William Henry Fry

Synopsis

Today in 1864, the attention of most newspaper readers in New York was probably focused on the trauma of the American Civil War. So even though the once controversial American composer and music critic William Henry Fry had died in Santa Cruz on December 21st, the news didn’t reach New Yorkers until late in January the following year.

Fry was only 50 when he died of consumption, an illness he had tried to fight by moving to the warmer climate of the Virgin Islands. He was born into a wealthy Philadelphia family and was a teenager when he started composing. Fry was the first American composer to tackle grand opera, modeling his works on Bellini and Meyerbeer. He also wrote orchestral pieces, like this one called “The Breaking Heart,” which was performed to great acclaim in New York in December of 1853 by the a virtuoso symphonic orchestra assembled by a flashy conductor/showman Jullien, who, like Prince or Sting or Madonna, felt one name was better than two.

As a newspaper critic, Fry railed against the neglect of American composers by American orchestras—a common complaint in this country still today. And long before Dvorak’s similar suggestion, Fry called for the development of a uniquely American school of symphonic music. Like many early prophets of new causes, he was largely ignored for his efforts, and died decades before others fulfilled many of his predictions and dreams.

Music Played in Today's Program

William Henry Fry (1813–1864) The Breaking Heart Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Tony Rowe, cond. Naxos 8.559057

On This Day

Births

• 1837 - Russian composer Mily Balakirev (Gregorian date: Jan. 2);

• 1850 - Bohemian composer Zdenek Fibich, in Vseborice;

• 1940 - American composer and guitarist Frank Zappa, in Baltimore, Maryland;

Deaths

• 1864 - American composer and journalist William Henry Fry, age 51, in Santa Cruz, West Indies;

• 1890 - Danish composer Niels W. Gade, in Copenhagen, age 73;

• 1957 - British light-music composer Eric Coates, age 71, in Chichester;

Premieres

• 1890 - Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 (final version), in Vienna, Hans Richter conducting;

• 1900 - Frederick Converse: “The Festival of Pan” for orchestra, by the Boston Symphony, Wilhelm Gericke conducting;

• 1903 - Glazunov: Symphony No. 7, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Jan. 3);

• 1908 - Schoenberg: Quartet No. 2 for strings and soprano, in Vienna, by the Rosé Quartet with soprano Marie Gutheil-Schoder;

• 1934 - Prokofiev: "Lieutenant Kijé" Suite (from the film), on a Moscow radio broadcast;

• 1934 - Toch: “Big Ben (Variation Fantasy on the Westminster Chimes)” for orchestra, by the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky conducting;

• 1939 - Prokofiev: cantata "Zdravitza" (A Toast), in Moscow, to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin;