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Composer  

 

Douglas Moore was an American composer who was born on August 10, 1893, in Cutchogue, New York. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister and grew up in a musical family. His mother was a pianist, and his father played the organ. Moore began playing the piano at a young age and showed a talent for music early on. Moore attended Yale University, where he studied music with Horatio Parker and David Stanley Smith. After graduating in 1917, he served in the U.S. Army during World War I. After the war, he studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, where he was a student of Percy Grainger. Moore's early compositions were influenced by the music of Debussy and Ravel, as well as by American folk music. He wrote his first opera, The Devil and Daniel Webster, in 1939. The opera was based on a short story by Stephen Vincent Benét and was a critical and popular success. It was later adapted into a film, which was released in 1941. Moore's other operas include The Ballad of Baby Doe, which premiered in 1956 and is based on the life of a Colorado mining magnate, and Giants in the Earth, which premiered in 1951 and is based on a novel by Ole Edvart Rølvaag. The Ballad of Baby Doe is considered to be Moore's masterpiece and is still performed today. Moore also wrote orchestral works, chamber music, and songs. His orchestral works include the Overture for the Jubilee of the New York Philharmonic, which was commissioned for the orchestra's 100th anniversary in 1942, and the Symphony in A, which was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1944. Moore was a professor of music at Columbia University from 1926 to 1962. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He received numerous awards and honors during his lifetime, including the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1951 for The Ballad of Baby Doe. Moore died on July 25, 1969, in Greenport, New York, at the age of 75. His legacy as a composer continues to be celebrated today, and his works are still performed by orchestras and opera companies around the world.

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