John Sullivan Dwight
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(December 2023) |
John Sullivan Dwight | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | May 13, 1813 Boston,Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | September 5, 1893(aged 80) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Known for | |
| Signature | |
 | |
John Sullivan Dwight(May 13, 1813 – September 5, 1893) was an Americanclassical musiccritic,transcendentalist,school director, and minister. He is considered America's first influential music critic.
Biography
[edit]Dwight was born inBoston,the son of John Dwight, M.D. (1773–1852), and Mary Corey. He was a member of the New EnglandDwight familythrough his paternal grandfather, John Dwight, Jr. (1740–1816).[1] He graduated fromHarvard Collegein 1832 and then prepared for the Unitarian ministry atHarvard Divinity School,from which he graduated in 1836. Dwight was ordained a minister in 1840, but ministry proved not to be his vocation. It was incredibly brief and tumultuous.[citation needed]Instead he developed a deep interest in music, in particular that ofLudwig van Beethoven.
Dwight served as director of the school at theBrook Farmcommune, the farm being autopiancommunal living experiment, where he also taught music and organized musical and theatrical events. About this time he began writing a regular column on music.
Brook Farm collapsed financially in 1847, but Dwight set up a cooperative house in Boston and began a career in musical journalism. He married singer Mary Bullard (daughter of Silas Bullard and Mary Ann Barrett) on February 11, 1851.[1]In 1852, he foundedDwight's Journal of Music,which became one of the most respected and influential such periodicals in the country in the mid-19th century.[2]Among the early writers wasAlexander Wheelock Thayer,who would become one of the first major music historians in the country. Other contributors includedJohn Knowles Paine,William F. Apthorp,W. S. B. MathewsandC. H. Brittan.[3]
In 1855, Dwight wrote English lyrics for theChristmas carol"O Holy Night",which was originally written in French.
Together with his friend and colleagueOtto Dresel,who emigrated fromLeipzigin 1848 and settled in Boston in 1852, the two "contributed singly and jointly to the shaping of American taste for the European classical tradition in music".[4]
In his criticism of the contemporary American pianistLouis Moreau Gottschalk,Dwight stepped into a trap.[according to whom?]At a concert, Gottschalk claimed a Beethoven work as his own and identified one of his own as a Beethoven. When a hostile Dwight praised the wrong piece, the composer sent a note apologizing for the "printer’s error" in the program, but wryly thanking him for the praise.[5]
His wife died September 6, 1860; they had no children. He died in Boston on September 5, 1893, and is buried atForest Hills Cemetery.[6]
References
[edit]- ^abBenjamin Woodbridge Dwight(1874).The history of the descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass.Vol. 2. J. F. Trow & son, printers and bookbinders. pp. 1012–1013.
- ^Blum, Stephen. "Sources, Scholarship and Historiography" in theGarland Encyclopedia of World Music,pgs. 21-37
- ^Richard Kitson (1991)."Dwight's Journal of Music"(PDF).Retrospective Index to Musical Periodicals.RetrievedFebruary 3,2011.
- ^Introduction, p. ix,Otto Dresel, Collected Vocal Music,ed. David Francis Urrows. Middleton, Wisconsin: A-R Editions, Recent Researches in American Music, v. 45, 2002.
- ^Peter Andrews (1982)."American Heritage, Volume 34, Issue 1"(PDF).Chopin called him "THE KING OF PIANISTS".RetrievedNovember 21,2012.
- ^"Dwight is Gone".The Boston Globe.September 5, 1893. p. 4.RetrievedJanuary 27,2021– via Newspapers.com.
Further reading
[edit]- George Willis Cooke (1898).John Sullivan Dwight: Brook-Farmer, Editor, and Critic of Music; A Biography.Boston: Small, Maynard & Company.
- Horowitz, Joseph. Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005.
- "Dwight, John Sullivan." Brainard's Biographies of American Musicians. 1999. Biography Reference Bank. H. W. Wilson
External links
[edit]
- Works by or about John Sullivan DwightatInternet Archive
- Works by John Sullivan DwightatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
- Robinson, David."John Sullivan Dwight".Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography.Unitarian Universalist Historical Society.RetrievedAugust 7,2008.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- American music critics
- Harvard College alumni
- Harvard Divinity School alumni
- 1813 births
- 1893 deaths
- Clergy from Boston
- Cultural history of Boston
- 19th century in Boston
- American Unitarians
- 19th-century American journalists
- American male journalists
- 19th-century American male writers
- 19th-century American clergy