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Page 14 text:
“
NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC latter commanded such prices for their services as to put them beyond the reach of the poor. The conservatory system of Europe was without illustration in this country; and its later discovery was to me a revelation. The possibilities of which I undertook to realize to my countrymen. Dr. TourK e ' s first effort to establish the class system for musical education was made at Fall River, Mass., in 1853. In 1859 he obtained a charter for and organized a musical institute in connection with the Academy at Fast Greenwich, R. I. In 1863, Dr. Tourjee made a trip to Furope and personally studied in and investigated the methods of the European conservatories, which fired him with enthusiasm on his return to start a larger school, which he did at Providence, R.I., in 1864. However, his constant ambition was to establish a music-school in Boston, and finally his dream was realized when on Monday, February 18th, 1867, the New Fngland Conservatory opened its first classes in the Central Music Hall Building of Boston. The faculty of this new school included the foremost musicians of the day, being as follows: pianoforte, Otto Dresel, B. J. Lang, Frnst Perabo, Stephen A. Fmery, Robert Goldbeck; harmony and composition, Messrs. Goldbeck and Fmery; instrumentation, Carl Zerrahn; vocal culture, Signor Dama, Messrs. Zerrahn and Tourjee; organ, S. P. Tuckerman, George F. Whiting; violin, VV. H. Schultze; violoncello, Wulf Fries; contrabass, August Stein. In 1870 the New Fngland Conservatory was incorporated, and in that year the first class was graduated. The school remained in the Music Hall building until 1882, when, indeed, it had grown to be a flourishing institution with an enrollment of about 700 stu- dents, an extremely significant fact when we stop to think of the striking contrast offered between conditions for music-study existing in the homes then and now. Today the most modest of homes possesses its piano as a matter of course, while in those days even the more pretentious homes could boast of nothing better than a cabinet organ; today music-study is regarded as a necessary part of every child ' s education, whereas then it was still considered as an accomplish- ment to be cultivated almost exclusively by the affluent leisure-class. It is such schools as this that have wrought the change. The year 1SS2 found Dr. Tourjee still pushing on with a never-waning enthu- siasm toward the development of a school still larger and covering an even broader held of instruction, for it was his theory that perfect education requires the symmetrical development of all the faculties. In accordance with this idea, he desired to add to the courses already included in the curriculum, departments of oratory, fine arts, and physical culture, and also to establish a home for women students in the school. For this purpose the St. James Hotel in Franklin Square Page ten
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Page 15 text:
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CLASS OF NINETEEN SEVENTEEN was purchased and converted to the uses of the Conservatory, including the new departments and home. During the fifteen years at the Music Hall Building, the Conservatory had become a well-paying private institution, Dr. Tourjee necessarily profiting thereby but in order to realize his ideals in connection with this new enterprise and for the sake of perpetuating this school of his heart, our founder turned over his entire property, amounting to about $50,000 in its behalf, and voluntarily gave it all into the hands of a board of trustees. That his hopes and ambitions were well-founded, and his investment timely, is proved by the fact that during the first year in the new building the number of pupils more than doubled itself, the enrollment amounting to over 1600. hile these closely related, but not strictly musical, departments of oratory, fine arts, etc., were entirely successful and productive of great good, study along those lines has gradually, during the development of the school, been relegated to those other schools which have later come into existence, specializing along these same lines, and the Conservatory has rightly conformed to the spirit of the times in itself specializing as a school of music. It is always timely, and especially so at the end of this brimming half-century, to look backward with affectionate gratitude to the one who gave life to our be- loved school; and let us never forget that in creating for us this fair heritage, Dr. Tourjee gave not only his time, his unflagging efforts, his exceptional enthu- siasm, but all he possessed, and finally his own life. What greater offering can man make? Page eleven
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