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(This edition is the first publication of The Oratorio of ...)
This edition is the first publication of The Oratorio of Daniel by George F. Bristow. An important New York educator, conductor, string player, organist, and composer, Bristow wrote several large choral works and operas, as well as dozens of smaller compositions. The Oratorio of Daniel, which Bristow completed in 1866, was an unqualified success at its premiere in December 1867 and at its second hearing a month later. Reviewers regarded it as one of the most significant works of its time and compared it to Mendelssohn's Elijah. In his Handbook of American Oratorios and Cantatas, Thurston Dox called The Oratorio of Daniel "the greatest American oratorio ever written.
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George Frederick Bristow was born on December 19, 1825 in Brooklyn, and spent his entire life in or near New York City. His father was an English organist, William Richard Bristow, who started the son's musical education so early that at the age of eleven he became a violinist in the orchestra of the Olympic Theatre in New York.
Piano and organ lessons were given him by his father and by Henry C. Timm, and composition was later studied with G. A. MacFarren.
In 1842 George Bristow became a violinist in the New York Philharmonic Society, a membership which continued for more than forty years. His "Concert Overture, " Opus 3, was played by the Philharmonic Society November 14, 1847; his first symphony, in E flat, appeared in 1845 and a cantata "Eleutheria" in 1849, but the first work to attract general attention was the three-act opera "Rip Van Winkle, " which was produced at Niblo's Garden in New York on September 27, 1855 by the Pyne-Harrison English Opera Company, the composer conducting. It had seventeen performances in two months.
The libretto, based on Washington Irving's story, was the work of Jonathan Howard Wainwright. Critics complained of the extreme length of the opera, the excessive prominence of solo as compared with concerted numbers, and an apparent monotony of style. The orchestration was praised, as was the staging.
On March 1, 1856, the New York Philharmonic Society played Bristow's second symphony, in D minor, and on March 26, 1859, his third symphony, in F sharp minor. The oratorio "Praise to God" was given first performance on March 2, 1861, by the New York Harmonic Society, of which the composer was conductor. A second opera, "Columbus, " was never completed, but the overture was played by the New York Philharmonic Society at the first concert in Steinway Hall, Fourteenth St. , November 17, 1866. Bristow's second oratorio, "Daniel, " was first performed by the Mendelssohn Union, December 30, 1867.
The fourth or "Arcadian" Symphony, in E minor, was played by the New York Philharmonic on February 14, 1874. Five years later Theodore Thomas conducted for the first time Bristow's music to an ode by William Oland Bourne entitled "The Great Republic. " Bristow's "Jibbenainosay" overture was produced in 1889, and his symphony "Niagara" during the last year of his life. Bristow conducted the Harmonic Society 1851-62, was a church organist, and from 1854 till his death was connected with musical work in the New York public schools.
George Bristow was one of the first outspoken champions of music written by Americans, and as early as 1854 protested, with a group of fellow members of the Philharmonic, against the policy of favoring composers of other countries, particularly those of Germany. He was regarded as an able conductor, and was highly esteemed as a teacher. He was pianist at the concert in Tripler Hall, New York, on February 20, 1852, at which Theodore Thomas made his first appearance in the United States as a boy violinist, and two Bristow songs were on that program. Bristow was a member of the orchestra which accompanied Jenny Lind at her first concerts in this country, and also played in the Jullien concerts in 1853-54. In addition to the music mentioned above he composed two string quartets, a set of six organ pieces, and a number of smaller pieces. The record left by Bristow is that of a serious, industrious and unassuming man who exerted a strong influence for good music during many years, and who deserves an honored place as one of the first Americans to compose music in the larger forms.
(This edition is the first publication of The Oratorio of ...)
He was a member of the New York Philharmonic Society and of the Harmonic Society .
Quotes from others about the person
Several reviewers compared the work favorably to Mendelssohn's Elijah. Thirty years later the American Art Journal summed up opinion of this work in Bristow's obituary:
"Bristow's oratorio of Daniel is unquestionably one of the most important compositions in this form yet produced by an American composer. .. From the production of this great work dates a new era in our musical history. "
Bristow was married to Louise Westervelt Holden.
