Franz Carl Bornschein (February 10, 1879 – June 8, 1948) was an American composer, teacher, and music critic. Born in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, he studied at the

Peabody Conservatory of Music The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869), ...

, later becoming a professor there. He also served for a time as the music critic of the ''Baltimore Evening Sun''. His wife, Hazel Knox, was a singer who taught at Peabody. Much of Bornschein's output is

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l, including a number of suites as well as a

violin concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque music, Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first dev ...

; he also wrote a good deal of

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 num ...

, some

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 repetiti ...

s, and some works for

choir 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 s ...

which won a handful of prizes. In larger forms, he wrote cantatas,

oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...

s, and operettas. Bornschein died in 1948; his papers are held at the library of the

Maryland Historical Society The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC), formerly the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS), . founded on March 1, 1844, is the oldest cultural institution in the U.S. state of Maryland. The organization "collects, preserves, and inte ...

in Baltimore.

Selected compositions

* ''Joy'', choral setting of Walt Whitman's The Mystic Trumpeter, joint winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs' 1943 choral composition contest.

References

External links

Bornschein papers at the MHS
1879 births 1948 deaths American male composers American composers Musicians from Baltimore Place of death missing {{US-composer-19thC-stub