Biography
Chadwick belonged to the second school of American composers. He left high school without a diploma and displayed scant early talent for music, yet the premature loss of his mother instilled a fierce independence that propelled him along self-directed paths in both scholarship and composition. He trained at the New England Conservatory and later held a post as professor of music at Olivet College in Michigan. In 1877 he went abroad to Leipzig, Berlin, and Munich for further study in composition. After returning to the United States he was named director of the New England Conservatory, where he established a range of fresh curricular offerings. Chadwick sought to emancipate American music from the prevailing German conservatory manner. Some of his pieces adopted French models, while others drew on Negro melodies—one example being the Scherzo theme of Symphony no. 2 in Bb, identical to the melody later made famous in Dvořák’s New World Symphony. He likewise employed the rhythmic patterns of Anglo-American prosody and Afro-Caribbean dance syncopations. A realist by temperament, Chadwick became one of the most influential teachers in American music.