Lilt And Charm

Open the door to almost any room in the house of music, and you're likely to find that Morton Gould has been there, busy making his mark. He has made a name for himself as a composer of symphonic works. He has writ­ten music for the movies, for the ballet, for television, for the musical stage, for band. He has flavored his works with a Western twang (Cowboy Rhapsody), a Southern drawl (Spirituals for orchestra), a Latin beat (Latin ­American Symphonette), even baroque an­tiphony ( Venice and Vivadi Gallery). His music has originality and directness. A gift for inventing winning, hummable melodies, the use of syncopated rhythms wedded to classical patterns and structures, and a color­ful instrumental palette are earmarks of his accessible, appealing, decidedly American style.

Gould was born December 10, 1913 in Richmond llill, New York. lie started his musical career at the age of four when he began playing the piano. By the time he was six the prodigy of long Island was already composing. At eight he studied at the Institute of Musical Art but subsequently studied mostly with Abby Whiteside, piano and Dr. Vincent Jones, composition. In 1932. still in his teens. he was hired as staff pianist at Radio City Music Hall. After that he went to work for the National Broadcasting Company. At 21 he was hired by the Mutual Radio Network as a conductor-arranger at radio station WOR in New York. On his broadcasts. listeners first heard some of his enduring popular works, including his Pavanne, American Salute, and Latin-American Symphonette.

It was not long before great American or­chestras, including the Cleveland under Ar­thur Rodzinski, the Pittsburgh under Fritz Reiner. the New York Philharmonic under Mitropoulos. and the NBC Symphony under Toscanini. were playing and recording his compositions. Agnes de Mille choreograph-ed his Fall River Legend. Jerome Robbins his Interplay and I'm Old Fashioned. For Broad­way he wrote the scores for Billion Dollar Baby in 1950; and Arms and the Girl in 1950; for the movies music for Delightfully Dangerous (in which he also appeared). Cinerama Holiday, and Windjammer; for television music for the CBS documentary series "World War I" and the poignant score for the NBC "Holocaust" miniseries. Over the years Gould has been honored with a variety of major awards, including the Gold Baton Award from the American Symphony Or­chestra League and election to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and letters.

In 1986 he was elected president of ASCAP. the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.

His Spirituals for Orchestra (1940) has entered the concert repertoire as a standard work and has been recorded numerous times. Other recordings of Gould's music over the years--some, alas, already out of print--have included his Burchfield Gallery, Apple Waltzes, Jekyll and Hyde Variations, Suite from Declaration, Interplay, Fall River Legend, Latin-American Symphonette, American Salute, Venice, and Vivaldi Gallery. Now the Musical Heritage Society of­fers a new collection of three beguiling works by Gould in a recorded concert of characteristic freshness and brilliance.

The Concerto Concertante, commissioned by the McKim Fund of the Library of Congress and completed in 1982, is a work in seven movements in what the composer has describ­ed as "neo-baroque" style. It opens with the sound of an offstage violin to create the ef­fect of music heard from a distance. There is a "Prologue"," a "Processional," a "Toccata," a "Meditation," a "Humoresque," a hearty movement entitled "Flourishes," and an "Epilogue." In typical Gould fashion, ex­hilarating, jagged rhythmic patterns are set off by serene lyrical ones. At the close, the sound of the violin once more recedes into the distance; and three exclamations, from the piano and wind instruments bring the concer­to to a sudden, unexpected end. The first per­formance was at the Library of Congress. Washington, DC, October 29, 1983. Elmar Oliveira was the violin soloist, with Walter Ponce, piano. and the New Amsterdam Ensemble.

'Cellos, one of Gould's most recent scores. was completed in 1984. It is played by an eight-part cello ensemble divided into two quartets, and exploits all the coloristic possibilities of the instrument. The work was commissioned by the Arizona State University Centennial Commission for the Second Cello Congress. and was first performed in June 1984 with Mstislav Rostropovich conducting.

Pavanne. first heard over the Mutual Radio Network in 1938, was originally a movement in his American Symphonette no. 2. The ar­rangement by Laurence Taylor heard on this release is for woodwind quintet. The lilt and charm of this piece have earned it considerable popularity in many guises, as a piano solo as well as in all sorts of instrumental combinations.