Wintter Watts symphony

[kolaboy]

I had thought him only a composer of songs, but apparently there's a symphony out there... somewhere...
According to Wikipedia:
"He won the Morris Loeb Prize in 1919 for his symphony Young Blood and the Prix de Rome in 1923."
And:
Incidental music for The Double Life (M. R. Rinehart), 1906
Alice in Wonderland, opera (R. B. Butler, after Lewis Carroll), 1920
Two Etchings for Orchestra, 1922
Bridal Overture
Pied Piper, opera
The Piper, symphonic poem, 1927

I wish some enterprising label would take these on - if any are still extant.

[edurban]

I'll admit that at first I thought this was an early April Fool's joke.  I mean Wintter with 2 't's?  Even my spell check doesn't buy it.  But I see that Wintter Haynes Watts was a real person whose mother's maiden name was Wintter, and that his songs graced many recital progammes in the 20s.  There's even a picture of him in Musical America (June, 1916) where he holds a baton, apparently having conducted his Bridal Overture at the first (and last?) San Jose, CA, May Festival:

https://books.google.com/books?id=D0w0AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA5-PA52&lpg=RA5-PA52&dq=wintter+watts+new+york+times&source=bl&ots=2Af6jPp72m&sig=QQXdh7rd-vFOdlQ7c3duYoBdX3Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TyoYVZTELYaigwTKooPIAw&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=wintter%20watts%20new%20york%20times&f=false

Incidently, after winning the American Prix de Rome, he seems to have been in residence at the same time as Randall Thomson, Howard Hanson and Leo Sowerby:

https://books.google.com/books?id=oHRFAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA6-PA46&lpg=RA6-PA46&dq=wintter+watts+brooklyn&source=bl&ots=Lfrw21e_Aw&sig=A_9cwIjSpi0Eg-TfsJvGK9AA4BA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9jQYVf6GDoqfggSSkYHQDA&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=wintter%20watts%20brooklyn&f=false


It's always puzzling when a composer vanishes from the record relatively early in his career...what was he up to between the early 30s and his death in Brooklyn in 1962, I wonder?  Perhaps he went back to architecture, the early focus of his life and training?  Anyway, his 200+ songs seem to have been his primary focus and a number were published.  Like Kolaboy, I hope more survives, although American Grove described his mss as "presumed lost"...

David

PS A google search shows a poster named/called Wintter Watts on a DIY site, a relative perhaps?

https://www.pinterest.com/WintterVictoria/diy-crafts/

[Alan Howe]

Here's the Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wintter_Watts

[edurban]

An item in the newspaper Brooklyn Life (Aug.11, 1923), describing WW's winning of the Prix de Rome  gives the following tidbits from his early life:  "...Watts had been living on Eastern Parkway, one of the hundreds who come to Brooklyn in a quiet way from other cities.  Mr. Watts came from Cincinnati and started off as an architect.  At the age of 21, he began writing light opera and incidental music for plays in New York.  Later he conducted a road company, spent a few months in vaudeville, and went to Florence, Italy to study singing.  Soon returning to New York,  he received a scholarship at the Institute of Musical Art [now the Juilliard School] and took up seriously the study of musical composition under Dr. Percy Goetchius.  He was graduated in 1914..."
     In addition to the compositions mentioned by Kolaboy, the article lists: "Vinegar Man" a dramatic ballad and "Minvier Cheevy" a ballad for Baritone and orchestra.

David

[kolaboy]

Thanks David; I'd never seen a photo of Mr. Watts before.