Charles Wakefield Cadman (December 24, 1881 – December 30, 1946) was an Americancomposer. For 40 years, he worked closely withNelle Richmond Eberhart, who wrote most of the texts to his songs, includingFour American Indian Songs. She also wrote the librettos for his five operas, two of which were based on Indian themes. He composed in a wide variety of genres.
Cadman's musical education, unlike that of most of his American contemporaries, was completely American. Born inJohnstown, Pennsylvania, he began piano lessons at 13. Eventually, he went to nearbyPittsburgh where he studied harmony, theory, and orchestration withLuigi von Kunits andEmil Paur, then concertmaster and conductor, respectively, of thePittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. This was the sum of his formal training, although he has been said to have been a pupil ofAnna Priscilla Risher as well.[1]
By the age of eighteen, he was working as a clerk in a railroad office inHomestead, also in steel country. On the side, he continued writing music. In 1902 he met neighborNelle Richmond Eberhart and learned that she was interested in music.
They began to work together, she writing the text and he the music for their first piece, a hymn for which they were paid one and a half dollars. Their collaboration began, and it continued for 40 years.[2]
In 1908, Cadman was appointed as the music editor and critic of thePittsburgh Dispatch.[3] He was greatly influenced byAmerican Indian music, which he had been studying, especially through the work of ethnologistsAlice Fletcher andFrancis La Flesche. Fletcher and La Flesche had studied the Omaha Tribe and recorded their music and stories.[4]
Having published several articles on American Indian music, Cadman became regarded as one of the foremost experts on the subject. In 1908 he began touring to present lectures known as the "Indian Talk", or "Indian Music Tour", accompanied by the performance of Native American music and his own compositions.Tsianina Redfeather (Muscogee/Cherokee), billed as "Princess Redfeather", performed as a singer on some of his tours. Her signature song was Cadman's "From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water". Another such song was "At Dawning", which became widely known in the 1920s. Cadman toured both the US and Europe for 25 years to present this lecture.[4]
Cadman drew from Omaha andIroquois songs for hisFour American Indian Songs, Op. 45, which became his first commercial success in 1909. This was aided by performances of these songs by noted sopranoLillian Nordica, who was on a concert tour.[4] In the summer of 1909 he went toNebraska to study the music and traditional instruments of theOmaha andWinnebago tribes. He lived with the people on their reservations, learning to play their instruments.[4]
During his trip to the West, he metFrancis La Flesche, an Omaha ethnologist who was working with theSmithsonian Institution on studies of the Omaha andOsage peoples. Cadman assisted him in making recordings on wax cylinders of traditional songs.[4] These works are now held by theLibrary of Congress, and some 60 songs are available online.[5] Cadman drew from La Flesche's recordings, and he was also interested in his stories collected from these peoples.
They began work that year on an opera; Cadman had already started to pull melodies from three printed collections of Omaha andPawnee music published by ethnologistAlice Cunningham Fletcher, who also was with the Smithsonian. The songs were transcribed or harmonized by others.[4]
Cadman and Eberhart worked closely with La Flesche by mail, and he continued to provide Cadman with Omaha melodies for the opera. They were not permitted to use melodies which La Flesche had collected for an as yet unpublished report for the Smithsonian.[4] Together with librettistNelle Richmond Eberhart, Cadman and La Flesche worked together for about three more years to create an opera based on Omaha stories and music. Cadman made occasional Indian Music tours to raise money for the project. He moved to Denver in 1911.[4]
Cadman completed the music forDa O Ma (1912) and sought a venue for it, but it was never produced or published. It was rejected by the Boston Opera Company, the White-Smith Music Publishing Company, which had published numerous songs by Cadman; and the Metropolitan Opera.[4] In the course of their work, the team had changed the opera from an Omaha to Sioux (Lakota/Dakota) setting.[6][7] 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.[4]
In 1915 Cadman was named a national honorary member ofPhi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity.
Cadman and Eberhart began another project with La Flesche, but he withdrew because of differences. They collaborated withTsianina Redfeather Blackstone, a Muscogee/Cherokee singer who had performed with Cadman on tour. She provided much of the plot for the libretto ofThe Robin Woman (Shanewis), based on contemporary Native American issues. The opera was produced by theMetropolitan Opera of New York in 1918, and, unusually, was performed for two concurrent seasons.[6]
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,[8][9] and also sang it in Los Angeles in 1926.[10]
Some scholars believe that Cadman's involvement with the so-calledIndianist 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 toLos Angeles, California. He helped to found theHollywood Bowl Orchestra and often performed there as a solo pianist. His operaShanewis was performed there in 1926.[10]
He became involved with the film studios, writing the scores for several films. These includedThe Sky Hawk (1929),Captain of the Guard (1930), a musical set during the French Revolution;Women Everywhere, andHarmony at Home, allPre-code films. Along with Russian-AmericanDmitri Tiomkin, Cadman was considered one of Hollywood's top film composers of the period.[citation needed]
But Cadman first and foremost was a serious composer who wrote for nearly every genre. Hischamber music works are generally considered among his best. He introduced elements ofragtime music into the classical music format, anticipatingGershwin,Stravinsky, andMilhaud, among others. HisPiano Trio, Op. 56, composed in 1913, drew the critics' attention and praise for his innovations.
His operaThe Sunset Trail (1922) was part of the touring repertoire ofVladimir Rosing'sAmerican Opera Company.
ThePageant of Colorado, a historical pageant with music composed by Cadman to a libretto byLillian White Spencer, was produced inDenver, Colorado in May 1927. Dramatist and playwrightPercy Jewett Burrell, a fraternity colleague of Cadman, directed the production.
300 total songs, including:
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