Mary Elizabeth Turner Salter

Mary Elizabeth Turner Salter
ca. 1919
Born(1856-03-15)March 15, 1856
Peoria, Illinois
DiedSeptember 12, 1938(1938-09-12) (aged 82)
Orangeburg, New York

Mary Elizabeth Turner Salter (15 March 1856[1] – 12 September 1938[2]) was an American soprano and composer.

Life

Early life and education

Mary Elizabeth Turner was born in Peoria, Illinois, the daughter of Jonathan and Mary E. Hinds Turner, who had just moved to the midwest from Maine.[3] After her birth, the Turners moved to Oquwakwa. Turner learned music from both of her parents, who were musically inclined, but it was her mother who gave her initial piano lessons.[3] Turner graduated from Burlington High School in Burlington, Iowa and took voice lessons with Alfred Arthur. She gave her first public performance in 1870 when she was fourteen years old by singing the "Inflammatus" from Giachino Rossini's Stabat Mater in Burlington. Turner then moved to New York City, where she began lessons with Gustav Schilling before moving once again, this time to Boston. She enrolled at the New England Conservatory to study voice with John O'Neill and Lillian Nordica.[3] She also studied with compsoer Hermine Küchenmeister-Rudersdorf.[4]

Career

List of Songs and Ballads by Mary Turner Salter, 1906

Turner worked as a voice teacher at Wellesley College and performed in churches in Boston. In 1881, she married Sumner Salter. She was one of the founding members of the American Society of Women Composers.[5] Turner Salter was also a member of the League of American Pen Women alongside such composers as Amy Beach, Gena Branscombe, and Phyllis Fergus.[6]

Reception and legacy

A 1907 review of tenor John Braun's recital in The New York Times described three of her songs as showing "cleverness and brilliancy."[7][8] A 1930 issue of The Musical Courier noted that Turner Salter was "frequently called one of the foremost song composers of America."[4] Her music was described by D.A. Clippinger, singer and author from Chicago, as being of the highest quality, stating,

I often wondered what manner of person it was that had this peculiar gift for vocal writing, who could write songs without dreary spots in them, with no padding, with no evidence that inspiration had run low and mere intellect was at work; songs that had unity and a due sense of proportion, that were a combination of a lovely poem and a fine melody, with just enough accompaniment but never overloaded. One day I discovered the secret—the writer of these songs was a singer.[4]

Turner Salter died in Orangeburg, New York in 1938.

Works

Turner wrote about 130 songs. Selected works include:

  • The Cry of Rachel
  • Song of April
  • A Der Schmetterling (from Three German Songs) (Text: Heinrich Heine)
  • Love's Epitome (a cycle of five songs)
  • Foreign Lands (text: Robert Louis Stevenson)
  • Life (from Five Songs) (Text: Paul Laurence Dunbar)
  • The High Song (text: Humbert Wolfe)
  • Wandrers Nachtlied (text: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)[9]

References

  1. ↑ Marquis, Albert Nelson (1938). Who's who in New England, 2nd Edition. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
  2. ↑ Etnier Villamil, Victoria (2004). A Singer's Guide to the American Art Song: 1870-1980. Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 333. ISBN 9781461655992.
  3. 1 2 3 Women composers: Music through the ages. Edited by Sylvia Glickman and Martha Furman Schleifer. Detroit; London: G.K. Hall. 1996. ISBN 978-0-8161-0926-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. 1 2 3 "Mary Turner Salter: Singer - Composer - Teacher". The Musical Courier. 100 (9): 37. March 1, 1930 – via Archive.org.
  5. ↑ Block, Adrienne Fried (1998). Amy Beach, passionate Victorian: the life and work of an American composer. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507408-4. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
  6. ↑ "Goldman Concerts in Central Park A Free Gift to New York City". The New York Times. 1924-06-01. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-24.
  7. ↑ Times, Special to The New York (1907-02-26). "THEATRE MANAGERS ACCUSED BY SAXE; Senator Says They Share the Profits of the Ticket Speculators. BILLS TO STOP TRAFFIC Would Make It a Misdemeanor to Advance Prices -- Senator Made a Victim". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-24.
  8. ↑ "John Braun's Song Recital". The Musical Courier. 54 (9): 28. February 27, 1907 – via Archive.org.
  9. ↑ "Composer: Mary Elizabeth Turner Salter (1856-1938)". Retrieved 16 October 2010.
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