Moore, Douglas Stuart (1893-1969), was an American composer, best known for his operas on American subjects. He won the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for music for Giants in the Earth, based on Ole Rølvaag’s novel about the hardships of Norwegian farmers in the Dakota Territory in the 1800’s. Moore’s most successful work, The Ballad of Baby Doe (1956), concerns a Colorado mining tycoon. The Devil and Daniel Webster (1939) is based on Stephen Vincent Benet’s short story set in New England. Moore’s other compositions include the symphonic suite Pageant of P. T. Barnum (1924) and the symphonic poem Moby Dick (1928).
Moore was born in Cutchogue, New York, on Aug. 10, 1893. He became a professor of music at Columbia University in 1926 and was head of its music department from 1940 to 1962. He wrote two books on music appreciation, Listening to Music (1932, enlarged 1937) and From Madrigal to Modern Music (1942). Moore died on July 25, 1969.
