Adolf H. A. Weidig (b. 28 November 1867
Hamburg, Germany; d. 23 September 1931) was an American composer who was born and raised in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
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, postal ...
. After extensive musical studies in Europe, including at the
Academy of Music, Munich,
[WEIDIG, Adolf]
in ''Marquis Who's Who
Marquis Who's Who ( or ) is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who of American Wome ...
''; 1901-1902 edition; via archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
he immigrated to the United States in 1892 as a young man.
He wrote numerous pieces for orchestra, including a
symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...
and the
tone poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...
''Semiramis''; among his
chamber works
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...
are three
string quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
s and a string
quintet
A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...
. He also wrote
song
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
s. He died in
Hinsdale, Illinois
Hinsdale is a village in Cook and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Hinsdale is a western suburb of Chicago. The population was 17,395 at the 2020 census, most of whom lived in DuPage County. The town's ZIP code is 60521. The town ...
.
For years Weidig served as Associate Director of the
American Conservatory of Music
The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) was a major American school of music founded in Chicago in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt (1851–1931). The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It developed the Conservato ...
in Chicago and was Dean of the Department of Theory in the same. His composition students included harpist
Helena Stone Torgerson,
pianist
Theodora Troendle, organist
Helen Searles Westbrook
Helen Searles Westbrook (October 15, 1889 – 1967) was an American composer and organist who appeared with Chicago Symphony.
Life
Westbrook began organ lessons at age eleven with her mother, who was also an organist. Westbrook then studied wit ...
, and, most notably, composer
Ruth Crawford Seeger
Ruth Crawford Seeger (born Ruth Porter Crawford; July 3, 1901 – November 18, 1953) was an American composer and folk music specialist. Her music was a prominent exponent of the emerging modernist aesthetic and she became a central member of a g ...
.
References
Further reading
* ''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Sixth edition,'' revised by
Nicolas Slonimsky (1894–1995), London: Collier Macmillan Publishers
* ''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Seventh edition,'' revised by
Nicolas Slonimsky(1894–1995), New York: Macmillan Publishing Co./Schirmer Books, 1984
* ''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Eighth edition,'' revised by
Nicolas Slonimsky, , New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1992
* ''Biographical Dictionary of American Music,'' by Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), West Nyack, New York: Parker Publishing Co., 1973
* ''Dictionary of American Biography. Volumes 1-20,'' New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Rawli ...
, 1928-1936
* ''The Oxford Companion to Music. 1974 edition,'' by
Percy Alfred Scholes
Percy Alfred Scholes PhD OBE (24 July 1877 – 31 July 1958) (pronounced ''skolz'') was an English musician, journalist and prolific writer, whose best-known achievement was his compilation of the first edition of ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' ...
(1877–1958), edited by John Owen Ward, London:
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1974
* ''Who Was Who in America,'' a component volume of ''Who's Who in American History, Volume 1, 1897-1942,'' Chicago:
A.N. Marquis Co., 1943
*
External links
*
Adolf Weidig Music Manuscriptsa
the Newberry
1867 births
1931 deaths
American male composers
American composers
German emigrants to the United States
Pupils of Josef Rheinberger
Pupils of Hugo Riemann
University of Music and Performing Arts Munich alumni
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