Emerson Whithorne (birth surname ''Whittern'') (September 6, 1884 in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

- March 25, 1958) was a notable 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 researcher into the

history of music Although definitions of music vary wildly throughout the world, every known culture partakes in it, and it is thus considered a cultural universal. The origins of music remain highly contentious; commentators often relate it to the origin of ...

. He had a reputation as an authority on the music of China. He wrote music criticism for ''Musical America'' and the ''Paul Mall Gazette''.

Marriage to Ethel Leginska

In 1907 Whithorne was married to the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

musician

Ethel Leginska Ethel Liggins (13 April 188626 February 1970) was a British pianist, conductor and composer. A student of Theodor Leschetizky, she became widely known as the ‘Paderewski of woman pianists’ and (from 1923) established herself as one of the fir ...

. They met whilst studying music in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Sometimes they performed duets together, with Whithorne playing the second part in two-piano pieces during her recitals. Whithorne acted as her concert manager for the first two years of their marriage. , and as a composer. Emerson Whithorne had one son with her, Cedric Whithorne, born in September 1908 after the couple returned to England after visiting the United States. They travelled to

where Leginska made her unofficial American debut at Cleveland's Hippodrome, a vaudeville theater. The couple separated in 1910 and divorced in 1916. Ethel mounted an unsuccessful custody fight for her son Cedric,

Career

Whithorne served on the Council of the

International Composers' Guild The International Composers' Guild was an organization created in 1921 by Edgard Varèse and Carlos Salzedo. It was responsible for performances and premieres of works by Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, Erik Satie, Carlos Chávez, Henry Cowell, Charles I ...

(ICG). His composition ''Greek Impressions'' was the opening piece for the very first of the concerts the ICG organised, held at Greenwich Village Theatre on 19 February 1922. A year later two of his compositions, ''Tears'' and ''Invocations'' received their world premiere at the

Klaw Theatre The Klaw Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 251–257 West 45th Street (now a part of George Abbott Way) in Midtown Manhattan. Built in 1921 for producer Marcus Klaw, the theater was designed by Eugene De Rosa. Rachel Crothers' '' Nice Pe ...

, a

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...

on 4 March 1923, also under the auspices of the ICG. However his piece was performed immediately prior to

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; he coined ...

's ''

Hyperprism In geometry, a prism is a polyhedron comprising an polygon base, a second base which is a translated copy (rigidly moved without rotation) of the first, and other faces, necessarily all parallelograms, joining corresponding sides of the two ba ...

'' which led to a riot. Following this there was a dispute between Claire Reis and Varèse about programming, and Whithorne left the ICG to join Reis's new organisation, the

League of Composers The League of Composers/ International Society for Contemporary Music is a society whose stated mission is "to produce the highest quality performances of new music, to champion American composers in the United States and abroad, and to introduce Am ...

Trivia

Whithorne lived for a period in London, staying until 1915. The Times reported that Whithorne was prosecuted for playing the pianoforte at unsocial hours. In November 1913 he won the case brought by the landlord of his South Kensington flat.

Partial List of Compositions

* ''Greek Impressions'' * ''Tears'' * ''Invocation'' * ''Sierra Morena'', premiered 1938 by

Pierre Monteux Pierre Benjamin Monteux (; 4 April 18751 July 1964) was a French (later American) conductor. After violin and viola studies, and a decade as an orchestral player and occasional conductor, he began to receive regular conducting engagements in ...

and

NBC Symphony Orchestra The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra conceived by David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America, especially for the conductor Arturo Toscanini. The NBC Symphony performed weekly radio concert broadcasts with Tosca ...

* ''The Rain'', Op. 12 No. 1 * ''Hototogisu'', Op. 14 No. 1 * ''Put by the Lute'', Op. 15 No. 1 * ''2 Chinese Poems'', Op. 18 (1. ''Tears'' based on a Cranmer-Byng translation of a Wang Sang-Ju poem, dedicated to Frances Garrison, and 2. ''The Golden Nenuphar'', based on Cranmer-Byng translation of a Han-zi poem) * ''2 Chinese Nocturnes'', Op. 34 * ''Aeroplane,'' Op. 38 No. 2 (dedicated to

Rudolph Ganz Rudolph Ganz (24 February 1877 – 2 August 1972) was a Swiss-born American pianist, conductor, composer, and music educator. Career Early career as a pianist and conductor Born in Zurich, Ganz studied cello with Friedrich Hegar and piano wi ...

) * ''New York Days & Nights'', Op. 40 (suite for piano published in 1922, orchestral arrangement premiered by the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra under Whithorne in 1927) * ''String Quartet'', Op. 51 * ''Hommage'', Op. 58 No. 2

References

External links

* 1884 births 1958 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers American classical composers American male classical composers American music historians Classical musicians from Ohio Musicians from Cleveland Pupils of Theodor Leschetizky Members of the International Composers' Guild 20th-century American male musicians Historians from Ohio 20th-century American male writers {{US-composer-19thC-stub