Cadman, Charles Wakefield

Cadman, Charles Wakefield

(1881–1946) composer, organist; born in Johnston, Pa. Beginning as a church organist, he became interested in Native American music after reading such ethnologists as Alice Fletcher and Francis La Flesche. He proceeded to incorporate Indian themes in many of his own compositions, such as his opera Shanewis, staged at the Metropolitan in 1918. He is best known for such songs as "Land of the Sky-blue Water" (1908).

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.