Church Music Association Concert

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Conductor(s):
Charles Edward Horsley

Event Type:
Choral

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
18 October 2025

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

28 Apr 1874, Evening

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
LIST OF PERFORMER(S)/ORGANIZATION(S)
Participants:  Orchestra, unidentified;  Church Music Association
2)
Mass, H. XXII, 12, B-flat major
aka Mass, no. 16
Composer(s): Haydn
3)
Athalie
Composer(s): Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Citations

1)
: Strong, George Templeton. New-York Historical Society. The Diaries of George Templeton Strong, 1863-1869: Musical Excerpts from the MSs, transcribed by Mary Simonson. ed. by Christopher Bruhn., 28 April 1874.

“Busy day. C. M. A. concert tonight. House fairly full in spite of tempest. Stayed through the lovely, healthy Haydn Mass. I guess this will be the last C. M. A. concert, under its original regime at least. Working to get up fine renderings of Haydn & Beethoven for a New York audience is like diving for pearls to be thrown before swine. The majority of our concert-goers have neither culture enough to enjoy the music nor good breeding enough to let others enjoy it uninterrupted by gabble. I feel glumpy & dumpy.”

2)
: Strong, George Templeton. New-York Historical Society. The Diaries of George Templeton Strong, 1863-1869: Musical Excerpts from the MSs, transcribed by Mary Simonson. ed. by Christopher Bruhn., 28 May 1874.

"Horsley is trying for another C. M. A. season, & sends me a subscription paper. May he succeed, but he probably will not." 

3)
: Strong, George Templeton. New-York Historical Society. The Diaries of George Templeton Strong, 1863-1869: Musical Excerpts from the MSs, transcribed by Mary Simonson. ed. by Christopher Bruhn., 08 September 1874.

"Horsley opens an active C. M. A. campaign & hopes for another season. May he succeed! Cooke, Edmund, & I are out of that boat now, thank Heaven!"

4)
: Strong, George Templeton. New-York Historical Society. The Diaries of George Templeton Strong, 1863-1869: Musical Excerpts from the MSs, transcribed by Mary Simonson. ed. by Christopher Bruhn., 23 September 1874.

"Horsley has secured one Sanford for president of the C. M. A. He is said to be rich, unemployed, & an earnest lover of music. Richard Grant White & one or two more are to be vice-presidents. Another season seems probable. I hope so. I should be sorry to see that fine chorus collapse & disintegrate. Horsley evidently means to run the machine himself, with these laymen as ornamental assessors. He is likely to blunder in his choice of music. English audiences and American audiences differ in taste. We can’t stand much Handel, the Messiah excepted. Horsley proposes bringing out the Dettingen Te Deum. I predict it will be pronounced a bore."

5)
: Strong, George Templeton. New-York Historical Society. The Diaries of George Templeton Strong, 1863-1869: Musical Excerpts from the MSs, transcribed by Mary Simonson. ed. by Christopher Bruhn., 17 October 1874.

"Horsley has filled up his C. M. A. subscription list. His new president, Samuel S. Sanford, led off with a subscription of $1500.00, Good for Sanford! The vice-presidents (there is no committee) are a queer assortment: General Barnard, Richard Grant White, Clarence Seward, Rev. Santon, & Jacob Wrey Mould (!). I am glad the association has passed safely through the critical process of casting its skin."

6)
: Strong, George Templeton. New-York Historical Society. The Diaries of George Templeton Strong, 1863-1869: Musical Excerpts from the MSs, transcribed by Mary Simonson. ed. by Christopher Bruhn., 16 November 1874.

"Horsley is in affliction. Mr. Samuel S. Sanford withdraws from the presidency of the C. M. A., taking with him his subscription of $1500.00 because some of the 'fashionable' patrons of the association have not renewed their subscriptions. Rather a snobbish reason for withdrawing. But so it is, and the C. M. A. probably exhales altogether from the face of the earth, tenues in auras—which is rather a pity."

7)
: Strong, George Templeton. New-York Historical Society. The Diaries of George Templeton Strong, 1863-1869: Musical Excerpts from the MSs, transcribed by Mary Simonson. ed. by Christopher Bruhn., 25 November 1874.

"Horsley still hopes to keep the Church Music Association alive by a re-organization under the auspices of Charles C. Dodge & John Stephenson, the car builder."