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Inventory of the Arthur Foote correspondence, [1922-1927?]
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Description
Correspondence with Albert Elkus, Professor of Music, University of California, Berkeley, probably dating from 1922 to 1927. Each letter is accompanied by a typed transcription made by Elkus' secretary, Helen Farnsworth, when he served as Chairman of the Dept.
Background
Foote, Arthur (William) (b Salem, MA, 5 March 1853; d Boston, MA, 8 April 1937). Composer, organist, pianist, piano teacher, and theorist. The youngest of three children, Foote was reared by his sister, Mary White Foote, following the death of his mother in 1857; his brother, Henry Wilder Foote, was a distinguished clergyman and minister of King's Chapel, Boston. Arthur Foote began his study of music at the age of 12 with Fanny Paine, a local piano teacher. After two years she took him to play for her teacher, the Boston musician B. J. Lang, on whose advice he enrolled in Stephen A. Emery's harmony class at the New England Conservatory. In 1870 he entered Harvard College, where he studied counterpoint and fugue with John Knowles Paine; he also led the Harvard Glee Club in the two years before his graduation in 1874. That summer, with no thought of becoming a professional musician, he began organ lessons with Lang, who was so encouraging that Foote decided on a career in music rather than proceeding with his plan to enter law school. He returned to Harvard for another year's work with Paine and took piano lessons with Lang. In 1875 he received the first MA in music to be given by an American university. He was influenced by the German born or trained musicians active in Boston during the early part of his professional life, and made eight trips abroad over a 20-year period. He attended the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, which afforded him the opportunity to hear and meet the leading European artists of the day; he also took a few lessons with Stephen Heller in France in 1883.
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of the Music Library.
Availability
Collection is open for research.