Back to concerts this week. A broadcast from the annual gathering of the National Association of American Composers and Conductors, featuring a complete performance of the violin concerto by Harold Morris, performed by the Orchestra (I am assuming it’s actually the Little Symphony Orchestra of New York), led by Thomas Sherman. The broadcast was recorded on April 9, 1953 from Town Hall in New York.
Harold Morris (March 17, 1890, San Antonio, Texas – May 6, 1964, New York City) was an American pianist, composer and educator. Morris graduated from the University of Texas in 1910 and received his master’s degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1922. He married Cosby Dansby, August 20, 1914; the couple had one daughter. Morris moved from his native San Antonio, Texas to New York in 1916. 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.
Morris taught at the Juilliard School of Music from 1922 to 1939, at Columbia University from 1939 to 1946, and at The Castle School in Tarrytown, New York. Morris also taught at his studio in Manhattan, at Rice Institute (1933), Duke University (1939–40), and the University of Texas.
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 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.
The violin concerto from 1939 was awarded the annual prize from The National Federation Of Music Clubs.
Carroll Glenn began studying violin under her mother’s guidance when she was four and continued her studies in Columbia, South Carolina, with Felice de Horvath, who, at the time was teaching at the University of South Carolina. At age 11, Glenn moved to New York to study with Edouard Déthier at the Juilliard School through a cooperative program with the New Lincoln School, an experimental K-12 program operated by Teachers College, Columbia University. She graduated from Juilliard at age 15 with the faculty scholarship award, and subsequently continued graduate studies at Juilliard.
She debuted with the New York Philharmonic under Artur Rodziński on December 14, 1941, performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto, with critical success. During her 1942–1943 season, Glenn was featured in 21 orchestral concerts throughout North America.
She married pianist Eugene List in 1943, and they concertized together in 1946, when the U.S. State Department sponsored their first European tour. Glenn and List attracted vast audiences during the 1946 summer concerts of the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Robin Hood Dell and during 1948 and 1949 concerts of the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium.
Glenn and List were strongly interested in offbeat, rarely performed, and contemporary music, including the double concertos of Giovanni Battista Viotti and Anis Fuleihan, and the Duo Sonata by Franz Liszt, which they rediscovered. Glenn gave the premiere of Andrew Imbrie’s Violin Concerto (which she later recorded) and revived Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata for two violins.
She died in 1983 in New York, aged 64.
Glenn’s playing had an ingratiating lyric quality and a communicative charm, though there was a core of strength and determination that belied her youthful appearance. Her tone was sweet and pure though not very large; her technique was secure in a vast repertory.
