Celius Dougherty

Some of Celius Dougherty's most popular songs are folk song and sea shanty arrangements. "I love poetry. I love what poetry suggests to me in the way of music. The first thing that I wrote was a song. When I was ten years old, I wrote a song." ~ Celius Dougherty

Photo: Celius Dougherty, http://www.celiusdougherty.org

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About

Born in Glennwood, Minnesota, Celius Dougherty studied first at the University of Minnesota and then at The Juilliard School. While studying in New York, a city which he would call his home for more than fifty years, Dougherty made the acquaintance of many singers and became an accomplished recital accompanist. Upon finishing his studies, Dougherty toured the country performing with some of the most popular opera and classical singers of the era, including Alexander Kipnis, Eva Gauthier, Nina Kochetz, Igor Gorin, Florance Easton, Richard Crooks, Edward Johnson, Grete Stuckgold and, from 1927-46, Povla Frijsh.

In 1939, Dougherty formed a piano duo with Vincenz Ruzicka, and the two toured America (and also performed in Vienna). They made their name premieres of avant-garde works for two pianos, such as: Hindemith’s Sonata for Two Pianos, Stravinsky’s Sonata for Two Pianos, Berg’s Suite from Lulu Schoenberg’s Variations on a Recitative.

While Dougherty wrote several instrumental and choral pieces, he is best known for his approximately 200 songs. Most notably, William Warfield recorded Dougherty’s Sea Chanties with Aaron Copland.

Sources of inspiration for Dougherty’s songs include American poets, like Walt Whitman, e. e. Cummings, Amy Lowell, and Robert Frost as well as essays by children, Chinese poetry, the dictionary, newspapers, spirituals, and, especially, folksongs.

–Christie Finn

Source: http://www.celiusdougherty.org

Related Information

Songs

Videos

Recordings

Joyce & Tony: Live at Wigmore Hall

(William Bolcom, Celius Dougherty and Stephen Foster)

2015

stopping by

(Mark Abel, Samuel Barber, Amy Marcy Beach, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Wakefield Cadman, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Celius Dougherty, John Woods Duke, Stephen Foster, Charles Griffes and Ned Rorem)

2013

Echoes of Nightingales

(Leonard Bernstein, John Alden Carpenter, Celius Dougherty and James H. Rogers)

2009

Dwell in Possibility: Dickinson in Song

(Ernst Bacon, Aaron Copland, Celius Dougherty, John Woods Duke, Lee Hoiby, Richard Hundley, Jake Heggie, Lori Laitman, Libby Larsen, Etta Parker, Simon Sargon, Leo Smit and Richard Pearson Thomas)

2004

The Art of Theodor Uppman

(Katherine Kennicott Davis, Celius Dougherty, Stephen Foster, Richard Hageman and Kurt Weill)

2000

Paul Sperry Sings an American Sampler

(Samuel Barber, Robert Beaser, William Bolcom, William Billings, Elliott Carter, Celius Dougherty, John Woods Duke, Stephen Foster, Charles Griffes, John Musto, Ned Rorem, May Swenson, Louise Talma, Hugo Weisgall and Kurt Weill)

1995

Where the Music Comes From

(Lee Hoiby, Celius Dougherty, Ned Rorem, Henry T. Burleigh, Samuel Barber, Arthur Farwell and Charles Griffes)

1991

Sheet Music

28 Songs by American and British Composers

Composer(s): John Duke

Song(s): Barber: Must the Winter Come so Soon?
Bernstein: Two Love Songs (Extinguish My Eyes, When My Soul Touches Yours)
Bowles: Heavenly Grass
Carpenter: When I Bring to You Colour'd Toys
Corigliano: Christmas at the Cloisters, The Unicorn
Dougherty: Sound the Flute!
Duke: Peggy Mitchell
Hoiby: An Immorality
Moore: The Dove Song (The Wings of the Dove)
Sargent: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Thomson: English Usage, The Tiger
Vaughan Williams: Hugh's Song of the Road
Wells: Everyone Sang

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Celius Dougherty Sheet Music

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Celius Dougherty Sheet Music

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Rio Grande (High Voice)

Composer(s): Celius Dougherty

Voice Type: High

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Rio Grande (Low Voice)

Composer(s): Celius Dougherty

Voice Type: Low

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Songs by 22 Americans

Composer(s): Samuel Barber
Leonard Bernstein
Paul Bowles
John Alden Carpenter
Celius Dougherty
John Duke
Charles Tomlinson Griffes
Richard Hageman
Charles Naginski
William Roy
Gladys Rich
Virgil Thomson
Elinor Remick Warren

Voice Type: High

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