Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin (1862 - 1901)

Born 25 Nov 1862 in Edgeworth, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Anne Wheeler (Paul) Nevin — married 5 Jan 1888 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States

Died 17 Feb 1901 at age 38 in New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States

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Biography

Ethelbert Nevin is Notable.

Ethelbert was a major American composer in the late 19th Century and achieved wide-spread popularity during his lifetime.

Ethelbert was born 25 November 1862 in Edgeworth, near Sewickley, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Robert Nevin and Elizabeth Oliphant.^[1][2]

He showed aptitude for music at an early age, which was encouraged by his parents and his music teachers. He published his first composition at the age of 12. He attended Western University, but left after his freshman year. During the years 1882-1883 he studied piano with B. J. Lang and composition with Stephen A. Emery in Boston. The next two years were spent in Berlin, where he studied piano with Karl Klindworth and theory with Otto Tiersch. At the end of 1886, he debuted in Pittsburgh with a professional piano recital that was enthusiastically received.^[3]

He was widely traveled, especially in Europe, although he also spent time in Algiers, and wherever his travels took him, he continued composing music. Many of his songs became favorites for audiences around the world and particularly in the United States, including "Narcissus", "The Rosary", and "Mighty Lak' a Rose". He also wrote a piano setting for Eugene Field's poem, "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod".

He was married to Anne Paul 5 January 1888 in Pittsburgh.^[4] They were the parents of two children: Ethelbert Paul^[5] and Dorothy Anne "Doris". ^[6]

After spending several years abroad with his family, he returned to the United States. Five weeks after he began a new partnership associated with Yale University, he died unexpectedly 11 February 1901 in New Haven, Connecticut at the age of 38 and is buried in Seaside Cemetery, in Blue Hill, Hancock County, Maine where the family's summer home was. ^[7]

In 1940, he was one of five American composers honored by the United States Post Office Department on postage stamps. ^[8]

Obituary from Kansas City Star: ^[9]

Ethelbert Nevin Is Dead Heart Disease Ended the Life of the Young Composer "O That We Two Were Maying" Brought Early Fame-- A Musician Who Held Fast Both the People and the Critics

"New Haven, Conn., Feb. 18--Ethelbert Nevin, musician, died suddenly here yesterday of heart disease. Mr. Nevin came to New Haven about five weeks ago to be associated with Prof. Parker of the Yale University in his musical work. He seemed in perfect health until Friday. He leaves a widow and two children."

"Among American composers of songs and pianoforte pieces in the smaller forms Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin stood almost in a class by himself. His genius was essentially poetic and in complete accord with the bright and beautiful things of life. Blithe, happy and with an instinctive love for light rather than shadow, his fancy turned to the free, the gay and the less strenuous emotions. He was a sort of musical Watteau, Limiting his subjects to the more artificial phases of existence, yet informing his work, with the exquisite art and the truest sincerity. "

"Nevin's career is an unusual demonstration that the art life of a musician can be harmonized with the laws and tenets of the everyday world around him. He was born in Vineacre, Pa., a small town thirteen miles from Pittsburg, on November 25, 1862, of musical parents. He showed the usual precocity of musicians, strumming tunes when he was four years of age. His father and several of his brothers are now important factors in Pittsburg newspaper work. In 1877, young Nevin went abroad with his family, and while in Dresden he studied singing and the piano under Von Boehme. Next the boy went to Rome, where he stayed a year, his musical efforts consisting chiefly as singing as a choir boy in the American church, St. Paul's Within the Walls, of which his cousin, the Rev. Dr. J. J. Nevin was rector. One of his salient memories regarding this period was that he was blessed by the pope, and that very soon thereafter he lost his voice. However, he does not attempt to connect the two events."

"In March 1896, MR. Nevin went to Italy with his little family, consisting of his wife, son and daughter, and buried himself, for months at a time, in a little village in the Appenines, where hardly an American had been before. There, with an old barn fitted up as a music shop as he is fond of calling it, and with the aid of a grand piano which he brought all the way from Florence, Mr. Nevin worked at composition. His life there must have been idyllic and he no doubt found the quiet and the solitude which he craved. Occasional visits to Florence provided the only outside excitements for him and his little flock. After a year and half of this existence, he went to Paris once more, where he passed a year."

Not to be missed is a wonderful essay about Nevin written by Willa Sibert Cather, "The Man Who Wrote 'Narcissus,' which appeared in the November 1900 The Ladies' Home Journal, which can be found here.

In 1913, a biography was written "The Life of Ethelbert Nevin: From His Letters and His Wife's Memories," by Vance Thompson, that provides a wealth of information about Ethelbert and his family, which can be found here.

Wikipedia has a fine article on Nevin, which can be found here.

The biography on All Music, features a concentration on Nevin's music, which can be found here.

There's a piano interpretation of Nevin's composition "Rosary," that's quite good, which can be found here.

Pittsburgh Musical History, online, has a wonderful article about Nevin's life and work, which can be found here.

Brittanica's biography can be found here.

Explore Pennsylvania History also has an interesting article, which can be found here.

Song Hall has an article, which can be found here.

For a list of works by Nevin, please visit this website here.

Sources

1. ↑ "Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin was born at eight o'clock in the evening, November 25th, 1862, at 'Vineacre,' his father's country place near Pittsburgh." The Life of Ethelbert Nevin: From His Letters and His Wife's Memories, By Vance Thompson, 1913, page 5.
2. ↑ U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925.
3. ↑ Guide to the Ethelbert Nevin Collection, 1834-1980 CAM.NEV.1987.01 ULS Center for American Music.
4. ↑ "Pennsylvania, County Marriages, 1885-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VF9N-4PR : 12 November 2019), Ethelbert W. Nevin and Anna Paul, 05 Jan 1888; citing Marriage, , Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States, multiple County Clerks, Pennsylvania.
5. ↑ "Massachusetts Births, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FX68-BY1 : 11 March 2018), Ethelbert Nevin in entry for Ethelbert P. Nevin, 05 Dec 1888, Quincy, Massachusetts; citing reference ID #385, Massachusetts Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 1,428,241.
6. ↑ Berlin, Germany, Births, 1874-1906.
7. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (accessed 12 June 2019), memorial page for Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin (25 Nov 1862–17 Feb 1901), Find A Grave: Memorial #27184935, citing Seaside Cemetery, Blue Hill, Hancock County, Maine, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave Gravestone picture and Biography for Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin.
8. ↑ 10-cent Nevin stamp, 1940. Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
9. ↑ Ethelbert Nevin is Dead. Heart Disease Ended the Life of the Young Composer. Kansas City Star, Monday, Feb 18, 1901, Kansas City, MO, Vol: 21, Issue: 154, Page: 10

See Also:

• "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZL7-91B : 12 April 2016), Bertha Nevin in household of Robt P Nevin, Pennsylvania, United States; citing p. 14, family 92, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 552,791.

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MW6F-Z2N : 16 July 2017), Burt W Nevin in household of Robt P Nevin, Leet, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district ED 85, sheet 254D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 1091; FHL microfilm 1,255,091.

• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3M7-JLQ : accessed 3 April 2018), Ethlebert W Nevin in household of Robert P Nevin, Leet Township (excl. Sweickly Borough), Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 412, sheet 14A, family 282, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,368.

• "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5B-M4JN : 16 March 2018), Ethelbert Nevin in entry for Anne Paul Nevin, 1920; citing Passport Application, New York, United States, source certificate #115864, Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925, 1425, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5Y-D12Q : 16 March 2018), Ethelbert Nevin in entry for Anne Paul Nevin, 1923; citing Passport Application, New York, United States, source certificate #349540, Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925, 2384, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).