Celius Dougherty

Celius Hudson Dougherty (May 27, 1902 – December 22, 1986) was an American pianist and composer of art songs and other music.

Biography Celius Hudson Dougherty was born to William Francis Dougherty and Louise Martha Dougherty in Glenwood, Minnesota. Celius was interested in music and poetry from childhood. He claimed that he wrote his first song when he was seven years old. He was part of a musical family, and his mother, a music teacher and church musician, organized her seven children into a band. Celius performed as accompanist for one of his mother's song recitals at age ten. where he studied piano with Donald Ferguson and composition. As an undergraduate, he performed his own piano concerto with the school orchestra.

He toured as an accompanist to several important singers, such as Maggie Teyte, Eva Gauthier, Povla Frijsh, Jennie Tourel, Marian Anderson, and Alexander Kipnis. These performers often included Dougherty's songs on their programs.

Beginning in 1939, he also toured with Vincenz Ruzicka in duo-piano recitals. During the next 16 years, they gave the first performances of duets by Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Paul Hindemith, Darius Milhaud, and others.

Ballad of William Sycamore Children's Letter to the United Nations Declaration of Independence Eglantine and Ivy Green Meadows (Anonymous text) Heaven-Haven (text by Gerard Manley Hopkins), Carl Fischer, 1956 Hushed be the Camps Today (memories of President Lincoln) (text by Walt Whitman) The K'e (text from the Chinese), 1954 Listen to the Wind (text by Wolfe) Love in the Dictionary (text from Funk and Wagnalls dictionary), 1949 Loveliest of Trees (text by A. E. Housman), Boosey & Hawkes, 1948 Madonna of the Evening Flowers (text by Lowell) A Minor Bird (text by Robert Frost, 1958 Music (text by Amy Lowell), 1953 Pianissimo, Lady (text by Lowell) Primavera (text by Amy Lowell, 1948 Seven Songs Song of the Jasmin (text from the Arabian Nights) Songs by E. E. Cummings, 1966 thy fingers make early flowers of all things until and i heard o by the by

Sound the Flute! (text by William Blake) The Taxi (text by Lowell) Whispers of Heavenly Death (song cycle for baritone and piano) What the Bullet Sang (Bret Harte)

Song arrangements Five Sea-Chanties Five American Folk Songs, duets for soprano and baritone

Other works Piano Concerto, 1922 First Piano Sonata, 1925 Violin Sonata, 1928 Second Piano Sonata, 1934 String Quartet, 1938 Music from Seas and Ships, sonata for two pianos, 1942-43 Many Moons, one-act opera, based on a story by James Thurber,

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