# Elliot Griffis

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**John Elliot Griffis** (January 28, 1893 – 1967) was an American composer.

Born in [Boston](/source/Boston), the son of the noted Orientalist [William Elliot Griffis](/source/William_Elliot_Griffis), he attended public schools in [Ithaca, New York](/source/Ithaca,_New_York), as well as [The Manlius School](/source/The_Manlius_School) before going to [Ithaca College](/source/Ithaca_College). He went to [Yale University](/source/Yale_University) to work with [Horatio Parker](/source/Horatio_Parker) from 1913 until 1915, and studied at the [New England Conservatory of Music](/source/New_England_Conservatory_of_Music) with [Daniel Gregory Mason](/source/Daniel_Gregory_Mason), [Harry Newton Redman](/source/Harry_Newton_Redman), and [George Whitefield Chadwick](/source/George_Whitefield_Chadwick) before serving in the [United States Army](/source/United_States_Army). In 1931, he was awarded a Pulitzer Fellowship for his String Quartet in C Major. [1] (This was twelve years before the Pulitzer Prize for Music was first awarded in 1943.)

Griffis taught at [Grinnell College](/source/Grinnell_College), the [Westchester Conservatory of Music](/source/Westchester_Conservatory_of_Music) and the [St. Louis Conservatory of Music](/source/St._Louis_Conservatory_of_Music) before settling in [Los Angeles](/source/Los_Angeles). Much of his output was [chamber music](/source/Chamber_music), especially piano pieces and songs; he did, however, compose some works for [orchestra](/source/Orchestra) and one [opera](/source/Opera), 1963's *The Port of Pleasure*. He died in 1967 and is buried at [Vale Cemetery](/source/Vale_Cemetery) in [Schenectady, New York](/source/Schenectady,_New_York).

## References

1. [\[1\]](https://www.newspapers.com/image/255040930/)(unattributed author) "Former Ithaca Musicians On Program," *The Ithaca Journal* April 26, 1939, p. 5.

- Howard, John Tasker (1939). *Our American Music: Three Hundred Years of It*. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.
- [Griffis's papers at the University of Texas at Austin](https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00368)

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