Gail Kubik

Gail Thompson Kubik (September 5 1914, South Coffeyville, Oklahoma - July 20 1984, Covina, California) was an American composer, motion picture scorist, violinist, and teacher. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, 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 Columbia University (1937), Teachers College and Scripps College. Joining NBC as staff composer in New York in 1940, he was music director for the Motion Picture Bureau at the Office of War Information, where during World War II, he composed and conducted the music scores of motion pictures. He won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Music for "Symphony Concertante".

In December 1946 in New York City Gail married Joyce Mary (nee Scott-Paine); they had no children. They were later divorced.

Works

* "Piano trio" (1934)
* "Violin concerto op. 4" (1934-6)
* "Violin concerto no. 2" (1940/41, recorded by Ruggiero Ricci)
* "Symphony no. 1 in E-flat major" (1946)
* "Sonata for piano" (1947)
* "Symphony Concertante" (1952)
* "Symphony no. 2 in F major" (1954-6)
* "Symphony no. 3" (1956)
* "Divertimento no. 1 for eight players" (1959)
* "String quartet" (1960)
* "Divertimento no. 2 for eight players" (1969)
* "In Praise of Johnny Appleseed" (for bass, chorus, and orchestra)

Opera

* "Boston Baked Beans" (1952)
* "A Mirror for the Sky" (a folk opera, first performed 1957)

Motion picture scores

* "Men and Ships" (1940)
* "Colleges at War" (1942)
* "Menpower" (1942)
* "Paratroops" (1942)
* "The World at War" (1942)
* "Dover" (1942, aka "Dover Front Line")
* "Earthquakers" (1943)
* "Air Pattern-Pacific" (1944)
* "" (1944)
* "Thunderbolt" (1945)
* "C-Man" (1949)
* "Gerald McBoing-Boing" (1950 cartoon based on a story by Dr. Seuss); Kubik composed also a longer version which is sometimes performed as a narrated concert piece with Dr. Seuss's text
* "The Miner's Daughter" (1950)
* "Two Gals and a Guy" (1951, aka "Baby and Me") (incidental music, also served as musical director)
* "The Desperate Hours" (1955)
* "I Thank a Fool" (1962)
* "Music for Bells

External links

*
* [http://www.lib.ksu.edu/depts/spec/findaids/pc1995-06.html Kubik papers at Kansas State University]