The New International Encyclopædia/Fisher, William Arms

FISHER, William Arms (1861—). An American song-composer, born in San Francisco, Cal. 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 (1890) and went to New York. There he studied counterpoint, canon, and fugue with Horatio Parker, and later, winning a scholarship in the National Conservatory of Music, he was enabled to study composition and orchestration under Anton Dvořák. He was instructor in harmony at the Conservatory of Music for several years, resigning in 1895 to take up teaching in Boston. He is essentially and preëminently a song-composer, and has met with unqualified success in his chosen field.