McCoy, William J.
McCoy, William J.
McCoy, William J. , American composer; b. Crestline, Ohio, March 15, 1848; d. Oakland, Calif., Oct. 15, 1926. His family moved to Calif. when he was a child. He began to compose at the age of 12, and then was sent to N.Y. to study with William Mason; he later studied at the Leipzig Cons. with Reinecke and Hauptmann. His Sym. in F was conducted in Leipzig by Reinecke in 1872. He returned to Calif. and wrote some theater music for the Bohemian Club there (Harmadryads, The Cave Man, etc.). He also wrote an opera, Egypt (2 acts presented at the Berkeley Music Festival, Sept. 17, 1921), for which he received the Bispham Medal of the American Opera Soc. of Chicago. Other works include Yosemite, overture, Violin Concerto, a suite from A Masque of Apollo (Prelude, Dance, and The Naiad’s Idyl), and numerous songs. He also wrote a textbook, Cumulative Harmony.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire