Frederick Shepherd Converse, was an Americancomposer of classical music, whose works include four operas and five symphonies.
Life and career
Converse was born in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Edmund Winchester and Charlotte Augusta Converse. His father was a successful merchant, and president of the National Tube Works and the Conanicut Mills. Frederick Converse's higher education was at Harvard College, where he came under the influence of the composer John K. Paine. Converse had already received instruction in piano playing, and the study of musical theory was a most important part of his college course. Upon his graduation in 1893, his violin sonata was performed and won him highest honors in music. After six months of business life, for which his father had intended him, he returned to the study of composing, Carl Baermann being his teacher in piano, and George W. Chadwick in composition. He then spent two years at the Royal Academy of Music in Munich, where he studied with Joseph Rheinberger, completing the course in 1898. His symphony in D-minor had its first performance on the occasion of his graduation. During 1899–1902, Converse taught harmony at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He then joined the faculty of Harvard University as instructor in music, and was appointed assistant professor in 1905. Two years later he resigned, and afterwards devoted himself exclusively to composition. Among Converse's notable students were Alan Hovhaness, Florence Price, and Hisato Ohzawa. He died in Westwood, Massachusetts.
Family
He married, 6 June 1894, Emma Tudor, daughter of Frederic Tudor of Brookline, Massachusetts. They had seven children, including five daughters.
Compositions
Even though he was firmly committed to composing in the late Romantic idiom of his European contemporaries, his works often dealt with American subjects. The lush orchestral scoring of his program music has been compared to the early style of Richard Strauss. In 1910, Converse's operaThe Pipe of Desire became the first American work ever to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Today, Converse is best known for his symphonic poemThe Mystic Trumpeter, based on the poem of the same name from Walt Whitman's iconic anthology, Leaves of Grass.
Euphrosyne, concert overture for orchestra, Op. 16
String Quartet No. 2, Op. 18, dedicated to the Kneisel Quartet
The Mystic Trumpeter, Op. 19, orchestral fantasy after Whitman
Iolan or The Pipe of Desire, Op. 21, romantic opera in one act, text by George Edward Barton. It has a legendary subject, of Celtic origin, based upon the mingling of the old pagan nature worship and the incoming Christian morality. The story rests upon the principle that man may force the way of his desires against the divine order but that he pays the penalty. The work is an avowed fantasy. First produced January 31, 1906, Jordan Hall, Boston, Massachusetts in 1906, and in 1909 was the first opera by an American composer to be presented at the 'old' Metropolitan Opera House.
Laudate Domine, Op. 22, motet for male chorus, organ, and brasses
Jeanne d'Arc Op. 23, overture, entr'actes and incidental music to Percy MacKaye's play
Job, Op. 24, a dramatic poem for solo voices, chorus and orchestra
Serenade, Op. 25, for soprano solo, male chorus, and small orchestra
Hagar in der Wüste, Op. 26, dramatic narrative for contralto and orchestra
The Sacrifice, Op. 27, opera in three acts, book by Converse, lyrics by John Albert Macy after Los Gringos, or an Interior View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chile, and Polynesia by Lieutenant Henry Augustus Wise, writing as "Harry Gringo". The scene is laid in California at the time of the Mexican War, and the characters, some of whom are Americans, enact a modern tragedy.
Three songs for medium voice, Op. 28
Melody for violin and piano, Op. 29
Ormazd, Op. 30, symphonic poem for full orchestra
Converse stopped numbering his works after Op. 30 except for the arrangement for band of Laudate Domine, My wish, and Haul Away, Joe!, Op. 91.
