William Henry Fry

William Henry Fry ( born August 10, 1813 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, † September 21, 1864 in Santa Cruz, Virgin Islands ) was an American composer and music critic.

The early gifted Fry has already received a 1823 Gold Medal of the Philadelphia Philharmonic Society for a composer of his overture. He studied until 1830 at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1836 he became secretary of the Philharmonic Society in Philadelphia. At the same time he wrote the first music critic for the run by his father Philadelphia National Gazette. From 1841 Fry was part of the teaching staff of the social utopian community Brook Farm. Since 1846 he worked as a correspondent for the magazine New York Tribune and Philadelphia Public Ledger in London and Paris.

In 1852, Fry was music critic of the New York Tribune. Fry's opera Leonora of 1845 is considered the first major opera in the United States. His four programmatic symphonies were premiered by the orchestra in 1853-54 by Louis Antoine Jullien. He composed another opera, several programmatic symphonies, overtures, a Stabat Mater, cantatas and songs.

Works

  • Aurelia the Vestal, Opera, 1837-41
  • Leonora, opera based on a play by Edward Bulwer- Lytton, UA 1845
  • Santa Claus Symphony
  • The Breaking Heart, Symphony
  • Childe Harold, Symphony
  • A Day in the Country, Symphony
  • Notre Dame de Paris, Opera, 1864
Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands Integrated Authority File
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