Henry F. Gilbert

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Henry Franklin Belknap Gilbert (September 26, 1868-May 19, 1928) was an American composer and collector of folk song. He is best remembered today for his interest in the music of African-Americans around the turn of the 20th century.

Gilbert was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, and attended the New England Conservatory; among his teachers were Edward MacDowell, for composition, and Emil Mollenhauer, for violin. Upon graduation, Gilbert embarked upon a career in business. However, in 1900 he attended a performance of Gustave Charpentier's Louise which sent him back to music, soon becoming interested in American folk and popular music in particular. His Negro Episode - adapted from pieces he had heard on field trips - was performed in New York in 1896, and in 1905 he completed Americanesque, an orchestral suite based on three tunes from minstrel shows.

Gilbert's interest in folk music had led him to the music of American blacks, and it was through using black folk tunes that he gained his first major success with 1910's Comedy Overture on Negro Themes for orchestra. This was followed by the Negro Rhapsody, also for orchestra. Other subsequent pieces were based upon the music of American Indians and Creoles. Among his less popular works are Three American Dances, Two Episodes, and Riders to the Sea.

Gilbert composed the original music for the 1922 film Down to the Sea in Ships.

His greatest success was The Dance in Place Congo, a programmatic work based upon Creole themes. Originally completed in 1908, it was rejected by Karl Muck for public performance in Boston as "niggah music" and remained unperformed until recast as ballet by the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1918. It was given to acclaim at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Frankfurt-am-Main on July 1, 1927, with the composer in attendance, though by this time Gilbert was an invalid, and died less than a year later, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Although Gilbert's music was generally well-regarded during his lifetime, his reputation has declined steadily since his death; today, his music is little played.

[edit] References

• David Ewen, Encyclopedia of Concert Music. New York; Hill and Wang, 1959.
• Katherine E. Longyear, "Henry F. Gilbert", in H. Wiley and Standforth (eds.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music. London; MacMillan, 1986.
• Allyn Shipton, A New History of Jazz. London; Continuum, 2001.