Richard Hageman

Frequently used newspapers, magazines, and journals are cited in the notes as follows: CT (Chicago Tribune); EE (Elementary English); LAT (Los Angeles Times); MA (Musical America); MC (Musical Courier); Monatshefte (Monatshefte für Deutschen Unterricht, Deutsche Sprache und Literatur [Monthly Magazines for German Lessons, German Language and Literature]); NYT (New York Times); NYWT (New York World Telegram); VOICEPrints (VOICEPrints, Journal of the New York Singing Teachers Association).

Frequently used databases and archives are cited as follows: AHNAO (Ancestry Historical Newspaper Archive Online); CHOA (Carnegie Hall Online Archive); DAHR (Discography of American Historical Recordings, UC Santa Barbara); Delpher (Delpher Digital Library, Koninklijke Bibliotheek [Royal Library], The Hague); Gallica (Gallica Digital Library, Bibliothèque National de France [National Library of France], Paris); HT (HathiTrust Digital Library); JSTOR (JSTOR Online Library); Lantern (Lantern Digital Media History Project, University of Wisconsin, Madison); Met Archives (Metropolitan Opera Archives, New York City); NYSTA (New York Singing Teachers Association); Proquest (Proquest Historical Newspapers); TOA (Trove Archive Online).

Sources are cited in full at first mention; subsequent references are by author’s last name and shortened title (and page number if appropriate) unless the article is unsigned (as in newspaper articles) and then only the title is used. Newspaper articles without a headline are denoted by n.t. (no title).

All translations from Dutch, German, French, and Spanish into English are by the author unless otherwise specified.

This monograph has been long in the making. It started when I set out to collect information for brief program notes for a song recital in London that included a handful of Hageman songs. After a preliminary online search that yielded little information, I embarked on what would become a series of projects. Since that initial venture into piecing together a narrative around Hageman, writing my PhD dissertation, and co-authoring Hageman’s biography, I have been amazed by the host of people who have generously contributed in several ways to rediscovering Hageman and his music. My sincere thanks to them all.

When I started my quest in rediscovering Hageman many years ago, none of his songs had been collected in one place. Dr. Aloma Bardi from the International Center of American Music assisted in locating and collecting all the scores of Hageman’s songs over a period of 18 months. Dr. Bardi’s unwavering support and encouragement over the past twelve years have led to this book. Aloma, without you this book would simply not exist.

Thanks to my acquiring editor at Peter Lang, Dr. Philip Dunshea, who has been enthusiastically supporting me throughout the process of preparing my first solo flight as author. Further thanks to Kitty Chibnik, Thomas Hampson, Martin Katz, and Sandra McClain Buller for their input and endorsements.

The importance of descriptive musical examples and illustrations in a work such as this cannot be overstated. Thanks to composer Sina Salour for preparing the musical examples. The reproduction rights of musical examples and images were generously supported by the Faculty Research and Development Fund at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, England.

My eternal gratitude goes to my friend and colleague, Prof. Kathryn Kalinak, Professor in Film Studies at Rhode Island College, who was willing to read several drafts and generously offered encouraging suggestions. Receiving her feedback was an added pleasure in writing this monograph.

Finally, thank you JPH for your love and your support of my obsession with Richard Hageman.

When a correspondent of Musical Courier interviewed Richard Hageman shortly after the publication of his two songs “Do Not Go, My Love” (1917) and “May Night” (1917), both settings of texts by Rabindranath Tagore, Hageman was asked why he had waited so long to start composing. “I felt,” he responded, “that there was enough good music in the world without adding any poorer to it.”1 Hageman had a lifelong habit of downplaying his talent, training, and skill. His response to Musical Courier betrays a similar sentiment and belies the fact that “Do Not Go, My Love” exhibits both a haunting melody, finely attuned to the text through Hageman’s deft writing for the voice, combined with an exquisitely crafted piano accompaniment, testament to his vast experience as a pianist and vocal coach. Similarly, the writing in “May Night” is sophisticated and requires virtuosic dedication from both the singer and pianist. Hageman’s accomplishments in these two songs make one wonder whether they were indeed his first compositions, even if they were the first ones that he published. These two Tagore settings were the first of 69 songs that Hageman would compose over a period of more than four decades. This oeuvre largely comprise of settings of English texts by British and American writers but also includes some texts in German, French, and Spanish.

Hageman’s songs were performed throughout his lifetime. The list of celebrated singers who sang and recorded them is a veritable Who’s Who of distinguished singers from the twentieth century: Geraldine Farrar, Emmy Destinn, Marguerite D’Alvarez, Lotte Lehmann, Maggie Teyte, Kirstin Flagstad, Nan Merriman, Gladys Swarthout, John McCormack, Lauritz Melchior, and Lawrence Tibbett to name just a few. At these performances, Hageman would often be at the piano himself. His songs premiered across the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera, known as the Met, and such concert venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, and Aeolian Hall. Outside the Big Apple, concert venues included Boston’s Jordan Hall, Chicago’s Blackstone Theater, the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, and San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. In Europe, his songs were included on “Liederabend” programs in Vienna and they featured in Sir Henry Wood’s promenade concerts, known as the Proms, in London. During his lifetime, Hageman’s songs were even sung as far afield as Sydney, Australia. In addition to the songs’ popularity with celebrated singers, Hageman introduced them to his aspiring voice students at the Chicago Musical College and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. As well as being performed on larger recital stages, Hageman’s songs also featured in more exclusive gatherings of socialite clubs. Even the notorious Florence Foster Jenkins took note and performed Hageman songs at her Verdi Club in New York. Appreciation for Hageman’s songs extended beyond the realm of the concert hall: Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-Western laureate of the Nobel Prize for literature, referred to Hageman’s settings of his poetry, as the best he had heard.2

A staple of the mid-twentieth-century song canon, Hageman’s songs were performed and recorded regularly by celebrated singers well into the 1950s. But by the second half of the twentieth century, these songs would be replaced by those of more Modern composers. From the 1960s until the eve of the twenty-first century some renowned singers such as Kiri Te Kanawa, Thomas Hampson, Nance Grant, and Roberta Alexander would occasionally include Hageman’s songs on their recitals and recordings. Today only a handful of Hageman’s songs remain in print, appearing infrequently on recital programs by professionals and they are largely relegated to the recital stages of music students.