His name has been permanent in the lists of the Boston Symphony, while he has had frequent hearings in the other orchestras of America and Europe. Mr. Chadwick is also without question the best equipped and experienced of our native conductors, having been for many years the director of the Springfield and Worcester festivals.
Besides his orchestral works, Chadwick has shown himself a versatile and prolific composer in a great amount of chamber music, a large number of choral works, a comic opera, many songs, choruses, and piano compositions. Unlike the lyric genius of MacDowell, his talent does not find itself so fitted to the smaller forms and he seems often to slight them with an expression more or less banal in its conventionality. It must be added, however, that there are exceptions to this and one might cite the 'Ballad of Trees and the Master' as being one of Chadwick's best inspirations.
Mr. Arthur Foote has long been acknowledged in Europe as one of the foremost American composers. In his own country his influence has been as widely felt as that of any of his countrymen. Not only by his compositions but by his teaching as well, his name has become pre-eminent. Graduated from Harvard in 1874, he was granted the degree of A. M. in music the following year. His teachers in composition were Stephen A. Emery and Professor John Knowles Paine of Harvard. Furthermore, he studied the piano and the organ with B. J. Lang of Boston. All his training was received in this country, and the results of it may well be a source of pride to his countrymen.
Entering upon his career at a time when the standard of musical performance in this country was low, he was quick to respond to the influence of Theodore Thomas, and later Franz Kneisel, and to exert his efforts in raising the state of performance here toward its present equality with that of Europe. He was no less quick to study and to appreciate the great works pouring out upon Europe at that time. He has always kept in closest touch with the development of all branches of music down to the present, and has ever been active in bringing new works before the public.
As a composer he has written in nearly all forms except the opera. Many of his songs have achieved a world-wide fame, such as the 'Irish Folk-song,' 'I'm Wearing Awa' to the Land o' the Leal' and the brilliant Bedouin song for chorus of men's voices. These songs should not be taken as the complete expression of his genius, but should lead to the study of his other songs, more than a hundred in all, which are not less inspired because more difficult. A keen insight into the possibilities of the voice, a touch of lyric genius, and an unfailing ingenuity in accompaniments are their distinguishing characteristics.
In the treatment of string instruments Foote has been remarkably successful. Two trios, two quartets and a very fine piano quintet in A minor are conspicuous in the list of American music. The quintet has been and still is distinguished by many performances. Through the strings he approached the orchestra. A serenade in E for string orchestra has been frequently heard. Two suites for full orchestra, one in D minor and one in E, and a symphonic prologue, Francesca da Rimini, have proved his skill in combining instruments. Very recently he has written a series of pieces suggested by the Rubaîyat of Omar Khayyâm, which are far more brilliantly scored and are quite in keeping with the modern spirit of splendid tone color.
As organist for many years at the First Unitarian Church in Boston he acquired that intimate familiarity with the possibilities of the organ which shows in the many pieces he has written for it. But particularly as a pianist he won a wide fame, and the more than ten series of pianoforte pieces are written with an appreciation of pianistic effect which distinguishes them in the main from nearly all other pianoforte music produced in this country. Nor should the skill he has shown in editing the pianoforte works of many of the great masters pass unnoticed.
Of his compositions as a whole it may be said that they are astonishingly original in an age which has found it all but impossible to escape imitation. He is, like most of the great composers, largely self-taught, and yet there is scarcely a trace of mannerisms; nor what is even more remarkable, of the mannerisms of others. His music is the pure and perfectly formed expression of a nature at once refined and imaginative. In these days of startling innovations, the sincerity of which may not be unhesitatingly trusted, it sounds none the less spirited because it is unquestionably genuine and relatively simple. It stands forth as a substantial proof that delicate poetry and clear-cut workmanship have not yet failed to charm.
Although he has lived at New Haven for the past twenty years, during which time he has been professor of music at Yale, Horatio Parker's career is in a large measure identified with Boston and its circles. Parker was born (1863) at Auburndale, a suburb of Boston, and his earliest teachers were Stephen Emery and Chadwick. After his preliminary studies with these men Parker studied with Rheinberger in Munich. Returning home in 1885, he soon began to attract notice by the excellence of his compositions and to-day he stands as one of the commanding figures in American music. His compositions have won a dignified place for themselves and his conscientious labors at Yale have created a music department that far excels those of the other American universities in the practical advantages which it offers to the serious music student.
The list of Parker's works is long and varied. It contains, besides his two most famous works (the oratorio Hora Novissima and the opera 'Mona'), several orchestral scores, among others an overture (in E flat), a symphony, and 'A Northern Ballad.' There are also several shorter choral works, a few chamber music works, including a string quartet, a string quintet, and a suite for piano, violin and 'cello, besides many songs and piano pieces.