Hugh Archibald Clarke
Hugh Archibald Clarke was a Canadian composer, organist, and teacher. He was born in Toronto, Canada on August 15, 1839, and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 16, 1927,[1] at the age of 88.[2]
Early life
Clarke was exposed to music at a very young age. His father, James Paton Clarke, who was a Mus. Doc. of Oxford University, is where his musical exploration stemmed from. At the age of twelve, Clarke began to play the organ at his church. After he and his wife, Jane Searle, moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he volunteered as the organist at the Second Presbyterian Church for 22 years.[3]
In Pennsylvania, he established himself as an organist and teacher. In 1875, Clarke was appointed professor of music at the University of Pennsylvania and remained an instructor there for 50 years. Eventually, he was named head of the School of Fine Arts in 1920. He also formed and led the university's Abt Male Chorus.
Clarke became known as one of the earliest specialists in music theory in North America, the other being John Knowles Paine who taught at Harvard University. He has had many years of instructing experience, along with many notable pupils. Some of his known students include William Wallace Gilchrist, Otto Albrecht, prolific piano pedagogue and composer John Sylvanus Thompson,[4] and Clarke's own daughter, Helen Clarke.
Works
Clarke has accomplished much in his lifetime including several books and musical pieces that are acknowledged worldwide. His most notable work that earned him an honorary doctorate is his composition to the Archanians (1886) by Aristophanes. Other well known pieces were the music for the play Iphigenia in Tauris by Euripides, the cantata The Music of the Spheres, and the oratorio Jerusalem.
Books
- Pronouncing Dictionary of Musical Terms
- A System of Harmony: Founded on Key Relationship, by Means of Which a Thorough Knowledge of the Rules That Govern the Combinations and Successions of Sounds May Be Easily Acquired with or without a Teacher
- Counterpoint Strict and Free; Double Counterpoint, Imitation, Fugue and Canon
- Harmony on the Inductive Method
- Melodies of Mood and Tense
- Harold
- The Scratch Club
- Highways and Byways of Music
- Music and the Comrade Arts
References
- ↑ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0003814
- ↑ http://www.brainyhistory.com/topics/h/hugh.html
- ↑ http://books.google.com/books?id=-_A5AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+history+of+american+music&hl=en&ei=L2zjTKK6KsinnAeDlcmyDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
- ↑ "John Sylvanus Thompson: Pianist, Pedagogue Composer," a doctoral dissertation by Cameron Dibble, University of Missouri at Kansas City, 1992, page 19.
External links
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