Douglas Moore - Music

Music

Moore's music is somewhat difficult to pigeonhole. Under the course of his artistic career he developed a highly personal musical language, basically romantic and richly tonal but with strong links to American folk music.

Influence during his musical education came especially from his teacher d'Indy (he didn't get on too well with Boulanger), at the Schola Cantorum de Paris, whose harmonic treatment had quite a large influence on Moore. Even his late compositions carry a certain whiff of d'Indy's techniques.

Moore is sometimes viewed as a conservative mainly because he tended to resist influence of the various musical vogues that arose, and ultimately fell, during his life. His chosen style was what some regard as "typically American" i.e. based on American folk music, though Moore never actually used any authentic folk tunes but rather created his own (much like Gustav Holst or Falla). The creation of this style was greatly bolstered by Vachel Lindsay in the twenties, though Moore also allowed other styles influence him, such as jazz and ragtime. This is most readily apparent in his operas. The Ballad of Baby Doe has several rag elements (a honky-tonk piano is used extensively in the first scene) and in his 1958 "soap opera" Gallantry, the commercials for Lochinvar soap and Billy Boy wax are sung in a blueslike fashion. Furthermore, the allegretto from his second symphony has an almost neoclassical clarity to it.

He is sometimes compared to Virgil Thomson and Aaron Copland.

One distinguishing characteristic of Douglas Moore's music is the modesty, grace and tender lyricism that mark the slower passages of his many works, especially his Symphony in A major and the clarinet quintet. The faster movements of the aforementioned compositions have a robust, jovial and a somewhat terpsichorean quality. Admittedly though, Moore was slower in development when it came to purely orchestral works and most of his energy was directed towards opera,. He wrote eight operas, mostly on American subjects, though one notable exception is Giants in the Earth which concerns Norwegian immigrants.

The Grove Dictionary of Music evaluates Moore by saying "Time has not been kind to Moore's work." It is likely that despite all the other music he wrote, he will only be remembered for The Ballad of Baby Doe.