Description

Selected autobiographical and critical essays by the important early 20c American composer/campaigner Arthur Farwell: a major narrative of American musical life c.1900.

Arthur Farwell was the great apostle of American music. He published works by American composers in his Wa-Wan Press, he lectured widely on the need to develop a national style, and he spearheaded the American Music Society's drive to promote the country's composers. The twenty-year crusade covered in `Wanderjahre, ' originally published as articles in Musical America, begins in 1889 when Farwell's musical interest first developed, continues throughhis Bohemian days in Boston as a budding composer and his trip to Europe for further study, then chronicles his work in America on his return in 1899. Later critical articles and reviews confirm Farwell as an original, often audacious voice, frequently at odds with the musical establishment but raising key issues of American musical life in his day, and giving valuable insights into that milieu.