Arthur Fiedler

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Not to be confused with Arthur Fielder.

Arthur Fiedler
percussion, organ
Years active1915–1979

Arthur Fiedler (December 17, 1894 – July 10, 1979)

Boston Pops
orchestras. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the United States. Fiedler was sometimes criticized for over-popularizing music, particularly when adapting popular songs or editing portions of the classical repertoire, but he kept performances informal and sometimes self-mocking to attract a bigger audience.

Life and career

Fiedler was born in

Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Johanna (née Bernfeld) and Emanuel Fiedler (1859–1944).[1][2] His parents were Austrian Jewish immigrants.[3] His father was a violinist who played in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and his mother was a pianist. He grew up in Boston, and attended Boston Latin School until his father retired in the early 1900s, and they moved to Vienna, Austria, in 1910. The family soon moved again, to Berlin, where from 1911 to 1915 young Fiedler studied violin at the Royal Academy of Music (Hochschule für Musik Berlin) under Willy Hess.[1] Fiedler returned to Boston early in World War I. In 1915 he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Karl Muck
as a violinist. He also worked as a pianist, organist, and percussionist.

In 1924, Fiedler formed the Boston Sinfonietta,[1] a chamber music orchestra composed of Boston Symphony members, and started a series of free outdoor concerts.

Fiedler conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1969

Fiedler was appointed the eighteenth conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1930.[1] While the position of conductor of the Boston Pops both prior to and after Fiedler tended to be a phase of a conductor's career, Fiedler made it his life's work, having the position for a half-century.

With Fiedler's direction, the Boston Pops reportedly made more recordings than any other orchestra in the world, most of them for

Dmitri Tiomkin's music for the David O. Selznick Technicolor epic Duel in the Sun
. RCA Victor released an album of ten-inch 78-rpm discs complete with photographs from the film.

External audio
audio icon You may hear Arthur Fiedler conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra in the overture to Carl Maria von Weber's opera "Der Freischutz" in 1937 Here on Archive.org

Fiedler's June 20, 1947, recording of

London Records. His last album, devoted to disco, was titled Saturday Night Fiedler.[6]

Fiedler was also associated with the

San Francisco Pops Orchestra for 26 summers (beginning during 1949), and conducted many other orchestras throughout the world. He was a featured conductor on several of NBC's The Standard Hour programs in 1950 and 1951, conducting the San Francisco Symphony in the War Memorial Opera House
; the performances were preserved on transcription discs and later released on audio cassette.

In very rare visiting performances, Fiedler accepted the invitation to conduct

Anton Dvorak. He also conducted Leroy Anderson's "Serenata" with the high school band.[7][8]

Fiedler dressed for the part of a fireman for a show skit. Red Skelton is dressed as Clem Kadiddlehopper.

Fiedler had many different hobbies. He was fascinated by the work of firefighters and would travel in his own vehicle to large fires in and around Boston at any time of the day or night to watch the firefighters at work. He was even made an "Honorary Captain" in the Boston Fire Department. A number of other fire departments gave him honorary fire helmets and/or badges. The official biography of Fiedler reports that the conductor once helped in the rescue efforts at the tragic

Coast Guard Auxiliary.[9]

Fiedler conducted at the nationally televised opening ceremonies of Walt Disney World in 1971. He also appeared on numerous telecasts on Evening at Pops, carried on PBS stations nationwide.

In 1972, Fiedler was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.[10]

Fiedler is best remembered by contemporary audiences for his conducting of the Boston Pops at the outdoor Hatch Memorial Shell on the July 4, 1976, celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial. The rendition of the 1812 Overture led by a jacketless and demonstrative Fiedler, capped by a huge fireworks finale over the Charles River was the climax of all day long network television coverage. The video of the aged but obviously delighted Fiedler puffing out his cheeks to the beat of the music and mugging for his musicians was one of the most talked about images of the country's celebration.[11]

In honor of Fiedler's influence on American music, on October 23, 1976, he was awarded the prestigious University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit.[12] Beginning in 1964, this award "established to bring a declaration of appreciation to an individual each year that has made a significant contribution to the world of music and helped to create a climate in which our talents may find valid expression."

On January 10, 1977, Fiedler was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Gerald Ford.

Personal life

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Fiedler and Wernher von Braun in his office during the Fiedlers' visit to the Marshall Space Flight Center on March 23, 1962.

In 1942, Fiedler married Ellen Bottomley, and they had three children: Johanna, Peter and Deborah Stiles.

In 1994, Doubleday published a book written by his daughter, Johanna, titled Arthur Fiedler: Papa, the Pops and Me.[13]

Death

In December 1978, Fiedler underwent brain surgery at Tufts Medical Center after suffering congestive heart failure.[14] He recovered two weeks after celebrating his 84th birthday.[15] His final Boston Pops season was in 1979. The season began on May 1 with a concert to mark Fiedler's 50th year as the orchestra's conductor. The works he conducted at that concert include Jacques Offenbach's Overture to La belle Hélène, Gershwin's An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue, and Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever". Morton Gould composed a work for the occasion: a march titled "Cheers!". Earl Wild played the piano solo for Rhapsody in Blue.[16] The concert was broadcast on WGBH for its Evening at Pops program.[17] Fiedler made a valedictory appearance on May 5, with James Galway as a flute soloist.[18] He died two months later on July 10 at his Brookline, Massachusetts, home, aged 84.[1] On July 15, the Boston Symphony Orchestra performed a recreation of the July 4, 1976, concert at the Hatch Memorial Shell. It was conducted by the Boston Pops' assistant conductor, Harry Ellis Dickson.[19] Fiedler's funeral service was held at the Memorial Church of Harvard University[20] and his ashes were interred at St. Joseph Cemetery in West Roxbury.[21]

In 1984, Boston honored him with a stylized sculpture, an oversized bust of Fiedler, near the Charles River Esplanade. This area is home to the free concert series that continues through the present day. Composer John Williams succeeded Fiedler as the orchestra's nineteenth conductor. His widow, Ellen Bottomley Fiedler, died October 25, 1984, in Framingham, Massachusetts, at the age of 70.

Fiedler's collection of programs, photographs and personal notes are now housed within the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center of Boston University.[22] The university has a reading room named after him; it contains his personal collection of scores and books.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Hughes, Allen (July 11, 1979). "Arthur Fiedler, 84, Conductor of Boston Pops 50 Years, Dies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 24, 2010. Retrieved October 26, 2010.
  2. ^ "Arthur Fiedler | Encyclopedia.com". Archived from the original on November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  3. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1801981
    .
  4. ISBN 0-214-20512-6
    .
  5. ^ Jeremy Nicholas. "Booklet notes to Hyperion CDA67165". Hyperion-records.co.uk. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  6. ^ Edgers, Geoff (May 2, 2007). "Saturday Night Fiedler". The Boston Globe.
  7. ^ “Fiedler to Conduct Hersey High Band”, Section 2, page 29, The Daily Herald newspaper, Chicago, Illinois, December 14, 1970
  8. ^ "The Daily Herald from Chicago, Illinois · Page 29". Newspapers.com. December 14, 1970. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  9. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  10. ^ "Honorary Degree Recipients". Berklee College of Music. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  11. ^ "Boston Pops 1812 July 4, 1976 Bicentennial". YouTube. May 25, 2013. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  12. ^ "The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit Recipients". Dolphin.upenn.edu. Archived from the original on February 9, 2012. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  13. ^ "Non-fiction review: Arthur Fiedler: Papa, the Pops and Me". Publishers Weekly. August 29, 1994. Retrieved April 16, 2011.
  14. ^ Fiedler, p. 229
  15. ^ Dickson, pp. 155-156
  16. ^ Dickson, p. 158-160
  17. ^ Dickson, p. 162
  18. ^ Dickson, p. 163
  19. ^ Knight, Michael (July 16, 1979). "Boston Bids a Musical Farewell to Fiedler". The New York Times. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  20. ^ Dickson, p. 1
  21. ^ Fiedler, p. 243
  22. ^ "The Inventory of the Arthur Fiedler Collection #797" (PDF). Boston University. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  23. ^ "The Arthur Fiedler Reading Room". Boston University. Retrieved July 17, 2020.

Sources

Further reading

External links

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Cultural offices
Preceded by Conductor, Boston Pops Orchestra
1930–1979 		Succeeded by
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