# American composers with triple-barrelled names



## jtbell (Oct 4, 2012)

While picking out music to listen to, for the Fourth of July, I started to wonder why many American composers around 1900 (plus or minus a few decades) commonly used or are known by middle names:

John Knowles Paine
George Whitefield Chadwick
Charles Tomlinson Griffes
Charles Martin Loeffler
John Alden Carpenter
[...]

Is this a New England tradition?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Charles Ives.

Tradition broken.


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## jtbell (Oct 4, 2012)

hpowders said:


> Tradition broken.


Well, of course... that's what you expect from Ives!

[added] If he had gone a step further, to a single name, he could have used it for his insurance business too, and taken the "Talk to Chuck" slogan before Charles Schwab did!


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

John Bell Young. Mostly musician, secondly writer, but composer too - and not a New Englander.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I've barely heard about any of those composers, and the ones I have heard about I never knew about their middle name.


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## Alypius (Jan 23, 2013)

*William Grant Still (1895-1978).* An African-American composer. Biography here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grant_Still


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Hey, it's the Fourth Of July!

John Philip Sousa


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Initials*

How about American composers who initialize their first name?

H. Owen Reed


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## jimsumner (Jul 7, 2013)

Louis Moreau Gottschalk.

Not from New England


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Maybe they were serial killers too.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

George Templeton Strong.

Then there's Mrs. H.H.A. Beach, a/k/a Amy Mary Cheney Beach.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Ukko said:


> John Bell Young. Mostly musician, secondly writer, but composer too - and not a New Englander.


I know that guy. He and I corresponded a few times concerning Scriabin's life and music. Anything you want to know about Scriabin, Young's the expert.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Ernest Bloch?, he was born in Switzerland though.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Hyphenated names?

David Ward-Steinman.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

The Brits of that era were also triple-threats:

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Samuel Coleridge Taylor
George Villiers Stanford

Considering that a lot of the middle names are actually surnames, I imagine it's a way to make sure that grandpa would leave his young grandson something in the will, despite the fact that the grandson disregarded grandpa's advice and didn't have a career in banking...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

jtbell said:


> Well, of course... that's what you expect from Ives!
> 
> [added] If he had gone a step further, to a single name, he could have used it for his insurance business too, and taken the "Talk to Chuck" slogan before Charles Schwab did!


When something doesn't fit, spin it until it does, eh?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Lone Douglas Ranger.


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## nightscape (Jun 22, 2013)

Ruth Crawford Seeger


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

hpowders said:


> Lone Douglas Ranger.


Hugh G. Rection.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

It's not just composers:

Lee Harvey Oswald
James Earl Ray
John Wilkes Booth

www.slate.com/articles/news_and_pol...hy_do_so_many_assassins_have_three_names.html


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Ladies Man Science. 

Not a well-known composer, sort of a failure as an amateur, but he failed precociously and gloriously; his real name remained unknown to most.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Vaneyes said:


> Hugh G. Rection.


Related, perhaps, to E. Power Biggs?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Lone Douglas Ranger.


His overture to _L'Apache in Algieri_ is marked "Allegro, ma non Tonto."


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

In commemoration of midwest mining, he wrote a suite, "Ohio Silver".

I wanted to thank him for this gift, since it was the best thing to happen to Cleveland in many years.....but he was gone. Too bad. An aDepptly (sic) clever work.

Should inspire the miners to keep on Hammering.

I hope he returns some day and blesses us with Moore of his fine music.

Unfortunately my only copy of Ohio Silver was ripped apart by a tornado this morning.
A bit of masking tape will get it to look as good as new.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

waldvogel said:


> The Brits of that era were also triple-threats:
> 
> Ralph Vaughan Williams
> Samuel Coleridge Taylor
> ...


Since Vaughan-Williams is usually hyphenated, I alphabetize him in "V" and consider it one name.

Samuel Coleridge Taylor is an awful mess if you are also a poetry fan.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Weston said:


> Since Vaughan-Williams is usually hyphenated, I alphabetize him in "V" and consider it one name.
> 
> Samuel Coleridge Taylor is an awful mess if you are also a poetry fan.


It shouldn't be hyphenated, but you're right to alphabetize him in "V." The family name is two words, "Vaughan Williams."


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

For an unhyphenated uncapitalized English "v", look no further than Gustav von Holst, who dropped that rather Teutonic "v" thing in 1918.


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## jtbell (Oct 4, 2012)

Woodduck said:


> His overture to _L'Apache in Algieri_ is marked "Allegro, ma non Tonto."


That must have come after the "what do you mean, 'we', paleface?" incident.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

KenOC said:


> For an unhyphenated uncapitalized English "v", look no further than Gustav von Holst, who dropped that rather Teutonic "v" thing in 1918.


I'll see your Gustav von Holst and raise you Charles Villiers Stanford. Well Irish actually but still with a plethora of names.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

The only one I know of that OP mentioned is John Alan Carpenter, just because he grew up in my hometown!


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## jtbell (Oct 4, 2012)

I just remembered another one: John Luther Adams (the "other" John Adams).


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

How about Carl Maria von Weber? - not American, but his does include a ladies name, which is fun. 
Or how about Esa-Pekka Salonen? - again, not American though he is conductor laureate with the LA Philharmonic.


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## Funny (Nov 30, 2013)

William Henry Fry. The granddaddy of them all. (Well, most of them, anyway)


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Four-barreled names? Maybe start with the Bach boys...


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