W. S. B. (William Smythe Babcock) Mathews

Born in Loudon, New Hampshire, in 1837, William Smythe Babcock Mathews studied music in Boston and at Highland University in Illinois before beginning a career in teaching and church music. He taught at Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia, and later settled in Chicago, where he became an organist, editor, and an important voice in the city’s growing musical culture.

Mathews is especially remembered as a music critic and author. He edited the Musical Independent, wrote criticism for major Chicago newspapers, and published books that introduced readers to composers, musical forms, and the history of the art. Among his best-known works are A Popular History of the Art of Music, The Masters and Their Music, and A Hundred Years of Music in America.

What makes his writing still appealing is its clear, welcoming tone. Rather than writing only for specialists, he tried to help ordinary listeners and students hear music with more understanding and enjoyment. He died in Denver, Colorado, in 1912, leaving behind a body of work that reflects both deep enthusiasm and a teacher’s instinct for explanation.