Arthur Fickénscher, composer, pianist, teacher and inventor, was born to George W. and Elizabeth Wagner Fickénscher on March 9, 1871, in Aurora, Illinois. His musical education began at an early age; learning violin and piano under the tutelage and guidance of his music instructor father, he gave his first recital at age six. He spent his later formative years (1883-1889) as a student in Munich, Germany attending the Hochschule der Musikand the Royal Academy from which he graduated with unprecedented honors after studying under such notables in music theory and composition as Joseph Rheinberger and Ludwig Thuille. Upon returning to Illinois, Fickénscher taught piano privately to students and gave formal concert performances around the Chicago area. His reputation as an accomplished pianist and accompanist led to his participation in concert tours throughout the United States and Mexico with many of the distinguished singers of the day such as the great Wagnerian tenor, Anton Shott; Nikita, soprano of the Russian opera; Materna; David Bispham and Madame Shumann-Heink. These tours enhanced his reputation and allowed his piano mastery and musical artistry wide recognition.

In 1896, Fickénscher settled in San Francisco where he taught and coached young singers and studied the potentialities of the human voice. He also began to immerse himself in the composition of original music, being particularly drawn by the influence of the English poets of the Renaissance, Dante Rossetti and William Morris. In 1901, he married Edith Cruzan, an opera and concert singer whose theatrical and musical talents matched his own as they became an acclaimed recital team throughout the west coast. While living in San Francisco, the Fickénschers experienced the great earthquake of 1906. In the fire that devastated the city, they lost their home and many of their possessions including papers, press clippings, memorabilia and compositional manuscripts relating to their concert activities and Fickénscher's early music works.

In 1911, Fickénscher returned to Germany with his wife and young daughter, Arditha. He established a studio in Berlin providing vocal instruction to students and undertook a series of joint recitals with his wife that introduced them to admiring European audiences. In that period, his choral-orchestral poem, and the orchestral-choral symphonic poem, were performed to positive reviews in concert presentations. Fickénscher also continued to pursue his idea of perfecting a keyboard for pure intonation and was granted a patent for its design in Germany in 1912.

At the outbreak of World War I, the Fickénschers returned to California. They opened a studio in both Oakland and in San Francisco to instruct and train singers, resumed their joint recital programs and lectures and soon became a couple in great demand in the music circles in the area and beyond. That demand induced them in 1917 to move to New York City, to again teach students and to present themselves in recital and concert programs to metropolitan music lovers.

A major change in Fickénscher's career style took place three years later. In 1920 he accepted an invitation from Edwin A. Alderman, then president of the University of Virginiain Charlottesville, to serve as head of the newly established music department. Over the next 14 years he devoted himself in quiet dignity, but tireless energy to the challenge of organizing, developing and directing the administration of the department. He taught students; gave leadership to the University Glee Cluband presented major concerts in Washington, Baltimore, New Orleans, Richmond and numerous other cities and towns throughout Virginia. He established the Albemarle Choral Club; conducted the University of Virginia and the Norfolk Symphonyorchestras; participated in ensemble recitals, every 2 weeks over a period of 11 years and, in 1938, conducted a fully staged mimo-drama of his work, at the University. He performed organ recitals in the University's McIntire Amphitheater; provided piano accompaniment to students in vocal programs and instituted the McIntire Concertsprogram which featured such renowned artists as, Barrère, Alda, Novaes, Homer, Casals, Ponselle, Martinelli and Zimbalist. With all this, he still found time to arrange the settings of numerous college football songs; to serve as the regular organist at Christ Episcopal Churchin Charlottesville and to continue work on his music compositions and on the development and construction of the "Polytone," his idea of a workable intonation keyboard which he designed to subdivide the octave into 60 tones.

In 1941, Fickénscher retired from the University of Virginia and returned to Fairfax in Marin County in California. There he worked to complete his major unfinished orchestral-choral symphonic poem, and to publish an article on the Polytone which he had patented in February 1941. The article, "The Polytone and the Potentialities of a Purer Intonation," appeared in (July, 1941). In May, 1946, he participated in concert at Florida State Teacher's College, conducting with the Australian-American composer, Percy Grainger at the piano and, as pianist, joining a string quartet to play the .

In 1947, the Fickénschers relocated to the city of San Francisco to spend their remaining years near their daughter. Edith Fickénscher died on January 9, 1950 and Arthur Fickénscher on April, 15, 1954. Some years later, in 1983, their ashes were spread over the grounds of the University of Virginia cemetery near the grave of their close friends, James Southall Wilson and his wife Julia by two devoted former students and lifelong friends and associates, Robert Septimus Pace, Jr. and William W. Jones.

As a composer, Arthur Fickénscher was influenced by Bach, Wagner and César Franck. His work reflected contemporary trends and was cast in a "sensuous mysticism" that intrigued many of his musical colleagues, particularly Percy Grainger (1882-1961) who considered Fickénscher to be one of the few musical geniuses of the 20th century.