Wintter Watts


Wintter Haynes Watts was an American composer of art songs.

Life and musical career

Watts was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his early studies were in painting, architecture, voice, and organ. He later studied at The Academy of Musical Art in New York City and in Florence, Italy. He won the Morris Loeb Prize in 1919 for his symphony Young Blood and the Prix de Rome in 1923. He returned to Italy a few years later and stayed until 1931, when he returned to the United States. After 1931 he fell into obscurity.

Musical works

Watts composed around 70 songs for voice and piano in the years between 1906 and 1924. Most were published individually by Oliver Ditson or G. Schirmer. The songs were highly esteemed in their day, and Upton praised them for their distinctly 'American' sound. His most important song cycle is his Vignettes of Italy, nine songs from 1919, settings of poems by Sara Teasdale reflecting on various Italian locations and their associated emotional recollections. Many important singers performed his songs in concert, most notably
Kirsten Flagstad and John McCormack, to whom Watts dedicated several songs. None of his other music was ever published.

Published songs

  1. Love’s Life
  2. A Drop o’ Dew
  3. The Joy of Man
  1. Clover
  2. Admonition—Roses and Thorns
  3. The Song of the Wind
  1. A Hope
  2. My World
  3. The Stairway
  4. The Difficulty
  1. Dreams
  2. During Music
  1. Alone
  2. Home
  3. It isn’t the Thing You Do, Dear
  4. Oh, Call it by some Better Name
  5. Surf Song
  1. Like Music on the Waters
  2. Barcarole
  1. Addio
  2. Naples
  3. Capri
  4. Night song at Amalfi
  5. Ruins of Paestum
  6. From a Roman Hill
  7. Ponte Vecchio, Florence
  8. Villa Serbelloni, Bellaggio
  9. Stresa
  1. Beloved, it is Morn
  2. The Mother’s Song
  3. Golden Rose
  4. Utopia
  5. Magic
  1. With the tide
  2. Transformation
  3. The nightingale and the rose
  1. Only A Cry
  2. Let it be Forgotten
  1. Song is so old
  2. Miniver Cheevy
  3. Dark Hills