After receiving a solid education in organ, piano, harmony and counterpoint from the German musician Kotschmar in Maine, Paine left to study at the Hochschule fur Musik at Berlin. There he continued his work in organ, composition and orchestration and began performing on organ for such notables as Clara Schumann. During this time he adopted the German style as his own. Upon his return to Boston in 1861, Paine began an organ recital and lecture series that eventually landed him a position at Harvard as the first professor of music in an American university. He was a leading member of the Boston music scene as a teacher of many distinguished musicians and as advocate for the development of music pedagogy in the university system. His music was greatly respected during his prime and received many favorable reviews. Paine's early works were academic but pleasing. Despite an early renunciation of the corruption of chromaticism, he began to incorporate the technique in later works, without as much success. His most important later work is the prelude to Oedipus tyrannus. His music is strongly tonal and sensitively orchestrated with increasing chromaticism and complexity in later years. ~ Lynn Vought, Rovi