Charles Wakefield Cadman: Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 56

Charles Wakefield Cadman

(1881 - 1946)

was an American composer. He composed in a wide variety of genres.

Cadman’s musical education, unlike that of most of his American contemporaries, was completely American.

 

Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 56  

I. Allegro maestoso 0:00
II. Andante cantabile 9:21
III. Vivace energico 18:35

The Rawlins Piano Trio

 

Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, he began piano lessons at 13. Eventually, he went to nearby Pittsburgh where he studied harmony, theory, and orchestration with Luigi von Kunits and Emil Paur, then concertmaster and conductor, respectively, of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. This was the sum of his formal training. By the age of eighteen, he was working as a clerk in a railroad office in Homestead. on the side, he continued writing music. In 1902 he met a neighbor, Nelle Richmond Eberhart, and learned that she was interested in music. She wrote the text and he the music for their first work together, a hymn for which they were paid one and a half dollars. Their collaboration began, and it continued for 40 years. Having published several articles on American Indian music, Cadman became regarded as one of the foremost experts on the subject. He drew from Omaha and Iroquois songs for his Four American Indian Songs, Op. 45, which became his first commercial success in 1909. This was aided by performances of these songs by noted soprano Lillian Nordica, who was on a concert tour. Cadman made occasional Indian Music Tours to raise money. He moved to Denver in 1911, and completed the music for an opera based on Omaha stories and melodies, Da O Ma (1912). He sought a venue for it, but it was never produced or published. In the course of work, he and his collaborators changed the opera from an Omaha to Sioux setting. Cadman did gain some distribution for this music: selections from the opera were published by White-Smith in 1917 as a piano suite, and by Boosey in 1920 as an orchestral suite. In 1915 Cadman was named a national honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity. Cadman and Eberhart began another project with La Flesche, but he withdrew because of differences. They collaborated with Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone, a Muscogee/Cherokee singer who had performed with Cadman on tour. She provided much of the plot for the libretto, based on contemporary Native American issues, for The Robin Woman (Shanewis). The opera was produced by the Metropolitan Opera of New York in 1918, and, unusually, was performed for two concurrent seasons. It was very popular in the 1920s, performed also in Denver and Los Angeles. Redfeather made her opera debut in the lead role in a 1924 performance in Denver, and also sang it in Los Angeles in 1926. Some scholars believe that Cadman's involvement with the so-called Indianist movement in American music resulted in some critics failing to judge his works on their own merits. While his and similar works were popular in the early 20th century, they have since fallen out of favor. In the 1920s, Cadman moved to Los Angeles, California. He helped to found the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and often performed there as a solo pianist. His opera Shanewis was performed there in 1926. He became involved with the film studios, writing the scores for several films. Along with Russian-American Dmitri Tiomkin, Cadman was considered one of Hollywood’s top film composers of the period. But Cadman first and foremost was a serious composer who wrote for nearly every genre. His chamber music works are generally considered among his best. He introduced elements of ragtime music into the classical music format, anticipating Gershwin, Stravinsky, and Milhaud, among others. His Piano Trio, Op. 56, composed in 1913, drew the critics' attention and praise for his innovations.