# Arthur T. Cremin: American concerto fantasy



## vlncto (Nov 26, 2012)

The piano reduction of the "American concerto fantasy, for violin and orchestra" by Arthur T. Cremin (1900-1985) is now available for free download from my website:

http://www.tobias-broeker.de/rare-manuscripts/violin-concertos/arthur-t-cremin/

Arthur T. Cremin was born in 30 June 1900 in New York. He studied violin privately with Stevo Stoianovitch (1885-1960), a Serbian violinist, graduate of the Prague Conservatory and pupil of Otakar Sevcik. In 1921 Arthur Cremin founded the „New York Schools of Music". Nearly immediately this music school became a successful and famous institution, a newspaper article from 1934 remembers:

_„Years ago Cremin, a youth with a flaring shock of red hair, nailed up a sign above his Stanton street alcove offering music-lessons for the small sum of twenty-five cents. Deans of music jeered and rivals snickered that it couldn't be done. The little alcove has become one of the largest music conservatories in the world, The New York Schools of Music."
_ 
Arthur Cremin served as the director of the New York Music Schools and as the president of the „American Creative League of Music Students" for many years and was a businessman as good as a musician. In 1937 he offered music lessons „on wheels" in trailer trucks and founded a „Reminder Service Inc.", a company to remember people about things.
He also wrote educational books on music, for example a graded violin method. And the newspapers from the 1930s and 1940s loved his controversial thoughts on music (check my website for some very interesting examples) and wrote a lot about his ideas.
Arthur Cremin also composed music, but it is little known about his output. A composition called „The Story Teller" was announced for performance at Carnegie Hall in 1934. After his retirement from the head of the New York Schools of Music Arthur Cremin still worked a few days a week at his music school until his death. The other time he took care of his wife and wrote poetry. Arthur T. Cremin died on 20 March 1985.

The „*American concerto fantasy*" was written most likely around 1940. The manuscript mentions Barnabas Istok as an editor of the work (some fingerings and additions in a different handwriting - most likely Istok's hand - are in the manuscript). Barnabas Istok was a violinist and became faculty member of the violin section of the New York Schools of Music in 1936. The concerto fantasy consists of three movements: I. Rocky Mountains; II. Grand Canyon and III. New York City.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

vlncto said:


> The piano reduction of the "American concerto fantasy, for violin and orchestra" by Arthur T. Cremin (1900-1985) is now available for free download from my website:
> 
> http://www.tobias-broeker.de/rare-manuscripts/violin-concertos/arthur-t-cremin/
> 
> ...


Can we hear it somewhere?


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## vlncto (Nov 26, 2012)

A snippet of the beginning of the concerto (in computer realisation) can be heard on my website.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

vlncto said:


> A snippet of the beginning of the concerto (in computer realisation) can be heard on my website.


Sorry, should have taking better notice.


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