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Leopold Classic Library is delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive collection. As part of our on-going commitment to delivering value to the reader, we have also provided you with a link to a website, where you may download a digital version of this work for free. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. Whilst the books in this collection have not been hand curated, an aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature. As a result of this book being first published many decades ago, it may have occasional imperfections. These imperfections may include poor picture quality, blurred or missing text. While some of these imperfections may have appeared in the original work, others may have resulted from the scanning process that has been applied. However, our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. While some publishers have applied optical character recognition (OCR), this approach has its own drawbacks, which include formatting errors, misspelt words, or the presence of inappropriate characters. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with an experience that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic book, and that the occasional imperfection that it might contain will not detract from the experience.
(Leopold Classic Library is delighted to publish this clas...)
Leopold Classic Library is delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive collection. As part of our on-going commitment to delivering value to the reader, we have also provided you with a link to a website, where you may download a digital version of this work for free. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. Whilst the books in this collection have not been hand curated, an aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature. As a result of this book being first published many decades ago, it may have occasional imperfections. These imperfections may include poor picture quality, blurred or missing text. While some of these imperfections may have appeared in the original work, others may have resulted from the scanning process that has been applied. However, our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. While some publishers have applied optical character recognition (OCR), this approach has its own drawbacks, which include formatting errors, misspelt words, or the presence of inappropriate characters. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with an experience that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic book, and that the occasional imperfection that it might contain will not detract from the experience.
Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin was among the first native-born American composers to display strongly individual qualities of style.
Background
Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin was born on November 25, 1862 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the fifth in a family of eight children. His ancestors, of Scottish origin on both sides, had been in America since the early eighteenth century. His father was Robert Peebles Nevin. His mother, Elizabeth Duncan (Oliphant) Nevin, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, was descended from Duncan Oliphant, who had come to America from Gash, Scotland, in 1721. She was a trained musician of wide culture, and the first grand piano to be carted over the Allegheny Mountains into Western Pennsylvania was for her girlhood home. Her love of music made a powerful impression upon Ethelbert. At the age of three he learned to sing the stirring songs of the times and at five he played his own accompaniments at the piano while he sang.
Education
At ten Ethelbert took his first formal piano lessons from Von der Heide and a little later from William Guenther, both of Pittsburgh, and at eleven he played in a public concert in Pittsburgh. In 1877-78 his parents took him abroad for a year's travel and study and placed him for a time for piano instruction under Franz Bohme in Dresden. On his return to Edgeworth he entered the Western University of Pennsylvania but remained only till the end of his freshman year in 1879, when he decided to enter the path of the professional musician. He overcame his father's opposition to such a career, and in the early fall of 1881 he went to Boston and for two years studied piano with Benjamin Johnson Lang and harmony and composition with Stephen A. Emery. Ambitious to perfect himself as a concert pianist, he went to Berlin in August 1884 and spent two years with Karl Klindworth (piano) and Carl Bial (theory), also a short period with Hans Von Bülow (piano) and Otto Tiersch (composition). Feeling the need for further study, Nevin sailed for Europe in May 1891, spending a year in Paris composing and teaching and eight months in Berlin given wholly to study and composition.
Career
A few weeks after his return to America Nevin made a successful début as a pianist in Pittsburgh, December 10, 1886, then settled in Boston, where he remained for nearly five years, teaching, concertizing, and composing. The rapidly growing popularity of his earlier compositions (notably the Sketch Book) made him turn more and more to composition as his life-work.
In December 1892 he was overworked and ill, and to recuperate he made a brief trip to Algiers in the early months of 1894. Midsummer found him at "Vineacre, " the old home at Edgeworth, preparing for the most successful concert tour of his career--and the last. Abandoning concert-life, he again went abroad early in 1895 to find there a more serene and inspiring atmosphere for composition. The stay in Europe included sojourns in Florence, Montepulsiano in the Tuscan Apennines, Venice, and then Paris.
Nevin returned to America in October 1897 and established himself in New York. In the late autumn of 1900 he moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where he lived quietly and in increasing ill health till his death. The funeral service was held in the Presbyterian Church at Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and he was buried in the little cemetery close by.
His total published compositions number about one hundred and thirty (seventy songs, forty-two for piano, three for violin, sixteen for chorus). His genius was essentially lyrical. Aside from the line early song "Herbstgefühl" (1889), there are but few dramatic passages in all his music. Recognizing this, Nevin had the wisdom to confine himself to the smaller instrumental and vocal forms, of which he was a complete master. The exceptional popularity of many of his compositions is due to their unaffected simplicity, spontaneity, grace, and melodic charm. His music reflects his instinctive love for light rather than shadow, for joy rather than sorrow. His love for nature finds full expression in such groups as Water Scenes, In Arcady, May in Tuscany, and A Day in Venice. He was fortunate in gaining early recognition for his talent. The Sketch Book, a versatile collection of thirteen songs and piano pieces, had a remarkable sale and contained several of his finest compositions--"Im wundersch"nen Monat Mai, " "Lehn' deine Wang, " and "Oh! that We Two Were Maying. " "One Spring Morning" and " 'Twas April" also made wide appeal.
Nevin was slender and rather frail in figure, never robust nor fond of any sport. Though struggling much with ill health, he possessed a happy, buoyant, lovable nature and rare social gifts. As a pianist of ample technical equipment he was happiest in the interpretation of his own compositions, which always evoked enthusiasm.
Connections
On January 5, 1888 he married Anne Paul of Pittsburgh, who with two children survived him.