Maurice Arnold Strothotte
Encyclopedia
Maurice Arnold Strothotte (1865–1937) was an African American
composer
and performer.
Following studies in Berlin Arnold went on a tour of Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. Some of his compositions show the influence of his travels through those countries. Upon returning to Germany he then entered the Cologne Conservatory of Music where his first piano sonata was written and performed. He next went to Breslau, where, under the instruction of Max Bruch
, he wrote one of his first major works, his cantata “The Wild Chase.” Returning to Saint Louis he busied himself as a solo violinist and teacher, traveling also as an opera conductor.
Maurice Arnold was one of many African-American students of Antonin Dvorak
during the Bohemian composer’s stay in the United States as director of the newly formed National Conservatory of Music of America
in New York (1892–1895). Arnold participated in Dvorak's famous January 23, 1894 concert about which the New York Herald wrote ”It was a remarkable event. Each soloist with one exception belong to the colored race. Bodies had been liberated but the gates of the artistic world were still locked. (Conservatory founder) Jeannette Thurber
’s efforts in this effort were ably seconded by Dr. Dvorak.” And while the program included Arnold's four "American Plantation Dances" the main attraction of the evening was Dvorak’s arrangement of Stephen Foster
’s “The Old Folks at Home” for chorus and orchestra. Arnold’s four-movement suite, “Plantation Dances.” Op. 32, was thereafter performed with some regularity and was published for full orchestra as well as in an arrangement for piano duet in the United States and in Germany.
Arnold also wrote a work entitled “Dramatic Overture” and two comic operas. His “Valse Elegante” for two pianos, eight hands is composed in a charming salon style typical of the time and easily performed with a quartet of amateur pianists. Arnold also wrote a fugue for two pianos, eight hands, a “Minstrel Serenade” for violin and piano, and six duets for violin and viola. Among his many vocal works the most remarkable is his setting of the poem, “I Think of Thee in Silent Night.” Arnold also wrote works for ballet, a tarantella for string orchestra, and a symphony (unpublished). He was also the author of the textbook “Some Points in Modern Orchestration.”
But it is as a student at the then newly formed National Conservatory of Music in New York City and his association with the conservatory’s director Antonin Dvorak for which Maurice Arnold is most remembered. Dvorak was extremely encouraging to the young Arnold at a time when Dvorak’s philosophy of American nationalism in music was ridiculed by many of the musical establishment in New England. Even Edward MacDowell
, the dean of American composers of his day, wrote “In spite of Dvorak’s efforts to dress up American music in Negro clothing, it is my opinion that foreign artistry should have no place in our music, if it is to be worth of our free country.” Crusading against the “social sanctification of the arts” popular in certain circles of the day Dvorak stated in the New York Herald (May, 1893) “I am now convinced that the future music of this country must be built on the foundations of the song which are called Negro melodies. They must become the basis of a serious and original school of composition which should be established in the United States of America.”
Dvorak’s students were represented in full force at the Carnegie Hall
premiere of his Symphony
"From the New World" on December 16, 1893. Dvorak, his wife, and their two sons, sat in a box of honor with along with Maurice Arnold, as the student composer for whom Dvorak had the highest hopes. Also in attendance was the great African American composer, singer and writer Harry Burleigh
. The English horn solo in the second movement Largo made a lasting impression on Maurice Arnold and his fellow composition students, Harvey Worthington Loomis, William Arms Fisher
, and Will Marion Cook
. Dvorak had described the slow movement as "a study or sketch for a longer work, either a cantata or an opera based on Longfellow's 'Hiawatha.'" William Arms Fisher adapted the English horn melody using his own text "Goin' Home" that eventually established itself as a popular Negro "spiritual
." Arnold’s version had the text "Mother Mine.” from M. Peress "Dvorak to Duke Ellington".
African American composers such as Maurice Arnold, Will Marion Cook and Harry Burleigh applied Dvorak’s command of using Creole folk music, spirituals, plantation work songs, and popular music as a basis for the formation of a new American nationalist musical sound. Clara Gottschalk (the pianist, composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk
's daughter) wrote in the preface to her 1902 arrangements of “Creole songs,” “if as Dr. Dvorak has claimed there is in time to be a native school of American music based on the primitive musical utterances of the red man and the black man these negro melodies are historical documents of some interest.”
While Maurice Arnold did not become the main musical proponent of Dvorak’s philosophy for a new American sound in music he did live long enough to see much of what Dvorak fought for come to pass; the birth of the blues, ragtime, jazz all leading to the first major African American composer William Grant Still
. It was Still who finally did utilize the spiritual as a basis for one of the first important and original works for orchestra written by an African American, his “Afro-American Symphony” composed in 1930, seven years before Maurice Arnold’s death in New York in 1937.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and performer.
History
Maurice Arnold Strothotte was born in St Louis, Missouri in 1865. He later shortened his name to Maurice Arnold. Arnold’s father was a physician and his mother a prominent pianist and his first teacher. At the age of fifteen he went to Cincinnati, OH studying at the College of Music for three years. In 1883 he traveled to Germany to study counterpoint and composition with Vierling and Urban in Berlin. Mr. Urban attempted to discourage him when Arnold began to incorporate African-American “plantation” dance elements into his music.Following studies in Berlin Arnold went on a tour of Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. Some of his compositions show the influence of his travels through those countries. Upon returning to Germany he then entered the Cologne Conservatory of Music where his first piano sonata was written and performed. He next went to Breslau, where, under the instruction of Max Bruch
Max Bruch
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he...
, he wrote one of his first major works, his cantata “The Wild Chase.” Returning to Saint Louis he busied himself as a solo violinist and teacher, traveling also as an opera conductor.
Maurice Arnold was one of many African-American students of Antonin Dvorak
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
during the Bohemian composer’s stay in the United States as director of the newly formed National Conservatory of Music of America
National Conservatory of Music of America
The National Conservatory of Music of America was an institution for higher education in music founded in 1885 in New York City by Jeannette Meyers Thurber...
in New York (1892–1895). Arnold participated in Dvorak's famous January 23, 1894 concert about which the New York Herald wrote ”It was a remarkable event. Each soloist with one exception belong to the colored race. Bodies had been liberated but the gates of the artistic world were still locked. (Conservatory founder) Jeannette Thurber
Jeannette Thurber
Jeanette Thurber was amongst the first major patrons of classical music in the United States. She was the daughter of Henry Meyers, an immigrant violinist from Copenhagen, Denmark and Annamarie Coffin Price...
’s efforts in this effort were ably seconded by Dr. Dvorak.” And while the program included Arnold's four "American Plantation Dances" the main attraction of the evening was Dvorak’s arrangement of Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster
Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
’s “The Old Folks at Home” for chorus and orchestra. Arnold’s four-movement suite, “Plantation Dances.” Op. 32, was thereafter performed with some regularity and was published for full orchestra as well as in an arrangement for piano duet in the United States and in Germany.
Arnold also wrote a work entitled “Dramatic Overture” and two comic operas. His “Valse Elegante” for two pianos, eight hands is composed in a charming salon style typical of the time and easily performed with a quartet of amateur pianists. Arnold also wrote a fugue for two pianos, eight hands, a “Minstrel Serenade” for violin and piano, and six duets for violin and viola. Among his many vocal works the most remarkable is his setting of the poem, “I Think of Thee in Silent Night.” Arnold also wrote works for ballet, a tarantella for string orchestra, and a symphony (unpublished). He was also the author of the textbook “Some Points in Modern Orchestration.”
But it is as a student at the then newly formed National Conservatory of Music in New York City and his association with the conservatory’s director Antonin Dvorak for which Maurice Arnold is most remembered. Dvorak was extremely encouraging to the young Arnold at a time when Dvorak’s philosophy of American nationalism in music was ridiculed by many of the musical establishment in New England. Even 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"...
, the dean of American composers of his day, wrote “In spite of Dvorak’s efforts to dress up American music in Negro clothing, it is my opinion that foreign artistry should have no place in our music, if it is to be worth of our free country.” Crusading against the “social sanctification of the arts” popular in certain circles of the day Dvorak stated in the New York Herald (May, 1893) “I am now convinced that the future music of this country must be built on the foundations of the song which are called Negro melodies. They must become the basis of a serious and original school of composition which should be established in the United States of America.”
Dvorak’s students were represented in full force at the Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
premiere of his 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...
"From the New World" on December 16, 1893. Dvorak, his wife, and their two sons, sat in a box of honor with along with Maurice Arnold, as the student composer for whom Dvorak had the highest hopes. Also in attendance was the great African American composer, singer and writer Harry Burleigh
Harry Burleigh
Henry "Harry" Thacker Burleigh , a baritone, was an African American classical composer, arranger, and professional singer...
. The English horn solo in the second movement Largo made a lasting impression on Maurice Arnold and his fellow composition students, Harvey Worthington Loomis, William Arms Fisher
William Arms Fisher
William Arms Fisher was an American composer, music historian and writer.-Personal life:Fisher was born in San Francisco, California on April 27, 1861...
, and Will Marion Cook
Will Marion Cook
William Mercer Cook , better known as Will Marion Cook, was an African American composer and violinist from the United States. Cook was a student of Antonín Dvořák and performed for King George V among others...
. Dvorak had described the slow movement as "a study or sketch for a longer work, either a cantata or an opera based on Longfellow's 'Hiawatha.'" William Arms Fisher adapted the English horn melody using his own text "Goin' Home" that eventually established itself as a popular Negro "spiritual
Spiritual (music)
Spirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...
." Arnold’s version had the text "Mother Mine.” from M. Peress "Dvorak to Duke Ellington".
African American composers such as Maurice Arnold, Will Marion Cook and Harry Burleigh applied Dvorak’s command of using Creole folk music, spirituals, plantation work songs, and popular music as a basis for the formation of a new American nationalist musical sound. Clara Gottschalk (the pianist, composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works...
's daughter) wrote in the preface to her 1902 arrangements of “Creole songs,” “if as Dr. Dvorak has claimed there is in time to be a native school of American music based on the primitive musical utterances of the red man and the black man these negro melodies are historical documents of some interest.”
While Maurice Arnold did not become the main musical proponent of Dvorak’s philosophy for a new American sound in music he did live long enough to see much of what Dvorak fought for come to pass; the birth of the blues, ragtime, jazz all leading to the first major African American composer William Grant Still
William Grant Still
William Grant Still was an African-American classical composer who wrote more than 150 compositions. He was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major...
. It was Still who finally did utilize the spiritual as a basis for one of the first important and original works for orchestra written by an African American, his “Afro-American Symphony” composed in 1930, seven years before Maurice Arnold’s death in New York in 1937.