The Lost Accord

That is why the lack of harmony in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s plight is so tragic. Music is a luxury. When musicians go out on strike, they only hurt themselves and a handful of concert-goers. A PTC strike or an auto il1dustry strike or almost any kind of strike you can think of is different. It really shakes up a lot of lives.

But for its size, the dispute grabbed a lot of headlines. Music isn’t a bread and butter issue, but it is a soul issue — and in this case, a symptom of a larger cultural malaise. Even though the orchestra survived the present crisis intact, there is every indication that more crises lie ahead.

WE’VE GOT TROUBLE. Other major symphony orchestras in the country are in trouble. Last month the Los Angeles Philharmonic canceled its season because of financial difficulties in meeting the demands of orchestra members for increased salary and other benefits. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra finally settled its labor problems in October but not until after many of its best musicians had quit for more harmonious pastures. One of this city’s authorities on music suggests the symphony orchestra is a dinosaur that will become extinct if it can’t adjust to the changing environment.

That is why the troubles of the Philadelphia Orchestra are more important than the livelihood of 106 musicians or the listening pleasure of 12,000 local concert subscribers, or the potential local audience of children and adults who should have been reached, but haven’t been. The dispute was even more important than the blow to the city’s image if it lost its best claim to international fame. The local difficulty has to do with the future of all symphony orchestras.

The symphony orchestra, as we know it, is an American contribution. Early European orchestras backed up vocal music, but by the middle of the 17th century when musical instruments were being improved, composers began to write scores for instruments alone. Haydn wrote symphonies, but the orchestra that played them would have umbered about 18 men. Over the years, more instruments were added to the orchestra, but in Europe, opera retained its ascendancy over symphony. In 20th century America, though, opera was too expensive to produce and patrons began switching to orchestral programs. As the audiences grew, the concert halls grew to accommodate them, and as the halls got larger they needed more orchestral power. In Europe the symphony orchestra remained, for the most part, an ancillary to the opera. Here it superseded opera in most cases and produced a leviathan of great size and proficiency.

Originally in Europe the government controlled music. When monarchs were deposed, the state took over. In this country there was no monarchy, so people who could afford it assumed the responsibility for running the show. In this city, the Philadelphia Symphony Society, which gave its first concert in 1900 with Fritz Scheel conducting, had a rough go financial1y. Not many people came to the performances. But a women’s committee raised money and drummed up customers and in the early years board members like Edward Bok and board president Alexander Van Rensselaer (who reportedly had never heard a note of straight orchestral music in his life up to the point he agreed to become president) would reach into their pockets to help make up deficits.