Pro-Musica: Patronage, Performance and a Periodical; An Index to the Quarterlies

The Pro-Musica Society (first known as the Franco-American Music Society) was established in the early 1920’s by pianist E. Robert Schmitz to support North American appearances of rising European composers and performers. By 1925, Pro Musica boasted over twenty chapters which maintained contact via their quartly publication edited by Germaine Schmitz, the wife of the society’s founder. Pro-Musica Quarterly (also known by its earlier title, F.A.M.S. Bulletin) served a varied readership, from highly-trained musicians and sophisticated consumers to society patrons and local enthusiasts. From this publication, for example, supporters learned of international music movements, living composers’ lives and works, and theoretical and historical approaches to the study of music. They also read news of regional meetings and recitals, finding between two covers an unusual balance of content. Introduced by a historical overview of the Society and the publication, Pro Musica: Patronage, Performance and a Periodical provides analysis of the content and detailed descriptions of all articles published during the publication’s existence, 1923-1929. Comprehensive subject and author-translator indexes add to the strength of this document that chronicles representative musical activities during an extraordinary decade of the twentieth century. Those enthusiasts of musical and social activities during the 1920’s will find this to be required reference material.