Converse, Frederick

Preface

Converse, Frederick – Iolan or the Pipe of Desire Op.21, romantic opera in one act (full opera score with English and German libretto)

(b. Newton (Massachussetts), 5 January 1871 – d. Westwood (Massachussetts), 8 June 1940)

Preface
Frederick Shepherd Converse presents a typically American, very fairytale-like plot in his almost unknown first opera with a romantic flavour, ‘Iolan or the Pipe of Desire’, op. 21.

The American composer was born on 5. January 1871 in Newton (Massachussetts), the son of an upper-class businessman, and died on 8. June 1940 in Westwood (Massachussetts). Converse received piano lessons from the age of ten. However, at his father’s request, he first learnt at a local bank, but gave up this training after three months. When his fahther died, he was no longer bound to his wish and began to study music at Havard University with John Knowles Paine, graduating in 1893 with his violin sonata, op. 1 as his thesis. In 1896, he travelled to Germany to learn counterpoint, composition and organ at the Royal Academy of Music in Munich until 1898 with composer, organist and music teacher Joseph Rheinsberger (1839-1901). Converse completed his studies with honours in 1898 and composed the Symphony in D minor as his final work. In 1894, he married Emma Tudor, with whom he had two sons and five daughters.

From 1900 to 1902 he was a teacher of harmony at the New England Conservatory in Boston and from 1903 to 1907 a composition teacher at Havard College. In 1908 Converse was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1921 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was one of the organisers of the Boston Opera Company and was its first vice-president from 1909 to 1914. After the First World War, he became a lecturer in music theory at the New England Conservatory in 1920 and dean of the faculty in 1931. In 1938 he ended his teaching career for health reasons. Converse’s best-known students are the American composers Florence Price (1888-1953) and Alan Hoyhaness (1911-2000)…

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