Busch, Carl

1862

Contemporary composer and conductor. A Dane by birth, but a naturalized citizen of the United States. He has attracted wide attention in the world of music as a composer who has drawn inspiration from the music of the native Indians, having developed from their melodies compositions of much interest, songs, dances, choruses, orchestral suites and a cantata. A recent work is the cantata, The Four Winds. Another work in this line is the Indian suite, Echoes of the Indians, which consists of five movements: Greeting of Hiawatha, Chibiabos, Funeral Procession of the Omahas, Indian Love-Song, fantasia, variations and fugue over an original Indian air.

Carl Busch was born at Bjerre, Jutland, Denmark, studied law at the University of Copenhagen and spent three years at the Copenhagen Conservatory, studying violin under Torte and theory and composition with Hartmann and Niels Gade. He then came to the United States and became a member of the Philharmonic Orchestra. Later returning to Europe he studied under Godard in Paris. When he came back to America he settled in Kansas City, Missouri, and has continued to make that place his residence. He organized the great festivals held in Convention Hail there and is actively engaged in conducting orchestras and choral societies. He has conducted orchestral concerts of his own works in Leipsic, Dresden and Copenhagen, has conducted his own works with the Anton Seidl Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Theodore Thomas Orchestra, and St. Louis World's Fair Orchestra. In addition to the works spoken of, his compositions include a number of songs and choruses; the cantatas, The League of the Alps, The Lady of Shalott, The Voice of Spring and King Olaf's War Horns; Elegy for stringed orchestra; and Orchestral Prologue to Tennyson's Passing of Arthur.