William Arms Fisher

William Arms Fisher (April 27, 1861 – December 18, 1948) was an American composer, music historian and writer.

Personal life 1927 photograph of Mrs. William Arms Fisher (Emma Roderick Hinckle). Fisher's wife was the vice-president of the National Federation of Music Clubs at the time this photo was taken. Fisher was born in San Francisco, California, on April 27, 1861. He received his first lesson in music from John P. Morgan, a leading Western musician. Intended for a business career, he was led to devote himself entirely to music, and with that end in view he left California in 1890 and went to New York City. There he studied under Antonín Dvořák and Horatio Parker at the National Conservatory of Music of America.

Career In an 1893 interview, Antonín Dvořák challenged white American composers to make better use of the "negro melodies of America", feeling that they were needed as the basis for "any serious and original school of composition" in America.

Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony was played at Carnegie Hall on December 16, 1893. Later William Arms Fisher wrote a text to the cor anglais tune in the second movement, entitled "Goin' Home", which has been mistaken for a Negro spiritual.

In response to the challenge and the symphony, William Arms Fisher published an arrangement of Seventy Negro Spirituals in 1926. In his article, Fisher said that music is important in every community. A quote from his article is "Blessed are the music-makers, for they shall uplift and unite the Earth." which was mentioned by the MENC: The National Association for Music Education. The article quotes an anonymous reviewer, "by all means let us have Fisher to arrange" Negro spirituals.

One of his compositions appeared in the 1947 film Buck Privates Come Home.

Publications Sixty Irish Songs – (1915) Notes on Music in Old Boston – (1918) Goin' Home (sheet music, 1922) One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States – (1934) Ye Olde New-England Psalm-tunes 1620–1820 – (1930) The Music that Washington Knew – (1931)