
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 11, 1991                   TAG: 9103110187
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ELIE SIEGMEISTER, COMPOSER, DIES

Elie Siegmeister, whose compositions formed part of the cornerstone of the contemporary American symphonic school in the 1930s, died Sunday of a brain tumor at the North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. He was 82.

Siegmeister, who once defined his occupation as "part poet, part structural engineer," composed eight operas, eight symphonies and a large catalog of songs, choral settings, concertos, orchestral works and chamber pieces.

He was concerned with establishing an American idiom, and his "American Holiday" (1933) was one of the first compositions to weave American work songs and street melodies into a symphony.

by CNB