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Blair Fairchild
1877 - 1933
United States of America, MA
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B. Fairchild
Blair Fairchild (23/06/1877 - 23/04/1933) was an American composer and diplomat. Along with Charles Wakefield Cadman, Charles Sanford Skilton, Arthur Nevin, and Arthur Farwell, among others, he is sometimes grouped among the Indianists, although he had only a marginal association with their work.
Fairchild was a native of Massachusetts, the son of Boston investor Charles Fairchild. He studied at Harvard College and in Florence before embarking, after a stint in business, on a career in the diplomatic corps. He first saw service in Constantinople before being transferred to Tehran; in 1903 he settled in Paris, where he pursued further studies in music before becoming a composer. He died in 1933.
Fairchild had studied music while at Harvard, attending classes taught by both John Knowles Paine and Walter Spalding. Upon his arrival in Paris he sought further study with Charles-Marie Widor. His musical style was based on music he had heard during his diplomatic travels, and among his early works were two tone poems upon Persian legends, Zal and Shah Feridoun. He also wrote much in smaller forms, including many pieces for chamber groups. He also wrote songs and choruses. Fairchild's music has been described as derived from the same influences as the work of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky.
Requiem
Period:Expressionism
Musical form:song
Text/libretto:Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)
"Requiem", for medium voice and piano.
The text of "Requiem" by Stevenson:

Requiem

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.


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R.L. Stevenson
(text)