Henssler Frederick (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Fair. Autograph Album (5¼" x 7½"). Contains over 40 pages of manuscript entries, including several by prominent musicians illustrated with staffs of music, and one illustrated with a pen & ink drawing by Peter Baumgras. Contemporary dark blue morocco over boards, decorative lettering stamped in gold on the front and back covers, with the same decorative lettering embossed in gold on the title page above the J.C. Riker imprint. Lacking the leather spine back, boards are rubbed and worn at the edges and corners, text block is partially split and shaken, else internally very good. A remarkable autograph album dating from the early years of the Academy of Music, a New York City opera house located in downtown Manhattan. Since its opening in October, 1854, the Academy engaged the celebrated Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company to perform an annual season at the hall (up through 1878). As noted in an 1897 obituary laid into the album: "Maretzek was the means of bringing many of the famous singers of his time to this country ." Other opera companies active at the Academy at this time include the Havana Italian Opera Troupe, and the Max Strakosch Italian Opera Company (which began performing in 1860 and merged with Maretzek's company in 1868). Frederick Henssler was appointed the Academy's Choral Director in 1856. Most of the entries in his autograph album date from 1856-59, when Henssler was serving as choral director in New York City and residing off season in Syracuse, and from when he was on tour with Academy musicians, including a five-month tour in Cuba (1858-59). There are a few additional entries dating up through 1861, and two later entries from 1879. Among the autograph entries of musicians, including some in Spanish from colleagues in Cuba, most are illustrated with music, including an attractive entry from May, 1859 by the Prussian-born conductor and composer Carl Anschuetz [Karl Anschütz]. Soon after his arrival to the United States in 1857 (with Bernard Ullman's Italian opera troupe), he became an important and beloved figure in the New York music scene: in 1862 he founded the German opera in New York, and was active in the establishment of the New York Conservatory of Music. Included among Henssler's other friends is an 1857 entry from Syracuse illustrated with a beautifully rendered pen & ink drawing by the Austrian-born American artist Peter Baumgras. Baumgras is best known today for his portrait of Abraham Lincoln (now at Brown University), and is regarded by art historian William Gerdts as "Washington's finest master of still life". A compelling album worthy of further research, containing autograph entries by many leading international and New York based musicians associated with Manhattan's Academy of Music in the 1850s.