Eleanor Everest Freer

Eleanor Everest Freer ( May 14, 1864 in Philadelphia - December 13, 1942 in Chicago ) was an American composer and philanthropist .

life and work

Eleanor Everest was the daughter of Cornelius Everest and Ellen Amelia (Clark) Everest. She studied singing with Mathilde Marchesi in Paris and was a composition student of Benjamin Godard . On her return to the United States, she taught music in Philadelphia and from 1889 to 1991 at the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York .

In 1891 she married Archibald Freer, a doctor from Chicago. After their marriage, the couple lived in Leipzig for eight years and had a daughter . In 1899 the family moved to Chicago, where Eleanor Everest Freer took lessons in music theory from Bernhard Ziehn .

Freer was committed to promoting independent and original language opera development in the United States and in 1921 founded Opera in Our Language Foundation (OOLF). Together with her friend Edith Rockefeller McCormick , she also founded the American Opera Society of Chicago (AOSC) that same year .

plant

Freer's compositional oeuvre is based on classical tonal setting, "decorated with chromatics and seventh chords", as Elise Kuhl Kirk writes in her book American Opera . Ten of her eleven operas have also been performed - all in modest venues by semi-professional ensembles, in neighborhood centers and on university student theaters.

Opera

The Legend of the Piper , Libretto: Josephine Preston Peabody, 1925 (U: Progress Club Music Department, South Bend, Indiana)
Massimilliano, The Court Jester , libretto: Elia Wilkinson Peattie, 1926 (U: University of Nebraska , Lincoln)
The Chilkoot Maiden [or: The Chilkoot Mandarin ], based on an own libretto, 1927 (U: Skagway, Alaska)
A Christmas Tale , Libretto: Barret Harper Clark, Maurice Bouchor , 1929 (U: Houston, Texas)
Joan of Arc , based on his own libretto, 1929 (U: Junior Friends of Art, Chicago, Illinois)
Frithjof , Libretto: Clement Burbank Shaw, Esaias Tegnér , 1929 (U: Illinois Women's Athletic Club, Chicago, Illinois)
The Masque of Pandora , 1930
A Legend of Spain , based on his own libretto, 1931 (U: Marwood Studios, Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
Little Women , Libretto: Eleanor Everest Freer, Louisa May Alcott , 1934 (U: Musician's Club of Women, Chicago, Illinois)
The Brownings go to Italy , libretto: George Arthur Hawkins-Ambler, 1938 (U: Arts Club, Chicago, Illinois) n

Songs

A Book of Songs , op.4 (nine songs based on texts by William Blake , Horatius Bonar , Robert Browning , John Donne , Robert Herrick and Thomas Hood )
Five Songs to Spring
Four songs
Six Songs to Nature
Sonnets from the Portuguese (44 songs based on texts by Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Orchestral works

Four modern Dances , 1931
Spanish Ballet Fantasy , 1935

Autobiography

Recollections and Reflections of an American Composer , 1929

Individual evidence

^ Neil Butterworth: Dictionary of American Classical Composers , keyword: FREER, ELEANOR (NÉE EVEREST), Routledge 2013, p. 159.
^ New York Times : OPERA IN ENGLISH MOVEMENT SPREADS; Our Language Foundation Interests Twenty-five States in Aiding American Composers. , March 4, 1922.
^ Julie Anne Sadie, Rhian Samuel: The Norton / Grove dictionary of women composers (Digitized online by GoogleBooks) 1994 (accessed July 28, 2016).
^ German-American Music Publishers . Archived from the original on March 13, 2014. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 28, 2016. @1@ 2

↑ Jon Anderson: Opera Society`s 65th Year Music Honored In Spirit Of A Grande Dame , April 9, 1986, accessed on July 28, 2016th

^ Elise Kuhl Kirk: American Opera , University of Illinois Press, 2001, p. 244.

↑ Everest Freer is said to have composed eleven operas, Stanford University Library lists only nine of them. The tenth - The Masque of Pandora - can be found, albeit without specifying the premiere, by Neil Butterworth.

Web links

Stanford University Library : Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres , keyword: Freer, Eleanor Everest, accessed July 28, 2016.
The LiederNet Archive : Composer: Eleanor Everest Freer (1864-1942) , accessed July 28, 2016.

personal data
SURNAME	Freer, Eleanor Everest
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American composer and philanthropist
DATE OF BIRTH	May 14, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH	Philadelphia
DATE OF DEATH	December 13, 1942
Place of death	Chicago

[1] Neil Butterworth: Dictionary of American Classical Composers , keyword: FREER, ELEANOR (NÉE EVEREST), Routledge 2013, p. 159.

[2] New York Times : OPERA IN ENGLISH MOVEMENT SPREADS; Our Language Foundation Interests Twenty-five States in Aiding American Composers. , March 4, 1922.

[3] Julie Anne Sadie, Rhian Samuel: The Norton / Grove dictionary of women composers (Digitized online by GoogleBooks) 1994 (accessed July 28, 2016).

[4] German-American Music Publishers . Archived from the original on March 13, 2014. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 28, 2016. @1@ 2

[5] Jon Anderson: Opera Society`s 65th Year Music Honored In Spirit Of A Grande Dame , April 9, 1986, accessed on July 28, 2016th

[6] Elise Kuhl Kirk: American Opera , University of Illinois Press, 2001, p. 244.

[7] Everest Freer is said to have composed eleven operas, Stanford University Library lists only nine of them. The tenth - The Masque of Pandora - can be found, albeit without specifying the premiere, by Neil Butterworth.