William Arms Fisher (April 27, 1861 – December 18, 1948) was an American composer,

music historian Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history o ...

and

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Personal life

Fisher was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, on April 27, 1861. He received his first lesson in music from John P. Morgan, a leading Western musician. Intended for a business career, he was led to devote himself entirely to music, and with that end in view he left California in 1890 and went to

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 ...

. There he studied under

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...

and

Horatio Parker Horatio William Parker (September 15, 1863 – December 18, 1919) was an American composer, organist and teacher. He was a central figure in musical life in New Haven, Connecticut in the late 19th century, and is best remembered as the undergradu ...

at the

National Conservatory of Music of America The National Conservatory of Music of America was an institution for higher education in music founded in 1885 in New York City by Jeannette Meyers Thurber. The conservatory was officially declared defunct by the state of New York in 1952, altho ...

. He was instructor in harmony at the Conservatory of Music for several years, resigning in 1895 to take up teaching in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. He was president of both the

Music Teachers National Association Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) is an American nonprofit professional organization for the support, growth, and development of music-teaching professionals, with more than 17,000 members in 50 states, and more than 500 affiliated loc ...

and the Music Publishers' National Association. He also worked for the music publisher

Oliver Ditson Company Oliver may refer to: Arts, entertainment and literature Books * ''Oliver the Western Engine'', volume 24 in ''The Railway Series'' by Rev. W. Awdry * ''Oliver Twist'', a novel by Charles Dickens Fictional characters * Ariadne Oliver, ...

which was later taken over by the

Theodore Presser Company The Theodore Presser Company is an American music publishing and distribution company located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, formerly King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and originally based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest continuing music publ ...

. He died in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton, A ...

on December 18, 1948.''Wilson Library Bulletin'', Volume 23, p. 410, 1948

Career

In an 1893 interview, Antonín Dvořák challenged white American composers to make better use of the "negro melodies of America", feeling that they were needed as the basis for "any serious and original school of composition" in America. Antonín Dvořák's

New World Symphony New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

was played at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

on December 16, 1893. Later William Arms Fisher wrote a text to the cor anglais tune in the second movement, entitled "Goin' Home", which has been mistaken for a Negro spiritual. In response to the challenge and the symphony, William Arms Fisher published an arrangement of ''Seventy Negro Spirituals'' in 1926. William Arms Fisher wrote an article for ''Music Educators' Journal'' in 1933 titled "Music in a Changing World." Patrick Freer of ''Music Educators' Journal'' said that "Fisher’s article was one of the first to interrogate the role of popular music within music education". In his article, Fisher said that music is important in every community. A quote from his article is "Blessed are the music-makers, for they shall uplift and unite the Earth." which was mentioned by the MENC: The National Association for Music Education.

Recognition

A February 1927 article in the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

paper ''

The Crisis ''The Crisis'' is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Mi ...

'' calls William Arms Fisher "a worthy pupil and disciple of Dvořák" and asks rhetorically if he "would waste his time over futile music." The article quotes an anonymous reviewer, "by all means let us have Fisher to arrange" Negro spirituals.

Media

Fisher's compositions have been featured in several albums. One of his compositions appeared in the 1947 film ''

Buck Privates Come Home ''Buck Privates Come Home'' is a 1947 American comedy film directed by Charles Barton and starring the team of Abbott and Costello. It was released by Universal-International and is a sequel to their earlier film ''Buck Privates'' (1941). This ...

''.

Publications

* ''Sixty Irish Songs'' – (1915) * ''Notes on Music in Old Boston'' – (1918)
''Goin' Home'' (sheet music, 1922)
* ''One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States'' – (1934) * ''Ye Olde New-England Psalm-tunes 1620–1820'' – (1930) * ''The Music that Washington Knew'' – (1931)

References

External links

* *
Sheet Music for "Goin' Home"; Oliver Ditson Company publisher, 1922

Songs by William Arms Fisher
at the

National Jukebox The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, William Arms 1861 births 1948 deaths American male composers American composers American music historians American male non-fiction writers American writers about music Musicians from San Francisco Pupils of Antonín Dvořák Pupils of Horatio Parker Writers from San Francisco Historians from California