Blitzstein, Marc (1905–1964)

US composer. Born in Philadelphia, he was a child prodigy as a pianist at the age of six. He served with the US Army 8th Air Force 1942–45, for which he wrote The Airborne (1946), a choral symphony. His first great success was the opera The Cradle Will Rock, produced in New York in 1937 with piano accompaniment directed by Orson Welles, after a full performance was banned by the authorities. He was a political radical and was killed after an argument with American sailors.

Blitzstein appeared as solo pianist at the age of 15, and later studied composition with Rosario Scalero in New York, Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and Schoenberg in Vienna. He also studied piano with Alexander Siloti in the USA.

Works Dramatic operas Triple Sec (1929), Parabola and Circula (1929), The Harpies, The Cradle Will Rock (1937); ballet Cain; incidental music for Shakespeare's Julius Caesar; film music for Surf and Seaweed, The Spanish Earth, No for an Answer (1941), Chesapeake Bay Retriever.

Vocal choral opera The Condemned; radio song-play I've got the Tune, Children's Cantata; The Airborne for orchestra, chorus, and narrator (1946).

Orchestral Romantic Piece, Jigsaw ballet suite, and variations for orchestra; piano concerto (1931).

Chamber string quartet and serenade for string quartet; piano sonata and Percussion Music for piano (1929).