Bainbridge Crist

Bainbridge Crist (b. Lawrenceburg, Indiana, February 13, 1883 – d. February 7, 1969) – Composer. Indiana-born Bainbridge Crist grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and graduated from law school at George Washington University in 1906. After practicing law for six years in Boston – while enjoying music as an avocation – he studied music formally in Paris, Berlin, and London with particular focus on theory, composition, and voice. During the outbreak of WW I, he moved from London to Boston, where he established himself as a voice teacher and composer. From 1923 to 1927, he taught in Florence, Paris, Berlin, and Switzerland, before returning to a previously established residence in Cape Cod. Although he is best known as a composer of art songs, he also wrote instrumental works, including several published piano pieces and Egyptian Impressions (a symphonic suite played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1915). His first vocal composition to get recognized was “Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes,” a set of seven songs published by Carl Fischer, 1917. In addition to his many compositions, Crist authored the book The Art of Setting Words to Music (Carl Fischer, 1944).