The Courier
Volume 25, No. 2 (2001)
Maine
Music Festival
Note
William
Rogers Chapman (1855-1935), founder of the Maine Music Festivals
[Editor's Note: This first short essay, entitled "The Influence of the
Festival," appeared in the 1925 Maine
Music Festival Program. Although unsigned, it seems to
have been written by Marian
True Gehring, wife of Bethel's famed psychotherapist, Dr. John G.
Gehring. She played an important role in the founding of the
Festival
in 1897. In this essay (if it is indeed her work), she makes a
stirring
if futile defense of the Festival. It is perhaps telling that
1926 was
the last year of this annual event, which lasted thirty years.
Some of
Mrs. Gehring's arguments for its survival may reveal why it did not
continue after its thirtieth year despite its success and the fact that
it brought leading musicians to Maine and to Bethel.]
The Influence of
the Festival
After twenty nine years, what does the Festival mean? What is its
message and theme? Has music, good music, lost its power?
Never in the
history of the Festivals was the influence of good music more needed
than this very day. Alas, that the tendency of the
popular song, of the jazz rhythm and razzle-dazzle tempo of the modern
dance
hall should have gained such a hold upon our Youths and Maidens.
The
influence of the Festival was plainly felt during the first ten
years.
The church choirs increased in numbers and ability, the studios were
filled with earnest students, the chorus rehearsals were well
attended, the majestic tones of the oratorios and sacred Cantatas were
heard, even on the picnic rides, and the world seemed better and
brighter, because there was a Festival Chorus in nearly every large
town. The young people seemed to love to study music of a
semi-religious nature, and their voices rang out in tuneful
harmony. But alas, the war, the horrors of it all, the freedom to
promote sociability, the conditions of life were all changed.
Restraint
was impossible. Dancing and hilarity were the order of the
day. Every
place was opened for a good time, and great expectations were raised
for the money-making era that was to follow. It came to some, but
to the many, the past ten years have meant struggle and hardship.
It is
well to pause and reflect once more on the influence, the outcome, the
growth of this great musical event. In these days of excitement
and
extravagance; of aeroplanes and radios; of accentuated rhythmic jazz;
of highly colored and exciting movies; is it not essential to the
morals of the young, for a community to have a real Music
Festival? A feast of music that combines the classic and the
popular;
the pathetic and the joyous; the solemn and humorous, in a series of
concerts! How many states in our great U.S.A. have annual
Festivals of
Music? How many cities have the public-spirited citizens willing
to
support them? When attempted, how long are they continued?
Maine has made for herself a world-wide fame and name in the Musical
World, because of these Festivals continued on a high plane of
excellence for twenty-nine consecutive years. Peace and plenty,
war and
taxation have not changed the programs, and determination to give the
best to the Music Lovers of Maine. So it is with joy that we ring
up
the curtain for another Musical Feast, realizing the uplift that music,
good music can give, and that it is only by the educating influence of
good music that we can hope to stem the tide of evil and demoralizing
rhythms, that are today called music. If we look to the morale of
our
young people, we must see that good music is given them, for only by
this means can we hope to reach their musical souls, and help them to
help themselves. We are happy to note that when the popular vote
was
asked this year for the style of music to be given at the Stadium, and
open-air concerts in New York and Chicago, the vote was for classical
music, instead of jazz; for the works of the old masters of music
instead of the modern composers. It is a sign of better days for
good
music. It revives our hopes for the uplift which we all need and
have
felt in good music. It encourages us to work on for the same
great
cause. To that end we rejoice in the Junior Matinee to be given
this
season, as we believe that we must have a Junior Chorus started, to
supplement the work of the past twenty-nine years for the future of the
Festival. Having almost reached another decade, making a score
and ten
years of service for Music in the State of Maine, we recall with
gratitude the many friends who have supported these Festivals, the
health and strength that has been given to the Organizer and Promoter,
the enthusiastic, never-tiring Conductor, William Rogers Chapman, and
we thank God that we can see—
The Hand of Love still pointing on,
The Heart of Love still working in,
The Spirit of Music hovering near,
The Blessing of God—from year to year.
Featured Musical
Performers
Maine Music Festival
1897-1926
William Rogers Chapman, Conductor
Compiled by Stanley R. Howe
William Rogers Chapman (1855-1935) was Bethel's premier
musical figure during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Through his
extensive musical connections from his years in New York and elsewhere,
he was able to bring some of the finest talent to his Maine Music
Festival
and often to Bethel for choral group picnics in the countryside.
The
following list provides the featured performer at each of these annual
events,
which attracted wide support. Mrs. Marian True Gehring of Bethel
played
a leading role in assisting William Rogers Chapman in organizing the
first Festival in 1897
and rallying support through its years of existence.
1897–Lillian Nordica
1898–Johanna Gadski
1899–Marcella Sembrich
1900–Ernestine Schuman-Heink
1901–Ernestine Schuman-Heink
1902–Edward Johnson
1903–Louise Homer
1904–Ernestine Schuman-Heink
1905–Emma Eames
1906–Ernestine Schuman-Heink
1907–Emma Calve
1908–Caroline Mihr-Hardy
1909–Geraldine Farrar
1910–Alma Gluck
1911–Mary Garden and Alma Gluck
1912–Lillian Nordica
1913–Ernestine Schuman-Heink
1914–Emma Eames and Emilio de Gogorza
1915–Nellie Melba
1916–Geraldine Farrar
1917–Amelita Galli-Curci
1918–Hipolito Lazaro
1919–John McCormack
1920–Rosa Raisa
1921–Rosa Ponselle
1922–Lucrezia Bori
1923–Sigrid Onegin
1924–Maria Jeritza and Mabel Garrison
1925–Lawrence Tibbett
1926–Benjamin Gigli
