Dudley Buck (March 10, 1839 – October 6, 1909) was an American composer, organist, and writer on music. He published several books, most notably the Dictionary of Musical Terms and Influence of the Organ in History, which was published in New York City in 1882.
He is best known today for his organ composition, Concert Variations on The Star-Spangled Banner, Op. 23, which was later arranged into an orchestral version.
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Buck was the son of a merchant who gave him every opportunity to cultivate his musical talents. After attending Trinity College (Connecticut) from 1855–1858, he studied in Leipzig at the Leipzig Conservatory where his teachers included Louis Plaidy, Moritz Hauptmann, Friedrich Schneider, and Ignaz Moscheles.[1] He then pursued further studies in Dresden (again with Schneider) and Paris. On returning to America he held positions of organist in Hartford's North Congregational Church, Chicago's St. James' Episcopal Church (1869), and Boston at the Music Hall Association and at New England Conservatory (1871).[2][1]
In 1875 Buck went to New York City for a prolonged and professionally fruitful period. He assisted Theodore Thomas as conductor of orchestral concerts, including the Central Park Garden Concerts. In 1877 he began a 25-year post as organist at Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. He founded the Apollo Club, an organization dedicated to promoting choral music in Brooklyn, likely molded after the Apollo Club founded in Boston in 1871.[3]
The U.S. Centennial commissioned a cantata from Buck and Sidney Lanier; it was performed at the exposition's opening day on May 10, 1876.[4] In 1898 Buck was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters.[1]
Towards the end of his tenure at Holy Trinity, new church leadership publicly expressed criticism with the church's music program. In 1901 it led to Buck announcing his resignation from Holy Trinity effective May 1902, whereupon he took the job of organist and choirmaster at Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn. This position lasted only a year, before Buck retired and spent the next few years with his wife in Germany.[4]
He returned to the United States in 1909, and died a few months later at his son's house in West Orange, New Jersey. His funeral was held at Grace Episcopal Church in Manhattan; his own compositions In Memoriam and Over the Treetops There Is Rest were sung by the Apollo Club. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in Montclair, New Jersey (the same burial site as other notable hymn composers Lowell Mason, Mary Artemisia Lathbury, and George Webb).[4][5]
Several memorials were held after his death, including one led by E. H. Joyce in October 1910 at Bridgeport's First Presbyterian Church,[6] and one led by John Hyatt Brewer (who had replaced Buck as conductor of the Apollo Club in 1903[4]) in January 1911 in Brooklyn's Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church.[3]
Buck also taught private music lessons throughout his career. Among his notable pupils were Charles Ives,[4] Paul Ambrose, C. B. Hawley, William Howland, Daniel Protheroe, Harry Rowe Shelley, James Francis Cooke, Charles Sanford Skilton, and W. H. Neidlinger.
Buck's published books include:
Buck was a prolific composer, in spite of having lost most of his manuscripts in St. James Episcopal Church's 1871 fire. His works include operas, cantatas, anthems, sacred songs, and organ works. Among them are:
Choral works:
Songs:[7]
Operas:
Orchestral:
Organ:
