Distributed Proofreaders was founded 25 years ago today, on October 1, 2000. In honor of that milestone, we’ve assembled some special Silver Anniversary projects for volunteers to work on. Visit Distributed Proofreaders to help us prepare them for Project Gutenberg and celebrate a quarter-century of preserving history one page at a time!
For the 25th Anniversary of Distributed Proofreaders, Hot off the Press is featuring an e-book, prepared for Project Gutenberg by Distributed Proofreaders volunteers, commemorating another venerable institution’s 25th Anniversary, from a century ago: Twenty-five Years of the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1900-1925, by Frances Anne Wister.
Wister devoted her life to the preservation of Philadelphia history and culture. She was born into a prominent old Philadelphia family (which also produced novelist Owen Wister, author of The Virginian) and used her wealth to support numerous civic causes. Among these was the nascent Philadelphia Orchestra, of which she became a director.
In the first chapter of Twenty-five Years of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Wister recounts the history of musical performance in Philadelphia, noting that the first documented public concert there wasn’t until 1757. Tickets were sold for a dollar (about US$50 today). Until then, performances were private, held in homes or churches. Wister credits American Founding Fathers Francis Hopkinson, who was a harpsichordist and composer, and Benjamin Franklin, who invented the glass harmonica, with encouraging public musical performances in Philadelphia.
Various musical societies comprised of both professionals and amateurs performed regularly in Philadelphia throughout the 19th Century, but it wasn’t until 1900 that the city had a professional orchestra of its own. A Women’s Committee (of which Wister was later a member) helped raise the funds and spread the word. German conductor Fritz Scheel conducted the first concert on November 16, 1900. The program included Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 played by Ossip Gabrilowitsch, and Wagner’s “Entry of the Gods into Valhalla” from his opera Das Rheingold. It was a success. Philadelphia had finally caught up with Boston, Chicago, and New York in having a home orchestra.
Wister’s inclusion of the various concert programs the orchestra performed in its first 25 years provides a fascinating glimpse into classical music tastes in the early 20th Century, with a heavy emphasis on German, Austrian, and Russian music. In 1916, for example, under the baton of the legendary Leopold Stokowski, the orchestra performed the U.S. premiere of Gustav Mahler’s monumental Eighth Symphony (the “Symphony of a Thousand”), with 110 orchestra players and 950 singers, making American musical history.
Thanks to the efforts of devoted volunteers like Frances Anne Wister, the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra is celebrating 125 years of great music this year. And, thanks to the efforts of devoted volunteers, Distributed Proofreaders is celebrating 25 years of great e-books and will soon reach the milestone of 50,000 titles contributed to Project Gutenberg. Stay tuned for that celebration!
This post was contributed by Linda Cantoni, a Distributed Proofreaders volunteer.
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