Arthur Fiedler (December 17, 1894 – July 10, 1979)
was an American
conductor known for his association with both the
Boston Symphony and
Boston Pops
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart.
Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Sym ...
orchestras. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the United States. Fiedler was sometimes criticized for over-popularizing music, particularly when adapting popular songs or editing portions of the classical repertoire, but he kept performances informal and sometimes self-mocking to attract a bigger audience.
Life and career
Fiedler was born in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, the son of Johanna (Bernfeld) and Emanuel Fiedler.
His parents were Austrian Jewish immigrants. His father was a violinist who played in the
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 18 ...
, and his mother was a pianist. He grew up in Boston, and attended
Boston Latin School
The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in the British America and the oldest existing school in the United States. Its curriculum f ...
until his father retired in the early 1900s, and they moved to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, in 1910. The family soon moved again, to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
, where from 1911 to 1915 young Fiedler studied violin at the
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke ...
(''Hochschule für Musik Berlin'') under
Willy Hess.
Fiedler returned to Boston at the beginning of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. In 1915 he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra under
Karl Muck as a violinist. He also worked as a pianist, organist, and percussionist.
In 1924, Fiedler formed the Boston Sinfonietta,
a
chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small nu ...
orchestra composed of Boston Symphony members, and started a series of free outdoor concerts.
Fiedler was appointed the eighteenth conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1930.
While the position of conductor of the Boston Pops both prior to and after Fiedler tended to be a phase of a conductor's career, Fiedler made it his life's work, having the position for a half-century.
With Fiedler's direction, the Boston Pops reportedly made more recordings than any other orchestra in the world, most of them for
RCA Victor
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...
, with total sales exceeding $50 million. His recordings began in July 1935 at Boston's Symphony Hall with RCA Victor, including a world premiere recording of
Jacob Gade's "Jalousie", which eventually sold more than a million copies,
and the first complete recording of ''
Rhapsody in Blue'' by
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
(with
Jesús María Sanromá as
solo
Solo or SOLO may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Comics
* ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series
* Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics
Characters
* Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character
* Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''S ...
ist; around that time they also made the first recording of
Edward MacDowell
Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites '' Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and '' ...
's
Second Concerto). In 1946, he conducted the Boston Pops in one of the first American recordings devoted to excerpts from a film score,
Dmitri Tiomkin's music for the
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick (May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca'' (1940), both of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Picture.
...
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
epic ''
Duel in the Sun''. RCA Victor released an album of ten-inch 78-rpm discs complete with photographs from the film.
Fiedler's June 20, 1947, recording of ''
Gaîté Parisienne
''Gaîté Parisienne'' (literally, "Parisian Gaiety") is a 1938 ballet choreographed by Léonide Massine (1896-1979) to music by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) arranged and orchestrated many decades later by Manuel Rosenthal (1904-2003) in collabo ...
'' by
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach (, also , , ; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ' ...
was eventually released by RCA as their first long-playing classical album (RCA Victor LM-1001), in 1950. He recorded the same music in 1954 in stereo and began making regular stereo recordings in 1956. A number of Fiedler's recordings were released as 45-rpm "extended play" discs, beginning in 1949, such as
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
's ''
Marche Slave
The ''Marche slave'' () in B-flat minor, Op. 31, is an orchestral tone poem by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky published in 1876. It was written to celebrate Russia's intervention in the Serbian-Ottoman War.
Titling
It has been published variou ...
'' and
Ketèlbey's ''
In a Persian Market
''In a Persian Market'' is a piece of light classical music for orchestra with optional chorus by Albert Ketèlbey who composed it in 1920. Subtitled ''Intermezzo Scene'', it was published by Bosworth in 1921. It evokes exotic images of camel-d ...
'' (RCA Victor ERA-2). Besides recording light classics, Fiedler also recorded music from Broadway shows and Hollywood film scores, as well as arrangements of popular music, especially the
Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developm ...
. He and the Boston Pops occasionally recorded classical works that were favorites, but not considered as "light" as most of the pieces that he conducted. He made but a single recording with the Boston Symphony Orchestra:
Dvorak's ''
New World Symphony
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
''. There were also recordings of chamber music by his Sinfonietta. Fiedler and the Boston Pops recorded exclusively for RCA Victor until 1970 (though the label has continued to issue many new Fiedler/Boston Pops compilations and unreleased recordings), when they switched to
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
for classical releases with co-owned
Polydor Records
Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...
for his arrangements of
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...
compositions and then
London Records
London Recordings (or London Records and London Music Stream) is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London nam ...
. His last album, devoted to
disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric p ...
, was titled ''Saturday Night Fiedler''.
Fiedler was also associated with the
San Francisco Pops Orchestra
The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San Fra ...
for 26 summers (beginning during 1949), and conducted many other orchestras throughout the world. He was a featured conductor on several of NBC's ''
The Standard Hour'' programs in 1950 and 1951, conducting the San Francisco Symphony in the
War Memorial Opera House; the performances were preserved on transcription discs and later released on audio cassette.
In very rare visiting performances, Fiedler accepted the invitation to conduct
Don Caneva Donald Earnest Caneva (October 10, 1936 – August 29, 2008) was an American internationally renowned, third generation band director, conductor, music editor, festival founder and band music educator.
Early life and education
Donald Earnest Canev ...
's
John Hersey High School Bands after reviewing their latest recordings. Caneva said, “I was tremendously pleased and delighted when he said he would accept our invitation, after hearing a recent recording of the band." Fiedler ended up conducting twice for Caneva's bands in 1971 and 1972. In the final 1972 performance the band opened the Symphonic Winds portion of the concert with the "Festive Overture" by
Dmitri Schostakovich, followed with the "American Salute" by
Morton Gould. For the conclusion of this portion, Fiedler chose "The Finale From The New World Symphony" by
Anton Dvorak
Anton may refer to: People
*Anton (given name), including a list of people with the given name
*Anton (surname)
Places
*Anton Municipality, Bulgaria
**Anton, Sofia Province, a village
*Antón District, Panama
**Antón, a town and capital of th ...
. He also conducted
Leroy Anderson's "Serenata" with the high school band.
Fiedler had many different hobbies. He was fascinated by the work of firefighters and would travel in his own vehicle to large fires in and around Boston at any time of the day or night to watch the firefighters at work. He was even made an "Honorary Captain" in the Boston Fire Department. A number of other fire departments gave him honorary fire helmets and/or badges. The official biography of Fiedler reports that the conductor once helped in the rescue efforts at the tragic
Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston in 1942. An avid sailor, he volunteered during the early days of World War II for the Temporary Reserve of the
U.S. Coast Guard and was later a member of the
Coast Guard Auxiliary
The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary (USCGA, USCGAUX, CGAux, or USCG Aux) is the civilian uniformed volunteer component of the United States Coast Guard. Congress established the unit on 23 June 1939, as the United States Coast Guard Reserve ...
.
Fiedler conducted at the nationally televised opening ceremonies of
Walt Disney World
The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...
in 1971. He also appeared on numerous telecasts on ''
Evening at Pops
''Evening at Pops'' is an American concert television series produced by WGBH-TV. It is one of the longest-running programs on PBS, airing from 1970 to 2004. The program was a public television version of a variety show, featuring performances by ...
'', carried on
PBS stations nationwide.
In 1972, Fiedler was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...
.
Fiedler is best remembered by contemporary audiences for his conducting of the Boston Pops at the outdoor
Hatch Memorial Shell on the July 4, 1976, celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial. The rendition of the
1812 Overture
''The Year 1812, Solemn Overture'', Op. 49, popularly known as the ''1812 Overture'', is a concert overture in E major written in 1880 by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to commemorate the successful Russian defense against Napoleon I ...
led by a jacketless and demonstrative Fiedler, capped by a huge fireworks finale over the
Charles River
The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles bac ...
was the climax of all day long network television coverage. The video of the aged but obviously delighted Fiedler puffing out his cheeks to the beat of the music and mugging for his musicians was one of the most talked about images of the country's celebration.
In honor of Fiedler's influence on American music, on October 23, 1976, he was awarded the prestigious
University of Pennsylvania Glee Club
Founded in 1862, the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club (Penn Glee Club) is one of the oldest continually running glee clubs in the United States and the oldest performing arts group at the University of Pennsylvania. The Club draws its singing ...
Award of Merit. Beginning in 1964, this award "established to bring a declaration of appreciation to an individual each year that has made a significant contribution to the world of music and helped to create a climate in which our talents may find valid expression."
On January 10, 1977, Fiedler was presented with the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...
by President
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
.
Personal life
In 1942, Fiedler married Ellen Bottomley, and they had three children:
Johanna
Johanna is a feminine name, a variant form of Joanna that originated in Latin in the Middle Ages, including an -h- by analogy with the Latin masculine name Johannes. The original Greek form ''Iōanna'' lacks a medial /h/ because in Greek /h/ c ...
, Deborah, and Peter.
In 1994,
Doubleday published a book written by his daughter, Johanna, titled ''Arthur Fiedler: Papa, the Pops and Me''.
Death
In December 1978, Fiedler underwent brain surgery at
Tufts Medical Center after suffering congestive heart failure. He recovered two weeks after celebrating his 84th birthday. His final Boston Pops season was in 1979. The season began on May 1 with a concert to mark Fiedler's 50th year as the orchestra's conductor. The works he conducted at that concert include Jacques Offenbach's Overture to ''
La belle Hélène
''La belle Hélène'' (, ''The Beautiful Helen'') is an opéra bouffe in three acts, with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. The piece parodies the story of Helen of Troy, Helen's elopement with Paris (myt ...
'', Gershwin's ''
An American in Paris'' and ''
Rhapsody in Blue'', and Sousa's "
The Stars and Stripes Forever".
Morton Gould composed a work for the occasion: a march titled "Cheers!". Earl Wild played the piano solo for ''Rhapsody in Blue''. The concert was broadcast on
WGBH WGBH may refer to:
* WGBH Educational Foundation, based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States
** WGBH (FM), a public radio station at Boston, Massachusetts on 89.7 MHz owned by the WGBH Educational Foundation
** WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV (channel 2), ...
for its ''Evening at Pops'' program. Fiedler made a valedictory appearance on May 5, 1979, with
James Galway
Sir James Galway (born 8 December 1939) is an Irish virtuoso flute player from Belfast, nicknamed "The Man with the Golden Flute". He established an international career as a solo flute player. In 2005, he received the Brit Award for Outsta ...
as a flute soloist. He died two months later on July 10 at his
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Allston, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and ...
, home.
On July 15, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra performed a recreation of the July 4, 1976, concert at the
Hatch Memorial Shell. It was conducted by the Boston Pops' assistant conductor, Harry Ellis Dickson. Fiedler's funeral service was held at the
Memorial Church of Harvard University
The Memorial Church of Harvard University is a building on the campus of Harvard University. It is an inter-denominational Protestant church.
History Predecessors
The first distinct building for worship at Harvard University was Holden Chapel, b ...
and his ashes were interred at
St. Joseph Cemetery in West Roxbury.
In 1984, Boston honored him with a stylized sculpture, an
oversized bust of Fiedler, near the
Charles River Esplanade. This area is home to the free concert series that continues through the present day. Composer
John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review '' WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...
succeeded Fiedler as the orchestra's nineteenth director. His widow, Ellen Bottomley Fiedler, died October 25, 1984, in Framingham, Massachusetts, at the age of 70.
Fiedler's collection of programs, photographs and personal notes are now housed within the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center of
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...
. The university has a reading room named after him; it contains his personal collection of scores and books.
See also
*
Arthur Fiedler Footbridge
* ''
Arthur Fiedler Memorial''
References
Sources
*
*
*
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Arthur Fiedler Memorial sculpture official siteArthur Fiedler recordingsat the
Discography of American Historical Recordings
The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...
"Remarks Upon Presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom" The American Presidency Project.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiedler, Arthur
1894 births
1979 deaths
20th-century American conductors (music)
20th-century American male musicians
American male conductors (music)
American people of Austrian-Jewish descent
Classical musicians from Massachusetts
Culture of Boston
Deutsche Grammophon artists
Easy listening musicians
Jewish American classical musicians
Musicians from Boston
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
RCA Victor artists
20th-century American Jews
United States Coast Guard auxiliarists