One hundred and twenty five years ago today, on October 21, 1892, marked Dedication Day of the World’s Columbian Exposition. “A surging sea of people,” reportedly “the largest assemblage that was ever brought together under one roof,” crowded into the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building for the official ceremony. The lengthy program included several musical selections interspersed between the numerous addresses:

1. “Columbian March” (also known as “Columbus March and Hymn”) by John Knowles Paine, written by special invitation for the dedication of the fair.
2. “The Columbus Ode” written especially for the fair by Harriet Monroe, set to music by George W. Chadwick
3. “The Heavens Are Telling” chorus by Haydn
4. “Hallelujah Chorus” from The Messiah by Handel
5. “The Star Spangled Banner”
6. “Hail Columbia”
7. “In Praise of God” chorus by Beethoven

The view of the Dedication Day ceremony from the seating area of the Columbian Chorus.

Performing these pieces were 5000 voices of the Columbian Chorus, under the direction of William Lawrence Tomlins, and the 190-piece Columbian Orchestra, under the direction of Theodore Thomas. Elsewhere in the massive hall, John Philip Sousa conducted his famous band in a hopeless attempt to support the chorus and orchestra. Few of the hundred thousand or so spectators in attendance heard much of anything, as the sounds of these voices and instruments were lost in the cavernous space.

If you are in the mood for imaging yourself in a front-row seat at Dedication Day, take a listen to recordings of pieces 3, 4, 5, and 6 in a “Dedication Day” playlist that we’ve prepared on our “World’s Fair Chicago 1893” YouTube channel.

In upcoming posts, we’ll explore the “The Columbus Ode” and Payne’s “Columbus March and Hymn,” in more detail; we have no online recording to offer at this time.

Baffled by Beethoven.

The identity of the final selection, listed as “In Praise of God” by Beethoven is a stumper. This same title appears on other concert programs performed during the fair by the Columbian Chorus, but is not otherwise a recognized name of a Beethoven composition.

One contemporary source lists the Beethoven work performed on Dedication Day as “The Ruins of Athens” march rather than “In Praise of God.” The Ruin of Athens is a set of incidental music that includes Beethoven’s famous “Turkish March”. Other than this and the “Overture,” the remaining pieces in this set are rarely performed and none seem appropriate in subject or style for the Dedication Day ceremony.

So, kind readers … what is the identity of this Beethoven chorus called “In Praise of God”? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the COMMENTS section.

 

SOURCES

Dedicatory and Opening Ceremonies of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Stone, Kastler & Painter, 1893.

Pierce, James Wilson Photographic History of the World’s Fair. Lennox Publishing Company, 1893

Warfield, Patrick Making the March King: John Philip Sousa’s Washington Years, 1854-1893. University of Illinois Press, 2013.