John C. Freund

Biography

John C. Freund founded the 'Music Trade Review' in November 1875, which ran for about two years. In 1881 he started a journal called 'Music,' whose title was changed to 'Music and Drama.' 'Freund's Weekly' appeared in 1884 and soon likewise became 'Music and Drama.' In 1887 Freund joined J. Travis Quigg in publishing the 'American Musician,' and in 1893 he started 'Music Trades' together with Milton Weil. From Spillane (1890): John C. Freund was a London-born (1848) journalist, playwright, lecturer, and actor who became a central figure in American music-trade publishing. His father was an eminent Austrian-born physician who built a large London medical practice, served as a principal medical officer in the Crimean War, and personally raised funds to found the German Hospital in London; his mother, Amelia Lewis-Freund, was a noted linguist and musician who died in 1887. Educated at Oxford and London universities, Freund edited the Oxford magazine the Dark Blue (1870-73), studied painting, trained as a lawyer, and wrote the play 'The Undergraduate,' produced at London's Queen's Theatre in 1871. He emigrated to New York in 1872, bought the Arcadian in 1873 (selling it to George Butler in 1875), and in 1875 founded the Music Trade Review, the first American weekly with a distinctive title devoted to the music trades; it evolved through several titles (Musical Times, Musical and Dramatic Times, Music, Music and Drama, Freund's Weekly). He briefly left journalism for the stage, debuting at Chicago's McVicker's Theatre in 1885, and lectured widely, including a well-received 1886 Boston lecture, 'Before and Behind the Footlights.' He returned to journalism in 1887 as co-editor of the American Musician alongside John Travis Quigg. A portrait of Freund accompanies the text.

Highlights

• Founded the 'Music Trade Review' in November 1875
• Over the following decades launched or renamed several journals: 'Music' (1881), 'Freund's Weekly' (1884), 'American Musician' (with J. Travis Quigg, 1887), and 'Music Trades' (with Milton Weil, 1893)
• Founded the Music Trade Review in 1875, the first American weekly with a distinctive title devoted to the music trades.
• Born in London in 1848 to an eminent Austrian-born physician father and accomplished linguist mother; educated at Oxford and London universities.
• Career spanned law, journalism, playwriting (debut with 'The Undergraduate' at Queen's Theatre, 1871), acting (McVicker's Theatre, Chicago, 1885), and lecturing before becoming co-editor of the American Musician in 1887.

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 417.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 355, 356, 357, 358, 359.

Public domain.