Dudley Buck and the Secular Cantata

Abstract

In 1862 Dudley Buck (1839-1909) returned to his hometown of Hartford, Connecticut, after studying in Germany. Two years later he published his first anthems in Buck's Motette Collection, which included the first such items in the new romantic style composed by an American.' The volume sold well as a collection, and later many of the anthems enjoyed a long life of their own with individual republication. In 1871 he published his second volume of anthems, which proved even more popular.2 The next year-1872-Buck began composing his secular cantatas, which soon marked him as the most successful of a rising generation of new composers whose work would transform American choral music. Buck's secular cantatas appeared just as a major shift was occurring in American life in the way secular choral music was performed-it began to be organized and institutionalized in new ways. The spread of choral groups following mid-century, combined with advances in printing technology and distribution, further increased interest in choral singing, which produced an enormous market for choral music of all kinds: cantatas, odes, ballads, part songs, and oratorios. Moreover, the moralistic character of American secular culture during the last half of the century ensured that the larger choral works such as oratorio and secular cantata enjoyed widespread popularity owing to their blend of sacred and secular elements. By the last two decades of the century, Buck's secular cantatas and