George Frederick Bristow by Katherine K. Preston

Abstract

Reviewed by: George Frederick Bristow by Katherine K. Preston Elizabeth Sallinger George Frederick Bristow. By Katherine K. Preston. (American Composers.) Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2020. [viii, 204 p. ISBN 9780252043420 (hardcover), $110; ISBN 9780252085321 (paperback), 29.95; ISBN 9780252052309 (e-book), price varies.] Discography, bibliography, illustrations, index. Katherine Preston’s biography of George Frederick Bristow (1825–1898) covers in detail the life of a lesser-known figure from the mainstream of music history. Preston examines the composer’s life within the context of related subtopics, including concert careers, music publishing, music societies, and US life in general. She also presents several recurring topics for discussion—notably, how to contend with the overall identity of US American music—while focusing on Bristow’s advocacy for his own music and that of other musicians. The composer’s broad career as a performer, composer, promoter, and music educator help situate Bristow and his works in a larger network of scholarship. The primary presentation of Preston’s work is chronological, beginning with Bristow’s education and early career then continuing through his major works and later career, and breaking off throughout on tangents that help position the composer among his contemporaries. The work is broken down further into lettered “inter-ludes,” which divide Bristow’s life and career into even smaller, digestible sections. The layout of the text, therefore, allows for an easy dissection of the various stages of Bristow’s progress, offering the reader a chance to focus on one [End Page 74] aspect or work, or to take in a detailed overview. Given that Bristow crossed paths with other major musical figures, such as Louis Jullien, William Henry Fry, and others, the biography also brings additional data on these contemporaries into the discussion, deepening the pool of information for readers to plumb. In presenting Bristow’s participation in several orchestras and musical societies in the nineteenth century, Preston offers a streamlined series of further connections between various performers, conductors, and publishers. Thus, in addition to providing a better view of Bristow’s life, these asides provide the reader with a better-honed understanding of musical life and production on a larger scale during that period. Specifically, Preston provides a table that lists not only Bristow’s concertizing life in a selected span of years (1854–60) but also what was played, the names of other featured performers, and the time and location of the concerts. A tool like this would aid in a study of Bri-stow, certainly, but it also allows a point of entry for researchers following up on other figures or performances. Preston also explores Bristow’s advocacy for better pianos and more widely available pianos for public purchase through his membership in the United States Mutual Pianoforte Association. An early section of the text relates to an issue in concert programming that still exists today: early United States composers were often excluded from concerts when they had new works to premiere. Orchestras instead would rely on European standard repertoire or works written by European immigrants. Bristow’s early works appear to have been a casualty of this practice, as were those of some of his contemporaries—even works by composers who emulated traditional European compositional sensibilities or tried to establish a more modern, unquestionably national approach or sound to their compositions. Preston reinforces Bristow as a nationalistic composer throughout, firmly suggesting how important this issue was to him as a working composer, with Bristow participating in the Manuscript Society, a group that promoted United States composers. Preston also points out Bristow’s contributions to finding a way to include US folk tunes, such as “negro melodies,” into larger works that predated Antonín Dvořák’s inclusion of such themes in his Symphony no. 9 in E Minor (“New World”), op. 95, acknowledging several other composers who used the same approach (p. 137). While no easy resolution is reached through the remainder of the biography regarding the problem of establishing a national musical identity, addressing this issue much earlier in the country’s timeline provides an opportunity to move this kind of discussion to a larger scale. Preston also addresses Bristow’s time spent as an educator...