Dwight on the Issues

Abstract Dwight’s Journal addressed innumerable topics, but some had a special appeal to Dwight. He allotted space to several major Civil War events—the Emancipation Proclamation, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and others. Virtuosi, wind bands, and monster concerts he thought especially vulgar, and he took out his ire on Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Patrick S. Gilmore. Dwight battled off and on with “A Native Musician,” who penned letters that were published in the Journal, bringing to the fore Dwight’s seeming preference for German musicians. Although Dwight is sometimes considered harsh toward American musicians, he regularly supported them in the Journal, and he often raised money for them via benefit concerts. Contemporary music got plenty of coverage, but despite his strong attitudes against modernist music and its composers, Dwight nevertheless maintained a positive outlook. He never lost faith in long-cherished Transcendentalist ideals that stipulated that music could improve society, the individual, and the self.