Felippe Cioffi: a trombonist in antebellum America.

By the end of the nineteenth century the United States boasted a number of artistically and financially successful institutions devoted to the performance of cultivated music, as well as schools dedicated to training musicians for them. Musicians who were fortunate enough to be part of these institutions could make a comfortable living. Classically trained virtuoso pianists and violinists, not to mention singers, became very popular all over the country. But how did other instrumentalists with professional training make a living in the United States before any of this country's cultural institutions were firmly established? The career of antebellum trombonist Felippe (or Philip) Cioffi serves as an example.

No biographical details about Cioffi's birth and death--or when (or even if) he emigrated to the United States--are known. Presumably he was born and trained in Europe, like most other professional musicians of his era, but his name is not found in any index of passenger lists for trans-Atlantic crossings. (He might have been one of the many Italian band musicians who came to the United States through enlistments of the U.S. Navy during the early nineteenth century.(1) In that case his name would not have appeared on a passenger list.) Moreover, no Cioffi (Felippe or otherwise) has surfaced in census records for New York or Pennsylvania for either 1820 or 1830, by which time he was a resident of New York.(2) On the other hand, the New Orleans Daily Picayune identified him as an American artist who had been "educated in the science of music in this country."(3) One possible scenario is that Cioffi either was born in the United States or moved here as a small child and that he learned to play the trombone from the Moravians, who were active in and around Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: the trombone was an important instrument for the Moravians, and trombonists from Bethlehem performed in Philadelphia.(4)

New York City, ca. 1826-35

Cioffi may have been in New York City as early as 1826. The American Music Journal refers to him as "an old favorite who has been delighting the public with his extraordinary performance for nine years past."(5) His name appears sporadically in the New York City directories in the late 1820s and early 1830s. He is listed as a distiller in 1828; not at all in 1829; as a professor of music in 1830-31, 1833, and 1834; but not at all in 1832 and 1835.(6) G. E. Schiavo observed, "The fact that Cioffi was a distiller is not surprising . . . Da Ponte himself was a distiller for a time. Distilling has been a pet avocation for Italians for centuries past, ever since the days of the alchemists."(7)

Cultivated art music was beginning to take root in New York, despite an uneasy early beginning, by the time Cioffi reached the city. Vera Brodsky Lawrence has observed that attempts to improve the New York public's musical taste frequently met with initial acceptance, followed by satiety and then eventual rejection.(8) George K. Jackson's failed efforts between 1804 and 1812 to stimulate support for sacred choral music were only the first of many unsuccessful attempts to increase New Yorkers' appreciation for a style of music about which they cared little.(9) Only with the formation of the New York Sacred Music Society in 1823 did New York have a successful, long-lasting choral organization.

The establishment of a viable concert orchestra in the city took even longer. The present New York Philharmonic Orchestra (founded 1842) is the last of four Philharmonic Societies.(10) The first, founded in 1799, had no pretense of being a concert organization. Like the Columbian, Anacreontic, and Euterpean Societies, which developed around the same time, it functioned essentially as a social group that gave a public performance once a year. The third Philharmonic Society (1824-27) attempted to serve primarily as a performing organization, and at least two other orchestras existed between the third and fourth Philharmonic Societies: the old Euterpean Society, which continued operating as a social group, and the New York Musical Fund Society, which was not an orchestra per se but gave orchestral concerts from time to time to benefit needy musicians.(11)

Theaters likewise flourished in New York City in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and music was an important and integral part of the theatrical experience. Overtures, entr'actes, musical afterpieces, and interpolated songs generally constituted the repertory of music heard--even in productions of Shakespeare and other "straight" drama.(12) The distinction between cultivated and vernacular music in the theater began to emerge around 1825. During the 1830s distinctions existed between companies that produced Italian operas: on one side were the companies that performed them in English translation, and on the other, those that performed them in Italian.

Cioffi ranks as one of the earliest trombonists to live and work in New York during the antebellum era.(13) As late as 1825 a New York music critic commented on the insufficient instrumentation of the third Philharmonic Society: "Where are your oboes? Where [are] your trombones, in addition to your want of numbers of stringed instruments?"(14) Three years later the Caecilia, a German music journal, published a letter dated July 27,1828, from a German tourist who commented about trombonists in the city's theater orchestras:

There are four theatres in New York--Park, Bowry, La Fayette,

and Shottam [Chatham]. Here are given comedies, grand spectacles,

parts of operas, and minor pieces; but no great operas, for

the orchestras are extremely bad and incomplete. There are seldom

two clarinets and generally no bassoon. Oboes, trumpets,

and drums are never to be met with.... In every orchestra there

is a trombone, which never plays its part, but generally that of

the violoncello; and if the performer is skillful enough, he sometimes

plays that of the violin. Trombones and double basses are

best paid; they receive sixteen or seventeen dollars; the other have

but ten or twelve [dollars].(15)

This account may exaggerate the incompleteness and incompetence of New York theater orchestras around this time, but the report about the use, or overuse, of the trombone does seem credible. An English correspondent writing about New York for the Harmonicon corroborates these observations:

It is true, that for some time the orchestra of the opera of New

York was sadly deficient in the necessary instruments, and the

manager was obliged to supply their absence by an additional

number of trombones. The great Maestro himself [Rossini], passionately

fond as he is of this instrument, would have shrunk

from the overwhelming crash that deafened the ears of the astonished

natives. At present, several of the orchestras of Europe

would be unable to keep the field against that of New York.(16)

Cioffi's primary occupation in New York was playing the trombone in theater orchestras.(17) He was most closely associated with various unsuccessful attempts to establish an Italian opera company in the city. In 1830 he performed in the Park Theatre orchestra and collaborated on the debut there of the soprano Giulia da Ponte, niece of Lorenzo da Ponte,(18) which occurred on March 31, 1830. Although the press's critique of Giulia da Ponte's debut was no better than lukewarm, the papers commented favorably on a trombone solo that Cioffi played on that occasion. According to the Albion, "In closing. . . we have to compliment the performance of Chioffi [sic] on the Trombone, in a new Concerto."(19) Another reviewer observed:

The Trombone solo, a Tyrolese Waltz, with variations, was a wonderful

performance, but not equal to the "Aria Battone Nella Fana

L'Inganno Felice [sic]," by the same Gentleman [Cioffi], on this

instrument, the 31st of March. The Scotch air was a dull performance,

and received little more than silent applause. Many have

supposed that the variations on the Trombone, and the Scotch air,

were out of place. But we have been informed they constitute a

part of the opera.(20)

Additional information about the Park Theatre orchestra during Cioffi's tenure may be gleaned from the pages of the New York Mirror, where in 1830 an anonymous reviewer contrasted the Park Theatre orchestra with that of its rival, the Bowery Theatre:

The band and chorus [at the Park] have both received considerable

additions and changes. The orchestra has now an accession

in number and musters four first violins, all strong players and

capable musicians. Mr. Pons has been removed to the bassoon,

on which he is an admirable artist. Chioffi's [sic] trombone is as

prominent as usual.... We found [at the Bowery] Mr. Segura, the

first violin player in America, at the head of a very meager band;

. . . and the clarionets, horns, bassoon, and trombone positively of the

worst description.(21)

Cioffi later moved to the orchestra of an Italian opera company led by Giovanni Montresor, which opened in New York on October 6, 1832, at the Richmond Hill Theatre (later known as the Italian Opera House).(22) He performed there as a member of a twenty-piece orchestra: six violins, two violas, two clarinets, two oboes, two horns, and one cello, double bass, flute, bassoon, trumpet, and trombone.(23) Such a force was insufficient to perform the operas announced by management for that season without judicious editing of the parts. The resulting balance of instrumentation was uneven and disturbed reviewers. One critic who heard the company's performance of Rossini's La Cenerentola complained:

The formation of the band is by no means as we could wish it: the

violins are not half strong enough for the wind instruments, nor

are the string basses sufficiently powerful.... It is the immediate

and proper business of the director of the music, whoever he may

be, to compress the orchestra parts to the strength and number of

the instruments at his disposal; but this has not been done, and

consequently, the harmony is incomplete. When the composer has

written for three trombones, viz. alto, tenore, and basso, one tenor

trombone, as played by Cioffi, cannot execute a proper effect,

unless the score is altered, and a part [is] written expressly for him.

However Cioffi's way of avoiding this difficulty was admirable.

Again, one bassoon cannot do any good, but must do harm, in

playing part of a score written for two bassoons.... Compression

of the score becomes then a paramount duty; but the band on Saturday

last played from parts without compression.(24)

Continuing, the reviewer informed readers that "the clarionetts are good; the bassoon inferior (his solo in the overture abominable), the trumpet equally so; the first horn [was] excellent; the flute weak; the trombone cannot be sufficiently praised, and the way in which Cioffi, its able professor, covered the defects of the prima donna, was gallant in the extreme[,] particularly in the finale, `Non piu mesta.' The double bass and the trombone are in themselves a host."(25) (It is worth noting that neither the trombone part nor any of the brass parts that accompany this aria resemble the melody. Cioffi must have either improvised a part to assist the unfortunate singer or played portions of the aria's florid melody from memory--either way, such a performance would have been an astonishing feat.)

Cioffi left the Italian Opera (along with Cesare Casolani, an equally esteemed double bass virtuoso) and rejoined the Park Theatre orchestra before Montresor's New York company folded.(26) He remained there until his departure for New Orleans in 1835. The Park Theatre had proven to be the most successful, influential, and best-managed theater in New York during his residence in the city. Although the Park had acquired a reputation for presenting a wide variety of theatrical entertainment, after Montresor's company began specializing in Italian operas (ca. 1832-33), the Park Theatre began to program only English operas.(27)

Cioffi may have also performed with a later Italian opera company in New York. In November 1833 a new theater (also called the Italian Opera House) opened with great fanfare. This company, which initially was led by Lorenzo da Ponte and Vincenzo Rivafinoli, lacked good singers and competent management, and it likewise failed. It was later reorganized in 1834 under the management of baritone Antonio Porto and G. A. Sacchi, the company's treasurer.(28) The Rivafinoli /Porto Company's orchestra was large by the standards of the 1830s, at least toward the end of its existence: seven violins, three trombones, three flutes (one doubling oboe), two violas, two cellos, two double basses, two clarinets, two horns, two trumpets, and one bassoon, timpani, and harp.(29) This orchestra offered greater possibilities for balance of instrumentation.

In addition to playing in theater orchestras, Cioffi belonged to the New York Musical Fund Society, which gave concerts to support charitable activities benefiting indigent musicians and their families.(30) A typical concert consisted mostly of soloists. For example, the society's concert at the City Hotel on May 10, 1830, Cioffi's earliest identification with the group, featured four vocal soloists and three instrumental virtuosos. Cioffi did not perform a solo on that occasion but participated in the orchestra, which accompanied the soloists and played two orchestral pieces.(31) The concerts of October 17, 1833, and May 14, 1834, presented four vocalists and four instrumentalists;(32) that of December 18, 1834, had five singers and four solo instrumentalists. The orchestra on that occasion comprised thirteen violins, two violas, three cellos, two double basses, two flutes, four clarinets (two clarinetists presumably doubling on oboes), two bassoons, four horns, three trombones, and one trumpet, a set of drums, and pair of cymbals.(33)

Cioffi performed as a soloist on each of the society's concerts in 1833 and 1834. A review of the concert of October 17, 1833, discussed his virtuosity as a performer as well as the ineptness of the orchestra:

The Musical Fund Society gave a concert on Thursday evening,

at the Euterpean Hall, which was numerously and brilliantly attended.

Madame Pedrotti, Mrs. Austin, Mrs. Franklin, and Mr.

Keene constituted the vocal strength, and Miss Sterling, Signor

Rapetti, Mr. Hanna, and Signor Cioffi were the principal

instrumentalists.... Signor Cioffi blew forth "The Rose Tree in

Full Bearing" from the diapason of his soul, and executed some

variations on his trombone in the most masterly manner. We have

heard a musical friend, who has traveled through Europe, affirm

that this gentleman possesses a more perfect command of his instrument

than anyone he ever listened to; we can ourselves

vouch, that when the Instrumentalists, on Thursday evening,

were, in the Sinfonia, which commenced the second part, all awry,

he pulled them together in the most admirable style, and ceased

not until he had put them safely under the leader's control.(34)

The society's concert on December 18 of that same year featured Cioffi playing a cavatina from Auber's Masaniello that likewise drew an enthusiastic response from the press:

Signor Cioffi was received with such demonstrations of approbation

as must have been highly gratifying to his feelings. His

performances seemed to create a perfect furor amongst the audience,

for he was encored, and at the termination of the piece, the

applause was loud and long continued. To say anything in praise

of this gentleman's playing, is almost superfluous; that he is the

head of all Trombone-players in this country, is well known, and

the writer of this article had it from Mr. and Mrs. [Joseph] Wood's

own lips, on their late visit to this country, that they had never

heard in …