something, seeing as how The Music Man has been among my favorite musicals for a very, very long time (and I fairly recently caught a production of it locally, happily and happily.)

(It was musical theater that made me a classical music fanatic in the first place- darn you, Wright & Forrest's Kismet, and Borodin.)

[TerraEpon]

I've had the Naxos disc for years. Pretty enjoyable though not spectacular.

[Ser Amantio di Nicolao]

I've had the Naxos disc for years. Pretty enjoyable though not spectacular.

That's about my take on it, too.  I bought it, and listened to it once - don't remember a note.  Perhaps I'm due for a re-listen.  (Been doing a lot of that lately.)

[britishcomposer]

A belated thank you, Latvian, for the Farwell Symphony! I suppose I was this forum member who requested it. Much appreciated! 

[Ser Amantio di Nicolao]

A belated thank you, Latvian, for the Farwell Symphony! I suppose I was this forum member who requested it. Much appreciated! 

_{Pssst - Haydn forum's t'other way.} 

(Sorry.)

[gabriel]

Reiger: Your uploads of old Louisville LPs are wonderful. Thanks!!

[reiger]

Reiger: Your uploads of old Louisville LPs are wonderful. Thanks!!

Glad you like them! I'm working on completing my Louisville LP collection, and I'm in process of converting them to digital... There will be more uploads on the way... Stay tuned! 

[Dundonnell]

Reiger: Your uploads of old Louisville LPs are wonderful. Thanks!!

Glad you like them! I'm working on completing my Louisville LP collection, and I'm in process of converting them to digital... There will be more uploads on the way... Stay tuned! 

Most of the music you have uploaded is indeed well worth having in my opinion. I do say "most" because I am afraid that the Claude Baker piece lies just beyond my own particular 'comfort zone'   However the Giannini Divertimento and the Sowerby piece were extremely welcome. Most of all, I was delighted to make the acquaintance of the Robert Bernat Passacaglia-a work I had not heard for decades

If you have the Louisville LP collection I wonder if amongst those works is the Benjamin Lees Concerto for Orchestra   If so..........please