David Bispham

David Bispham held a place in the world of music that was quite his own. For thirty years his strong personality and tireless energy had made him the important, usually the central, figure in all sorts of musical enterprise in this country. His voice was not of rare or unusual quality, but it was made the medium of such vigorous and well-controlled musical intelligence that his interpretations, whether of opera, song or melodrama, were interesting above those of all other American singers of his time. He never rested on his laurels, but was always seeking new fields of musical achievement. The first performance of many a vocal work must be credited to him, and in all that he undertook he spared no pains to present it adequately to his public. This pioneer spirit and the breath of his culture received at the time of his death the recognition which they deserved for their benefit to the art of singing. They tended to raise the standard of singers in all parts of this country, for he was a tireless traveler and penetrated first or last to every corner of the United States.

His private life must have brought him many disillusions, but he bore them with characteristic manliness. He was an interesting companion, humorous and responsive, a good and loyal friend and a man of profound feelings in all the relations of life. The musical public will remember him for his Beckmesser and his Kurvenal at the Metropolitan, but perhaps even more vividly—for such is the way of personal tradition—for his altogether thrilling “Danny Deever.” The Century, of which he was a member and a constant attendant during eighteen years, will recall him as a genial figure in a Saturday night group, where he shared with animation in the talk, not of music only but of all other topics of the day.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1922 Century Association Yearbook