Paine, John Knowles

Related Category: Music: History, Composers, and Performers: Biographies

1839–1906, American composer, organist, and educator, b. Portland, Maine, studied in Berlin. In 1862 he began to teach music at Harvard and held (from 1875) the first chair of music in an American university. His compositions, romantic and programmatic in style, were received enthusiastically in his day, and he won fame abroad, both as organist and composer. His fame rests on his pioneering work in music education, however, and many of his pupils were among the prominent composers of the generation succeeding him.