John Knowles Paine

Synopsis

American composer and organist

• 1839 born in Portland, Maine to a family of musicians.
• 1850's took lessons in organ and composition from Hermann Kotzschmar.
• 1855 completed his first composition, a string quartet.
• 1857 gave his first solo organ recital, and was appointed organist of Portland's Haydn Society, where he gave a series of concerts.
• 1858-61 traveled to Berlin, where he studied organ with Karl-August Haupt and composition with Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht. He travelled and concertized in Europe as well.
• 1861 returned to Boston, where he gave a series of organ recitals and public lectures on musical style, forms, and history.
• 1866-67 travelled again in Germany.
• 1873-1905 became a music professor at Harvard University, where he helped form the core curriculum for Harvard's new music department. He was the first music professor in America.
• He was a charter member of the American Guild of Organists.
• 1906 died in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Paine was heavily influenced by the German music world. His teachers were all German, and he was much affected by the revival of the music of Bach which was occurring in Berlin while he was there. He was also influenced by Schumann and Mendelssohn. Corliss Arnold specifically mentions his Concert Variations on the Austrian Hymn, composed in 1860, as being noteworthy. His Variations on The Star Spangled Banner and on Ein feste Burg are also popular.

A valentine to George Henschel, conductor of the Boston Orchestra, in 1883:

Oh, Henschel, cease thy higher flight!

And give the public something light;

Let no more Wagner themes thy bill enhance

And give the native workers just one chance.

Don’t give the Dvořák symphony again;

If you would give us joy, oh give us Paine!

Paine, John Knowles

For details, see the Wikipedia article on John Knowles Paine.

List of Organ Works

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Opus	Title	Year
Op. 1 no. 2	Prelude and Fugue in G minor	1859
Op. ??	Prelude in C minor	year
Op. 2 no. 1	Fantasia and Fugue	1860
Op. 2 no. 2	Doppel Fue über Heil dir im Siebeskranz	1860
Op. 2	Concert Variations on Old Hundred	1861
Op. 3	Concert Variations on the Austrian Hymn	1860
Op. 4	Concert Variations on The Star Spangled Banner	1861
Op. 17	Andante con Variazioni	1863
Op. 13	Fantasie über Ein feste Burg	1869
Op. 19	Deux Preludes	1892
Op. ??	Presto	year

Background and General Perspectives on Performing These Organ Works

According to Oxford Music Online, "Paine modeled his early works upon the style of the masters he had studied, especially Bach and the Viennese classicists...Then, in a desire to align himself with musical progress (even after having written scathingly against the corruption of chromaticism), Paine altered his musical style by infusing it with greater chromatic activity, although never losing the strength and vigor of his individual style."

Registration and Organs

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See the footnote in the "Notes" section at the bottom of the page

Fingering and Pedaling

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Articulation and Phrasing

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Ornamentation

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Tempo and Meter

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Scores and Editions

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Recordings

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Free Online

Concert Variations on the Austrian Hymn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9rY_05GjVI

Variations on Ein feste Burg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpFzVPmM_QU

Fugue on The Star Spangled Banner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIlVNC5Vg_Q

Pay to Listen

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Other Resources

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Notes

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