Jane Van Etten

Jane Van Etten, sometimes credited under her married name, Jane Van Etten Andrews (1869 - April 17, 1950), was an American composer and singer, one of the first female composers in the United States to have an opera produced by a regular opera company.

Biography

Van Etten was a native of St. Paul, Minnesota; the daughter of Isaac Van Etten, a prominent local lawyer and politician, and Jane Oakes Van Etten. She was descended from the Van Etten family of New York.[1] She studied music and opera singing in New York City, Paris, and London. Among her teachers was Mathilde Marchesi.[2] Her stage debut came as Siébel in Faust at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1895.[3]

She returned to the United States to concertize. By 1901 her reputation was good enough that Benton Harbor's orchestra was advertising itself using Van Etten's name, despite no formal connection or performances.[4] In 1901 she married architect Alfred Burritt Andrews and settled in Evanston, Illinois.[2][5] After her wedding she gave up singing to concentrate on composition,[3] though she later worked as a teacher of voice in Chicago.[6] Her teachers of composition included Alexander von Fielitz and Bernhard Ziehn.[2]

She composed Guido Ferranti, a one-act opera to a libretto by Elsie M. Wilbor based on the play The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde.[3] It was premiered on December 29, 1914, in Chicago by the Century Opera Company at the Auditorium Theater. Hazel Eden was Beatrice and Worthe Faulkner Guido Ferranti; the opera was conducted by Agide Jacchia.[7] The piece received the Bispham Memorial Medal Award.[3] It was said that Van Etten had not studied orchestration, harmony or counterpoint prior to the composition of the opera.[8] The opera won great critical acclaim, but appears not to have been performed again after its premiere.[2] Its music has been described as "tuneful in the Puccini mode".[3]

Van Etten died in Florida in 1950. She is interred in her family plot in St. Paul's Oakland Cemetery.[9]

Two of her songs have been recorded.[10]

Selected Compositions

Songs

Opera
  • Guido Ferrant, libretto by Elsie M. Wilbor
  • The Spanish Gypsy[11]
  • Ghouls[12]

Choral
  • Behold, the Master Passeth By, offertory hymn, words by W. W. How[13]
  • Nymph's Reply to the Passionate Shepherd, words by Walter Raleigh[14]
  • Lord be Gracious Unto Us[14]

Instrumental
  • Moods, for violin & piano[14]

References
  1. "Alfred Burritt Andrews b. 26 Nov 1871 Chicago, Cook Co., Illinois d. Unknown: Stedman Family Genealogies". Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  2. Christine Ammer (2001). Unsung: A History of Women in American Music. Amadeus. pp. 193–. ISBN 978-1-57467-061-5.
  3. Ken Wlaschin (2006). Encyclopedia of American Opera. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-2109-1.
  4. "MUSICAL ECHOES". Fine Arts Journal. 12 (1): 42–47. 1901. ISSN 2151-2760. JSTOR 42004912.
  5. Waterman, Arba Nelson (1908). Historical Review of Chicago and Cook County and Selected Biography. Lewis publishing Company. p. 881.
  6. Dexter Smith; Lorin Fuller Deland; Thomas Tapper; Philip Hale (1901). Musical Record and Review. O.Ditson & Company. pp. 1–.
  7. Margaret Ross Griffel; Adrienne Fried Block (1999). Operas in English: A Dictionary. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-25310-2.
  8. Viola Vaille (Barnes). Campbell (1914). The Musical Monitor. Mrs. David Allen Campbell, Publisher. pp. 169–.
  9. "Oakland Interment Search". oaklandcemeterymn.com. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  10. "Albany Records: Songs From The Heart". Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  11. The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights and Trade Marks. Patent Office. 1906. p. 1443.
  12. Office, Library of Congress Copyright (1935). Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [C] Group 3. Dramatic Composition and Motion Pictures. New Series. p. 6691.
  13. Office, Library of Congress Copyright (1951). Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series. p. 232.
  14. Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical compositions. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1945.


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