Guide to the Adolph M. Foerster Collection, 1868-1923 CAM.FOER.2015

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Repository
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Title
Adolph M. Foerster Collection
Creator
Foerster, Adolph M.
Collection Number
CAM.FOER.2015
Extent
16 boxes
Date
1868-1923
Abstract
The Adolph M. Foerster Collection contains manuscripts and printed scores of Foerster's music, articles written by the composer, newspaper clippings concerning the composer (and the performance of his music), photographs, letters, and "notes" in the composer's hand.
Language
English .
Author
Kathy Haines.
Publisher
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Address
University of Pittsburgh Library System
Archives & Special Collections
Website: library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections
Business Number: 412-648-3232 (Thomas) | 412-648-8190 (Hillman)
Contact Us: www.library.pitt.edu/ask-archivist
URL: http://library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections

Biography

Life

Adolph Martin Foerster was born to German immigrant parents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on February 2, 1854. His father, Emil Foerster, was a highly regarded portrait painter who painted many of the most well known local figures of the day. His mother, Elise Marie Noll, was a native of Frankfurt and an accomplished pianist. In addition to Adolph, they had one other child, Julius.

Adolph was surrounded by the arts from birth. In addition to his mother's skills, his father was a very gifted amateur musician who sang in church choirs and other choral groups and played the guitar and flute. Adolph received his first piano instruction from his mother and later studied piano and music theory under Jean Manns, a German immigrant who was revered as one of the best local music teachers. In addition to his music training, Foerster attended public school in Allegheny City (now Pittsburgh's North side).

During his teenage years Foerster frequently appeared as a soloist in various piano and vocal recitals. He also attended almost every concert by notable artists given in the Pittsburgh area. From September 1869 until 1872, Adolph was employed at Kleber & Bro, a music store on Wood Street in Pittsburgh's downtown that had been established in 1845 by musician and composer Henry Kleber and his brother. While working for the Klebers, Foerster met many important artists, among them Theodore Thomas who would conduct Foerster's Festival March at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Kleber, for his part, was to become the publisher of most of Foerster's compositions.

In September 1872, at the age of eighteen, Foerster left for Germany where he would study at the Leipzig Conservatory. During his three years as a student, Foerster studied theory under E.F. Richter and R. Papperitz, voice under Leo Grill and Adolph Schimon, and piano under Carl Reinecke, E.F. Wenzel, and Theordore Coccius. In addition to his studies, he was present at major musical events such as Anton Rubinstein performing his keyboard works, Brahms's Hungarian Dances, and Liszt's oratorio Christus, the latter two of which were under the composers' own direction.

Foerster also visited with Richard Wagner, which left him with a permanent admiration for his music. Although Foerster's compositional language and style were completely different from Wagner's, he demonstrated some interest in the motif system and, on more than one occasion, used it in his compositions. Foerster also became acquainted with Robert Franz, developing a strong personal relationship with him. In spite of their age of difference of almost forty years, their friendship remained constant through eighteen years of correspondence until Franz's death in 1892.

After graduating with highest honors from Leipzig Conservatory, Foerster returned to America and accepted a professorship at the Conservatory of Music in Fort Wayne, Indiana. A year and a half later, he returned to Pittsburgh and focused his efforts on helping his hometown's musical culture develop.

In 1879, he married Henrietta M. Reineman, daughter of a highly successful banker, investor, contractor, and landowner. They had a daughter, Elsa Thusnelda, and two sons, Robert Franz (named for the composer) and Norman Otto.

Foerster's career demonstrated versatility as a teacher of piano, voice, and composition, as a pianist and conductor, as a writer on music, and as a composer. Around the Pittsburgh area he taught privately and at numerous institutions such as the Western Pennsylvania Female College (now Chatham College), Geneva College, and the Newell Institute for Young Ladies. He served for thirty years as the examiner of graduating students at Seton Hill Conservatory and organized numerous studio concerts for his students. In 1890, he became the ninth life member of the Music Teachers' National Association and in 1894 he was named treasurer of the organization.

As a performer, he directed the Pittsburgh Symphony Society (a precursor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) from 1879 to 1881. In 1882, he was elected director of the Musical Union Choral Society, a position that he held for many years. In addition, he often conducted festival orchestras in performances of his own orchestral compositions. As a pianist, he frequently appeared on stage with other artists performing his songs and chamber music.

As a music writer, his influence extended beyond Pittsburgh through contributions to leading music magazines. He was the Pittsburgh correspondent for the New York based publications Musical Courier and American Art Journal. He also wrote a series of lengthy articles on the history of music in Pittsburgh since the colonial period, only the second attempt of its kind and one that would become a lasting contribution for musicologists. These pieces were originally published in 1920 in the Pittsburgh Dispatch, but were later revised and appeared in Musical Forecast, a Pittsburgh-based magazine.

Foerster did not just record Pittsburgh's music history, but actively voiced his opinions on the current state of affairs and remained an aggressive participant in the local music scene. In 1895, along with prominent citizens, lawyers, and members of the Bohemian Club, he initiated a movement for placing a bust of composer Stephen Collins Foster (a friend of Emil Foerster's and a student of Henry Kleber's) in Carnegie Music Hall and building a memorial. He was also a constant advocate of local musicians, musical organizations, performances series, and music libraries.

Foerster's efforts on behalf of the musical growth of his native city were evident in the titles the city bestowed upon him, during his lifetime and after his death in 1927. He was known as "a smoky city's favorite," "the dean of Pittsburgh," and "the composer of the west."

Works

The works of Adolph M. Foerster cover every phase of musical composition but opera. He wrote works for piano, organ, chamber ensemble, solo voice, vocal ensemble, chorus, and orchestra. His complete works number in excess of two hundred and fifty separate compositions.

He often gave his compositions descriptive titles, which were evocative, literary, and loosely programmatic. He avoided the term symphony, and rarely used terms such as sonata, sonatina, and rondo. His exacting musical taste was generally conservative. Permeated with chromaticism and bold modulations, Foerster's music consistently typifies the German Romantic period.

Of all forms, the secular song was his favorite means of expression. The influence of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Franz remained the guiding factor throughout his life. He scorned writing for the public taste, explaining that he was concerned only with how his songs compared with the great romantic Lieder.

The five decades of Foerster's compositional career were highlighted by many memorable events. Throughout the 1880s Foerster's works were played in Germany, France, Holland, and England. The premiere of his Dedication March, commissioned for the opening of Carnegie Music Hall in 1895 and performed by the New York Symphony Orchestra under Walter Damrosch, received attention from national press, marking him as a distinguished American composer. In 1898, Foerster's Prelude to Goethe's Faust won first prize (shared with Fidelis Zitterbart) in a competition sponsored by the Pittsburgh Art Society. On December 30, 1921, Westinghouse Radio aired twelve of his compositions and one year later ran an all–Foerster program, giving the composer his widest public audience yet.

Reputation and Influence

Although Foerster was once a prominent composer and a vital player in Pittsburgh's burgeoning musical scene, he is now a forgotten man. His orchestral works were performed by such orchestras and conductors as the New York Symphony Orchestra under Walter Damrosch, the Cincinnati and Philadelphia Orchestras under Wassilli Leps, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Victor Herbert, Anton Seidl, and Foerster himself. His compositions were welcomed and accepted for publication by leading American and German publishers and his work received considerable attention in major music journals and newspapers, which praised him for his originality and musicianship.

As early as 1906 Foerster was omitted from the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. The only posthumous attention the composer received were a handful of reissues and arrangements of his music from 1940, a 1986 reprint of his Album of Lyrics, Op. 53, a single sound recording that contains only one his songs, "On the Sea," and a 1996 dissertation discussing his life and works.

Preferred Citation

Adolph M. Foerster Collection, 1868-1923, CAM.FOER.2015, Center for American Music, University of Pittsburgh

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Center for American Music staff.

Copyright

No copyright restrictions.

Scope and Content Notes

The Adolph M. Foerster collection contains manuscripts and printed scores of Foerster's music, articles written by the composer, newspaper clippings concerning the composer (and the performance of his music), photographs, letters, and "notes" in the composer's hand. The different genres of music include, but are not limited to, solo voice (for various voices) and piano, solo voice and orchestra, full orchestra, chamber orchestra, band arrangements, piano arrangements, string quartet, and solo instrument with piano. The manuscripts in the collection are primarily in two different hands, that of Foerster himself and a copyist, Gus Mueller. Several items in the collection (all of which are printed scores and parts) are identical.

Existence and Location of Copies

The Adolph M. Foerster Collection has been scanned but access to the images is only currently available on CDs stored at the Center for American Music.

Acquisition Information

The Adolph M. Foerster Collection was transferred to the Center for American Music from the Theodore Finney Music Library at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1990s.

Access Restrictions

No restrictions.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in the follow six series:

Series I. Music Manuscripts

Series II. Printed Music

Series III. Articles, Periodicals, and Newspaper Clippings

Series IV. Photos

Series V. Correspondence

Series VI. Programs

Subjects

    Personal Names

    • Foerster, Adolph M. -- Manuscripts

    Other Subjects

    • Music -- Manuscripts
    • Music -- Pennsylvania
    • Composers -- United States
    • German Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh

Container List