- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Illustrations
- Introduction: Toward a History of American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century
- Part I Ubiquity & Diversity
- [I.1] Building the American Symphony Orchestra
- [I.2] Modeling Music
- [1.3] American Orchestras and Their Unions in the Nineteenth Century
- Part II The Orchestra & the American City
- [II.1] Invisible Instruments
- [II.2] Beethoven and Beer
- [II.3] Performances to “permanence”
- [II.4] Critic and Conductor in 1860s Chicago
- [II.5] Amateur and Professional, Permanent and Transient
- Part III Conductors, Promoters, Patrons
- [III.1] Bernard Ullman and the Business of Orchestras in Mid-Nineteenth-Century New York
- [III.2] John Sullivan Dwight and the Harvard Musical Association Orchestra
- [III.3] The Leopold Damrosch Orchestra, 1877–78
- [III.4] Gender and the Germanians
- Part IV America & Europe
- [IV. 1] “A Concentration of Talent on Our Musical Horizon”
- [IV.2] Ureli Corelli Hill
- Part V Orchestraf Repertory
- [v.1] Orchestral Programs in Boston, 1841–55, in European Perspective
- [V.2] Theodore Thomas and the Cultivation of American Music
- [V.3] Thinking about Serious Music in New York, 1842–82
- Aflerword: Coming of Age
- Bibliography
- Contributors
- Index
Invisible Instruments
Invisible Instruments
Theater Orchestras in New York, 1850–1900
- Chapter:
- (p.109) [II.1] Invisible Instruments
- Source:
- American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century
- Author(s):
John Graziano
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
New York featured no fewer than seven theaters in which dramas and comedies were conducted, and almost all of them employed an orchestra. Orchestra leaders normally contracted to stay at one theater for a season, or for multiple seasons, although frequently moved to a different house at the end of a season. It is observed that when a better-paying job was offered, players were allowed to opt out of their contracted performances in the theaters. Theater orchestras, a significant component in the production of plays, held together scene changes and ends of acts, and underscored dialogue as needed. Until 1890s, pit musicians were still underpaid. Theater musicians were looked on with disdain by many in the entertainment profession.
Keywords: theater orchestras, New York, plays, pit musicians, theater musicians
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Illustrations
- Introduction: Toward a History of American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century
- Part I Ubiquity & Diversity
- [I.1] Building the American Symphony Orchestra
- [I.2] Modeling Music
- [1.3] American Orchestras and Their Unions in the Nineteenth Century
- Part II The Orchestra & the American City
- [II.1] Invisible Instruments
- [II.2] Beethoven and Beer
- [II.3] Performances to “permanence”
- [II.4] Critic and Conductor in 1860s Chicago
- [II.5] Amateur and Professional, Permanent and Transient
- Part III Conductors, Promoters, Patrons
- [III.1] Bernard Ullman and the Business of Orchestras in Mid-Nineteenth-Century New York
- [III.2] John Sullivan Dwight and the Harvard Musical Association Orchestra
- [III.3] The Leopold Damrosch Orchestra, 1877–78
- [III.4] Gender and the Germanians
- Part IV America & Europe
- [IV. 1] “A Concentration of Talent on Our Musical Horizon”
- [IV.2] Ureli Corelli Hill
- Part V Orchestraf Repertory
- [v.1] Orchestral Programs in Boston, 1841–55, in European Perspective
- [V.2] Theodore Thomas and the Cultivation of American Music
- [V.3] Thinking about Serious Music in New York, 1842–82
- Aflerword: Coming of Age
- Bibliography
- Contributors
- Index
