California has produced her share of composers. They have been
prominent as pianists, violinists, leaders of musical bodies and
teachers of harmony. They are writers of the highest merit and some
can be classed with the song writers of Europe. The state is too young
for many native composers. Our musicians all came to us in the days of
gold, and others who came later educated their sons and daughters in
the East and in Europe in the highest art of music and, returning to
the state, made a place for themselves as writers of music.
John W. Metcalf for the last twenty-one years has been among us as
teacher of piano, harmony and a song writer of the highest order, and
we are glad to claim him, even if he is not a native son. We love his
music and appreciate the writer who is able to give to the singing
world soulful compositions that compare with those of Schubert and
Mendelssohn. They are superlatively correct and scholarly. I am not a
song writer but a song singer, and when I find such compositions I am
proud to interpret them to the best of my ability.
John W. Metcalf is a product of my state, Illinois, and, like the
writer, he inherited his musical talent from the maternal side. His
first teacher was his mother's sister, who was a pupil of Bozzini and
prominent as a pianist and vocalist. In 1877 he went to Leipsic to
complete his schooling in music. He was accepted as a pupil at the
Royal Conservatory and was one of thirty who passed. He studied
faithfully three or four years, piano with Carle Reinecke and Louis
Maas; theory with Ernest and Alfred Richter; composition with
Reinecke, Rust and Jasassohn. The director of the conservatory, Conrad
Schleints, a warm personal friend of Mendelssohn, gave solicitous
attention to the promising young American and bestowed upon him at
graduation the coveted Hilbig prize, which had been won but twelve
times in the history of the conservatory. After returning to America,
he taught four years near Chicago, one year at the Dana Institute in
Ohio, and one year as head of the piano department of the Boston
Conservatory. He left Boston on account of ill health. After directing
for three years the Garfield University at Wichita, Kas., he came to
Oakland, Cal., where he still resides, and we are proud to claim him
as one of California's composers and renowned teachers of the
pianoforte. I feel honored to sing his songs and teach them to my
pupils. I append what I consider one of his best: