Von Hagen

Biography

Von Hagen is named by Spillane, together with Hulett and Gilfert, as one of the pianists and teachers whose names 'stand out' among the earliest exponents of the pianoforte in the United States. Spillane situates this trio within the 'early chapters of this work,' indicating fuller treatment appears earlier in the book than the excerpted pages here. In this closing passage the author credits such early figures with helping establish musical culture and the pianoforte as an art instrument during America's first century of national independence, but supplies no further individual biographical detail — no dates, full given name, or specific achievements — beyond this collective mention. Von Hagen employed Crehore before Crehore left to establish himself independently. Spillane suggests that after leaving Von Hagen's employ, Crehore was disadvantaged by living in a suburban village with limited financial resources, a circumstance that contributed to his eventual failure in business and his later work, in old age, as a journeyman piano-maker for Appleton & Babcock Brothers.

Highlights

• Employed Crehore before Crehore left to establish himself independently.
• Named among the earliest pianists and teachers 'identified' with the pianoforte in America, per Spillane's closing chapter

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 55, 362.

Public domain.