Arthur William Foote was born on March 5, 1853, in Salem, Massachusetts, and died on April 8, 1937, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was an American classical composer and a member of the "Boston Six." The other members of this group were George Whitefield Chadwick, Amy Beach, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker.

Biography

Foote became the organist at the First Church in Boston (Unitarian) in 1878 and held this position for 32 years. He helped start the American Guild of Organists and was one of the people who tested candidates for the first Guild Fellowship exam. Foote also helped create the New England chapter of the AGO. From 1909 to 1912, he served as National Honorary President of the AGO, taking over from Horatio Parker. He was one of the editors of Hymns of the Church Universal, a Unitarian hymnal published in 1890.

Today, Foote’s music is often described as "Romantic" and "European," especially when compared to later American composers like Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, and William Schuman, who helped create a unique American sound in classical music. Foote graduated from Harvard and was the first well-known American classical composer trained entirely in the United States. In a way, he is to music what American poets were to literature before Walt Whitman.

Foote supported the music of Brahms and Wagner and encouraged performances of their works. He was an active music teacher and wrote several educational books, including Modern Harmony in Its Theory and Practice (1905), written with Walter R. Spalding. This book was later republished as Harmony (1969). He also wrote Some Practical Things in Piano-Playing (1909) and Modulation and Related Harmonic Questions (1919). Foote wrote many articles for music journals, such as "Then and Now, Thirty Years of Musical Advance in America" in Etude (1913) and "A Bostonian Remembers" in Musical Quarterly (1937).

Much of Foote’s music is chamber music, and these works are often considered his best. A 2002 article in The Chamber Music Journal noted that Foote’s chamber music is of high quality and should be performed more often. His Piano Quintet, Op. 38, and Piano Quartet, Op. 23, are especially praised. The article described the Piano Quintet as having "each movement as a gem," with the Scherzo and finale being particularly strong. It suggested that the work may not have received the attention it deserved because it was written by an American who was "out of the loop." The Piano Quartet is also described as being as good as any late 19th-century piano quartet.

Foote lived in Dedham, Massachusetts, and was a member of the Society in Dedham for Apprehending Horse Thieves. His students included Isabel Stewart North and Frances Marion Ralston.

Selected works

• Three Pieces for Cello & Piano, Op. 1 (composed in 1881)
• String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 4
• Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op. 5 (composed in 1883)
• Three Pieces for Violin & Piano, Op. 9
• Sonata for Violin & Piano, Op. 20
• Scherzo for Cello & Piano, Op. 22
• Piano Quartet in C major, Op. 23 (composed in 1890)
• Francesca da Rimini, Op. 24 (composed in 1890)
• Serenade for Strings in E major, Op. 25
• Three Pieces for Oboe (or Flute) & Piano, Op. 31 (Flute version is Op. 31B)
• String Quartet No. 2 in E major, Op. 32 (the final movement was performed separately as Tema con Variazione) (composed in 1893)
• Cello Concerto in G minor, Op. 33
• Romanza for Cello & Piano, Op. 33 (piano reduction of the slow movement from the Cello Concerto, Op. 33)
• Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 38 (composed in 1897)
• Melody for Violin & Piano, Op. 44
• Four Character Pieces after the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Op. 48 (composed in 1900)
• Suite in E major for Strings, Op. 63 (first performed and recorded by the Boston Symphony Orchestra) (composed in 1907)
• Piano Trio No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 65 (composed between 1907 and 1908)
• Ballad for Violin & Piano, Op. 69
• String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 70
• Seven Pieces for Organ, Op. 71
• Two Pieces for Violin & Piano, Op. 74
• Legend for Violin & Piano, Op. 76
• Aubade for Cello & Piano, Op. 77
• Sonata for Cello & Piano, Op. 78
• Sonata for Viola & Piano, Op. 78A
• Nocturno & Scherzo for Flute & String Quartet, WoO. (composed in 1918; the Nocturno is also known as A Night Piece)
• At Dusk for Flute, Harp, and Cello, WoO
• Sarabande & Rigaudon for Oboe (or Flute), Viola (or Violin), and Piano, WoO