This Week In Texas Music History: William John Marsh

Art&Seek presents This Week in Texas Music History. Every week, we’ll spotlight a different moment and the musician who made it. This week, Texas music scholar Gary Hartman honors a non-Texan who played a vital role in helping us celebrate ours state’s heritage.

You can also hear This Week in Texas Music History on Friday on KXT and Saturday on KERA radio. But subscribe to the podcast so you won’t miss an episode. And our thanks to KUT public radio in Austin for helping us bring this segment to you. And if you’re a music lover, be sure to check out Track by Track, the bi-weekly podcast from Paul Slavens, host of KXT’s The Paul Slavens Show, heard Sunday night’s at 8.

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Musician, composer and educator William John Marsh died on Feb. 1, 1971, in Fort Worth. Marsh was born on June 24, 1880 in Liverpool, England, but he moved to Texas in 1904 and became a U.S. citizen in 1917. During the 1920s, he began working as a professor and choir director at Texas Christian University, where he composed more than 100 works, mainly classical, opera and religious music. In 1924, March wrote his best known composition, “Texas, Our Texas,” which would become the official state song. William John Marsh went on to win numerous awards and to serve as chairman of the Texas Composers Guild for nearly 30 years.