Arthur Foote (1853-1937)
Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 38 (1897)
String Quartet No.2 in E major, Op. 32 (1893)
String Quartet No.3 in D major, Op. 70 (1911)
Arthur William Foote was born in Salem, Massachusetts on
March 5th, 1853. His father was editor of the Salem Gazette. His mother
died when he was four, Foote received his first music lessons at the age of
fourteen, eventually studying harmony with Stephen A. Emery at the New England
Conservatory of Music in Boston. In 1870 Foote entered Harvard University.
There he conducted the Harvard Glee Club and took music courses from John
Knowles Paine, receiving his Bachelor of Music Degree in 1874. That summer he
also took organ lessons from Benjamin Lang, who was convinced of Foote's
talents and encouraged him to continue his music studies and pursue a music
career. Foote did graduate studies at Harvard and became the recipient of the
Degree of Master of Arts, the first such degree awarded by an American
university. Paine was an excellent teacher. His musical viewpoint was largely
influenced by German romanticism as reflected by the compositions of Schumann
and Mendelssohn. Foote, despite his American upbringing, continued in his
teacher's footsteps, expanding slightly towards the 'newer' German school of Brahms
and Wagner.
Foote spent the summer of 1876 at the Bayreuth Festival
in Germany, an experience that was to influence him for life. Two years later,
he was appointed organist and choirmaster of the First Unitarian Church in Boston,
a post he held for 32 years. He became an integral and most influential member
of his musical community and began a series of chamber music concerts, while
many of his finest works were first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Rupert Hughes commented in 1900 that "Almost all of Foote's compositions
are written in the close harmony and limited range of vocal music, and he very
rarely sweeps the keyboard in his piano compositions, or hunts out startling
novelties in strictly pianistic effect. He is not fond of the cloudy regions of
the upper notes, and though he may dart brilliantly skyward now and then just
to show that his wings are good for lighter air, he is soon back again,
drifting along the middle ether. He has won his high place by faithful
adherence to his own sober, serene ideals, and by his genuine culture and
seriousness."
The style he established in his earliest works he would
use for the rest of his life. According to David Ewen, Foote's music is
"always thoroughly lyrical, with broad and stately melodies; romantic in
rhapsodic moods; and classical in structure, a reflection of his life-long
adoration of Brahms and Wagner." He was not a prolific composer, writing
only eight orchestral works. His large choral works, The Farewell of
Hiawatha, The Wreck of the Hesperus, and The Skeleton in
Armor (all to texts by Long fellow) show clear
influences of Wagner. According to Wilma Reid Cipolla, in Foote's output there
are 73 numbered works, from Opus I to Opus 80, with Opp. 2, 19, 35, 56, 57, 66,
and 75 unaccounted for. Among the 130 unnumbered compositions, there are 54 songs
and 57 choral works. Among his most popular works is the Suite in E major,
for strings (1907), a neoromantic work within a baroque structure. During his
life, he received two honorary doctorates in music and was made a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was one of the founders and also
president of the American Guild of Organists. Foote died on 8th April, 1937.
Arthur Foote completed his Piano Quintet in A minor,
Opus 38 in 1897. The first performance took place on 31st January, 1898 in Boston
with the Kneisel Quartet and the composer at the piano. He dedicated the work
to the Kneisel Quartet. Foote recognised the importance of Franz Kneisel's influence
on chamber music in America. "Most of the chamber music written at the
turn of the century owed its existence to the knowledge that Kneisel would give
it a chance to be heard in the best conditions, and not in a so-called '
American concert', but in the company of Beethoven or Brahms; in other words,
the music had to hold its own, and often did." It was from Kneisel that Foote
acquired a knowledge of ensemble performance and also learned the finer points
of string writing. In the Piano Quintet in A minor, the legacy of Dvorak
and Brahms is organic rather than obvious, integrated by Foote's wealth of
melodic invention and his idiomatic keyboard writing. The opening movement of
the Quintet, after a short introduction, begins with a fugal treatment
of its first theme. A second theme is then introduced, with a new and faster
tempo, which is followed immediately by 1he closing theme. The development
section passes through eight different keys and is based predominantly on the
two themes. Foote does little with the third theme except at the beginning and
end of this section. The final cadence closes the movement in A minor. We hear
the lusciousness of Brahms and Dvorak pervading this section. The second
movement of the Piano Quintet is actually a three-part song-form of
moderately slow tempo. The third movement of the
Quintet is in the form of a scherzo. The
finale is in a fast rondo form. The final movement of the Quintet is
unique among his compositions in that this rondo form's fourth part is
based on the third theme used in the first movement, a cyclic element which is
rare in Foote's compositions.
The String Quartet No.2 in E major, Opus 32 was
completed by Foote in 1893. The Kneisel Quartet performed it on February 12th,
1894, after which the composer withdrew it from publication. Foote retained the
manuscript (dated July-Dec. 1893, Beverly, Massachusetts). In 1901 he published
the third movement, Tema con variazioni, as his Opus 32. Both as
a separate composition for string quartet and in transcription for string
orchestra, the variations received many performances. The music was dedicated
to Theodore Thomas. In the first movement, marked Allegro giocoso, we
are reminded by the meter, hemiola, and development passages of Tchaikovsky's Quartet
in D Major. The second movement, Scherzo, was revised in 1918 for
flute and string quartet. The third movement is a set of variations in binary
form. Robert Schumann's ghost seems to permeate this section of the work. The
original key of A minor is retained throughout, except in the fifth variation,
which is in A major. Foote treats each of the variations as independent
entities - the music not continuous, and each variation progressing to a full
close. The finale is is in a large, two-part song form which begins with a
vivacious contrapuntal opening. This is the first time this quartet has been
recorded in its entirety.
The String Quartet No.3 in D major, Opus 70 was
begun in 1907, completed in 1910, and published in 1911, with a dedication to
the conductor and composer, Frederick Stock. The original score of this work
lists this composition confusingly as 'String Quartet No.2'. Although,
it was his second published quartet (Opus 32 was withdrawn), it was his
third essay in the form. Although
Foote lists August 1911 (Bohemian Club, San Francisco) as
well as the date "Nov 24, 1911" on the published score, the first
concert which listed the work on a programme was given at the home of publisher
Arthur P. Schmidt on 21st April, 1912. In the first movement of Opus 70,
perhaps the most original of his string quartets and the fruition of his search
for individual expression in this medium, a heroic first theme is followed by
quixotic changes of mood and tempo, daring harmonies, contrasting textures, and
teetering-on-the brink-of-expressionistic gestures all encapsulated in a fairly
straightforward sonata-allegro form. Biographer, Frederick Kopp finds that the
"most involved cyclic treatment of a theme Occurs in the first movement of
this work. The first theme of the first movement reappears in the trio of the second
movement. The same theme also appears as the first theme of the third movement
and then makes its fourth appearance in the introduction of the fourth
movement." In the remaining three movements we hear echoes of Janacek and
of Schoenberg's great Quartet in D minor, Opus 7. The finale is in
sonata-form. The fourth movement consists of an introduction, the main body of
the work containing three main themes, and a coda. Once again, we hear the
poignant harmonies, energetic urgency and the soaring lines which were the
fingerprints of Arthur Foote's craft.
Marina and Victor Ledin, 1998, Encore Consultants
