Maurice Arnold Strothotte
| Maurice Arnold | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 January 1865 St. Louis, Missouri |
| Died | 23 October 1937 New York City |
| Occupation(s) | Composer |
| Instruments | Piano, violin |
| Years active | 1888-190? |
Maurice Arnold Strothotte (19 January 1865, St. Louis, Missouri – 23 October 1937, New York City, New York) was an African-American composer and performer.
Maurice Arnold Strothotte was born in St Louis, Missouri in 1865. He later shortened his name to Maurice Arnold. Arnold's father was a physician and his mother a prominent pianist and his first teacher. At the age of fifteen he went to Cincinnati, Ohio studying at the College of Music for three years. In 1883 he traveled to Germany to study counterpoint and composition with Georg Vierling and Heinrich Urban in Berlin. Mr. Urban attempted to discourage him when Arnold began to incorporate African-American "plantation" dance elements into his music.
Following studies in Berlin Arnold went on a tour of Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. Some of his compositions show the influence of his travels through those countries. Upon returning to Germany he then entered the Cologne Conservatory of Music where his first piano sonata was written and performed. He next went to Breslau, where, under the instruction of Max Bruch, he wrote one of his first major works, his cantata "The Wild Chase." Returning to Saint Louis he busied himself as a solo violinist and teacher, traveling also as an opera conductor.
Maurice Arnold was one of many African-American students of Antonín Dvořák during the Bohemian composer's stay in the United States as director of the newly formed National Conservatory of Music of America in New York (1892–1895). Arnold participated in Dvořák's famous January 23, 1894 concert about which the New York Herald wrote "It was a remarkable event. Each soloist with one exception belong to the colored race. Bodies had been liberated but the gates of the artistic world were still locked. (Conservatory founder) Jeannette Thurber's efforts in this effort were ably seconded by Dr. Dvořák." And while the program included Arnold's four "American Plantation Dances" the main attraction of the evening was Dvořák's arrangement of Stephen Foster's "The Old Folks at Home" for chorus and orchestra. Arnold's four-movement suite, "Plantation Dances." Op. 32, was thereafter performed with some regularity and was published for full orchestra as well as in an arrangement for piano duet in the United States and in Germany.
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