Gilbert, Henry F. B. (Henry Franklin Belknap), 1868-1928

American musician.

Composed 1926. First performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Philadelphia, March 16, 1928, Pierre Monteux conducting.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

American composer.

First performance by the Boston Symphony, 26 February 1926.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, 1926. Composed 1927. First performance by the Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Boston, April 28, 1928, Nicolas Slonimsky conducting.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

First performance 4 March 1921, Boston Symphony. Dedicated to Dr. and Mrs. J. Heiman.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Originally composed for piano, ca. 1909.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Henry Franklin Belknap Gilbert was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, on September 26, 1868. He had a congenital heart defect known as tetrology of Fallot and made medical history by outliving any other recorded sufferer by twenty-three years. Despite his poor health and chronic lack of funds, Gilbert achieved distinction as a composer, lecturer, editor, and writer.

Gilbert came from a musical family, and he studied violin, piano, theory, and composition at the New England Conservatory and with a variety of private teachers, including Edward MacDowell. As a young man he struggled to support himself by playing the violin and working in a variety of non-musical jobs. In 1893 he attended the Chicago World's Fair, where he had the opportunity to hear Asian and African music, which made a profound impression on him. In 1894, 1901, and 1927 he visited Europe. From 1902 to 1911 Gilbert collaborated with Arthur Farwell on the Wa-Wan Press, an important publisher of American music. In 1912 Gilbert spent the first of several summers at the MacDowell Colony, the last being in 1926.

In both his compositions and his writings, Gilbert was an influential proponent of musical nationalism. He believed that American composers should not rely solely on European models, but instead should draw inspiration from indigenous sources, such as the music of black Americans and American Indians. Gilbert's music frequently borrowed melodies and rhythms from ragtime, spirituals, and folk songs. Gilbert also transcribed Indian music from wax cylinders recorded by Edward S. Curtis for Curtis's book The North American Indian . These transcriptions are included in the Papers.

Several of Gilbert's works received major performances. Negro Rhapsody was commissioned for and performed at Norfolk, Connecticut in 1913. His Comedy Overture on Negro Themes was chosen to be performed in Russia by Glazunov and conducted by Glière in 1914. Riders to the Sea was performed by the New York Philharmonic in 1917. Gilbert's one-act opera Dance in Place Congo was performed by the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Orchestra in 1918, and two years later it was rendered as an orchestral piece by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Monteux. Gilbert composed the music to the first episode of the Pilgrim Tercentenary Pageant (1921). Other composers who contributed to the pageant were Clifton, Converse, Foote, Hill, Kelley, and Sowerby. In 1922 Gilbert wrote the film score to a documentary drama about whaling entitled Down to the Sea in Ships . The Boston Symphony Orchestra under Koussevitzky performed Gilbert's Symphonic Piece in 1926. Despite failing health, in 1927 Gilbert traveled to Frankfurt along with Copland to represent modern music in America at the ISCM Festival where his Dance in Place Congo was performed. Finally, his Nocturne was performed two months prior to his death by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Monteux.

Henry Gilbert died on May 19, 1928 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.