1

What About Floss Grosjean? An Archival Look At the Xylophone in Circuit Chautauqua

The story of percussion being played independently of other instruments in

America often starts with works such as Amadeo Roldan’s Ritmicas and Edgard

Varese’s Ionisation, both written around 1930. However there is a forgotten bit of

American music history, that of circuit Chautauqua; its many different acts included

xylophone and marimba ensembles. The Grosjean Marimba-Xylophone Company was a

prime example of the xylophone ensembles in Chautauqua that have received little to no

scholarly research. They were the first in America to popularize the marimba which has

become a major area of focus for percussionists today.

The original Chautauqua Institution was set up by a group of Methodists reacting

against the revivalist movement of the late nineteenth century. They started the

institution in 1874 on Lake Chautauqua in New York.1 The summer Chautauqua sessions

had a varied program including readings, lectures, and musical programs.2 Chautauqua

quickly grew in popularity and small towns across the country began their own summer

sessions based on the Chautauqua Institution. The independent Chautauquas soon turned

into circuit Chautauquas based on the Lyceum model of traveling lecturers. The Redpath

Lyceum Bureau, started in 1868 by James Redpath, already had an established circuit of

lecturers and it was only a matter of time before they incorporated other sorts of

performers to meet the needs of Chautauquas.3 In 1904 Keith Vawter started the first

circuit and by 1910 the summer Chautauqua circuit had spread across the Midwest. By

the mid 1920s there were Chautauqua tents from North Carolina to California, and from

Michigan to Texas.

1 Charlotte Canning, The Most American Thing in America: Circuit Chautauqua as Performance (Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2005), 6.

2 Ibid., 6. 3 Ibid., 8.

2

During the years 1910-1920, the content of circuit Chautauqua grew as well.

More music was incorporated into the programs, lecture topics were also expanded, and

more theatrical productions were put on.4 The most popular topics for lectures were

religion, temperance, and politics but one might also hear elocutionists reciting popular

literature too.5 There were magic shows, poetic and dramatic readings, and even bird

impersonators. Musical acts consisted of performing groups who played popular and

light classical music such as Franz von Suppé overtures and selections from Richard

Wagner’s Tannhueser. Often the performers were multi-talented, able to sing, play

multiple instruments, and give entertaining readings. One Iowa City resident recalled,

I don't remember the sequence of the varied performances but there was always a xylophone performance, a group playing Hawaiian instruments and songs, a magician, speakers, musical groups, vocal and instrumental, a Saturday night play, comedy or drama. In sum, entertainment, instruction, edification, enlightenment.6

Chautauqua acts were in many respects similar to vaudeville shows.7 The

Chautauqua agencies would beg to differ, arguing that vaudeville offered low class

entertainment as opposed to the culturally uplifting performances on the circuits.8

However, there were xylophone performers who played both the circuits and for

vaudeville.9

Many of the Chautauqua acts consisted of novelty instruments and the xylophone

was considered one of them. During the early twentieth century the xylophone was a

relatively new instrument in America. The marimba, much like the xylophone, was also

4 Ibid., 14. 5 Ibid., 174. 6 “Chautauqua Memories,” Books at Iowa 62 (April 1995),

http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/chautauqua.htm, accessed 20 October 2011. 7 Canning, 162. 8 Ibid., 19. 9 Ibid., 164.

3

a recent arrival and often the terms xylophone and marimba were interchanged or

combined, e.g. “marimbaphone,” “xylorimba,” or “marimba-xylophone.” Nonetheless,

the instruments were essentially the same, in that both had wooden bars mounted above

resonators and were struck by mallets. The only difference between a xylophone and

marimba at this time was that a marimba would have a range below middle C.10

The early history of the xylophone and marimba is somewhat unclear, but many

scholars agree that they both developed in Africa.11 The wooden bar instrument then

traveled to Europe where it became the xylophone and to Central America where it

became the marimba. In Europe the xylophone became a part of the orchestra, most

notably by the composer Camille Saint-Saens.12 The xylophone then traveled to America

via European immigrants. In Central America the marimba developed into a similar

instrument as the xylophone. The builders used rosewood for the bars, which is still used

in manufacturing marimbas and xylophones today. The marimba was introduced to

America by marimba bands consisting of one or two marimbas with one or two players

on each and often a double bass player.13 They played traditional songs as well as

popular American songs. For example, Mata’s Marimba Band toured the Chautauqua

circuit in the 1920s and was billed as being able to play five hundred popular songs from

memory.14

10 Frank MacCullum, The Book of the Marimba (New York, NY: Carlton Press,

1968), 31. 11 James Blades et. al., “Xylophone,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and

Musicians, 27 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, (New York: MacMillan, 2001), 27: 620.

12David P. Eyler, “Early Development of the Xylophone in Western Music,” Percussive Notes 41, no. 6 (2003): 42.

13 MacCallum, 24. 14 Mata’s Marimba Band Flyer, Box 216, Mata’s Marimba Band Papers, Redpath

Chautauqua Collection, Special Collections, University of Iowa.

4

It was not surprising that circuit Chautauqua saw an influx of xylophone and

marimba players during the 1910s and 20s. Chicago was not only the heart of marimba

and xylophone manufacturing but also the heart of the Chautauqua circuit. In 1880 J.C.

Deagan began manufacturing glockenspiels and soon started building xylophones as

well.15 His Chicago shop was the leading manufacturer of bar percussion instruments

during the first half of the twentieth century. Deagan had produced marimba-xylophones

that could be up to seven octaves and used only the finest rosewood, termed “Nagaed”

(Deagan spelled backwards). 16 Other manufacturers started around Chicago as well

including Lyon & Healy and Leedy.17

One of the many groups that started near Chicago was the Grosjean Marimba-

Xylophone Company. (See Fig. 1) The ensemble, active between 1922-29, was

representative of many of the percussion groups that toured during this period.18 Floss

Grosjean, who also went by Florence and Flossie, started the group with her family. Floss

and her sisters grew up in a large family in the small town of Joy, Illinois, located near

Davenport, Iowa.19 She had four sisters, a brother, three stepsisters, and one

stepbrother.20 Since the family grew up fairly close to Chicago it was possible for Floss

and her sisters to come in contact with the marimba early in life.

The Grosjean Marimba-Xylophone Company was a typical novelty act for

Chautauqua, consisting of family members who played multiple instruments and sang.

(See Fig. 2) Floss Grosjean was the manager of the group and was a musically gifted

15 Eyler, 42. 16 MacCullum, 31. 17 James Strain, “The Xylophone, ca. 1878-1930,” D.M.A. diss., University of

Rochester, 1995. 18 Grosjean Contracts, Box 129, Grosjean Marimba-Xylophone Company Papers,

Redpath Chautauqua Collection. 19 John Terry, great-grand nephew of Floss Grosjean, telephone Interview, 22

October 2011. 20 Ibid.

5

woman as well as a talented elocutionist. The original company started as a quintet

consisting of Floss, her husband Henry, two of her sisters, and her sister’s husband

Charlie Painter; they played on a Deagan five-octave marimba-xylophone. The company

lasted until 1930, when the Chautauqua circuit began to suffer from financial problems.

Throughout the 1920s the company played all over small town America from

Ducktown, Tennessee, to Porterville, California. Wherever they went they received high

praise from the audiences and reviewers. A columnist from Winfield, Iowa, wrote,

“There was no snappier bunch of musicians on the entire Chautauqua program than the

Grosjean Concert Co. As far as music is concerned, the Grosjeans left a mighty good

taste in the mouths of patrons.”21 The ensemble’s audiences ranged in size from two

hundred to seventeen hundred; Floss Grosjean described them as being very appreciative

and responsive to the musical numbers.22

Over the course of the seasons, the Company went through several transitions. It

started out with five members; however, they received a few complaints from the

Redpath Bureau because they had 685 pounds of excess baggage, which included the

marimba-xylophone, drums, and other instruments, as well as costumes. The Redpath

Bureau, who was paying for the train tickets and luggage, sent several letters to the

Grosjean Company about the excessive baggage fees, imploring her to cut back on their

load. Starting in November of 1925 the group became a trio, cutting back on expenses.

(See Fig. 3)

The Grosjean Marimba-Xylophone Company’s performances were made up of

popular songs, medleys, light classical pieces as well as readings, impersonations, and

21 Review of Grosjean Marimba-Xylophone Company, 1926. Box 129, Grosjean

Marimba-Xylophone Company Papers, Redpath Chautauqua Collection. 22 Floss Grosjean’s reports to Redpath Bureau, Box 129, Grosjean Marimba-

Xylophone Company Papers, Redpath Chautauqua Collection.

6

ventriloquism. Floss was the featured artist of the group, and the advertisements always

mentioned her great musical ability and that her readings of poems by James Whitcomb

Riley were a big hit. Floss also played melodies on the musical saw with piano

accompaniment. One newspaper reviewer described the previous evening’s

entertainment:

The second number, Grosjean Marimba Xylophone Trio was even better than was expected. “Poet and Peasant” overture by Suppe was the first number. Other numbers such as “Rainbow Ripple,” by Reed; “Gypsy Love Song,” from “the Fortune Teller;” two Spanish numbers; “Home Sweet Home,” played on a saw; “Blue Danube Waltz;” “Doll Dance;” popular numbers on saxophone, banjo, and piano, “Get Out and Get Under the Moon;” “Constantinople;” “The Glow Worm.” The renditions were so novel, artistic, and pleasing that the large audience was sorry when it ended. It was a pronounced success.23

“Rainbow Ripple” is probably G. H. Green’s “Rainbow Ripples,” a ragtime xylophone

solo with piano accompaniment. The audience would have been well acquainted with

most if not all of the pieces the group played, but the instrumentation may have been a

surprise, especially the saw. In a letter to the Redpath Bureau, Floss Grosjean wrote,

“Had a very amusing incident happen yesterday. After my saw ‘stunt’ the cutest old man

(‘tuxedo collar and goatee’) sitting on the front row arose and said: ‘Well I’ve played

with a saw for sixty years but I never knew there was such music in one.’ Of course the

audience cheered heartily.”24

The company’s performances featured novelty acts that caught the audience’s

attention, interspersed with peppy music and entertaining theatrics. The musicians would

play trios with three members playing the same marimba-xylophone. One newspaper

23 Dubois Courier, Dubois, PA, 26 October 1928. 24 Floss Grosjean, 23 August 1925, Box 129, Redpath Chautauqua Collection,

Grosjean Marimba-Xylophone Company Papers.

7

article described how they would sometimes have three of the members play the

marimba-xylophone from the back of the instrument, “a stunt seldom performed.”25

Another novel aspect of their performance was the use of a lighting effect during the

piece “Glow Worm” from Paul Lincke’s Lysistrata. Newspapers never went into detail

about what the effect was but one could imagine lanterns hanging as the lyrics describe,

“Shine, little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer light the path below, above, and lead us on

to love.” This lighting effect was so popular that the music director of the Redpath

Bureau, Sandor Randanovits, asked where he could buy the lights. Performances also

included the style of playing that featured four mallets on the marimba-xylophone.

Henry Jensen played transcriptions with four mallets such as “Song of the Evening Star”

from Wagner’s Tannhauser and “Somewhere a Voice is Calling” by Arthur Tate, both of

which are slow, lyrical pieces that require a great deal of skill to perform on marimba.

The Grosjean Company did well in the Chautauqua circuit because they were excellent

players and they had the right ingredients: new, popular instruments and a variety of

entertainment.26

Novelty groups were given the name due to the “newness” of their instruments.

Floss and Henry were always collecting new instruments. The saxophone and banjo were

similar to the xylophone at this time in that they were newer, popular instruments, at least

in the context of Chautauqua. G. H. Green was quoted in an article in 1925 from Jacob’s

Orchestra Monthly:

The xylophone is becoming more popular every day in the dance orchestra and on the stage as well. In the very near future you will see the xylophone as a feature instrument in every dance orchestra. Everyone remembers how quickly the saxophone became popular. A few years ago the

25 Emporia Gazette, Emporia, KS, 7 December, 1922. 26Clay Smith, “How to Get a Start in Chautauqua,” The Etude 40, no. 9 (1922):

592.

8

saxophone was practically unknown. Look at it today. Practically every orchestra has at least one saxophone, and the majority of orchestras have more. Likewise the status of the banjo, was, and is, the same as that of the saxophone.27

One of the last known mentions of the group was in October 1930 in a newspaper column

that reads, “The entertainers for that program are ‘The Flos [sic] Grosjean Marimba

Xylophone Ensemble.’ They bring with them among other instruments a new one called

the Vibra-harp, which will be worth seeing and hearing.”28 The vibraharp, now called a

vibraphone, was invented in 1927 by the Deagan Company.29 Floss and Henry continued

performing well after the demise of Chautauqua, playing at high schools in New York in

1940 under the name of the Grosjean Musical Revue.30 Newspapers reported that the

group played the xylophone, vibraphone and had another new instrument, the Hammond

Organ, which was first used in 1935.31

Many people who went to see the Chautauqua performances had undoubtedly

never heard or seen a marimba or xylophone. The only other way anyone would have

been able to hear the xylophone is on a recording. George Hamilton Green (1893-1970)

was one of the most popular early xylophone players; he is considered to be the first

American virtuoso and wrote several popular ragtime melodies for xylophone and

piano.32 He and his brother Joe produced many recordings, and his method book for

27George L. Stone, “George Hamilton Green,” Percussive Notes 38, no. 3 (2000):

83. 28 Hopewell Herald, Hopewell, NJ, 8 October 1930. 29Jacqueline Meyer, “Early History and Development of the Vibes,”

Percussionist 13 no. 2 (1976): 40. 30 Logansport Press, Logansport, IN, 8 October 1939. 31 Hugh Davies, “Hammond organ,” in New Grove Dictionary of Music and

Musicians, 27 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (New York: MacMillan, 2001), 10: 738.

32 Frederick Fairchild, “George Hamilton Green,” Percussive Arts Society, http://www.pas.org/experience/halloffame/HamiltonGreenGeorge.aspx, accessed 5 December 2011.

9

xylophone is still used today. However, people in rural America may not have had

access to those recordings, and it is unlikely that they were exposed to any kind of

percussion before circuit Chautauqua. The Grosjean Company and the other traveling

acts that had xylophone were the ones who brought exposure to the instrument. An

article from the New York Tribune from around 1920 describes how Chautauqua had

helped the xylophone:

People who five years ago went to the Chautauqua to see “what kind of a gosh derned animal that was” which the managers advertised so highly are now buying xylophone records by the thousands. Even the cub reporter now knows better than to begin the word with a “Z,” as was his custom formerly.33

Audience members would hear performances on xylophone by traveling artists and then

go buy records of G. H. Green and others who were not touring around America but

rather making records in New York.

Although the Grosjean Marimba-Xylophone Company was only one of many

notable performing groups in Chautauqua, little is known about other early ensembles.

George Hamilton Green is the only xylophonist from the early 1900s familiar to most

percussionists, mainly because his work is well documented through recordings and

published music. Musicians such as Floss Grosjean, did not leave any recordings or

music behind, merely an occasional concert program. Although it is no longer extant, the

Grosjean Company must have had some music since they played transcriptions and

arrangements of classical pieces.

The fact that performances of early percussionists were considered novelty acts is

the reason for the dearth of previous research; the music has been considered simple and

unimportant. Floss Grosjean may not have been the most technically advanced player by

33George L. Stone, “Xylophone Now Popular,” Percussive Notes 37, no. 3 (1999): 75.

10

today’s standards, but given the lack of recordings, it is impossible to tell. The only

sources that speak to the company’s talent are newspaper reviews, of which all were

glowing. Small town newspapers probably did not have erudite audience or music critics

so it is difficult to say with any certainty how skilled the members of the company were.

However, Floss did have high expectations for her group. In a letter to a friend in which

she described some new pieces they were working on, she wrote, “I’ll not put them on

until we have them perfectly tho’ [sic].”34 Whenever the company had time off they were

always practicing and getting ready for the next season. Judging from Grosjean’s

correspondence, she was determined to always put on a great show and was truly

appreciative of a responsive audience.

The early xylophonists of the 1920s had a substantial influence on the history of

percussion in America though it often goes unnoticed. In 2009, Allan Kozinn, a music

critic for The New York Times, wrote, “If you think about it, drums are the new violins.”35

Percussion has recently taken the spotlight through the efforts of performers such as

Evelyn Glennie, Steven Schick, and So Percussion but the early performers have been

forgotten. There are still many facets of percussion from the early twentieth century that

have yet to be explored and one may find that new ideas today were in fact being done a

century ago.

34 Floss Grosjean to Dima Harshbarger, 24 January 1923, Box 129, Redpath

Chautauqua Collection, Grosjean Marimba-Xylophone Papers. 35Allan Kozinn, “From Background to the Podium,” New York Times, 28

December 2009.

11

Selected Bibliography

Blades, James et al. “Xylophone.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 27 vols. Edited by Stanley Sadie. New York: MacMillan, 2001. 27: 618-624.

Canning, Charlotte. The Most American Thing in America: Circuit Chautauqua as Performance. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2005.

“Chautauqua Memories.” In Books at Iowa 62 (April 1995).

http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/chautauqua.htm. Accessed 20 October 2011.

Davies, Hugh. “Hammond organ.” In New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

27 vols. Edited by Stanley Sadie. New York: MacMillan, 2001. 10: 738-741. Eyler, David P. “Early Development of the Xylophone in Western Music.” Percussive

Notes 41, no. 6 (2003): 42-44. Fairchild, Frederick. “George Hamilton Green.” Percussive Arts Society.

http://www.pas.org/experience/halloffame/HamiltonGreenGeorge.aspx. Accessed 5 December 2011.

MacCallum, Frank. The Book of the Marimba. New York: Carlton Press, 1968. Meyer, Jacqueline. “Early History and Development of the Vibes.” Percussionist 13, no.

2 (1976): 38-47 Stone, George L. “George Hamilton Green.” Percussive Notes 38, no. 3 (2000): 83-84. . “Xylophone Now Popular.” Percussive Notes 37, no. 3 (1999): 75-76 Smith, Clay. “How to Get a Start in Chautauqua.” The Etude 40, no. 9 (1922): 591-592,

598. Strain, James. “The Xylophone, ca. 1878-1930: Its Published Literature, Development

as a Concert Instrument and Use in Musical Organizations.” D.M.A. diss., University of Rochester, 1995.

12

Fig. 1

13

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Images from Grosjean Marimba-Xylophone Company Papers, Redpath Chautauqua Collection, Special Collections, University of Iowa.