Arthur Foote (1853-1937)
Piano Quartet in C major, Op. 23 (1890)
Nocturne ('A Night Piece') and Scherzo for Flute and String Quartet (1918)
String Quartet No.1 in G minor, Op. 4 (1882/1883)

Arthur William Foote was born in Salem, Massachusetts on 5th March, 1853. His father, Caleb Foote (1803-1894), was editor of the Salem Gazette. His mother, Mary Wilder White Foote (1810-1857), died when he was four. As a small child he showed neither unusual talent nor particular interest in music. Foote indicated an interest in music for the first time when he was twelve years old, his desire to study music probably stimulated by observing his sister's piano study. Since there were no gifted musicians in his family and no real music programme existed in Salem schools, he received his first music lessons at the age of fourteen. His first teacher was Miss Fanny Paine, whose teacher Benjamin Lang took an interest in the young boy and at Lang's sug