Sidney Homer Sr. (December 9, 1864 – July 10, 1953) was a classical

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, primarily of songs.

Biography

Homer was the youngest child born to deaf parents in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, on December 9, 1864 (some sources use 1865). He attended the 1884 class of

Phillips Academy Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...

Andover, Massachusetts Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was Settler, settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in ''Encyclopedia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ed. ...

, but did not attend college, although he studied composition with George Whitefield Chadwick and with Josef Rheinberger in Munich. He married

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

Louise Dilworth Beatty in 1895. Sidney and Louise had six children, including twin daughters Anne Homer and Kathryn Homer, son Sidney Homer, Jr. (economist and author), and daughter Louise Homer. Sidney Homer died on July 10, 1953, in

Winter Park, Florida Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 29,795 according to the 2020 census. It is part of the Greater Orlando, Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Winter Park was foun ...

Legacy

Sidney Homer's influence included his mentoring and supporting his nephew, the composer

Samuel Barber Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor (music), conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the mid-20th century. Principally influenced ...

. Scholarship on Homer was a particular focus of

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

Harry Colin Thorpe.See Harry Colin Thorpe
"The Songs of Sidney Homer"
in '' Musical Quarterly'', Vol. XVII (1931), pp. 47-73. Homer composed many of his songs with the voice of his famous wife in mind. Among his most famous songs are "A Banjo Song" (Weeden), "Requiem" (Stevenson), "Casey at the Bat" (Thayer), and "The House that Jack Built" ("Mother Goose.") Homer's memoir, ''My Wife and I'', was published by Macmillan in 1939 and reprinted by

Da Capo Press Da Capo Press is an American publishing company with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. It is now an imprint of Hachette Books. History Founded in 1964 as a publisher of music books, as a division of Plenum Publishers, it had additional offi ...

in 1978.

References

External links

*
Sidney Homer page at The Lied and Art Song Texts PageSidney Homer scores
(the composer's manuscripts) in th
Music Division
o
The New York Public Library for the Performing ArtsThe Songs of Sidney Homer
*Sheet music fo
"Plantation Hymn"
G. Schirmer, New York, from th
Alabama Sheet Music Collection
*Sidney Homer page a
Song of America
1864 births 1953 deaths 19th-century American male musicians 19th-century American classical composers 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American classical composers American male classical composers Classical musicians from Massachusetts People from Winter Park, Florida Phillips Academy alumni Burials in Warren County, New York {{US-composer-19thC-stub