View source for Dudley Buck

{{Short description|American composer and organist (1839–1909)}}
{{Distinguish|Dudley Allen Buck}}
{{use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox classical composer
| image            = Dudley Buck.jpg
| image_size       = 
| alt              = 
| caption          = <!-- Only use to add context to the image. Do not repeat just the person's name here. -->
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1839|03|10}}
| birth_place      = [[Hartford, Connecticut]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1909|10|06|1839|03|10}}
| death_place      = [[West Orange, New Jersey]]
| resting_place    = [[Rosedale Cemetery]], [[Montclair, New Jersey]]
| occupations      = Publisher
| era              = [[Romantic music|Romantic]]
}}
'''Dudley Buck''' (March 10, 1839{{snd}}October 6, 1909) was an American [[composer]], [[organist]], and writer on music. He published several books, most notably the ''Dictionary of Musical Terms'' and ''Influence of the Organ in History'', which was published in New York City in 1882.

He is best known today for his organ composition, ''Concert Variations on [[The Star-Spangled Banner]]'', [[Opus number|Op.]] 23, which was later arranged into an orchestral version.

==Life and career==
Born in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], Buck was the son of a merchant who gave him every opportunity to cultivate his musical talents. After attending [[Trinity College (Connecticut)]] from 1855–1858, he studied in Leipzig at the [[Leipzig Conservatory of Music|Leipzig Conservatory]] where his teachers included [[Louis Plaidy]], [[Moritz Hauptmann]], [[Friedrich Schneider]], and [[Ignaz Moscheles]].<ref name=loc>{{Cite web |title=Dudley Buck (1839–1909) |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200153247/ |access-date=2022-10-26|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> He then pursued further studies in Dresden (again with Schneider) and Paris. On returning to America he held positions of [[organist]] in Hartford's North Congregational Church, Chicago's St. James' Episcopal Church (1869), and Boston at the Music Hall Association and at New England Conservatory (1871).<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Buck, Dudley|volume=4|page=720}}</ref><ref name=loc />

In 1875 Buck went to New York City for a prolonged and professionally fruitful period. He assisted [[Theodore Thomas (conductor)|Theodore Thomas]] as conductor of orchestral concerts, including the Central Park Garden Concerts. In 1877 he began a 25-year post as organist at [[St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church|Holy Trinity Church]] in Brooklyn. He founded the Apollo Club, an organization dedicated to promoting choral music in Brooklyn, likely molded after the Apollo Club founded in Boston in 1871.<ref name=":0">"For Dudley Buck Memorial". ''[[The Diapason]]''. 2 (3): 2. February 1, 1911.</ref>

The [[U.S. Centennial]] commissioned a cantata from Buck and [[Sidney Lanier]]; it was performed at the exposition's opening day on May 10, 1876.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Orr |first=N. Lee|title=Dudley Buck |date=2008 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-03279-0 |location=Urbana |oclc=177069162}}</ref> In 1898 Buck was elected to the [[National Institute of Arts and Letters]].<ref name=loc />

Towards the end of his tenure at Holy Trinity, new church leadership publicly expressed criticism with the church's music program. In 1901 it led to Buck announcing his resignation from Holy Trinity effective May 1902, whereupon he took the job of organist and choirmaster at Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn. This position lasted only a year, before Buck retired and spent the next few years with his wife in Germany.<ref name=":1" />

He returned to the United States in 1909, and died a few months later at his son's house in West Orange, New Jersey. His funeral was held at [[Grace Church (Manhattan)|Grace Episcopal Church]] in Manhattan; his own compositions ''In Memoriam'' and ''Over the Treetops There Is Rest'' were sung by the Apollo Club. He was buried in [[Rosedale Cemetery (Orange, New Jersey)|Rosedale Cemetery]] in Montclair, New Jersey (the same burial site as other notable hymn composers [[Lowell Mason]], [[Mary Artemisia Lathbury]], and [[George James Webb|George Webb]]).<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Rosedale Cemetery Walking Guide of Notable Interments |url=https://rosedalecemetery.org/wp-content/uploads/RosedaleCemetery_BF-Walking-Guide_Q07999_D2.pdf |access-date=2022-11-08 |website=rosedalecemetery.org}}</ref>

Several memorials were held after his death, including one led by E. H. Joyce in October 1910 at Bridgeport's First Presbyterian Church,<ref>{{Cite journal |date=November 1, 1910 |title=Dudley Buck Memorial |url=https://www.thediapason.com/sites/thediapason/files/191011TheDiapason.pdf |journal=[[The Diapason]] |volume=1 |issue=12 |page=2}}</ref> and one led by John Hyatt Brewer (who had replaced Buck as conductor of the Apollo Club in 1903<ref name=":1" />) in January 1911 in Brooklyn's Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church.<ref name=":0" />

Buck also taught private music lessons throughout his career. Among his notable pupils were [[Charles Ives]],<ref name=":1" /> [[Paul Ambrose]], [[C. B. Hawley]], [[William Howland (musician)|William Howland]], [[Daniel Protheroe]], [[Harry Rowe Shelley]], [[James Francis Cooke]], [[Charles Sanford Skilton]], and [[W. H. Neidlinger]].

== Writings ==
Buck's published books include:

* ''Buck's New and Complete Dictionary of Musical Terms'' (1873)
* ''Illustrations in Choir Accompaniment with Hints on Registration'' (1877)
* ''The Influence of the Organ in History'' (1882)
* ''Musical Pronouncing Dictionary'' (in at least 8 editions)
* ''Some Thoughts for the Singer'' (1908)

== Compositions ==
Buck was a prolific composer, in spite of having lost most of his manuscripts in St. James Episcopal Church's 1871 fire. His works include operas, cantatas, anthems, sacred songs, and organ works. Among them are:

Choral works:

* ''Motette Collection'' (1869)
* ''The Legend of Don Munio,'' op. 64 (1874), setting of [[Washington Irving]] text (a chapter from ''[[Tales of the Alhambra]]'') for small chorus and orchestra
* ''The Centennial Meditation of Columbia'' (1876), a cantata, text by [[Sidney Lanier]], commissioned for the [[U.S. Centennial]] and performed at its opening ceremony
* ''The Nun of Nidaros'', op. 83 (1879), setting of [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|Longfellow]] text for chorus, soloists, piano [[obbligato]], reed organ, and string quartet [[ad libitum]]
* ''Golden Legend'' (1880)
* ''King Olaf's Christmas'' (1881), setting of Longfellow text for chorus, soloists, piano obbligato, reed organ, and string quartet ad libitum
* ''Voyage of Columbus'' (1885)
* ''[[The Light of Asia (oratorio)|The Light of Asia]]'' (1886)
* ''The Triumph of God''
* ''In Memoriam''
* ''Over the Treetops There Is Rest''

Songs:<ref>{{Cite web|last=Buck |first=Dudley |last2=Lanier |first2=Sidney|author2-link=Sidney Lanier|date=1905 |title=Sunset / poem by Sidney Lanier ; [music by] Dudley Buck, op. 76, no. 4. |url=https://urresearch.rochester.edu/institutionalPublicationPublicView.action?institutionalItemVersionId=18339|publisher=[[University of Rochester]]}}</ref>

* ''Three Songs for Mezzo-Soprano'' (Where are the Swallows Fled?, Down by the Mill, The Sunset's Smile has Left the Sky)
* ''Five Songs for alto or baritone'' (Morning Land, Spring Song, Expectancy, Sunset (based on [[Sidney Lanier]] poem), "Storm and Sunshine")
* ''Five Songs for tenor or soprano'' (Thou art Mine!, Shadow Land, I Love Thee, The Silent World is Sleeping, Creole Lover's Song)
* ''Five Songs for Baritone'' (Where the Lindens Bloom, Bedouin Love Song, The Capture of Bacchus, The Gypsies, When Life Hath Sorrow Found)
* ''Five Songs for mezzo-soprano or baritone'' (In June, Love's Remorse, Alone!, Spring's Awakening, Crossing the Bar)
* "Evening Song", Op. 76
* "Twilight"
* "Boots and Saddles (A Soldier's Farewell)"
* "Falstaff's Song"
* "There's a Merry Brown Thrush"
* "The Tempest" (dramatic poem)
* "Where Did You Come From, Baby Dear?"
* "Why Love Is King"

Operas:

* ''Serâpis'', unperformed grand opera
* ''Deseret'' (1880, comic opera, survives only in fragments)

Orchestral:

* ''Marmion'', symphonic overture
* a symphony in E-flat

Organ:

* an organ symphony, said to be the first American organ symphony
* ''Grand Sonata'' in E-flat for organ
* ''Variations and Fugue on the "Star-Spangled Banner''

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{Cite book|editor-last=Orr|editor-first=N. Lee|author=Dudley Buck|title=American Victorian Choral Music|series=Music of the United States of America (MUSA)|volume=14|location=Middleton, Wisconsin|publisher=A-R Editions| year=2005 | isbn=9780895795731 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TbKmOkedES4C|ref=none}}

==External links==
{{Archival records|title=Dudley Buck Papers|location=Music Division, [[Library of Congress]]|description_URL=https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu023017}}
*{{See LMST|Dudley|Buck}}
*{{IMSLP|id=Buck, Dudley|cname=Dudley Buck}}
*[https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/musa/publications/musa-14-dudley-buck Dudley Buck] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130901014447/https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/musa/publications/musa-14-dudley-buck |date=September 1, 2013 }} at Music of the United States of America (MUSA)
*{{ChoralWiki}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20050331084524/http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/composer.pl?comp=26 Art of the States: Dudley Buck]}}
*Sheet music for [http://purl.lib.ua.edu/5793 "Sunset"], New York: G. Schirmer, 1877, from the [http://purl.lib.ua.edu/18444 Alabama Sheet Music Collection]
*{{Gutenberg author | id=39063| name=Dudley Buck}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Dudley Buck |sopt=t}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|Classical music}}
{{Authority control|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buck, Dudley}}
[[Category:1839 births]]
[[Category:1909 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American classical composers]]
[[Category:19th-century American male musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century American male musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century American classical composers]]
[[Category:American classical organists]]
[[Category:American opera composers]]
[[Category:American Romantic composers]]
[[Category:American writers about music]]
[[Category:Cathedral organists]]
[[Category:American male opera composers]]
[[Category:Musicians from Hartford, Connecticut]]
[[Category:Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni]]
[[Category:American male classical organists]]
[[Category:19th-century American organists]]