Political Quotes

“almost exactly a year ago in April, I was traveling outside the country and was able to get hold of a copy of the New York Times. In it was a list of the Pulitzer Prize winners. Under ``Music'' was listed Morton Gould, ``Stringmusic.'' Morton Gould, an 81-year-old composer who lives in Great Neck, NY, won for a 30-minute work that was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and given its premier by that ensemble, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, at the Kennedy Center in Washington on March 10, 1994. It then goes on and describes the music. That small piece could not describe what an unbelievable talent Morton Gould had. That is why I and so many others were saddened when he recently died suddenly at the age of 82. Even then, though working actively, he was about to address a group in Orlando and continued to be the prolific and talented musician he had been throughout his life. I was able to meet him and get to know him over the years. In customary form, after I wrote him to congratulate him on the Pulitzer Prize, he wrote back a long, hand written note in which he joked about what he knew was a great honor and sort of minimized it, although one could tell how pleased he was. This is a man who was accustomed to honors but was not swayed by them, a man who knew he had the gratitude and the esteem of his peers, but did not revel in it, but rather worked with his peers constantly.”