George W. Chadwick and the nineteenth-century American Te Deum

Abstract

Often called the "Dean of American Composers," George W. Chadwick (1854-1931) was a prolific composer and influential educator. His orchestral, instrumental, vocal, and choral works were widely performed prior to World War I. More recently, his orchestral and instrumental works have enjoyed renewed interest. Among a wealth of his papers donated by his heirs in 2001 to the New England Conservatory, where he served as director for thirty years, were two unpublished Te Deum manuscripts; Te Deum laudamus dated 1874 and Te Deum in D circa. 1885. This discovery prompted a reexamination of Chadwick's sacred choral works, an area many scholars have neglected despite the quantity and quality of his contributions to the field. This study finds that the 1874 Te Deum is the earliest extant composition by Chadwick. The nineteenth-century American church Te Deum repertory is also unexplored territory. This study identifies 180 nineteenth-century American church Te Deums, examines over 100 in detail, and develops a list of style traits for these works in order to place Chadwick's Te Deums in their proper context. A group of four prominent New England composers and their church Te Deums receive particular attention; James Cutler Dunn Parker (1828-1916), Dudley Buck (1839-1909), Chadwick, and Horatio Parker (1863-1919). The examination of the lives and works of these men reveals that Chadwick's organ teacher in 1873, Dudley Buck, played a more significant role in Chadwick's early life as a composer than previously thought. In addition, the evidence indicates that Chadwick's unorthodox religious beliefs influenced his sacred choral output.