=Piano Composition=.—The dean of American teachers of the piano and
of composers for that instrument is =William Mason=, born in Boston,
in 1829, a son of Lowell Mason, who studied at home and abroad and
spent two years with Liszt at Weimar. It was in 1854 that he came
back to the United States and located in New York City. In addition
to his works for the piano, some of which have been widely played,
he is the author of an important technical work, which stamps him as
an educator of originality and strength. A composer who is generally
classed as American, although his ancestry, education and environment
incline strongly to the French, is =Louis Moreau Gottschalk=, born
in New Orleans, in 1829. He early showed marked inclination for
music and was sent to Paris to study. His first reputation was won
as pianist. He traveled over Europe, the United States and parts of
South America, giving concerts, in which he gave the principal place
to his own compositions. He died in Brazil, in 1869. In later years,
American composers for the piano have not done such distinctive work
as the two writers just mentioned, yet the names of =Charles Dennee=
(1863), =Wilson G. Smith= (1855), =James H. Rogers= (1857), and
=William H. Sherwood= (1854), composer, pianist and teacher, whose
work in the educational field is most important; =Edward Baxter Perry=
(1855), who has splendidly triumphed over the infirmity of blindness,
and through his unique lecture recitals has been a strong factor in
musical progress in the United States; and several men of foreign
birth who have identified themselves with American musical education:
=Rafael Joseffy=, in New York City, =Carl Baermann= and =Carl Faelten=
in Boston, =Constantin von Sternberg= in Philadelphia, and =Emil
Liebling= in Chicago. Two other names should be mentioned here, =Henry
Schradieck=, of New York, whose influence as a violinist and teacher
has been great, and =F. L. Ritter=, who occupied the chair of music in
Vassar College, a pioneer in college musical work.
=Organ Composition=.—Nearly all of the best-known American composers
have been organists, yet certain men have made that line of musical
work peculiarly their own. Such men are =B. J. Lang= (1837), of Boston,
organist, conductor and teacher; =George E. Whiting= (1842), who in
addition to his high rank as an organist and teacher, has written
most acceptably for his instrument, and also for the orchestra and in
the large choral forms; =George W. Warren= (1828), and =S. P. Warren=
(1841), whose sphere of activity is identified with New York City;
=E. M. Bowman= (1848), organist, conductor, pianist and teacher;
=Samuel B. Whitney= (1842), organist, noted for his work in training
boy choirs, also his musical compositions for the Episcopal Church
service; =Clarence Eddy= (1851), organ virtuoso with an international
reputation; =Henry M. Dunham= (1853), who has written well for his
instrument and has had an active and useful career as a teacher.
Among the younger men of prominence as American organists who have
put themselves abreast with modern progress, and have studied all
schools, may be mentioned =Everett E. Truette=, =Wallace Goodrich=,
=Wm. C. Carl=, =Gerrit Smith=, =Charles Galloway=, =J. Fred Wolle=,
who organized the Bach Festival at Bethlehem, Pa., =H. J. Stewart=, a
representative California organist.
=Musical Criticism=.—When indicating the various agencies for the
shaping of musical appreciation in the United States, special mention
must be made of a group of writers whose contributions to musical
magazines, to the daily press in the large music centres, as well as
their work in permanent form have influenced the taste of the American
public to a degree not paralleled in any other country. These writers
have enjoyed unusual opportunities and have used them well. The leading
newspapers of the United States give much space to reports of musical
events and have called to their aid writers of keen insight into
musical matters, thorough equipment on the score of musical knowledge,
and gifted with much skill in expression as well as mastery of literary
style.
=The Older Critics=.—The first of these critics to claim our attention
is =John S. Dwight=, born in Boston, in 1813, a graduate of Harvard,
and a student of theology as well. Gifted with a sound taste in art
matters, his reviews of musical works, concerts, etc., were very useful
and helpful and much appreciated by the best circles of the city, for
his associations were with the most famous literary and scientific
men of his day. In 1852, he established a musical paper, _Journal of
Music_, which lasted nearly thirty years. He died in 1893. Another of
the older writers is =George P. Upton=, born in Boston, in 1834, a
graduate of Brown University, who entered journalism at twenty-one,
as a member of the staff of the Chicago _Journal_; after some years
of service with that paper, he went to the _Tribune_, with which he
has ever since been associated. Mr. Upton’s critical work covers the
period of the growth of Chicago, which has been phenomenal in art
as well as in commercial directions, and has been a most valuable
factor in musical upbuilding. In recent years his pen was a great aid
to Theodore Thomas in his efforts to establish the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra. His works in permanent form are “Woman in Music,” a series
of books descriptive of the principal oratorios, operas, cantatas,
and symphonies, translations from the German of Nohl’s biographies of
musicians, and a “Life of Theodore Thomas.” Coincident with Mr. Upton’s
work in the West is that of =W. S. B. Mathews=, born in London, N.
H., in 1837. He was educated in Boston; after some years of musical
work in the South, he located in Chicago, as organist, teacher, writer
on musical matters. His reviews on local musical affairs appeared
in several of the leading dailies, he was a contributor to Dwight’s
_Journal_, and to all the musical papers that have come into the
field since. Perhaps no contemporary writer on education in music has
influenced, and so strongly, as many teachers and students of music
as Mr. Mathews. He has written a “Popular History of Music,” “Hundred
Years of Music in America,” “How to Understand Music,” “Primer of
Musical Forms,” and several works on the great composers, with critical
studies of their works.
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