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Investigation of the Musical Devices Used by Randall Thompson to Compose Works on the Text of Robert Frost

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M~ INVESTIGATION OF THE MUSICAL DEVICES USED BY RANDALL THOMPSON TO COMPOSE WORKS ON THE TEXT OF ROBERT FROST A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Jerome C. Maxwell, B.S. The Ohio State University 1966 Approved by Departme Music ACKNOWLEDGEME1~ The writer wishes to thank Dr. Wayne Ramsey and Prof. Dale Gilliland for their guidance in the preporatio~ of t~is study. The writer also wishes to thank his wife, Emmy, for her invaluable aid and encouragement. ii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION _P_u_r~p;..o_s_e__o_f .~ study The purpose of this study was to analyze the musical set­ tings by Randall Thompson of seven poems of Robert Frost. The poems were studied from the standpoint of providing the conductor comprehensive understanding essential to a performance of these choral works. Too frequently the conductor performs choral compositions with little understanding of the significance of many musical and poetic factors involved in a choral setting. Posing such questions as the following would appear to be basic for gaining a comprehensive understanding of the music. 1. What is the meaning of the poem? What poetic devices have been used in develo~inG' this mcn!.1inc? 2. Does the musical setting seem to be appropriate to this meaning'? 3. What kinds of compositional devices has the composer used to enhance the text? 4. What problems regarding interpretation are evident from study of the score? 5. What technical problems are involved in the performance of the compositions? Answers to the above questions are pertinent to gaining 1 3 students if they are to gain some comprehension of music they are performing. Procedure The following procedures were used in connection with the development of this study. 1. A study was made of selected writings regarding the composer end poet. These are listed in the bibliography. This study, which included biographies, reviews, periodicals, and critiques, provided the basis for understanding style and charac­ teristics of the poet an1 the co~poser. 2. The analysis was initiated with a study of each text as to meaning, rhyme scheme, meter, style and devices. 3. An investigation was made of the musical devices utilized by the composer. This study included examination of the rela­ tionship of the text with regard to melody, harmony, rhythm, form and accompaniment. 4. Judgments were then formulat0d concerning the musical effect of the composer's settings. Limitations Limitations of this study are: 1. The study is confined to Frostiana, a group of seven compositions by RandAll Thompson with the text of Robert Frost. 2. The analysis is restricted to understandings of the music which are considered essential to the effective musical CHAPTER II CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COHPOSER AND POET, INCLUDING A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF EACH In preparing to analyze Frostiana, knowledge of the composer and poet, the backgrounds and characteristics of their writings lend insight to the works being 8tudied. Chapter Two is divided into two sections. Part (A) presents a brief biographical sketch of Randall Thompson, including examples and discussions of the characteristics of his works. Part (B) includes a biographi­ cal sketch of Robert Frost and discussions of the characteristics of his writing. A. The composer--Randall Thompson Randall Thompson as a composer has seemingly taken his own way with respect to the more radical tendencies of his con­ temporaries. He leans to\v'ard lia style based on the safer, more 1 tried practices of ol~er masters". It has been said of Thompson that his music possesses a true spirit of Americanism, having been inspired by "the native artistic environment of this countryll.2 He avoids harmonies, rhythms, and contrapuntal lQuincy Porter, "American Composers, XVIII, Randall Thomp:.~oh;;; Hodern Husic, XIX (Mny-Junc, 1942),. 237. 2Elliot Forbes, l'The i'1usic of Randall Thompson, Ii The l1usical QU2.rterly, XXXV (Janu.:,ry, 1949), 1. 5 8 this study is based, it would be well to briefly consider other works by this composer. Americana, sets forth several techniques frequently utilized by Thompson, thus enhancing the text. The example to follow shows how the composer has reinforced the natural accent of the words by subdividing the beats into an irregular number of notes and bringing musical action to the verbs; thus making every word unmistakably distinct. Illustrative of all Thompson's writing, it seems that each word has dictated to the composer his use of dynamic and expressive markings. Melodic climax is obtained as a result of the sequential chromatic progressions, hereby in­ tensifying the wrath of the preacher through melodic build-up. He again displays his ability in the combining of words 9 with music in his opera Solomon and Balkis. Quincy Porter stated: His opera Solomon and Balkin has great charm and arrives at its cli.~ most effectively. There is no lack of melody, and it is melody which is extremely singable. Here again the prosody is unusual, eXhibiting his skill in throwing just the right emphasis of each syllable of the script.5 ;;Alleluia'l, a choral work for mixed voices, can possibly be expressed as Thompson's masterpiece in terms of its acceptance and popularity. Each melodic line melting reverently into another, flows smoothly along; the couposer devising the use of parallel first and second inversion chords atop a pedal point tendency. George Wallace Hood\'lTorth, conductor of the Harvard Glee Club and TIadcliffe Choral Society has said regarding "AlleluiaIj : So sure was lk. Thompson's technique and so masterly his grasp of the true genius of choral singing, that despite a blueprint of unique limitations, he had created one of the noblest pieces of choral music 6 in the twentieth century. The Peaceable Kingdom, probably the finest work of the composer, is contrapuntally conceived though frequently chordal in texture. The use of the modal when referring to the wicked, and major in reference to the righteous, is of significance. ii "Woe Unto Them , the second chorus of this \lork, gains intensity through its rhythmic activity. The folloWing excerpt points out the contrasting lines of the soprano ~nd bass, bringing into 5Porter, ~. ~., p. 238. 6George \:allace Uood\.,rorth, Boston Symphony Program Notes, 1947-1948, (Tuesday Evening Series Vol. 5), 1028. 11 that he is writing music which regardless to its style, has a well justified place in our musical life and will without question continue to please and satisfy its listeners after much of the ex­ perimental music of the present has ceased to startle or amuse us. 7 Randall Thompson makes the following statement with regard to himself: About twenty-five years ago I came across a line of Thomas Caryle that I promptly committed to memory. It ran something like this: 'Create, create! Be it the pitifullest, most infinites­ simal product, it is the best that is in you. Out with it then!' That's roughly it, I thitik~ and--come to think of it--that exhortation worked itself into a philosophy of creation that is now second nature to me. My hand has never been re­ strained from writing what I wanted to--so long as what it wrote was the best I could write, written 8 in the best way I could write it. B. The poet--Robert Frost Robert Frost has received more honor and acclaim from a wider audience than any other poet in the entire range of American literature. "He is a man and poet who so completely represents 9 what is healthy B.nd strong in Americe.n life. 11 Frost, who descended from a line of New Englanders dating back to 1632, was born in California on March 26, 1875. His father, an editor-politician, died of tuberculosis in his early thirties.\ofhen Frost was ten years old. Young Robert was then 7Porter, --op. cit., p. 240. 8 Ibid., p. 241­ 9John Robert Doyle, The Poetry of Robert Frost. (Johannesburg: Hitwatersrand UniversITy Press, 1962), p. 3. 12 taken by his mother back to his ancestral Now England where he grew into an independent young man. At the age of fifteen, Frost's first poem appeared in the school paper; at nineteen his first professional poem was pub­ lished in a national magazine, 2;,he ~nde~~ent. Deciding on the career of Q poet, Frost received encour~gement from his mother, but opposition from his grandfather who felt there was little future in writing poetry. Frost entered Dartmouth College but soon became bored with the curriculum and returned home. Three years later he married Elin~r Miriam White, a former high school classmate. Again Frost sought to complete an education, this time at Harvard. Quitting after two ye~rs of dissatisf2ction, Frost moved to a farm near v,fGst Derry, NV\>f Hampshire. This farm, pur­ chased by his grandfather, was Frost's home during the next ten years of his life. In 1912, ~fter several rejections from Scribner's, Century, and The Atlantic Monthly, Frost sailed for England where he hoped to find ~ better reception. There he was successful in pUblishing ~ Boy's \'Jill B.nd North of Boston. .Jhen Frost returned to America two years later, he was surprised to find himself famous as a result of these publications. In the years to follow, Frost sp0nt time as a poet in resident at Amherst Colleg.}, University of Michigan, and Harvard University. His publications included: Mountain Interval (1916), New Hampshire (1923), Solected.... Poems (1923), -­West Running Brook 14 no one loves the suggestion of inequality produced by a wall, still he believed in the old saying, "Good fences make good neighbors". Radcliffe Squires says: "He has preserved an inde­ pendence at the price of isolating himself from the company of poets, but I believe that except for Edward Thomas, his profounder friendships have been "lith scholars, teachers, and the laity."ll As the music of Randall Thompson stands alone, so too stands the poetry of Robert Frost.
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