Music Proposal

Exploring Music

Professor Schäfli

October 7th, 2014

Concert Proposal

        For my concert, I am choosing to attend a performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra. This concert will take place October 14th at the Kimmel Center, in Philadelphia, Pa. Before taking this course, I did not believe that I had much interest in classical music, if any at all. After the last month or so, I find myself very intrigued in this style of music, and I look forward to seeing the performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra in person.

        After doing some research, the Philadelphia Orchestra is older than I originally expected. In an article called, “The Philadelphia Orchestra and Robin Hood Dell” it said the orchestra started around 1898 and the early 1900’s. The author, Samuel Rosenbaum, says that during the war with Spain in 1898, Philadelphia music –lovers gathered in large quantities to listen to symphonies by a group of musicians for war relief benefits.  These were originally called “Philippine Concerts.”  These concerts were originally conducted by Fritz Scheel, and all of the viewers raved about the performances, eventually leading to more regular performances. Seeing that there were so many viewers, an energetic woman, Frances Wister coerced her lady friends into soliciting the performances to a long list of guarantors, eventually leading to the finding of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

        Once Scheel passed, he was followed by, Carl Pohlig, and after that he was followed by Leopold Stokowski in 1912. From this point, it was known as the Philadelphia Orchestra, and it was not only known nationwide, but globally as well. There was an extremely envied list of viewers who were subscribed to see the performances seasonally. Each season is approximately 30 weeks, and there were about 100-120 performances per season.  

        When doing further research, it appears that the Philadelphia Orchestra was able to accomplish many “firsts” for an orchestra. When reading on Bach-Cantana’s, it tells us that they were the first orchestra to make electronic recordings, the first to appear on a soundtrack of a feature film, and even be sponsored on the radio. There are many great accomplishments for the Philadelphia Orchestra.