Harold Morris (March 17, 1890 – May 6, 1964) was an American pianist, composer and educator. Morris was born in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

. He graduated from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 1910 and received his master's degree from the

Cincinnati Conservatory of Music The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was a conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school, founded in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, wh ...

in 1922. He married Cosby Dansby, August 20, 1914; the couple had one daughter. Morris moved from his native

to New York in 1916.

Performances and compositions

Morris toured extensively as a recitalist and soloist and his compositions were performed frequently during his lifetime. He made his New York concert debut in recital in January 1921 at Aeolian Hall, with a program of Brahms, Busoni, Chopin, Godowsky, Cyril Scott and Charles T. Griffes. On November 21, 1931, Morris was the piano soloist for a performance of his Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Morris' composition, ''Poem'' was performed by violinist and conductor

Eugène Ysaÿe Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe (; 16 July 185812 May 1931) was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar". Legend of the Ysaÿe violin Eugène Ysa� ...

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

with the Cincinnati Orchestra on November 29, 1918. Violinist Josef Stransky performed the work at Carnegie Hall with the Philadelphia Orchestra three months later.

Teaching career

Morris taught at the Juilliard School of Music from 1922 to 1939, at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

from 1939 to 1946, and at The Castle School in

Tarrytown, New York Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North ...

. Morris also taught at his studio in Manhattan, at

Rice Institute The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is an international agricultural research and training organization with its headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, in the Philippines, and offices in seventeen countries. IRRI is known for its work ...

(1933), Duke University (1939–40), and the

. He died in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Leadership and Affiliations

Morris was one of the principal founders of the American Music Guild in New York in 1921. He served as United States director of the

International Society for Contemporary Music The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music. The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following th ...

from 1936 to 1940. From 1937 to 1963, Morris served variously as Vice President and Program Committee Chairman of the National Association of American Composers and Conductors.

Selected Compositions

''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'', Seventh Edition, Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky, Schirmer Books, New York, 1984

For Orchestra

* ''Poem'', after Tagore's ''

Gitanjali __NOTOC__ ''Gitanjali'' ( bn, গীতাঞ্জলি, lit='Song offering') is a collection of poems by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature, for the English translation, Gitanjali:'' Song Off ...

'' (1918) * ''Dum-a-Lum'', variations on a Negro spiritual (1925) * Piano Concerto on Two Negro Themes (1931) * Symphony No. 1, after Browning's ''Prospice'' (1934) * Violin Concerto (1939) * Passacaglia and Fugue (1939) * ''Suite'' (1941) * American Epic (1942) * Heroic Overture (1943) * Symphony No. 2, "Victory" (1943) * Symphony No. 3, "Amaranth" (1948)

Chamber music

* Piano Sonata in B-flat minor, Op. 2 * Opus No. 3 (1915) (solo piano) * Violin Sonata * ''Prologue and Scherzo'' (flute, violin, cello and piano) * ''Rhapsody'' (flute, cello, and piano)

Footnotes

External links

* (John Ranck, pianist) {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Harold American male composers University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music alumni University of Texas at Austin alumni University of Texas at Austin faculty Columbia University faculty Juilliard School faculty Rice University faculty Duke University faculty Texas classical music American music educators 1890 births 1964 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American pianists American male pianists 20th-century American male musicians