Alfred John Goodrich

Background

Goodrich Alfred John was born on May 8, 1847, at Chilo, Ohio. He was the son of Luther Alfred Goodrich, a teacher of piano and voice, and Dolly (Healy) Goodrich.

Education

In his early childhood, his family removed to California, and there, Goodrich obtained his general education in the public schools of Sacramento and San Francisco. He began the study of music with his father, who taught him for one year, after which he was entirely self-taught.

Career

Goodrich began to compose in both large and small forms early in his career. It was his ambition to become a concert pianist, but through excessive practicing, he injured a finger, which probably caused him to give up his pianistic aspirations and to devote himself to teaching piano and voice.

Gradually, he developed a larger and keener interest in the teaching of various aspects of the theory of music. This finally became his main work and induced him to write a series of books which set forth his views on harmony and related subjects.

In 1866, at the age of nineteen, Goodrich went to New York and taught the theory of music at the Grand Conservatory.

In 1876, he went to the Fort Wayne Conservatory, after which, for two years, he was the musical director of Martha Washington College at Abingdon, Virginia. He taught in Chicago for about ten years, and then he was called to the Beethoven Conservatory of St. Louis as vocal director.

In 1910, he went to Paris, where, with the exception of a trip around the world during the period of the Great War, he remained until his death. There is no record that he ever taught there.

Among his compositions, some of which were youthful works, are two string quartets; a trio, performed both in New York and Chicago; a sonata; two concert overtures; a cantata; a well-written suite for piano; a volume of songs; a hymn for soprano, invisible chorus, and orchestra; and a number of piano compositions.

When he heard a performance of Tschaikowsky’s Fifth Symphony, it caused him to throw a bundle of his early compositions into the fire. His wife, however, succeeded in rescuing the piano suite from the flames.

Achievements

• Goodrich was one of the first to discard the figured-bass system and to teach the importance of appealing to the ear in harmony study. He also contributed numerous articles on musical subjects to magazines and newspapers.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Complete Musical Analysis; a System Designed to Cultivate the Art of Analyzing and Criticising and to Assist in the Performance and Understanding of the ... the Great Composers of the Different Epochs

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Guide to Memorizing Music

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Theory Of Interpretation: Applied To Artistic Musical Performance (1899)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Goodrich's Analytical Harmony: A Theory of Musical Composition (Classic Reprint)

    (Ji tPREFACE. THE advantages accruing from a knowledge of ...)

Personality

Goodrich was a man of lofty ideals, precise in manner and speech, and rather distinguished in appearance.

He was an earnest and successful teacher, especially of harmony, and was one of the first to discard the figured-bass system and to teach the importance of appealing to the ear in harmony study.

As a keen analyst of the works of the great masters, he was much freer in his statement of rules for the student’s guidance in harmonic procedure than were the textbooks of his period.

As he himself was largely self-taught, his textbooks were intended for use either with or without a teacher.

Connections

In 1874, Goodrich was married to one of his earliest students, Florence Ada Backus, who was a gifted musician, an excellent theorist, and later a composer of music for children.

Father:

Luther Alfred Goodrich

Mother:

Dolly (Healy) Goodrich

Wife:

Florence Ada Backus