1850s–1870s: Musical Associations

Early New Brunswick contained numerous musical organizations. Among the earliest were the New Brunswick Band (circa 1813–1828) and the City Amateurs, later known as the New Brunswick Musical Society (1830–1832). The New Brunswick Band met every few weeks, primarily for members to practice. The band played at political events, weddings, funerals, and at Rutgers College. The Philharmonic Society, in turn, was founded by a few young men in June 1853 with the explicit purpose of “expanding and refining” the city’s musical knowledge, talent, and taste. Several organizations devoted to the cultivation of sacred music, including the Haydn Musical Society (active in the 1860s) only managed to survive for a few years. Members of the German community in New Brunswick formed amateur singing groups beginning in 1846 with Frederick Schneeweiss’s Anglo-German Gesang Verein Eintracht, and later, Franz Schneeweiss’s Septemvirs. The groups would practice and perform for the benefit of the German-speaking population in Saenger Hall, a former gymnasium on Richmond Street.

Besides their role in music education, musical associations provided gathering places for adults and youth alike. Following the national community band tradition that had grown out of the Civil War, local instrumentalists could join the Hosiery Company’s Darrow Band, the Goodwill Council Cornet Band, or the Union Brass Band. The newly established Choral Society performed selections from Beethoven with keyboard accompaniment by James Garland. Vocalists could connect with their German heritage through singing popular tunes with Frederick Schneeweiss’s Volks Concert Association or with Albany Street’s piano tuner Otto Geitner’s Anglo-German group, Aurora Verein. Associations such as Aurora Verein not only hosted crowd-pleasing annual winter masquerade balls, but they raised relief for the yellow fever epidemic of 1878, the catastrophic 1880 Elbe River flooding in Germany, and pledged $150 towards equipment for the city’s hospital.