Morton Gould

Gould's music is characterized by rhythmic exuberance, brilliant orchestration, and a gift for absorbing American vernacular styles — jazz, blues, folk, Latin, Broadway — into sophisticated concert forms. His orchestral textures are bright and transparent, his sense of timing is impeccable, and his ability to make complex music sound effortless and entertaining is virtually unmatched among American composers.

A child prodigy who published his first composition at age six, he studied at the Institute of Musical Art (later Juilliard). He admired Copland but carved his own more populist path. His radio and recording career connected him to a vast audience, and his conducting brought him close to the orchestral repertoire. He served as president of ASCAP and was a tireless advocate for American composers.

He was a radio sensation in his twenties, composing and conducting for CBS. Through the mid-century he produced a stream of orchestral, band, and theatrical works while building a parallel career as a conductor and recording artist. His later works grew somewhat more serious and concentrated, culminating in the Pulitzer-winning Stringmusic. His band music has remained in constant performance.

Gould's Pulitzer Prize for his Stringmusic in 1995 came when he was 81 years old — one of the latest-career Pulitzer wins ever. He died just nine months later. The recognition was bittersweet: he'd been one of America's most performed composers for decades, but the classical establishment had long treated him as 'too popular' or 'too accessible' for serious consideration.

Gould composed the iconic 'American Salute' (based on 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home') in 1943 — one of the most played patriotic concert pieces in America. But his concert works like the Latin-American Symphonette and Fall River Legend ballet are far more substantial and deserve wider recognition.

Gould's lighter works — American Salute, excerpts from the Symphonettes — appear regularly on pops programs. His serious concert works are underperformed by major orchestras, though the wind ensemble world keeps his band pieces alive. Fall River Legend deserves revival. He's a classic case of a composer pigeonholed as 'popular' when his best music is genuinely sophisticated and deeply American.