Wagner's American Centennial commission
On today's date in 1876, America was celebrating its Centennial, and the place to be was in Philadelphia, where a Centennial Exhibition was in progress. Officially known as "The International Exhibition of Arts, Manufacturers and Products of the Soil and Mine," this was the first World's Fair to be held in the United States. It drew 9 million visitors—this at a time when the entire population of the U.S. was only 46 million. The Exhibition had opened in May with a concert attended by President and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant. After "Hail to the Chief," the orchestra premiered a specially commissioned "Centennial March" by the famous German opera composer Richard Wagner. Wagner was paid $5000 for the commission, an astronomically high fee in those days. Wagner did not bother to attend the Philadelphia premiere, and privately told friends back in Germany: "Between you and me, the best thing about the march was the $5000 they paid me." The following month, the French composer Jacques Offenbach arrived in Philadelphia to conduct his music at a specially constructed open-air pavilion. "They asked my permission to call it 'Offenbach Gardens,'" the composer later wrote. "How could I refuse?" The concertmaster of Offenbach's orchestra, by the way, was a 21-year old violinist from Washington, D.C. by the name of John Philip Sousa, who would go on to write some festive music of his own.