Caprock Chronicles: 100 Years of the Lubbock Music Club, part 1
Editor’s Note: The Caprock Chronicles are edited by Jack Becker, Librarian Emeritus, Texas Tech University Library. Today’s article is the first of a two-part series on the Lubbock Music Club. It is written by Dr. Elissa Stroman, Oral History Archivist at the Southwest Collection. Look for part two on Dec. 10, 2023.
This year the Lubbock Music Club (LMC) celebrates its centennial. On Nov. 18, 1923, 53 women gathered to create an organization that would study music to encourage a higher standard of music across the South Plains. Starting regularly in the fall of 1924, members began meeting monthly in women’s homes from October through May on the second Saturday of the month to enjoy a program consisting of lectures and music performances by their fellow members (and occasional guest performers). In its first year, the club was federated with the National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC) and the Texas Federation of Music Clubs (TFMC).
Prior to the 1920s, Lubbock’s music entertainment relied heavily on churches, touring groups (which only became a viable option after the railroad arrived), and home music making. The public schools had begun teaching music in the 1910s, but it was still difficult to procure instruments and sheet music, let alone to move pianos and equipment on streets that were just beginning to be paved. The women of the Lubbock Music Club recognized a need for more organized and concerted efforts to provide high quality musical entertainment on the South Plains. Along with the South Plains Music Teachers Association (a group also founded in the fall of 1923), work began to educate the general populus and provide new opportunities for music study.
One of the first concerts sponsored by the Lubbock Music Club was pianist Paul Van Katwijk from Southern Methodist University. He performed on January 12, 1924 at the new high school auditorium, and the day before, the Lubbock Morning Avalanche stated that the concert “marks a step in Lubbock’s forward progress and we hope the time is coming when no inhabitant of Lubbock county will have to leave home to hear good music.”
In these early years, the LMC and the SPMTA often joined forces to bring touring classical musicians to the South Plains. Because of the excitement and interest, along with the growing student body of Texas Tech, in the first decade of these clubs’ existence, nationally recognized musicians performed at various churches and schools (due to Lubbock’s lack of a formal concert hall).
Early groups that preformed in Lubbock included the Henshaw Opera Company, the Smith-Spring-Holmes Orchestral Quintet, the DeMarco Harp Ensemble, the Imperial Mexican Symphony Orchestra, Efrem Zimbalist, David Guion, Edwin Hughes, Don Jose Mojica, Percy Grainger, and John Philip Sousa.
As the town grew, so too did the talent pool of its citizens. By 1928, the LMC was able to bring together local church choirs to annually stage Handel’s Messiah. A music appreciation club was started in the 1930s, along with a South Plains Civic Music Organization, that further helped promote concerts in the region. In the late 1930s, programs of the LMC were broadcast on KFYO radio. And in 1940, The Allegro Music Club, a group still in existence today, was founded.
Music education and outreach has been a constant focus for the Lubbock Music Club. Starting in 1927 and continuing to today, National Music Week has been observed. Organized by the NFMC, the goal is to have activities in the first full week of May that will “create an understanding and appreciation of the value of music in the home, the community, the nation, and the world” (according to the NFMC’s website). During World War II, the LMC continued to meet monthly to perform music, but members also worked in their spare time to help the war effort by providing instruments and music for those enlisted and living on the South Plains, as well as staging recitals and concerts that raised money for war bonds.
One of the Lubbock Music Club’s biggest achievements in its first 25 years was in 1946, when along with the Allegro Music Club, it sponsored the first concert of the Lubbock Little Symphony, now known as the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. Members of the LMC also helped found the Lubbock Symphony Guild and continue today to support this world-class orchestra.
Women in the early years of the Lubbock Music Club were often prominent in the community, with familiar family names, but their musical history is less well known. Mrs. Jed (Frances) Rix, first president of the organization, was an accomplished pianist who after moving to the Dallas area would perform a concert at the Texas State Centennial in 1936. Mrs. L.J. (Mildred) Von Tungeln directed choral groups and community sing songs in the 1920s and 1930s, including Lubbock High School’s glee and choir club in 1930. Many of these women’s contributions to the musical history and health of this region are lost to time, and sadly very few images of the club’s activities in these foundational years have survived. But thanks to the record keeping of early members like Nancy McKee and Mary Dunn, whose papers are now housed at the Southwest Collection, we are able to rediscover their impact.
Note: in the second article in this series, we will look at the later history of the Lubbock Music Club, including their stint making a children’s television program.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Caprock Chronicles: 100 Years of the Lubbock Music Club, part 1
