Edwin Franko Goldman was an American composer and conductor.
Background
Goldman was born on January 1, 1878 in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of David Henry Goldman, a lawyer and amateur musician, and his first cousin Selma Franko. The Franko (originally Holländer) family had emigrated from Germany and was known for its musicians - Goldman's mother and her four brothers and sisters, child prodigies on the piano and violin, toured professionally in 1869 and the early 1870's. After the death of Goldman's father in 1887, his mother moved the family to New York City, the home of her parents, where she gave violin and piano lessons.
Education
Goldman had his first musical instruction from George Wiegand and Alfred Remy, and played the cornet in the asylum's band. His mother gave him piano lessons for three years. He attended the National Conservatory of Music on a scholarship (1892-1893). Goldman studied the cornet with Carl Sohst and was in the Conservatory orchestra class. He also received free lessons from the pioneer cornet soloist Jules Levy.
Career
In 1893 Goldman was hired as librarian, performer, and general assistant in the orchestra of his uncle Nahan Franko. Working under the name Edwin G. Franko, he learned the life of the professional orchestra musician, playing in theaters and hotels, and with touring opera companies. He became experienced as a business manager and by 1897 was hiring personnel for Franko's orchestra and handling the payroll. Starting at the age of twenty-three, he worked for eight seasons (1901-1908) as cornetist in the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera House, where Nahan Franko was concertmaster (later conductor). He used his own name professionally from this time on. From 1909 until 1919 Goldman worked for the music publisher Carl Fischer as editor and writer. He gained an excellent reputation as an educator and attracted a large number of private students in cornet and trumpet. Fischer eventually became Goldman's publisher; of his six books and technical studies, the influential Foundation to Cornet Playing (1914; revised 1936) is the most notable. In 1911 Goldman formed The New York Military Band, with himself as conductor, for the purpose of giving outdoor concerts. At this time municipal band music in New York City was at a low ebb, creating opportunities for a musician of Goldman's abilities and enterprise. The New York Military Band (the name was changed to the Goldman Band in 1922) became a superior and uniquely durable concert organization. The band appeared irregularly until 1918, when it gave its first full season of about thirty summer concerts at Columbia University. The series became annual events and through 1922 were held on the Columbia campus. Beginning in 1923, the concerts were given primarily in Central Park and Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The most important factor in the survival of the band was the financial support of Daniel and Murry Guggenheim. In 1924 the Guggenheim family (later the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation) assumed support of the series. Goldman's fame resulted from his close association with radio from the earliest days of the medium. On November 13, 1926, the band was heard on the first NBC network program; New York radio had already carried its concerts for three years. In addition to regular studio programs, all the summer concerts were also broadcast. Goldman composed 104 marches for band and fifty other light vocal and instrumental pieces. His march On the Mall (1923), written for the opening of the Elkan Naumburg bandstand in Central Park, was a great popular favorite and became a standard with bands in the United States and abroad. His concern for the improvement of American bands and band music led him to form the American Bandmasters Association in 1929. The aims of the organization were raising artistic standards of bands, promoting a universal band instrumentation, and enlarging the repertory. Goldman brought to band work the knowledge and techniques of a classical training and the discipline of an experienced orchestra musician. His promotion and performance of new music during his long career (he conducted until 1955) was responsible for the emergence of the modern repertory of the concert band. Goldman died at Montefiore Hospital in New York on February 21, 1956.
Achievements
One of the most significant American band composers of the early 20th century, Goldman composed over 150 works, but is best known for his marches. He founded the renowned Goldman Band of New York City and the American Bandmasters Association. His band was noted for its shading, flexibility, and precision. His ideas about instrumentation, and even the seating arrangement of the band, touched school bands throughout the United States.
