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,[2] and at
Round Hill School,[3] followed by
Harvard College from which he graduated in 1831.[1] 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.[1] 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.[1] 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,[4] and continued to compose music.
Boott bequeathed $10,000 to
Harvard University as a prize fund for the best 4-part vocal work written by a Harvard student.[1] In 1960 the amount was increased to $15,246 through capital gains.[5] The prize continues to be awarded by the
Harvard University Department of Music.[6]
Music
Boott's first six songs appeared in 1846 under the
pen name of Telford; Upton described them as "quite undistinguished".[7] 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.[5]
While his melodies and piano accompaniments are considered "commonplace, with little harmonic interest",[8] 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".[9]
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
^
abBaker, Theodore (1984), "Boott, Francis", in Slonimsky, Nicolas (ed.), Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (Seventh ed.), New York: Schirmer Books, p. 303,
ISBN0-02-870270-0
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,[2] and at
Round Hill School,[3] followed by
Harvard College from which he graduated in 1831.[1] 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.[1] 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.[1] 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,[4] and continued to compose music.
Boott bequeathed $10,000 to
Harvard University as a prize fund for the best 4-part vocal work written by a Harvard student.[1] In 1960 the amount was increased to $15,246 through capital gains.[5] The prize continues to be awarded by the
Harvard University Department of Music.[6]
Music
Boott's first six songs appeared in 1846 under the
pen name of Telford; Upton described them as "quite undistinguished".[7] 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.[5]
While his melodies and piano accompaniments are considered "commonplace, with little harmonic interest",[8] 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".[9]
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
^
abBaker, Theodore (1984), "Boott, Francis", in Slonimsky, Nicolas (ed.), Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (Seventh ed.), New York: Schirmer Books, p. 303,
ISBN0-02-870270-0