Eleanor Everest Freer: Her life and music.
Item
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Title
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Eleanor Everest Freer: Her life and music.
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Identifier
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AAI9304657
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identifier
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9304657
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Creator
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Eversole, Sylvia Miller.
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Contributor
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Adviser: H. Wiley Hitchcock
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Date
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1992
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Music | Women's Studies | American Studies | Biography
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Abstract
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Eleanor Everest Freer (1864-1942) was a musical prodigy born in Philadelphia to musical parents. She played the piano, sang, and composed at an early age, and was taught at home until 1883 when she began studying voice with Mathilde Marchesi in Paris. She gave up a career as a concert singer in order to become the first qualified teacher of the Marchesi method in the United States. After teaching privately in Philadelphia and at the National Conservatory in New York, she married the wealthy Chicagoan Archibald Freer in 1891. The Freers returned to Chicago with their young daughter in 1899 after seven years in Germany, and in 1901 Freer began studying composition with Bernhard Ziehn. By the end of her life she had written and published 137 songs, eleven works for vocal ensemble, eleven chamber operas, and nineteen piano pieces. These works reflect her European training and background, displaying the colorful chromaticism of the late nineteenth century. An advocate of opera in English, she founded the Opera in Our Language Foundation, which later became the American Opera Society of Chicago. Her tireless efforts for recognition of the American composer included the establishment of the David Bispham Memorial Award, which motivated the composition and performance of new operas. She was a prolific writer, and produced numerous articles and editorials championing American teachers, performers, composers, American musical training, and the performance of American works.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
