Euturpe: A Musical History of the Mid-Hudson

EUTERPE: A MUSICAL HISTORY OF THE MID-HUDSON

Barbara A. Pierce*

A double quartet, composed of the Poughkeepsie area's best tenors and bases, substituted for the regular choir at the annual Memorial Day service at the Washington Street Methodist Church in 1886. The octet was well received. The singers enjoyed performing together. The situation was right for the formation of a men's glee club.

They called it Euterpe, from the muse who presided over the art of music in Greek Mythology. The club's eighty-four year history is a record of some of the Hudson Valley's most prominent musicians and musical events, and of the area business and professional men who knew the pleasures of fellowship in song.

Twenty-five men assembled that summer in a room above Hickok's Music Store at 342 Main Street, now a part of the Luckey, Platt and Co. department store. Among the businessmen were Charles A. Brooks, who operated a woodworking factory on Front Street, Hubert Zimmer of a jewelry firm, Albert A. Simpson of Adriance, Platt & Co., Thomas J. Swift, a attorney and graduate of Yale, Lucilus H. Moseley, a Market Street haberdasher. Other Poughkeepsie residents included Clarence J. Reynolds, William Schickle, cashier of the Fallkill National Bank, Frank J. Schwartz, pharmacist, and Alonzo H. Vail.

Well-known musicians among the charter members included Charles G. Buck who was associated with the First Reformed and Congregational Churches and who later became professor of church music at a California theological seminary; Peter Deyo, father of the prodigy Ruth Linda Deyo, who made her professional debut in Poughkeepsie in 1904 as a concert pianist; and Charles M. Eastmead, associated with the Congregational, Washington Street and Presbyterian Churches, and conductor of the Orpheus and Mendelssohn Glee Clubs and the St. Cecelia Society; Charles Hickok, son of music dealer James Hickok, and a famed accompanist who became Poughkeepsie's musical entrepreneur in the 1890s and brought Pederewski, Schumann-Heink and others to the area; George W. Halliwell who performed as a bass with several clubs and choirs. Other musicians were singers Elmer E. Eastmead and Byron M. Marble, St. Paul's organist Claude H. Valentine, and well-known conductors Thomas J. Macpherson and Edward M. Valentine. The remaining charter members of Euterpe were Charles Rosenmaier, Thomas Davies, William G. Esser, Charles E. Schaffer, Henry M. Taylor and Robert E. Taylor.

*Mrs. Pierce, a member of the Dutchess County Historical Society, is the wife of Richard T. Pierce, a Euterpe member and former president of the Glee Club. Mrs. Pierce is a graduate of the University of Rochester, a former teacher of secondary school social studies, and the author of historical teatures which have appeared in weekly newspaper of Dutchess County.

43

Charles Hickok was elected conductor, Robert E. Taylor, president, Thomas J. Swift, vice-president, and Albert A. Simpson, secretary-treasurer.

Euterpe's first concert took place in March, 1887 at Vassar Brothers Institute on Vassar Street, and was complimentary, vice-president Swift paying all the expenses. A second concert, on December 14, 1887, is the only one for which the club ever charged admission. Since then Euterpe has presented seventy-nine annual complimentary concerts in Poughkeepsie.

Making its debut in 1890, at the second complimentary concert, was an ode, "To Euterpe," written by Richard E. Connell, a club member and editor of a local daily paper, "The News Press." The lyric appeared on concert programs for the next 66 years.

To Euterpe Sweet soother of the troubled mind,

In vain I've searched the language through, Yet fiow'ry words I cannot find

To weave a fitting wreath for you. The human heart is cold and dark

That Cupid's glances fail to warm; But quenched must be the vital spark

In one that music fails to charm.

Hickok became club accompanist in 1890 and the conductor, until 1894, was Edward W. (Pop) Valentine. His remarkable boy-soprano was heard in St. Paul's Sunday School choir when he was eight, and in the adult choir at 10. While still in his teens he was appointed choirmaster at Christ Church. As a teacher of singing in the Poughkeepsie public schools he organized three high school glee clubs which competed for prizes each June during commencement week. Euterpe presented three annual concerts under his direction and a program at Vassar College, assisted by the Vassar Glee Club.

Valentine's dedication to choir work impelled him to leave Euterpe. His successor, Thomas J. Macpherson, was an aristocratic patron of local musical affairs. After his wife's death in 1893, Macpherson left his North Road estate, rented a house in Poughkeepsie, outfitted a studio and launched a career as a voice teacher and conductor. He led the choir of the Washington Street Church and was chorister at the Presbyterian Church. He directed the Choral Union, a singing society for mixed voices associated with St. Peter's Church, and the Catholic Choral Club, consisting of parishoners of St. Mary's Church. Euterpe presented 14 annual concerts under his leadership, and the increasing size of audiences forced a move from Vassar Institute to the Collingwood Opera House, now the Bardavon Theater.

44

The German Emperor Wilhelm II sent a letter acknowledging Euterpe's use of his "Songs to Aegir" at the 1895 concert. Euterpe gave the premier performance of three songs by Dr. Frederick Louis Ritter, director of the School of Music at Vassar College, who dedicated the works to Euterpe's first president. The local Aponon Banjo and Guitar Club, whose leader, Henry T. Lumb, belonged to Euterpe, assisted at the 1897 concert.

The Spanish-American War sent a wave of patriotism throughout the nation. The club decorated the theater with American flags for the 1898 concert, and three members soon left for the armed services, among them George V. L. Spratt, later a City of Poughkeepsie corporation counsel, judge, mayor and Euterpe president. "There Are Large Eternal Fellows," a poem set to music by Dr. George Coleman Gow, professor of music at Vassar, was on the program of the 15th concert, in 1904.

Three incidents not on the program were highlights of the 1907 event, acclaimed by critics as the most musically ambitious to that date. A leg of the grand piano collapsed beneath it and workmen made repairs while the audience watched. The guest soloist, a cellist, nearly toppled from a small platform on which his chair constantly shifted as he bowed. Director Macpherson, while acknowledging applause, dropped a large bouquet which had been handed up to him on the stage.

Euterpe engaged its first paid leader, Dr. John Cornelius Griggs, after Macpherson's death in 1908. Griggs taught singing at Vassar College, was chorister of the Congregational and First Reformed Church choirs and directed the Hull Glee Club, a group for women employees of the Dutchess Manufacturing Company. During Dr. Grigg's tenure Euterpe performed at the Hudson-Fulton Celebration in 1909 and twice at Vassar, first in 1912 with its Glee Club and later in 1915 with the College Choir.

At the 20th complimentary concert in 1910 the "catch" was sung for the first time. A catch is an old English form of round in which the overlapping of the melody among the various voices produces a musical acrostic. The solution of this catch, written by Vassar's Dr. Gow, develops the word "Euterpe." The round was the opening number at concerts for about 25 years. (EU) We use the pleasant hours for merry meeting (TER) To harmony with joy we turn, dull care defeating, And while our friends we're greeting, (PE) Still our songs we keep repeating, Euterpe, thrice Euterpe now we hail thee. Semper vivat EUTERPI

45

The site of the annual concert was changed in 1915 from the Coilingwood Opera House to the newly completed Poughkeepsie High School, now Our Lady of Lourdes High School. That same year Charles Hickok, the accompanist, retired after a quarter-century of service and was succeeded by Robert S. Flagler, a prominent local church organist. During the next 20 years Euterpe gave the first public performances of a dozen compositions by Flagler, who frequently collaborated with the Poughkeepsie poet Elizabeth Evelyn Moore.

Graphic as well as musical reminders of World War One appeared on Euterpe's 1917 concert program. An American flag and the words of the national anthem replaced the usual engraving of the muse on the cover. A battle song, "Prepare the Iron Helm of War," and two English numbers were on the program. In 1918 the club sang "La Marseillaise" in French and closed with "Keep the Home Fires Burning" and the national anthem. On the cover was Euterpe's service flag containing six stars to represent its members in service.

That 1918 concert, Dr. Grigg's last before moving to China, featured the song "Poughkeepsie" with music by Dr. Gow to Clement Wood's words which appeared in the "New York Evening Sun:"

Whether I'm sober or tipsy, Lyric with life or quite prosaic, I celebrate thy fame, Poughkeepsie.

I bide at home, I am no gypsy, To roam to Nome or Passaic; But should you, reader, take a trip, see This Hudson town, alert, voltaic.

I do not wail like Joseph Skipsey, Nor Grecian bard nor the Hebraic; But o'er the saucy land or flip sea No town's so worth my glad spondaic.

Yes, I myself have said it "Ipse Dixit." The phrase is not archaic, Whether I'm sober or tipsy, I celebrate thy fame, Poughkeepsie.

Grigg's successor was Norman Coke-Jephcott, an Englishman trained in the traditions of his country's choral music. He came to Dutchess County to be organist and choirmaster at the Church of the Messiah in Rhinebeck. From 1919 to 1922 Euterpe performed a series of Sunday afternoon concerts at Coke-jephcott's church and at the Rhinebeck Reformed Church.

46

During Vassar's commencement week in 1920, Euterpe shared the concert stage with the College Choir and Glee Club. Euterpe began its yearly outings to Lake Mohonk in 1921, a custom which lasted until the Second World War. Club members drove to the lake on a Saturday in summer, used the resort's recreational facilities, were served the evening meal and then sang for the assembled guests.

During the 1923-24 season Coke-Jephcott took advantage of an opportunity to become organist and choirmaster at New York City's Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Harry P. Dodge, a local organist and conductor, became Euterpe's seventh director. He led the club in its first experience with radio performing, in 1926, with a live broadcast over stations WFBL and WGY, Syracuse, and WMAK, Lockport. Dodge's increasing responsibilities as an organist forced him to give up all of his glee club work in 1927.

Euterpe grew in musical prominence and membership under its eighth conductor, the reknowned Dr. Elmer A. Tidmarsh, who created, then directed, the department of music at Union College in Schenectady. He led a half dozen different singing groups in the Mohawk-Hudson area and was acknowledged in the press as "the best known choral director in the East." At the 1939 World's Fair in New York he directed a massed chorus of 5,000 male voices, Euterpe's among them.

At that same performance, one of the four accompanists was Euterpe's pianist, Dr. Charles Gilbert Spross. His first appearance with the club was as assisting artist at the fifth annual concert in 1894, when he played two piano pieces. For the next 60 years he continued his close association with Euterpe, for 17 of them as official accompanist following the death of Robert Flagler in 1935. Dr. Spross accepted no payment for his services to Euterpe. When not accompanying the club he played for guest soloists or performed as soloist himself. A prolific composer, he wrote or arranged volumes of songs, two dozen of which have appeared on Euterpe programs. It has become traditional to include one Spross selection in every annual concert.

The number and variety of Euterpe's appearances illustrates its increased musical prominence under Dr. Tidmarsh. In 1931 the club performed at the 11th annual Sangerfest of the Central New York Sangerbund sponsored by the Germania Singing Society of Poughkeepsie. Euterpe sang at the rededication, in 1933, of the Smith Memorial Organ in the Presbyterian Church and also performed a benefit for the Hyde Park Village Library. Another benefit, one year later, assisted the Family Welfare Association of Poughkeepsie. Euterpe participated in services commemorating Christ Church's 175th anniversary in 1941. The club joined Vassar College Glee Club for

a performance of Ha,ydn's "Seasons" at Skinner Hall in 1943. During the pre-war years Euterpe added to its schedule an annual concert in Beacon, a practice which continued for about 15 years.

As World War Two changed American life so it modified Euterpe's musical activities. To prepare for Palm Sunday concerts at the United States Military Academy at West Point, information on members and guests was mailed ahead so that individual passes could be issued. In 1942 the group made the West Point trip by bus, as gasoline rationing curtailed the use of cars, but in 1944 war-time restrictions made it impossible to hire a bus, so autos were used. The 1942 annual concert was unique; its most memorable part was a one-hour blackout. Citizens active in civilian protection services were asked to report to their posts and nearly 100 left. The soloist, violinist Alice M. Smiley, played while air raid sirens shrieked and the club sang in the Vassar College Chapel, with the only light the shaded lamps in the choir. In 1946 one thousand people attended a concert to benefit famine relief, with proceeds to be administered by the American Friends Service Committee.

After the war the concert schedule was expanded beyond the annual Poughkeepsie and Beacon events. In April, 1947, Euterpe performed at the Smith Brothers Centennial in the State Armory and in December it participated in the inaugural program of the FM radio station WHVA. The next year the men joined the Dutchess County Philharmonic in a performance of Brahms' "Rhapsody" and sang in Wappingers Falls to benefit the 4-H Clubs. Conducting dress rehearsals at Oakwood School, prior to the annual Poughkeepsie concert, began in 1951 and continued for five years. A mem• ber of Oakwood's faculty, Paul L. Taylor, served as librarian for Euterpe from 1935 to 1965. Also in 1951 Euterpe began its association with other male choruses in the Mohawk-Hudson area for an annual springtime massed concert. The club hosted that event in 1961 and is today an active member of the Mohawk-Hudson Male Chorus Association.

During the eight-day celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Poughkeepsie City Charter in 1954 a music festival took place, with Euterpe participating. A placque, "To acknowledge the fame and record official appreciation," was presented by the community to Dr. Spross. He became ill in 1951 and was forced to step down as Euterpe's accompanist, after 60 years with the group. Earlier he had been honored by the club at a dinner, during which he heard a 15-minute program on WKIP dedicated to him. Dr. Spross gave Euterpe a work written only for the club's use, "Heaven is Made of Things Like These." He died in 1961. Replacing him was Albert G. Hunter Jr., then Donald W. Brown.

Dr. Tidmarsh was stricken by a heart attack early in 1958. The club member who was club conductor, George Fowler, lead the annual concert that year. He became accompanist and served under the men who were to replace Tidmarsh.

48

The post-Korean War era has been a time of public indifference to traditional choral music and social changes have left their mark on Euterpe. The concert schedule has been reduced to the annual complimentary concert and the Mohawk-Hudson Association's massed event, with occasional benefits over the years. Membership has dwindled, for many reasons beyond the club's control and increasing costs lead to the introduction of concert patrons and sponsors, with tickets remaining complimentary.

Succeeding Dr. Tidmarsh as director was Rolland E. Heermance of Saugerties, a well-known choral conductor in New York and New England, who was killed in an auto crash in 1960. Euterpe's tenth conductor was Hans 0. Melzer, who led the IBM Male Chorus. He received his first musical training in his native Germany and continued to study voice here, where he made his debut on the concert stage. His bass-baritone occasionally was heard in Euterpe concerts as soloist or in duets with the feminine guest artist until illness forced him to retire in 1963. Next was Willard McNary, choir director and teacher of vocal music in the Poughkeepsie high schools and director of the Marist College Glee Club. When the pressures of his schedule forced his to resign, he was succeeded by William James, the current conductor. James, active in the Community Mixed Chorus and leader of its A Cappella Singers, is well known for his work with local "barbershop" groups. Accompa,nist since 1962 have been Miss Kathleen Flaherty, Miss Nancy Harmon, Kevin Walters and, currently, Frederick Williams.

The annual Euterpe complimentary concerts are scheduled for the spring of each year, and an important musician from the New York City or Hudson Valley area is the assisting artist. Many residents of the Hudson Valley attend each year to demonstrate their continuing support for male chorus music, and the Euterpe members are maintaining with enthusiasm their fellowship through song.

For a Consumption: Pectrol bals of hufiney as thus, take hunney, west india rum, bals tolue, bals pure, gum Stirax, put all to gether in a botil of flask and let it in corperate in the heat of the Sun, shaking well 2 times a Day and after 3 or 4 days let it setel and then decant in a nother botil for use. Dosse 2 Tea spoon fulls. From notebook of Dr. James Osborn, Middle Ward, Poughkeepsie Precinct, Feb. 1746.

49