Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (30 October 1864 - 4 November 1953), born Elizabeth Penn Sprague, was an American pianist and patron of music, especially of chamber music. October 30 is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 57 days remaining. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. ...

Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge's father was a wealthy wholesale dealer in Chicago. She was musically talented and studied piano as well as composition. She married the physician Frederic Shurtleff Coolidge who died tragically from syphilis contracted from a patient during surgery, leaving her with their only child Albert. Soon after, her parents died as well. She inherited a considerable amount of money from her parents and decided to spend it on promotion of chamber music, a mission she continued to carry out until her death at the age of 90 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Due to his husband's profession, she also gave financial support to medical institutions. Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... Steinway Model D A piano is a keyboard instrument, widely used in western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment, and also as a convenient aid to composing and rehearsal. ... Cambridge City Hall Cambridge is a city in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. ...

Coolidge's financial resources were not unlimited but through force of personality and conviction she managed to raise the status of chamber music in the United States, where the major interest of composers had previously been in orchestral music, from curiosity to a seminal field of composition. Her devotion to music and generosity to musicians were spurred by her own experience as a performing musician: she appeared as a pianist up to her 80s, accompanying world-renowned instrumentalists.

Coolidge established the Berkshire String Quartet in 1916 and started the Berkshire Music Festival at South Mountain, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, two years later. Out of this grew the Berkshire Symphonic Festival at Tanglewood, which she also supported. In 1932 she established the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal for "eminent services to chamber music". Recipients of the medal include Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten and Roy Harris. The Sprague Memorial Hall at Yale University was also financed by Coolidge. Pittsfield is a city located in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. ... Frank Bridge (February 26, 1879 – January 10, 1941) was an English composer. ... Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh, OM (November 22, 1913 – December 4, 1976) was a British composer, conductor and pianist. ... Roy Ellsworth Harris (February 12, 1898 – October 1, 1979) was an American classical composer who wrote much music on American subjects and is perhaps best known for his . ... Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

Her most innovative and costly endeavour, however, was her partnership with the Library of Congress, resulting in the construction of the 500-seat Coolidge Auditorium, specifically intended for chamber music, in 1924. This was accompanied by the establishment of the Coolidge Foundation to organize concerts in that auditorium and to commission new chamber music from both European and American composers, as it continues to do today. Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ...

Coolidge had a reputation for promoting "difficult" modern music (though she declined to support one of the most modern of all composers, Charles Ives). But she never aimed at such a reputation and explained her preferences in music as follows: "My plea for modern music is not that we should like it, nor necessarily that we should even understand it, but that we should exhibit it as a significant human document." Though American herself, she had no national preferences, and in fact most of his commissions went to European composers. She didn't have any urge to specifically promote women composers, either. This photo from around 1913 shows Ives in his day job: he was the director of a successful insurance agency. ...

The most lasting memorial to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge's patronage of music are the compositions which she commissioned from practically every leading composer of the early 20th century. Among the best-known of those compositions are the following:

• Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 5
• Benjamin Britten: String Quartet No. 1
• Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring
• Francis Poulenc: Flute Sonata
• Sergei Prokofiev: String Quartet No. 1
• Maurice Ravel: Chansons madécasses
• Arnold Schoenberg: String Quartet No. 3, String Quartet No. 4
• Igor Stravinsky: Apollon musagète
• Anton Webern: String Quartet

The list of composers who benefited from Coolidge's support is impressive, including also Ernest Bloch, Alfredo Casella, George Enescu, Howard Hanson, Paul Hindemith, Bohuslav Martinu, Darius Milhaud, Ottorino Respighi, Rebecca Clarke, and Albert Roussel. Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a composer, pianist and collector of Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music. ... The String Quartet No. ... Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh, OM (November 22, 1913 – December 4, 1976) was a British composer, conductor and pianist. ... Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer of concert and film music. ... Appalachian Spring is a musical work by Aaron Copland writteen between 1943–44 as a ballet suite and a later orchestral suite. ... Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (January 7, 1899 - January 30, 1963) was a French composer. ... The Flute Sonata by Francois Poulenc, for flute and piano, is in three movements: Allegro malinconico Cantilena: Assez lent Presto giocoso Categories: Classical composition stubs | Compositions by Francis Poulenc | Sonatas ... Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Russian: , Sergej Sergejevič Prokofev, 15/April 271, 1891–March 5, 1953) was a Ukrainian-born Russian composer who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. ... Joseph-Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937) was a French composer and pianist, known especially for the subtlety, richness, and poignancy of his music and generally considered to be one of the major composers of the 20th century. ... Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1948 For the American music critic and journalist, see Harold Charles Schonberg. ... Igor Fyodorovitch Stravinsky (Russian: ) (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian-French-American composer of modern classical music. ... Anton Webern (December 3, 1883 – September 15, 1945) was an Austrian composer. ... The String Quartet by Anton Webern is written for the standard string quartet group of two violins, viola and cello. ... Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American Jewish composer. ... Alfredo Casella (Turin, July 25, 1883, Rome, March 5, 1947) was an Italian composer. ... George Enescu George Enescu (pronunciation in Romanian: ; known in France as Georges Enesco) (August 19, 1881, Liveni – May 4, 1955, Paris) was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher, preeminent musician of the 20th century, one of the greatest interpreters of his time. ... Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981) was a composer, conductor and educator from the United States of America. ... Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (November 16, 1895 – December 28, 1963) was a German composer, violist, teacher, theorist and conductor. ... Bohuslav Martinů  listen? (born in Polička, December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer. ... Darius Milhaud (September 4, 1892 – June 22, 1974) was a French-Jewish composer and teacher. ... Ottorino Respighi (born in Bologna on July 9, 1879, died in Rome on April 18, 1936) was an Italian composer and musicologist. ... Rebecca Clarke Rebecca Helferich Clarke (Friskin) (August 27, 1886–October 13, 1979) was an English classical composer and violist best known for her chamber music featuring the viola. ... Albert Roussel was a French composer. ...

External links

• The Coolidge Legacy by Prof. Cyrilla Barr