Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996

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Composed 1939.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

From the description of Allegro and andante : for orchestra / Miriam Gideon. [19--]. (Franklin & Marshall College). WorldCat record id: 51987576

Miriam Gideon (1906-1996) was a prolific American composer who was strongly interested in bridging literature and music.

In a varied career, she produced many musical settings and song cycles for poems, Jewish liturgical music and other orchestral pieces. Gideon first studied piano as a child. She graduated from Boston University in 1926 with a Bachelors degree in French and mathematics, after which she studied composition privately with Lazare Saminsky (1931?1934) and Roger Sessions (1935?1943). Gideon later received a Masters degree in literature from Columbia University (1946), as well as a doctorate in sacred music from the Jewish Theological Seminary (1981). During her career she taught composition at Brooklyn College, City College, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Manhattan School of Music. Gideon was a proponent of new music and she helped to form the American Composers Orchestra in 1977. From the 1970s onward she was often cited as a role model for young female composers, though she admitted later that she had never thought of herself as a woman composer before that time. Gideon's husband was the author/scholar Frederick Ewen.

From the description of Miriam Gideon papers, 1905-1992. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 58840496

The American composer Miriam Gideon (b Greeley, CO, 23 Oct 1906; d New York, 18 June 1996) grew up in Boston and, from age 10, New York. Her parents were a professor of literature and an elementary school teacher. Gideon began music lessons after her family moved to New York, studying piano with her uncle, Henry Gideon, and later with Hans Barth and Felix Fox. Gideon graduated from Boston University in 1926 with a BA in French and mathematics, after which she studied composition privately with Lazare Saminsky (1931 1934) and Roger Sessions (1935 1943). Gideon later received an MA in literature from Columbia University (1946), as well as a doctorate in sacred music from the Jewish Theological Seminary (1981). During her career she taught composition at Brooklyn College, City College, Jewish Theological Seminary and Manhattan School of Music. She also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Brooklyn College (1983), was only the second female composer to be inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1975), and received awards and commissions from, among others, the Ford, Rockefeller and Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundations.

Gideon was strongly interested in bridging literature and music and produced many musical settings and song cycles for poems, often in two languages. A prolific composer, she also produced music for two complete Jewish Sabbath services (including Shirat Miriam LShabbat, 1974); an opera ( Fortunato, 1958); and instrumental compositions, including pieces for orchestra ( Symphonia Brevis, 1953) string quartet (1946), and sonatas for flute (1943) and piano (1977). Her harmonic language was often atonal, though not systematically so (she described her music as free atonal). Gideon was a proponent of new music and helped form the American Composers Orchestra in 1977. From the 1970s onward she was often cited as a role model for young female composers, though she admitted later that she had never thought of herself as a woman composer before that time. Gideons husband was the author/scholar Frederick Ewen.

Sources:

Ardito, Linda. Gideon, Miriam, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 7 Jan. 2005), <http://www.grovemusic.com>

Kessler, Minuetta. Miriam Gideon: Doctor of Sacred Music in Composition. The Pen Woman, June 1985.

Kozinn, Allan. Miriam Gideon, 89, a Composer of Vocal and Orchestral Music. The New York Times, June 20, 1996, D21.

From the guide to the Miriam Gideon papers, 1905-1992, (The New York Public Library. Music Division.)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Mixco : three versions for low, medium, and high voices and piano / Miriam Gideon ; [words by Miguel Angel Asturias]. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Hommage à ma jeunesse = To my youth : sonatina for two pianos, 1935 / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Epitaphs from Robert Burns : [low voice] / [music by] Miriam Gideon ; [poems by] Robert Burns. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. A woman of valor = Eishet chayil : for voice and piano / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Allegro and andante : for orchestra / Miriam Gideon. Free Library of Philadelphia, Parkway Central Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. [Park Avenue Synagogue, May 3, 1974, complete Friday evening service] [sound recording] : [thirtieth annual service [of] new liturgical music [by contemporary composers] : Shirat Miriam l'Shabbat : archival tape / [music] by Miriam Gideon ; Cantor David J. Putterman and synagogue choir ; directed by Abraham Kaplan ; Neil Robinson, organ ; Rabbi Judah Nadich ; Nancy Lang, sound engineer]. Jewish Theological Seminary of America
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Fantasy on Irish folk-motives : for oboe, viola, bassoon (or cello), percussion (vibraphone, glockenspiel, tam-tam) / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Three Biblical masks : for organ / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Slow, slow, fresh fount : madrigal [for mixed voices] / Miriam Gideon ; [text by Ben Jonson]. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Rhymes from the hill : for voice, clarinet, cello, marimba : date of composition 1968 / Miriam Gideon. Library of Congress
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Ayelet hashakhar = Morning star : songs of childhood on Hebrew texts, [for voice and piano] / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. German songs : low voice / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. The shooting starres defend thee : a song cycle for high voice, flute, violin, cello / Miriam Gideon ; on poems by Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Samuel Menashe. New York Public Library System, NYPL
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Songs of voyage : low voice and piano / by Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. The habitable earth : a cantata, based on the Book of Proverbs : for soli, mixed chorus, oboe, and piano (or organ) / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Six cuckoos in quest of a composer : with apologies to Pirandello and others : suite for keyboard / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Quartet for strings (1946) / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
referencedIn The Moldenhauer Archives at Harvard University: Correspondence, literary manuscripts, sound recordings, and other material, 1873-2001. Houghton Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Spirit above the dust / Miriam Gideon. Library of Congress
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. To music : for voice and piano (high, medium, and low versions), 1957 / Miriam Gideon ; [words by Robert Herrick]. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Farewell tablet to Agathocles : medium voice and piano / Miriam Gideon ; [words by] Florence Wilkinson. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Sonnets from Shakespeare : for low voice and piano / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. The too-late born : for high voice and piano, 1939 / Miriam Gideon ; [text by Archibald MacLeish]. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Air for violin and piano / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gooding, David, 1935-. Music scores and papers, 1883-2007. Jewish Theological Seminary of America
creatorOf Putterman, David J., 1900-1979. [Synagogue music collection, Sabbath / compiled by David J. Putterman]. Jewish Theological Seminary of America
referencedIn Frederic Ewen Audiotape and Videotape Collection, 1954-1990 Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Divertimento for woodwind quartet / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Park Avenue Synagogue, May 3, 1974, complete Friday evening service [sound recording] : thirtieth annual service [of] new liturgical music [by contemporary composers] : Shirat Miriam l'Shabbat : archival tape / [music] by Miriam Gideon ; Cantor David J. Putterman and synagogue choir ; directed by Abraham Kaplan ; Neil Robinson, organ ; Rabbi Judah Nadich ; Nancy Lang, sound engineer. Jewish Theological Seminary of America
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Sonata for cello and piano / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Little ivory figures pulled with string : for voice and guitar, 1950 / Miriam Gideon ; [text by Amy Lowell]. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. May the words : for chorus, 1930 / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Miriam Gideon papers, 1905-1992. New York Public Library System, NYPL
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Where wild carnations blow : a song for David, for soloists, chorus, and instrumental ensemble / Miriam Gideon ; on a poem by Christopher Smart. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Adon olom = Lord God of all : for mixed chorus with piano or organ accompaniment / Miriam Gideon ; English version by Barrows Dunham. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Vergiftet sind meine Lieder : high voice, 1937 / Miriam Gideon ; [text by] Heine. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Sonnets from Fatal interview : for voice and string trio / [music by] Miriam Gideon ; [words by] Edna St. Vincent Millay. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Suite for clarinet (or bassoon) and piano / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Fortunato : a chamber opera in three scenes / based on the tragic farce by Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero ; music by Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Sweet western wind : for chorus / Miriam Gideon ; [text by] Robert Herrick. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. German songs : high voice / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Voices from Elysium : for high voice, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Trio for clarinet in A, cello, piano / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Adon olom = Lord God of all : for chorus, oboe, trumpet, and strings / Miriam Gideon ; English version by Barrows Dunham. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Böhmischer Krystall : from Pierrot Lunaire / Miriam Gideon ; [text] by Albert Giraud ; translated into German by Otto Erich Hartleben ; piano/vocal score. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Tango langoroso : for piano / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Poet to poet : a song cycle for high voice and piano / Miriam Gideon ; on poems by Robert Herrick, Lord Byron, Swinburne. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Eclogue : for flute and piano / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Songs of voyage : high voice and piano / by Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Shirat Miriam lʹShabbat : a Sabbath evening service : for cantor, mixed choir, organ / by Miriam Gideon. Jewish Theological Seminary of America
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Sonnets from Fatal interview : for voice and piano / [music by] Miriam Gideon ; [words by] Edna St. Vincent Millay. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Three-cornered pieces : for young musicians, [solo piano] / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Epitaphs from Robert Burns : [high voice] / Miriam Gideon ; [poems by Robert Burns]. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Fortunato [microform] : a chamber opera in three scenes / music by Miriam Gideon ; based on the tragic farce by Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero. New York Public Library System, NYPL
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Lockung : for high voice and piano, 1937 / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Lyric piece : for string quartet, 1955 / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Sonnets from Shakespeare : for high voice, trumpet, string quartet (or string orch.) / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Rondo appassionato : for pianoforte, violoncello, and percussion / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Sacred service : for soloists, choir, flute, oboe, trumpet, bassoon, viola, cello, organ / Miriam Gideon. Jewish Theological Seminary of America
creatorOf Miriam Gideon papers, 1905-1992 The New York Public Library. Music Division.
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Sonata for viola and piano / Miriam Gideon. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. She weeps over Rahoon : for high voice and piano, 1940 / Miriam Gideon ; [words by James Joyce]. McGill University Library
referencedIn Nicolas Slonimsky Collection, 1873-1997, (bulk 1920-1990) Library of Congress. Music Division
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Slow, slow, fresh fount : (men's voices) / Miriam Gideon ; [text by] Ben Jonson. McGill University Library
creatorOf Gideon, Miriam, 1906-1996. Böhmischer Krystall : from Pierrot Lunaire / Miriam Gideon ; [text] by Albert Giraud ; translated into German by Otto Erich Hartleben. McGill University Library
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Agathocles person
associatedWith Alvarez Quintero, Joaquín, 1873-1944. person
associatedWith Alvarez Quintero, Serafín, 1871-1938. person
associatedWith American Music Collection corporateBody
associatedWith Asturias, Miguel Angel person
associatedWith Burns, Robert, 1759-1796 person
associatedWith Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824 person
associatedWith Carew, Thomas, 1595?-1639? person
associatedWith Dunham, Barrows, 1905- person
associatedWith Evans, Florence Wilkinson person
associatedWith Ewen, Frederic, 1899- person
associatedWith Giraud, Albert, 1860-1929 person
associatedWith Gooding, David, 1935- person
associatedWith Hartleben, Otto Erich, 1864-1905. person
associatedWith Heine, Heinrich, 1797-1856 person
associatedWith Herrick, Robert, 1591-1674 person
associatedWith Jonson, Ben, 1573?-1637 person
associatedWith Joyce, James, 1882-1941 person
associatedWith Judah, ha-Levi, 12th cent. person
associatedWith Kaplan, Abraham, 1931- person
associatedWith Lang, Nancy. person
associatedWith Library of Congress. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation. corporateBody
associatedWith Lowell, Amy, 1874-1925 person
associatedWith MacLeish, Archibald, 1892-1982 person
associatedWith Menashe, Samuel, 1925-2011 person
associatedWith Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 1892-1950 person
correspondedWith Moldenhauer, Hans, collector. person
associatedWith Morgenstern, Christian, 1871-1914 person
associatedWith Nadich, Judah, 1912-2007. person
associatedWith Park Avenue Synagogue Choir (New York, N.Y.) corporateBody
associatedWith Park Avenue Synagogue Choir (New York, N.Y.) corporateBody
associatedWith Park Avenue Synagogue (New York, N.Y.) corporateBody
associatedWith Park Avenue Synagogue (New York, N.Y.) corporateBody
associatedWith Park Avenue Synagogue (New York, N.Y.) corporateBody
associatedWith Putterman, David J., 1900-1979. person
associatedWith Robinson, McNeil. person
associatedWith Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 person
correspondedWith Slonimsky, Nicolas, 1894-1995 person
associatedWith Smart, Christopher, 1722-1771 person
associatedWith Solis-Cohen, Solomon, 1857-1948. person
associatedWith Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 1837-1909 person
associatedWith Tifereth Israel (Cleveland, Ohio) corporateBody
associatedWith Voice of America (Organization) corporateBody
Place Name Admin Code Country
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
United States
Subject
Cantatas, Sacred (Mixed voices) with instrumental ensemble
Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices, 4 parts) with instrumental ensemble
Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices, 4 parts) with organ
Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices) with orchestra
Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices) with orchestra
Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices) with orchestra
Choruses, Secular (Men's voices, 4 parts), Unaccompanied
Choruses, Secular (Mixed voices (4 parts)), Unaccompanied
Choruses, Secular (Mixed voices) with instrumental ensemble
Jewish composers
Jewish composers
Flute and piano music
Jews
Madrigals, English
Music
Musical sketches
Operas
Operas
Operas
Orchestral music
Organ music
Piano music
Proverbs
Psalms (Music)
Psalms (Music)
Quartets (Bassoon, oboe, percussion, viola)
Quartets (Oboe, percussion, viola, violoncello)
Sacred songs (High voice) with organ
Sacred songs (High voice) with piano
Sacred songs (Medium voice) with organ
Sonatas (Pianos (2))
Sonatas (Viola and piano)
Sonatas (Violoncello and piano)
Song cycles
Songs (High voice) with instrumental ensemble
Songs (High voice) with instrumental ensemble
Songs (High voice) with instrumental ensemble, Arranged
Songs (High voice) with piano
Songs (High voice) with piano
Songs (High voice) with string orchestra
Songs (Low voice) with instrumental ensemble
Songs (Low voice) with piano
Songs (Low voice) with string orchestra
Songs (Medium voice) with instrumental ensemble
Songs (Medium voice) with instrumental ensemble
Songs (Medium voice) with piano
Songs with guitar
Sound recordings
String quartets
String quartets
Suites (Bassoon and piano)
Suites (Clarinet and piano)
Suites (Piano)
Synagogue music
Synagogue music
Synagogue music
Tangos
Trios (Piano, clarinet, violoncello)
Trios (Piano, percussion, violoncello)
Violin and piano music
Women composers
Women composers
Women composers
Woodwind quartets (Bassoon, clarinet, flute, oboe)
Occupation
Composers
Activity

Person

Birth 1906-10-23

Death 1996-06-18

Americans

Hebrew,

German,

English

Information

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