This history of the Houston Symphony Chorus is compiled in 2007, on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of its founding on October 29, 1946, as the Houston Chorale.[1] It celebrates 864 concerts, 800 of them with the Houston Symphony. The “world” of the Houston Symphony Chorus starts with its interactions with its own directors – but achieves its peaks with its interaction with the Houston Symphony and the succession of brilliant Maestros. The Chorus’ repertoire, the Chorus’ very existence, is one with the Symphony.

In this history the Chorus is referred to as the Houston Chorale or Chorale in 1946-1967, as the Houston Symphony Chorale or HSC in 1968-1986, and as the Houston Symphony Chorus or HSC or the Chorus in 1986 to the present.[2] The Houston Symphony is usually HSO. HGO refers to the Houston Grand Opera. U of H refers to the University of Houston.

A concert-by-concert delineation of every performance by HSC, in chronological order, is on the Chorus web site.

This history is based on the research that the present author undertook ten years ago, when, for the Fiftieth Anniversary, he wrote A Golden Anniversary: Fifty Years of the Houston Symphony Chorus, 1997. In aggregate 82 pages, that is a history organized according to the repertoire. Many individuals helped in assembling that history. The present author is also in debt to Sandy Graf and Lee Stevens, authors of: Houston Symphony Chorus History, 1986. Catherine Howard, Roger Cutler, Tony Sessions, David Knoll, Brenda Knoll, Steve James, Beth Weidler and Sally Hoffecker, all with both editorial skills and discerning perceptions of HSC performance, have been contributors and reviewers of this document. The “pre-flood” HSO Music Library was invaluable, as well as the “post-flood” HSO Archive and its volunteer personnel.

Alfred Urbach and the Start[3]

“He came to Houston with plans for a civic chorus … and called at this office a few days after he landed. I gave him some history that was probably not very encouraging. The best I could say was that although we had plenty of good talent in the various choirs of the city, there had been no brilliant results from the several efforts to weld it together. The idea of a true community chorus, often projected by local and visiting musicians, had never seemed to be eagerly seized. ‘Well,’ said Urbach ‘maybe this is the time – ’ ”

Thus Hubert Roussel, longtime music critic, describes the young man who faced him across a Houston Post desk one late summer day in 1946. Alfred Urbach, a young bachelor released from World War II service, had just arrived in town to assume his duties as first cellist of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. His hobby was choral conducting. Urbach had organized many military choruses while serving with the Air Transport Command in Alaska. He was astonished and impressed by the G. I.s’ enthusiastic response to choral music during those difficult years. This wartime experience led Urbach to believe strongly in the value of music as a unifier and peace-making force in human relations.

In Urbach’s own words, “Common ground for the rich and poor, the strong and the weak, the young and the old, the meek and the forceful, is not easily found – but it can be found in singing.” He felt that music brought these humanitarian benefits not just to the singer, but to the listener as well. “The sort of chorale I have in mind would express the musical spirit of all Houston.”

There were many besides Roussel who agreed with Urbach’s ideas, and so the Houston Chorale, conceived in Alaska, became a reality. The Houston Chronicle donated the use of its KTRH studios, then at the Rice Hotel, for the first auditions. It took two months to get thirty singers together for the first rehearsal on October 29, 1946, at the old Houston Conservatory of Music. By the end of January 1947, the group numbered seventy-five, and membership was closed to prepare for the “first annual concert.”

The First Concert of the Houston Chorale

The first concert of the Houston Chorale was held on April 23, 1947. Its program revealed the promise of the new organization:

· The organization had chosen a name – the Houston Chorale.

· The chorus was an independent organization. Though Al Urbach was the first chair cellist of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, there was no formal connection of the Chorale and the HSO at the Chorale’s start.

· The Chorale had organized. The program revealed an Executive Group, 74 Charter Members,[4] and Concert Financial Benefactors and appeals for both volunteer singers and more benefactors. It confidently announced that this was the First Annual Concert – they would not wait until the second concert to show their intent to be the continuing premier choral organization in Houston.

· In the program the Chorale stated five objectives. The objective of singing with the Houston Symphony Orchestra was contained in the more general fourth objective – “To assist in the performance of music when a chorus is an integral part.”

· The concert was held in the Music Hall, a premier Houston location for a musical event.[5]

· The concert opened with Lundquist’s Now That the Sun is Beaming Bright. “This decidedly upbeat composition characterized the spirit of the Chorale (our “Houston Symphony Chorus”) for many years.”[6]

· The concert repertoire was diverse – certainly representing what a better chorus of that day would have presented, either a cappella or accompanied by Edithanne Davis at the piano.

The Independent Concerts, 1947-1954

The first concert proved to be the model for a series of independent concerts during the seven seasons 1947-48 through 1953-54. The peak season was 1947-48, when there were five independent concerts. As soon as engagements with the Houston Symphony began (spring 1949) there were never more than two independent concerts in a season, most timed to keep the Chorale together the entire season.

Al Urbach directed the great majority of the independent concerts – although in 1954 he gave the chorus the thrill of being directed for an entire evening by choral master Noble Cain. Repertoire of the independent concerts continued to be varied. Some new works were performed, notably several by Arthur Hall, professor and composer at Rice’s Shepherd School. From Urbach’s musician friends an accompanying chamber orchestra developed.

The custom of an annual Chorale Christmas Concert soon became the cornerstone of these independent concerts. When, on occasion, the Symphony wanted yuletide chorus contributions, Urbach found ways to “piggyback.” The Chorale’s Christmas repertoire included more serious music than the current Christmas Pops concerts.

The First Concert with the Houston Symphony Orchestra

April 10, 1949, marks the first of a pair of performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – the first appearance of the Houston Chorale with the Houston Symphony. The Chorale membership had climbed to about 150.[7] The reader should think back to his or her first HSC concert with the Houston Symphony and magnify both the intensity and the exhilaration by tenfold. After a year and a half as an organization, here is the great chance. Here is the opportunity devoutly to be hoped for—other than the annual Christmas concert, the entire 1948-49 season had been devoted to preparation. But think also of the Symphony. This was a risk well worth taking – their first chair cellist was in charge of chorus preparation. Though most Symphony performances were single concerts (no repeats), the Symphony scheduled two for the Ninth Symphony. What a vote of confidence!

Showing the Pathway – Choral Concerts with Orchestra Before the Chorale

Al Urbach and Herbert Roussel were realistic. The Houston Chorale was attempting to fill a huge void. The major question was whether the Houston audiences, particularly Symphony audiences, would be receptive to music they had rarely heard live. Prior to 1946 the Houston Symphony Orchestra had performed only nine concerts with choral works – and all but three were operas. In 1940 and again in 1941, HSO conductor Ernst Hoffmann led members of the Orchestra in two concert series of Händel’s Messiah – with singers drawn “from local church choirs.”[8] The December 3 and 15 1941 Messiahs bracketed Pearl Harbor day – World War II put an end to all such experimentation. On December 14, 1942, the Singing Cadets from Aggie Land (Richard Jenkins, director) gave the second half of an HSO subscription concert, under the baton of HSO maestro Ernst Hoffman. Don’t laugh – most of the works sung by the war-destined cadets were opera choruses.

A glimpse of the possibilities came in 1942, then particularly in 1946-48. In those days the center of music education in Texas was in Denton, at North Texas State College, where Wilfred C. Bain led the choral program, including the Denton Choir. At the Houston Symphony’s invitation the Denton Choir visited Houston, and provided the following “heady” offerings:

· March 25, 1942 – Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (an HSO subscription concert)

· January 21, 1946 – Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (another HSO subscription concert)

· March 8, 1947 – Bach’s B Minor Mass, at City Auditorium

· March 9, 1947 – Gluck’s Orpheus highlights, in the garden of Bayou Bend

· March 1948 – Verdi’s Requiem, probably at City Auditorium

The orchestra was the Houston Symphony. HSO maestro Hoffman conducted the first four, and guest conductor Frederick Fennell the last. The last three March events were parts of ‘Azalea Music Festivals.’ The Orpheus highlights concert was held on the lawn of Bayou Bend – Miss Ima Hogg, then Symphony Society President, hosting in the garden of her residence.[9] We know these concerts not only from Roussel[10] but also from Gene and Arline Lasater, Denton Choir members who would later join the Houston Chorale. The Azalea Festival concerts in 1947 and 1948 came as the Houston Chorale was organizing and preparing its earliest concerts. The Lasaters tell us that at the 1948 Verdi Requiem, Houston Chorale members actually joined the Denton Choir in the singing. Urbach and the Chorale probably viewed the Denton Choir not as a rival, but rather as a means of showing the potential for choral music in Houston. We owe the Denton Choir and its Director Wilfred C. Bain much for these path-showing steps that came at just the right time for the Houston Chorale to step in a year later to provide the local continuing resource.

Concerts for the Houston Symphony – with Efrem Kurtz, 1949-1953

The Houston Chorale’s 1949 debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Symphony maestro Efrem Kurtz as the final work of his first season,[11] was a resounding success. In particular, it appears that Kurtz was quite satisfied – for in the next seasons there followed a series of concerts in which the Chorale sang with the Orchestra under Kurtz’s direction. The pace was not electric – generally one work per season,[12] and only one concert per work, because that was the Symphony’s standard. The Chorale was a part of changing orchestral repertoire and audience tastes in Houston.[13] The following were sung under Kurtz’s direction:

· Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, as described above.

· Parts from Tchaikowsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Humperdinck’s Hänsel and Gretel in a Symphony Christmas Concert, December 1949.

· Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody (Chorale men with Alto “Met” soloist Blanche Thebom) in January 1950.

· Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances in April 1950.

· Verdi’s Requiem in April 1951. (This was a stupendous effort for the Chorale. As with the earlier Beethoven’s Ninth, this was the highlighted season-ender.)

· Brahms’ Nänie and Schicksalslied in March 1952.

· Monteverdi’s Magnificat in April 1953.

Kurtz’s audiences and support slipped in time. And so did Kurtz’s support for the Chorale. In his fifth and last season, 1953-54,[14] there were no Chorale engagements with HSO. Al Urbach filled in by organizing and conducting two independent concerts.

The Chorale Singers of the Urbach Years, 1946-1966

Tuesday has been the rehearsal night for this organization for its entire sixty years! Rehearsals for the first sixteen years were held in the old yellow brick City Auditorium, which stood where Jones Hall is today. Many came to rehearsal by bus. Through the lobby and up a winding stair was the rehearsal room, three stories tall, still with its gilded cherubim and original gas lighting fixtures. It was not air conditioned until window units were installed midway through Chorale use. The rehearsal room was not adequately soundproofed: Chorale sounds were punctuated by shouts from wrestling match spectators downstairs.[15]

HSC membership has always included a wide range of aptitudes, training, and experience. On the one hand, there are many professional musicians. On the other hand, there are singers whose only musical experience is singing in a college chorus or a church choir. The membership in the Urbach era was just as diverse – and even more so. On the upper end of experience, with no competing choruses the Chorale’s best were of solo quality with professional singing capabilities. When the Houston Grand Opera opened for the very first time on January 19, 1956, with a performance of Salome, there were Chorale members on stage in some of the supporting solo and chorus roles. That practice continued for many years.[16] Some Chorale members served as soloists in Houston Symphony performances.[17] On the lower end of experience, The Chorale’s problem was that the Houston population in 1946 was only 350,000 – less than one fifteenth of today’s numbers.[18] The city had no collegiate music school to nurture the town’s music.[19] The Chorale was hard pressed to get the numbers of good singers required for the performance of large works. So the minimum of the experience and talent spectrum was undoubtedly lower than today’s.

By fall 1952 Urbach and the Chorale split into two rehearsing groups – a Tuesday Chorale and a Friday Chorale. The total membership was 127, with only seven members singing in both. That year the two groups each gave a separate independent concert (December, February). The programs explained – the predominantly a cappella repertoire of the independent concerts was better performed in small groups. The two choruses presumably joined for works with HSO. This two-chorus arrangement persisted through fall 1956. But soon after, the increased predominance of concerts with HSO made a structure based on the independent concerts a detriment, so the two rehearsal groups merged.

How many members were in the Chorale of this era? Not more than 150 members.[20] That number was not exceeded until the 1968 expansion generated by the Jones Hall opportunities.[21] Hubert Roussel’s reviews of the Beethoven’s Ninth concerts of 1949 and 1957 in the Houston Post each mention ‘150 singers,’ probably noted because it was more than the Chorale normally fielded for a concert. Rosters of independent concerts, plus incomplete internal membership control lists show that fielding 150 singers on a routine basis would have been difficult. We also have firm evidence that attrition was a major problem to the early Chorale. By October 1955[22] only seven of the original seventy-four charter members remained. The median service was just under four years – a musical work done five years before would be known by less than half of the Chorale. The tattered archival copies of membership of the 1950’s are laced with both erasures and additions. These same rosters show that the numerically strong soprano and alto sections had an inadequate backup of tenors and basses – a universal problem of amateur choruses.

To the Chorale members’ immense credit they performed all the necessary duties of an independent organization. A full elected slate of officers coordinated all the necessary tasks of fund raising – all the necessary tasks of organizing and holding the independent concerts. The size of the accomplishment is exemplified by the 1953 Christmas concert, for which 120 Chorale members sold 2,800 tickets![23] We of the HSC of 2007, who are relieved of the mountain of these tasks by the Houston Symphony Organization, can concentrate on our musical participation. To the members of the Chorale during the Urbach years, 1946-1966, we say “thank you.”

We also need to thank the Houston Symphony Organization. From the time of the first independent concert the Houston Symphony Society was one of the Chorale’s sponsors. Urbach’s duties as Chorale Director was a recognized part of his HSO activity – the Chorale never had to bear any cost for its Director. HSO also provided the choral scores for concerts with HSO.

Recovery under Sir Thomas Beecham, Spring 1955<