Introduction

Biography

Henry was the son of Or­son Per­kins and bro­ther of Will­iam Per­kins.

He in­her­it­ed mu­sic­al tal­ent from his par­ents: his fa­ther was a not­ed sing­ing teach­er, and his mo­ther an ex­cel­lent vo­cal­ist.

He re­ceived his first mu­sic­al train­ing from his fa­ther, and at­tend­ed some of the best li­ter­ary schools in his youth. His for­mal mu­sic ed­uc­a­tion be­gan in 1857, when he en­tered the Bos­ton Mu­sic School, where he gra­du­at­ed in 1861.

For over 20 years, Per­kins de­vot­ed con­sid­er­a­ble time to con­duct­ing mu­sic fes­ti­vals and con­ven­tions through­out Am­er­ica, from Maine to Ca­li­for­nia, and in teach­ing in nor­mal mu­sic schools in New York, Ohio, In­di­ana, Wis­con­sin, Io­wa, Col­o­ra­do, Kan­sas, and Tex­as.

He al­so served as Pro­fess­or of Mu­sic at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Io­wa (1867–69); prin­ci­pal of the Io­wa Aca­de­my of Mu­sic, Io­wa City, for five years; and prin­ci­pal at the Kan­sas Nor­mal Mu­sic School for five con­se­cu­tive sum­mers.

He com­posed vo­cal mu­sic for choirs, Sun­day schools, pub­lic schools, cho­ral so­cie­ties, con­ven­tions and fes­ti­vals.

He helped or­gan­ize the Mu­sic Teach­ers’ Na­tion­al As­so­cia­tion in 1876, and served in near­ly ev­ery of­fi­cial ca­pa­ci­ty in that or­gan­i­za­tion, 1887–97.

He al­so or­gan­ized the Il­li­nois Mu­sic Teach­ers’ As­so­cia­tion in 1886, and served as its pre­si­dent for 10 years.

He set­tled in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, in 1872, and was a not­ed mu­sic cri­tic for pa­pers there. In 1891, he es­tab­lished the Chi­ca­go Na­tion­al Col­lege of Mu­sic.

Works

• The Night­in­gale, 1860
• Sabbath School Trum­pet, 1864
• Church Bell, 1867
• College Hymn and Tune Book, 1868
• Perkins’ Vo­cal Me­thod, 1868
• Song Echo, 1871
• Advance, 1872
• The Ri­ver of Life, with War­ren Bent­ley (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Ol­iv­er Dit­son, 1873)
• Headlight, 1873
• Convention Cho­rus­es, 1874
• The Sun­ny Side, with Charles W. Wendte (New York: Will­iam A. Pond, 1875)
• The Shin­ing Ri­ver, with Will­iam Per­kins (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Ol­iv­er Dit­son, 1875)
• New Cen­tu­ry, 1876
• Glee and Cho­rus Book, 1876
• Graded Mu­sic Read­er, 1877, 1878
• Glorious Tid­ings, with War­ren Bent­ley (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chusetts: White, Smith, 1878)
• Perkins’ Class and Choir, 1879
• Perkins’ Grad­ed An­thems, 1880
• Palms of Vic­to­ry, 1880
• Model Class Book, 1881
• Good Tem­plar, 1881
• Song Wave, 1882
• The Wave­let, 1882
• The Choir, 1883