Edgar Stillman Kelley
Encyclopedia
Edgar Stillman Kelley was an American
composer, conductor, teacher, and writer on music. He is sometimes associated with the Indianist movement
in American music.
stock, his ancestors having come to America from England
before 1650. He himself was born in Sparta, Wisconsin
. His mother was from a musical family, and herself was skilled in music; she became his first teacher. Kelley's own college career was interrupted by bouts of poor health. He was a talented artist and writer, but he decided to devote his life to music after a performance of Felix Mendelssohn
's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Consequently, he traveled to Chicago
at 17, there to study with Clarence Eddy
and Napoleon Ledochowski. Two years later he went to Stuttgart
, where he studied organ
, piano
, and composition. His teachers there were Frederich Finck, Wilhelm Krüger, Wilhelm Speidel, and Max Seifriz. His friendship with Edward MacDowell
began in Stuttgart, and later Kelley worked at the MacDowell Colony
.
Kelley graduated from the conservatory in Stuttgart in 1880, and performed around Europe
for a time with a number of orchestra
s. Upon his return to the United States, he came west to San Francisco, where he worked as a church organist
and was a music critic for the Examiner
. He also became active as a composer, writing incidental music
for a production of Macbeth
that garnered him much attention. An interest in theater drew him to New York City
in 1886, and there he married Jessie Gregg on July 23, 1891; the two then returned to California
for four more years, during which time Kelley composed, conducted, lectured, and taught. In 1896 the couple returned to New York, where Edgar was hired to conduct an operetta
company. He also taught, at the New York College of Music and New York University
, and in 1901 replaced Horatio Parker
for a year at Yale
when the latter went on sabbatical. The following year saw the Kelleys move to Berlin
, and for eight years they lived and worked in Europe, lecturing, teaching, conducting, and performing in an attempt to expand European interest in American music. Kelley, though, wished to spend more time composing, and in 1910 took a post at the Western College for Women
in Oxford, Ohio
, where he would remain until his death.
Kelley and his wife divided their time between the Western College and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
; Kelley taught composition there, and later served as dean of the Department of Composition and Orchestration. Among his pupils was C. Hugo Grimm
, who would himself later lead the department. His wife lectured there as well. The couple retired in 1934 but continued to travel while maintaining a house in Oxford. Kelley died in Oxford in 1944.
in the vein of Horatio Parker, George Whitefield Chadwick
, and Arthur Foote
, and brought much of his German training to bear in his compositions. Even so, he was always interested in bringing non-Western influences into his work. For his orchestral suite Aladdin, one of his early successes, he studied the music he heard in San Francisco's Chinatown, and used oboe
s, muted trumpet
s, and mandolin
s to imitate Chinese instruments. His New England Symphony is based on themes found in bird song
s, as well as American Indian
and Puritan
music. For incidental music to a New York production of Ben-Hur
in 1899, he based his composition on Greek modes. This music was to go on to become his most popular work; it is said to have been performed some five thousand times in English-speaking countries by 1930.
Kelley's best-known composition was an oratorio
, The Pilgrim's Progress, composed on a text by Elizabeth Hodgkinson and based on the eponymous text
by John Bunyan
. It was first performed in Cincinnati in 1918, and was frequently revived thereafter, both in the United States and in England. He also wrote program music
, including orchestral suites after both "The Pit and the Pendulum
" and Alice in Wonderland; his first symphony
was based on Gulliver's Travels
, and depicted Lemuel Gulliver
's adventures in Lilliput
. His output also included numerous pieces of chamber music
.
Kelley had very definite ideas about American music and its creation, and was not shy about sharing them. Expressing his views, he once wrote that
A good deal of Kelley's music was published by Arthur Farwell's Wa-Wan Press
in the early years of the twentieth century.
the Composer and a work on Beethoven
. His important article "The Bach-Schumann Suites for Cello" appears in Music: A Monthly Magazine for November 1892, 612-19; he owned a unique copy of the six suites (now lost?). The most notable of his composition pupils was Wallingford Riegger
; among his other students were Frederick Ayres
, Joseph W. Clokey
, James G. Heller
, Rupert Hughes
, and W. Otto Miessner
.
Miami University
maintains an archive devoted to Kelley and his wife; it contains correspondence, music manuscripts, books, and other material related to the composer's life and career. In addition, his house and studio, built in 1916, remains on the Miami University campus, and is made available for the use of incoming faculty and administration.
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer, conductor, teacher, and writer on music. He is sometimes associated with the Indianist movement
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...
in American music.
Life
Kelley was of New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
stock, his ancestors having come to America from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
before 1650. He himself was born in Sparta, Wisconsin
Sparta, Wisconsin
Sparta is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Wisconsin, United States, along the La Crosse River. The population was 9,522 at the 2010 census.-Notable people:*William Hawley Atwell, U.S. District Court Judge in Texas*Larry Baumel, NASCAR...
. His mother was from a musical family, and herself was skilled in music; she became his first teacher. Kelley's own college career was interrupted by bouts of poor health. He was a talented artist and writer, but he decided to devote his life to music after a performance of Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Consequently, he traveled to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
at 17, there to study with Clarence Eddy
Clarence Eddy
Clarence Eddy was an American organist. He was married to singer Sara Hershey who established the Hershey Music School in Chicago....
and Napoleon Ledochowski. Two years later he went to Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, where he studied 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...
, 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 composition. His teachers there were Frederich Finck, Wilhelm Krüger, Wilhelm Speidel, and Max Seifriz. His friendship with Edward MacDowell
Edward MacDowell
Edward Alexander MacDowell was an American composer and pianist of the Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites "Woodland Sketches", "Sea Pieces", and "New England Idylls". "Woodland Sketches" includes his most popular short piece, "To a Wild Rose"...
began in Stuttgart, and later Kelley worked at the MacDowell Colony
MacDowell Colony
The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
.
Kelley graduated from the conservatory in Stuttgart in 1880, and performed around Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
for a time with a number of orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
s. Upon his return to the United States, he came west to San Francisco, where he worked as a church organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
and was a music critic for the Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th century.-19th century:...
. He also became active as a composer, writing 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 Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
that garnered him much attention. An interest in theater drew him to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1886, and there he married Jessie Gregg on July 23, 1891; the two then returned to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
for four more years, during which time Kelley composed, conducted, lectured, and taught. In 1896 the couple returned to New York, where Edgar was hired to conduct an operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
company. He also taught, at the New York College of Music and New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, and in 1901 replaced Horatio Parker
Horatio Parker
Horatio William Parker was an American composer, organist and teacher. He was a central figure in musical life in New Haven, Connecticut in the late 19th century, and is best remembered as the teacher of Charles Ives....
for a year at Yale
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...
when the latter went on sabbatical. The following year saw the Kelleys move 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...
, and for eight years they lived and worked in Europe, lecturing, teaching, conducting, and performing in an attempt to expand European interest in American music. Kelley, though, wished to spend more time composing, and in 1910 took a post at the Western College for Women
Western College for Women
Western College for Women was a women's college in Oxford, Ohio between 1855 and 1974.-History:Western College was founded in 1853 as Western Female Seminary. It was a daughter school of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Its first principal Helen Peabody and most of the early...
in Oxford, Ohio
Oxford, Ohio
Oxford is a city in northwestern Butler County, Ohio, United States, in the southwestern portion of the state. It lies in Oxford Township, originally called the College Township. The population was 21,943 at the 2000 census. This college town was founded as a home for Miami University. Oxford...
, where he would remain until his death.
Kelley and his wife divided their time between the Western College and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was a conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school, founded in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, which is now part of the University of Cincinnati.The...
; Kelley taught composition there, and later served as dean of the Department of Composition and Orchestration. Among his pupils was C. Hugo Grimm
Carl Hugo Grimm
Carl Hugo Grimm was an American composer.-Biography:He was born on October 31, 1890 in Zanesville, Ohio. He received his early musical instruction from his father after moving to Cincinnati as a child. He was largely self-taught as a composer, though he did have lessons with Edgar Stillman Kelley...
, who would himself later lead the department. His wife lectured there as well. The couple retired in 1934 but continued to travel while maintaining a house in Oxford. Kelley died in Oxford in 1944.
Music
Kelley was a RomanticistRomantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
in the vein of Horatio Parker, George Whitefield Chadwick
George Whitefield Chadwick
George Whitefield Chadwick was an American composer. Along with Horatio Parker, Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, and Edward MacDowell, he was a representative composer of what can be called the New England School of American composers of the late 19th century—the generation before Charles Ives...
, and Arthur Foote
Arthur Foote
Arthur William Foote was an American classical composer, and a member of the "Boston Six." The other five were George Whitefield Chadwick, Amy Beach, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker.The modern tendency is to view Foote’s music as “Romantic” and “European” in light of the...
, and brought much of his German training to bear in his compositions. Even so, he was always interested in bringing non-Western influences into his work. For his orchestral suite Aladdin, one of his early successes, he studied the music he heard in San Francisco's Chinatown, and used oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s, muted trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
s, and mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
s to imitate Chinese instruments. His New England Symphony is based on themes found in bird song
Bird song
Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs are distinguished by function from calls.-Definition:The distinction between songs and calls is based upon...
s, as well as American Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
and Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
music. For incidental music to a New York production of Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur (play)
Ben Hur was an 1899 dramatization of the 1880 novel Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace. It was dramatized by William W. Young and produced by Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger. Inspired by the popular equestrian dramas of nineteenth century London, the production was notable for its elaborate...
in 1899, he based his composition on Greek modes. This music was to go on to become his most popular work; it is said to have been performed some five thousand times in English-speaking countries by 1930.
Kelley's best-known composition was 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 Pilgrim's Progress, composed on a text by Elizabeth Hodgkinson and based on the eponymous text
The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been...
by John Bunyan
John Bunyan
John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...
. It was first performed in Cincinnati in 1918, and was frequently revived thereafter, both in the United States and in England. He also wrote program music
Program music
Program music or programme music is a type of art music that attempts to musically render an extra-musical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience in the form of program notes, inviting imaginative correlations with the music...
, including orchestral suites after both "The Pit and the Pendulum
The Pit and the Pendulum
"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842 in the literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843. The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The...
" and Alice in Wonderland; his first symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
was based on Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels , is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of...
, and depicted Lemuel Gulliver
Lemuel Gulliver
Lemuel Gulliver is the protagonist and narrator of Gulliver's Travels, a novel written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726.-In Gulliver's Travels:...
's adventures in Lilliput
Lilliput and Blefuscu
Lilliput and Blefuscu are two fictional island nations that appear in the first part of the 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. The two islands are neighbors in the South Indian Ocean, separated by a channel eight hundred yards wide. Both are inhabited by tiny people who are about...
. His output also included numerous pieces of chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
.
Kelley had very definite ideas about American music and its creation, and was not shy about sharing them. Expressing his views, he once wrote that
the American composer should apply the universal principles of his art to the local and special elements of the subject-matter as they appeal to him, and then, consciously or unconsciously, manifest his individuality, which will involve the expression of mental traits and moral tendencies peculiar to his European ancestry, as we find them modified by the new American environment.
A good deal of Kelley's music was published by Arthur Farwell's Wa-Wan Press
Wa-Wan Press
The Wa-Wan Press was an American music publishing company founded in 1901 by composer Arthur Farwell in Newton Center, Massachusetts. The firm concentrated on publishing compositions by so-called Indianist movement members—composers who incorporated traditional Native American music into...
in the early years of the twentieth century.
Other work
In addition to his work as a composer, Kelley was active as a writer on music, continuing after his early experience with the Examiner in San Francisco. Included in his output were a number of books, including ChopinFrédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
the Composer and a work on Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
. His important article "The Bach-Schumann Suites for Cello" appears in Music: A Monthly Magazine for November 1892, 612-19; he owned a unique copy of the six suites (now lost?). The most notable of his composition pupils was Wallingford Riegger
Wallingford Riegger
Wallingford Constantine Riegger was a prolific American music composer, well known for orchestral and modern dance music, and film scores...
; among his other students were Frederick Ayres
Frederick Ayres
Frederick Ayres was an American composer. Born in Binghamton, New York, he studied at Cornell University; further study, this time in music, came with Edgar Stillman Kelley and Arthur Foote. Ayres lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado for many years, during which time he became a "musical...
, Joseph W. Clokey
Joseph W. Clokey
Joseph Waddell Clokey was an educator, organist and composer of sacred and secular music in the first half of the 20th Century....
, James G. Heller
James G. Heller
James G. Heller was an American composer and rabbi. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he studied music with Edgar Stillman Kelley after moving to Cincinnati to study theology. He also wrote program notes for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and continued to compose in his free time, although...
, Rupert Hughes
Rupert Hughes
Rupert Hughes was an American historian, novelist, film director and composer based in Hollywood. Hughes was born in Lancaster, Missouri. His parents were Felix Turner Hughes and Jean Amelia Summerlin, who were married in 1865. His brother Howard R. Hughes, Sr., co-founded the Hughes Tool Company....
, and W. Otto Miessner
W. Otto Miessner
William Otto Miessner was an American composer and music educator.-Life and career:Born in Huntingburg, Indiana, Miessner was the son of Charles Miessner and Mary Miessner . He graduated from Huntingburg High School in 1898. He earned a diploma from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where he...
.
Miami University
Miami University
Miami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...
maintains an archive devoted to Kelley and his wife; it contains correspondence, music manuscripts, books, and other material related to the composer's life and career. In addition, his house and studio, built in 1916, remains on the Miami University campus, and is made available for the use of incoming faculty and administration.
Recordings
Little of Kelley's music has been committed to disc. The Aladdin fantasy for orchestra has been recorded as part of an anthology of American orchestral music, and pianist Brian Kovach has recorded his complete output of piano music; both recordings were released by Albany RecordsAlbany Records
Albany Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Peter Kermani in 1987, and is based in Albany, New York.-External links:**...
.