i. PAULINE EDITH⁵ ALDERMAN, b. 16 Jan 1893, Lafayette, Oregon; d. 11 Nov 1983, Los Angeles, California¹³².

Notes for PAULINE EDITH ALDERMAN:

http://iawm.org/articles_html/finger_pauline_alderman.html

Pauline Alderman: Musicologist, Teacher, Composer: Part I,"

by Susan Finger

as published in theThe Journal of the International Congress on Women in Music, June 1985, pp. 14-23

PAULINE ALDERMAN: MUSICOLOGIST, TEACHER, COMPOSER: PART 1

On November 11, 1983, the Southern California academic world lost its grande dame of musicological pedagogy when Pauline Alderman (1893-1983) died in her Los Angeles home. Her distinguished career continued long past formal retirement (1960) from a thiry-year affiliation with the University of Southern in California. Alderman's reputation rested on her pedagogical and scholarly accomplishments. However, she also possessed a less-acclaimed, but equally prodigious talent for composing opera and operetta.

Many women of Alderman's generation composed vocal music. Most, however, restricted themselves to smaller forms.2 The list of Alderman's contemporary Pi pioneering Angelenos -- whose training and ability permitted them to attempt larger constructions -- includes: Radie Britain (b. 1903); Mary Elizabeth Caldwell (b. 1909); Alice Maynard Griggs; Ethel Leginska (1886-1910); Kathleen Lockhart Manning (1890-1951); Lucille Crews Marsh (b. 1888); Mary Carr Moore (1873-1957); Frances Marion Ralston (1876-1951); Gladys Rich (b. 1876) and; Gertrude Auld Thomas. In order to establish the proper context for Alderman's music, it is necessary to consider that, for Alderman, musicology and genealogy were inextricably intertwined. In an interview granted the author on 1 June, 1983, Alderman attributed her own independent spirit, and her interests in women, 5 accomplishments, in literature, and in history to her ancestors, "pioneers on both sides."

Pauline Alderman was born on January 16, 1893, in Lafayette, Oregon. She lived in Tillamook from the age of one year until [what she termed) the violent accidental death of her father, when she was eleven years of age.3 Pauline was a precocious child who read early and sang on pitch while still very young; according to the interview with Alderman, she was singing the Sunday School solos by age two.

There was always music at home, since her mother Edith Kelty Alderman (1870-1950) had charge of most of the town music programs, primarily church affiliated affairs. Edith was Pauline's first piano teacher. She quickly discovered the keen sense of relative pitch that enabled her daughter to copy simple pieces, and forced Pauline to read music by refusing to play for her.

After the death of her father, Henry Alderman (1863-1904), his wife and daughter moved to Portland, where music at home was supplemented by the cultural activities of a college town. Pauline took piano lessons with a "family" piano teacher and began to familiarize herself with the music section of the Portland Public Library. When she was old enough to qualify for adult privileges, she began to read as much as she could carry home at one time: music history; scores that included piano-vocal scores of opera; books containing opera plots. Alderman felt that her interest in opera and in music history probably stemmed from this period.

By the time Pauline had entered high school, her mother would not permit continued piano lessons. Edith assumed that Pauline would not be attracted to music as a profession. Her memories of domestic contentment were strong enough to inspire hope for a similar future for Pauline. Interestingly, Henry Alderman had thought that his daughter was destined for journalism. Together, Pauline and her father had often dreamed traveling through Europe and South America.

Alderman fondly recalled a sympathetic high school teacher named Hannah Gretchen Schlott. This early friend and mentor was a fair singer, who them introduced Pauline to German Lieder and who took her to local concerts and local productions of Italian opera. Though Alderman remembered the dubious quality of many of these performances, when noted that they afforded beneficial exposure to a variety of literature.4

One year before high school graduation, Pauline received a letter from the President of Reed College -- an offer of admission to the first entering class of the newly endowed school. Though Pauline was eager to accept, Edith insisted that she postpone acceptance for one year, in order to develop culinary and penmanship skills proper for a young lady. Her counter-offer of piano lessons with the teacher of her daughter's choice provided sufficient persuasion. Upon graduation from Washington High School (1911), Pauline began serious studies with Alf Klingenberg.5

Alderman entered the second class of Reed College. The school had no music department, though there was a competent choir that performed frequently. A history professor with talents for organ and piano was a more direct influence. Alderman placed the start of her interest in Bach here) with her organ studies with Max Cushing (history instructor 1913-1915, Reed College).6 While at Reed College, Alderman also accompanied a singer, though she, herself, noted that there were more proficient accompanists at the school. During this period, Alderman's gift for melody began to surface; she began composing music for informal campus programs, joined by a girl who "wrote clever verse." Alderman received her baccalaureate in 1916, with a senior thesis entitled "A Study of Free Verse Form." Her major area of concentration had been English, her minor English History.7 She had taken two years of French -- which she would study more thoroughly during later journeys -- and four years of German. German courses included a year-long literature seminar that initiated an enduring interest in German writings. Alderman summarized the 1916 graduate as possessing a solid background in cultural history, modern poetry, and the German romantic period, and as a decent pianist and organist.

Immediately following graduation, Alderman was hired to teach English literature to junior high school students in McMinnville, Oregon. According to Alderman, the district employed a music teacher for the elementary and senior high school programs, but avoided paying full salary by omitting the junior ie: high school from her charge. Administrators offered Alderman directorship of the junior high glee clubs and orchestra, to be undertaken after school and is without extra. Nevertheless, Alderman welcomed the added responsibilities, discovering that both she and her students enjoyed the music organizations considerably more than the literature courses. Consequently, she began to consider the field of high school music education.

At the end of her second McMinnville (1918), Alderman accepted a more suitable position: as high school history teacher with half-time music Alder duties in the Portland school system.8 During the following summer, she attended music education courses at the University of California at Berkeley.9 this. Upon return to Portland, opportunity arose to study piano with Abby. of Whiteside [1881-1956]. Hannah Schlott had registered for a year of lessons, but found that she could not free enough time for sufficient preparation. She. therefore suggested that Alderman complete her term.

Whiteside had developed a technique designed to compensate for differences between masculine and feminine musculature. Alderman felt that this imparted a technical facility that she had never before been able to imagine. But her. association with Whiteside proved fortunate in other respects as well. Whiteside served on the program committee for the state meeting of the Oregon Music Teachers' Association. During a concertizing trip to Los Angeles, she arranged for Carolyn Alchin [1857-1926] to attend the next convention in order to teach workshops in "Applied Harmony for Performers and Teachers of Performers.

Alchin had developed a new method of teaching harmony to performers and had amassed a large Los Angeles studio which extended beyond composers and theorists. She based her system on studies with theorist Julius Klause [1854-1907]. Alchin presented this method to the Portland Music Teachers' Cal Association, and stayed to conduct a series of workshops. On Whiteside's recommendation, Alderman arranged for an interview and lessons.

The interview for private harmony lessons began with improvisation of melodies and phrase harmonization at the piano. Alderman was able to improvise four equal parts at the piano and to incorporate Alchin's instructions concerning a melodic bass line that was not confined to the root of the chord. Modulation proceeded less smoothly, however. This placed Alderman at the beginning of the second year of Alchin's normal harmony course. Alchin was sufficiently impressed with Alderman to offer to train her as a harmony teacher. Upon completion of the training, she would recommend Alderman for a college position, as one of a group of young "Alchin.harmony" teachers. Details of the first year course would be completed under Alchin's tutelage during the harmony teacher's remaining time in Portland. Alderman would complete the second year by following Alchin to Seattle, where Alchin was to teach a ten-week summer session for the University of Washington. Alderman's association with Alchin proved beneficial immediately. Alderman recalled that approximately one week after the interview, in response to Alchin's recommendation, she received an offer to join the faculty of a new conservatory opening in Portland -- the Ellison-White School. She resigned from the Portland school system and accepted the position as harmony teacher. Before taking up her new duties, Alderman enrolled in the summer course C covering the second year of Alchin's harmony series. While at the University r of Washington, she also worked with Alchin's ear-training teachers in order to learn pedagogical methodology. Each summer during her three years at the 2 Ellison-White School [1920-1923], Alderman returned to continue her studies with Alchin -- first at the University of Washington and later at the University of California at Berkeley. During the first of these sessions, Alderman read papers for Alchin, but by the third summer, she served as teaching assistant. She also attended her first music history courses during this period.13

Completion of Alchin's training incited Alderman to expand her knowledge of composition. Having "come into a little money in 1923, she entered the New York Institute of Musical Art as a fourth year student in counterpoint, form, and analysis. Her instructor was Percy Goetschius, head of the composition faculty. Furthermore, by 1923, Abby Whiteside had moved to New York and Alderman was able to continue piano studies with her.

At the end of the 1923-24 academic year, word reached Alderman that Alchin had recommended her for a position at Pomona College, in Claremont, California. Alderman joined the music faculty (1924) as a piano teacher, with additional assignments in theory and, occasionally, in music history.14 During one of her four years at Pomona [1924-1928], rumors -- that one of the theory teachers not return from sabbatical -- sparked hopes that Alderman might be placed in a full-time theory position. However, the rumors proved false.

Alderman reflected that the years in Claremont presented ample opportunity to expand her acquaintance with Alchin harmony teachers beyond those she had previously met in the East. Familiarity with the University of Southern California faculty, many of whom she described as very talented and exceedingly qualified instructors, lent a measure of insight into the willingness and ease with which Alchin had always secured Alderman's academic positions. Alderman's unique educational background -- the baccalaureate in an academic area, a solid foundation in cultural history, and a strong interest in music history -- made placement easier than it was with the more usual music education or conservatory background of her contemporaries.

Accordingly, Alderman remembered that, not long before the return of Pomona College's regular theory instructor, a member of the theory faculty at the University of Washington entered her classroom and requested permission to audit the session. He recalled her work with the late Alchin [who died in 1926] eight years earlier at the University of Washington, and requested that Alderman consider replacing a departing faculty member. Duties at the University of Washington would center on theory and history. A piano pedagogy course would complete the roster.15

Furthermore, while at Pomona College, Alderman obtained a harmony position in Pennsylvania State College's "Summer Institute." She spent seven summers at Penn State -- from 1926 to 1932. Prior to these summer sessions, Alderman taught with Alchin, at USC, during the last summer that the older woman was able to work [1925].16

Unable to alter the balance of her course load in Claremont, Alderman accepted the offer to take up residence in Washington and signed a two-year contract [1928-1930]. There, she met George Mckay [b. 1899], whom she late remembered as an excellent young professor of composition.17 She also discovered that she could receive a master of arts degree for music courses alone. The majority of her courses would be in composition, with the remainder in music history and aesthetics. The resulting thesis was Alderman's opera "Bombastes Furioso," a farcical work based on a play by William Barnes Rhodes (see following analytical section).

"Bombastes Furioso" was begun during Alderman's second year at the students. University of Washington, after completion of course work for the M.A. she was Inspired by McKay's guidance, Alderman wrote most of her total output of songs requirement during this time. She noted that they were performed at university recitals and music clubs,and that she attended composers' meetings regularly during this period.

At the conclusion of Alderman's two-year contract in Washington, another Alderman' position awaited. During Alderman's first year in Washington, USC faculty bachelor member Betty Perkins had died. Perkins had been USC's music history professor of musiC as well as one of the harmony instructors. After Perkin's death, Julia Howell Ph.D., an -- who had replaced Alchin as chairperson of the Music Department ? offered the position to Alderman. However, Alderman's satisfaction with the University Dun of Washington prompted her to suggest a friend [Marjory Brooks] -- whom she had ( British met during her summers at Penn State -- as a one year substitute for USC.19 This enabled Alderman to fulfill her contract in Washington.

On 1 July, 1930, Southern California Trojan reported Alderman's new appointment:

Pauline Alderman comes to the University of Southern mutual California this fall as assistant Professor of Harmony, law of Ear Training and Diction to take the place of Marjory Brooks, who was at the College during 1929-30 from New York University.

Alderman recalled the serious financial problems from which USC suffered during the Depression years. According to Alderman, Alchin had bequeathed funds for the purpose of employing a professor of composition during the summers, and of aiding young talent. Despite such small aids, the department's financial situation was so insecure that fears of closing arose.

In 1930, USC offered four levels of harmony and a course in harmony pedagogy. However, according to Alderman, during her second year at the college, two-thirds of the music students withdrew because of tuition rates. She noted that the department was then forced to trim its roster of course offerings. During Alderman's third year at USC (1932-33), Julia Howell took leave to enter a master of music program at the Eastman School of Music. Alderman assumed Howell's responsibilities during this period. However, she was also put on half time. According to her perception of the events, a friend of Rufus B. von KleinSmid, President of the University, was hired simultaneously, also on half time. Alderman felt that one of the two was expected to resign, but neither complied. Rather than seek alternative employment, Alderman began guiding theses in historical musicology. Moreover, in response to the tastes of the Dean's [Walter Fisher Skjeele, Dean of the College of Music] daughter, Alderman was asked to develop a course in music appreciation.23 Not until fall semester of 1935, after three years of half salary, was Alderman reinstated as full-time faculty.

In 1938, Albert Raubenheimer [Dean of the School of Letters, Arts and Sciences] disclosed plans for a program leading to a doctorate in musicology. The program was to be instituted upon sufficient recovery from financial depression. Alderman was offered responsibility for guiding USC doctoral students. Since the offer was contingent upon obtaining a requisite doctorate, she was also granted a sabbatical, at half salary, in order to meet this requirement.

Alderman entered the University of Edinburgh in order to study with Donald Francis Tovey [1875-1940]. At the time (1938), she later recalled, Tovey was very ill and not especially interested in teaching musicology. During Alderman 5 four months of study with Tovey, he advised her to complete a bachelor of music program and five years of graduate work leading to a doctor of musical arts degree. However, Alderman insisted on working toward the Ph.D., and considered dissertation topics.

During the summer of 1936, Alderman had studied ballad opera at the British Museum, in London, but had found the music "appalling." She had then turned her attention to the music of Henry Lawes [1596- 1662] 25 However, Tovey dismissed this topic because he considered Lawes' output generally overestimated. Alderman s association with Tovey was ended by a stroke which curtailed his teaching career.

Unable to continue work with Tovey, Alderman traveled to Paris, where mutual friends introduced her to Renaissance scholar Guillaume de Van, son-in-law of medievalist Yvonne Rokseth [1890-1948]. De Van advised her to expand her interest in English recitative to include French recitative, since all necessary materials were housed in the Bibliothe'que Nationale.

Accordingly, Alderman registered in the Ph.D. program at the University of Strasbourg, having studied French with Rokseth in order to take examinations in that language (1938). Rokseth then directed Alderman to the Bibiothe'que to study French lutenists and the air de cour with de Van. Alderman reported to Rokseth monthly.

Work under de Van's guidance began with studying French treatises and reading Glareanus [1488-1563] in German. At the conclusion of these studies, she proceeded to the music of Lully [1632-1687] and Charpentier [c. 1645-1704]. During the spring of 1939, while the war approached, Alderman examined Antione Boesset's four and five-part settings of nine books of lute airs. By August first she had settled on her topic -- "Antoine Boesset and the Air de Cour." Shince her sabbatical was scheduled to end in September, she requested leave for the fall semester (1939).

Alderman utilized the fall leave to travel to Italy, following a list of localities and people with whom de Van had instructed her to become acquainted. After Italy, she was to proceed to Strasbourg where she hoped to take preliminary examinations in January. However, war prevented continuation at the University of Strasbourg. In August, Americans had been instructed to leave Paris and, although Rokseth had invited Alderman to join her at her home in southern France, transportation was unavailable. Instead, Alderman was compelled to return her edition of the first volume of boesset's settings to Belgium, and was able to do no further work. At the suggestion of the American Embassy, she fled to Brittany. There, she received word that U.S. citizens would have to leave the country According to Alderman, she obtained passage on the last American ship to leave Bordeaux and, from there, to New York (arriving November, 1939). Alderman returned to the United States with the first draft of her work on Boesset which, she acknowledged, included many errors due to its untimely interruption. However, she also noted that she had profited from the trip through knowledge acquired and through the acquaintance of musicologists working at the Bibliothe'que Nationale between Christmas of 1938 and August 1939.

Alderman took advantage of the remainder of her leave to visit various American institutions. During this period, she recalled, she met Paul Henry Lang [b. 1901] at Columbia University, and Donald Jay Grout [b. 1902] at Harvard University. She also became acquainted with Gustav Reese [(1899-1970), at New York University], who had met Rokseth while on a Guggenheim-sponsoredtrip to Strasbourg, and who was then finishing his Music in the Middle Ages [New York, 1940]. Alderman became life-long friends with Dr. and Mrs. Reese.

Returning to Los Angeles (1940), Alderman found herself amidst the city 5 developing academic-cultural life. The California chapter of the American Musicological Society was forming and Alderman was asked to assume the position of Secretary.26

During the spring semester of that year, Alderman taught a Music Appreciation course that was attended by several hundred non-music majors. Since she had never taught a class of that size, her characteristic conscientiousness had prompted visits to comparable classes at Columbia, Harvard, and Queens College. Moreover, this course was only one facet in the changing character of the University of Southern California.

A School of Music had been established under Raubenheimer.27 Now Raubenheimer and Max Krone, Assistant Director of the School of Music [beginning 1940] began planning the Ph.D. program. They offered Alderman the first doctorate contingent upon completing the work begun in France. Therefore, while leading graduate (M.A.) seminars and guiding these1 Alderman began attending to studies for her own degree.

In order to meet doctoral requirements, Alderman studied composition with Ernst Toch [1887-1964] for two years, and composition and orchestration with Caillet [b. 1891] for three years.28 Studies in comparative literature fulfilled requirements for a secondary area and enabled her to pass the master of arts examinations in that field.

In 1946, Alderman received USC's first doctorate awarded in the field of musicology. Her dissertation was entitled "Antoine Boesset and the Air de Cour." Still, war had prevented her from obtaining microfilms of the original Boesset manuscripts and, therefore, had made detailed corrections impossible. Not content to leave the work in a less than perfect state, Alderman returned to France in 1948 -- supported by a one-semester sabbatical with full pay --conferred with Rokseth once more, collected further source materials, and corrected the dissertation.29

Alderman chaired the Music History Department of the University of Southern California from 1952 until her retirement in 1960, at age sixty-seven. She felt that her duties as head of the department had kept her from long-range research projects. She completed several course syllabi, including one to accompany Reese's Music in the Middle Ages. [Other publications include: A Survey of Vocal Literature (1952); articles in Music Educators Journal, Musica Courier, Journal of the American Musicological Society, Facets, and Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute; and scripts and background materials for educational radio programs and courses presented by the University -- Theme and Variations (1943-45), Pioneers of Music (1950) ].30 All of these works reflect a commitment to education that characterized these works reflect Alderman's contemporary professional women in music.

NOTES

1The author wishes to express her gratitude to Dr. Robert Stevenson, UCLA, for his tireless patient advice and encouragement during the months of preparation for this article. Part ~ Alderman's music, will appear in the next issue.

2The twenty-nine women in the 1933 edition of Who's Who in Music and Dance in in Southern California, ed. Bruno David Ussher (Hollywood: Bureau of Musical search, William J. Perlman, 1933), eighteen cite only small vocal forms and miscellaneous piano pieces.

3 24 January, 1904, after his accounts as Sheriff of Tillamook County, Oregon were found to be short $10,005.87, Henry Alderman took his own life. Following his death, Edith Alderman -- [then several months pregnant with Pauline's younger brother Henry] -- took eleven-year old Pauline to live in Portland, leaving the family savings behind and offering to make up the remaining $7,008.86 in the future ("In the Valley of the Shadow of Death: Henry Alderman Dead by his Own Hand. Shot through the head," Tillamook Herald, 26 January, 1904, and; Tillamook Herald, 2 and 9 February, 1904, City and Local News section). In itself, Alderman's omission of this tragedy --while presenting the family history nearly eighty years later -- bespeaks the terrible impact it had on her life.

4According to information furnished by Gordon Manning, research librarian, Oregon Historical Society, Portland, during Alderman's high school years, the following Italian operas were produced in Portland: La Gioconda, La Boheme (respectively, on 2 and 3 April, 1907, San Carlo Grand~Opera CompanyT, and II Trovatore (9 October, 1909, International Grand Opera Company).

5Alf Klingenberg left Portland that same year to join the faculty of the old Rochester Conservatory of Music. In 1912, he began his own school of music, the D.K.G. Institute of Musical Art, which he sold to George Eastman in 1918. Eastman transferred ownership to the University of Rochester in 1919, and the conservatory became the foundation of the Eastman School of Music, which opened in 1921 with Kilingenberg as director (letter received from Vincent A. Lenti, Director Community education Division, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, 8 September, 1984).

6Reed College Annual (Portland, [Reed College], 1915), 15. The listing notes that the history professor ~. . . is a member of the faculty music committee and is particularly active in all that pertains to the musical life of the college community."

7Year of graduation and major confirmed by letter received from Emi lie M. Smith, Assistant to the Registrar, Reed College, Portland, 28 August, 1984.

8Portland School System records contain only a film of Alderman's employment application dated April 1918. The application indicated some experience teaching music in the McMinnville School District, Yamhill County, Oregon (letter received from Aletha C. Chavis, Director, Personnel, Portland fi Public Schools, 5 November, 1984).

9Transcripts received from Office of Admissions and Records, University of~ California, Berkeley, California, 20 August, 1984. Alderman attended summer~ sessions 1919, 1921, and 1923.

10Whiteside taught in Portland and Eugene, Oregon, and in Los Ir prior to relocation to New York (obituary, Musical America, 1 January, 1957, 25).

11Klauser set forth his system of harmony in The Senate and the Centralization of the Tonal System, 1890 (Theodore Baker, Baker Dictionary of Musicians, 1900, 6th rev by Nicolas Sonimsky [New York: Schirmer, 1978]

12Alderman attended summer session at the University of Washington in 1920 (letter received from Virginia L. Bennett, Residence Classification Officer, University of Washington, 13 September, 1984).

13Pomona College Catalogs list Alderman's courses as follows: 1924-25 Instructor in Piano, also teaching Elementary Harmony; 1925-26 -- Elementary Harmony, Ear-Training and Sight-Singing, Piano; 1926-27 -- same entries as 1925-26; 1927-28 -- Instructor in Musical Theory and Appreciation, teaching Elementary Harmony, History and Appreciation, Advanced Harmony, Counterpoint, and Piano (letter received from William F. Russell, Chairman Emeritus, Department of Music, Pomona College, Claremont, 2 November, 1984).

16Letter received from Cynthia J. Ahmann, Penn State Room Assistant, Pennsylvania State University Libraries, 13 November, 1984.

18Letter received from Virginia L. Bennett, Residence Classification Officer, University of Washington, Seattle, 13 September, 1984. "New A Professor." Though hired as Assistant Professor of Harmony, Ear Training, and Dictation, Alderman is listed as instructor for Music History I and III during the 1930-31 academic year (University of Southern California Bulletin). According to letters signed by Maxie M. Walton, Corresponding secretary, to "Friend of the Alchin Harmony Association," and to "Miss Caldwell,"

21 April, 1931:"The Aichin Chair was founded by Miss Esther Nelson, a girlhood friend, to whom Miss Alchin left all of her estate except the rights to her books. Its purpose is to teach composition and allied subjects to talented students. It is maintained by a fund of sixty thousand dollars. . . . [F] our scholarships of $25 each have been made possible by friends and co-workers of Miss Alchin for the use of worthy, talented young musicians who may wish to continue work in composition at the Summer Session, with the Alchin Professor of Music."

22This could not be confirmed through departmental course listings.

23Music Appreciation appears in departmental course offerings for the first semester of the 1934-35 academic year, with Alderman listed as instructor.

24Records of salaries are not available for confirmation.

25Alderman said that familiarity with Milton -- who considered Lawes the only composer able to properly set a sonnet1s accents -- had prompted her Interest.

26According to a telephone interview with Dr. Clare Raynor, Chairman of the ad hoc committee on chapter history for

More About PAULINE EDITH ALDERMAN:

Census 1: 1900, OR Tillamook Tillamook ED 75 Pg 7B(See Father)

Census 2: 1910, OR Multnomah Portland Ward 8 ED 194 Pg 3B(See Mother)

Census 3: 1920, OR Multnomah Portland ED 109 Pg 9A(See Mother)

ii. HENRY H ALDERMAN, b. 24 May 1904, Oregon; d. 06 Dec 1972, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon^133,134; m. HAZEL ?.

More About HENRY H ALDERMAN:

Census 1: 1910, OR Multnomah Portland Ward 8 ED 194 Pg 3B(See Mother)

Census 2: 1920, OR Multnomah Portland ED 109 Pg 9A(See Mother)