The R. S. C. Orchestra of Rogersville, Tennessee

 

This is Cecile Justa Bidez
with her father Dr. Leon Aloys Bidez.
Cecile, age 17, played cello
(her bow is in motion)
and Dr. Bidez, age 50, played violin.
Both were college music teachers.

This is Eva Elsa Bidez
Dr. Bidez's eldest daughter.
She plays violin and
in this photo is age 24.
She was also a music teacher.

This is Hope Amy Bidez
Dr. Bidez's youngest daughter.
She is 15 years old
and plays cornet.

Between them are the rest of their college orchestra,
1st Row (L — R) 

        Hattie McArthur,
                                                   Albert Price,
                                                                                        Miss L. Franklin,    
                                                                                                                                        Georgia Smith

 

2nd Row

        Jennie Mather,

                                        Mary Logan Caldwell,
                                                                            Helen Brown,
                                                                                                        Nell Divine,
                                                                                                                                 Mary Haverly

3rd Row

                Miss Loonet,
                                                "Bob" Caldwell,   alias, Auntie Dinah's darlint'.

                                                                                                Lulu Hale

                                                                                                                                Lida Merriman

4th Row

            Maude Haltenbeck

                                                                    Ruth Powell

                                                                                                            Will Graybill

They were all members
of the Rogersville Synodical College. 
And sometime around 1898 they posed outside
at the entrance of one of their college buildings.

This large format photograph shows a group of 19 musicians, all young women except for two young men, with their music director, Dr. Bidez. There are five violinists including Dr. Bidez; three mandolinists; three guitarists; four pianists, each holding a symbolic roll of music; two percussionists on snare drum and tambourine; a cellist; and one cornetist.  

I can confidently provide all their names because they were all neatly identified on the back of the photo.  

However figuring out the location was a challenge
because there is no imprint of a photographer
and the ensemble's name was just an abbreviation
written above the photo on the card mount.

R. S. C.  Orchestra

The name of the director was written as just "Dr. Bidez" but the surname proved to be unusual enough to be distinctive in archive searches, as did the names of his three daughters: Eva, Cecile, and Hope Bidez. I found all of them, except for Hope, in the 1900 U. S. Census for Rogersville, Tennessee. Listed on a single census page, with 50 lines for each individual, is the entire school population for that year—principals, teachers, and students for the Rogersville Synodical College.  

Leo A. Bidez, "Teacher of Music", was 52, born in August 1847 in Belgium to Belgian parents. He immigrated to the United States in 1876. His daughter Eve E. Bidez, also a "Teacher of Music", age 26, was born in April 1874 in Belgium. She immigrated a year later in 1877. Her younger sister Cecile J. Bidez, age 19, was born in March 1874 in North Carolina. Her occupation was also "Teacher of Music". Hope Bidez was not listed but I discovered her life facts later.

There were 30 students, all young women ranging from ages 13 to 22, averaging to 17½ years. Most were from Tennessee or Kentucky, with a few from Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, and even one young lady from Nebraska. 

Besides the three Bidez music teachers, there were two teachers of Latin, and one each for Art, Elocution, and Primary, all single women. There were two principals, Nannie McVeigh, the "Lady Principal" and William M. Graybill, "Head principal". Only Graybill and Dr. Bidez were married but it seems Mrs. Bidez was not then a resident. Principal Graybill's youngest son, William M, Graybill, Jr., who is the guitarist seated right on the bottom row, is age 18 in the census. But I think in this photo he looks younger, more like age 16, so that is how I calculated the ages of the Bidez family members.     

Rogersville is located in the northeast corner of Tennessee in the rugged ridge and valley region west of the Appalachian Mountains. It's actually just 90 miles northwest of my home in Asheville, North Carolina. Rogersville has always been a small town despite being the county seat of Hawkins County, and it current population in 2020 is 4,671 residents. In 1900 it was much smaller with only 1,386 residents. But that was still large enough to have a school of higher learning.  

According to a 1893 report in Higher Education in Tennessee by Lucius Salisbury Merriam, Construction of the school began in 1849 after the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) purchased a 66 acre parcel in Rogersville. In September of the following year it opened with 116 pupils as the Odd Fellows Female Seminary, which seems a strange oxymoron as the Odd Fellows were a non-sectarian and non-political fraternal men's society. In any case, the society was soon unable to afford the expense of operating a school and the property was sold to a joint stock company made up of members of Rogersville's Presbyterian churches. 

The school prospered before the Civil War but had difficulties afterward. In around 1880 it came under direction of the Presbyterian Synod of Nashville, Tennessee, which advanced its mission to become a female college in 1892. For the 1890-91 school year the college claimed 170 students and 13 teachers. It seems likely that the 1900 census record listed only those students living on campus and there were many more who lived in the town of Rogersville. 

In 1897 the Rogersville Synodical College engaged Dr. Brez and his two eldest daughters to teach music there. That summer Dr. Brez's name was included in newspaper advertisements for the college.

Chattanooga Daily Times
30 July 1897

    ROGERSVILLE SYNODICAL COLLEGE — The strong faculty, increased advantages, healthful location, beautiful college home and moderate rates continue to attract a large attendance of excellent young ladies to this old and honored institution.  The patrons of the school are pleased with the mental, social and moral culture of their daughters, and realize that they have at Rogersville the best advantages and kindest attention at very low rates.  Conservatory course of music with four teachers.  Director,  L. A. Bidez, LL. D., graduate of University of Brussels and Royal Conservatory, Germany.  Forty-eighth session begins Sept. 8, 1897.  For catalogue, address. 

                                                                                W. M. GRAYBILL, President, Rogersville, Tenn. 

I found Dr. Bidez in a family tree on Ancestry.com. His full name was Leon Aloys Henri Bidez which allowed for more name and initial combinations in search through newspaper reports on him. After his arrival in America he used Aloys Bidez fro several years. Then in the 1890s it was just L. A. Bidez, sometimes with the honorific Dr. or Prof.   

  

Compared to many music teachers of this era, Dr. Bidez earned an advanced  degree and studied with notable teachers in Belgium. According to a 1934 newspaper report on the Bidez family, Leon's father was fortunate to win a lottery exempting him from military service. Instead he got an education, entered the Belgian civil service, and eventually earned a promotion to a high office in the Belgian treasury. For this he was given a splendid jeweled sword from King Leopold II (which was the reason for this report.)   

When Leon was a young man he also won the same lottery exemption and used his freedom to study law and music. Evidently his musical talent won his heart as he became proficient on piano, organ, violin, and clarinet. In 1876 he came to America to take a position in one of New York's orchestra. Unfortunately an Atlantic storm lengthened his voyage and when he arrived the position had been filled. 

Charlotte, NC Observer
12 July 1878

After staying in New York for a short time, he arranged for his wife and two children to join him and moved to the Cleveland, Ohio area. In 1878 he was engaged as a music teacher by the Charlotte Institute for Young Ladies in North Carolina. Advertisements for the school promoted him as "a distinguished teacher of Vocal and Instrumental music, of Harmony, Through-base (sic) and Orchestration. and himself an author of a Text-book on Piano-Forte teaching." 

By 1881 the school had renamed itself as the Charlotte Female Institute and described its music department under Dr. Bidez as "unrivalled in the South for the thoroughness and high grades in culture."  The institute also took pride in its several "instructresses" of modern languages, mathematics and natural sciences, history, literature, and art. Today the institute is known as Queens University of Charlotte.

Savannah, GA Morning News
3 September 1887

Some time around 1885 Dr. Bidez and family moved to Rome, Georgia where he became a music teacher at a women's college there. This school was founded in 1873 as the Cherokee Baptist Female College by the pastor of Rome's Baptist Church. A few years later it became the Shorter Female College to acknowledge the financial contributions of Alfred and Martha Shorter. In the 1880s it adjusted its name to Shorter College, possibly to placate parents who considered their daughter's height to be average or even tall. This private Baptist school is now know as Shorter University. 

The Bidez family lived in Rome for only a few years when they left in 1889 for Lexington, Kentucky where Dr. Bidez was engaged as a music teacher at Hamilton College, another school for young women. It was established by a banker, James M. Hocker, in 1869 as the Hocker Female College. In 1878, like Shorter College, it changed its name to Hamilton College in honor of a generous benefactor. It was at this point Leon Aloys Bidez began using the initials Dr. L. A. Bidez in reports of his conducting concerts, playing church organ, and giving violin recitals with his daughters. This school closed in 1932, during the Great Depression, when the number of students declined.

Lexington, KY Herald Leader
23 July 1891

This job did not last very long at all and by the summer of 1891 the Bidez family uprooted themselves to be replanted in the great prairieland of Emporia, Kansas. A Lexington newspaper notice showed that they auctioned off a lot of fine household items before the move. In Emporia, Prof. L. A. Bidez taught music at the State Normal School. Newspaper reports cited his educational background and the talent of his two daughters on violin, mandolin, and piano. A Normal School was a common type of college for training teachers, primarily for women but also men. Evidently Bidez schedule was relatively light as he found time in 1892 to travel back to Brussels, Belgium to visit his parents. He sent a letter to the Emporia newspaper describing city life in Belgium in contrast to American cities. He considered America better.    

In the summer of 1897 Bidez returned to the east where he and his daughter's Eva and Cecile were hired by the Rogersville Synodical College. Later that fall he received the sad news of his father's death. He seems to have stayed in Rogersville through the winter as he conducted or performed several concerts. But I suspect he returned to Belgium sometime in the next year or two as his name came up several times in Tennessee newspapers until disappearing in 1900. The school must have been suffering financial difficulties as it canceled its 1903-04 school year. In 1916 the Synodical College closed though the school continued to provide grammar and high school classes. Over the next decade the college buildings were demolished and the property was bought by the city of Rogersville which turned it into a public school for preK to 8th grade. In 2023 it celebrated its 100th anniversary.   

In 1901 Dr. Bidez was in Maryland playing piano at the commencement exercises at Mount Saint Mary's College and Seminary, a Catholic college for men and now a co-ed university. Whether he was engaged as a music teacher there or at its companion school, Saint Joseph's Academy, a Catholic school for girls is unknown.

All I can tell from newspaper reports is that from 1902 the Bidez were now living in Emmitsburg, Maryland, just south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where these two schools are considered the foundation for the Catholic parochial school system in the United States. One report on a June 1902 commencement at St. Joseph's Academy for Girls listed the names of Hope Bidez and Alix Bidez, the youngest sister, as playing violin and mandolin at the event. So perhaps this move was for advancing his daughter's education. As Emmitsburg is relatively close to Harrisburg, Washington, D. C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia this may have provided other cultural advantages for a musician like Dr. Bidez. 

However I suspect Dr. Bidez was developing health problems as sometime around 1905 he and his wife moved to Columbia, Tennessee, southwest of Nashville, to be close to one of his daughters who was now married. On 1 June 1909 Leon Aloys Henri Bidez died there after a lengthy illness. He was 61. He was survived by his wife, two sons, and four daughters. 

* * *

This story of Dr. Leon Aloys Bidez is not the one I expected to write about. After I properly identified him and his three daughters, placed them on the steps of a now forgotten school building in a tiny rural town, and figured out their narrow time frame of three years at the end of the 19th century, I might have ended it there. But I was intrigued by how a man from Belgium ended up in East Tennessee. He arrived in America in 1876 on the centennial year of our nation's founding. The Statue of Liberty would not grace New York's harbor for another decade. He clearly brought with him a special talent for music along with the skills to teach it. His background in what we now call classical music was not a sub-genre then. It was all the traditions of French, German, Italian operas, symphonies, and chamber music of Europe. He likely thought of it as the contemporary music of his time.

As a genuine professor, Dr. Bidez was in contrast to thousands of American musicians of the day who assumed that honorific, "Prof." just through their talent on an instrument, usually cornet, and their ambition to lead a band or orchestra. They had no educational credentials or degrees like Bidez. His knowledge of harmony, orchestration, and instrumental technique was the result of long study at a European conservatory, a type of music institution that was limited to only a few places in America.       

 

Bidez was also an example of a great cultural exchange in 19th century America when countless European musicians immigrated here to play in professional orchestras and bands. Perhaps he aspired to do exactly that, but circumstances in his life put him onto a different path as a music teacher. It helped that he had three talented daughters to inspire him.

When I began uncovering his career path I was surprised at the type of small academic institutions he found work. The development of small colleges in America, especially as railroad lines began linking town after town in the late 19th century was one of the important developments in the history of American public education. But we forget that in this era many schools of higher learning were restricted to men only. Yet Dr. Bidez found employment in schools for women, at a time when women were subject to many more civil restrictions and societal obstacles than they have in our 21st century. 

As I've outlined in this story, Dr. Bidez taught music at six different female institutions, possibly more. These schools promoted for young women a standard academic curriculum of Latin, elocution, literature, math, etc., but classes in music and art showcased a school's commitment to refined culture. I doubt that any mother and father expected to see their daughter become a successful concert pianist or opera singer. But they very likely believed such an arts education would provide their girl with better prospects in marriage.   

I came across the Rogersville Synodical College in an article found in a 1912 education journal entitled: The School Review, vol. 20, p. 458. Though the article was written over a decade after Dr. Bidez and his daughters taught there, the author was still describing the same college educational opportunities available to women in this era. Here is an excerpt from the beginning of the article: 

STANDARDS OF SOUTHERN COLLEGES FOR WOMEN

by Elizabeth Avery Colton 

Meredith College, Raleigh, North Carolina 

    There are in the South one hundred and forty-two colleges for women distributed as follows: in Maryland, seven; in Virginia, thirteen; in West Virginia, Florida, and Oklahoma, one each; in North Carolina, eighteen; in South Carolina, ten; in Georgia and Alabama, nine each; in Mississippi and Texas, fourteen each; in Louisiana, five; in Arkansas, two; in Missouri, eleven; in Kentucky, fifteen; and in Tennessee, twelve. North Carolina appears ignominiously to head the list; but an equally close-range searchlight might prove several other states guilty of an equally absurd number of nominal colleges. For three institutions in Kentucky and an additional twelve in Tennessee failed to respond to requests for catalogues. In fact, I am not absolutely sure that the above numbers are complete for any state except North Carolina. But as hardly a fifth of the institutions enumerated are giving any standard college courses, it is safe to assume that no institution doing any college work has been omitted.

    Only four of all the colleges for women in the South have been recognized by the Association of Colleges of the Southern States; and only six others are included by the Specialist in Higher Education in either his third or his fourth class. The remaining hundred and thirty-one southern colleges for women have never been classified according to any national or sectional standard. I have, therefore, attempted to formulate a basis of classification which might indicate, however inadequately, some distinction between institutions which are merely inferior secondary schools and those which are really doing more or less college work. With this object in view, I have during the past year compiled statistics showing the specific admission requirements announced in the catalogues of southern colleges for women; and with these statistics as a basis I have grouped all these institutions under the following heads:

    1. Institutions belonging to the Association of Colleges of the Southern States.

    2. Institutions offering from three to four years above standard collegeentrance requirements, but not conforming to the regulations of the Association of Colleges of the Southern States.

    3. Institutions counting two or more years of preparatory work toward a baccalaureate degree.

    4. Institutions counting from three to four years of preparatory work toward a baccalaureate degree.

Using these rules the author goes into detail, assigning only four colleges to the first group; thirty-four in the second group; forty-nine in the third; and fifty-five in the fourth group. Rogersville Synodical College and Hamilton College in Lexington were placed in this last group as examples of so-called "colleges" which actually only offered a secondary level education and did not deserve to be called a college. The author's main critique was that most Southern colleges for women did not follow accepted collegiate curriculums and failed to engage enough fully credentialed faculty. They also accepted younger girls who had not finished high school. Essentially what her research showed was that most of these institutions were really only preparatory or "finishing" schools that failed to deliver proper degrees in higher education.    

This next excerpt from this review of Southern colleges for women caught my attention because it directly comments on the use of music in these schools. 

    The tendency on the part of the southern girl to specialize before she has acquired even a good high-school education causes one of the leading distinctions between eastern and southern colleges for women. Of the 1,030 students now at Vassar, for example, only 100 are taking lessons in piano, voice, organ, and violin, combined; at Greensboro Female College, on the other hand, there were last year out of a total registration of 215 exactly 151 studying music. This proportion of music students-one-tenth at Vassar and nearly three-fourths at Greensboro-is, I find, typical of women's colleges in the East and in the South; and perhaps I should add that even the few who study music in eastern colleges are working primarily for an academic degree. This is not true of the majority of music students in southern colleges. Eastern colleges do not try to compete with conservatories, and they no more think of advertising their music departments than their departments of mathematics. A department of music is, of course, indispensable in a woman's college; but if an institution wishes to be recognized as a college, it is safer for it not to try to be "the leading conservatory of music in the South!"

We have to wonder if Dr. Bidez thought he was making a difference for the young women he taught in these colleges. Did he envision a world where women gained the right to vote, found careers in law, business, science, and even music? Did he dream that his daughters' talents might earn them a life on the concert stage or a position teaching at a conservatory? I suspect that like every good teacher he hoped his lessons would motivate a young person to become the very best they could be.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where it's ladies day all weekend.

A Soldier's Boots

 

In August 1914 the Imperial German Army mobilized  3,822,450 soldiers who were then ordered to attack on two fronts, eastwards to Russia and westwards to France. Every man needed a uniform, a helmet, a field kit, a gun, and a pair of boots. By late summer the Kaiser's quartermasters would issue around  7,644,900 boots. They would need a lot more. It was going to be a very long march.  

A single leather hide was typically large enough to make 3 to 4 pairs of boots. So a lot of cows and pigs  gave up their lives to shod the soldiers of World War One. But leather was used for many other things besides footwear. Countless leather harnesses, reins, belts, and straps were needed for millions of mules and draft horses who hauled artillery and supply wagons, not to mention saddles for cavalry mounts. 

This postcard photo shows six German soldiers repairing boots, a saddle and other leather gear. Across the top is a caption:

Handwerkstube im Feldzug  1914/15
~
Crafting Workshop on Campaign  1914/15

The numbers 2/5i may refer to the soldiers' company and regiment. The card was never mailed and has no marking to identify the location. 

In this photo five German soldiers relax on the ground of a forest glen. They are playing instruments—violin, zither, posthorn (a coiled up trumpet), and two guitars—as if they were entertaining a picnic. Two men sit cross-legged showing the hobnailed soles of their boots. A board in front of them has a message written in chalk.

Erinnerung an Aldersbach.  1916.
~
Remembrance of Aldersbach   1916 

Aldersbach is small town in the Bavarian district of Passau in Germany, not far from the Austrian border. The card was also never posted and has no other marks. The location may not be where the soldiers actually are. If they were a Bavarian unit, it might be where they were from. 

A larger group of ten soldiers appears on this next photo of a similar forest scene. Several men hold the same instruments as in the other photo except that instead of one violinist there are two mandolinists positioned with their instrument's peg-end pointed at the camera, almost like how a rifle is held. In the center one man grins as he sits astride a child's hobby horse. All the men have removed their tunics and rolled up their shirt sleeves for some kind of sweaty work. A caption is written on a rectangular wooden board.

"Die Lünftigen Brüder" von Stube 16 
~
"The Merry Brothers" of barrack room 16   

The word "Lünftigen" is not in German dictionaries that I could find. Two other words have nearly the same spelling. Künftigen means future and fünftigen means fifth but those words don't make sense with what we see in the photo. However with the help of Claude, my A.I. assistant, this could be a dialect spelling of Lustigen, the German word for merry, jolly, or funny, which seems more appropriate for these fellows.

Sharp-eyed readers will have spotted several similar faces in the three photos, the most striking being the man with a leathery bronze complexion, dark eyes, and a very broad mustache. It's a surprising coincidence for me as all three photos were purchased at different times, but I'm convinced this soldier and a couple of his comrades appear in all the photos. One subtle clue is the board used for the captions in the last two photos appears to be identical, as does the little pocket posthorn and the turned rod on the zither. 

The soldier in this postcard is not, as far as I can tell,  a member of the Merry Brothers, but he is occupied repairing boots. Six to be exact, not counting his own. It's a clever image produced by a German publisher as a postcard for the troops. In the top corner is a printed caption:

 Der Regimentsschuster
~
The regiment shoemaker

Other than these scenes of soldiers at work and recreation, everything else about them must remain unknown. What did they know of digging trenches in in the fields of Flanders or hauling munition wagons over the vast plains of Poland? Yet not all soldiers served in combat. Battles are often won or lost based on the simplest of military duties like feeding soldiers or refitting a boot heel. So it's not surprising that a regiment might assign a special unit to repair boots. No doubt these men knew about the terrible affliction of "trench foot" which caused thousands of casualties in all the armies of WW1. They understood how heavy ill-fitting boots brought on severe blisters, even gangrene, which could lead to amputations. So I think these soldiers took pride in their craft, confident that a hobnail was just as important as an artillery shell. 

By the end of the war in November 1918, Germany had called up over 13 million men to serve in its army and navy.  Around 2 million were killed, roughly 15 percent, and that is not counting other non-combat deaths from disease and accidents. 

These are army boots from a different war. My father, Lt. Colonel Russell Brubaker wore these during his service in Vietnam. They didn't get abused much, as fortunately during most of his time there he sat behind a desk, though he said there were a few scary moments. These boots have been stored in my basement for 25+ years now and likely weren't worn in the previous ¼ century after my dad's retirement. These are lighter and better designed for a tropical climate than his older all-leather pair which he wore as an infantryman in the Korean War. As a kid I remember trying to learn how to polish those to a spit-shine level. They had smooth leather soles and extra long laces that were challenging for a 6 year old to weave into dozens of eyelets.

Early in his military career my dad transferred from the U.S. Army's infantry corps to the transportation corps which is responsible for the army's logistical movement of troops and equipment. His work involved arranging plans for countless military trucks, amphibious ships, helicopters, and cargo planes to convey thousands of soldiers and their gear from one place to another in both peace and war. 

In the past few months the phrase "Boots on the Ground" has been so bandied about by dishonest politicians and asinine pundits that it has become an offensive cliche meme. Not only does the expression ignore the immense challenges that must be overcome to transport troops into remote foreign lands, it is cheap dehumanizing jargon that reduces soldiers into things. 

After the United States entered WW1 and later WW2, it took many months before our armed forces were assembled and ready to deploy. Generals and admirals knew then, as they should know now, that the success of any military action depends on meticulous planning. Failure to assess risk, map terrain, and identify enemy forces leads to increased casualties. It's a tragic consequence recognized by common soldiers in every war. How can any soldier be expected to do their duty if their boots are falling apart?

Next Monday will be Memorial Day, a public holiday established to honor and mourn the men and women who have given their lives in military service to the United States. It is fittingly a time of remembrance for the individuals we have lost in wars, but it should also be when we as a nation reflect on the tremendous cost of these conflicts. As citizens the best way to honor our fallen is to preserve our commitment to peace and reject all efforts to engage in another unjust and immoral war.    

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where everyone is hard at work
with no time for chitchat.

Chamber Music

 

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.

To finish this post on chamber music
here is the St. George Quintet

performing an arrangement
of The Beatles' hit song "Eleanor Rigby." 

Technically they seem to be
in a great hall or a nave in a church
but it's still music with class.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where soothing sounds of music play all weekend.

Five Family Orchestras

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?  
 

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.  

This my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where families are on the march for March.