Music
Father of our orchestras and founder of Handel and Haydn Society was Gottlieb Graupner, German ... first organ builder and maker of spinets was Gustaf Hesselius, Swede ... our first important composer was Ernst Bloch, Swiss Jew.
“Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” composed by James Bland, Negro ... “Johnny Comes Marching Home” composed by Patrick Gilmore, Irish ... “Old Folks at Home,” by Stephen Foster, Scotch-Irish ... an Italian, Campanini, was first director and leader of Metropolitan ... Gatti Casazza, Italian, famous director of Metropolitan ... organizer of Flonzaley Quartet was Alfred Pochon, Swiss.
Famous composers include: Victor Herbert, Irish; Edward MacDowell, Scot; John Philip Sousa, Portuguese; Percy Grainger, Australian; Eugene Goosens, English; Howard Hanson, Swede; William Grant Still, Negro; Daniel Protheroe, Welsh; Sigmond Romberg, German Jew; George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, Russian Jews; Alma Glück, Roumanian; Rudolf Friml, Czech.
Outstanding conductors include Gabrilowitch, Russian Jew; Walter and Klemperer, German; Koussevitsky and Smallens, Russian Jews; Stokowski, Polish; Ormany and Rapee, Hungarians; Ganz, Swiss; Koshetz, Ukrainian; Zilotti, Russian; Busch, Dane; Kindler, Netherlander; Damrosch, German; Rodzinsky, Yugoslav; Victor Kolar, Czech.
Leading violin players of world-wide fame are: Elman, Heifetz, Zimbalist, Russian Jews; and Yehudi Menuhin, Roumanian Jew; Ysaye, Belgian; Dvonc, Czech; Prydatkevich, Ukrainian.
Famous pianists include Rachmaninoff, Russian; Iturbi, Spaniard; Honti, Hungarian.
Leading flutist is Callimahos, Greek; noted zylophonist is Y. Hiraoka, Japanese.
Among the great concert artists are Sophie Braslau, Russian Jew; Lotte Lehmann, German; Rosa Raisa, Italian Jew; Schumann-Heink, Austrian; John Charles Thomas, Welsh, and Paul Robeson, Jules Bledsoe, Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, Negroes.