Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/661

 difficulty of interchanging ideas and products. Such consolidation of musical life as exists in Germany or England, for example, is at present utterly out of the question here.

From the long list of native-born American composers the selection of names for mention is not easy. The following are well-known representatives:—

John Knowles Paine (d. 1906), from 1862 teacher and from 1876 professor at Harvard University, was not only an expert organist, but an abundant and striking composer, with 2 symphonies, 2 symphonic poems, chamber music, the oratorio St. Peter, incidental music to Sophokles' 'Œdipus Tyrannus,' a mass, several choral cantatas, and many shorter works. In the same year with him (1839) was born Dudley Buck, in recent years a prominent church musician in Brooklyn, with many effective choral works, including the oratorio The Light of Asia (1885), many choir-pieces, organ music, overtures and a comic opera (1880). To the next generation belong William Wallace Gilchrist, born in 1846, since 1873 a prominent organist and conductor in Philadelphia, with a symphony, an orchestral suite, much chamber music, several prize works for chorus, etc.; Frederick Grant Gleason (d. 1903), from 1877 working at Chicago, with 2 operas, symphonic poems, cantatas, a piano-concerto, chamber music, etc.; Arthur Foote, born in 1853, since 1878 an organist in Boston, with many chamber works, overtures, suites for orchestra and for piano, cantatas, part-songs and songs; George Whitfield Chadwick, born in 1854, since 1897 at the head of the New England Conservatory at Boston, with 3 symphonies, several overtures and symphonic sketches, string-quartets, choral cantatas, songs, etc.; Edward MacDowell (d. 1908), born in 1861, thus far the most gifted of the American group, a fine pianist and fertile composer, with 4 symphonic poems, 2 orchestral suites, important piano-sonatas, 2 piano-concertos, many lesser pieces, numerous songs, etc.; and Horatio Parker, born in 1863, since 1894 professor at Yale University, with the oratorios Hora novissima (1893) and St. Christopher (1896), many choral cantatas, a symphony and overtures, organ-pieces and songs. Prominent among the many younger writers are Henry K. Hadley, organist at Garden City, N.Y., and Frederick Shepherd Converse of Harvard University, both born in 1871, and both successful with orchestral writing.

Without attempting any comprehensive statement regarding musicians of foreign birth, Charles Martin Loeffler, born in Alsace in 1861, may be cited as a single example of one who has secured special attention for his original orchestral and chamber works.

Among the heads of musical departments in universities, besides those noted above, are Hugh Archibald Clarke, born in 1839, at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Albert Augustus Stanley, born in 1851, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, George Albert Parker, born in 1856, at Syracuse (N.Y.) University, Peter Christian Lutkin, born in 1858, at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., and Rossetter Gleason Cole, born in 1866, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Many other able musical educators are in service at various colleges, not to speak of the efficient heads of large conservatories in many cities.