Hommann: Surviving Orchestral Music

Charles Hommann (1803–ca. 1872) was a Philadelphia-born musician and composer during the years in which instrumental music, especially European classical music, became increasingly prominent in the United States. He was encouraged by the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, an organization founded in 1820 to aid its aging musician members and dedicated to “the cultivation of skill and diffusion of taste in music.” Hommann's surviving orchestral compositions—two overtures and a symphony—seem a fitting response to the musical environment created by the Society and its members.

 

None of Hommann’s orchestral works was previously published. This edition of Hommann's three extant orchestral works, accompanied by an essay that discusses his cultural and historical milieu, will bring deserved attention to the enterprising Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia and make accessible for study and performance the earliest known products of an emerging tradition of notable orchestral works by native-born American composers.