Title: Jerome Moross: An Introduction and Annotated Worklist
Abstract:Of the considerable number of accomplished American composers of the twentieth century, Jerome Moross (1 August 1913-25 July 1983, fig. 1) is one of the less familiar names, but he left an important l...Of the considerable number of accomplished American composers of the twentieth century, Jerome Moross (1 August 1913-25 July 1983, fig. 1) is one of the less familiar names, but he left an important legacy of music for stage, screen, and theater, and some of it is finding a new audience. Those who do recognize the composer's name generally know Moross's once notorious ballet Frankie and Johnny (1938), his cabaret standard "Lazy Afternoon" (from The Golden Apple, 1950, with lyrics by John Latouche), or his scores to such films as The Big Country (1958), and TheCardinal (1963).Some listeners familiar with all this music do not realize that it is the work of the same man, and that each piece represents only one aspect of a multifaceted composer. A new assessment of Moross's place in American music is overdue, and what follows is an attempt to place this body of work, which has fallen into relative and undeserved obscurity, in historical perspective, to make details known to potential listeners and performers, and to stimulate further research. The annotations in the worklist relate important biographical details to the relevant music, and this brief introduction attempts only to provide an overview of the career of Jerome Moross and a survey of his musical activities. The second of three sons born in Brooklyn to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Jerome Moross1 studied piano at any early age with his mother. He was a precocious child who graduated from high school several years ahead of schedule and from New York University at the age of eighteen. During the academic year 1931-32 (his final year at NYU), he [End Page 659] Click for larger view Figure 1 Jerome Moross, mid-1950s. Reproduced courtesy of Susanna Moross Tarjan and the Jerome Moross Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia UniversityRead More
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 3
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