Another veteran 'Jinks' composer of San Francisco is Humphrey J. Stewart, who has been the 'Musical Sire,' as it is termed, of the eleventh (1888), thirteenth (1890), fifteenth (1892), seventeenth (1894), eighteenth (1895), twentieth (1897), twenty-first (1898), twenty-sixth (1903), and twenty-ninth (1906) 'Midsummer High Jinks.' Stewart is of English birth, a composer of high musicianship, and is widely known in the field of church music.
Edward F. Schneider, of San Francisco, has also made a notable contribution to the music of the Bohemian Club, having been the composer of the 'Jinks' drama for 1907, the 'Triumph of Bohemia,' text by George Sterling, which was very cordially received. He is also the composer of the 'Jinks,' or 'Grove Play,' as this festival is sometimes called, to be presented in 1915. It is entitled 'Apollo,' the text being by Frank Pixley. Schneider's tendencies are inclined toward the classic tradition, though not without rather strong romantic influence, and find their chief expression in his symphony, 'In Autumn Time,' which has been produced by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, under Henry Hadley's direction. His music is strongly melodic, an infrequent modern characteristic, warm in emotional quality and of well-balanced and rounded formal construction, though little touched by ultra-modernism. Of a number of songs 'The Deep Sea Pearl' may be singled out for its quality of haunting beauty, and a setting of Tennyson's 'Eagle' for descriptive power. A 'Romantic Fantasy' and 'Midwinter Idyl,' both for violin and piano, are extremely melodious, and show a sympathetic management of violin writing.
Another San Francisco composer of notable ability is Wallace Sabin, who composed the music for the Bohemian Club Grove Play of 1909, 'St. Patrick at Tara,' the text by H. Morse Stephens. This, one of the most famous 'Jinks,' won high favor, and the music, if not striking in originality, was dignified and of firm texture, and carried out admirably the Celtic musical idiom. A wild Irish revel, in the form of a jig, was one of its most striking features, and of much solidity and breadth was the processional chorus at the entrance of the King of Leinster with his retainers. Sabin has written much music for the church.
Herman Perlet, another of the San Francisco group, wrote the music for the Grove Play of 1913, 'The Fall of Ug,' text by Rufus Steele. The themes show a considerable power of characterization and a lively and elastic rhythmic sense. Perlet's tone-poem 'Mount Tamalpais,' was heard, under the composer's direction, in San Francisco in June, 1912, and called forth warm praise from the critic of the 'Call.' While not an avowed nationalist or 'aboriginalist,' he has based this work upon a theme of the Lake County Indians. A 'Symphonic Suite' and a 'Symphonie Spirituelle' are of more recent date.
Edward G. Stricklen is one of the younger San Franciscans, and is regarded as a composer of ability and promise. The music for 'The Green Knight,' text by Porter Garnett, the 'Jinks' of 1911, is his contribution to the art achievement of the Bohemain Club. It is music of distinguished imaginative character and much freshness of inspiration, showing the rich modern harmonic texture which characterizes the younger school of American composers. Stricklen is also the composer of the first 'Parthenia,' the annual festival expressing the passage from girlhood to womanhood, inaugurated by the women students at the University of California.
Theodore Vogt and Arthur Weiss should be mentioned in connection with the San Francisco group, the composers of the 'Jinks' of 1905 and 1908, respectively, 'The Quest of the Gorgon' and 'The Sons of Baldur'; and also Joseph D. Redding, the composer of the first 'Jinks' known as a 'Grove Play,' which was entitled 'The Man in the Forest,' and was produced in 1902. John Harradan Pratt, of San Francisco, has composed, among other works, a trio for pianoforte and strings, which, if conservative, shows genuine classical ideals and considerable charm.
Nathaniel Clifford Page (b. 1866), at one time associated with the San Francisco group, but who later removed to the East, is a composer of a high order of musicianship. He has an early opera, 'The First Lieutenant,' produced in San Francisco in 1889, as well as two later operas, and has written much incidental and entr'acte music for plays. An orchestral 'Caprice' is an astonishing display of orchestral and contrapuntal ingenuity, and his part song on lines from the opening of Keats' 'Endymion' shows a highly refined sense of beauty.
There are many American composers of the younger generation, or, if somewhat older, too infrequently heard, who have shown a greater or less degree of creative capacity along the line of the ideals considered in the present chapter, but of whom it is too early to predict the nature or possible height of their promised achievements. Henry Lang, of Philadelphia, took the first prize in the chamber music class of the prize competition of the National Federation of Musical Clubs in 1911, with a trio for piano and strings, in E major. Henry V. Stearnes, with a very melodious trio in D minor, took the second prize in this class at the same competition. Stanley R. Avery, of Minneapolis, has written a considerable number of songs showing fancy and charm, among them 'When Hazel Comes,' 'There's a Sunny Path,' 'The Shepherdess,' an Easter song called 'The Dawn of Life,' 'On a Balcony,' a graceful song with a warmly emotional climax, and an 'Esquimo Love Song' of curiously chilly atmosphere. He has written also part songs and church music. Arthur Olaf Anderson, of Chicago, who has also written many charming songs, is a purist in his art, gaining exquisite effects with great simplicity and lucidity. Among his songs are 'May-time,' 'Roses,' In verschwiegener Nacht, and 'Mother Mine.' He is the composer of two pianoforte sonatas, several short suites and pieces for large and small orchestra, and a number of mixed male and female choruses. Chester Ide, of Springfield, Ill., is a composer of delicate poetic fancy who often shows an unusually poignant sense of beauty. He has written suites for orchestra, vocal works with orchestra, songs, and piano pieces. The songs 'Lovers of the Wild' and 'Names,' on poems by Stevenson and Coleridge, reveal grace and buoyancy of inspiration, and a waltz, 'To Margaret,' gains a singular intensity of dreaminess with the simplest of means. Albert Elkus, of Sacramento, Cal., has written piano pieces showing individuality. Cecil Burleigh is a composer of exceptional promise, who devotes himself chiefly to the violin. His 'Eight Characteristic Pieces' (opus 6) for that instrument are musicianly, well felt, and fanciful, though not showing the character revealed in his later work. The 'Rocky Mountain Sketches' and 'Twelve Short Poems,' also for violin and piano, show a very great advance in imaginative quality, as does also a set of five 'Indian Sketches.' A recent violin and piano sonata, entitled 'Ascension,' is his most ambitious work. Christian Kriens, of Hollandish birth, has written felicitously in various forms. A number of solos for violin and 'cello, with piano accompaniment, show him as a fertile melodist. One of the former, 'Summer Evening,' is a simple mood of considerable loveliness. A composer of piquant and charming individuality is Charles Fonteyn Manney (b. 1872), of Boston, who has written many excellent songs, 'Orpheus with His Lute' being perhaps the best known. Frederick Fleming Beale, of Seattle, has shown originality and noteworthy poetic quality as a song writer. J. Homer Grunn, located at Phœnix, Ariz., has embodied impressions of the 'land of little rain' in a pianoforte suite, 'Impressions of the Desert,' and has written a Marche Héroïque for two pianos, 'Concert Studies,' and 'Garden Pieces.'
Edmund Severn (b. 1862, in England) has given himself extensively to composition for the violin. His concerto for that instrument in D minor is on broadly melodic lines, is, on the whole, conservative, but makes occasional excursions into whole-tone scale effects. A suite for violin and piano, 'From Old New England,' draws upon old tunes and ballads of that region for its thematic material, though scarcely constituting the composer a nationalist. Its movements, 'Pastoral Romance,' 'Rustic Scherzo,' 'Lament,' and 'Kitchen Dance,' are excellent violin writing, and show humor and a sprightly fancy. There is also a sonata for violin and piano and a symphonic poem, 'Launcelot and Elaine,' which has been heard at the Worcester, Mass., festivals.
Certain American composers of distinguished attainments in the sphere of romantic and neo-classic ideals have preferred to spend their lives in Europe, with the result that their work is little known at home. Among these Arthur Bird (b. 1856) is known as the possessor of a fertile and truly musical imagination and a thorough technique. He has composed a symphony, suites, and a 'Carnival,' for orchestra; a ballet, Rübezahl; an opera, 'Daphne'; and various works for piano and organ. His decimet for wind instruments won the Paderewski prize for chamber music in 1902. Bird is a musician of German training and French sympathies and calls himself a 'conditional modernist.' He makes his home in Berlin, where he studied under Haupt, Loeschhorn and Urban. Earlier in his career he spent two years with Liszt at Weimar. In 1886 Bird was the conductor of the Milwaukee Musical Festival. Another of the expatriated is Bertram Shapleigh, who has adopted England as his home. His output is enormous and comprises works in many forms, among them orchestral works, cantatas, and choruses, and violin and 'cello solos, though songs constitute by far the greater part of his music. For orchestra he has a 'Ramayana' suite and four symphonic sketches, Gur Amir.