This is a blog about music, photography, history, and culture. These are photographs from my collection that tell a story about lost time and forgotten music. Mike Brubaker
Chamber music is a phrase usually associated with classical music. But it's a very broad term that really just means music for a small place. It can be a parlor room or a cafe lounge or any chamber where a small musical group can make music for themselves or entertain a few friends or patrons. It doesn't require many musicians. It doesn't even have to be played indoors. A solo busker on a street corner is still playing a kind of chamber music. (Unless they are using an amplified Karaoke accompaniment!)
But two—a duo—makes a nice mix for listeners.
These two young women, a violinist and a guitarist, posed for a beautiful portrait in Emporia, Kansas. They look like sisters to me, around age 16 to 20 maybe? Their cabinet card photo has only the photographers name so we have to guess the era. I think their slightly puffy shoulder sleeves suggests sometime in the 1890s.
Emporia KS Weekly Gazette 25 July 1895
The photographer was the Cottage Studio of L. G. [Lyston G.] Alvord. Mr. Alvord began advertising in the Emporia newspapers in 1895. His studio was at the very top of a full page business directory for the city. "Finest retouching, finish and expression, making in all the finest photos..." There were three other photographers listed as well and a music dealer who specialized in "pianos, organs, violins, mandolins, guitars, and banjos." Emporia was also home to the Western Musical Conservatory that offered instruction and certificates for "vocal and instrumental music, also elocution and dramatic arts."
A trio of two violins and a guitar opens up a larger variety of chamber music, since a guitar has the ability to provide chords, rhythm, bass line, and melody too. These three young men were arranged in a photographer's studio into a neat triangle. They have the look of friends not brothers.
This postcard photo was taken at the Fritz Studio, 852 Penn St., Reading, Pennsylvania but was never posted and has no message to provide clues to date it. Unfortunately men's fashions are less specific to determining a decade much less a year. When did striped socks and polka-dot bowties first become a fad? I guess mid-1900s is a fair timeframe.
When another instrument is added to a trio we get a quartet, which invites the classic voicing of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. This quartet even thought their numbers were sufficient to call themselves the "Big 4 Orchestra" written on a label beneath their photo. Two violins are balanced on bass by a cello but the true soprano in the group is a piccolo. That musician with his ivory-head piccolo would stand out even in a band of 100 musicians.
The photographer of this cabinet card photo was C. A. Schnell of Troy, Ohio. Coincidently "Schnell" is the German musical term for fast. Unfortunately I could find no information on this group, but their name may have a subtle meaning that could be a clue. Back in the time before air travel when people used trains, one of the dominant railroads in the Midwest was the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as "the Big Four". According to its Wikipedia entry:
The railroad was formed on June 30, 1889, by the merger of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway, the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago Railway and the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railway. The following year, the company gained control of the former Indiana, Bloomington and Western Railway (through the foreclosed Ohio, Indiana and Western Railway and through an operating agreement with the Peoria and Eastern Railway).
Map of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Source: Wikipedia (OpenStreetMap)
Perhaps this quartet took their name from the four men's association with the railroad company. Maybe they worked on the railroad or at a depot. Troy, Ohio is just north of Dayton and was once a station on the Big Four railway. Maybe they each came from Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis?
With five instruments a quartet becomes a quintet. This group is a true string quintet with two violins, a viola, a cello, and a double bass. The men wear formal style suits with long frock coats that i think marks them as professional musicians. They may be the principal string leaders of an orchestra. Four of the men appear to be in their 30s or 40s but the cellist on the right is a few decades older I think. He plays a cello without an endpin following the old traditional method.
This small carte de visite photo was produced by Aug. Röthig of Ebersbach and is typical of photos from 1870-1880. However this placename is hard to pin down as there are five historic towns called Ebersbach. My hunch is that it is the town now called Ebersbach-Neugersdorf in the district of Görlitz, in Saxony, Germany. It is on the border with the Czech Republic, just across from the Czech town of Jiříkov and in the 19th century would have been near the major music centers of the region like Dresden, Prague, and Berlin.
An orchestra doesn't really need 100 musicians to call itself an orchestra. In past times five would do. In this case two violins, cello, double bass, and a pump organ make up a family orchestra of a husband and wife, and their two daughters and son. On the side is a caption in German:
Musikdirektor Edmund Link mit seinem unübertreffbaren Künstler-Familien-Orchester Inhaber des gesetzlichen Kunstscheines ~ Music director Edmund Link with his unsurpassed Family Artist Orchestra Holder of the Official Artist's License
The photo has a personal quality, almost like a Christmas family picture to send to friends and relations. Notice that the young violinist stands on a small box to balance her height in the grouping. But this photo was clearly designed to market the family as concert artists. To what degree they succeeded is unknown, but the parents seem duly proud of their talented offspring.
The postcard was sent from Görlitz, Germany on 26 October 1913 to Herrn Hermann Raschig of Cottbus. It's odd how the message and address are arranged on the proper sides of the divided back but are flipped so the address is on the left. Perhaps the writer was a bit dyslexic?
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In this postcard a similar group of five pose in a photographer's studio set pretending to be a home salon. Here the mother is missing but father plays cello as two daughters play flute and piano, his son plays violin, and the youngest daughter, around age five, plays a triangle. The caption reads in German:
Capelle Wolf – Gasthof "Drei Königen", Herisau (Telephon 245) ~ Wolf Band – "Three Kings" Inn, Herisau
Here the father leads not from the treble but from the bass line. His children are younger, the oldest girl on piano might be 14. The flutist sister and violinist brother are clearly not in their teens yet. And of course the littlest sister is assigned the easiest instrument which still requires strong confidence to ring it at just the right moment.
Kapelle is a German word used confusingly for both a chapel and a band/orchestra. Here is it spelled with a C as this is a Swiss-German family band. Herisau is the capital of the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden in Switzerland, a very small country with four official languages: German (62%), French (23%), Italian (8%), Romansh (0.5%). This postcard was sent on an unknown date from a Swiss army base to a young woman in Thusis, Switzerland, a small town 90 miles south of Herisau, deep into the Alps following the Rhine river to one of its tributaries.
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In my third family orchestra we see another quintet with father and mother and three daughters, though one is much older than the other two and might be an aunt or cousin. In the card's caption they called themselves:
Familie Heinrich.
The daughters play cello and violins and father, who sports an impressive beard, holds a blackwood flute. His wife sits center with her hands resting on a few books, presumably music. She doesn't hold an instrument but next to the cello is a large folk harp which may be her musical specialty. It's another charming family scene demonstrating music culture if not novelty entertainment. Their postcard is typical of thousands of other souvenir cards produced for small ensembles like this during the time of the German and Austrian empires. I expect they performed light music at cafes, restaurants, and hotels which appealed to a respectable clientele, the opposite of the boisterous patrons of music theaters and beer halls.
This card was never posted but the back has the printed name of the photographer, Arthur Eckerlein of Lindau im Bodensee, a major town on the eastern side of Lake Constance (Bodensee in German) in Bavaria, Germany. It's actually not far from Herisau, Switzerland, just 38 miles around the southern bowl of the lake.
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This next family orchestra is another string quintet with two violins, cello, contraguitar, and a German type of button accordion. They are identified by the caption on their postcard as:
Familie Röttig
Singspiel und Possen Ensemble und Schrammel Quintet
~
Musical and farce-ensemble and schrammel quintet
Mother, seated center, holds a contraguitar, also known as a Schrammel guitar, which is a type of harp guitar with two necks and extra strings. It was developed in Vienna in the mid-19th century and is associated with the light music of Viennese cafes and wine gardens. The squeezebox played by her husband, is, I believe, a Chemnitzer concertina. This instrument originated in Saxony and became popular in polka bands. The father and his son on violin, both wear dark but not-too-formal suits, while mother and her two daughters wear dresses and shawls embellished with colorful folk patterns. Their address under the caption was in Komotau, Bohemia which is now known as Chomutov, Czechia. So they probably had a few polkas in their repertoire.
This card has a 5 heller Austrian stamp of Kaiser Franz Joseph and the postmark date looks to be 31 January 1911. It was sent to someone in Berlin.
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My last family orchestra are certainly the largest with an octet of 8 family members and are perhaps the most colorful and exotic. They called themselves:
Künster-Familien-Ensemble "de Espania Aida" mit dem kleinsten Kappelmeister Carlos ~
The Artist Family Ensemble ""the Spanish Aida" featuring the youngest conductor, Carlos.
Father and mother stand at the back with their eldest son who holds a violin. Two daughters, twins I think, sit in front of their father and play violin and mandolin. In the center is the youngest, a girl wearing a top hat and holding drum sticks, I think. Beside her is an older son on cello. And on the far left is young Carlos on violin. A Kappelmeister is a German word for the principal violinist or concertmaster of an orchestra.
Their outfits pass for a kind of flashy Spanish costumes with all the men wearing silly double-eared montera hats like a toreador would wear. The women wear heavy embroidered short-sleeved jackets. The printer has gone to extra expense to colorize the fabrics in yellow, red, and a faded blue. The lower caption claims this ensemble performed music, songs, dances, and farces, which I interpret as humorous skits. The "Spanish Aida" may not be their real name, since their contact address was in Cöln, now spelt as Köln or Cologne, Germany.
This group resembles more of a music hall act, i.e. "vaudeville". Their costumes are clearly a theatrical dress which suggests they played Spanish or Italian music, maybe opera too, rather than Germanic folk tunes. There are dozens of other ensembles in my collection that claimed to have the world's youngest or smallest bandleader. It was a common showbiz embellishment.
This postcard was never mailed but "Prosit Neujahr" ~ "Cheers, New Year" is printed on the back. It included a year but someone scratched it out. Maybe 1908 which seems about right for this type of card.
String instruments are not very loud compared to brass instruments. These "orchestras" played a different repertoire from brass bands. They did not march in parades or play ceremonial fanfares. Their music was quiet and refined, a cultured sound that charmed with the talent of the children.
As I have noted in my previous stories on family bands, the shelf life for these ensembles was very short since inevitably children always grow up and eventually are no longer cute. However in the time before World War One musical families were once very common, especially in Central Europe. It offered enterprising parents a way to make some money as entertainers while training their children in a respectable trade. And they made a lot of grandparents smile.
It's not just their tunics with braided trim, or their bright white trousers and baldric belts that draws our attention to this band.
The photo's sepia tone can't reveal the full gleam of their brass buttons, or their colorful swallowtail epaulettes, or the shine on their brass instruments.
What stands out are the faces of bandsmen who show a proud professionalism in their military band.
Today I present a postcard photo of a band that was once one of America's premier military bands,
The Seventh Regiment Band of New York City.
The photo shows a large ensemble of 59 men all dressed in the same fancy gray uniform with white trousers. They all wear the soft Kepi or forage cap that was the standard service hat of the United States Army during the Civil War. There are lots of cornets, trombones, french horns, euphoniums, tubas, clarinets, drums, and maybe a piccolo too. Behind them are several large canvas tents and a wooded hillside. In the top right corner someone has written:
State Camp Peekskill, N. Y. 6 — 16th 1905
There is no other message since this postcard was intended to have only the address written on the back. It was sent from Peekskill, New York that very day and arrived at the home of Miss M. Chapman of 190 Vernon Ave., Brooklyn, New York later that same afternoon.
The band is not identified but I could guess that they were a band engaged for a national guard training camp. I've written stories about such bands before in Tenting on the Old Camp Ground and The Band at the Old Campground, but those bands did not wear uniforms like these fellows. In the time before World War One a typical state national guard unit would hire a professional band for a week or two each summer to provide march music and entertainment for the officers and guardsmen doing their annual training encampment. Guard bandsmen were civilian musicians for the rest of the year and only wore a quasi army uniform for a couple of weeks.
The band in Peekskill however wore tailored uniforms of the highest grade. And they counted over twice the number of bandsmen found in a standard state guard band. Who were they? The answer was easy to find in New York newspapers from June 1905.
New York Daily Tribune 4 June 1905 [click image to enlarge]
The location for the camp was at Peekskill, New York, a small city on the Hudson river about 50 miles north of New York City. It was here in 1882 that the New York State Camp of Military Instruction was established on a farm situated on a bluff that overlooked the Hudson River. In a few years it would be renamed to Camp Smith in honor of Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York. But in 1905 it was just called the State Camp and this was the 24th summer for the annual training of New York's National Guard units. This year the training sessions would be shorter lasting for just three weeks.
For the first week of June 1905 the First and Second Signal Corps and Tenth Regiment were resident. The 10th was a new regiment formed in May of that year with a strength of about 900 guardsmen. Newspapers around the state published long lists of its officers' names and their positions. Gartland's Band of Albany with 30 men was engaged to provide music for the 10th's parades and camp entertainment. This band would return for the third week of State Camp when the 22nd Regiment, Engineers would be resident there.
Each regiment brought their own tents and equipment but this summer's training had a few innovations. The soldier's uniforms were now made from an olive drab fabric which previously had been in different colors for each regiment. The camp also had a new telephone system, which can be seen in the photo as a line of white poles in the photo. The Y. M. C. A. also had a new restaurant which reportedly had better food than the camp mess. Unfortunately the men endured a wet week with rain on six days out of seven.
Throughout the three weeks of national guard training there was a constant stream of visitors. West Point cadets from the nearby U. S. Military Academy just across the Hudson would come to observe or sometimes participate in mock battles with the guard. The regimental headquarters would often host regular army officers and even a U. S. Navy captain for a few days which always included a lavish meal with entertainment provided by the band. During the week civilians from Peekskill and surrounding area would drop in to watch drills, guard mount parades, or other events during which, of course, the band would play.
Meanwhile signalman practiced their semaphore flag waving, engineers built floating bridges to cross streams, and riflemen tried to improve their marksmanship at the rifle ranges. The men were issued new Norwegian Krag rifles, considered superior to the old heavy Springfields. However the Krag's lighter barrel was easily bent if dropped which ruined its accuracy. Even the weight of a bayonet was said to eventually put it out of true.
On Sunday 11 June the Tenth regiment departed and the Seventh Regiment arrived. They wore the new olive drab army uniforms, but had brought along their gray full dress uniforms for ceremonial parades. This regiment did not travel light and also brought along their own band, the celebrated Seventh Regiment Band. If they were going to march in camp, they would march with style.
Seventh Regiment Armory, 66th and 67th Streets, Park and Lexington Avenues, New York City Source: Wikimedia
The Seventh Regiment of the New York Militia was one of the oldest infantry regiments in New York. It was originally formed in 1806 as a city militia to defend New York City from a British blockade of the port. Over the next few decades the militia was called out to quell riots and protect private property during disturbances in the city. In 1847 it became the 7th Regiment of Infantry in the New York National Guard. During the Civil War the 7th served in the United States Army for several short duties of 30 to 90 days at a time, mainly guarding government positions around Washington, Baltimore, and New York. The unit became known as the "Silk Stocking" regiment or the "Blue-Bloods" because many of its soldiers came from families in New York City's social elite.
Following the war the 7th remained in the State Guard and in 1880 moved its headquarters into a privately funded building on Park Avenue and 67th Street. The Seventh Regiment Armory, now known as the the Park Avenue Armory, housed the administration for the regiment and each of its companies, as well as storage for equipment, rifles, and other arms. The armory's drill hall was under an immense vaulted ceiling supported without columns and measured 200 by 300 feet (61 by 91 m). There was even a 300-foot rifle range in its basement.
The Seventh Regiment Band was organized in 1852 using German musicians from the city's orchestras and theaters. At the beginning of the Civil War, under the leadership of Claudio S. Grafulla (1812–1880), the band expanded from just brass instruments to including more woodwinds. Grafulla was born on the Spanish island of Menorca and immigrated to the United States in 1828 where he first found work playing the horn in one of New York City's many brass bands. He was also a talented composer and arranger whose popular marches helped establish a new American style band music.
The band had its own practice room in the armory which is a short distance from Central Park. During the summer months the Seventh Regiment Band regularly performed concerts in the park. Programs were heavy on arrangements of German symphonic and Italian operatic repertoire. The band also played at events in Madison Square Garden and led parades for all sorts of civic and political events in New York.
In November 1899 George Llewellyn Humphrey was appointed as bandmaster of the Seventh Regiment Band to replace Ernest Neyer who had died earlier in August. Humphrey was selected from 150 applicants. He had previously led bands in Revenna and Akron, Ohio and was then musical director at the Herald Square Theatre. Like many of the musicians in New York he worked with both orchestras and bands following the city's entertainment seasons.
Philadelphia Inquirer 26 October 1900
In late October 1900, New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt returned to New York after several grueling weeks spent on the campaign trail. He was the new Republican candidate for vice president, on the ticket with President William McKinley who was seeking a second term. Roosevelt had only been New York's governor since January 1899 but in less than two years had earned a reputation as a reformer and opponent of New York's machine politics.
The Republican County Committee of New York planned a huge reception for Governor Roosevelt at Madison Square Garden. Part of the entertainment would be the assembled turnout of New Yorkers singing the Star-Spangled Banner with "500 trained singers, fifty military bands, and a chorus of 30,000 persons, directed by George L. Humphrey, bandmaster of the Seventh Regiment Band."
In order to conduct this gigantic choir and band, Bandmaster Humphrey came up with the idea to use the powerful searchlight on the Garden's tower like a giant baton beating the time for the thousands of singers and musicians. The Boston Herald reported the next day that:
The programme announced that the light would appear at 8:15 o’clock to lead the Roosevelt crowds about the square in the singing of "The Star Spangled Banner," but the singers were ready and waiting long before that signal.
Promptly to the minute the searchlight flashed out its signal. It was waved over the crowd and directed upon the various bands. There was a hush in the assembly as every one strained his ears to catch the first blare of the horns. Then came the strident note of a bugle, taking up the opening note of the anthem. This was followed by the full crash of a dozen bands in and around the square, and the thunder of thousands of voices, whose volume rose even above the noise of the instruments.
When the crowd reached the lines,
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,”
Gave proof to the night that our flag was still there.
the bombs appropriately burst far above the heads of the singers, revealing red, white and blue stars, and showing the banner of the republic, “still high advanced.” A mighty cheer arose, as the thousands raised in their singing to hail the colors of the flag.
The light was waved up and down, in short, though precisely regulated, strokes. It was difficult to follow at first, but the singers soon got accustomed to it, and when Mr. Humphrey directed the singing of “America,” the crowd followed with ease and with tremendous effect.
This was just one example of a monster concert in the golden age of bands. But from our perspective 126 years later, it was also a hint of the many spectacles to come in the new century. One can only imagine the excitement Teddy Roosevelt felt as he listened to the music and saw the adulation of the crowd. Five years later Bandmaster Humphrey and the bandsmen of the Seventh Regiment Band surely remembered that event with great pride as they traded stories over a campfire at Peekskill.
In August of 1905 the Seventh Regiment Band furnished the music for the thirty-ninth annual commencement of the New York College of Dentistry. Three weeks later the band led a parade of firemen in Larchmont, New York. In September they accompanied a male chorus of 400 voices from the United German Singing Societies at a concert in Central Park. And in November the Seventh Regiment Band "of 100 pieces" provided music for a mass meeting of lawyers at Carnegie Hall.
Bandmaster George L. Humphrey continued leading the Seventh Regiment Band until poor health forced his retirement in 1916. He moved to Washington, Pennsylvania where he died of tuberculosis on 28 December 1918. He was 64.
I think the bandsman standing second left in the postcard photo is Bandmaster George L. Humphrey. This man holds no instrument (the horn to his left belongs to the next man) and a bandmaster was not a drum major, who stands on the opposite side in the full band photo. This man looks to be around age 51 which was Humphrey's age that summer in 1905. He also looks like someone who could easily wield a searchlight to beat 4/4 time if he had to.
Footnote
Despite a very thorough search of the infinite internet archives I have been unable to find any other photos of the Seventh Regiment Band. This was the band that once led every important parade in New York City for decades. Its bandmasters were highly regarded musicians who composed marches in the same way that John Philip Sousa did with the U. S. Marine Band and his famous Sousa Marine Band. So it surprises me that this little postcard may be the only photo of this premier ensemble which once made a significant contribution to American band music.
Here is the 7th Regiment March
composed by Ernest Neyer (1847–1899)
who briefly was bandmaster of the 7th Regiment Band
from 1898 until his death on 31 August 1899. He was succeeded by George L. Humphrey who was the 7th's bandmaster in my postcard from 1905.
The 7th Regiment Band led by Lieut. Francis W. Sutherland played Neyer's march on this 1923 recording which was made for the Vocalion label of the Aeolian Company.
UPDATE:
Just two days after I posted this story I tried searching for more information on the Seventh Regiment Band in another archive, Google Books. Much to my surprise a series of books, "The Seventh Regiment Gazette, A Military Review, Devoted to the Interest of the Seventh Regiment and the National Guard" has been digitized and Volumes 19-20 for 1905 was available for download. Not only did this monthly gazette have a day-by-day account of the 7th's week at the State Camp in Peekskill but there were photos of officers and staff.
"The Seventh Regiment Gazette, A Military Review, Devoted to the Interest of the Seventh Regiment and the National Guard" Source: Google Books
On page 575 of the PDF file are two portraits of Bandmaster Geroge L. Humphrey and Drum Major Charles H. Brown. They both wear very elaborate uniforms much more ornamented than the uniforms the band wears in my postcard. Drum Major Brown looks to be the same man with a mace seen on the far right of the band's photo. But the man I thought was Bandmaster Humphrey does not match the face in his portrait. For one thing Humphrey wears pince nez spectacles but the man in the photo does not. And is that a baton or a light saber that he is holding?
"The Seventh Regiment Gazette, A Military Review, Devoted to the Interest of the Seventh Regiment and the National Guard" Source: Google Books
Just above are portraits of the Regimental and Battalion Sgt-Majors who are wearing guardsmen's dress uniforms. It's a gallant style that reflects the proud military traditions of the Seventh Regiment New York National Guard.
Parents recognize that face. That wonderful moment when a child discovers that their talent is its own reward.
Their enthusiasm builds on itself. An amusement becomes an obsession as each new skill inspires a determination to learn more.
It starts in that innocent time of childhood when everything is a wonder.
And as parents and grandparents know it begins with questions. Many, many questions about the world, about how things work,
and about the infinite possibilities of life.
Today I present four examples of antique picture postcards that have a romantic musical theme of string instruments and children.
My first postcard is a drawing in sepia tone of a youth in his nightshirt sitting on the edge of his bed and playing a violin. His expression is one of bright fixation on his music making. In the background is a woman, perhaps his mother, watching with clasped hands. Scattered on the floor are some pages of music. A picture of an organist at a keyboard, perhaps Johann Sebastian Bach, hands on the boy's bedroom wall.
The title of the picture is Genesung~Recovery. The artist is identified in the lower right corner, both in the etching and printed on the sidebar, as Toby E. Rosenthal. His full name was Tobias Edward Rosenthal (1848–1917), a German artist born in Strasburg in Westpreußen, a place once part of Prussia which later became part of Germany. It is now called Brodnica and is a town in northern Poland. At a young age Rosenthal's parents emigrated to America, settling in San Francisco where Rosenthal received his first art training from a French-born sculptor and an expatriate Mexican artist.
Rosenthal's postcard of a young violinist abed has a brief greeting on the back but was never posted. The publisher was Hermann A. Wiechmann of München~Munich, Germany. The style of the printing suggestions a date of 1915-1925.
Rosenthal's tutors in California recognized his natural talent for drawing and recommended to his parents that he travel back to Germany for further art study. In 1865 he enrolled in Munich's Academy of Fine Arts. By age 22 he won a prize medal for an imaginative painting of Bach's family at morning prayers. It was considered worthy enough to be acquired by the State Museum in Leipzig.
Morning prayers in the Bach family by Toby Edward Rosenthal, 1870 Source: Wikimedia
I found two versions of this painting on the internet. Above is an image from Wikimedia which I presume is Rosenthal's original painting in color. It shows the great composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) at home seated at a harpsichord with his lively family gathered around. Johann was married twice, first to Maria Barbara Bach (1684–1720) with whom he had seven children including three who died in infancy, and then Anna Magdalena Bach, née Wilcke (1701–1760) who gave him thirteen children including seven who died before reaching adulthood.
There are eleven figures in the scene which includes a baby's cradle. I count six who are clearly not adults. According to the Wikipedia entry for Anna Magdalena Bach, "Only during the ten weeks from June to August 1732 were five of the couple’s children younger than 10 years of age living in the household." It seems very likely that Rosenthal is depicting this Bach family of 1732.
Morning prayers in the Bach family by Toby Edward Rosenthal, 1870 Source: Wikimedia
The second version of Rosenthal's painting is an engraving(?) made for an American book published in 1914. The engraver has reproduced Rosenthal's work very accurately, preserving all the animation of the original family scene. But their faces have more fine detail and I think the sepia tone picture is much more convincing as a work of art.
Though he made a few return visits to America, Rosenthal made his career in Munich, Germany producing many paintings inspired by great writers of his time. His style followed the German Romantic movement which depicted historic events and nostalgic folk characters.
This next drawing by Rosenthal was made in 1907. It is similar to the young violinist because this sketch shows another youth enthralled by his craft. Here an older boy concentrates on carving a small wooden figurine of Christ's Crucifixion. It's a sculpting skill which Rosenthal as an artist was likely very familiar with.
Study of a Boy Carving a Crucifix drawing by Toby E. Rosenthal, 1907 Source: Wikimedia
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My next postcard is a portrait of another young violinist engrossed in the sound of his instrument. This boy has wavy red hair not unlike the color of his violin and wears a blue-green jacket with a wide white collar. It's a thoughtful pose that invites us to admire the boy's focus on his music.
This artist's name is signed in the lower right corner and printed on the back. He is Albert Louis Aublet (1851–1938) a French painter born in Paris. Aublet's first Paris exhibition was in 1873. He traveled to the Middle East in the 1880s where his experience in Istanbul inspired him to develop an "Orientalist" style by painting exotic subjects and themes. He also produced a number of genre paintings and female nudes.
This postcard was sent from Bern, Switzerland on 9 May 1918. The painting's title is printed on the back: le jeune vilon~The young violinist. It was printed in Paris.
Bathing Time at Le Tréport painting by Albert Aublet, 1885 Source: Wikimedia
Wikimedia offered a several examples of Albert Aublet's work. This summer scene shows a crowd enjoying a stony beach at Le Tréport, a port town in Normandy, France. The swirl of women's umbrellas adds more movement than we would see on a modern beach.
French artist, Albert Aublet (1851–1938) in his studio, photograph, date unknown Source: Wikimedia
Another image from Wikimedia is a photo of Albert Aublet working at his studio in Paris. The date is unknown but judging from his appearance it likely late 1890s or 1900s. Notice that the painting Aublet has on his easel is a portrait of three young girls, likely three sisters. Remember to click any image to enlarge it.
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This next postcard shows a lovely father/daughter moment when a cellist plays for his little girl. She wears a golden gown and pulls her dress out as she marvels at this grown-up costume. Music is scattered on the floor by the man's chair. His concentration is, of course, focused not on his cello but on his child.
The title of this painting is Chaconne, a Spanish dance form from the Baroque era involving variations over a repeated bass line. The artist's name, written in the lower corner of the painting and printed on the sidebar, is John Quincy Adams.
Despite his American-sounding name, John Quincy Adams (1873–1933) was actually Austrian. He was the son of American tenor Charles Runey Adams (1834-1900) and Hungarian singer Nina Bleyer (1835-1899) who both sang in the company of the the Vienna Court Opera. Their son was named after the 6th President of the United States, John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), but there was no direct family connection. In 1879 the family moved back to Boston but when his parents separated in 1887 Adams returned to Vienna with his mother. He studied art at the Wien Academy of Fine Arts from 1892-1896, followed by a year of artistic training at the Munich Academy and another year in Paris at the Académie Julian.
This postcard was never used but I present the back for its beautiful floral border. The publisher was B.K.W.I. or Brüder Kohn Wien I, one of the most successful postcard companies in Vienna and Europe. This is the same publisher that produced the postcards of my favorite artist Fritz Schönpflug (1873 – 1951). Since he and Adams were contemporaries I expect they must have known each other.
Kitty Baronin Rothschild painting by John Quincy Adams, 1916 Source: Wikimedia
According to a biography of Adams, he produced around 500 paintings in a large variety of genres with different subjects and styles. Nonetheless his main work earned Adams a cliché as "painter of the beautiful, elegant Viennese lady". One example is this portrait of Kitty Rothschild (1885–1946), an American socialite who was considered by noted Parisian dress designers as one of the world's ten best-dressed women. Born in Philadelphia, as a young woman she studied music in Munich, where she met and then eloped with Dandridge Spotswood, a industrial and mining engineer from New York with a Virginian ancestry. For a time the young couple resided in New York but the marriage did not last and they divorced.
In 1911 Kitty married an Austrian nobleman, Count Erwin Schoenborn, from an ancient noble family of the Holy Roman Empire. This painting was made in 1916 when they were still together as in 1924 they divorced. I don't know who got the dog. That same year Kitty married Baron Eugène Daniel von Rothschild (1884–1976), a member of the notable Rothschild family. The Rothschild's made their home in Paris and became prominent in continental European society until the start of World War Two.
Kaiser Franz Joseph I painting by John Quincy Adams, 1914 Source: Wikimedia
It is this portrait of Austria's Kaiser Franz Joseph I by John Quincy Adams that I find most interesting. It was completed in 1914 when Franz Joseph was 84 and shows a man bowed down by the weight of 66 years as monarch. What I don't know is if this portrait was finished before or after 28 June 1914 when his nephew and heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo by Serbian terrorists. This terrible murder of the Archduke and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, triggered the start of World War One. Franz Joseph would die two years later on 21 November 1916.
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My last picture postcard is another drawing that shows a small boy crouched behind an elderly cello player, presumably the boy's grandfather, who sits on a rustic stool. He grins with delight as he watches the bow race over the instrument's strings. Grandfather is bearded, barefoot, and dressed in shabby clothing. He smokes a long pipe as he looks directly at us. A violin hangs on the wall. He resembles characters in antique illustrations of Gypsy fiddlers that I have featured on another post, A Fiddler on the Street.
There is a long message on the front around the drawing (more about that in a minute) and on the back is Kaiser Franz Joseph's picture in profile on a green 5 heller postage stamp. The stamp dates from 1908 in celebration of the Kaiser's 60th year as king and emperor. It was sent from Zadar, a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea, to an Oberleutnant~First Lieutenant Peteani in Dalmatia. The postmark date is illegible, but 1908-1910 seems reasonable.
The artist of this little drawing signed his name in the lower corner: Valentini, 1882 but there is no other identification. After a hunt, I believe this was Valentino Valentini, (1858–?) an Italian artist who was born in Florence, Italy. Nothing much about his life is recorded on the internet but I did succeed in finding enough examples of his work to show that he understood musicians and musical instruments.
Monk Musician painting by Valentino Valentini, 1882 Source: MutualArt.com
This painting by Valentini recently sold at auction. It shows a bearded monk playing a double bass. The monk stands in front of a heavy wooden music stand suitable for two players or even four. Scattered on the floor are more pages of music which seems to be a popular cliché to use when depicting earnest musicians. This painting is dated 1882 like the drawing so maybe the bearded man modeled for the cellist too.
The Accordion Player painting by Valentino Valentini Source: MutualArt.com
This painting by Valentino Valentini shows a humble accordion player scanning the room or street in order to catch the eye of someone who will drop a few coins at his feet. It's a nice portrait of a folk musician as typical of Italy today as it was in the 19th century.
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Today in the 21st century we look at countless photographs and videos of people doing all sorts of things while expressing every kind of emotion. They are now so common that we forget how incredibly difficult it once was to capture a special moment on film. Just as they do today, people in the past smiled, laughed, cried, and hollered. But early photographers had to be very skilled, and lucky, too, to record those fleeting memories on film.
Artists, on the other hand, have always relied on just a good eye and a deft hand to draw those human moments. With a good imagination and a familiar understanding of facial features, an artist can recreate an experience like love, joy, sadness, or anger that is instantly understood by any person, regardless of their language or point in time. It's that mastery of art which I think enhances our appreciation of this era when a picture postcard of a musician was more than just a pretty image. Sure, they were sentimental and designed to charm, but they also validate how prevalent it once was to have the wonder of music in people's lives.
Coda
The German handwriting on this last postcard's message was made with a fountain pen and was consistent enough for me to recognize most of the letters if not the full words. For an experiment I removed the picture, increased the contrast, and rearranged the second part of the message into just a clear image of the script. I then uploaded it to three different AI services: ChatGpt, Perplexity, and Claude, giving each the same instruction: "Transcribe this handwritten German message from a 1910 Austrian postcard and translate it into English."
All three came up with pretty good equivalents for the German handwriting catching most umlauts, often written as just a dash over a vowel instead of '', and noting the funny German character ß for ss. Of the three, Claude was the most accurate. It produced this transcription:
Original:
Lieber Harry! Nachdem mein Gagenzettel größer ausgefallen
als ich gedacht habe und etwas so noch hatte, habe ich mich entschlossen nach Hause zu fahren. Fahre am 3/9 um 8h früh weg. Werde niemandem sagen, dass du kommst, auch ich werde momentan erscheinen. Almuier (?) wird wahrscheinlich mit dir hinauffahren. Habe mich bezüglich deines Urlaubs erkundigt, da wurde mir gesagt vom...
* 1–4 habt ihr Trainübungen und dann kannst du fahren, wenn es dir unten vom Kader bewilligt wird. Auf Wiedersehen recht bald. Mit Gruß und Kuss Karl.
Translation:
Dear Harry! Since my pay slip turned out larger
than I had expected and I still had something left over, I have
decided to travel home. I am leaving on the 3rd of September at 8 o'clock in the morning.
I will not tell anyone that you are coming, and I myself will appear for the time being. Almuier (?) will probably travel up with you. I inquired regarding your vacation, and I was told by...
* From the 1st to the 4th you have training exercises, and then
you can travel if it is approved for you
down at headquarters. See you again quite soon.
With greetings and a kiss, Karl.
All three AI websites offer a free service and were very quick, producing a neat transcription and translation in 15-25 seconds. The key for using this tool is to prepare the image carefully so that there is nothing except the script for the AI engine to analyze. I'm very impressed that it correctly found letters that I would not have guessed because it recognized the context and the typical syntax of a message written in German. I'm eager to try it with other languages.
This is a web gallery of antique photographs of musicians. Most are of people whose names are now lost in time but they represent the many kinds of players, instruments, and ensembles that once defined musical culture. But these photographs also capture a moment in the history of people and places, so I write about that too.
All the photos shown here are in my personal collection.
For Best Effect Click on the Images for a Larger View
For information on my music for horn - go to the bottom of this column.
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