About the Book:An influential composer, conductor, and music teacher, Dudley Buck (1839-1909) helped establish the organ in American musical life. N. Lee Orr’s study of Buck’s life and career details his stint as teacher to Charles Ives, organ recital tours around the Midwest, and work composing music for church organs. Buck’s Grand Sonata in E Flat became a great hit wherever he played it, and his Variations and Fugue on the “Star-Spangled Banner” remains a standard in organ repertoire. Intended for practical use, his music was challenging, sometimes full of romantic flourishes, counterpoint, and part singing, but still accessible to amateur musicians and choirs. During the 1870s, Buck composed extensively for choir, orchestra, and organ, while also helping organize and conduct the first Central Park Garden Concerts. His reputation was such that he was asked to collaborate with the poet Sidney Lanier to commemorate the nation’s centennial, and his Forty-Sixth Psalm was the first American composition performed by Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society. Placing Buck’s life and career within the Victorian mindset that sought to draw citizens into higher circles of art and beauty, Orr stresses how Buck’s music touched players and listeners of all classes.Table of Contents: PREFACE xi 1. Beginnings 1 2. American Culture, Hartford, and Church Music, 1862-71 9 3. Spreading the Gospel of Organ Music 35 4. Boston and New Directions 57 5. New York, The Centennial Meditation, and Opera 73 6. More Choral Successes 89 7. Final Years and Legacy 103 NOTES 109 SELECTED WORKS 119 FURTHER READING 123 STOP LISTS FOR IMPORTANT BUCK ORGANS 127 COMPACT DISC CONTENTS 129 INDEX 131 ILLUSTRATIONS FOLLOW PAGE XVII