Arthur Whiting

Arthur Whiting was an almost exact contemporary of three eminent American composers—McDowell, Parker, and Loeffler. Hadow, the English musical critic, once wrote of him that he “has written far too little” and that, “perhaps more than any of them, he possesses the feeling for a true American art.” Beginning as he did, after study of music in Germany, Whiting for years served as organist in large New England churches. But chamber music interested him more. He published musical compositions of his own, instrumental or vocal, and for thirty years gave up his time to arranging chamber-music concerts at Harvard, Yale, Princeton and other colleges. His primary purpose always was to develop in the younger generation a taste for good music. Whiting’s serious face and friendly manner were familiar to the Century. He organized or participated in many of the Club’s instrumental concerts. Possibly the most familiar reminiscent picture of him, to his fellow-clubmen, will be of the occasion when, wearing the costume of Mozart’s day, which somehow seemed to be his natural dress, he varied the proceedings of a Twelfth Night celebration at the harpsichord.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1937 Century Association Yearbook