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Enlist: On Which Side of the Window are
You?, Laura Brey, U.S., 1917
The recruitment poster at right, from the Pritzker Military Museum & Library collections, shows a civilian man looking out a window as soldiers march to service.
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Boston Globe, March 26, 1918
For a Boston Symphony Orchestra performance in Providence on October 30, 1917, several Rhode Island ladies’ clubs had contacted orchestra manager Charles Ellis, requesting the addition of The Star-Spangled Banner to the concert. After consulting with BSO founder Henry Higginson, Ellis decided not to change the program. Unaware of the request, music director Karl Muck—born in Germany but naturalized as a Swiss citizen—after the concert was accused in the press of working for the German cause and eventually arrested on March 25, 1918. He also was imprisoned at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia until August 1919, when he and his wife were deported. The article is here.
Ernst and Lina Kunwald, December 8, 1917 (National Archives and Records Administration)
Music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 1912, Ernst Kunwald continued to express pride in his Austrian heritage during the war. He led The Star-Spangled Banner before one concert but only after expressing to the orchestra and the mostly German audience that his sympathies were with his homeland. Kunwald was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service on December 8, 1917, and released the following day, whereupon he resigned his post as conductor. One month later, he was interned under the Alien Enemies Act at Fort Oglethorpe and was deported soon thereafter.
Theodore Thomas and Frederick Stock
At the invitation of founder and first music director Theodore Thomas, Frederick Stock came to the U.S. in 1895 to join the Orchestra as assistant principal viola. He applied for his first U.S. citizenship papers four days after his arrival, but inadvertently neglected to complete the process. He was promoted to assistant conductor in 1899, and shortly after Thomas’s unexpected death on January 4, 1905, the board of trustees soon elected Frederick Stock as the Orchestra’s second music director on April 11.
Columbia Graphophone Company 1917 recording
Stock’s arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner
In 1916, on the eve of U.S. involvement in the war, President Woodrow Wilson ordered The Star-Spangled Banner to be played at military and other notable events. Stock made his own orchestration of the Banner along with America (My Country ’Tis of Thee) and recorded both with the Orchestra for the Columbia Graphophone Company on May 28, 1917.
Stock’s fingerprints (FBI Case Files, National Archives)
When the trustees encouraged Stock to finalize his citizenship—to deflect concerns over his German heritage—he discovered that his 1895 application was invalid and needed to start the process a second time. But first, Stock had to submit a Registration Affidavit of Alien Enemy, complete with fingerprints, on February 7, 1918.
With his citizenship status incomplete and the country at war, on August 17, 1918, Frederick Stock made the decision to resign, asserting his loyalty to the U.S. “I do not hesitate to classify myself as American, because all who know me are aware that at heart, in thought and in spirit, as well as in action and deed, I am American, just as willing as any patriot to give my last drop of blood and my last penny for the land of my adoption and of my affections.” Stock’s handwritten letter and a transcript are here.
The trustees of the Orchestral Association reluctantly accepted Stock’s resignation on October 1, 1918. Acknowledging that he had changed the language at rehearsals to English in 1914 and had programmed countless works by American composers, the board expressed its hope that the separation would be temporary, and it would soon be their “joy to welcome to our conductor’s stand Citizen Stock.” The transcript of the board meeting minutes is here.
Eric DeLamarter
Chicago composer Eric DeLamarter, was hired as assistant conductor and led the first concerts of the 1918-19 season. DeLamarter also served as organist at Fourth Presbyterian Church from 1914 and as the first conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival beginning in 1935.
Chicago Daily News, February 20, 1919
At the trustees’ meeting on February 14, 1919, Orchestra manager Frederick Wessels reported that Stock “had complied with all the requirements of the law,” having filed the necessary papers on February 7; ninety days later, his citizenship would be complete. The executive committee met five days later and unanimously resolved that Stock should resume his music directorship the following week.
February 28, 1919
On February 28, 1919, “as Mr. Stock came through the door . . . cheers sounded in the upper tiers, and the audience rose to utter its gladness that he was back at the post.” That evening’s program began with The Star-Spangled Banner and concluded with the world premiere of Stock’s new March and Hymn to Democracy, “conceived,” according to the composer, “in the spirit of our day, a spirit, indeed, of world-wide turbulence and strife, but also a spirit imbued with unending hope and implicit faith in the ultimate regeneration of humanity.”
Linda Wolfe at the Frederick Stock School
Linda Wolfe, Stock’s great-granddaughter, added: “Most of Frederick Stock’s adult life had been with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—ten years as a violist and thirteen as music director—when he was classified as an alien enemy. He was forced to temporarily step down from the podium, and I cannot imagine his anguish and heartache. However, Stock’s devotion to the ensemble and the city did not waver during this dark time, as he spent his exile developing plans for the Civic Orchestra, the series of children’s concerts, and the youth auditions, all endeavors that continue to thrive today.”
Wolfe is pictured here at the Frederick Stock School in Chicago’s Edison Park neighborhood. Opened in 1955, Stock School is a Chicago Public School early childhood center for students between the ages of three and five, providing a model program for children with and without disabilities.
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A Time for Reflection—A Message of Peace—a companion exhibit curated by the Rosenthal Archives of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library—will be on display in Symphony Center’s first-floor rotunda from October 2 through November 18, and the content also will be presented on CSO Sounds & Stories and the From the Archives blog.
This article also appears here. For event listings, please visit cso.org/armistice.
This exhibit is presented with the generous support of COL (IL) Jennifer N. Pritzker, IL ARNG (Retired), Founder and Chair, Pritzker Military Museum & Library, through the Pritzker Military Foundation.
Additional thanks to Shawn Sheehy and Jenna Harmon, along with the Arts Club of Chicago, Newberry Library, Poetry Foundation, and Ravinia Festival Association.
A quintet of musicians—including Chicago Symphony Orchestra members J. Lawrie Bloom, Richard Graef, Dennis Michel, and James Smelser—took time out of their busy schedules today to visit the kids and teachers at Frederick Stock School (named for the Orchestra’s second music director) in Chicago’s Edison Park neighborhood. The ensemble played several selections together and each musician spoke to the assembly, describing their instrument and demonstrating its range and versatility. A great time was had by all!
The visit was presented under the auspices of the CSO’s Institute for Learning, Access, and Training.
The quintet—Richard Graef, Anne Bach, Dennis Michel, James Smelser, and J. Lawrie Bloom—entertains Stock’s kids and teachers
James Smelser demonstrates different horn calls
J. Lawrie Bloom describes his clarinet to Stock kids
Dennis Michel shows Stock kids just how low a bassoon can play
Storyteller Megan Wells in action (photo by Todd Rosenberg)
CSO oboe Lora Schaefer (Baby Bear), bass Alexander Hanna (Papa Bear), and viola Diane Mues (Mama Bear) (photo by Todd Rosenberg)
One of my favorite partnerships is the one we have with the Frederick Stock School, named for the CSO’s second music director. As often as possible, we reach out to the school to include them in our programs and also volunteer for their special events.
On November 5, nearly 100 kids, teachers, and chaperones from the school attended a performance of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” at Symphony Center. The program is part of the CSO’s Once Upon a Symphony series, designed specifically for kids age three to five and perfect for the Stock kids. The interactive multi-media presentation (in collaboration with Chicago Children’s Theatre), adapted and written by storyteller Megan Wells, features costumes and sets, video, and performances by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
And to say thank you, the kids from Stock School sent us some homemade cards!
I always look forward to the first Friday in June, because I get to take the day off and volunteer for Family Fun Day at the Frederick Stock School (named for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s second music director). Way up in Chicago’s Edison Park neighborhood, the school is an early childhood learning center for students with and without disabilities, ages three to five. It’s an amazing place with an amazing faculty, to say the least.
The day always begins with a parade around the neighborhood. This year, former principal (and the new head of Chicago Public School’s Office of Specialized Services) Richard Smith served as the grand marshal, led by members of the Chicago Police and Fire departments and the Kelvyn Park High School marching band.
After a performance by the Stock Cheerleaders (always a highlight), the students participate in a relay race as their families cheer them on, and all finishers are awarded a medal. (I had the honor of awarding a number of medals and I can assure you that everyone finished the race!) Next are a number of different activities including running the obstacle course, having your face painted, and competing in a hula hoop contest, followed by tours of fire trucks and demonstrations by officers from the K-9 and mounted units. Finally, everyone enjoys a cookout and sing-a-long entertainment by the amazing Nelson Gill.
It’s a great way to kick off the summer.
from the archives 