Madge was born in New York City, the daughter of a father whom she accompanied from an early age on concert tours. At age fourteen she gave her debut recital in Washington, D.C., and started teaching piano lessons the following year. Following graduation from public high school she attended and graduated from the New York Conservatory of Music.

Gould became an Adventist in 1921 and a year later started teaching at Greater New York Academy. After teaching there for a year, she accepted a position at Southwestern Junior College, where she taught piano and organ. She would subsequently teach at Laurelwood Academy in Oregon; Walla Walla College, now University; Auburn Academy in Washington; Los Angeles Academy; and Atlantic Union College from 1939-1942. She then taught at Union Springs and Fresno Academies before going to Hawaiian Mission Academy where she taught from 1947 to 1958, when she retired.

In the 1920s, she wrote a song titled "Missionary Volunteers" and in the 1930s she penned the words and music for the Auburn Academy school song, which is still sung today. In 1941, she wrote the music for a poem titled "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus," that was used as the theme song for the autumn week of prayer at Atlantic union College.

Gould was living in Hawaii at the time of her death, at age 81.

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