Francis Boott (June 24, 1813 in Boston, Massachusetts – March 1, 1904 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American classical music composer of art songs and works for chorus.

Biography Boott was born of British parentage. He was educated at Samuel and Sarah Ripley's school in Waltham, where Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the tutors,Denise J. Dubé, "Who Knew? Ralph Waldo Emerson Lived in Waltham", Waltham Patch, March 14, 2011. Retrieved June 29, 2017. and at Round Hill School,Recollections of Francis Boott: For His Grandson F.B.D. (Boston, 1912), p. 7-18. followed by Harvard College from which he graduated in 1831. In the 1850s, following the death of his wife, Boott took his young daughter Elizabeth (Lizzie) (1846–88) to Florence, Italy, where he studied harmony with Luigi Picchianti.

Boott became an honorary professor at the Academy of Fine Arts. He was friends with others in the Anglophone community in Florence, including Henry and William James, the Brownings, Isa Blagden and Constance Fenimore Woolson. Francis Boott and his daughter Lizzie Boott lived at the Villa Castellani in the Bellosguardo heights. Lizzie became a painter, and married the painter Frank Duveneck, who went to live with her and her father in the villa. The novelist Henry James visited them there and used the villa as a model for Italian villas in his Roderick Hudson and The Portrait of a Lady.

In 1888 Boott returned to America,Upton, Art Song in America, p. 51 and continued to compose music.

He died on 1 March 1904 at the age of 90 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Boott bequeathed $10,000 to Harvard University as a prize fund for the best 4-part vocal work written by a Harvard student. In 1960 the amount was increased to $15,246 through capital gains. The prize continues to be awarded by the Harvard University Department of Music.Harvard University and New England Conservatory Five-year AB/MM Program in Music. fas.harvard.edu

Music

Boott's first six songs appeared in 1846 under the pen name of Telford; Upton described them as "quite undistinguished".Upton, p. 52 In 1857 eight songs were published, followed by many individual songs in the following years. Boott composed at least 140 songs during his long life, as well as a handful of duets, choral works, part-songs, and instrumental works. He also composed hymns for church services, many of which were included in the hymnal for King's Chapel in Boston.

While his melodies and piano accompaniments are considered "commonplace, with little harmonic interest",Upton, p. 53 his choices of texts were sophisticated, embracing the literary world of his time. In 1857 John Sullivan Dwight wrote that his songs are "not strikingly original, but graceful and facile, much to be preferred to the popular sweetish, sentimental type".Quoted in Upton, p. 53

Musical compositions Songs for voice and piano under the pseudonym Telford: Six Songs, 1846, G. P. Reed Publishing The Convict's Lullaby (Henry Kirke White); revised 1874, S. Brainard's Sons, publisher It is O'er (Mrs. Jameson) Lass of Northmaven (from The Pirate) Byron's Farewell (Lord Byron) Tirana Española; revised 1874, S. Brainard's Sons, publisher My Home and Thee The Blind Man's Bride (Ballad) (Caroline Sheridan Norton), G. P. Reed, 1846; revised 1874, S. Brainard's Sons, publisher Cleveland's Farewell (Sir Walter Scott), G. P. Reed, 1846

under his own name Florence, 8 songs, Oliver Ditson, 1857 Sands o' Dee (Charles Kingsley) Stars of the Summer Night (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) The Night is Clear and Cloudless (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) Ring Out Wild Bells (Alfred Lord Tennyson) Break, Break, Break, at the Foot of Thy Stones, O Sea (Alfred Lord Tennyson) From the Close-shut Window (Lowell) Battle of the Baltic (Campbell) I am Weary with Rowing (William Wetmore Story)

Six Songs (Bret Harte), Oliver Ditson, 1870 The Heathen Chinee Chiquita Twenty years Jim Flynn of Virginia Upon the Stanislow

Our Young Folks: Six Little Songs, G. D. Russell publisher, 1870 (Unknown song) The Rivulet (Lucy Larcom) Lady Moon (Lord Houghton/Richard Monckton Milnes) Little Nanny (Lucy Larcom) Swing Away (Lucy Larcom) Berrying Song (Lucy Larcom)

Three Songs, G. D. Russell publisher, 1870 Violet (Colonel John Hay), 1825 We Two (Jean Ingelow), 1840 The Lighthouse-keeper's Child (Thomas Hood), 1849

Two Barcaroles (Luigi Catani), Ditson The Honeymoon, 1884 A Year After, 1886

other single songs, all published by Oliver Ditson unless noted Aftermath (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), 1873 Ah! When the Fight is Won (Recitative and Air) (from Lowell's R.G.S. Memoriae Positum), 1892 A Letter (Frederick Locker-Lampson), 1876 Anacreontic (as sung by Mrs. Wilson Eyre) (Leigh Hunt), 1876 The Angelus (Frances L. Mace), 1883 At the Garden Gate (Frank Dempster Sherman), 1891 Ave Maria, 1873 After Absence (Lilla Cabot Perry), 1893 Aftermath (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) Baby's Shoes (Julia Ward Howe), W. H. Boner & Co., 1870 Battle of the Baltic (unknown author), 1857 The Bell Buoy (Rudyard Kipling), 1901 Bells on the Wind (Mrs. F. M. Ritter), 1880s Beyond the Smiling and the Weeping (with optional mixed quartet) (Horatius Bonar), 1876 The Black Friar (unknown author), 1858 The Bobolink (G. P. Lathrop), 1877 Bring Me No Cup (On a Motif from Lethe) (unknown author), 1891 Bring the Bowl which you Boast (unknown author), 1858 Broken Rhythm: My Oars Keep Time (H. Trusta/Elizabeth Stuart Phelps), 1850s, reissued 1876 Castibelza (after Victor Hugo), 1885 Changed (from Longfellow's Aftermath), 1873 Coming (words from Marigold Leaves) (unknown author), 1875 The Confession (Praed), 1873 The Cumberland (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), 1863 The Destruction of the Assyrians (from Hebrew Melodies) (Lord Byron), 1888 Dormi, Jesu! The Virgin's Cradle-hymn (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), 1859 Douglas, Tender and True (Miss Mulock), 1884 Echoes (Christopher Pearse Cranch), 1877 Egyptian Serenade (George William Curtis), 1887 The First Cricket (William Dean Howells), 1876 The Fisherman's Song (Rose Terry Cooke), 1870 Flow On, Sad Stream (William Wetmore Story), 1876 Garden of Roses (William Wetmore Story), 1863 Gipsies Song (unknown author), 1857 Goodbye (Samuel G. Goodrich), 1858 Guild the Engineer (Ballad) (unknown author), 1873 Heigh-Ho! (Christopher Pearse Cranch), William A. Pond & Co. publisher, 1870 Here's a health to King Charles (William Makepeace Thackeray), 1867 Home (Last Words in a Strange Land) (James Thomas Fields), 1880 How to Put the Question (Mrs. Caroline Spencer), S. Brainard's Sons publisher, 1870 If You Love Me (L. Clark), 1890 I know not if Moonlight (unknown author), 1883 In Memory of Oliver Wendell Holmes (Samuel Francis Smith), C.W. Thompson & Co. publisher, 1899 In the Cathedral (Katherine Saunders), Arthur P. Schmidt publisher, 1881 In the Summer Even (from "Rohan's Ghost" by Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford), 1876 Into my Heart a Silent Look (Edward Bulwer-Lytton), 1885 Jenny Kissed Me (Leigh Hunt) King Macbeth (song for baritone) (Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton/Owen Merideth), 1870 Kyrie Eleison (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), 1857 Laus Deo (with chorus ad lib) (John Greenleaf Whittier), 1868 Leoni John Ruskin, C.W. Thompson & Co. publisher, 1900 Lethe (with optional 'cello or violin) (M.A. Barr), 1888, reissued 1911 My Life is like the Summer-Rose (unknown author), 1873 Love Song (Robert Burns Wilson), 1888 The Mahogany Tree (unknown author), 1858 Maria Mater (from Memento Rerum Conditor) Master Love (Collin Rae-Brown), 1876 Memories Come O'er Me (William Wetmore Story), Lee & Walker publisher, 1876 Metempsychosis (J.B., from the London World), 1890 New Year's Bells (Alfred Tennyson), 1881 The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (Francis William Bourdillon), 1874 The Nightingale (Lust'ge Vögel in dem Wald), 1889 Non Partir (And wilt thou go) (A. Casini; English version by Christopher Pearse Cranch), 1869 Nora Macarty (Thomas Bailey Aldrich), 1878 Notturno (Roman Serenade) (unknown author), White-Smith publisher No More (Friedrich Rückert), 1873 O Domine Deus (O Lord my God) (prayer of Mary, Queen of Scots), Prüfer publisher, 1874 O Light at my Window (Christopher Pearse Cranch), William A. Pond & Co. publisher, 1870 O Long and Lagging Hours of Time (Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford), in Harper's Magazine, 1885 The Old Clock on the Stairs (with optional chorus) (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1886 O Well for the Fisherman's Boy (or Break, Break) (unknown author), 1857 Poor lone Hannah: As sung by Miss Adelaide Phillips (Lucy Larcom), 1869 Regrets (C. S. T.), 1876 Rose Aylmer (Walter Savage Landor), 1875 The Rose upon the Balcony (William Makepeace Thackeray), 1866 The Sailor's Wife (Charles Mackay), 1864 The Sea Has Its Pearls (Das Meer hat seine Perlen) (after Heinrich Heine), 1862 Serenade (Frederick Locker-Lampson), 1869 Sixty and Six (Thomas Wentworth Higginson), 1890 A Song of Long Ago (G. P. Lathrop), 1887 The Song of the Sea (William Dean Howells), 1872 Song of the Stromkerl (unknown author), 1868 A Spanish Cradle Song (unknown author), 1893 Spring Song (A Bird Sings Sweet and Strong) (George W. Curtis), 1866 The Stormy Petrel (Samuel G. Goodrich), 1876 Strike Me a Note (Thomas William Parsons), 1891 Sunset in Venice (Barcarole with English and Italian words) (Attilio Sarfatti), J. E. Ditson & Co., 1887 The Sunset Light (Barcarole) (Mary L. Ritter), Arthur P. Schmidt publishing, 1884 The Swallows (Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer), 1884 That Joyous Strain (Christopher Pearse Cranch), 1887 Thou and I (Words Address to her Sister) (Phoebe Cary), 1875 Thou dost not Remember the Hour (Ballad) (unknown author), S. Brainard's Sons publisher, 1874 Three Fishers (unknown author), 1868 Three Friends of Mine (Sonnet) (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), 1882 Through the Long Days" (Col. John Hay), 1878 A Toast (George Santayana), C.W. Thompson & Co. publisher, 1893 Twenty Years Ago (William Wetmore Story), 1882 Vanished Time (William Wetmore Story), 1877 Waiting for the Bugle (Thomas Wentworth Higginson), 1889 Waiting for you Jock (Mrs. Moulton's Concert Song) (from Blackwood's Magazine), 1874 We Shall Meet No More (unknown author), 1886 We Two are Bound Together (Wir beide sein verbunden), White-Smith publisher When Sylvia Sings (Samuel P. Duffield), 1892 When the Boys Come Home (A Song of '65) (Col. John Hay), 1887 The Wind Exultant (Winifred Howells), 1888 Wishing (A Nursery Song), (William Allingham), 1859 Yon Faithful Star (Serenade) (unknown author), 1873

Vocal duets The Brooklet (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), 1874 The Clover-blossoms Kiss Her Feet (duet for mezzo-soprano and tenor or baritone) (Oscar Laighton), 1882 Father the Watches of the Night are O'er (duet for equal voices) (Mrs. Ellen Sturgis Hooper), 1889 In the Dark, in the Dew (song and duet) (Miss Prescott), 1875 Love (song or duet for mixed voices) (Mrs. J. T. Fields), 1891 The Rivulet (duet for mezzo-soprano and tenor or baritone) (Alfred Tennyson), 1882

Large works Maria Mater, soloists, chorus and orchestra Mass, soloists, chorus and orchestra Miserere, a cappella mixed chorus, Oliver Ditson, 1888 The Song of Zechariah, cantata Te Deum (according to the liturgy of the Church of England), soloists, chorus and orchestra, 1884

Shorter choral works and part-songs Ave Maria, women's voices and piano or organ, 1897 The Bells of San Blas (Longfellow), quartet for equal voices, 1882 Carmen tabernarium (Ad usum sodalium die anniversario XX : iterum impressum die anniversario XLV) (Walter Map), men's voices, published 1929 Good Lives on Earth (unknown author), canon for three voices, unpublished, c.1890Manuscript located at the New York Public Library, OCLC number 649461516 Here's a health to King Charles! (Sir Walter Scott), tenor solo and men's chorus, 1867; mixed voices, Ditson, published 1909 Lead Kindly Light (Rev. Newman), quartet for mixed voices, 1884 My Harp Has One Unchanging Theme (Deh Senti il Rio), trio for soprano, tenor, and bass, 1893