Born in Salem in North America in 1853, Arthur William Foote became the first composer of importance in the United States to receive all his musical education in that country.

Yet it was almost by accident that he became a musician at all.

He had, since a child, been a good pianist, and also received tuition in composing, but was to enter college to study law.

In his summer vocation he met his old music tutor and worked on his piano and organ technique.

The outcome of those few weeks decided him on a career as a musician.

When he had concluded his education he visited the Bayreuth Festival, and fell under the spell of everything German, and all of his subsequent music was totally Germanic.

He married in 1880 and made a living teaching the piano and organ, together with his post as church organist in Boston.

It was not a vast output, just 80 pieces, but it qualified him as a composer of such eminence that he gained a post teaching at the New England Conservatoire.

As a mark of the estimation in which he was held, the Boston Symphony presented an 80th birthday concert for him.

He did compose for orchestra, but much of his major work was in the field of chamber music, for which he was a most gifted writer.

He was regarded as a traditionalist that broke no new ground, but was an excellent craftsman in all that he wrote.