Early Music America Fall 2014 - (Page 68)

INconclusion Sam Franko and the Origins of the Early Music Movement FRANKO is one of early music's led his band in mainstream compositions-plenty of Mozart, Beethoven, and most ardent advocates of whom Schubert-and also explored byways you've never heard. Born in 1857 to emigrant parents, he that others ignored. (Don't confuse this and his family quit New Orleans for their ensemble with the American Symphony Orchestra founded in 1962 by Leopold German homeland in the early 1860s, roiled by the Civil War. While abroad, he Stokowski and currently led by Leon and his brother Nahan, both prodigious- Botstein, though their missions, ly gifted string players, schooled with the in part, overlap.) Continent's ﬁnest, including Joseph In 1901, Franko inaugurated a series Joachim and Henri Vieuxtemps. devoted to Baroque and earlier-Classical After the family returned stateside at music-Concerts of Old Music-and it the end of the decade, Samuel and his was a hit. The New York Times wrote: brother found great success. Nahan "These concerts have enabled us to hear would become concertmaster of the the old masters' works performed in the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, and spirit in which they were conceived." Samuel-"who for some secret reason Franko had found a niche. The Times prefers to be known as 'Sam,'" sniffed praised him as the "musical Schliemann" The New York Times-joined the New (a reference to archeologist Heinrich York Philharmonic as principal violist. Schliemann, who excavated Troy and Despairing, however, of other ancient sites) and a widespread bias that stated that "the treasures The Times praised which he has unearthed judged American musihim as the "musical seem to justify the cians as inherently less Schliemann" appellation." gifted than their European (a reference to The Times published colleagues, he quit the Establishment for a more archeologist Heinrich an anonymous review of the last in a "series of convaried existence. Schliemann, who certs of early music," Throughout the 1890s excavated Troy). which noted that Franko in New York, Sam was "did not embark upon any everywhere. He gave new archeological research, but contentrecitals with his musical sisters, Jeanne, Rachel, and Selma; he was an impresaed himself with presenting once again rio, arranging a distinguished series of some of the treasures he had already chamber music performances at the exhumed from the tombs of forgotten Aschenbroedel Verein, a social organiza- composers or the museums of tion for German-American orchestral neglected music." musicians; he appeared as violin soloist As interesting as this review is as critiand arranged and composed music-his cal reportage, it has a larger import: it cadenzas for the Mozart violin concertos marks the moment when the term "old are still played today. music" became "early music" in our conIn 1894, he founded his own orches- temporary sense. Franko was clearly a tra, the American Symphony Orchestra, trailblazer, and though he is now given with only American musicians, and he Continued on page 65 S AMUEL Who among us now remembers Franko's early 20th-century advocacy of historical music- and who among us then would have foreseen where his experiments would lead a little more than a century later? By George Gelles 68 Fall 2014 Early Music America

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Early Music America Fall 2014

Editor’s Note
Baroque Competition
Sound Bytes
Musings: Ave Atque Vale
Musings: Ave Atque Vale
Recording Reviews
Recording Reviews
Aetas Aurea: An Early Music Macbeth
Aetas Aurea: An Early Music Macbeth
Mysterious Titles, Hidden Meaning
Mysterious Titles, Hidden Meaning
Viola da Gamba Dojo
Viola da Gamba Dojo
A Joyful Noise: Highlights of BFX 2014
A Joyful Noise: Highlights of BFX 2014
Book Reviews
Book Reviews
EMA Donations
EMA Donations
Ad Index
Ad Index
In Conclusion: Sam Franko and the Origins of the Early Music Movement
In Conclusion: Sam Franko and the Origins of the Early Music Movement

Early Music America Fall 2014