Arthur Fickenscher (March 9, 1871 in

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...

– April 15, 1954 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

) 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 ...

and academic. The first head of the music department of the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

, he is credited with being an early 20th-century pioneer of

microtonal music Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of tw ...

Career

Fickenscher studied music in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

under

Joseph Rheinberger Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (17 March 1839 – 25 November 1901) was a Liechtensteiner organist and composer, residing in Bavaria for most of his life. Life Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, whose father was the treasurer for Aloys II, Prince of Liecht ...

and lived then as a teacher in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, and

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. From 1911 to 1914, he was a vocal teacher in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. From 1920 until 1941 he was the first head of the music department at the University of Virginia. From about 1923 to 1933 he was the conductor of the

Virginia Glee Club The Virginia Glee Club is a men's chorus based at the University of Virginia. It performs both traditional and contemporary vocal works typically in TTBB arrangements. Founded in 1871, the Glee Club is the university's oldest musical organization ...

, a male choral ensemble at the University of Virginia. He composed a Mimodrama, orchestral variations in the medieval style, a Dies Irae, visions for voice and orchestra, church works, a piano quintet, and various songs (including the song cycle ''Willowwood''). His first major work, ''Visions'' for dramatic soprano and orchestra, received its premiere at the Royal Conservatory in Berlin in 1913 to acclaim from the New York Times. Recordings have been made of his song cycle ''Willowwood'' and his piano quintet ''From the seventh Realm''; of the latter, Percy Grainger wrote, "While I am a reverent admirer of the piano and string quintets by Bach, César Franck, Brahms, Cyril Scott and others, I must confess that this American work by Fickenscher out-soars them all, for my ears, in point of spiritual rapture and sensuous loveliness." Fickenscher also invented the Polytone, a keyboard instrument that could produce sixty distinct tones within the scope of an octave.

Works

* ''Visions'', symphonic seal for dramatic soprano and large orchestra, 1912 * ''Willowwood and Well Away'', 1925 * ''Day of Judgement'', 1927 * ''Out of the Gay Nineties'', 1934 * ''From the seventh realm'', Piano Quintet, 1939 * ''Aucalete'', symphonic poetry, 1945 * ''Lament for organ'', 1951 * ''Improvisational Fantasy for organ'', 1954 * ''Aucassin and Nicolete'', symphonic poetry for chorus and orchestra * ''The Chamber Blue'', poetry for chorus and orchestra * ''The Land East of the Sun'', symphonic poetry for chorus and orchestra * ''Old Irish Tune for chamber orchestra'' * ''Evolutionary Quartet'', String Quartet * ''Willowwood'' for alto, viola and piano

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fickenscher, Arthur 1871 births 1954 deaths American male composers American composers University of Virginia faculty