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Scan 391
Biographical dictionary of musicians, 1940
8 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. Printed page 371. See the scan on archive.org.
1several of the larger cities, again meeting with enthusiastic receptions. 1910–14, he lived in Munich as cond. of the 'Konzertverein'. On Oct. 6, 1909, he married the contralto Clara Clemens (daughter of Mark Twain), with whom he frequently appeared in joint recitals; came to the U. S. again in 1914; cond. orch. concerts in New York in 1917, and was appointed conductor of the Detroit Symph. Orch. in 1918. In 1928 and the following years he also conducted the Phila. Symph. Orch., sharing the baton with Leopold Stokowski, but still retaining his Detroit position; made many very successful tours of the U. S. as pianist and conductor.—Cf. Clara Clemens, My Husband G. (N. Y., 1938).
3Ga'de [gah'dě], Niels Wilhelm, b. Copenhagen, Feb. 22, 1817; d. there, Dec. 21, 1890. The founder of the modern Scandinavian school of music; was the only child of a joiner and instrument-maker. His bent for music was strengthened by early instruction on the violin, and frequent attendance at the theater; so that when, in his fifteenth year, he was sent to learn his father's trade, he bore it only half a year, then declaring that he would be nothing but a musician. He was now taught by Wexschall, then leader of the court orch., of which G. became a member, and at the age of 16 was able to appear as a concert-violinist; he also received instruction in theory from the organist Berggreen, and eagerly studied the works of the classics and of the new romantic school. From 1834–39, he felt himself drawn more and more to composition; most products of this period, however, were left in MS. In 1840 his overture Nachklänge von Ossian attracted general attention; it took the 1st prize at the competition instituted by the Copenhagen Music Soc. in 1841, and won for the young composer a royal stipend for the further prosecution of his studies. In 1842 the C m. symphony appeared; its performance by Mendelssohn (together with the Nachklänge) at a Gewandhaus concert insured Gade a favorable reception in Leipzig, whither he went in 1843, and where he remained, after a brief sojourn in Italy, from 1844–8. An intimate of Schumann and Mendelssohn, his genius rapidly expanded in a congenial atmosphere; he repeatedly conducted the Gewandhaus concerts in Mendelssohn's absence, and succeeded him as a regular cond. at his death (Nov. 4, 1847); but on the outbreak of the Schleswig-Holstein war, in the spring of 1848, he returned to Copenhagen, where he thenceforward remained, except for a short visit to Birmingham, in 1876, to conduct his cantatas Zion and The Crusaders. At Copenhagen he assumed the conductorship of the Mus. Soc., and also a post as org.; in 1861 he succeeded Gläser as court conductor. An industrious composer, the foremost among the northern romanticists, and unsurpassed as a conductor, he wielded a commanding and highly beneficial influence over musical affairs in and far beyond the Danish capital. The title of Prof. was conferred on him by the King, and that of Dr. phil. (hon. c.) by the Univ. of C.; in 1886 he was made a Commander in the Order of Danebrog. In 1876 the Danish government voted him a life-pension. Despite more or less individual comparisons with Mendelssohn and Schumann, Gade's style has originality of poetic conception, though it has been left to later composers to bring out in stronger relief the specific traits of Scandinavian folk-music; and he was a master of the art of instrumentation.—Cf. Autobiographic Aufzeichnungen und Briefe, ed. by Dagmar Gade (German transl. Basel, 1893); C. Rubner, N. W. G. In Remembrance of the Centenary of His Birth, in the 'Mus. Quart.' (Jan., 1917); Ch. Kjerulf, N. W. G. (1917); Wm. Behrend, G. (1917); id., Minder om G. (1930).—For list of works see previous ed. of Baker's 'Dict.'
5Gadsby, Henry Robert, b. Hackney, London, Dec. 15, 1842; d. Putney, Nov. 11, 1907. Chorister at St. Paul's 1849–58; pupil of Wm. Bayley, but chiefly self-taught. Org. at St. Peter's, Brockley; in 1884 he succeeded Hullah as prof. of harm. at Queen's College, London; was prof. at the Guildhall S. of M. from its foundation (1880) till his death.
7Gad'ski, Johanna (Emilia Agnes), soprano; b. Anclam, Pomerania, June 15, 1872; d. Berlin, Feb. 22, 1932. Trained from her eighth year by Frau Schroeder-Chaloupka at Stettin. Début at Kroll's Th., Berlin, in May 1889, as Undine in Lortzing's opera; sang during the summers of 1889–93 at Kroll's, winter of 1890 in Mayence, of '91 in Stettin, of '92 in Bremen, and of '93–'94 in Berlin; concert-tours in Holland, 1894. On March 1, 1895, she made her Amer. début as Elsa with the Damrosch Opera Co., winning instant favor; during the next three seasons she continued there, singing Senta, Elizabeth, Eva, Sieglinde, and creating the rôle of Hester Prynne in Damrosch's The Scarlet Letter (1896); from 1898–1904 she was a member of the M. O. H., and became one of the prime favorites through her superb interpretation of Brünnhilde and Isolde; 1899–1901, was also at Cov. Garden.; 1899, sang Eva at Bayreuth; from 1904–6 she made two transcontinental tours of the U. S., singing with orch. and establishing her reputation as a great lieder-singer; after the Munich Mozart and Wagner festivals of 1905, '06, the Prince-Regent Luitpold decorated her with the Order of King Ludwig for Art and Science; in 1907 she returned to the M. O. H., where she sang every
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