Music of Baltimore
Encyclopedia
The music of Baltimore
, the largest city in Maryland
, can be documented as far back as 1784, and the city has become a regional center for Western classical music and jazz
. Early Baltimore was home to popular opera
and musical theatre
, and an important part of the music of Maryland
, while the city also hosted several major music publishing firms until well into the 19th century, when Baltimore also saw the rise of native musical instrument
manufacturing
, specifically piano
s and woodwind instrument
s. African American music
existed in Baltimore during the colonial era, and the city was home to vibrant black musical life by the 1860s. Baltimore's African American heritage to the turn of the 20th century including ragtime
and gospel music
. By the end of that century, Baltimore jazz
had become a well-recognized scene among jazz fans, and produced a number of local performers to gain national reputations. The city was a major stop on the African American East Coast touring circuit, and it remains a popular regional draw for live performances. Baltimore has produced a wide range of modern rock, punk
and metal
bands and several indie labels catering to a variety of audiences.
Music education throughout Maryland
conforms to state standards, implemented by the Baltimore City Public School System. Music is taught to all age groups, and the city is also home to several institutes of higher education in music. The Peabody Institute
's Conservatory is the most renowned music education facility in the area, and has been one of the top nationally for decades. The city is also home to a number of other institutes of higher education in music, the largest being nearby Towson University
. The Peabody sponsors performances of many kinds, many of them classical or chamber music
. Baltimore is home to the Baltimore Opera and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
, among other similar performance groups. Major music venues in Baltimore include the nightclubs and other establishments that offer live entertainment clustered in Fells Point and Federal Hill.
, and the city's denizens played a crucial role in the development of gospel music
and jazz
. Musical institutions based in Baltimore, including the Peabody Institute
and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
, became fixtures in their respective fields, music education
and Western classical music. Later in the 20th century, Baltimore produced notable acts in the fields of rock, R&B and hip hop.
and Raynor Taylor
, as well as European composers like Frantisek Kotzwara
, Ignaz Pleyel
, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
, Giovanni Battista Viotti
and Johann Sebastian Bach
. Opera first came to Baltimore in 1752, with the performance of The Beggar's Opera
by a touring company. It was soon followed by La Serva Padrona
by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
, the American premier of that work, and the 1772 performance of Comus
by John Milton
, performed by the American Company of Lewis Hallam
. This was soon followed by the creation of the first theatre in Baltimore, funded by Thomas Wall
and Adam Lindsay
's Maryland Company of Comedians
, the first resident theatrical company in the city, which had been established despite a ban on theatrical entertainment by the Continental Congress
in 1774. Maryland was the only state to so openly flout the ban, giving special permission to the Maryland Company in 1781, to perform both in Baltimore and Annapolis. Shakespearean and other plays made up the repertoire, often with wide-ranging modifications, including the addition of songs. The managers of the Maryland Company had some trouble finding qualified musicians to play in the theatre's orchestra. The Maryland Company and the American Company performed sporadically in Baltimore until the early 1790s, when the Philadelphia Company of Alexander Reinagle
and Thomas Wignell
began dominating, based out of their Holliday Street Theater
.
Formal singing schools were the first well-documented musical institution in Baltimore. They were common in colonial North America prior to the Revolutionary War, but were not established in Baltimore until afterwards, in 1789. These singing schools were taught by instructors known as masters, or singing masters, and were often itinerant; they taught vocal performance and techniques for use in Christian psalmody. The first singing school in Baltimore was founded in the courthouse, in 1789, by Ishmael Spicer, whose students would include the future John Cole
.
established a shop in Baltimore, along with his sons Thomas
and Benjamin
, who ran shops in New York and Philadelphia. The Carrs would be the most successful publishing firm until around the turn of the 19th century; however, they remained prominent until the company folded in 1821, and the Carrs were responsible for the first sheet music publication of "The Star-Spangled Banner
" in 1814, arranged by Thomas Carr himself, and they also published European instrumentals and stage pieces, as well as works by Americans like James Hewitt
and Alexander Reinagle
. Much of this music was collected, in serial format, in the Musical Journal for the Piano Forte, which spanned five volumes and was the largest collection of secular music in the country.
In the late 17th century, Americans like William Billings
were establishing a bold, new style of vocal performance, markedly distinct from European traditions. John Cole
, an important publisher and tune collector in Baltimore, known for pushing a rarefied European outlook on American music, responded with the tunebook Beauties of Psalmody, which denigrated the new techniques, especially fuguing
. Cole continued publishing tunebooks up to 1842, and soon began operating his own singing school. Besides Cole, Baltimore was home to other major music publishers as well. These included Wheeler Gillet, who focused on dignified, European-style music like Cole did, and Samuel Dyer, who collected more distinctly American-styled songs. The tunebooks published in Baltimore included instructional notes, using a broad array of music education
techniques then common. Ruel Shaw, for example, used a system derived from the work of Heinrich Pestalozzi, interpreted by the American Lowell Mason
. Though the Pestalozzian system was widely used in Baltimore, other techniques were tried, such as that developed by local singing master James M. Deems, based on the Italian solfeggi system.
s and woodwind instrument
s. Opera, choral and other classical performance groups were founded during this era, many of them becoming regionally prominent and established a classical tradition in Baltimore. The Holliday Street Theatre and the Front Street Theatre hosted both touring and local productions throughout the early 19th century. Following the Civil War, however, a number of new theatres opened, including the Academy of Music
, Ford's Grand Opera House
and the Concordia Opera House, owned by the Concordia Music Society. Of these, Ford's was perhaps the most successful, home to no fewer than 24 different opera companies. By the turn of the 20th century, however, the New York Theatrical Syndicate
had grown to dominate the industry throughout the region, and Baltimore became a less common stop for touring companies.
in Battle Monument Square, marking the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation
. Another African American celebration occurred five years later, celebrating the right to vote, guaranteed to African Americans by the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
. Many bands played, including brass and cornet bands.
Baltimore's Eubie Blake
, born in 1883, became a musician at an early age, hired as a house musician at a brothel, run by Aggie Shelton. He perfected his improvisational piano style, which used ragtime
riffs, and eventually completed "The Charleston Rag", in 1899. With compositions like that, Blake pioneered what would eventually become known as the stride style by the end of the 1890s; stride later became more closely associated with New York City. With his own technique, characterized by playing the syncopation with his right hand and a steady beat with the left, and became one of the most successful ragtime performers of the East Coast, performing with prominent cabaret
entertainers Mary Stafford
and Madison Reed
.
Black churches in Maryland hosted many musical, as well as political and educational, activities, and many African American musicians got their start performing in churches, including Anne Brown
, Marian Anderson
, Ethel Ennis
and Cab Calloway
, in the 20th century. Doctrinal disputes did not prevent musical cooperation, which included both sacred and secular music. Church choirs frequently worked together, even across denominational divides, and church-goers often visited other establishments to see visiting performers. Organists were a major part of African American church music in Baltimore, and some organists became well known, Baltimore's including Sherman Smith of Union Baptist, Luther Mitchell of Centennial Methodist and Julia Calloway of Sharon Baptist. Many churches also offered music education, beginning as early as the 1870s with St. Francis Academy.
Charles Albert Tindley, born in 1851 in Berlin, Maryland
, would become the first major composer of gospel music
, a style that drew on African American spiritual
s, Christian hymn
s and other folk music traditions. Tindley's earliest musical experience likely included tarrying services, a musical tradition of the Eastern Shore of Maryland
, wherein Christian worshipers prayed and sang throughout the night. He became an itinerant preacher as an adult, working at churches throughout Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey, then settled down as a pastor in Philadelphia, eventually opening a large church called Tindley Temple United Methodist Church.
, one of the biggest lithography
firms of the era, who illustrated many music publications. Other prominent music publishers in Baltimore in this era included George Willig
, Arthur Clifton, Frederick Benteen
, James Boswell
, Miller and Beecham, W. C. Peters, Samuel Carusi and G. Fred Kranz. Peters was well known nationally, but first established a Baltimore-based firm in 1849, with partners whose names remain unknown. His sons eventually joined the field, and the company, then known as W. C. Peters & Co., published the Baltimore Olio and Musical Gazette, which contained concert news, printed music, educational and biographical essays and articles. The pianist-composer Charles Grobe was among the contributors.
Baltimore was also home to the piano-building businesses of William Knabe
and Charles Steiff
. Knabe emigrated to the United States in 1831, and he founded the firm, with Henry Gaehle, in 1837. It began manufacturing pianos in 1839. The company became one of the most prominent and respected piano manufacturers in the country, and was the dominant corporation in the Southern market. The company floundered after a fire destroyed a factory, and the aftermath of the Civil War lessened demand in the Southern area where Knabe's sales were concentrated. By the end of the century, however, Knabe's sons, Ernest and William, had re-established the firm as one of the leading piano companies in the country. They built sales in the west and north, and created new designs that made Knabe & Co. the third best-selling piano manufacturer in the country. The pianos were well regarded enough that the Japanese government chose Knabe as its supplier for schools in 1879. After the death of William and Ernest Knabe, the company went public. In the 20th century, Knabe's company became absorbed into other corporations, and the pianos are now manufactured by Samick
, a Korean producer.
Heinrich Christian Eisenbrandt
, originally of Göttingen
, Germany, settled in Baltimore in 1819, going on to manufacture brass and woodwind instruments of high quality. His output included several brass instruments, flageolet
s, flutes, oboe
s, bassoon
s, clarinet
s with between five and sixteen keys, and at least one drum and basset-horn
. Eisenbrandt owned two patents for brass instruments, and was once praised for "great improvements made in the valves" of the saxhorn
. His flute
s and clarinet
s won him a silver medal at the London Great Exhibition of 1851, and he also earned high marks for those instruments and the saxhorn at several Metropolitan Mechanics Institute exhibitions. The Smithsonian Institution
now possesses one of Eisenbrandt's clarinets, adorned with jewels, and the Shrine to Music Museum at the University of South Dakota
is in possession of a drum and several clarinets made by Eisenbrandt. He is also known to have made a cornet which uses a key mechanism that he had patented. Eisenbrandt died in 1861, and his son, H. W. R. Eisenbrandt, continued the business until at least 1918.
, formed in 1866, was the first professional orchestra in Baltimore. The Orchestra premiered many works in its early years, including some by Asger Hamerik
, a prominent Danish composer who became director of the Orchestra. Ross Jungnickel
founded the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
before 1890, when the Orchestra first performed, and the Peabody Orchestra ceased to exist. Jungnickel's orchestra, however, lasted only until 1899.
Traveling opera companies visited Baltimore throughout the 19th century, performing pieces like Norma
, Faust
and La sonnambula
, with performances by well-known singers like Jenny Lind
and Clara Kellogg. Institutions from outside Baltimore also presented opera within the city, including the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Metropolitan Opera
.
In the early 19th century, choral associations became common in Maryland, and Baltimore, buoyed by the immigration of numerous Germans. These groups were formed for the purpose of instruction in choral music, eventually performing oratorio
s. The popularity of these choral associations helped to garner support among the local population for putting music education in the city's public schools. The Baltimore Oratorio Society, the Liederkranz and the Germania Männerchor were the most important of these associations, and their traditions were maintained into the 20th century by organizations like the Bach Choir, Choral Arts Society, Handel Society and the Baltimore Symphony Chorus.
Singing schools in Baltimore were few in number until the 1830s. Singing masters began incorporating secular music into their curriculum, and divested themselves from sponsoring churches, in the early part of the 1830s. Attendance increased drastically, especially after the founding of two important institutions: the Academy, established in 1834 by Ruel Shaw, and the Musical Institute, founded by John Hill Hewitt
and William Stoddard. The Academy and the Institute quickly became rivals, and both gave successful performances. Some Baltimore singing masters used new terminology to describe their programs, as the term singing school was falling out of favor; Alonzo Cleaveland founded the Glee School during this era, focusing entirely on secular music. In contrast, religious musical instruction by the middle of the 19th century remained based around itinerant singing masters who taught for a period of time, then continued to new locations.
The introduction of music into Baltimore public schools in 1843 caused a slow decline in the popularity of private youth singing instruction. In response to the growing demand for printed music in schools, publishers began offering collections with evangelical tunes, directed at rural schools. Formal, adult musical institutions, like the Haydn Society and the Euterpe Musical Association, grew in popularity following the Civil War.
and Noble Sissle
, who found national fame in New York. Blake in particular became a ragtime
legend, and innovator of the stride style. Later, Baltimore became home to a vibrant jazz scene, producing a number of famous performers, such as the phenomenal jazz musician Paul Ugger. Use of the Hammond B-3 organ later became an iconic part of Baltimore jazz
. In the middle of the 20th century, Baltimore's major music media include Chuck Richards
, a popular African American radio personality on WBAL
, and Buddy Deane, host of a popular eponymous show in the vein of American Bandstand
, which was an iconic symbol of popular music in Baltimore for a time. African American vocal music, specifically doo-wop
, also established an early home in Baltimore. More recently, Baltimore was home to a number of well-known rock, pop, R&B, punk, and hip hop performers.
Most of the major musical organizations in Baltimore were founded by musicians who trained at the Peabody Institute
's Conservatory of Music. These include Baltimore Choral Arts, Baltimore Opera Company
(BOC), and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
(BSO). These organizations all have excellent reputations and sponsor numerous performances throughout the year. Baltimore has produced a number of well-known modern composers of classical and art music, most famously including Phillip Glass, a minimalist
composer. Glass grew up in the 1940s, working in his father's record store in East Baltimore, selling African American records, then known as race music. He was there exposed to Baltimore jazz and rhythm and blues.
Though the Baltimore Opera Company can be traced back to the 1924 founding of the Martinet Opera School, the direct antecedent of the Company was founded in 1950, with Rosa Ponselle
, a well-known soprano, as artistic director. In the following decade the Company modernized, receiving new funding from, among other sources, the Ford Foundation
, which led to professionalization and the hiring of a full-time production manager and the stabilization on a program consisting of three operas every season; this schedule has since been expanded to four performances. In 1976, the Company commissioned Inês de Castro for the American Bicentennial, composed by Thomas Pasatieri
with a libretto by Bernard Stambler; the opera's debut was a great success and an historic moment for American opera.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra of the 19th century had floundered in 1899, was replaced by a new orchestra organized by the Florestan Club
, which included author H. L. Mencken
; the Club ensured that the orchestra would be the first municipally funded company in the country. The reformed Baltimore Symphony Orchestra began in 1916, under the leadership of Gustav Strube
, who conducted the orchestra until 1930. In 1942, the orchestra was reorganized as a private institution, led by Reginald Stewart, director of both the Orchestra and the Peabody, who arranged for Orchestra members to receive faculty appointments at the Peabody Conservatory, which helped attract new talent. The Orchestra claims that Joseph Meyerhoff
, President of the Orchestra beginning in 1965, and his music director, Sergiu Comissiona
began the modern history of the BSO and "ensured the creation of an institution, which has become the undisputed leader of the arts community throughout the State of Maryland". Meyerhoff and Comissiona established regular performances and a more professional atmosphere for the Orchestra. Under the next music director, David Zinman
, the Orchestra recorded for major record labels, and went on several international tours, becoming the first Orchestra to tour in the Soviet bloc.
The Baltimore Chamber Music Society, founded by Hugo Weisgall
and Rudolph Rothschild in 1950, has commissioned a number of renowned works and is known for a series of controversial concerts featuring mostly 20th century composers. The Baltimore Women's String Symphony Orchestra was led by Stephen Deak and Wolfgang Martin from 1936 to 1940, a time when women were barred from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, though they were allowed in the Baltimore Colored Symphony Orchestra
.
In the early 20th century, Baltimore was home to several African American classically oriented music institutions which drew on a rich tradition of symphonic music, chamber concerts, oratorios, documented in large part by the Baltimore Afro-American
, a local periodical. Inspired by A. Jack Thomas
, who had been appointed conductor of the city's municipally supported African American performance groups, Charles L. Harris led the Baltimore Colored Chorus and Symphony Orchestra
from 1929 to 1939, when a strike led to the company's dissolution. Thomas had been one of the first black bandleaders in the U.S. Army, was director of the music department at Morgan College, and was the founder of Baltimore's interracial Aeolian Institute for higher musical education. Charles L. Harris, as leader of the Baltimore Colored City Band, took his group to black neighborhoods across Baltimore, playing marches, waltzes and other music, then switch to jazz-like music with an upbeat tempo, meant for dancing. Some of Harris' musicians also played in early jazz clubs, though the musical establishment at the time did not readily accept the style. Fred Huber, Director of Municipal Music for Baltimore, exerted powerful control over the repertoire of these bands, and forbade jazz. T. Henderson Kerr, a prominent black bandleader, emphasized in his advertising that his group did not play jazz, while the prestigious Peabody Institute
debated whether jazz was music at all. The Symphony Orchestra produced renowned pianist Ellis Larkins
and cellist W. Llewellyn Wilson, also the music critic for the Afro-American. Harris eventually replaced Harris as conductor of the Orchestra and has since become a city musical fixture who is said to have, at one point, taught every single African American music teacher in Baltimore.
After World War 2, William Marbury
, then Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peabody Institute, began the process of integrating that institution, which had denied entrance to several well-regarded African American performers based solely on their race, including Anne Brown
and Todd Duncan
, who had been the first black performer with the New York City Opera
when he was forced to study with Frank Bibb, a member of the Peabody faculty, outside the Conservatory. The director of the Peabody soon ended segregation, both at the Conservatory and at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which was conducted by its first African American, A. Jack Thomas, at his request. The Peabody was officially integrated in 1949, with support from mayor Howard W. Jackson
. Paul A. Brent, who graduated in 1953, was the first to matriculate, and was followed by Audrey Cyrus McCallum, who was the first to enter the Peabody Preparatory. Musical integration was a gradual process that lasted until at least 1966, when the unions for African American and white musicians merged to form the Musicians' Association of Metropolitan Baltimore.
, producing the legendary performer and composer Eubie Blake
. Later, Baltimore became a hotspot for jazz
, and a home for such legends in the field as Chick Webb
and Billie Holiday
. The city's jazz scene can be traced to the early part of the 20th century, when the style first spread across the country. Locally, Baltimore was home to a vibrant African American musical tradition, which included funereal processions, beginning with slow, mournful tunes and ending with lively ragtime numbers, very similar to the New Orleans music that gave rise to jazz.
Pennsylvania Avenue (often known simply as The Avenue) and Fremont Avenue were the major scenes for Baltimore's black musicians from the 1920s to the 1950s, and was an early home for Eubie Blake
and Noble Sissle
, among others. Baltimore had long been a major stop on the black touring circuit, and jazz musicians frequently played on Pennsylvania Avenue on the way to or from engagements in New York. Pennsylvania Avenue attracted African Americans from as far away as North Carolina, and was known for its vibrant entertainment and nightlife, as well as a more seedy side, home to prostitution
, violence, ragtime and jazz, which were perceived as unsavory. The single most important venue for outside acts was the Royal Theatre
, which was one of the finest African American theaters in the country when it was opened as the Douglass Theater, and was part of the popular performing circuit that included the Earle in Philadelphia, the Howard
in Washington, D.C., the Regal
in Chicago and the Apollo Theater
in New York; like the Apollo, the audience at the Royal Theater was known for cruelly receiving those performers who didn't live up to their standards. Music venues were segregated, though not without resistance - a 1910 tour featuring Bert Williams
resulted in an African American boycott of a segregated theater, hoping the threat of lost business from the popular show would cause a change in policy. Pennsylvania Avenue was also a center for black cultural and economic life in Baltimore, and was home to numerous schools, theaters, churches and other landmarks. The street's nightclubs and other entertainment venues were most significant however, including the Penn Hotel, the first African American-owned hotel in Baltimore (built in 1921). Even the local bars and other establishments that didn't feature live music as a major feature generally had a solo pianist or organist. The first local bar to specialize in jazz was Club Tijuana. Major music venues at this time included Ike Dixon
's Comedy Club, Skateland, Gamby's, Wendall's Tavern, The New Albert Dreamland, the Ritz, and most importantly, the Sphinx Club. The Sphinx Club became one of the first minority-owned nightclubs in the United States when it opened in 1946, founded by Charles Phillip Tilghman
, a local businessman.
The Baltimore Afro-American
was a prominent African American periodical based in Baltimore in the early-to-mid-20th century, and the city was home to other black music media. Radio figures of importance included Chuck Richards
on WBAL
.
Baltimore's Eubie Blake
was one of the most prominent ragtime
musicians on the East Coast in the early 20th century, and was known for a unique style of piano-playing that eventually became the basis for stride
, a style perfected during World War I in Harlem. Blake was the most well known figure in the local scene, and helped make Baltimore one of the ragtime centers of the East Coast, along with Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. He then joined a medicine show, performing throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania before moving to New York in 1902 to play at the Academy of Music
there. Returning to Baltimore, Blake played at The Saloon, a venue owned by Alfred Greenfield patronized by "colorful characters and 'working' girls"; The Saloon was the basis for his well-known "Corner of Chestnut and Low". He then played at Annie Gilly's sporting house, another rough establishment, before becoming well known enough to play throughout the city and win a number of national piano concerts.
In 1915, Blake was hired to work at Riverview Park
, with Noble Sissle
, a singer, whom Blake approached about a songwriting partnership. Their first collaboration was "It's All Your Fault", premiered by Sophie Tucker
at the Maryland Theater
. Their success grew quickly, and they soon had numerous songs performed across the country, including on Broadway, most famously "Baltimore Buzz", "Gypsy Blues" and "Love Will Find a Way". In 1921, however, the duo received their greatest acclaim with the musical Shuffle Along
, the first piece to bring African American jazz and humor to Broadway. The widespread acclaim for Shuffle Along led to changes in the theatre industry nationwide, producing demand for African American performers and leading to newly integrated theatrical companies across the country. When Shuffle Along came to Baltimore's Ford's Theater, Blake struggled to reserve a seat for his mother, because Ford's remained strictly segregated by race.
Baltimore had developed a local jazz scene by 1917, when the local black periodical, the Baltimore Afro-American
noted its popularity in some areas. Two years later, black bandleader T. Henderson Kerr boasted that his act included "no jazz, no shaky music, no vulgar or suggestive dancing". Local jazz performers played on Baltimore Street, in an area known as The Block
, located between Calvert and Gay Streets. Jazz audiences flocked to music venues in the area and elsewhere, such as the amusement parks around Baltimore; some of the more prominent venues included the Richmond Market Armory, the Old Fifth Regiment Armory, the Pythian Castle Hall and the Galilean Fisherman Hall. By the 1930s, however, The Ritz was the largest club on Pennsylvania Avenue, and was home to Sammy Louis' band, who toured to great acclaim throughout the region.
The first group in Baltimore to self-apply the jazz label was led by John Ridgely
, and known as either the John Ridgely Jazzers or the Ridgely 400 Society Jazz Band, which included pianist Rivers Chambers
. Ridgely organized the band in 1917, and they played daily at the Maryland Theater
in the 1920s. The two most popular of the early jazz performers in Baltimore, however, were Ernest Purviance and Joseph T. H. Rochester, who worked together, as the Drexel Ragtime Syncopators, starting a dance fad
known as the "Shimme She Wabble She". As the Drexel Jazz Syncopators, they remained popular into the 1920s.
The Royal Theatre
was the most important jazz venue in Baltimore for much of the 20th century, and produced one of the city's musical leaders in Rivers Chambers
, who led the Royal's band from 1930 to 1937. Chambers was a multi-instrumentalist who founded the Rivers Chambers Orchestra after leaving The Royal, and became a "favorite of Maryland's high society". As bandleader of The Royal, Chambers was succeeded by the classically trained Tracy McCleary
, whose band, the Royal Men of Rhythm, included Charlie Parker
at one point. Many of The Royal's band members would join with touring acts when they came through Baltimore; many had day jobs in the defense industry during World War 2, including McCleary himself. The shortage of musicians during the war led to a relaxation in some aspects of segregation, including in The Royal's band, which began hiring white musicians soon after the war. McCleary would be The Royal's last conductor, however, while Chambers' orchestra became a fixture in Baltimore, and came to include as many as thirty musicians, who would sometimes divide into smaller groups for performances. Chambers had collected many musicians from around the country, like Tee Loggins from Louisiana. Other performers with his Orchestra included trumpeter Roy McCoy, saxophonist Elmer Addison and guitarist Buster Brown
, who was responsible for the Orchestra's most characteristic song, "They Cut Down That Old Pine Tree", which the Rivers Chambers Orchestra would continue to play for more than fifty years.
Baltimore's early jazz pioneers included Blanche Calloway
, one of the first female jazz bandleaders in the United States, and sister to jazz legend Cab Calloway
. Both the Calloways, like many of Baltimore's prominent black musicians, studied at Frederick Douglass High School
with William Llewellyn Wilson
, himself a renowned performer and conductor for the first African American symphony in Baltimore. Baltimore was also home to Chick Webb
, one of jazz's most heralded drummers, who became a musical star despite being born hunchbacked and crippled at five years old. Later Baltimoreans in jazz include Elmer Snowden
, and Ethel Ennis
. After Pennsylvania Avenue declined in the 1950s, Baltimore's jazz scene changed. The Left Bank Jazz Society
, an organization dedicated to promoting live jazz, began holding a weekly series of concerts in 1965, featuring the biggest names in the field, including Duke Ellington
and John Coltrane
. The tapes from these recordings became legendary within the jazz aficionados, but they did not begin to be released until 2000, due to legal complications.
Baltimore is known for jazz saxophonists, having produced recent performers like Antonio Hart
, Ellery Eskelin
, Gary Bartz
, Mark Gross
, Harold Adams
, Gary Thomas
and Ron Diehl
. The city's style combines the experimental and intellectual jazz of Philadelphia and elsewhere in the north with a more emotive and freeform Southern tradition. The earliest well-known Baltimore saxophonists include Arnold Sterling
, Whit Williams
, Andy Ennis
, Brad Collins, Carlos Johnson, Vernon H. Wolst, Jr.; the most famous, however, was Mickey Fields
. Fields got his start with a jump blues
band, The Tilters, in the early 1950s, and his saxophone-playing became the most prominent part of the band's style. Despite a national reputation and opportunities, Fields refused to perform outside the region and remains a local legend.
In the 1960s, the Hammond B-3 organ became a critical part of the Baltimore jazz scene, led by virtuoso Jimmy Smith
. The Left Bank Jazz Society also played a major role locally, hosting concerts and promoting performers. The popularity of jazz, however, declined greatly by the beginning of the 20th century, with an aging and shrinking audience, though the city continued producing local performers and hosting a vibrant jazz scene.
Baltimore was home to a major doo wop scene in the middle of the 20th century, which began with The Orioles
, who are considered one of the first doo wop groups to record commercially. By the 1950s, Baltimore was home to numerous African American vocal groups, and talent scouts scoured the city for the next big stars. Many bands emerged from the city, including The Cardinals
and The Plants
. Some doo wop groups were connected with street gangs, and some members were active in both scenes, such as Johnny Page of The Marylanders
. Competitive music and dance was a part of African American street gang culture, and with the success of some local groups, pressure mounted, leading to territorial rivalries among performers. Pennsylvania Avenue
served as a rough boundary between East and West Baltimore, with the East producing The Swallows and The Cardinals, as well as The Sonnets, The Jollyjacks, The Honey Boys, The Magictones and The Blentones
, while the West was home to The Orioles and The Plants, as well as The Twilighters and The Four Buddies
.
It was The Orioles, however, who first developed the city's vocal harmony sound. Originally known as The Vibra-Naires, The Orioles were led by Sonny Til
when they recorded "It's Too Soon to Know
", their first hit and a song that is considered the first doo wop recording of any kind. Doo wop would go on to have a formative influence on the development of rock and roll
, and The Orioles can be considered the earliest rock and roll band as a result. The Orioles would continue recording until 1954, launching hits like "In the Chapel in the Moonlight", "Tell Me So" and "Crying in the Chapel".
Baltimore is less well known for its soul music
than other major African-American urban areas, such as Philadelphia. However, it was home to a number of soul record labels in the 1960s and 1970s, including Ru-Jac (1963-, whose artists included Joe Quarterman
, Arthur Conley
, Gene & Eddie, Winfield Parker, The Caressors, Jessie Crawford, The Dynamic Corvettes and Fred Martin
.http://www.dcsoulrecordings.com/index.php?c=Baltimore&s=recordlabelshttp://www.soulfulkindamusic.net/rujac.htmhttp://www.sirshambling.com/artists/G/gene_&_eddie.htm Soul venues in Baltimore in that period included The Royal and Carr's beach in Annapolis, one of the few beaches black people could use.http://www.raresoulforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=13360
and New York City
respectively, new wave
musicians Ric Ocasek
and David Byrne
are both natives of the Baltimore area. Frank Zappa
, Tori Amos
, Cass Elliot
(The Mamas & the Papas
), and Adam Duritz
(Counting Crows
vocalist) are also from Baltimore.
Notable Baltimore-area rock acts from the 1970s and 1980s include Crack The Sky
, The Ravyns
, Kix
, Face Dancer, Jamie LaRitz, and DC Star.
Baltimore's hardcore punk
scene has been overshadowed by that of Washington, D.C., but included locally renowned bands like Law & Order, Bollocks, OTR, and Fear of God; many of these bands played at bars like the Marble Bar, Terminal 406 and the illegal space Jules' Loft, which author Steven Blush described as the "apex of the Baltimore (hardcore) scene" in 1983 and 1984. The 1980s also saw the development of a local New Wave
scene led by the bands Ebeneezer & the Bludgeons, Thee Katatonix, Alter Legion, and Null Set. Later in the decade, emo
bands like Reptile House
and Grey March had some success and recorded with Ian MacKaye
in DC.
Some early Baltimore punk musicians moved onto other local bands by the end of the 1990s, while local mainstays Lungfish
and Fascist Fascist becoming regionally prominent. The Urbanite magazine has identified several major trends in local Baltimorean music, including the rise of psychedelic-folk singer-songwriters like Entrance
and the house/hip hop dance fusion called Baltimore club
, pioneered by DJs like Rod Lee
. More recently, Baltimore's modern music scene has produced performers like Jason Dove, Cass McCombs
, Ponytail
, Animal Collective
, Double Dagger
, Mary Prankster, Beach House
, Wye Oak
, The Seldon Plan
, Dan Deacon
, The Revelevens, Adventure
, and Wham City.
In 2009, Baltimore produced its own indigenous rock opera
theatrical company, the all-volunteer Baltimore Rock Opera Society
, which operates out of Charles Village. The group has so far put on two rock operas, one in 2009 and the other in 2011. They both have featured original scores.
, The Baltimore Sun
, and Music Monthly, which frequently advertise local music shows and other events. The Baltimore Blues Society also distributes one of the more well renowned blues periodicals in the country. The Baltimore Afro-American
, a local periodical, was one of the most important media in 20th century Baltimore, and documented much of that city's African American musical life. Recently, a number of new media sites have risen to prominence including Aural States (Best Local Music Blog 2008), Government Names, Mobtown Shank and Beatbots (Best Online Arts Community 2007).
Baltimore is home to a number of non-profit music organization, most famously including the Left Bank Jazz Society
, which hosts concerts and otherwise promotes jazz in Baltimore. These non-profits play a greater role in the city's musical life than similar organization do in most other American cities. The organization Jazz in Cool Places also works within that genre, presenting performers in architecturally significant locations, such as in a club full of Tiffany
windows. The Society for the Preservation of American Roots Music also puts on jazz and blues concerts at its Roots Cafe.
Many of Baltimore's nightclubs and other local music venues are in Fells Point and Federal Hill. One music field guide points to Fell's Point's Cat's Eye Pub, Full Moon Saloon, Fletcher's Bar, and Bertha's as particularly notable, in addition to a number of others, most famously including the Sportsmen's Lounge, which was a major jazz venue in the 1960s, when it was owned by football player Lenny Moore
.
Many of the most legendary music venues in Baltimore have been shut down, including most of the shops, churches, bars and other destinations on the legendary Pennsylvania Avenue, center for the city's jazz scene. The Royal Theater, once one of the premiere destinations for African American performers on the East Coast, is marked only by a simple plaque, the theater itself having been demolished in 1971. A statue of Billie Holiday
remains on Pennsylvania Avenue, however, between Lafayette and Lanvale, with a plaque that reads I don't think I'm singing. I feel like I am playing a horn. I try to improvise. What comes out is what I feel.
There are six major concert halls in Baltimore. The Lyric Opera is modelled after the Gewandhaus
, in Leipzig
, and was reopened after several years of renovations in 1982, the same year the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
opened. Designed by Pietro Belluschi
, The Meyerhoff Symphony Hall is a permanent home for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
. Belluschi also designed the Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College
, which opened in 1962. The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Auditorium, located at the Baltimore Museum of Art
, also opened in 1982, and hosts concerts by the Baltimore Chamber Music Society. Johns Hopkins University
's Shriver Hall and the Peabody's Miriam A. Friedberg are also important concert venues, the latter being the oldest still in use.
In the public school system of Baltimore city, music education is a part of each grade level to high school, at which point it becomes optional. Beginning in first grade, or approximately six years old, Baltimore students begin to learn about melody
, harmony
and rhythm
, and are taught to echo short melodic and rhythmic patterns. They also begin to learn about different musical instrument
s and distinguish between different kinds of sounds and types of songs. As students progress through the grades, teachers go into more detail and require more proficiency in elementary musical techniques. Students perform round
s in second grade, for example, while movement (i.e. dance) enters the curriculum in third grade. Beginning in middle school in the sixth grade, students are taught to make mature aesthetic judgements, and to understand and respond to a variety of forms of music. In high school, students may choose to take courses in instrumentation or singing, and may be exposed to music in other areas of the curriculum, such as in theater or drama
classes.
Public school instruction in music in Baltimore began in 1843. Prior to that, itinerant and professional singing masters were the dominant form of formal music education in the state. Music institutions like the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra sometimes have programs aimed at youth education, and other organizations have a similar focus. The Eubie Blake Center exists to promote African American culture, and music, to both youth and adults, through dance classes for all age groups, workshops, clinics, seminars and other programs.
's Conservatory of Music, founded in 1857 though instruction did not begin until 1868. The original grant from George Peabody
funded an Academy of Music, which became the Conservatory in 1872. Lucien Southard
was the first director of the Conservatory. In 1977, the Conservatory became affiliated with Johns Hopkins University
.
The Baltimore region is home to other institutions of musical education, including Towson University
, Goucher College
and Morgan State University
, each of which both instruct and present concerts. Coppin State University
, which offers a minor in music, Morgan State University
, which offers Bachelor of Fine Arts
and Master of Arts
degrees in music, and Bowie State University
, which offers undergraduate programs in music and music technology.
The Arthur Friedham Library collects primary sources relating to music in Baltimore, as do the archives maintained by the Peabody and the Maryland Historical Society
. Johns Hopkins University is home to the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, whose Lester S. Levy Collection is one of the most important collections of American sheet music in the country, and contains more than 40,000 pieces, including original printings of works by Carrie Jacobs-Bond
such as "A Perfect Day" (song)
.
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, the largest city in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, can be documented as far back as 1784, and the city has become a regional center for Western classical music and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. Early Baltimore was home to popular opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, and an important part of the music of Maryland
Music of Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state with a musical heritage that dates back to the Native Americans of the region and includes contributions to colonial era music, modern American popular and folk music...
, while the city also hosted several major music publishing firms until well into the 19th century, when Baltimore also saw the rise of native musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
, specifically piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
s and woodwind instrument
Woodwind instrument
A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...
s. African American music
African American music
African-American music is an umbrella term given to a range of musics and musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large and significant ethnic minority of the population of the United States...
existed in Baltimore during the colonial era, and the city was home to vibrant black musical life by the 1860s. Baltimore's African American heritage to the turn of the 20th century including ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
and gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
. By the end of that century, Baltimore jazz
Baltimore jazz
Baltimore jazz is a major part of the music of Baltimore, Maryland, and is a field that has produced several well-known artists, including Billie Holliday,...
had become a well-recognized scene among jazz fans, and produced a number of local performers to gain national reputations. The city was a major stop on the African American East Coast touring circuit, and it remains a popular regional draw for live performances. Baltimore has produced a wide range of modern rock, punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
bands and several indie labels catering to a variety of audiences.
Music education throughout Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
conforms to state standards, implemented by the Baltimore City Public School System. Music is taught to all age groups, and the city is also home to several institutes of higher education in music. The Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
's Conservatory is the most renowned music education facility in the area, and has been one of the top nationally for decades. The city is also home to a number of other institutes of higher education in music, the largest being nearby Towson University
Towson University
Towson University, often referred to as TU or simply Towson for short, is a public university located in Towson in Baltimore County, Maryland, U.S...
. The Peabody sponsors performances of many kinds, many of them classical or chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
. Baltimore is home to the Baltimore Opera and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...
, among other similar performance groups. Major music venues in Baltimore include the nightclubs and other establishments that offer live entertainment clustered in Fells Point and Federal Hill.
History
The documented history of music in Baltimore extends to the 1780s. Little is known about the cultural lives of the Native Americans who formerly lived along the Chesapeake Bay, prior to the founding of Baltimore. In the colonial era, opera and theatrical music were a major part of Baltimorean musical life, and Protestant churches were another important avenue for music performance and education. Baltimore rose to regional performance as an industrial and commercial center, and also become home to some of the most important music publishing firms in colonial North America. In the 19th century, Baltimore grew greatly, and its documented music expanded to include an abundance of African American musicAfrican American music
African-American music is an umbrella term given to a range of musics and musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large and significant ethnic minority of the population of the United States...
, and the city's denizens played a crucial role in the development of gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. Musical institutions based in Baltimore, including the Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...
, became fixtures in their respective fields, music education
Music education
Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain , the cognitive domain , and, in particular and significant ways,the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity...
and Western classical music. Later in the 20th century, Baltimore produced notable acts in the fields of rock, R&B and hip hop.
Colonial era to 1800
Local music in Baltimore can be traced back to 1784, when concerts were advertised in the local press. These concert programs featured compositions by locals Alexander ReinagleAlexander Reinagle
Alexander Robert Reinagle was an English-born American composer, organist, and theater musician...
and Raynor Taylor
Raynor Taylor
Rayner Taylor was an English organist, music teacher, composer, and singer who lived and worked in the United States after emigrating in 1792...
, as well as European composers like Frantisek Kotzwara
Frantisek Kotzwara
František Kočvara, known later in England as Frantisek Kotzwara , was a Czech violist, virtuoso double bassistand composer. He is perhaps more famous for the notorious nature of his death.-Life and music:...
, Ignaz Pleyel
Ignaz Pleyel
Ignace Joseph Pleyel , ; was an Austrian-born French composer and piano builder of the Classical period.-Early years:...
, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
----August Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was an Austrian composer, violinist and silvologist.-1739-1764:...
, Giovanni Battista Viotti
Giovanni Battista Viotti
Giovanni Battista Viotti was an Italian violinist whose virtuosity was famed and whose work as a composer featured a prominent violin and an appealing lyrical tunefulness...
and Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
. Opera first came to Baltimore in 1752, with the performance of The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...
by a touring company. It was soon followed by La Serva Padrona
La serva padrona
La serva padrona is an opera buffa by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. The opera is only 45 minutes long and was originally performed as an intermezzo between the acts of a larger serious opera...
by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...
, the American premier of that work, and the 1772 performance of Comus
Comus (John Milton)
Comus is a masque in honour of chastity, written by John Milton. It was first presented on Michaelmas, 1634, before John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater at Ludlow Castle in celebration of the Earl's new post as Lord President of Wales.Known colloquially as Comus, the mask's actual full title is A...
by John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
, performed by the American Company of Lewis Hallam
Lewis Hallam
Lewis Hallam was an English-born actor and theatre director in the colonial United States.-Career:He arrived in North America in 1752 with his theatrical company, which first performed in Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1752, Hallam built the first theater in New York City, New York, on Nassau Street...
. This was soon followed by the creation of the first theatre in Baltimore, funded by Thomas Wall
Thomas Wall
Thomas Wall was the founder of the first permanent theatrical company in Baltimore, Maryland, the Maryland Company of Comedians, active from 1781 to 1785. It was founded, with Adam Lindsay, in spite of a 1774 ban by the Continental Congress on theatrical entertainment. Wall also built the New...
and Adam Lindsay
Adam Lindsay
Adam Lindsay was, with Thomas Wall, a cofounder of the Maryland Company of Comedians, the first resident theatrical company in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1781. He owned a coffee house prior to working with Wall, and returned to that profession after 1785.-References:*...
's Maryland Company of Comedians
Maryland Company of Comedians
The Maryland Company of Comedians was the first permanent theatrical company in Baltimore, Maryland, active from 1781 to 1785. It was founded, by Thomas Wall and Adam Lindsay, in spite of a 1774 ban by the Continental Congress on theatrical entertainment. Wall also built the New Theatre, the first...
, the first resident theatrical company in the city, which had been established despite a ban on theatrical entertainment by the Continental Congress
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....
in 1774. Maryland was the only state to so openly flout the ban, giving special permission to the Maryland Company in 1781, to perform both in Baltimore and Annapolis. Shakespearean and other plays made up the repertoire, often with wide-ranging modifications, including the addition of songs. The managers of the Maryland Company had some trouble finding qualified musicians to play in the theatre's orchestra. The Maryland Company and the American Company performed sporadically in Baltimore until the early 1790s, when the Philadelphia Company of Alexander Reinagle
Alexander Reinagle
Alexander Robert Reinagle was an English-born American composer, organist, and theater musician...
and Thomas Wignell
Thomas Wignell
Thomas Wignell was an English-born actor and theatre manager in colonial United States.-Early life:He was born in England and came to North America in 1774 with his cousin Lewis Hallam, then left for Jamaica until 1785.-Career:...
began dominating, based out of their Holliday Street Theater
Holliday Street Theater
The Holliday Street Theater was an important theatrical venue in colonial Baltimore. Founded as the New Theatre it became known as the New Holliday and then the Old Holliday after its location on Holliday Street. Finally officially called The Baltimore Theatre, it was informally known as Old Drury....
.
Formal singing schools were the first well-documented musical institution in Baltimore. They were common in colonial North America prior to the Revolutionary War, but were not established in Baltimore until afterwards, in 1789. These singing schools were taught by instructors known as masters, or singing masters, and were often itinerant; they taught vocal performance and techniques for use in Christian psalmody. The first singing school in Baltimore was founded in the courthouse, in 1789, by Ishmael Spicer, whose students would include the future John Cole
John Cole (music publisher)
John Cole was a British-born American music printer, publisher and composer based in Baltimore.Born in Tewkesbury, England, he emigrated to Baltimore in 1785 with his family....
.
Publishing
The first tunebook published in Maryland was the Baltimore Collection of Sacred Music, in 1792, consisting mostly of hymns, with some more complex pieces described as anthems. In 1794, Joseph CarrJoseph Carr (music publisher)
Joseph Carr was an American music publisher, one of the most influential in the early history of the United States. He was based out of Baltimore, while his brothers, Thomas and Benjamin were based in New York and Philadelphia.-References:...
established a shop in Baltimore, along with his sons Thomas
Thomas Carr (publisher)
Thomas Carr was an American music publisher, along with his brothers Benjamin and Joseph Carr. Thomas ran a shop in New York, while his brothers did so in Philadelphia and Baltimore, respectively.Thomas Carr also arranged "The Star-Spangled Banner"....
and Benjamin
Benjamin Carr
Benjamin Carr was an American composer, singer, teacher, and music publisher. Born in London, he studied organ with Charles Wesley and composition with Samuel Arnold. In 1793 he traveled to Philadelphia with a stage company, and a year later went with the same company to New York, where he...
, who ran shops in New York and Philadelphia. The Carrs would be the most successful publishing firm until around the turn of the 19th century; however, they remained prominent until the company folded in 1821, and the Carrs were responsible for the first sheet music publication of "The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
" in 1814, arranged by Thomas Carr himself, and they also published European instrumentals and stage pieces, as well as works by Americans like James Hewitt
James Hewitt
James Hewitt is a former British household cavalry officer in the British Army. He had an affair with Diana, Princess of Wales for five years, receiving extensive media coverage after revealing details of the affair.-Early life:...
and Alexander Reinagle
Alexander Reinagle
Alexander Robert Reinagle was an English-born American composer, organist, and theater musician...
. Much of this music was collected, in serial format, in the Musical Journal for the Piano Forte, which spanned five volumes and was the largest collection of secular music in the country.
In the late 17th century, Americans like William Billings
William Billings
William Billings was an American choral composer, and is widely regarded as the father of American choral music...
were establishing a bold, new style of vocal performance, markedly distinct from European traditions. John Cole
John Cole (music publisher)
John Cole was a British-born American music printer, publisher and composer based in Baltimore.Born in Tewkesbury, England, he emigrated to Baltimore in 1785 with his family....
, an important publisher and tune collector in Baltimore, known for pushing a rarefied European outlook on American music, responded with the tunebook Beauties of Psalmody, which denigrated the new techniques, especially fuguing
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
. Cole continued publishing tunebooks up to 1842, and soon began operating his own singing school. Besides Cole, Baltimore was home to other major music publishers as well. These included Wheeler Gillet, who focused on dignified, European-style music like Cole did, and Samuel Dyer, who collected more distinctly American-styled songs. The tunebooks published in Baltimore included instructional notes, using a broad array of music education
Music education
Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain , the cognitive domain , and, in particular and significant ways,the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity...
techniques then common. Ruel Shaw, for example, used a system derived from the work of Heinrich Pestalozzi, interpreted by the American Lowell Mason
Lowell Mason
Lowell Mason was a leading figure in American church music, the composer of over 1600 hymn tunes, many of which are often sung today. His most well-known tunes include Mary Had A Little Lamb and the arrangement of Joy to the World...
. Though the Pestalozzian system was widely used in Baltimore, other techniques were tried, such as that developed by local singing master James M. Deems, based on the Italian solfeggi system.
19th century
19th century Baltimore had a large African American population, and was home to a vibrant black musical life, especially based around the region's numerous Protestant churches. The city also boasted several major music publishing firms and instrument manufacturing companies, specializing in pianoPiano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
s and woodwind instrument
Woodwind instrument
A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...
s. Opera, choral and other classical performance groups were founded during this era, many of them becoming regionally prominent and established a classical tradition in Baltimore. The Holliday Street Theatre and the Front Street Theatre hosted both touring and local productions throughout the early 19th century. Following the Civil War, however, a number of new theatres opened, including the Academy of Music
Academy of Music (Baltimore)
The Academy of Music in Baltimore, Maryland was an important music venue in that city after opening following the American Civil War. The Academy was located at 516 North Howard Street. The Academy was demolished in the late 1920s, as the Stanley Theatre was being built in the same block....
, Ford's Grand Opera House
Ford's Grand Opera House
Ford's Grand Opera House was a major music venue in Baltimore, founded in 1871.Horace Greeley was nominated for the presidency there....
and the Concordia Opera House, owned by the Concordia Music Society. Of these, Ford's was perhaps the most successful, home to no fewer than 24 different opera companies. By the turn of the 20th century, however, the New York Theatrical Syndicate
New York Theatrical Syndicate
The New York Theatrical Syndicate was a major force in the theatre of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. It was run by Klaw & Erlanger, a Broadway firm, and controlled musical performances of many kinds throughout North America....
had grown to dominate the industry throughout the region, and Baltimore became a less common stop for touring companies.
African American music
During the 19th century, Maryland had one of the largest populations of free African Americans, totalling one fifth of all free blacks in the country. Baltimore was the center for African American culture and industry, and was home to many African American craftsmen, writers and other professionals, and some of the largest black churches in the country. Many African Americans institutions in Baltimore assisted the less fortunate with food and clothing drives, and other charitable work. The "first instance of mass black assertiveness after the Civil War" in the country occurred in Baltimore in 1865, after a meeting of the Independent Order of Odd FellowsIndependent Order of Odd Fellows
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows , also known as the Three Link Fraternity, is an altruistic and benevolent fraternal organization derived from the similar British Oddfellows service organizations which came into being during the 18th century, at a time when altruistic and charitable acts were...
in Battle Monument Square, marking the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
. Another African American celebration occurred five years later, celebrating the right to vote, guaranteed to African Americans by the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"...
. Many bands played, including brass and cornet bands.
Eubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
, born in 1883, became a musician at an early age, hired as a house musician at a brothel, run by Aggie Shelton. He perfected his improvisational piano style, which used ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
riffs, and eventually completed "The Charleston Rag", in 1899. With compositions like that, Blake pioneered what would eventually become known as the stride style by the end of the 1890s; stride later became more closely associated with New York City. With his own technique, characterized by playing the syncopation with his right hand and a steady beat with the left, and became one of the most successful ragtime performers of the East Coast, performing with prominent cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
entertainers Mary Stafford
Mary Stafford (singer)
Mary Stafford was an American cabaret singer in the classic blues style. In January, 1921, she became the first African American woman to record for Columbia Records. She toured widely throughout the mid-Atlantic in the 1920s and into the 1930s...
and Madison Reed
Madison Reed
Madison Reed was an American cabaret and ragtime performer who worked with Eubie Blake among others.-References:And there is another one who is Victoria Justice's little sister....
.
Church music
Black churches in Maryland hosted many musical, as well as political and educational, activities, and many African American musicians got their start performing in churches, including Anne Brown
Anne Brown
Anne Wiggins Brown was an African American soprano who created the role of "Bess" in the original production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess in 1935. She was also a radio and concert singer...
, Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson was an African-American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century...
, Ethel Ennis
Ethel Ennis
Ethel Llewellyn Ennis is an American jazz musician. Ethel Ennis began performing on the piano in high school, but her natural vocal abilities soon eclipsed those as a pianist...
and Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
, in the 20th century. Doctrinal disputes did not prevent musical cooperation, which included both sacred and secular music. Church choirs frequently worked together, even across denominational divides, and church-goers often visited other establishments to see visiting performers. Organists were a major part of African American church music in Baltimore, and some organists became well known, Baltimore's including Sherman Smith of Union Baptist, Luther Mitchell of Centennial Methodist and Julia Calloway of Sharon Baptist. Many churches also offered music education, beginning as early as the 1870s with St. Francis Academy.
Berlin, Maryland
Berlin is a town in Worcester County, Maryland, United States. The population was 3,491 at the 2000 census.-History:The town of Berlin had its start around the 1790s, part of the Burley Plantation, a land grant dating back to 1677...
, would become the first major composer of gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, a style that drew on African American spiritual
Spiritual (music)
Spirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...
s, Christian hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s and other folk music traditions. Tindley's earliest musical experience likely included tarrying services, a musical tradition of the Eastern Shore of Maryland
Eastern Shore of Maryland
The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a territorial part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies predominately on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay and consists of nine counties. The origin of term Eastern Shore was derived to distinguish a territorial part of the State of Maryland from the Western...
, wherein Christian worshipers prayed and sang throughout the night. He became an itinerant preacher as an adult, working at churches throughout Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey, then settled down as a pastor in Philadelphia, eventually opening a large church called Tindley Temple United Methodist Church.
Publishing
Though John Cole and the Carrs were among the first major music publishers in Baltimore, the city was home to a vibrant publishing tradition in the 19th century, aided by the presence of A. Hoen & Co.A. Hoen & Co.
A. Hoen & Co. was a Baltimore, Maryland-based lithography firm founded by Edward Weber in the 1840s as E. Weber & Company. When August Hoen took it over following Weber's death, he changed the name and built the company into one of the most prominent in the industry at the time.In 1877, Hoen...
, one of the biggest lithography
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
firms of the era, who illustrated many music publications. Other prominent music publishers in Baltimore in this era included George Willig
George Willig
George Willig is a mountain-climber from Queens, New York, United States, who climbed the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 26 May 1977, about 2½ years after tightrope walker Phillippe Petit walked between the tops of the two towers...
, Arthur Clifton, Frederick Benteen
Frederick Benteen
Frederick William Benteen was a military officer during the American Civil War and then during the Black Hills War against the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. He is notable for being in command of a battalion of the 7th U. S...
, James Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
, Miller and Beecham, W. C. Peters, Samuel Carusi and G. Fred Kranz. Peters was well known nationally, but first established a Baltimore-based firm in 1849, with partners whose names remain unknown. His sons eventually joined the field, and the company, then known as W. C. Peters & Co., published the Baltimore Olio and Musical Gazette, which contained concert news, printed music, educational and biographical essays and articles. The pianist-composer Charles Grobe was among the contributors.
Instrument manufacture
William Knabe
Wm. Knabe & Co. was a piano manufacturing company in Baltimore, Maryland from the middle of the nineteenth century through the beginning of the 20th century, and continued as a division of Aeolian-American at East Rochester, New York until 1982...
and Charles Steiff
Charles Steiff
Charles M Stieff was a 19th-century American industrialist and piano manufacturer, based in Baltimore, Maryland.To this date, Stieff pianos still exist in the Washington/Baltimore area....
. Knabe emigrated to the United States in 1831, and he founded the firm, with Henry Gaehle, in 1837. It began manufacturing pianos in 1839. The company became one of the most prominent and respected piano manufacturers in the country, and was the dominant corporation in the Southern market. The company floundered after a fire destroyed a factory, and the aftermath of the Civil War lessened demand in the Southern area where Knabe's sales were concentrated. By the end of the century, however, Knabe's sons, Ernest and William, had re-established the firm as one of the leading piano companies in the country. They built sales in the west and north, and created new designs that made Knabe & Co. the third best-selling piano manufacturer in the country. The pianos were well regarded enough that the Japanese government chose Knabe as its supplier for schools in 1879. After the death of William and Ernest Knabe, the company went public. In the 20th century, Knabe's company became absorbed into other corporations, and the pianos are now manufactured by Samick
Samick
Samick is the name of a Korea-based musical instrument manufacturer, one of the largest in the world.The name refers to the entire Samick Musical Instruments, which owns several manufacturers of pianos, guitars, and other instruments. The company started as 'Samick Pianos' in 1958, manufacturing...
, a Korean producer.
Heinrich Christian Eisenbrandt
Heinrich Christian Eisenbrandt
Heinrich Christian Eisenbrandt was a German-born manufacturer of brass and woodwind instruments. He was born in Göttingen, Germany, and moved to Philadelphia in 1811, followed by Baltimore in 1819. His factory produced clarinets, fifes, drums, basset-horns, bassoons, oboes, flutes, flageolets and...
, originally of Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
, Germany, settled in Baltimore in 1819, going on to manufacture brass and woodwind instruments of high quality. His output included several brass instruments, flageolet
Flageolet
The flageolet is a woodwind musical instrument and a member of the fipple flute family. Its invention is ascribed to the 16th century Sieur Juvigny in 1581. There are two basic forms of the instrument: the French, having four finger holes on the front and two thumb holes on the back; and the...
s, flutes, oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s, bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
s, clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
s with between five and sixteen keys, and at least one drum and basset-horn
Basset-horn
The basset horn is a musical instrument, a member of the clarinet family.-Construction and tone:Like the clarinet, the instrument is a wind instrument with a single reed and a cylindrical bore...
. Eisenbrandt owned two patents for brass instruments, and was once praised for "great improvements made in the valves" of the saxhorn
Saxhorn
The saxhorn is a valved brass instrument with a conical bore and deep cup-shaped mouthpiece. The sound has a characteristic mellow quality, and blends well with other brass.-The saxhorn family:...
. His flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
s and clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
s won him a silver medal at the London Great Exhibition of 1851, and he also earned high marks for those instruments and the saxhorn at several Metropolitan Mechanics Institute exhibitions. The Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
now possesses one of Eisenbrandt's clarinets, adorned with jewels, and the Shrine to Music Museum at the University of South Dakota
University of South Dakota
The University of South Dakota ', the state’s oldest university, was founded in 1862 and classes began in 1882. Located in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States, USD is home to South Dakota's only medical school and law school. USD is governed by the South Dakota Board of Regents, and its current...
is in possession of a drum and several clarinets made by Eisenbrandt. He is also known to have made a cornet which uses a key mechanism that he had patented. Eisenbrandt died in 1861, and his son, H. W. R. Eisenbrandt, continued the business until at least 1918.
Classical music
The Peabody OrchestraPeabody Orchestra
Formed in 1866, the Peabody Orchestra, was the first professional orchestra in the city of Baltimore. Based at the Peabody Conservatory, its leaders included Lucien Southard, Asger Hamerik and James Monroe Deems...
, formed in 1866, was the first professional orchestra in Baltimore. The Orchestra premiered many works in its early years, including some by Asger Hamerik
Asger Hamerik
Asger Hamerik , was a Danish composer of classical music.Born in Frederiksberg , he studied music with J.P.E. Hartmann and Niels Gade. He wrote his first pieces in his teens, including an unperformed symphony...
, a prominent Danish composer who became director of the Orchestra. Ross Jungnickel
Ross Jungnickel
Ross Jungnickel was an American music publisher and arranger, and founder of a Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, a precursor to the modern organization of that name. He was a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory. He also composed an orchestral version of Adagio Pathetique, by Benjamin Godard, which...
founded the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...
before 1890, when the Orchestra first performed, and the Peabody Orchestra ceased to exist. Jungnickel's orchestra, however, lasted only until 1899.
Traveling opera companies visited Baltimore throughout the 19th century, performing pieces like Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
, Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
and La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
, with performances by well-known singers like Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind
Johanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily...
and Clara Kellogg. Institutions from outside Baltimore also presented opera within the city, including the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
.
In the early 19th century, choral associations became common in Maryland, and Baltimore, buoyed by the immigration of numerous Germans. These groups were formed for the purpose of instruction in choral music, eventually performing oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
s. The popularity of these choral associations helped to garner support among the local population for putting music education in the city's public schools. The Baltimore Oratorio Society, the Liederkranz and the Germania Männerchor were the most important of these associations, and their traditions were maintained into the 20th century by organizations like the Bach Choir, Choral Arts Society, Handel Society and the Baltimore Symphony Chorus.
Education
John Hill Hewitt
John Hill Hewitt was an American songwriter, playwright, and poet. He is best known for his songs about the American South, including "A Minstrel's Return from the War", "The Soldier's Farewell", "The Stonewall Quickstep", and "Somebody's Darling"...
and William Stoddard. The Academy and the Institute quickly became rivals, and both gave successful performances. Some Baltimore singing masters used new terminology to describe their programs, as the term singing school was falling out of favor; Alonzo Cleaveland founded the Glee School during this era, focusing entirely on secular music. In contrast, religious musical instruction by the middle of the 19th century remained based around itinerant singing masters who taught for a period of time, then continued to new locations.
The introduction of music into Baltimore public schools in 1843 caused a slow decline in the popularity of private youth singing instruction. In response to the growing demand for printed music in schools, publishers began offering collections with evangelical tunes, directed at rural schools. Formal, adult musical institutions, like the Haydn Society and the Euterpe Musical Association, grew in popularity following the Civil War.
20th century
Early in the 20th century, Baltimore's most famous musical export was the duo of Eubie BlakeEubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
and Noble Sissle
Noble Sissle
Noble Sissle was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright.-Early life:...
, who found national fame in New York. Blake in particular became a ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
legend, and innovator of the stride style. Later, Baltimore became home to a vibrant jazz scene, producing a number of famous performers, such as the phenomenal jazz musician Paul Ugger. Use of the Hammond B-3 organ later became an iconic part of Baltimore jazz
Baltimore jazz
Baltimore jazz is a major part of the music of Baltimore, Maryland, and is a field that has produced several well-known artists, including Billie Holliday,...
. In the middle of the 20th century, Baltimore's major music media include Chuck Richards
Chuck Richards
Chuck Richards was a popular African American radio DJ, on WBAL in Baltimore. He was earlier on WITH, the first white-owned radio station with black personalities....
, a popular African American radio personality on WBAL
WBAL (AM)
WBAL is a news-talk radio station located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. WBAL broadcasts on a clear channel frequency with 50 kilowatts of power. Owned by the Hearst Corporation, WBAL's tri-mast transmitters are located in Randallstown, Maryland...
, and Buddy Deane, host of a popular eponymous show in the vein of American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
, which was an iconic symbol of popular music in Baltimore for a time. African American vocal music, specifically doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
, also established an early home in Baltimore. More recently, Baltimore was home to a number of well-known rock, pop, R&B, punk, and hip hop performers.
Classical music
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
's Conservatory of Music. These include Baltimore Choral Arts, Baltimore Opera Company
Baltimore Opera Company
The Baltimore Opera Company was an opera company in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., based at the Baltimore Lyric Opera House. On March 12, 2009, the 58-year-old opera company announced plans to pursue Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation....
(BOC), and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...
(BSO). These organizations all have excellent reputations and sponsor numerous performances throughout the year. Baltimore has produced a number of well-known modern composers of classical and art music, most famously including Phillip Glass, a minimalist
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
composer. Glass grew up in the 1940s, working in his father's record store in East Baltimore, selling African American records, then known as race music. He was there exposed to Baltimore jazz and rhythm and blues.
Though the Baltimore Opera Company can be traced back to the 1924 founding of the Martinet Opera School, the direct antecedent of the Company was founded in 1950, with Rosa Ponselle
Rosa Ponselle
Rosa Ponselle , was an American operatic soprano with a large, opulent voice. She sang mainly at the New York Metropolitan Opera and is generally considered by music critics to have been one of the greatest sopranos of the past 100 years.-Early life:She was born Rosa Ponzillo on January 22, 1897,...
, a well-known soprano, as artistic director. In the following decade the Company modernized, receiving new funding from, among other sources, the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, which led to professionalization and the hiring of a full-time production manager and the stabilization on a program consisting of three operas every season; this schedule has since been expanded to four performances. In 1976, the Company commissioned Inês de Castro for the American Bicentennial, composed by Thomas Pasatieri
Thomas Pasatieri
Thomas Pasatieri is an American opera composer.He began composing at age 10 and, as a teenager, studied with Nadia Boulanger...
with a libretto by Bernard Stambler; the opera's debut was a great success and an historic moment for American opera.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra of the 19th century had floundered in 1899, was replaced by a new orchestra organized by the Florestan Club
Florestan Club
The Florestan Club was a social club in Baltimore, Maryland. They founded the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 1915, ensuring that it was municipally-funded.Members included H. L. Mencken.- References :*...
, which included author H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the...
; the Club ensured that the orchestra would be the first municipally funded company in the country. The reformed Baltimore Symphony Orchestra began in 1916, under the leadership of Gustav Strube
Gustav Strube
Gustav Strube was a German-born conductor and composer. He was the founding conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 1916, and taught at the Peabody Conservatory. He wrote two operas, Ramona, which premiered in 1916, and The Captive, which premiered at the Lyric Theatre in Baltimore in...
, who conducted the orchestra until 1930. In 1942, the orchestra was reorganized as a private institution, led by Reginald Stewart, director of both the Orchestra and the Peabody, who arranged for Orchestra members to receive faculty appointments at the Peabody Conservatory, which helped attract new talent. The Orchestra claims that Joseph Meyerhoff
Joseph Meyerhoff
Joseph Meyerhoff was an American businessman, fundraiser, and philanthropist based in Baltimore, Maryland. His son is Harvey Meyerhoff.-Biography:...
, President of the Orchestra beginning in 1965, and his music director, Sergiu Comissiona
Sergiu Comissiona
Sergiu Comissiona was a Romanian conductor and violinist.-Early life:...
began the modern history of the BSO and "ensured the creation of an institution, which has become the undisputed leader of the arts community throughout the State of Maryland". Meyerhoff and Comissiona established regular performances and a more professional atmosphere for the Orchestra. Under the next music director, David Zinman
David Zinman
David Zinman is an American conductor and violinist.After early violin studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota and took up conducting at Tanglewood...
, the Orchestra recorded for major record labels, and went on several international tours, becoming the first Orchestra to tour in the Soviet bloc.
The Baltimore Chamber Music Society, founded by Hugo Weisgall
Hugo Weisgall
Hugo David Weisgall was an American composer and conductor, known chiefly for his opera and vocal music compositions...
and Rudolph Rothschild in 1950, has commissioned a number of renowned works and is known for a series of controversial concerts featuring mostly 20th century composers. The Baltimore Women's String Symphony Orchestra was led by Stephen Deak and Wolfgang Martin from 1936 to 1940, a time when women were barred from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, though they were allowed in the Baltimore Colored Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Colored Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Colored Symphony Orchestra was an orchestra based out of Baltimore, Maryland, established for African American musicians and audiences. It was founded in 1930, with a grant from the city, and began performing in 1932. Its leader was W. Llewellyn Wilson, a prominent local music...
.
In the early 20th century, Baltimore was home to several African American classically oriented music institutions which drew on a rich tradition of symphonic music, chamber concerts, oratorios, documented in large part by the Baltimore Afro-American
Baltimore Afro-American
The Baltimore Afro-American, commonly known as The Afro, is a weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It is the flagship newspaper of the Afro-American chain and the longest-running African-American family-owned newspaper in the United States.-History:The newspaper was founded in...
, a local periodical. Inspired by A. Jack Thomas
A. Jack Thomas
A. Jack Thomas was a Baltimore-area conductor, hired to work with the city's municipal music performance groups. He had also been one of the first African American bandleaders in the Army, and was director of the music department at Morgan College...
, who had been appointed conductor of the city's municipally supported African American performance groups, Charles L. Harris led the Baltimore Colored Chorus and Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Colored Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Colored Symphony Orchestra was an orchestra based out of Baltimore, Maryland, established for African American musicians and audiences. It was founded in 1930, with a grant from the city, and began performing in 1932. Its leader was W. Llewellyn Wilson, a prominent local music...
from 1929 to 1939, when a strike led to the company's dissolution. Thomas had been one of the first black bandleaders in the U.S. Army, was director of the music department at Morgan College, and was the founder of Baltimore's interracial Aeolian Institute for higher musical education. Charles L. Harris, as leader of the Baltimore Colored City Band, took his group to black neighborhoods across Baltimore, playing marches, waltzes and other music, then switch to jazz-like music with an upbeat tempo, meant for dancing. Some of Harris' musicians also played in early jazz clubs, though the musical establishment at the time did not readily accept the style. Fred Huber, Director of Municipal Music for Baltimore, exerted powerful control over the repertoire of these bands, and forbade jazz. T. Henderson Kerr, a prominent black bandleader, emphasized in his advertising that his group did not play jazz, while the prestigious Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
debated whether jazz was music at all. The Symphony Orchestra produced renowned pianist Ellis Larkins
Ellis Larkins
Ellis Larkins was an African-American jazz pianist born in Baltimore, Maryland, perhaps best known for his two recordings with Ella Fitzgerald, the albums Ella Sings Gershwin and Songs in a Mellow Mood .Larkins was the first African American to attend the Peabody Conservatory of Music, a...
and cellist W. Llewellyn Wilson, also the music critic for the Afro-American. Harris eventually replaced Harris as conductor of the Orchestra and has since become a city musical fixture who is said to have, at one point, taught every single African American music teacher in Baltimore.
After World War 2, William Marbury
William Marbury
William Marbury was one of the famous "Midnight Judges". Due to President John Adams's work in the night before he was to leave office, Marbury was to be appointed a Justice of the Peace in the District of Columbia. He was appointed there to give the Federalists a stronghold in the judicial...
, then Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peabody Institute, began the process of integrating that institution, which had denied entrance to several well-regarded African American performers based solely on their race, including Anne Brown
Anne Brown
Anne Wiggins Brown was an African American soprano who created the role of "Bess" in the original production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess in 1935. She was also a radio and concert singer...
and Todd Duncan
Todd Duncan
Robert Todd Duncan was an American baritone opera singer and actor.-Biography:Todd Duncan was born in Danville, Kentucky in 1903. He obtained his musical training at Butler University in Indianapolis with a B.A. in music followed by an M.A...
, who had been the first black performer with the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
when he was forced to study with Frank Bibb, a member of the Peabody faculty, outside the Conservatory. The director of the Peabody soon ended segregation, both at the Conservatory and at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which was conducted by its first African American, A. Jack Thomas, at his request. The Peabody was officially integrated in 1949, with support from mayor Howard W. Jackson
Howard W. Jackson
Howard Wilkinson Jackson was the Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland from 1923 to 1927 and from 1931-1943.He supported the integration of the Peabody Conservatory in 1949.-References:...
. Paul A. Brent, who graduated in 1953, was the first to matriculate, and was followed by Audrey Cyrus McCallum, who was the first to enter the Peabody Preparatory. Musical integration was a gradual process that lasted until at least 1966, when the unions for African American and white musicians merged to form the Musicians' Association of Metropolitan Baltimore.
African American popular music
In the field of 20th century popular music, Baltimore first was a major center for the development of East Coast ragtimeRagtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
, producing the legendary performer and composer Eubie Blake
Eubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
. Later, Baltimore became a hotspot for jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, and a home for such legends in the field as Chick Webb
Chick Webb
William Henry Webb, usually known as Chick Webb was an American jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader.-Biography:...
and Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
. The city's jazz scene can be traced to the early part of the 20th century, when the style first spread across the country. Locally, Baltimore was home to a vibrant African American musical tradition, which included funereal processions, beginning with slow, mournful tunes and ending with lively ragtime numbers, very similar to the New Orleans music that gave rise to jazz.
Pennsylvania Avenue (often known simply as The Avenue) and Fremont Avenue were the major scenes for Baltimore's black musicians from the 1920s to the 1950s, and was an early home for Eubie Blake
Eubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
and Noble Sissle
Noble Sissle
Noble Sissle was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright.-Early life:...
, among others. Baltimore had long been a major stop on the black touring circuit, and jazz musicians frequently played on Pennsylvania Avenue on the way to or from engagements in New York. Pennsylvania Avenue attracted African Americans from as far away as North Carolina, and was known for its vibrant entertainment and nightlife, as well as a more seedy side, home to prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
, violence, ragtime and jazz, which were perceived as unsavory. The single most important venue for outside acts was the Royal Theatre
Royal Theatre (Baltimore)
The Royal Theatre, which first opened in 1922 as the black-owned Douglass Theatre, was the most famous theater along West Baltimore City's Pennsylvania Avenue, one of a circuit of five such theaters for black entertainment in big cities...
, which was one of the finest African American theaters in the country when it was opened as the Douglass Theater, and was part of the popular performing circuit that included the Earle in Philadelphia, the Howard
Howard Theatre
The Howard Theatre is a historic theatre, located at 620 T Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C..Opened in 1910, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974....
in Washington, D.C., the Regal
Regal Theater, South Side (Chicago)
The Regal Theater, located in the heart of Bronzeville, was an important night club and music venue in Chicago.Part of the Balaban and Katz chain, the lavishly decorated venue, with plush carpeting and velvet drapes featured some of the most celebrated black entertainers in America.The Regal also...
in Chicago and the Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
in New York; like the Apollo, the audience at the Royal Theater was known for cruelly receiving those performers who didn't live up to their standards. Music venues were segregated, though not without resistance - a 1910 tour featuring Bert Williams
Bert Williams
Egbert Austin "Bert" Williams was one of the preeminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. He was by far the best-selling black recording artist before 1920...
resulted in an African American boycott of a segregated theater, hoping the threat of lost business from the popular show would cause a change in policy. Pennsylvania Avenue was also a center for black cultural and economic life in Baltimore, and was home to numerous schools, theaters, churches and other landmarks. The street's nightclubs and other entertainment venues were most significant however, including the Penn Hotel, the first African American-owned hotel in Baltimore (built in 1921). Even the local bars and other establishments that didn't feature live music as a major feature generally had a solo pianist or organist. The first local bar to specialize in jazz was Club Tijuana. Major music venues at this time included Ike Dixon
Ike Dixon
Ike Dixon was a major figure in the Baltimore jazz scene, as proprietor of the Comedy Club in that city. It was a major music venue, located at 1440 Pennsylvania Avenue, first opened in 1934...
's Comedy Club, Skateland, Gamby's, Wendall's Tavern, The New Albert Dreamland, the Ritz, and most importantly, the Sphinx Club. The Sphinx Club became one of the first minority-owned nightclubs in the United States when it opened in 1946, founded by Charles Phillip Tilghman
Charles Phillip Tilghman
Charles Phillip Tilghman was the founder of the Sphinx Club, a major Baltimore jazz venue one of the first African American-owned nightclubs in the country. Tilghman ran the Sphinx Club until he died in 1988, and the Club shut down in 1992.-References:*...
, a local businessman.
The Baltimore Afro-American
Baltimore Afro-American
The Baltimore Afro-American, commonly known as The Afro, is a weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It is the flagship newspaper of the Afro-American chain and the longest-running African-American family-owned newspaper in the United States.-History:The newspaper was founded in...
was a prominent African American periodical based in Baltimore in the early-to-mid-20th century, and the city was home to other black music media. Radio figures of importance included Chuck Richards
Chuck Richards
Chuck Richards was a popular African American radio DJ, on WBAL in Baltimore. He was earlier on WITH, the first white-owned radio station with black personalities....
on WBAL
WBAL (AM)
WBAL is a news-talk radio station located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. WBAL broadcasts on a clear channel frequency with 50 kilowatts of power. Owned by the Hearst Corporation, WBAL's tri-mast transmitters are located in Randallstown, Maryland...
.
Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle
Baltimore's Eubie Blake
Eubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
was one of the most prominent ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
musicians on the East Coast in the early 20th century, and was known for a unique style of piano-playing that eventually became the basis for stride
Stride piano
Harlem Stride Piano, Stride Piano, or just Stride, is a jazz piano style that was developed in the large cities of the East Coast, mainly in the New York, during 1920s and 1930s. The left hand may play a four-beat pulse with a single bass note, octave, seventh or tenth interval on the first and...
, a style perfected during World War I in Harlem. Blake was the most well known figure in the local scene, and helped make Baltimore one of the ragtime centers of the East Coast, along with Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. He then joined a medicine show, performing throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania before moving to New York in 1902 to play at the Academy of Music
Academy of Music (Baltimore)
The Academy of Music in Baltimore, Maryland was an important music venue in that city after opening following the American Civil War. The Academy was located at 516 North Howard Street. The Academy was demolished in the late 1920s, as the Stanley Theatre was being built in the same block....
there. Returning to Baltimore, Blake played at The Saloon, a venue owned by Alfred Greenfield patronized by "colorful characters and 'working' girls"; The Saloon was the basis for his well-known "Corner of Chestnut and Low". He then played at Annie Gilly's sporting house, another rough establishment, before becoming well known enough to play throughout the city and win a number of national piano concerts.
In 1915, Blake was hired to work at Riverview Park
Riverview Park (Baltimore)
Riverview Park was an early amusement park in Baltimore, Maryland, which had closed by the 1940s. Future ragtime legends Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle met, and began their songwriting partnership, while working at Riverview Park.-References:*...
, with Noble Sissle
Noble Sissle
Noble Sissle was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright.-Early life:...
, a singer, whom Blake approached about a songwriting partnership. Their first collaboration was "It's All Your Fault", premiered by Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker was a Russian/Ukrainian-born American singer and actress. Known for her stentorian delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first half of the 20th century...
at the Maryland Theater
Maryland Theater (Baltimore)
The Maryland Theater was a music venue in Baltimore, Maryland, home to that city's first jazz band, led by John Ridgely. It was originally built by James L. Kernan, as a vaudeville house, in 1903, and included a rathskeller in the basement. Kernan also owned a large hotel, in the same building as...
. Their success grew quickly, and they soon had numerous songs performed across the country, including on Broadway, most famously "Baltimore Buzz", "Gypsy Blues" and "Love Will Find a Way". In 1921, however, the duo received their greatest acclaim with the musical Shuffle Along
Shuffle Along
Shuffle Along is the first major successful African American musical. Written by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, with music and lyrics by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, the musical premiered on Broadway in 1921.-Plot:...
, the first piece to bring African American jazz and humor to Broadway. The widespread acclaim for Shuffle Along led to changes in the theatre industry nationwide, producing demand for African American performers and leading to newly integrated theatrical companies across the country. When Shuffle Along came to Baltimore's Ford's Theater, Blake struggled to reserve a seat for his mother, because Ford's remained strictly segregated by race.
Jazz
Baltimore Afro-American
The Baltimore Afro-American, commonly known as The Afro, is a weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It is the flagship newspaper of the Afro-American chain and the longest-running African-American family-owned newspaper in the United States.-History:The newspaper was founded in...
noted its popularity in some areas. Two years later, black bandleader T. Henderson Kerr boasted that his act included "no jazz, no shaky music, no vulgar or suggestive dancing". Local jazz performers played on Baltimore Street, in an area known as The Block
The Block (Baltimore)
Baltimore's The Block is a stretch on the 400 block of East Baltimore Street in Baltimore, Maryland containing several strip clubs, sex shops, and other adult entertainment merchants. In the first half of the 20th century, it was famous for its burlesque houses...
, located between Calvert and Gay Streets. Jazz audiences flocked to music venues in the area and elsewhere, such as the amusement parks around Baltimore; some of the more prominent venues included the Richmond Market Armory, the Old Fifth Regiment Armory, the Pythian Castle Hall and the Galilean Fisherman Hall. By the 1930s, however, The Ritz was the largest club on Pennsylvania Avenue, and was home to Sammy Louis' band, who toured to great acclaim throughout the region.
The first group in Baltimore to self-apply the jazz label was led by John Ridgely
John Ridgely
John Ridgely was an American film character actor with over 100 film credits. He appeared in the 1946 Humphrey Bogart film The Big Sleep as blackmailing gangster Eddie Mars and had a memorable role as a suffering heart patient in the film noir Nora Prentiss .The Chicago, Illinois-born actor...
, and known as either the John Ridgely Jazzers or the Ridgely 400 Society Jazz Band, which included pianist Rivers Chambers
Rivers Chambers
Rivers Chambers was one of the major leaders in the jazz scene, part of the music of Baltimore. He was originally a pianist with John Ridgely, part of the first jazz band in Baltimore, and later led the house band at the Royal Theatre for many years. His Rivers Chambers Orchestra was a fixture on...
. Ridgely organized the band in 1917, and they played daily at the Maryland Theater
Maryland Theater (Baltimore)
The Maryland Theater was a music venue in Baltimore, Maryland, home to that city's first jazz band, led by John Ridgely. It was originally built by James L. Kernan, as a vaudeville house, in 1903, and included a rathskeller in the basement. Kernan also owned a large hotel, in the same building as...
in the 1920s. The two most popular of the early jazz performers in Baltimore, however, were Ernest Purviance and Joseph T. H. Rochester, who worked together, as the Drexel Ragtime Syncopators, starting a dance fad
FAD
In biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide is a redox cofactor involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in two different redox states, which it converts between by accepting or donating electrons. The molecule consists of a riboflavin moiety bound to the phosphate...
known as the "Shimme She Wabble She". As the Drexel Jazz Syncopators, they remained popular into the 1920s.
The Royal Theatre
Royal Theatre (Baltimore)
The Royal Theatre, which first opened in 1922 as the black-owned Douglass Theatre, was the most famous theater along West Baltimore City's Pennsylvania Avenue, one of a circuit of five such theaters for black entertainment in big cities...
was the most important jazz venue in Baltimore for much of the 20th century, and produced one of the city's musical leaders in Rivers Chambers
Rivers Chambers
Rivers Chambers was one of the major leaders in the jazz scene, part of the music of Baltimore. He was originally a pianist with John Ridgely, part of the first jazz band in Baltimore, and later led the house band at the Royal Theatre for many years. His Rivers Chambers Orchestra was a fixture on...
, who led the Royal's band from 1930 to 1937. Chambers was a multi-instrumentalist who founded the Rivers Chambers Orchestra after leaving The Royal, and became a "favorite of Maryland's high society". As bandleader of The Royal, Chambers was succeeded by the classically trained Tracy McCleary
Tracy McCleary
Tracy McCleary was a prominent part of the Baltimore jazz scene, based around his position as leader of the Royal Men of Rhythm, the house band at the Royal Theater, the premier African American music venue in Baltimore at that time. He took his position from Rivers Chambers.-External links:...
, whose band, the Royal Men of Rhythm, included Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
at one point. Many of The Royal's band members would join with touring acts when they came through Baltimore; many had day jobs in the defense industry during World War 2, including McCleary himself. The shortage of musicians during the war led to a relaxation in some aspects of segregation, including in The Royal's band, which began hiring white musicians soon after the war. McCleary would be The Royal's last conductor, however, while Chambers' orchestra became a fixture in Baltimore, and came to include as many as thirty musicians, who would sometimes divide into smaller groups for performances. Chambers had collected many musicians from around the country, like Tee Loggins from Louisiana. Other performers with his Orchestra included trumpeter Roy McCoy, saxophonist Elmer Addison and guitarist Buster Brown
Buster Brown
Buster Brown was a comic strip character created in 1902 by Richard Felton Outcault who was known for his association with the Brown Shoe Company. This mischievous young boy was loosely based on a boy near Outcault's home in Flushing, New York...
, who was responsible for the Orchestra's most characteristic song, "They Cut Down That Old Pine Tree", which the Rivers Chambers Orchestra would continue to play for more than fifty years.
Baltimore's early jazz pioneers included Blanche Calloway
Blanche Calloway
Blanche Calloway was a Jazz singer, bandleader, and composer from Baltimore, Maryland. She is not as well known as her younger brother Cab Calloway, but she may have been the first woman to lead an all male orchestra. Cab Calloway often credited her with being the reason he got into show business...
, one of the first female jazz bandleaders in the United States, and sister to jazz legend Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
. Both the Calloways, like many of Baltimore's prominent black musicians, studied at Frederick Douglass High School
Frederick Douglass Senior High School (Baltimore, Maryland)
Frederick Douglass High School known locally as Douglass is a public high school located in Baltimore, Maryland, US. Established in 1883 as the Colored High and Training School, Douglass is the second oldest historically integrated public high school in the United States...
with William Llewellyn Wilson
William Llewellyn Wilson
William Llewellyn Wilson was a Baltimore-born African American conductor, musician and music educator. He was the first conductor of the first African American symphony in the city of Baltimore. A notable cellist, Wilson was also a music critic for the Afro-American, a major African American...
, himself a renowned performer and conductor for the first African American symphony in Baltimore. Baltimore was also home to Chick Webb
Chick Webb
William Henry Webb, usually known as Chick Webb was an American jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader.-Biography:...
, one of jazz's most heralded drummers, who became a musical star despite being born hunchbacked and crippled at five years old. Later Baltimoreans in jazz include Elmer Snowden
Elmer Snowden
Elmer Snowden was a banjo player of the jazz age. He also played guitar and, in the early stages of his career, all the reed instruments. He contributed greatly to jazz in its early days as both a player and a bandleader, and is responsible for launching the careers of many top musicians...
, and Ethel Ennis
Ethel Ennis
Ethel Llewellyn Ennis is an American jazz musician. Ethel Ennis began performing on the piano in high school, but her natural vocal abilities soon eclipsed those as a pianist...
. After Pennsylvania Avenue declined in the 1950s, Baltimore's jazz scene changed. The Left Bank Jazz Society
Left Bank Jazz Society
The Left Bank Jazz Society is a Baltimore, Maryland-based organization that promotes jazz in Baltimore. It formed in 1964, hosting a series of concerts featuring nationally acclaimed performers like John Coltrane and Duke Ellington. Tapes from these recordings were tied up in legal disputes and not...
, an organization dedicated to promoting live jazz, began holding a weekly series of concerts in 1965, featuring the biggest names in the field, including Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
and John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
. The tapes from these recordings became legendary within the jazz aficionados, but they did not begin to be released until 2000, due to legal complications.
Antonio Hart
Antonio Hart is a jazz alto saxophonist. He attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, studied with Andy McGhee at Berklee College of Music, and has a master's degree from Queens College, City University of New York. His initial training was classical, but he switched to jazz in college...
, Ellery Eskelin
Ellery Eskelin
Ellery Eskelin American tenor saxophonist. Born in Wichita, Kansas, raised in Baltimore, Maryland from the age of two. His parents, Rodd Keith and Bobbie Lee, were also musicians. Rodd Keith died in 1974 in Los Angeles, California and became a cult figure after his death in the little known...
, Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz is an American alto and soprano saxophonist and clarinetist.Bartz graduated from the Baltimore City College high school and The Juilliard School...
, Mark Gross
Mark Gross
Mark Gross is a Baltimore-born jazz alto saxophonist. He studied at the Berklee College of Music, graduating in 1988, then worked in the band of Lionel Hampton, performing in Five Guys Named Moe on Broadway...
, Harold Adams
Harold Adams
Harold Adams is a prominent tenor saxophonist from the Baltimore jazz scene. He is the leader of the Harold Adams Quartet, and a member of the group Moon August.-References:...
, Gary Thomas
Gary Thomas
Gary Thomas is an American jazz saxophonist and flautist from Baltimore, Maryland. He is a member of Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition band and has worked with John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Greg Osby, Wayne Shorter, Ravi Coltrane, Cassandra...
and Ron Diehl
Ron Diehl
Ron Diehl is an alto saxophonist within the Baltimore jazz scene, and former member of both the United States Naval Academy Band and The Commodores, the United States Navy's jazz band. He has also performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.-References:*...
. The city's style combines the experimental and intellectual jazz of Philadelphia and elsewhere in the north with a more emotive and freeform Southern tradition. The earliest well-known Baltimore saxophonists include Arnold Sterling
Arnold Sterling
Arnold Sterling is a Baltimore, Maryland-based player of the saxophone , and a prominent part of the Baltimore jazz scene. He toured with Jackie Wilson in the late 1950s, then worked with organist Bill Byrd in Baltimore. In the 1980s, he toured and recorded with organist Jimmy McGriff, and later in...
, Whit Williams
Whit Williams
Whit Williams is a saxophonist and a major figure in the Baltimore jazz scene. In 1981, he founded Whit Williams Now's the Time Big Band, and the group has since played with Aretha Franklin and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, among others....
, Andy Ennis
Andy Ennis
Andy Ennis is a tenor saxophone player, part of the Baltimore jazz scene. He began performing professionally in 1957, at the Royal Theatre, a famed venue whose house band, the Royal Men of Rhythm, was led by Tracy McCleary. He later played with Bill Doggett and was a member of the Ray Charles...
, Brad Collins, Carlos Johnson, Vernon H. Wolst, Jr.; the most famous, however, was Mickey Fields
Mickey Fields
Wilfred "Mickey" Fields was a Baltimore-area jazz saxophonist, a local legend who refused to play outside the Baltimore area. He was perhaps the most well-known of Baltimore's many saxophonists within the field of jazz....
. Fields got his start with a jump blues
Jump blues
Jump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...
band, The Tilters, in the early 1950s, and his saxophone-playing became the most prominent part of the band's style. Despite a national reputation and opportunities, Fields refused to perform outside the region and remains a local legend.
In the 1960s, the Hammond B-3 organ became a critical part of the Baltimore jazz scene, led by virtuoso Jimmy Smith
Jimmy Smith (musician)
Jimmy Smith was a jazz musician whose performances on the Hammond B-3 electric organ helped to popularize this instrument...
. The Left Bank Jazz Society also played a major role locally, hosting concerts and promoting performers. The popularity of jazz, however, declined greatly by the beginning of the 20th century, with an aging and shrinking audience, though the city continued producing local performers and hosting a vibrant jazz scene.
Doo wop
Baltimore was home to a major doo wop scene in the middle of the 20th century, which began with The Orioles
The Orioles
The Orioles were a successful and influential American R&B group of the late 1940s and early 1950s, one of the earliest such vocal bands who established the basic pattern for the doo-wop sound....
, who are considered one of the first doo wop groups to record commercially. By the 1950s, Baltimore was home to numerous African American vocal groups, and talent scouts scoured the city for the next big stars. Many bands emerged from the city, including The Cardinals
The Cardinals
The Cardinals are an American rock band that were formed in 2004 by alternative country singer-songwriter Ryan Adams and fronted by him until 2009. The band was featured on Ryan Adams and the Cardinals albums, Cold Roses, Jacksonville City Nights, Follow the Lights, Cardinology and III/IV...
and The Plants
The Plants
The Plants were a doo wop quartet, based out of Baltimore, Maryland and formed in 1955. James Lawson , Thuman Thrower , Steve McDowell and George Jackson constituted the original line-up, who were known as The Equadors...
. Some doo wop groups were connected with street gangs, and some members were active in both scenes, such as Johnny Page of The Marylanders
The Marylanders
The Marylanders were a mid-20th century doo wop group, based out of Baltimore, Maryland. The membership included Johnny Page, a singer and member of an urban street gang called The Dungaree Boys.Van McCoy sang with The Marylanders for a time....
. Competitive music and dance was a part of African American street gang culture, and with the success of some local groups, pressure mounted, leading to territorial rivalries among performers. Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. that joins the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street", it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches...
served as a rough boundary between East and West Baltimore, with the East producing The Swallows and The Cardinals, as well as The Sonnets, The Jollyjacks, The Honey Boys, The Magictones and The Blentones
The Blentones
The Blentones were a mid-20th century doo-wop group, based out of Baltimore, where they recorded with Jack Gale. Their songs include 1959's hit "Military Kick", "Lilly" and "Come On Home" on the Success record label. They also worked with Charlie Ventura....
, while the West was home to The Orioles and The Plants, as well as The Twilighters and The Four Buddies
The Four Buddies
The Four Buddies were a major American doo wop group, based out of Baltimore. They recorded in the early to mid-1950s, and focused on melodious and laid-back ballads...
.
It was The Orioles, however, who first developed the city's vocal harmony sound. Originally known as The Vibra-Naires, The Orioles were led by Sonny Til
Sonny Til
Sonny Til was the stage name of Earlington Carl Tilghman , lead singer of The Orioles, a vocal group from Baltimore, Maryland....
when they recorded "It's Too Soon to Know
It's Too Soon To Know
"It’s Too Soon To Know" is an American doo-wop ballad by Deborah Chessler, performed first by The Orioles. It was number one on the American Rhythm and blues charts in November of 1948...
", their first hit and a song that is considered the first doo wop recording of any kind. Doo wop would go on to have a formative influence on the development of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, and The Orioles can be considered the earliest rock and roll band as a result. The Orioles would continue recording until 1954, launching hits like "In the Chapel in the Moonlight", "Tell Me So" and "Crying in the Chapel".
Soul
Baltimore is less well known for its soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
than other major African-American urban areas, such as Philadelphia. However, it was home to a number of soul record labels in the 1960s and 1970s, including Ru-Jac (1963-, whose artists included Joe Quarterman
Joe Quarterman
Joe Quarterman, aka Sir Joe Quarterman and sometimes misspelled as Joe Quatermain is an American funk and soul singer. Quarterman earned the title "Sir" in high school. His single, " So Much Trouble in My Mind," was also his biggest, reaching the R&B Top 30 in 1973, and was featured on the radio...
, Arthur Conley
Arthur Conley
Arthur Lee Conley was an American soul singer, best known for the 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music".-Career:...
, Gene & Eddie, Winfield Parker, The Caressors, Jessie Crawford, The Dynamic Corvettes and Fred Martin
Fred Martin
Frederick "Fred" Martin is a retired Scottish professional international footballer who played as a goalkeeper. His only senior club was Aberdeen, with whom he played for 14 years...
.http://www.dcsoulrecordings.com/index.php?c=Baltimore&s=recordlabelshttp://www.soulfulkindamusic.net/rujac.htmhttp://www.sirshambling.com/artists/G/gene_&_eddie.htm Soul venues in Baltimore in that period included The Royal and Carr's beach in Annapolis, one of the few beaches black people could use.http://www.raresoulforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=13360
Punk, rock and the modern scene
Though they rose to prominence in BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
respectively, new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
musicians Ric Ocasek
Ric Ocasek
Ric Ocasek is an American musician and music producer. He is best known as lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the rock band, The Cars....
and David Byrne
David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...
are both natives of the Baltimore area. Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
, Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot , born Ellen Naomi Cohen and also known as Mama Cass, was an American singer and member of The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. Elliot was found dead in her room in London, England, from an apparent heart attack after two weeks of sold-out...
(The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas were a Canadian/American vocal group of the 1960s . The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
), and Adam Duritz
Adam Duritz
Adam Fredric Duritz is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and film producer. He is best known for his role as frontman and vocalist for the rock band Counting Crows, in which he is a founding member and principal composer of their catalogue of songs.Duritz has recorded solo...
(Counting Crows
Counting Crows
Counting Crows is an American rock band originating from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1991, the group gained popularity following the release of its debut album in 1993, August and Everything After, which featured the hit single "Mr. Jones"...
vocalist) are also from Baltimore.
Notable Baltimore-area rock acts from the 1970s and 1980s include Crack The Sky
Crack the Sky
Crack the Sky is an American progressive rock band formed in Weirton, West Virginia in the early 1970s. In 1975, Rolling Stone Magazine declared their first album "debut album of the year", and in 1978, Rolling Stone Record Guide compared them to Steely Dan; their first three albums charted on the...
, The Ravyns
The Ravyns
The Ravyns are an American rock group from Baltimore, best known for 1982's Raised on the Radio, a major hit and part of the soundtrack to Fast Times at Ridgemont High...
, Kix
Kix (band)
Kix is an American hard rock/heavy metal band who achieved popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Band members continue to tour, recently appearing at the Rocklahoma festival in 2008 in Oklahoma and the M3 Rock Festival in May 2011 in the band's home state of Maryland.-Formation:Kix was...
, Face Dancer, Jamie LaRitz, and DC Star.
Baltimore's hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
scene has been overshadowed by that of Washington, D.C., but included locally renowned bands like Law & Order, Bollocks, OTR, and Fear of God; many of these bands played at bars like the Marble Bar, Terminal 406 and the illegal space Jules' Loft, which author Steven Blush described as the "apex of the Baltimore (hardcore) scene" in 1983 and 1984. The 1980s also saw the development of a local New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
scene led by the bands Ebeneezer & the Bludgeons, Thee Katatonix, Alter Legion, and Null Set. Later in the decade, emo
Emo (music)
Emo is a style of rock music characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics. It originated in the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement of Washington, D.C., where it was known as "emotional hardcore" or "emocore" and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace...
bands like Reptile House
Reptile House
Reptile House was a 1980s hardcore punk band from Baltimore's music scene. The band included Daniel Higgs, later of Lungfish, guitarists Alex Layne, Asa Osborne and Joe Goldsborough, bass players David Rhodes and Leigh Panlilio, as well as drummers Gary Breezee and London May who went on to play...
and Grey March had some success and recorded with Ian MacKaye
Ian MacKaye
Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, label owner, and producer. Active since 1979, MacKaye is best known for being the frontman of the influential hardcore punk bands Minor Threat and The Teen Idles, the post-hardcore bands Embrace and Fugazi, as well...
in DC.
Some early Baltimore punk musicians moved onto other local bands by the end of the 1990s, while local mainstays Lungfish
Lungfish (band)
Lungfish is a post-hardcore band formed in 1987 in Baltimore, Maryland. All of their music has been released by the Washington, D.C. punk label Dischord except for their first LP, Necklace of Heads which was released by Simple Machines .Their line-up as of 2005 consists of Daniel Higgs , Asa...
and Fascist Fascist becoming regionally prominent. The Urbanite magazine has identified several major trends in local Baltimorean music, including the rise of psychedelic-folk singer-songwriters like Entrance
Entrance (musician)
The Entrance Band is a band started by Guy Blakeslee . Their style of music has been described as psychedelic rock or stoner rock....
and the house/hip hop dance fusion called Baltimore club
Baltimore Club
Baltimore club, also called "Bmore Club" or "Club Music" is a breakbeat genre. As blend with hip hop and chopped, staccato house music, it was created in Baltimore, Maryland, United States in the late 1980s by 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell, Frank Ski, Big Tony , Scottie B...
, pioneered by DJs like Rod Lee
Rod Lee
Rod Lee is a Baltimore DJ, producer, and party MC. who is known for the popularization of Baltimore Club music. Described as "the original don of Baltimore Club" by The Washington Post, in 2005 he released "Vol. 5: the Official," a DJ mix that was the first Baltimore Club CD to be distributed...
. More recently, Baltimore's modern music scene has produced performers like Jason Dove, Cass McCombs
Cass McCombs
Cass McCombs is an American songwriter and performer. Called "unobtrusively brilliant" by John Peel, he has received widespread critical acclaim for his five LPs and one EP.- History :Cass McCombs was born in Concord, California...
, Ponytail
Ponytail (band)
Ponytail was a 4-piece art rock band formed in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, on the label We Are Free. Their sound has been compared to Deerhoof as well as Ecstatic Sunshine, since Dustin Wong was a founder of that band, and due to the band's experimental guitar work and unique vocal stylings...
, Animal Collective
Animal Collective
Animal Collective is an experimental psychedelic band originally from Baltimore, Maryland, currently based in New York City. Animal Collective consists of Avey Tare , Panda Bear , Deakin , and Geologist...
, Double Dagger
Double Dagger
Double Dagger were a post-punk trio from Baltimore, Maryland composed of only drums, vocals, and a very loud bass guitar which fills the space a guitar would normally take. Vocalist Nolen Strals and bassist Bruce Willen also comprised the graphic design team Post Typography, which has done work for...
, Mary Prankster, Beach House
Beach House
Beach House is a dream pop duo formed in 2004 in Baltimore, Maryland, consisting of French-born Victoria Legrand and Baltimore native Alex Scally. Their self-titled debut, Beach House, released in 2006, was critically acclaimed. This was followed by their second release, Devotion, in 2008...
, Wye Oak
Wye Oak (band)
Wye Oak are an indie folk rock duo from Baltimore, Maryland, USA, composed of Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner . Their sound has been described as "earnest folk-influenced indie rock with touches of noise and dream pop"...
, The Seldon Plan
The Seldon Plan
The Seldon Plan is a post-rock pop band from Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It consists of Michael Nestor on guitars, keyboards and vocals and David Hirner on bass. Since 2008, Nestor and Hirner have used a rotating core of fill-in musicians to put out records...
, Dan Deacon
Dan Deacon
Dan Deacon is an American composer and electronic musician based out of Baltimore, Maryland. Since 2003, Deacon has released eight albums under several different labels...
, The Revelevens, Adventure
Adventure
An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
, and Wham City.
In 2009, Baltimore produced its own indigenous rock opera
Rock opera
A rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...
theatrical company, the all-volunteer Baltimore Rock Opera Society
Baltimore Rock Opera Society
The Baltimore Rock Opera Society is an all-volunteer theatrical company located in Baltimore, Maryland dedicated to developing new works of rock theater...
, which operates out of Charles Village. The group has so far put on two rock operas, one in 2009 and the other in 2011. They both have featured original scores.
Media and organizations
Baltimore's indigenous music media includes The City PaperBaltimore City Paper
Baltimore City Paper is a free alternative weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, founded in 1977 by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch. Current owner Times-Shamrock Communications purchased the paper in 1987...
, The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
, and Music Monthly, which frequently advertise local music shows and other events. The Baltimore Blues Society also distributes one of the more well renowned blues periodicals in the country. The Baltimore Afro-American
Baltimore Afro-American
The Baltimore Afro-American, commonly known as The Afro, is a weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It is the flagship newspaper of the Afro-American chain and the longest-running African-American family-owned newspaper in the United States.-History:The newspaper was founded in...
, a local periodical, was one of the most important media in 20th century Baltimore, and documented much of that city's African American musical life. Recently, a number of new media sites have risen to prominence including Aural States (Best Local Music Blog 2008), Government Names, Mobtown Shank and Beatbots (Best Online Arts Community 2007).
Baltimore is home to a number of non-profit music organization, most famously including the Left Bank Jazz Society
Left Bank Jazz Society
The Left Bank Jazz Society is a Baltimore, Maryland-based organization that promotes jazz in Baltimore. It formed in 1964, hosting a series of concerts featuring nationally acclaimed performers like John Coltrane and Duke Ellington. Tapes from these recordings were tied up in legal disputes and not...
, which hosts concerts and otherwise promotes jazz in Baltimore. These non-profits play a greater role in the city's musical life than similar organization do in most other American cities. The organization Jazz in Cool Places also works within that genre, presenting performers in architecturally significant locations, such as in a club full of Tiffany
Tiffany glass
Tiffany glass refers to the many and varied types of glass developed and produced from 1878 to 1933 at the Tiffany Studios, by Louis Comfort Tiffany....
windows. The Society for the Preservation of American Roots Music also puts on jazz and blues concerts at its Roots Cafe.
Venues
Lenny Moore
Leonard Edward Moore is a former American football halfback who played for Penn State in college and the Baltimore Colts. He came to the Colts in 1956, and had a productive first pro season and was named the NFL Rookie of The Year...
.
Many of the most legendary music venues in Baltimore have been shut down, including most of the shops, churches, bars and other destinations on the legendary Pennsylvania Avenue, center for the city's jazz scene. The Royal Theater, once one of the premiere destinations for African American performers on the East Coast, is marked only by a simple plaque, the theater itself having been demolished in 1971. A statue of Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
remains on Pennsylvania Avenue, however, between Lafayette and Lanvale, with a plaque that reads I don't think I'm singing. I feel like I am playing a horn. I try to improvise. What comes out is what I feel.
There are six major concert halls in Baltimore. The Lyric Opera is modelled after the Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, Germany. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. The first Gewandhaus was built in 1781 by architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe. The second opened on 11 December 1884, and was destroyed in the...
, in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, and was reopened after several years of renovations in 1982, the same year the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
The Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, often referred to simply as the Meyerhoff, is a music venue that opened September 16, 1982 at 1212 Cathedral Street in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The main auditorium has a seating capacity of 2,443 people, and is home to the...
opened. Designed by Pietro Belluschi
Pietro Belluschi
Pietro Belluschi was an American architect, a leader of the Modern Movement in architecture, and was responsible for the design of over one thousand buildings....
, The Meyerhoff Symphony Hall is a permanent home for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...
. Belluschi also designed the Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College
Goucher College
Goucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...
, which opened in 1962. The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Auditorium, located at the Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore Museum of Art
The Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works...
, also opened in 1982, and hosts concerts by the Baltimore Chamber Music Society. Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
's Shriver Hall and the Peabody's Miriam A. Friedberg are also important concert venues, the latter being the oldest still in use.
Education
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
, harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
and rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
, and are taught to echo short melodic and rhythmic patterns. They also begin to learn about different musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
s and distinguish between different kinds of sounds and types of songs. As students progress through the grades, teachers go into more detail and require more proficiency in elementary musical techniques. Students perform round
Round (music)
A round is a musical composition in which two or more voices sing exactly the same melody , but with each voice beginning at different times so that different parts of the melody coincide in the different voices, but nevertheless fit harmoniously together...
s in second grade, for example, while movement (i.e. dance) enters the curriculum in third grade. Beginning in middle school in the sixth grade, students are taught to make mature aesthetic judgements, and to understand and respond to a variety of forms of music. In high school, students may choose to take courses in instrumentation or singing, and may be exposed to music in other areas of the curriculum, such as in theater or drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
classes.
Public school instruction in music in Baltimore began in 1843. Prior to that, itinerant and professional singing masters were the dominant form of formal music education in the state. Music institutions like the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra sometimes have programs aimed at youth education, and other organizations have a similar focus. The Eubie Blake Center exists to promote African American culture, and music, to both youth and adults, through dance classes for all age groups, workshops, clinics, seminars and other programs.
Higher education
Baltimore's most famous institute of higher music education is the Peabody InstitutePeabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
's Conservatory of Music, founded in 1857 though instruction did not begin until 1868. The original grant from George Peabody
George Peabody
George Peabody was an American-British entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the Peabody Trust in Britain and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and was responsible for many other charitable initiatives.-Biography:...
funded an Academy of Music, which became the Conservatory in 1872. Lucien Southard
Lucien Southard
Lucien Southard was an American conductor, who directed concerts at the Peabody Institute following the tenure of James Monroe Deems. Southard's reign in control of the Institute was not entirely positive, a situation which Southard blamed on the lack of a "proper musical atmosphere" in...
was the first director of the Conservatory. In 1977, the Conservatory became affiliated with Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
.
The Baltimore region is home to other institutions of musical education, including Towson University
Towson University
Towson University, often referred to as TU or simply Towson for short, is a public university located in Towson in Baltimore County, Maryland, U.S...
, Goucher College
Goucher College
Goucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...
and Morgan State University
Morgan State University
Morgan State University, formerly Centenary Biblical Institute , Morgan College and Morgan State College , is a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Morgan is Maryland's designated public urban university and the largest HBCU in the state of Maryland...
, each of which both instruct and present concerts. Coppin State University
Coppin State University
Coppin State University is a historically black college located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is part of the University System of Maryland...
, which offers a minor in music, Morgan State University
Morgan State University
Morgan State University, formerly Centenary Biblical Institute , Morgan College and Morgan State College , is a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Morgan is Maryland's designated public urban university and the largest HBCU in the state of Maryland...
, which offers Bachelor of Fine Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
and Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degrees in music, and Bowie State University
Bowie State University
Bowie State University , is a public university located on 355½ acres in unincorporated Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, north of the suburban city of Bowie. Bowie State is part of the University System of Maryland...
, which offers undergraduate programs in music and music technology.
The Arthur Friedham Library collects primary sources relating to music in Baltimore, as do the archives maintained by the Peabody and the Maryland Historical Society
Maryland Historical Society
The Maryland Historical Society , founded in 1844, is the oldest cultural institution in the U.S. state of Maryland. The society "collects, preserves, and interprets objects and materials reflecting Maryland's diverse heritage." MdHS has a museum, library, holds educational programs, and publishes...
. Johns Hopkins University is home to the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, whose Lester S. Levy Collection is one of the most important collections of American sheet music in the country, and contains more than 40,000 pieces, including original printings of works by Carrie Jacobs-Bond
Carrie Jacobs-Bond
Carrie Minetta Jacobs-Bond was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter who composed some 175 pieces of popular sheet music from the 1890s through the early 1940s....
such as "A Perfect Day" (song)
A Perfect Day (song)
"A Perfect Day" is a parlor song written by Carrie Jacobs-Bond in 1909 at the Mission Inn, Riverside, California. Jacobs-Bond wrote the lyrics after watching the sun set over Mount Rubidoux from her 4th-floor room. She came up with the tune three months later while touring the Mojave Desert...
.