Carlos Troyer

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Troyer settled in San Francisco sometime before 1871, where he became known as a violinist, pianist and teacher of music and began using the name Carlos.

In 1880 he performed the wedding march at Michael Henry de Young's wedding.{{Cite news |date=November 5, 1180 |title=Wedding Bells. Marriage of M. H. de Young and Miss K. I. Deane |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/457899496 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |pages=3}} In the late 1880s he composed the music for a number of charity revues produced and written by Ella Sterling Cummins. He taught Cummins' daughter Viva D. Cummins, who eventually launched a series of concerts on the east coast presenting various Indian music in costume.{{Cite news |date=Aug 9, 1896 |title=Weird Melodies of a Strange New Mexican People, Now the Fad in Musical Circles |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/77945511 |work=San Francisco Call and Post |pages=18}}

Troyer held an interest in the natural sciences. In 1874, Troyer was elected a life member of the California Academy of Sciences.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IZQWAAAAYAAJ |title=Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences |date=1873 |publisher=The Academy |pages=268 |language=en}} For most of the 1880s and 1890s he was its librarian.{{Cite news |date=January 4, 1882 |title=Academy of Sciences, The Annual Election of Executive Officers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/457825698/ |work=The San Francisco Examiner |pages=3}}{{Cite news |date=January 7, 1890 |title=The Academy of Sciences. Officers for the Ensuing Year Elected - Curators' Reports |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/460523352 |work=San Francisco Examiner |pages=6}} During a naturalist expedition to Baja for the Academy, Gustav Eisen attempted to name a peak in the Sierra de la Laguna after Troyer and fellow Academy trustee E. J. Molera.{{Cite book |last=Vivanco |first=Aurelio de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9gJSAQAAIAAJ |title=Baja California al dia: distritos Norte y Sur de la península |date=1924 |publisher=Wolfer Printing Company |pages=23 |language=es}}{{Cite news |date=February 10, 1895 |title=They Found a Missing Link. Results of the Eisen Expedition into Darkest Mexico and Lower California |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/458057862 |work=San Francisco Examiner |pages=4}} He was a member of the San Francisco Microscopical Society.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KM4-AQAAMAAJ |title=The Monthly Microscopical Journal: Transactions of the ... Society ... |date=1875 |pages=280 |language=en}}

In 1886, his publication of a transcription/adaptation of Apache Chief Geronimo's Own Medicine Song marked the beginning of a long professional interest in Native American music. Throughout the 1880s he published several transcriptions and arrangements of Native American songs, including those recounted by Frank Hamilton Cushing.{{Cite news |date=December 6, 1887 |title=CIty of the Dead. Professor Cushing's Lecture on the Ancient Zuni |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1046637206 |work=The San Diego Sun |pages=7}} Eventually, his works became further romanticized and amerindian, culminating in his final published piece, Midnight Visit to the Sacred Shrines, a Zuñian Ritual.

He is frequently included in the list of the Indianist composers; Farwell's Wa-Wan Press published many of his transcriptions/harmonizations.{{Cite web |title=Two pianoforte compositions |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/45052722/ |access-date=2023-12-12 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}} Many of his earlier compositions were published by A. Waldteufel in San Francisco; later in his life Theodore Presser Co published many of his Native American transcriptions and songs.

A brief autobiography, provided with his 1913 published lecture notes on Native American music, indicates he spent time "in the field" with the Zunis and Apaches recording and transcribing their music, possibly while employed for the government, and mentioned similar travels to Brazil.{{Cite book |last=Callam |first=Katie |url=https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/37365803 |title="To Look After and Preserve": Curating the American Musical Past, 1905-1945 |publisher=Harvard University |year=2020 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=101}}{{Cite journal |date=August 26, 1920 |title=Carlos Troyer, Composer, Passes Away |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZO86AQAAMAAJ&dq=%22carlos+troyer%22+%22berkeley%22&pg=RA8-PA34 |journal=Musical Courier |volume=LXXXI |issue=9 |pages=34}} Contemporaries including Charles Lummis and Frederick W. Hodge noted these claims as lies or exaggerations, intended to boost credibility for his lecture tours later in life. With the possible exception of Barbara Tedlock in her Songs of the Zuni, modern critical analysis of the ethnographic value of Troyer's transcriptions are negative.{{Cite book |last=Pisani |first=Michael V. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tE0ECS-0kZ0C |title=Imagining Native America in Music |date=2008-10-01 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13073-7 |pages=361 |language=en}}

Several of Troyer's transcriptions have been identified as likely sources of musical borrowing by Puccini for themes in La Fanciulla del West.{{Cite book |last=Burton |first=Deborah |title=Recondite Harmony. Essays on Puccini's Operas |publisher=Pendragon Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1576472125 |location=Hillsdale, NY |pages=214–215}}

He taught at Mills College. He died in Berkeley, California at the age of 83. His wife Virginia died shortly after.

• I Dreamed We Two Were Friends Again (1856)
• The Spider and the Fly (1882){{Cite book |url=https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/98637#?xywh=-588,-84,2304,1666 |title=The spider and the fly: character song for two voices / words arranged and music composed by Carlos Troyer |date=1882 |publisher=San Francisco |editor-last=Troyer |editor-first=Carlos |location=M. Gray |editor-last2=Hamilton |editor-first2=Lena |editor-last3=Calsing |editor-first3=Lottie}} for two voices, dedicated to Lena Hamilton and Lottie Calsing.
• Songs of the Sunset Land (Published in San Francisco in 1884 by A. Waldteufel){{Cite book |url=https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/98785# |title=Lead thy mother tenderly: song or quartette for mixed voices /ccomposed by Carlos Troyer |date=1884 |publisher=San Francisco (737 Market St.; First St., San Jose) |editor-last=Troyer |editor-first=Carlos |location=A. Waldteufel}} Includes the following musical settings:
• # Song of the Sunset Land (originally composed for the 1884 Admission Day celebrations for California's 34th anniversary of admittance to the Union{{Cite news |date=September 10, 1884 |title=Admission Day |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/457825698/ |work=[[The San Francisco Examiner] |pages=2}})
• # Lead Thy Mother Tenderly
• # The Funny Old Man in the Moon
• # Swing Song (text by William Neale Lockington, fellow officer of the California Academy of Sciences)
• # Song of the Little People
• # Baby Bye
• # 'Tis Time I Should Forget
• # The Raftman's Song
• # Slumber Song
• # I Love the Old Songs Most
• # Mooley Cow
• # Fortune's Wheel
• Apache Chief Geronimo's Own Medicine Song (1886) (This was later arranged for chorus by Albert Israel Elkus{{Cite web |title=Inventory of the Albert Israel Elkus Papers, 1893-1993 |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf187002bw/entire_text/ |access-date=2023-12-12 |website=oac.cdlib.org}})
• A Children's Night (1888) (operetta, lyrics by Ella Sterling Cummins, premiered at a children's party hosted by Alpheus Bull){{Cite news |date=May 21, 1888 |title=A Juvenile Party |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/27504783 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |pages=6}}
• Princess of Topolobampo (1888) (comic operetta, lyrics by Ella Sterling Cummins, composed for a benefit concert for the Occidental Kindergarten in San Francisco){{Cite news |date=December 1, 1888 |title=In Operetta - Occidental Kindergarten Benefit |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/27577527 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |pages=8}}
• Millenium March, (1890) (written for a charity revue for the San Francisco kindergarten system){{Cite news |date=April 11, 1890 |title=Fun and Charity. Mother Nature's Daughters Growing Rapidly in Favor. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/92930874 |work=San Francisco Call and Post |pages=2}}
• Arabian Nights Entertainment and Merchants' Caravan, (1891) (music written for a charity revue for Home for Incurables, produced by Ella Sterling Cummins and the King's Daughters).{{Cite news |date=January 4, 1891 |title=Society |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/92931886 |work=San Francisco Call and Post |pages=8}} Included the song Why He Left Town, which Troyer self-published the next month.{{Cite news |date=February 4, 1891 |title=New Music |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/92934462 |work=San Francisco Call and Post |pages=3}}
• Two Zuñi Songs (1893) (Lover's Wooing or Blanket Song, Zunian Lullaby). Transcriptions and harmonizations of songs recounted to Troyer by Frank Hamilton Cushing during Cushing's lectures at the California Academy of Sciences.{{Cite news |date=September 24, 1893 |title=Songs of the Zunis. Music of the Cliff-Dwellers Published. Melodies Harmonized by a San Franciscan |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/27343255/ |work=San Francisco Chronicle |pages=7}}
• Invocation to the Sun God
• The Golden Corn, anthemic setting of Edna Dean Proctor's poem Columbia's Emblem, premiered May 3 1895 at the annual ball of the St. Andrew's Society.{{Cite news |date=April 27, 1895 |title=To Sing It In Schools, "The Golden Corn," A New National Song, May Be Introduced |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/46379067/ |work=San Francisco Call and Post |pages=10}}{{Cite news |date=May 4, 1895 |title=Scotch Celebration |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/46381243 |work=San Francisco Call and Post |pages=11}}
• The Star-Spangled Banner Concert Paraphrase, piano variations, winner of The Etude composition prize. (1898)
• Apache medicine-chant
• Kiowa-Apache War Dance{{Citation |title=Various, Dario Müller - The American Indianists Vol. 2 |date=1996 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/7925106-Various-Dario-M%C3%BCller-The-American-Indianists-Vol-2 |access-date=2023-12-12 |language=en}}
• Ghost dance of the Zuñis{{Citation |title=George Templeton Strong, Carlos Troyer, Harvey Worthington Loomis, Arthur Farwell, Edward MacDowell, Charles Wakefield Cadman - Indian Music |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/19925278-George-Templeton-Strong-Carlos-Troyer-Harvey-Worthington-Loomis-Arthur-Farwell-Edward-MacDowell-Char |access-date=2023-12-12 |language=en}}
• Traditional Songs of the Zuni Indians (Published in 1904 by Theodore Presser Co){{Cite book |last=Troyer |first=Carlos |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f_3aPPpB-xAC |title=The Coming of Montezuma |date=1904 |publisher=Theodore Presser Company |language=en}}
• # The Sunrise Call, or Echo Song
• # Incantation upon a Sleeping Infant
• # Invocation to the Sun-God
• # Zuni Lover's Wooing, or Blanket Song
• # The Coming of Montezuma
• # The Festive Sun Dance of the Zunis
• # The Great Rain Dance of the Zunis
• # Indian Fire Drill Song
• # Hymn to the Sun
• # Sunset Song
• # Ghost Dance of the Zunis, with ad lib
• Dreamland, a lullaby (1907)
• Song of the Plains; The Cry of the Cowboy (1908)
• Hymn to the Sun: An Ancient Jubilee Song of the Sun-Worshippers, with Historical Account of the Ceremony and the Derivation of Music from the Sun's Rays (1909, published by Wa-Wan)
• Lebensfreude (1910)
• Midnight Visit to the Sacred Shrines, a Zuñian Ritual: a Monody for Two Flute-trumpets of High and Low Pitch (Clarinet and Oboe); a Traditional Chant of Melodic Beauty, and Parting Song on Leaving the Shrines, with English and Indian Texts … the Accompaniment may be played on the Piano.
• In the Silence: a psychic tone-picture
• Traditional Songs of the Zuni Indians (Published in 1914 by Theodore Presser Co):
• # Kiowa Apache War Dance (instrumental)
• # Zuñian "Kor-Kok-Shi" clown dance
• # Hunting song of the Cliff-dwellers
• # Apache medicine chant
• # Awakening at dawn (a processional chant)
• # Recall of the tribal hunters
• Columbus (1915), setting of the Joaquin Miller poem, dedicated to Dr. George Wharton James of Pasadena, California.{{Cite web |title=Columbus {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/47787707 |access-date=2023-12-12 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}}
• Zuniana (1916) A music drama in three acts based on his Native American songs and on his music lectures.{{Cite web |title=LC Catalog - No Connections Available |url=https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=LCCN&searchArg=unk84216362&searchType=1&permalink=y |access-date=2023-12-12 |website=catalog.loc.gov}}

• Indianist movement

• {{IMSLP|id=Troyer, Carlos}}
• {{ChoralWiki}}

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Category:1920 deaths

Category:1837 births

Category:American male composers

Category:American composers

Category:Musicians from Frankfurt

Category:Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area

Category:Emigrants from the German Confederation to the United States

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