Bain Murray was born in 1926, and died at the age of 66 in January of 1993. He received degrees from Oberlin College and Harvard University and taught at both. Beginning in 1966 he headed the Theory-Composition Division of Cleveland State University. His composition teachers were Herbert Elwell, Walter Piston, Randall Thompson and Nadia Boulanger.
Bain Murray was a prolific composer with an affinity for vocal music. He has written numerous song cycles with orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano and organ, over 30 choral works, over 30 individual songs, string quartets, a woodwind quintet, trio for flute, cello and piano, a ballet and three operas.
In the summer of 1949 Murray assisted Professor Willard Rhodes of Columbia in recording chants and dances of the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni. In 1950 he recorded the Northwest tribes of Washington, Oregon and Idaho for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior. All of the recordings are stored in the Library of Congress and some were issued on Ethnic Folkways Discs. Murray wrote a String Quartet on Indian Themes while a student at Oberlin, The Hopi Flute Song, a choral work, and used Indian materials in some subsequent compositions including his Opera-Oratorio The Legend.
Murray also maintained a strong interest in the music of Poland. He visited Poland six times, wrote numerous articles on Polish music published in the U.S. and abroad, and he wrote a book on the History of Polish Music. In terms of writing, Murray created the music column for the Sun Newspapers, and is known as a music critic and reviewer.
Bain Murray’s awards include a Fulbright Grant to Belgium, the Medal of Distinction from the Polish Composers Union, the Brookline Music Library Association Prize, the Knight and Boott Prizes of Harvard University, the Cleveland Fine Arts Prize, numerous ASCAP awards, several Creative Research Grants from Cleveland State University Graduate Research Council, recording grants from the Bascom Little Fund, and others from private foundations.
He received commissions from J. Heywood Alexander, the William Appling Singers, Leslie Chabay, Marie Kraft, Arthur Loesser, Daisy Newman, Rosiland Reed, Robert Shaw, the Gregg Smith Singers, the Westport Madrigal Singers, Sendai (Japan) New Music Ensemble, and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony under Edwin London.
His publishers include Lawson-Gould, Ludwig Music Co., Galaxy Gailliard, Theodore Presser, Summy Birchard and Studio P/R. His works appear on the Gregg Smith Singers and Move (Scotland) record labels.