William Gleason (1848-1903) was born in Middletown, Connecticut and was a composer
Gleason's father was a banker. Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the south-central part of the state 16 miles (26 km A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance A banker or bank is a Financial institution whose primary activity is to act as a payment agent for customers and to borrow and lend money Like many another well-to-do gentlemen, Gleason senior was an amateur flautist. A flautist, flutist, or flute player is a Musician who plays the Flute. He considered music a pleasant pastime but not a serious occupation. He wanted his son to enter the ministry - a good old New England tradition. But the son insisted on becoming a composer, and the father yielded. Young Gleason studied with another Connecticut Yankee who had gone musical: Dudley Buck. Dudley Buck ( March 10, 1839 &ndash October 6, 1909) was an American Composer of music He then made the inevitable pilgrimage to Europe, studying with a long list of musicians in Germany. After six years in Europe he returned to America, and in 1877 went to Chicago, where he was active as teacher and music critic. In 1897 he became president of an organization called the "American Patriotic Musical League".
Gleason's compositions include a Processional of the Holy Grail written for the Chicago World's Fair; a symphonic Poem, Edris, based on a novel by Marie Corelli; the tone poem Song of Life; a Piano Concerto; a cantata with orchestra,The Culprit Fay; and two operas: Otho Visconti and Montezuma. The former was produced at Chicago in 1907. He left other scores in manuscript, with instructions that they were not to publicly performed until fifty years after his death.
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