Rossetter Gleason Cole: His Life and Work

Abstract

Rossetter Gleason Cole (1866-1952) was born near Clyde, Michigan, to a relatively musical family. Two years after graduating from the University of Michigan in 1888, where he had studied music and philosophy, he left for Berlin, studying composition with Heinrich van Eycken and gaining entrance to the Königlich Meisterschule für Komposition, where he studied with Max Bruch before returning to the United States. After a decade of teaching in the Midwest, he settled in Chicago in 1902, where he gained national fame as a composer and educator. Cole was a member of the Peterborough MacDowell Colony, nearly all of his orchestral works were performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and he even wrote an opera. Yet, he and his music are unknown today, offering opportunity for a discovery and analysis of his compositions, the musical society he inhabited, and how his story was erased by history. Through primary sources, this paper explores Cole's life and compositions, the work that he conducted, and his thoughts on music.