 | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Tom Scott" composer, born 1912 – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Thomas Jefferson Scott (May 28, 1912, Campbellsburg, Kentucky – August 12, 1961, New York City) was an American composer and singer.
Biography
Scott studied music at the University of Kentucky, after which he moved to New York City when he joined Fred Waring's glee club. He was soon employed by the group as an arranger. In 1942, he began a successful career as a folk singer. He accompanied himself on the guitar and billed himself as "The American Troubadour". He appeared at the Rainbow Room and the Cotillion Room of the Pierre Hotel, among other venues. Garnering praise, Scott landed his own radio show, which ran for several years.
Although Scott did write some of his own folk songs, he is mostly remembered now for his classical works, and in particular his symphonic pieces, which for the most part are rooted in American folk music. His symphonic works include Ballad of the Harp Weaver, Binorie Variations, Colloquy for Strings, Coney Island, Fanfare and Cantilena, Hornpipe and Chantey, Johnny Appleseed, Music for String Orchestra, and Symphony No. 1. His work From the Sacred Harp was performed and recorded in its world premiere by the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Leopold Stokowski.
Among his other compositions are chamber music works, art songs, piano songs, the opera The Fisherman (1956), and several television and film scores. He wrote much music for plays at the Robert Herridge theater, and also wrote the music for Ferdinand Bruckner's play Gloriana, which premiered on Broadway in 1938. Scott wrote most of the music for Camera Three, among other television shows. He married Ruth Walton and they had one daughter, Susanna Scott. He died of a heart attack in 1961.
References
External links
- Tom Scott papers, 1912–1970 Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
- Portrait of Tom Scott in his collection "Sing of America"
- American opera composers
- American male opera composers
- 1912 births
- 1961 deaths
- 20th-century American classical musicians
- 20th-century American classical composers
- American folk singers
- Singers from Kentucky
- Songwriters from Kentucky
- Folk musicians from Kentucky
- 20th-century American singers
- 20th-century American male musicians
- American male songwriters
- 20th-century American songwriters