Mary Elizabeth Turner Salter Explained

Mary Elizabeth Turner Salter (15 March 1856^[1]  - 12 September 1938^[2]) was an American soprano and composer. She was born in Peoria, Illinois, the daughter of Jonathan and Mary E. Hinds Turner. Turner graduated from Burlington High School in Burlington, Iowa, and the Boston College of Music, and then worked as a voice teacher at Wellesley College and performed in churches. In 1881 she married Sumner Salter. She died in Orangeburg, New York. She was one of the founding members of the American Society of Women Composers.^[3]

Works

Turner wrote about 130 songs. Selected works include:

• The Cry of Rachel
• Song of April
• A Der Schmetterling (from Three German Songs) (Text: Heinrich Heine)
• Love's Epitome (a cycle of five songs)
• Foreign Lands (text: Robert Louis Stevenson)
• Life (from Five Songs) (Text: Paul Laurence Dunbar)
• The High Song (text: Humbert Wolfe)
• Wandrers Nachtlied (text: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)^[4]

Notes and References

1. Book: Who's who in New England, 2nd Edition . Marquis, Albert Nelson . 1938 . 16 October 2010.
2. Book: Etnier Villamil, Victoria . 2004 . A Singer's Guide to the American Art Song: 1870-1980 . Maryland . Scarecrow Press . 333 . 9781461655992.
3. Book: Amy Beach, passionate Victorian: the life and work of an American composer. Block, Adrienne Fried. 16 October 2010. 1998. Oxford University Press. 0-19-507408-4.
4. Web site: Composer: Mary Elizabeth Turner Salter (1856-1938). 16 October 2010.