Harvard Musical Association
[5] In light of the College's attitude and decreasing undergraduate participation,[3] the membership agreed not to mention Harvard at its meetings (a ban that remained in effect for twenty-four years) and turned its capacities toward the advancement of music in Boston.
The association's first undertaking was the establishment of an annual lecture series, delivered on erudite musical topics by qualified individuals.
The lecture series in itself lasted five years, with speakers Henry R. Cleveland (1840), John Sullivan Dwight (1841), William Whetmore Story (1842), Ezra Weston (1843), and Christopher P. Cranch (1845).
Ten years later the members of the association raised an additional $60,000 to install in the hall an organ built in Germany by Walcker.
Regarded as the largest organ in the United States, this instrument contained 5,474 pipes and 84 registers and may now be heard (altered by Æolian–Skinner) in its own hall in Methuen.
After the disbanding of the Harvard Orchestra in 1882, the association stopped all direct participation in the Boston music scene, and continued to host concerts for the pleasure of members only.
With bequests from various members, it soon assembled many books and scores which were assessed by the Salem Register in 1843 as constituting the "largest and best musical library in the country."
Annoyed because of his large expenditures on the Festival Theater, the venue at which he had intended to hold the performance, and bureaucratic opposition, he said in a letter to American dentist Newell S. Jenkins: "It seems to me as if, in my hopes of regarding Germany and her future, my patience would very soon be exhausted.
"[11] In a display of his notorious ego,[12] Wagner proposed that if an American organization would give him $1,000,000, he would agree to come to the United States, to live there permanently, and to put on the first performance of Parsifal.
Then, the association would gather ten to twelve times a year to hear some of the leading chamber musicians of the day and to share a post-concert supper.
Whether the white-tie-and-oyster affair of the 19th century or the baked bean, Welsh rarebit, and ale collation of the present, the social evening remains the heart of the organization.
The condition of Marsh's bequest was that the room in her honor be open during weekdays (provided there's no association gathering) to local musicians for practice.
Of the builders of the association, particular mention should be made of John Sullivan Dwight, a noted transcendentalist and member of the Brook Farm movement, who for many years published a recondite Journal of Music and was widely known as one of the nation's outstanding musicologists.
[14] Courtenay Guild, an important figure during the first half of the 20th century, served as president of the association for twenty-five of the sixty years he was a member.
The recital was attended by over 100 invited guests, and included the "Waldstein" Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven as well as notable etudes by Alexander Scriabin, Moritz Moszkowski, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
In October 1992, the association marked the centennial of its arrival at 57A Chestnut Street by reproducing the opening of one hundred years earlier.
After these performances and hors d'œuvres, ninety members of the association ascended to the Marsh Room where, over the next three hours, a seven-course candlelight feast was consumed.
Improvements to the association's rooms both for the comfort of members and guests as well as for the safety of the building and collections have been the major undertakings during the past nine years.
Kilmer McCully, president from 1994 to 1997 began the program of improvements with the design and construction of new men's and ladies' rooms and a new commercial kitchen.
