Spelman was a native of Brooklyn, and studied in New York with Harry Rowe Shelley in 1908; further study came with Albert Spalding and Edward Burlingame Hill at Harvard University from 1909 until 1913, and from 1913 to 1915 with Walter Courvoisier at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.
In 1918 he and his wife, the poet Leolyn Louise Everett, returned to Europe and settled in Florence; except for the years between 1935 and 1947, during which the couple returned to the United States, he spent the rest of his life resident in Italy.
[1] Spelman's music is reminiscent more of Impressionism and European Romanticism, and typically received more performances in Europe than in his native country.
[1] Spelman's manuscripts are held at the Peabody Institute Library of Johns Hopkins University,[3] as is a collection of other family papers.
This article about a United States composer born in the 19th century is a stub.