Rosalie Housman (June 25, 1888 – October 28, 1949) was an American composer of mostly songs and chamber music, journalist, and lecturer. Many of her compositions were sung by notable musicians. She received praise and some criticism of her work.

Personal life

Housman was born on June 25, 1888, 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 ...

. She studied at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

and in England. She was a pupil of Arthur Foote,

Ernest Bloch Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer. Bloch was a preeminent artist in his day, and left a lasting legacy. He is recognized as one of the greatest Swiss composers in history. As well as producing music ...

, Oscar Weil, and

Walter Henry Rothwell Walter Henry Rothwell (22 September 1872 – 13 March 1927) was an English conductor. Biography He was born in London on 22 September 1872 to an English father and an Austrian mother. After initial training from his mother, who had been a p ...

. Housman later lectured in the Eastern United States. She traveled back to San Francisco to visit until her death. She died on October 28, 1949, 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 ...

, at age 61.

Career

Housman wrote more than 100 compositions, which were performed in a variety of concerts and on the radio in the United States and England. Three songs that Housman had composed were sung by Clarinda Smith, a soprano from New York, at the National American Music Festival. Some of her other compositions were sung by Florence Macbeth,

Florence Easton Florence Easton (25 October 1882 – 13 August 1955) was a popular English dramatic soprano in the early 20th century. She was one of the most versatile singers of all time. She sang more than 100 parts, covering a wide range of styles and ...

, Greta Masson, Sara Teasdale, and Mary Jordan. Housman interviewed composer

E. Robert Schmitz E. Robert (Elie Robert) Schmitz was a Franco-American pianist, teacher, writer, editor, and organizer. Biography Schmitz (born February 8, 1889, in Paris) studied with Louis-Joseph Diémer at the Conservatoire de Paris where he won first prize in ...

for ''The Music News'' in 1921.

Compositions

Housman wrote

chamber music 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 ...

for the violin and piano, as well as wrote songs for the piano that also included

choral A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

music. She composed music for an entire

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

service. Her composition ''Pieces of Jade'' was made for violin, viola, flute, gong, harp and

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

. She wrote compositions for the poem ''Tora-Binder'' by Dhan Gopal Mukerji, the poem ''The Look'' by Sara Teasdale, and the Irish song ''The Rim of the Moon''. Her compositions were sung by prominent musicians of the time. ''Tora-Binder'' was written for a medium voice in multiple variations of tones and ''The Musical Monitor'' stated that, "The modulations in this song are quite remarkable; in fact, the whole harmonic design is full of color". ''The Look'' is for a

coloratura Coloratura is an elaborate melody with runs, trills, wide leaps, or similar virtuoso-like material,''Oxford American Dictionaries''.Apel (1969), p. 184. or a passage of such music. Operatic roles in which such music plays a prominent part, an ...

voice and ''The Rim of the Moon'' is for a low voice.

Reception

After reviewing three of Housman's songs, ''The Musical Monitor'' concluded with "All three songs spell success". Her work was praised by various musicians and publications, with reviews from ''The Music News'', a Lockport daily newspaper, and from

Carrie Jacobs-Bond Carrie Minetta Jacobs-Bond (August 11, 1862 – December 28, 1946) was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter who composed some 175 pieces of popular music from the 1890s through the early 1940s. She is perhaps best remembered for writing t ...

, a composer who was the first woman to sell over a million copies of her own sheet music. Critics have stated that Housman "shows much originality in composition, adhering to the modern idiom, though occasionally reverting too strongly to change of key."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Housman, Rosalie 1888 births 1949 deaths 19th-century American composers 19th-century American pianists 19th-century American women pianists Pianists from San Francisco Composers from San Francisco University of California alumni 20th-century American women pianists 20th-century American pianists 19th-century American women composers