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An 1850 Alleghanians songster quoted extensively from a good number of press notices from around this time, many of them undated.  It is highly likely that business manager M. T. Brockelbank deserves credit for gathering up these reviews, since Alleghanians documentation of this sort is far less plentiful in nearly all other periods.  This turned out to be a pivotal point in Alleghanians history.

The Wisconsin Argus said of the Alleghanians, "[T]heir performances are beyond criticism. . . .   Voices so perfectly trained to every variety of descriptive expression, from the distant warbling of birds to the uproar of an ocean storm, we never before heard.  Those deep, earnest, whispering tones in which they perform soft and delicate passages, beggars all our former conceptions of the capacities of the human voice  -  so full, so clear, so distinct, and yet as soft as the dying tones of a distant church bell."

The Bulletin out of Detroit, Michigan, said, "Better voices and better disciplined ones can not be found in the country."   The Louisville (KY) Journal added, "[T]here is the widest range of sentiment, from the most soul-stirring pathos to the most side-shaking comedy."   A writer with the Philadelphia North American and United States Gazette thought an opening-night audience somehow "unanimously awarded to the 'Alleghanians' the enviable distinction of being the best company of glee and quartette singers that ever sung in Philadelphia."

References in the next two notices to the female vocalist call to mind reviews dated 1851 and 1852 that name Miriam G. Goodenow.  It seems quite likely that she already was singing with the Alleghanians by the time the following notices were written.

"The voice of the lady is exquisitely sweet, and gushes forth with a power and pathos enchantingly effective," said the Pittsburgh Gazette.

"The female voice is of unusual compass and sweetness," said the Albany Journal, "and her solos are sung with great effect.  The bass has strength without harshness.  The tenor is full of melody, while the second is exceedingly soft and musical.  Indeed, we have never heard a better combination of sound, or that combination more harmoniously and artistically blended."

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The New York Daily Tribune of December 15, 1849, included an article, quite extensive for the times, about the English glee, featuring several points of considerable interest.   "Its tones are in the natural compass of the human voice, and its melodies move energetically and independently, now approaching and now receding from each other, like the bright streams of [the English and the American's] native land, and anon gracefully mingling their outlines, yet each preserving its independent form, like the blue mountain-horizon that at sunset bounds his wide and picturesque view.  The glee, in short, is as natural and indispensable an object of admiration to the full-grown and thoroughly developed Englishman or American, as his rivers, his mountains, or his azure skies."

The Tribune article confidently declared that the Alleghanians'  "public performances are so perfect and exquisitely expressive of the very spirit of the English glee, that they promise to revive the popularity of this charming style of music."

The church-going, hymn-singing, moral reform-promoting, Tribune-reading members of the Hutchinson Family quartet must have been surprised to see that this next passage was written about anyone other than themselves.   "There is one idea which we would impress upon our readers in the country where 'The Alleghanians' may happen to pass," said the Daily Tribune.   "It is that in the principal churches of Europe, and the principal cities of this country, the choir consists of only four voices, and that 'The Alleghanians' are an admirable model for amateurs to study.  They have already laid the foundation of several admirable church quartettes in different parts of the country, and in this way their influence is destined to be widely and actively beneficent."

This late 1849 New York Tribune article could be read to suggest that it was understood the Alleghanians was a quartet.  Yet a January 1850 Hartford Daily Courant concert review said, "The company consists of two ladies and three gentlemen."  Keeping track of the size and membership of this group is seldom easy.  The Hartford Courant notice said, "The high reputation which has preceded the Alleghanians, was fully sustained by their performances. . . . "   "The ladies voices are very fine, uniting rare richness and purity of tone, with great fullness and flexbility.  The bass voice is of remarkable richness and power.  The other voices are also very fine.  In their Quartetts their voices blend most beautifully, and in many strains their harmony is inimitable."

Many Americans anticipated that Gen. Zachary Taylor, as president of the United States, would be friendlier to the institution of slavery than he actually proved to be.  The abolitionist Hutchinson Family, during the 1848 presidential campaign, even went so far as to sing, "We'll Never Vote for Taylor."   As President Zachary Taylor turned out to be a relief to antislavery forces, he was equally alarming to politicians in the slave states, many of whom threatened secession.

Members of the Alleghanians, collectively, did not normally weigh in publicly on the slavery question except in a very general way.  Secession was a very different matter.  Their social-reformer friend, Dr. Jason R. Orton, crafted verses which William H. Oakley, evidently the most reform-minded of the singers, set to music.  And doubtless with a zeal fit for the occasion, the Alleghanians sang,

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The year 1850 was easily among the biggest in Alleghanians history with regards to the number of songs connected with the group that were written, published, or both that year.  In addition to "Our Glorious Union Forever," songs that were new to the world or, in some cases, possibly just new to the Alleghanians included "The Dying Child's Request," "The Emigrant's Tribute to America," Jesse Hutchinson, Jr.'s "Good Old Days of Yore," "Kate Was Once a Little Girl," "The Old Farmer's Elegy," and "Where Shall the Soul Find Rest" arranged as a chant.

At the end of December 1849, James Hutchinson died.  He was the fifth child of Jesse and Susan Hutchinson.  The death of little Jimmy was the inspiration for one of Jesse's most beloved songs, "The Good Old Days of Yore," which was written early in 1850 at Poukeepsie, New York.  "There were four verses in all," said John W. Hutchinson, "and they affected us deeply.  When he had finished, and while we were each sitting under the spell of the sentiment, I said, 'Jesse, cannot you carry the thought a little farther and bring it to the meeting at our Heavenly Father's door?'  He thought a minute, then seized a pencil, and went apart from us.  In a short time he returned with a verse added:

"The Good Old Days of Yore" was in the Alleghanians' repertoire for decades.

"Voice and spirit loved to cheer it and the very birds to hear it . . . "

The Alleghanians had a couple "echo" tunes, one of which, "The Herdsman's Song," had already achieved tremendous fame under the nickname, "Jenny Lind's Echo Song."  Another was the Alleghanians' own "Alpine Echo Quartet."  The group performed a Hutchinson Family oldie, "Axes To Grind," which was out in a new edition.  And the version of "Ben Bolt" that the Alleghanians sang famously, set to music by R. Sinclair, is dated 1850.

"The pieces sung by the Alleghanians," said Dr. Jason R. Orton, "are selected with great care, and are of a highly moral and intellectual character; while their Music is distinguished by great simplicity and effectiveness, unusual skill in the management and harmonizing of voices, and a distinct and artistic elocution: and if we have any germs of a distinctive national Music among us, we shall be obliged to look for them to that school which these Vocalists represent."

Dr. Orton continued, saying, "[A]t present, and for a considerable period to come, our hope of reaching the masses  -  of getting hold of, and arousing to the love of song, the great musical heart of the people, must rest itself upon a comparatively simple music.   In this point of view, the school to which the Alleghanians belong is endowed with a nationality and rises to an importance which can not fail to command our attention. . . . "

The Alleghanians troupe was at Cleveland in mid-May 1850.  "There was one of the largest and most fashionable audiences ever assembled in this city, to hear these American songsters last night," reported the Plaindealer.  "Empire Hall, which only seats four hundred, had actually over six hundred people in it, and it was estimated that about two hundred went away who could not get a [seat]."

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The group was in Canada by the first week of June, with a string of concerts leading up to appearances at Toronto on the 8th and 10th.  Evidently the performances in that city were quite remarkable.  According to a subsequent notice of the closing concert at the Lyceum, which was "crowded with a highly respectable audience," The Church said, "[T]heir exquisitely simple melodies have a closer alliance to the character of sacred music than those of any performers we have ever heard.  Many of their songs were so solemn and sad as to superinduce a graver tone of feeling and thought than the concert-room is generally expected to produce; but to minds sobered down by the graver realities of life, this was a charm as grateful as it was novel and unexpected."

A Tuesday, August 13, concert  -  "For One Night Only"  -  at Wantastiquet Hall in Brattleboro, Vermont, produced a thing which, in the far-off early 21st century, would help raise awareness of the group in a wholly new era.  It is the publicity sketch of the Alleghanians quartet members, with its own primitive charm, which is used as an illustration at the top of many of these Web pages.

The Alleghanians tour went through Rochester, New York, in late September.  "We understand these favorite vocalists have made an engagement to visit England," said the New York Daily Tribune, "and that they will sing in London during the World's Fair in that city."  For months to come the activities of the Alleghanians are thinly documented in available records, but a trip to England at this time seems quite doubtful.  Nonetheless, it may be of interest that a United Kingdom tour was thought to be a reasonable next step and, as far as we know, members of the Alleghanians were up for the trip.

On Monday, October 14, Tripler Hall was opened in New York City for a group of invited guests.  In a notice of that inaugural event, one New York newspaper reported, "The general view of the vast saloon is favorable, and it seems eminently adapted to the purposes for which it is intended; it is certainly so far in advance of any Hall or place in the City as not to be named in the same catalogue."  The new venue was then opened to the public on October 17, for a grand program starring Anna Bishop and featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor.

In 1854, the New York Times called the building "the first great Music Hall erected in New-York.  The greatest work of the greatest Composer was the first music heard within its walls."

Tripler Hall was not without its flaws.  Evidently the prevailing thought from the start was that a quick-spreading fire would result in a tremendous loss of life because of inadequate emergency exits.  "In case of any panic or real danger," said the New York Daily Tribune, "there is not the slightest doubt that a catastrophe, unequaled in the history of similar events, would occur."  Unshaded gas lights  -  a far less glaring problem  -  apparently caused some degree of visual difficulties, particularly for the artists on stage.  Also, there were said to be ventilation issues.

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The anticipated difficulties with evacuating a large audience in case of an emergency is apropos to the subject at hand.  For instance, records of the Alleghanians note examples of the group singing to audiences numbering well above a hall's intended capacity.  Documentation of the Hutchinson Family vocal group, which is far, far, far more extensive, includes more numerous examples.

Taking into account that there was a widely-held belief it would be impossible to safely evacuate even a typical size Metropolitan Hall audience in the advent of a real emergency, consider the following.  "The entire number of seats in the house was 3,500," reported the New York Times.  "On extraordinary occasions, humanity packing very closely together, the building probably held 4,000 or 4,500 persons.  By removing the movable seats on the principal floor, the capacity of the house could be reasonably increased to 5,000."

The last times the Alleghanians sang at Metropolitan Hall, it was almost certainly to densely packed crowds.

By this time, these Alleghanian vocalists were singing a piece with a puzzling history.  "The Ship on Fire," a hit song dating back at least to 1840, was announced by title on countless Henry Russell, Alleghanians, and Hutchinson Family concert programs.  The word, "fire," appears conspicuously in the well-known title.  There could be no doubt whatsoever that the subject matter of this piece of musical fiction involved a fire.   A fire in the song.  Yet there are numerous examples in Hutchinson Family history, and also Alleghanians examples, of audience members taking the musical-theater shout of "Fire!" as an actual here-and-now, real-life alarm of flames in the concert hall . . . and needlessly racing for the exits.

Fears of loss of life by fire at Metropolitan Hall were never realized: not because there was no fire, but rather because this great venue burned to the ground in the night when it was not in use.   A judge concluded that the cause of the devastating conflagration was arson.

The opening of Tripler/Metropolitan Hall was a major development in the history of the performing arts in New York City.  Great events in Metropolitan Hall's big concert room featured the principal stars of the classical music and opera fields.  Democratic and Whig party conventions met in the hall, which also was a site for annual meetings and other large-scale gatherings of advocates of municipal reform, woman's rights, temperance, and other leading causes.  Many of the respectable popular music celebrities and ensembles, including vocal groups such as the Alleghanians and Hutchinson Family, gave landmark concerts at Metropolitan Hall, where the acoustics were said to be matchless.  Members of the Alleghanians were likely eyeing the main concert room, from opening day, as a place to triumph.

"Thus far the Lord hath led me on."   - Isaac Watts

One of the main goals for this first edition of Voice and Spirit has been to lay the foundation for an eventual revised, greatly expanded second edition.  Thus far the Lord has led us on.   A full-length biography of the Alleghanians is very much needed, and it is starting to look feasible.  Whether it would take the form of a traditional, hardcopy book or remain as a World Wide Web-only publication is yet to be seen.  Either way, I am hoping many readers of these pages will keep an eye out for Voice and Spirit II.  If it is possible to make a full-length Alleghanians biography happen, my plan is to do it.

Alan Lewis,  August 14, 2007