Foote – A Night Piece

^{Arthur Foote (1853-1937)}

^{A Night Piece, for flute and strings (1918)}

^{Arthur Foote was a local musical figurehead in the late-19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Salem, MA in 1853, Foote came to be associated with a group of composers called the “Boston Six,” comprising himself, George Whitefield Chadwick, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, Horatio Parker, and Amy Beach. He remains one of the most highly regarded – if popularly neglected – American composers of his, or any, era, with a significant body of chamber music to his name.}

^{A Night Piece, for flute and strings, dates from 1918. It was originally the first movement of Foote’s Nocturne and Scherzo and revised for string orchestra in 1922. The piece is essentially a late Romantic fantasy with a French accent, alternating sections in which the flute leads and those for the strings alone. After its premiere, a critic wrote that A Night Piece sounded “fresh and spontaneous, plentiful in melody and colored with beauty.” So it still does.}

^{© Jonathan Blumhofer}

^{Reproduction Rights: This program note may be reproduced free of charge in concert programs with a credit to the author.}