William Arms Fisher

William Arms Fisher (April 27, 1861 – December 18, 1948) was an American composer, music historian and writer.

Intended for a business career, he was led to devote himself entirely to music, and with that end in view he left California in 1890 and went to New York City.

Later William Arms Fisher wrote a text to the cor anglais tune in the second movement, entitled "Goin' Home", which has been mistaken for a Negro spiritual.

In response to the challenge and the symphony, William Arms Fisher published an arrangement of Seventy Negro Spirituals in 1926.

[6] A February 1927 article in the NAACP paper The Crisis calls William Arms Fisher "a worthy pupil and disciple of Dvořák" and asks rhetorically if he "would waste his time over futile music.

1927 photograph of Mrs. William Arms Fisher (Emma Roderick Hinckle). Fisher's wife was the vice-president of the National Federation of Music Clubs at the time this photo was taken. [ 1 ]