Arthur Fickenscher

Who was Arthur Fickenscher?

Arthur Fickenscher was an American composer and academic. The first head of the music department of the University of Virginia, he is credited with being an early 20th-century pioneer of microtonal music.

Fickenscher studied music in Munich under Joseph Rheinberger and lived then as a teacher in Oakland, California, and Charlottesville, Virginia. From 1911 to 1914, he was a vocal teacher in Berlin. From 1920 until 1941 he was the first head of the music department at the University of Virginia. From about 1923 to 1933 he was the conductor of the Virginia Glee Club, a male choral ensemble at the University of Virginia.

He composed a Mimodrama, orchestral variations in the medieval style, a Dies Irae, visions for voice and orchestra, church works, a piano quintet, and various songs. His first major work, Visions for dramatic soprano and orchestra, received its premiere at the Royal Conservatory in Berlin in 1913 to acclaim from the New York Times.