Sunset in a Japanese Garden

And now for something really different...

Fay Foster (November 8, 1886 – April 17, 1960) was an American composer and teacher.

Foster was born in Leavenworth, Kansas on November 8, 1886, and studied under the W.H. Sherwood, Gleason, and Mme. Boitte at the Chicago Conservatory, then later under H. Schwartz at the Munich Conservatory, and finally under A. Reisenauer and S. Jadassohn at the Leipzig Conservatory.

Foster taught at the Ogontz School, Rydall, and in New York, San Francisco, and Berlin. She was a member of the Society of American Women Composers.

In 1910, her waltz "Prairie Flowers" won the International Waltz Competition in Berlin. She won first place in the American Composers Competition in 1913. Her song "Are You For Me or Against Me?" won a prize in 1919 from the New York American, a competition with over 10,000 applicants. Foster was the only woman composer to win a prize. Her song "The Americans Come (An Episode in France in the Year 1918)" was named "her greatest contribution" in the 1924 publication Biographical Cyclopedia of American Women. Author Richard Rubin wrote that Foster "was a musician of some repute".

"Sunset in a Japanese Garden" was first published in 1917 by the Oliver Ditson Company. Originally a piano solo, the organ version was arranged by Humphrey John Stewart.

Stewart (22 May 1856 – 1932) was an American composer and organist, born in England, coming to the US in 1886, and served for many years as a church organist on the West Coast. In 1898, he was awarded a doctorate degree in music from the University of the Pacific. In 1901, he accepted a position at Trinity Church in Boston, but after two years he returned to San Francisco. In 1915, Stewart took a position as organist at the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, and stayed in that city for many years, playing organ concerts at Balboa Park. He was a founding member of the AGO.

The score is attached below, as well as photos of Foster and Stewart.