William Henry Fry

William Henry Fry (August 10, 1813 – December 21, 1864) was an American composer, music critic, and journalist.

Fry was the first known person born in the United States to write for a large symphony orchestra, and the first to compose a publicly performed opera.

His Santa Claus: Christmas Symphony of 1853, which was very well received by audiences but derided by many of Fry's rival critics, may be the first orchestral use of the saxophone, invented barely a decade before.

His 1854 Niagara Symphony, written for Louis Jullien's orchestra, uses eleven timpani to create the roar of the waters, snare drums to reproduce the hiss of the spray, and a remarkable series of discordant, chromatic descending scales to reproduce the chaos of the falling waters as they crash onto the rocks.

William Henry Fry died at age 51 on December 21, 1864, in Saint Croix in the Virgin Islands.

This edition is part of a larger multi-volume set and contains a newly copied version of the Santa Claus Symphony, based on the manuscript held in the Fleisher Collection, now at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The introduction includes a short biography of Fry as well as specific information about the composition of the symphony and its critical reception.