At present he is dean of the Northern California
Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, conductor of the Loring
club and the choral section of the San Francisco Musical club, and is
engaged in teaching and composition.
JOHN W. METCALF
California has produced her share of composers. They have been
prominent as pianists, violinists, leaders of musical bodies and
teachers of harmony. They are writers of the highest merit and some
can be classed with the song writers of Europe. The state is too young
for many native composers. Our musicians all came to us in the days of
gold, and others who came later educated their sons and daughters in
the East and in Europe in the highest art of music and, returning to
the state, made a place for themselves as writers of music.
John W. Metcalf for the last twenty-one years has been among us as
teacher of piano, harmony and a song writer of the highest order, and
we are glad to claim him, even if he is not a native son. We love his
music and appreciate the writer who is able to give to the singing
world soulful compositions that compare with those of Schubert and
Mendelssohn. They are superlatively correct and scholarly. I am not a
song writer but a song singer, and when I find such compositions I am
proud to interpret them to the best of my ability.
John W. Metcalf is a product of my state, Illinois, and, like the
writer, he inherited his musical talent from the maternal side.
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