ARTHUR FOOTE

The Violin Music of Arthur Foote

Sonata in G Minor

Three Character Pieces

Melody

Ballade

Two Pieces for Violin

Legend

Kevin Lawrence, violin

Eric Larsen, piano

Arthur William Foote (b Salem, MA, 1853; d 1937) was nationally acclaimed as a keyboard performer (he was organist at Church of the Disciples in Boston from 1878-1910), educator (he taught at the New England Conservatory from 1920-1937), and composer. Arthur Foote was the first prominent American composer totally educated in America, and one of the earliest American composers to win international recognition.

After beginning lessons in piano playing with Fanny Paine (no relation to John Knowles Paine) in Salem, he studied theory with Stephen Emery at the New England Conservatory, keyboard playing with B. J. Lang, Boston's eminent choral director and pianist, and composition with the highly respected John Knowles Paine at Harvard, where he earned the first M.A. degree in music ever conferred by an American university.

While based on Baroque and Classical structures, Foote's works reflect the Romantic urge for a warm, expressive line supported by colorful, chromatically shaded harmony. Beautifully crafted, his music is derived from contemporary Central European practices, and contains few American inflections; it rather essentially represents an individual poetic utterance.

On this CD, Foote indulges his predilection for a fully developed singing melody, especially prevalent in his violin music.

New World NW80464