William Henry Fry: America’s Visionary Composer

The Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia, where William Henry Fry's first full-length opera, "Leonora," was performed. Public Domain

William Henry Fry (circa 1814–1864)  grew up in the wealthy home of the owner and publisher of Philadelphia’s “National Gazette.” He and his brothers received excellent educations and were introduced to the world of art early. Music proved to be Fry’s forte.

Fry learned the piano quickly, though he did so in a very nontraditional way. Instead of taking music lessons, he learned the piano while eavesdropping on his older brother’s lessons. His parents were enthusiastic about their prodigy and placed him under the tutelage of some of the city’s best teachers, including Leopold Meignen, who had graduated from the Paris Conservatory and also served as a conductor in Napoleon Bonaparte’s army.

By 14, Fry had composed his first overture. He then graduated from Mount St. Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

The First Opera

In 1833, Meignen established the Philadelphia Philharmonic Society and performed one of Fry’s pieces during its opening season. Fry continued writing music, but also began a career in musical criticism. In 1839, he joined his father’s newspaper as its music critic.

Fry possessed an appreciation and talent for all things music, like orchestral and choral writing; but his great passion was opera, specifically Grand Opera. The difference was that a Grand Opera is typically four or five acts long, includes a ballet scene, a chorus, a large orchestra, with an epic or historical subject matter. An opera, on the other hand, can be as short as one act.

On June 4, 1845, with a libretto written by his brother Joseph Reese Fry, William Fry’s Grand Opera, “Leonora,” was performed. Music scholars and historians consider it the first opera written by a native American to be performed in public.

Helena Lyons is "Pauline" in "The Lady of Lyons," in an 1898 sketch. William Henry Fry used the play as a basis for his opera, "Leonora." Public Domain

“Leonora,” based on the British play “The Lady of Lyons,” was performed in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street Theater under Meignen’s direction. It proved to be a great success with the Philadelphia audience and was performed for a dozen or so consecutive nights. It would later be performed in 1858 at the Academy of Arts in New York City.

To Europe and Back

The year after “Leonora” in 1846, Fry left for Europe where he remained for the next six years. While in Europe, he made his home in Paris but traveled extensively, attending numerous musical performances. He wrote extensively as a music critic for the New York Tribune and Philadelphia’s Public Ledger. His criticisms were read throughout the United States, and he garnered a large cultural following.

In 1852, Fry returned to the United States, and decided to live in New York City. The New York Tribune placed him on the editorial staff, a position he held the rest of his life. Not only did Fry return to America with plans to continue writing as a music critic and composer, but he formulated a plan to teach Americans the art of orchestral music. He had hardly stepped foot off his ship before he began his weekly lecture series in New York City’s Metropolitan Hall on Nov. 30.

These lectures proved so popular that purchasing tickets was difficult because they sold out so quickly. For Fry’s part, the lecture series was an expensive and costly proposition. Not only did he rent out the Hall, but he hired the best soloists and, at times, full orchestras to demonstrate his lessons, often music taken from his recent compositions. Fry ultimately lost around $4,000 (approximately $160,000 today) during the process.

Testing His Vision

Apparently, Fry believed the music literacy venture was worth it. His ultimate goal with the lectures and writing music criticisms was to teach Americans about the power and substance of music, and to establish an American model of classical music. His perspective was visionary, but it proved controversial among fellow music critics. In 1853, Fry would test his vision on the American music scene.

That year, he collaborated with Louis Antoine Jullien, a French composer and conductor who had moved to America. Jullien was a champion of Fry’s composition, and possibly never more so than on Christmas Eve, 1853.

Fry composed a one-movement, rather than a four-movement, symphony based on the lessons and theories he discussed in his lecture series. The symphony was called “Santa Claus“ (”Christmas Symphony") and it lasted nearly a half hour. In front of a capacity crowd at Metropolitan Hall, Jullien conducted the symphony to a very receptive audience. Critics, however, viewed the symphony in a different light.

‘The Musical Battle of the Century’

“Mr. Fry’s ‘Santa Claus’ we consider a good Christmas piece: but hardly a composition to be gravely criticised like an earnest work of Art,” wrote Richard Storrs Willis in “Musical World and Times.”

As noted by renowned pianist and music historian Vera Brodsky Lawrence, the criticisms instigated “the musical battle of the century.”

Fry debated the critics openly, defending his stance that musical unity could be attained with a single movement instead of the four movement structure. “The four movement business is mere matter of fashion, and fashion sanctifies any stupidity,” he wrote.

As a Romantic era composer, Fry did not wish to fully break from European, specifically German, classic structure, but he desperately wanted to establish an American voice within the genre. “If I thought the classic models perfect and unalterable, I would not write at all,” he wrote.

In these debates, arguments, and, at times, enduring subtle insults, published in several major newspapers, Fry asked the ultimate question that involved him personally, but more importantly, American composers both present and future: “How are Americans to win their way in composition unless their compositions are played?”

By all accounts, William Fry's primary motivations were increasing music literacy among Americans and establishing a distinctly American mode of musical style, especially in opera. Public Domain

Fry had written a plethora of works, from choral pieces to symphonies to operas. It may seem humorous that a piece called “Santa Claus” became one of his most culturally important. The name and subject, however, were chosen for those very cultural reasons. Over the previous decade, Santa Claus had become an American icon. The choice did not miss its mark.

As Laura Moore Pruett, professor of music at Merrimack College, wrote, “[‘Santa Claus’s’] premiere performance and the subsequent reviews opened the door to an unrestrained discussion on nationalism in American music. Fry’s own passionate views on musical Americanism generated his composition [which] is significant not only for its unique subject and circumstances but also for its far-reaching repercussions.”

Fry was never shy about his views on music, nor his talent. His courage and knowledge allowed him to make new, thought-provoking arguments on behalf of American music. William Treat Upton, Fry’s biographer, wrote, “There is no American composer of his time more vitally interesting to the student of our musical development here in the United States than Fry; one might even add: of our entire cultural development as well.”

Royal Scottish National Orchestra's 2001 audio CD.

Fry’s music witnessed a slight resurgence in his work in 2000 when Naxos Records, which specializes in recording classical music, recorded “Santa Claus“ (”Christmas Symphony"). The single-movement symphony that proved so controversial yet so culturally important was performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

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