John Elliot Griffis (January 28, 1893 – 1967) was an American composer.
Born in Boston, the son of the noted Orientalist William Elliot Griffis, he attended public schools in Ithaca, New York, as well as The Manlius School before going to Ithaca College. He went to Yale University to work with Horatio Parker from 1913 until 1915, and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music with Daniel Gregory Mason, Harry Newton Redman, and George Whitefield Chadwick before serving in the United States Army. In 1931, he was awarded a Pulitzer Fellowship for his String Quartet in C Major. (This was twelve years before the Pulitzer Prize for Music was first awarded in 1943.)
Griffis taught at Grinnell College, the Westchester Conservatory of Music and the St. Louis Conservatory of Music before settling in Los Angeles. Much of his output was chamber music, especially piano pieces and songs; he did, however, compose some works for orchestra and one opera, 1963's The Port of Pleasure. He died in 1967 and is buried at Vale Cemetery in Schenectady, New York.
References
- (unattributed author) "Former Ithaca Musicians On Program," The Ithaca Journal April 26, 1939, p. 5.
- Howard, John Tasker (1939). Our American Music: Three Hundred Years of It. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.
- Griffis's papers at the University of Texas at Austin
This article about a United States composer born in the 19th century is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |
- American male composers
- American male classical pianists
- Ithaca College alumni
- Yale University alumni
- New England Conservatory alumni
- Grinnell College faculty
- 1893 births
- 1967 deaths
- Pupils of George Whitefield Chadwick
- Pupils of Horatio Parker
- 20th-century American composers
- 20th-century American classical pianists
- Manlius Pebble Hill School alumni
- 20th-century American male musicians
- American composer, 19th-century birth stubs