Charles Sanford Skilton
Encyclopedia
Charles Sanford Skilton was an American
composer, teacher and musicologist. Along with Charles Wakefield Cadman
, Blair Fairchild
, Arthur Nevin
, and Arthur Farwell
, among others, he was one of the leading Indianist
composers of the early twentieth century.
, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University
in 1889. From that year until 1891 he taught languages at a preparatory school
in Newburgh, New York; while there, he studied composition with Dudley Buck
and organ
with Harry Rowe Shelley
. Skilton traveled to Berlin
for further study in 1891, remaining there until 1893 and studying at the Hochschule für Musik with Woldemar Bargiel
and Otis Boise. Returning to the United States, he became director of music at the Salem Academy and College
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
, in which position he served until 1896. In 1897 he found work as an instructor of piano
and music theory
at the State Normal School in Trenton, New Jersey
(now The College of New Jersey
); he moved west in 1903, when he became a professor of organ, theory and history at the University of Kansas
. He served as the Dean of the School of Fine Arts at that institution from 1903 until 1915. It was there that he developed his interest in American Indian music.
Skilton died in Lawrence, Kansas
in 1941.
in 1915, when an Indian pupil of his offered a trade; the pupil would sing him traditional tribal songs in exchange for lessons in harmony
. Skilton expressed interest, and soon found himself visiting the nearby Haskell Institute
. The first works he completed on Indian themes were Two Indian Dances for string quartet
, Deer Dance and War Dance, originally intended for a student opera. These he later orchestrated as the first part of his Suite Primeval; the second part, published four years later, consisted of four movements based on traditional songs of three tribes. These were:
Skilton also wrote opera
s on Indian themes. The three-act Kalopin was based on legends of the Chickasaw
and Choctaw
tribes, and took as its subject the 1812 New Madrid earthquake. This opera, though completed in 1927, was not publicly performed, but a one-act opera, The Sun Bride, was given on NBC
in 1930. This piece is based on Pueblo
themes, and incorporates themes from the Winnebago and Chippewa. For his work on Kalopin, Skilton was awarded the Bispham Memorial Medal Award
by the American Opera Association of Chicago, Illinois.
Besides his work on Indian motives, Skilton wrote music on other themes, including incidental music
for a production of Sophocles
' Electra
at Smith College
in his youth. Among his other compositions were an oratorio
, The Guardian Angel, and numerous orchestral works.
Many of Skilton's manuscript scores, and published copies of some of his work, are held in the library of the University of Kansas. Among these are manuscript copies of his three operas.
on the Marco Polo label.
The Philharmonia Orchestra of Hamburg conducted by Hans-Jurgen Walther recorded Part I of the suite, the "Deer Dance" and "War Dance," on MGM E-3144. Earlier, Howard Hanson
led the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra
in the "War Dance" and also, from Part II of the suite, the "Sunrise Dance" on a Victor red seal
78 RPM record, no. 11-8302. Earlier still, the "War Dance" appeared on an acoustically recorded Edison
diamond disc, no. 80692, performed by its dedicatee, the Zoellner Quartet. The orchestral score of the Suite Primeval also indicates that Pathé Freres Phonograph Company
published an orchestral recording of the "Deer Dance" and "War Dance" and that Columbia Phonograph Company
published orchestral recordings of these movements together with the "Flute Serenade." Thus, leaving aside questions of varying recording technology and accessibility to modern listeners, recordings have at least documented the "War Dance" in all three guises: solo piano, string quartet, and full orchestral.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer, teacher and musicologist. Along with Charles Wakefield Cadman
Charles Wakefield Cadman
Charles Wakefield Cadman was an American composer.Cadman’s musical education, unlike that of most of his American contemporaries, was completely American. Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, he began piano lessons at 13...
, Blair Fairchild
Blair Fairchild
Blair Fairchild was an American composer and diplomat. Along with Charles Wakefield Cadman, Charles Sanford Skilton, Arthur Nevin, and Arthur Farwell, among others, he is sometimes grouped among the Indianists, although he had only a marginal association with their work.Fairchild was a native of...
, Arthur Nevin
Arthur Nevin
Arthur Nevin was an American composer, conductor, teacher and musicologist. Along with Charles Wakefield Cadman, Blair Fairchild, Charles Sanford Skilton, and Arthur Farwell, among others, he was one of the leading Indianist composers of the early twentieth century.-Biography:Born in Edgeworth,...
, and Arthur Farwell
Arthur Farwell
Arthur Farwell was an American composer, conductor, educationalist, lithographer, esoteric savant, and music publisher.- Biography :Farwell was born in St Paul, Minnesota...
, among others, he was one of the leading Indianist
Indianist movement
The Indianist movement was a movement in American classical music that flourished from the 1880s until the 1920s. It was based on attempts to synthesize American Indian musical ideas with some of the basic principles of Western music...
composers of the early twentieth century.
Life
Skilton was born in Northampton, MassachusettsNorthampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Northampton's central neighborhoods, was 28,549...
, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1889. From that year until 1891 he taught languages at a preparatory school
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
in Newburgh, New York; while there, he studied composition with Dudley Buck
Dudley Buck
Dudley Buck was an American composer, organist, and writer on music. He published several books, most notably the Dictionary of Musical Terms and Influence of the Organ in History, which was published in New York in 1882. He is best known today for his organ composition, Concert Variations on the...
and organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
with Harry Rowe Shelley
Harry Rowe Shelley
Harry Rowe Shelley was an American composer, organist , and professor of music. He was born in New Haven, Conn. Shelley studied with Gustav J...
. Skilton traveled to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
for further study in 1891, remaining there until 1893 and studying at the Hochschule für Musik with Woldemar Bargiel
Woldemar Bargiel
Woldemar Bargiel was a German composer of classical music.-Life:Bargiel was born in Berlin, and was the half brother of Clara Schumann. Bargiel’s father Adolph was a well-known piano and voice teacher while his mother Mariane had been unhappily married to Clara’s father, Friedrich Wieck. Clara was...
and Otis Boise. Returning to the United States, he became director of music at the Salem Academy and College
Salem College
Salem College is a liberal arts women's college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina founded in 1772. Originally established as a primary school, it later became an academy and finally a college. It is the oldest female educational establishment that is still a women's college...
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...
, in which position he served until 1896. In 1897 he found work as an instructor of piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and music theory
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
at the State Normal School in Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
(now The College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey, abbreviated TCNJ, is a public, coeducational university located in Ewing Township, New Jersey, a suburb of Trenton....
); he moved west in 1903, when he became a professor of organ, theory and history at the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
. He served as the Dean of the School of Fine Arts at that institution from 1903 until 1915. It was there that he developed his interest in American Indian music.
Skilton died in Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...
in 1941.
Music
Skilton first became interested in the music of American IndiansIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
in 1915, when an Indian pupil of his offered a trade; the pupil would sing him traditional tribal songs in exchange for lessons in harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
. Skilton expressed interest, and soon found himself visiting the nearby Haskell Institute
Haskell Indian Nations University
Haskell Indian Nations University is a tribal university located in Lawrence, Kansas, for members of federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States...
. The first works he completed on Indian themes were Two Indian Dances for string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
, Deer Dance and War Dance, originally intended for a student opera. These he later orchestrated as the first part of his Suite Primeval; the second part, published four years later, consisted of four movements based on traditional songs of three tribes. These were:
- Sunrise Song, from the WinnebagoHo-ChunkThe Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, are a tribe of Native Americans, native to what is now Wisconsin and Illinois. There are two federally recognized Ho-Chunk tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska....
- Gambling Song, from the Rogue RiverRogue River (tribe)Rogue River is the name of a Native American group originally located in southern Oregon in the United States. Rogue River was not a single tribe, but a conglomeration of many affiliated and related tribal groups. The total estimated population of these tribes in 1850 was about 9,500...
- Flute Serenade, from the SiouxSiouxThe Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
- Moccasin Game, from the Winnebago
Skilton also wrote opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s on Indian themes. The three-act Kalopin was based on legends of the Chickasaw
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
and Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
tribes, and took as its subject the 1812 New Madrid earthquake. This opera, though completed in 1927, was not publicly performed, but a one-act opera, The Sun Bride, was given on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in 1930. This piece is based on Pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
themes, and incorporates themes from the Winnebago and Chippewa. For his work on Kalopin, Skilton was awarded the Bispham Memorial Medal Award
Bispham Memorial Medal Award
The Bispham Memorial Medal Award was an award for operas written in English which was presented annually by the American Opera Society of Chicago from 1921-1932. The award was named for baritone David Bispham, who was a great proponent of performing opera in English in the United States. It was...
by the American Opera Association of Chicago, Illinois.
Besides his work on Indian motives, Skilton wrote music on other themes, including incidental music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
for a production of Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
' Electra
Electra (Sophocles)
Electra or Elektra is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles. Its date is not known, but various stylistic similarities with the Philoctetes and the Oedipus at Colonus lead scholars to suppose that it was written towards the end of Sophocles' career.Set in the city of Argos a few years after the Trojan...
at Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
in his youth. Among his other compositions were an oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
, The Guardian Angel, and numerous orchestral works.
Many of Skilton's manuscript scores, and published copies of some of his work, are held in the library of the University of Kansas. Among these are manuscript copies of his three operas.
Recordings
Little of Sanford's music appears to have been recorded. Some of his piano pieces, including a solo piano arrangement of the "War Dance" from "Suite Primeval," (possibly in the arrangement by Carl A. Preyer referenced in the full score of Suite Primeval) may be found in two compilations of Indianist music released by Naxos RecordsNaxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
on the Marco Polo label.
The Philharmonia Orchestra of Hamburg conducted by Hans-Jurgen Walther recorded Part I of the suite, the "Deer Dance" and "War Dance," on MGM E-3144. Earlier, Howard Hanson
Howard Hanson
Howard Harold Hanson was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music. As director for 40 years of the Eastman School of Music, he built a high-quality school and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American music...
led the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is an American orchestra based in the city of Rochester, Monroe County, New York. Its primary concert venue is the Eastman Theatre at the Eastman School of Music....
in the "War Dance" and also, from Part II of the suite, the "Sunrise Dance" on a Victor red seal
RCA Red Seal Records
RCA Red Seal Records is a classical music label and is now part of Sony Masterworks.The Red Seal label was begun in 1902 by the Gramophone Company in the United Kingdom and was quickly picked up by its United States affiliate, the Victor Talking Machine Company, and its president, Eldridge R. Johnson...
78 RPM record, no. 11-8302. Earlier still, the "War Dance" appeared on an acoustically recorded Edison
Edison Records
Edison Records was one of the earliest record labels which pioneered recorded sound and was an important player in the early recording industry.- Early phonographs before commercial mass produced records :...
diamond disc, no. 80692, performed by its dedicatee, the Zoellner Quartet. The orchestral score of the Suite Primeval also indicates that Pathé Freres Phonograph Company
Pathé Records
Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...
published an orchestral recording of the "Deer Dance" and "War Dance" and that Columbia Phonograph Company
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
published orchestral recordings of these movements together with the "Flute Serenade." Thus, leaving aside questions of varying recording technology and accessibility to modern listeners, recordings have at least documented the "War Dance" in all three guises: solo piano, string quartet, and full orchestral.