William Arms Fisher
William Arms Fisher (April 27, 1861 – December 18, 1948) was an American composer, music historian and writer.
Personal life
Fisher was born in
He was president of the
Fisher died in Brookline, Massachusetts on December 18, 1948.[2][3]
Career
In an 1893 interview, Antonín Dvořák challenged white American composers to make better use of the "negro melodies of America", feeling that they were needed as the basis for "any serious and original school of composition" in America.[4]
Antonín Dvořák's
In response to the challenge and the symphony, William Arms Fisher published an arrangement of Seventy Negro Spirituals in 1926.[2]
William Arms Fisher wrote an article for Music Educators' Journal in 1933 titled "Music in a Changing World." Patrick Freer of Music Educators' Journal said that "Fisher’s article was one of the first to interrogate the role of popular music within music education".
Recognition
A February 1927 article in the NAACP paper The Crisis calls William Arms Fisher "a worthy pupil and disciple of Dvořák" and asks rhetorically if he "would waste his time over futile music."[6] The article quotes an anonymous reviewer, "by all means let us have Fisher to arrange" Negro spirituals.[6]
Media
Fisher's compositions have been featured in several albums.[7]
One of his compositions appeared in the 1947 film Buck Privates Come Home.[8]
Publications
- Sixty Irish Songs – (1915)
- Notes on Music in Old Boston – (1918)
- Goin' Home (sheet music, 1922)
- One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States – (1934)
- Ye Olde New-England Psalm-tunes 1620–1820 – (1930)
- The Music that Washington Knew – (1931)
References
- ^ New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
- ^ a b c "Fisher, William Arms – 1861–1948". Alliance Publications, Inc. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
- ^ Wilson Library Bulletin, Volume 23, p. 410, 1948
- ^ "Real Value of Negro Melodies". New York Herald. May 21, 1893.
- ^ a b Ella Wilcox (May 18, 2011). "Change is here to stay". MENC: The National Association for Music Education. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
- ^ a b "The Spirituals". The Crisis. February 1927. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
- ^ "William Arms Fisher". Allmusic. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
- ^ "Buck Privates Come Home (1947)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
External links
- Works by or about William Arms Fisher at Internet Archive
- Free scores by William Arms Fisher at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Sheet Music for "Goin' Home"; Oliver Ditson Company publisher, 1922
- True Story of "Goin' Home" - From Bohemia to Boston
- Songs by William Arms Fisher at the National Jukebox