Septimus Winner
Aliases: Alice Hawthorne; Percy Guyer; Mark Mason; Apsley Street; Paul Stenton
Life
Born: 1827
Died: 1902
Biography
(summary) Septimus Winner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father was a violin maker and his mother was a relative of the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. His given name comes from being the seventh child. He graduated from Philadelphia Central High School, studied music informally, and joined his younger brother Joseph Eastburn Winner as a music publisher. He played the violin, guitar, banjo, and other instruments, and he performed with the orchestra of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, the Cecilian Musical Society, and the Philadelphia Brass Band. He became a very successful song writer, often using the pseudonyms Alice Hawthorne (his mother’s maiden name), Mark Mason, Apsley Street, Marion Florence, Leon Dore, and Paul Stenton, and Percy Guyer (his wife’s maiden name). His romantic pieces were known as “Hawthorne’s Ballads.” His most famous song was “Listen to the Mocking Bird.” Written under the name Alice Hawthorne, he credited the tune to an African-American street singer, Richard Milburn. He sold the copyright to publishers Lee & Walker and, although he sold it for an amount reportedly between &5-$35, the song sold over twenty million copies and made a profit of more than $3 million by the fiftieth year of publication. He was charged with treason and briefly jailed after writing a song protesting General George B. McClellan’s removal from command of the Union army. The song was legally reissued when McClellan ran for president and was adapted for Ulysses S. Grant’s campaign. He also wrote “Der Deitcher’s Dog” using a mock-German dialect set to a folk tune with its famous line “Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone?” He wrote hymns, anthems, over 200 musical instruction books for at least 23 instruments, and 2000 arrangements for violin and piano and 1500 for other instruments. He was also a poet and writer contributing to the Poet's Corner column in the Philadelphia Sunday Press, writing for Graham’s Magazine when Edgar Allan Poe was its editor, and was musical editor for Peterson’s Magazine. He died in Philadelphia from a heart attack after attending the dedication of a new building at Philadelphia Central High School and shaking the hand of President Theodore Roosevelt. His brother Joseph also wrote songs under the name Joseph Eastburn. His best known song was “Little Brown Jug.”
View the Wikipedia article on Septimus Winner.
List of choral works
Click here to search for this composer on CPDL
Publications
External websites:
- [<url> Description]