Arthur Oscar Bergh (March 24, 1882 – February 11, 1962) was an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, conductor and accompanist. He performed on the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

and

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

. Bergh was born in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...

. From 1903 to 1908 he was a violinist with the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

. In 1914, he was the conductor of the orchestra in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

. Bergh became the recording manager at

Emerson Records Emerson Records was an American record company and label created by Victor Emerson in 1915. Victor Hugo Emerson was the chief recording engineer at Columbia Records. In 1914 he left the company, created the Emerson Phonograph Company, and then ...

in 1916; he had previously been employed by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

, and was convinced to move to Victor Emerson's new company after Emerson himself left Columbia. Other sources state that Bergh worked with Emerson first (1915 to 1922), following which he worked at Columbia (1922 to 1930). In his later life, Bergh worked as a librarian with

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

film companies. He died in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

on February 11, 1962. Bergh's wife, Geraldyne Brewer (1901–1998), was an heiress in social and charitable circles in 1950s

. In 1956, they lived at 9823 Kincardine Avenue in

Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles Cheviot Hills is a neighborhood on the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1924, the neighborhood has served as the filming location of movies and television shows due to its convenient location between Sony Studios a ...

. After Bergh's death, Geraldyne married

Los Angeles Superior Court The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County, which includes the city of Los Angeles. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States. The ...

judge McIntyre Faries on December 3, 1965. Geraldyne died in 1998 and was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.

Works

He composed a number of

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

s and

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

s, including adaptations of

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

's '' The Pied Piper of Hamelin'' and

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

's '' The Raven''. His ''

Lieder In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French sp ...

'' include music to

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...

's ''The Imprisoned Soul'' (1939),

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

's ''Music, When Soft Voices Die'' (1947), Emily Dickinson's ''The Grass'' (1954), and

John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet ...

's ''

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" is a hymn with words taken from a longer poem, "The Brewing of Soma" by American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. The adaptation was made by Garrett Horder in his 1884 ''Congregational Hymns''. In the many ...

'' (1955). Bergh's other works include a symphonic chorale entitled ''The Unnamed City''; a romantic opera, ''Niorada''; a march for orchestra, ''Honor and Glory'' (1939); two operettas, ''In Arcady'' and ''The Goblin Fair''; a chorus entitled ''O Captain, My Captain''; a

cycle Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to: Anthropology and social sciences * Cyclic history, a theory of history * Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. * Social cycle, various cycles in soc ...

named ''The Congo''; as well as 80 other pieces for violin and piano. * 1908 – '' The Raven'', Op. 20 (

) * 1910 &ndash
''December''
Op. 9 No. 1 (

Thomas Bailey Aldrich Thomas Bailey Aldrich (; November 11, 1836 – March 19, 1907) was an American writer, poet, critic, and editor. He is notable for his long editorship of ''The Atlantic, The Atlantic Monthly'', during which he published writers including Charles ...

) * 1913 – '' Evening, a Reverie'', Op. 15, No. 1 * 1913 – '' Meditation in A♭'', Op. 15, No. 2 * 1913 – '' Serenade Coquette'', Op. 15, No. 3 * 1913 – '' Here They Come'' * 1914 – '' The Pied Piper of Hamelin'', Op. 23 (

) * 1915 – '' Four Tone Pastels'', Op. 17 * 1919 – '' Vesper Song'' ( Cordelia Brooks Fenno) * 1919 – '' The Goblin Fair'' ( Cordelia Brooks Fenno) * 1924 – '' In Arcady'' * 1926 – '' Concert Suite for the Pianoforte'' * 1941 – '' Love Is the Light of the World'' ( Paul Laurence Dunbar) * 1938 – ''

Honor and Glory Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

'', Op. 30 * 1938 – '' Destiny'' * 1938 – ''

O Captain! My Captain! "O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended metaphor poem written by Walt Whitman in 1865 about Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the death of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Well received upon publication, the poem was Whitman's first to be Anth ...

'' * 1939 – '' The Imprisoned Soul'' (

) * 1941 – '' Kissing Her Hair I Sat Against Her Feet'' (

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as ''Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

) * 1941 – '' Come With Arms Outstretched'' ( Sara Teasdale) * 1947 – ''

Music, When Soft Voices Die "Music, When Soft Voices Die" is a major poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 and first published in ''Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley'' in 1824 in London by John and Henry L. Hunt with a preface by Mary Shelley. The poem is o ...

'', Op. 37 (

) * 1950 – '' A Tragic Story'' ( William Makepeace Thackeray) * 1950 – '' I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day'' (

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...

) * 1954 – '' The Grass'' ( Emily Dickinson) * 1955 – ''

'' (

)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergh, Arthur 1882 births 1962 deaths Musicians from Saint Paul, Minnesota American male composers American composers American male violinists American pianists American male organists American male conductors (music) Musicians from Los Angeles 20th-century organists American male pianists Classical musicians from California Classical musicians from Minnesota 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American violinists 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American pianists American organists