While both Ethelbert Nevin and George Gershwin died before they were forty, Felix Arndt (1889–1918) failed even to reach the age of thirty. Like Holzmann he was a native New Yorker and a student of the Conservatory. He became staff pianist for various publishers and is reckoned to have made some three thousand piano rolls. Chief among his own compositions is the rhythmically invigorating novelty piece
Nola (1915), which is named after his wife—a fellow composer who survived him by almost sixty years.
Nola is played here in its original American orchestration by John S Zamecnik (1872–1953).
from notes by Andrew Lamb © 1998
