The ''American Quartette'' was a mixed

vocal quartet In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...

of the

chatauqua Chautauqua ( ) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua bro ...

circuit in the 1920s, consisting of

coloratura soprano A coloratura soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that specializes in music that is distinguished by agile runs, leaps and trills. The term '' coloratura'' refers to the elaborate ornamentation of a melody, which is a typical component o ...

Helen Bickerton, contralto Esther Muenstermann, lyric tenor B. Fred Wise, and

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

Raymund Koch under the direction of Edwin Stanley Seder. Muenstermann had previously performed with the

Redpath Grand Opera Company Redpath may refer to: Businesses * Redpath Motor Vehicle Company, a former Canadian automaker * Redpath Sugar, a Canadian sugar refining company People * Redpath (surname), a list of people with the surname Redpath Places * Redpath, Sco ...

, singing the role of Donna Angelica in their 1913 production of Parelli's ''

A Lovers' Quarrel A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

''. Koch went on to a solo career, including an appearance at the

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

May Festival in 192

Bickerton and Koch toured togethe

each recording for the

Majestic Records Majestic Records was a mid-20th century record label based in New York City, incorporated in 1945 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Majestic Radio & Television. The label enjoyed its greatest commercial success in the 1940s until expansion and supp ...

label in February 1930.Ross Laird, "Brunswick Records: A Discography of Recordings, 1916-1931, Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, Brunswick Radio Corporation (2001)Greenwood Publishing, page 1147. Seder had been assistant professor of piano and theory of music, and the director of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque from 1914. He was a member of

Phi Kappa Phi The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education ...

, Sigma Chi and a Fellow of the American Guild of Organistsbr>
In later years he was professor of organ at Northwestern University, the organist and choir director at People’s Church in Chicago, and the organist of the Chicago Sunday Evening Club, which met in Orchestra Hal

References

{{reflist Vocal quartets