Jerome Moross

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 578-580. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.

He created eight pieces of chamber music, 1964-78, and, his final work, the one-act opera 'Sorry, Wrong Number', based on Lucille Fletcher's famous thriller.

His own scores as film composer include The Proud Rebel (1958), The War Lord (1965) and Rachel, Rachel (1968).

He was nominated for an Academy Award for his lush, sweeping score of The Big Country (1958).

In addition to his film work, he was also active in composing music for television, his best work in the western series Gunsmoke (1955) and Wagon Train (1957).

The latter won the Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, 1953-4.

Moross worked in Hollywood from 1940 as composer/arranger, often in collaboration with Aaron Copland (eg.

Our Town (1940)), Hugo Friedhofer and Franz Waxman.

Moross also composed five ballets, of which 'Frankie and Johnny' (1938,for dancer Ruth Page) and 'The Golden Apple' (1954) were the most successful.

He wrote for many Broadway shows from 1935, beginning with 'Parade'.

Brooklyn-born composer and orchestrator, who graduated from New York University at the age of eighteen. A child prodigy, he was already an accomplished pianist at the age of five and began composing music three years later. His first serious work ('Paeans') was performed in public when he was seventeen, conducted by the great Bernard Herrmann. Other orchestral compositions included 'Those Everlasting Blues' (1932) and 'Beguine' (1934), notable for his usage of traditional American folk idioms.