Mary Carr Moore
Encyclopedia
Mary Carr Moore was an American
composer
, conductor
, vocalist, and music
educator of the twentieth century. She is best remembered today for her association with the musical life of the West Coast
.
, to Unitarian
minister Sara Pratt Carr and her husband. She passed her childhood in Memphis and Louisville, Kentucky
until the age of ten, when her family moved to the West Coast. Here she would live for the rest of her life. Gifted musically from an early age, Moore began her studies in San Francisco, taking composition lessons from J. H. Pratt and studying singing with H. B. Pasmore. She had begun teaching and composing by 1889; a song she wrote that year was later published. In 1894 she took the lead in her first operetta, The Oracle, when it was premiered by an amateur group in San Francisco. The following year, she gave up singing to devote herself fully to teaching and composition. In 1895 she began teaching in Lemoore, California
, moving to Seattle in 1901.
told the story of Marcus
and Narcissa Whitman
and the attack on their mission in Walla Walla
in 1847. Sara Carr wrote the libretto
. Several distinguished artists were imported from New York City
to perform in the premiere, held in Seattle in 1912. No conductor was available; consequently, Moore herself took to the podium. The opera failed to gain a place in the repertory, and soon disappeared, although Moore conducted revivals in San Francisco in 1925 and Los Angeles
in 1945.
; she chose as her subject an episode in the life of Mary, Queen of Scots. David Rizzio, a grand opera in two acts, was Moore's only work written to an Italian
libretto. When the performance in Venice fell through, a group of amateur organizations banded together and produced the work in Los Angeles
.
, and from 1926 to 1943 she was on the faculty of the Olga Steeb Piano School. She also worked to promote American music, organizing an American Music Center
in Seattle in 1909 and aiding from 1936 to 1942 in the performance of music by local composers in Los Angeles; this last was done under the auspices of the Federal Music Project
. In 1930, Narcissa belatedly won a Bispham Memorial Medal Award
; in 1936 Moore was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from Chapman. She died on January 9, 1957 in Inglewood, California
, and is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery
.
. In later works, such as David Rizzio, Moore made greater use of the whole tone scale
, yet her style remained basically tonal until the end of her career. She was violently anti-modernist; supposedly, she once left a performance of an avante-garde piece because it was making her physically ill.
Moore was sometimes classed as a member of the First Los Angeles School of composers.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, vocalist, and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
educator of the twentieth century. She is best remembered today for her association with the musical life of the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
.
Early life
Moore was born Mary Louise Carr on August 6, 1873, in Memphis, TennesseeMemphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, to Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
minister Sara Pratt Carr and her husband. She passed her childhood in Memphis and Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
until the age of ten, when her family moved to the West Coast. Here she would live for the rest of her life. Gifted musically from an early age, Moore began her studies in San Francisco, taking composition lessons from J. H. Pratt and studying singing with H. B. Pasmore. She had begun teaching and composing by 1889; a song she wrote that year was later published. In 1894 she took the lead in her first operetta, The Oracle, when it was premiered by an amateur group in San Francisco. The following year, she gave up singing to devote herself fully to teaching and composition. In 1895 she began teaching in Lemoore, California
Lemoore, California
Lemoore is a city in Kings County, California, United States. Lemoore is located west-southwest of Hanford, at an elevation of 230 feet . It is part of the Hanford–Corcoran Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, moving to Seattle in 1901.
Narcissa
While in Seattle, Moore began work on her second, and most ambitious, stage work. Titled Narcissa, or The Cost of Empire, the four-act grand operaGrand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
told the story of Marcus
Marcus Whitman
Marcus Whitman was an American physician and Oregon missionary in the Oregon Country. Along with his wife Narcissa Whitman he started a mission in what is now southeastern Washington state in 1836, which would later become a stop along the Oregon Trail...
and Narcissa Whitman
Narcissa Whitman
Narcissa Prentiss Whitman was an American missionary in the Oregon Country of what would become the state of Washington. Along with Eliza Hart Spalding , she was the first European-American woman to cross the Rocky Mountains in 1836 on her way to found the Protestant Whitman Mission with husband Dr...
and the attack on their mission in Walla Walla
Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,731 at the 2010 census...
in 1847. Sara Carr wrote the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
. Several distinguished artists were imported from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to perform in the premiere, held in Seattle in 1912. No conductor was available; consequently, Moore herself took to the podium. The opera failed to gain a place in the repertory, and soon disappeared, although Moore conducted revivals in San Francisco in 1925 and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 1945.
David Rizzio
In 1932, Moore was commissioned to compose an opera for production in VeniceVenice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
; she chose as her subject an episode in the life of Mary, Queen of Scots. David Rizzio, a grand opera in two acts, was Moore's only work written to an Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
libretto. When the performance in Venice fell through, a group of amateur organizations banded together and produced the work in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Later career
Moore continued composing operas after David Rizzio, although none met with much success. She had moved to Los Angeles in 1926, and was to remain there for the rest of her life; from 1928 to 1947 she taught theory and composition at Chapman College in OrangeOrange, California
Southern California is well-known for year-round pleasant weather: - On average, the warmest month is August. - The highest recorded temperature was in 1985. - On average, the coolest month is December. - The lowest recorded temperature was in 1950...
, and from 1926 to 1943 she was on the faculty of the Olga Steeb Piano School. She also worked to promote American music, organizing an American Music Center
American Music Center
The American Music Center is a non-profit organization which aims to promote the creating, performing, and enjoying new American music. The organization was founded in 1939 by composers Marion Bauer, Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, Harrison Kerr, Otto Luening, and Quincy Porter.The organization has a...
in Seattle in 1909 and aiding from 1936 to 1942 in the performance of music by local composers in Los Angeles; this last was done under the auspices of the Federal Music Project
Federal Music Project
The Federal Music Project , part of the Federal government of the United States New Deal program Federal One, employed musicians, conductors and composers during the Great Depression. People in the music world had been particularly hard-hit by the era's economic downturn...
. In 1930, Narcissa belatedly won a Bispham Memorial Medal Award
Bispham Memorial Medal Award
The Bispham Memorial Medal Award was an award for operas written in English which was presented annually by the American Opera Society of Chicago from 1921-1932. The award was named for baritone David Bispham, who was a great proponent of performing opera in English in the United States. It was...
; in 1936 Moore was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from Chapman. She died on January 9, 1957 in Inglewood, California
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...
, and is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery
Inglewood Park Cemetery
Inglewood Park Cemetery was founded in 1905 in Inglewood, California. A number of notable people, including entertainment and sports personalities, have been interred or entombed here.-List of notable and celebrity interments at Inglewood Park:...
.
Personal life
Moore married in her youth, but the marriage did not last. It did, however, produce one daughter, Marian. Even into her last years, Moore was often the prime breadwinner of the family, supporting not only her divorced daughter but her mother and two grandsons for some time.Compositional style
Moore was a conservative composer, writing music that was largely Romantic in cast. Some of her songs contain impressionistic qualities, and are reminiscent of DebussyClaude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
. In later works, such as David Rizzio, Moore made greater use of the whole tone scale
Whole tone scale
In music, a whole tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole step. There are only two complementary whole tone scales, both six-note or hexatonic scales:...
, yet her style remained basically tonal until the end of her career. She was violently anti-modernist; supposedly, she once left a performance of an avante-garde piece because it was making her physically ill.
Moore was sometimes classed as a member of the First Los Angeles School of composers.
Legacy
If Mary Carr Moore is remembered at all today, it is for her efforts on behalf of the musical life of the West Coast. She was among the first composers to promote opera in Seattle, and would often promote the work of her peers alongside her own. As a teacher, too, she promoted her students' work, even founding a manuscript club for regular performance of their music.Recordings
A handful of Moore's songs were recorded by Evelyn de la Rosa and David Rudat for Cambria Records in 1984.Operas
- The Oracle, (1894)
- Narcissa, or The Cost of Empire, (1911)
- The Leper, (written 1912)
- Memories (1914)
- Harmony, (1917)
- The Flaming Arrow, or, The Shaft of Ku' Pish-ta-ya, (1922)
- David Rizzio, (1928)
- Los Rubios, (1931)
- Flutes of Jade Happiness, (1933)
- Légende Provençale, unperformed, orchestral score lost
Further reading
- Smith, Catherine Parsons; Cynthia S. Richardson. Mary Carr Moore, American composer. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987, ISBN 9780472100828.
- Schleifer, Martha Furman; Sylvia Glickman. Women Composers: Music Through the Ages. New York: G.K. Hall, 1996, ISBN 9780816109265.