Radie Britain was an American pianist, writer, music educator and composer.

Life

Radie Britain was born near Silverton

Silverton, Texas

Silverton is a city in Briscoe County, Texas, United States. The population was 771 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Briscoe County.-Geography:Silverton is located at ....

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, the daughter of Edgar Charles and Katie (Ford) Britain. She studied at Clarendon College

Clarendon College (Texas)

Clarendon College is a community college located in Clarendon, the seat of Donley County in the Texas Panhandle. The college operates branch campuses in Pampa and Childress....

 in Texas, and at the American Conservatory in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 with Heniot Levy

Heniot Levy

Heniot Levy was an American composer, teacher, and pianist of Polish birth. A native of Warsaw, he trained at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin with Oscar Raif and Karl Heinrich Barth, both pupils of Tausig; the latter also trained Arthur Rubinstein...

, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in piano in 1921.

After completing her degree, Britain taught music for a year at Clarendon College and privately in Amarillo. In 1922 she studied with organist Pietro Yon

Pietro Yon

Pietro Alessandro Yon was an Italian-born organist who made his career in the United States.Yon was born in Settimo Vittone, , and studied at the conservatories of both Milan and Turin, also attending the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome...

 in Dallas, in 1923 with Marcel Dupré

Marcel Dupré

Marcel Dupré , was a French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue.-Biography:Marcel Dupré was born in Rouen . Born into a musical family, he was a child prodigy. His father Albert Dupré was organist in Rouen and a friend of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who built an organ in the family house when...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, and in 1924 with Adele aus der Ohre in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and Albert Noelte in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. She made her debut as a composer in Munich in May 1926. She returned to Texas after the death of her sister, and later taught at the Girvin Institute of Music and Allied Arts in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.

Britain's Heroic Poem (1929) won the Juilliard National Publication Prize in 1930. She married Chicago businessman Leslie Edward Moeller in 1930 and had a daughter Lerae in 1932. The couple divorced in 1939, and she moved to Hollywood, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, and married Italian sculptor Edgardo Simone in 1940. After Simone died in 1949, Britain married aviation pioneer Theodore Morton in 1959. In California, Britain continued her career as a music teacher and composer. She died in Palm Desert, California, and her papers are housed at several locations.

Works

Britain incorporated Southwestern US idiom into her compositions. Selected orchestral works include:

• Angel Chimes
• Brothers of the Clouds with TTBB chorus
• The Builders with SATB chorus
• Cactus Rhapsody
• Chicken in the Rough
• Chipmunks for woodwinds, harp, percussion
• Cosmic Mist Symphony
• Cowboy Rhapsody
• Drouth
• The Earth Does Not Wish for Beauty with SATB chorus
• Earth of God (String Orchestra)
• Les Fameux Douze The Famous Twelve for small orchestra
• Four Sarabandes for small orchestra
• Franciscan Sketches
• San Luis Rey
• Saint Francis of Assisi
• Heroic Poem
• Infant Suite
• In Living Ecstasy with solo voice
• Jewels of Lake Tahoe
• Kambu
• Lament with solo violin
• Little per cent
• Minha Terra
• Mother: A Melody of Love with narrator
• Nisan with SATB chorus