This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
The fastest way to get a friendly argument going in the Quad Cities is to introduce the phrase "joined by a river." "No," someone will always reply, "we are divided by a river." A lively discussion will follow. But if you were to use the phrase "joined by a symphony," the same crowd will all agree.
It would be hard to name an organization that has done more to create a single community in the Quad Cities than our Symphony Orchestra. It's the one bridge about which no one ever complaints.
Music, of course, has been an important part of Davenport, Rock Island and Moline since the first settlers began arriving in the 1830s. Antoine LeClaire, Davenport's founder, was an accomplished violinist, playing often at St. Anthony's Church. Rock Island and Moline regularly hosted traveling musicians.
Throughout the 19th century, much of the music was meant to preserve the culture the immigrants brought with them. The Germans who came to Davenport by the hundreds after 1848's failed revolution in Europe brought on especially rich musical heritage. Davenport was soon filled with singing societies and instrumental groups playing in parks, parades, beer gardens and opera houses. Meanwhile, the Swedes who came to Rock Island and Moline to work for John Deere brought their own love of choral music sung in churches. By 1881, this musical tradition resulted in the Handel Oratorio Society, performing one of the first productions of the Messiah in the United States.
By 1916, many professional musicians were ready for the next step: a symphony orchestra bringing together musicians and audiences from both sides of the river. On May 29th, 1916 a capacity crowd filled the Burtis Opera House in Davenport to hear the first performance of the Tri City Symphony conducted by Ludwig Becker, a Davenporter with years of experience conducting orchestras in Europe and the United States. The evening featured the prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
The music has not stopped nearly 100 years later. An annual pops concert was added in 1917, a youth symphony nine years later. Today, several times a year, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra continues to remind us of the truth of that all-round you may remember from fourth grade music class: "All things shall perish under the sky. Music alone shall live. Music alone shall live. Music alone shall live, never to die."
Rock Island Lines is underwritten by the Illinois Humanities Council and Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, with additional funding from Humanities Iowa, the Iowa Arts Council, and Augustana College, Rock Island.
