Gail Kubik Explained

Gail Thompson Kubik (September 5, 1914, South Coffeyville, Oklahoma – July 20, 1984, Covina, California) was an American composer, music director, violinist, and teacher.[1]

Early life, education, and career

Kubik was born to Henry and Evelyn O. Kubik. He studied at the Eastman School of Music with Howard Hanson,[2] the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago with Leo Sowerby, and Harvard University with Walter Piston and Nadia Boulanger.

He taught violin and composition at Monmouth College and composition and music history at Dakota Wesleyan University,[3] Columbia University (1937), Teachers College. Among his students included Gordon Binkerd and Marjorie Merryman.[4]

In 1939, his Danse won 2nd prize in the Kansas state music club piano composition contest.[5] He joined NBC Radio as staff composer in New York in 1940. By the end of 1940 he was in Hollywood, where the army recruited him (with rank of Corporal) to be music director for the Motion Picture Bureau at the Office of War Information. During World War II, he composed and conducted the music scores of many of the OWI's films, including for their Overseas Film Unit, which took him to England in 1944.[6]

He was an editor for Mercury Music Corporation, editing their American Music for Piano series.[7]

In 1943, he was a board member of the Los Angeles-based Musicians' Congress Committee (along with Aaron Copland, Darius Milhaud, Lena Horne, William Grant Still and other musical luminaries). This committee was formed and sponsored by Max Silver with a goal of promoting American art music during the war, and was suspected of being a Communist front.[8] [9]

In 1945 Kubik had successfully sued the membership organization American Composers' Alliance for licensing his music for profit without his consent.

He won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Symphony Concertante.

Between his Pulitzer Prize, and the success of his score for UPA's Gerald McBoing-Boing, his reputation was such that in 1953 he signed a guaranteed publishing contract with ASCAP's Chappell Music. The musical trades positioned this deal as part of an ongoing competition between ASCAP and BMI for the prestige of signing contracts with respected composers.[10]

From 1963 to 1983 he lived in Venasque, France. From 1970 until his death, he was composer-in-residence at Scripps College in Claremont, California.

He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.[11] He was on the national advisory board for the University of Missouri Kansas City's Institute for Studies in American Music founded in 1967.[12] He was a Guggenheim fellow in 1944 and 1965,[13] and was a permanent Fellow at MacDowell.[14] He was one of the composers interviewed for Irwin Bazelon's book Knowing the Score: Notes on Film Music.[15] He was the dedicatee of Ingolf Dahl's 1944 Music for Brass Instruments.[16]

Works

Opera

Film scores

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2022-02-17 . BMOP: Music of American Composer Gail Kubik . 2024-05-10 . New Music Buff . en.
  2. Book: Judiciary, United States Congress House Committee on the . Copyright Law Revision: Hearings Before Subcommittee No. 3 of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Eighty-ninth Congress, First Session . 1966 . U.S. Government Printing Office . 303 . en.
  3. Book: Villamil, Victoria Etnier . A Singer's Guide to the American Art Song, 1870-1980 . 1993 . Rowman & Littlefield . 978-0-8108-2774-5 . 50 . en.
  4. Book: Libraries, Boston Area Music . The Boston Composers Project: A Bibliography of Contemporary Music . 1983 . MIT Press . 978-0-262-02198-2 . 348 . en.
  5. Snoddy . Abbie L . March–April 1939 . Kansas Announces Winners in Composers' Contest . Music Clubs Magazine . National Federation of Music Clubs . XVIII . 4 . 10.
  6. Kubik . Gail T. . 1946 . Composing for Government Films . . 23 . 3 . 189–192.
  7. Book: Slomski, Monica J. . Paul Creston: A Bio-Bibliography . 1994-11-21 . Bloomsbury Publishing USA . 978-0-313-03643-9 . 141 . en.
  8. Book: Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications . December 1, 1961 . Committee on Un-American Activities, U.S. House of Representatives . 2nd . Washington DC . 221.
  9. Book: Activities, Estados Unidos Congress House Committee on Un-American . Hearings Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-fourth Congress, Second Session . 1956 . U.S. Government Printing Office . 3827 . en.
  10. Horowitz . I.S. . April 25, 1953 . ASCAP Classical Battle - Guarantees Would Halt BMI Snithces . . 1.
  11. http://delta-omicron.org/index00.html Delta Omicron
  12. News: TimesMachine: Sunday June 27, 1971 - NYTimes.com . 2024-11-11 . The New York Times . en . 0362-4331.
  13. Web site: Gail T. Kubik – John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation… . 2024-11-11 . en-US.
  14. News: TimesMachine: Wednesday July 25, 1984 - NYTimes.com . 2024-11-11 . The New York Times . en . 0362-4331.
  15. Book: Marks, Martin Miller . Music and the Silent Film: Contexts and Case Studies, 1895-1924 . 1997 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-506891-7 . 235 . en.
  16. Book: Dahl, Ingolf . Music for Brass Instruments . 1949 . Alfred Music . 978-1-4574-9615-8 . en.
  17. Book: Shepherd, Arthur . Triptych: for high voice and string quartet . 1927 . Society for the Publication of American Music . 30 . en.
  18. Book: Toff, Nancy . The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers . 1996 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-510502-5 . 271 . en.
  19. February 1, 1943 . Award to Miss Kettering with Bornschein in Contest . . 34 . 3 . 12 . October 31, 2022 . October 31, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221031193931/https://www.thediapason.com/sites/thediapason/files/194302TheDiapason.pdf . dead .
  20. Kirby . Fred . August 10, 1968 . Classical Notes . . 38.
  21. News: TimesMachine: Friday September 4, 1942 - NYTimes.com . 2024-11-11 . The New York Times . en . 0362-4331.
  22. Book: Gevinson, Alan . Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911-1960 . 1997 . University of California Press . 978-0-520-20964-0 . 147 . en.

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