Morton Gould

Morton Gould came up through American radio. Born in Richmond Hill, Queens, in 1913, he was a piano prodigy who had a composition published at age six, and by his twenties he was conducting and arranging weekly broadcast programs in New York, writing for whatever the show needed. That training left its mark: his concert music borrows freely from jazz, folk tunes, hymns, marches, and Broadway, all handled with an arranger's polish.

He moved easily between worlds that usually ignore each other, composing ballets and symphonies while also writing for television and film, conducting major orchestras, and serving for years as president of ASCAP, the organization that collects royalties for songwriters. Recognition from the classical establishment came late: he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1995, the year before he died.

Start almost anywhere in his orchestral Americana; the short, tuneful pieces he honed for radio audiences are where his energy and craft come through best.