From the Press of A. P. Schmidt

George Whitefield Chadwick (1854–1931) emerged from modest beginnings in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he left high school at sixteen to work in his father’s insurance agency. Despite this early detour, Chadwick pursued music with determination, studying privately in Boston before enrolling at the New England Conservatory. His talent led him to further studies in Leipzig and Munich, and his orchestral overture Rip van Winkle (1879) earned him early acclaim in both Europe and the United States. By the early 1880s, Chadwick had returned to Boston and begun to establish himself as a leading figure in the burgeoning American classical tradition. He would eventually serve as president of the New England Conservatory, his alma mater, for more than three decades.

Following the successful premiere of his first symphony in 1882, Chadwick began work on a second, more ambitious project in 1883. Completed in 1885, the Symphony No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 21, received its full premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in December 1886. “The symphony made a remarkably strong and agreeable impression,” wrote the Boston Daily Advertiser, “and was instantly accepted as a work which does honor to its author and to the cause of American music.” Chadwick himself conducted.

The symphony’s enthusiastic reception encouraged Arthur P. Schmidt to publish the full score in early 1888—an unprecedented move for an American publisher without the support of a subscription or European collaborator, as was the case with Paine’s Second Symphony eight years before. “Messrs Schmidt & Co. have done more practical work for the American school of music than all the essays of the critics,” wrote the Boston Musical Herald in June of 1888, for “they have published the best works of native composers, and sometimes in the face of a certain loss, merely for the advancement of the cause.” The symphony soon found its place in concert halls and music festivals, helping to solidify not only Chadwick’s legacy but also Schmidt’s reputation as a pioneer of American music publishing.

🔎 View full score at the International Music Score Library Project.