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	Podcast:		Composers Datebook
	Episode:		Wagner's American Centennial commission
	Category:		Health
	Duration:		00:02:00
	Publish Date:		2023-07-04 05:00:00
	Description:		Synopsis On today’s date in 1876, America was celebrating its Centennial, and the place to be was in Philadelphia, where a Centennial Exhibition was in progress. This was the first World’s Fair to be held in the United States. It drew 9 million visitors — this at a time when the entire population of the U.S. was 46 million. The Exhibition had opened in May with a concert attended by President and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant. After “Hail to the Chief,” the orchestra premiered a specially commissioned “Centennial March” by the famous German composer Richard Wagner. Wagner was paid $5000 for the commission, an astronomically high fee in those days. Wagner did not bother to attend the Philadelphia premiere, and privately told friends back: “Between you and me, the best thing about the march was the $5000 they paid me.” The following month, the French composer Jacques Offenbach arrived to conduct his music at a specially constructed open-air pavilion. “They asked my permission to call it ‘Offenbach Gardens,’” the composer later wrote. “How could I refuse?” The concertmaster of Offenbach’s orchestra, by the way, was a 21-year old violinist from Washington, D.C. by the name of John Philip Sousa. Music Played in Today's Program Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883) American Centennial March Philip Jones Ensemble; Elgar Howarth, conductor. London 414 149
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