Introduction Biographical Data

Introduction Biographical Data hroughout much of the twentieth century, musi Randall Thompson, eminent American composer and cians have recognized Randall Thompson as a choral teacher, was born in New York City on April 21, 1899. He composer of high stature. In the rarest of cases would received his early schooling in Boston and at Lawrenceville there be any knowledgeable choral artisan who has not per School in New Jersey. He graduated from Harvard with a B.A. formed some of Thompson's wonderful choral works. Despite in 1920 and an M.A. in 1922. His teachers included Edward B. his having lived while many new directions and innovations in Hill, Walter Spalding, and Archibald T. Davison. By the time twentieth-century music evolved, his style remains fairly dia he completed his master's degree, he had also studied privately tonic and conservative. This is not to suggest that his music is with Ernest Bloch. l In 1922, he received a fellowship at the simple, by any means. Much of it is difficult, especially his American Academy in Rome, and was subsequently awarded an compositions employing double chorus. Although many of his American Prix de Rome. From 1927 to 1929, he was assistant contemporaries also have created masterful compositions, Th professor of music at Wellesley College.2 In 1929-30, he held ompson remains true to his musical style, so based on the Gugenheim Fellowships and appointed lecturer at Harvard. contrapuntal writings of the Renaissance composers in his own Shortly thereafter, he was appointed Director for a study of idiom that propounds Neo-Classical form and Neo-Romantic college music instigated by the Association of American Col harmonic design. leges. As a result of that investigation, College Music (funded by When other composers were experimenting with the Carnegie Foundation), was published in 1935. From that dodecaphonic writing and folk-song influences, Thompson was time forward, teaching was an important part of his life.3 never enticed to write in these gentes. He never wrote or set any In 1937, Randall Thompson was appointed professor of melody resembling folk influences. (The closest to this would music and Director of the University Chorus at the University be his interest in Sacred Harp music.) Moreover, other peers of California in Berkeley. From 1939-41,4 he was Director of and music contemporaries wrote important choral music the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.5 Between the Harris, Copland, Hanson, Malipiero, Vaughan Williams, Brit years 1941-45 he was head of the music division of the School ten, Stravinsky, KodaIy, Poulenc, et al. Randall Thompson's of Fine Arts at the University ofVirginia. In 1946, he joined the compositions are considered to be among the finest of his time. Faculty of Music at Princeton University as professor of music. He excelled at what he knew best-how to effectively set texts, He was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Music at whether humorous, sacred, or patriotic, in a vocally conceived, Harvard University in 1948. Thompson served as chairman for melodic context to produce works of great worth. four years, and later was made the Walter Bigelow Rosen Pro- ~----~This·-artiGle· is-a.. foGus-on-biographical-aspects-oLRandalL .fessorofMusic.§"InJ.965,-he retiredfromteaching,_andBanrard __ Thompson's and his music, emphasizing the compositional com- bestowed upon him the tide of Professor Emeritus. Although he ponents of his style and influences. In addition to a chronologi- retired from teaching officially, he continued to compose and cal discussion of his major works, several of his masterworks will remained active as a conductor. be discussed and analyzed. He received many honors and awards throughout his career. Earlier, in 1933, Thompson was awarded a Doctor of Music (honoris causa) by the University of Rochester. The University of Pennsylvania awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1969, as did Allegheny College in 1973 and the New England Conser- Joseph Thomas Rawlins is professor emeritus of vatory of Music in 1975. In addition to these honorary doctor music at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. ates, the earlier-mentioned Gugenheim Fellowships and the <[email protected]> American Prix de Rome (granted by the Academy in Rome), Randall Thompson also received the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Award for Services to Chamber Music in 1941; at Harvard he Thompson's interest and mastery of the choral art. As a result, received medals from the Signet Society and the Harvard Glee Thompson, who was a great student of counterpoint, also be Club.? In 1959, the Italian Government named him Cavaliere came a fine teacher of counterpoint. It is, therefore, not surpris ufficiale al merito della Repubblica Italiana. The noted American ing that his music is so firmly rooted in the music of the past. composer died on July 9, 1984 in Boston, leaving behind a James Harr offers this observation: legacy of sustained excellence in composition. Randall Thompson's choral works are a shining reflection of the joy and creative skill with which he taught musical Influences, Compositional Techniques, craft-of Palestrina and Lasso, of Monteverdi and Schutz, and Works of Bach and Handel. It has been his belief that much of Of all of Randall Thompson's music instructors, Ernest Bloch this craft is timeless in its nature, can form part of the basis of a composer's working vocabulary without loss to his (1880-1959) seems to have had the most lasting and profound individual talent. In this he is a true classicist and an influence. Bloch was a fine composer, and his famous Sacred academic in the best sense. 10 Service, Avodath Hakodesh, is a monumental choral work. But Bloch was a musician and composer who adored the music of Harr also states: many of the musical giants of the past-:Josquin des Pres, di Lasso, and Palestrina, for example. Consequently, he exposed When forming his own sryle, he was keenly aware of what his students, including Randall Thompson, to the great Renais sance choral art, with emphases on the cori spezzati that pre other composers, particularly Americans of his own vailed during that time. These studies and emphases influenced generation, were doing; This I think is evident in all of his Thompson in his later writing for multiple choruses, and his choral works, not just those on American themes, as can be seen in the cut of themes, in aspects of phrase structure, ultimate proficiency in this style of choral composition. As an and in details of harmonic treatment. But if some of the interpreter of music, Bloch brought out great emotions, which musical rhetoric is American, a good deal of it is international he felt in the music, not caring if this might be at the expense of tradition, for he had no interest in theories dealing with the and rooted in more than one temporal period, and this seems correct approach, according to the traditions of the times.8 to me the result of his study and teaching of a wide spectrum ofmusicY by Joseph T. Rawlins Shortly after his study with Bloch (1920-21), Thompson While absorbing the music of the past, and having a pro submitted his orchestral prelude, Pierrot and Cothurnus (in found understanding and deep reverence for the music of many spired by Aria da Capo by Edna St. Vincent Millay), for consid of the great masters, Thompson felt a need to break away from eration for an American Prix de Rome. On the strength of that the hold of the nineteenth century. His music still reflects an composition, he received a grant; he conducted that composi awareness and mastery of the modal counterpoint of Palestrina tion with the Rome Symphony at the Santa Cecilia Academy on and di Lasso, and the tonal counterpoint of Bach and Handel. May 17, 1923, and the performance received an enthusiastic However, "Thompson has advocated and practices use of con reception and critical acclaim. His compositional career was on ventional sounds in a fresh context, freed as much as possible of its way. their nineteenth-century connotations."12 Although Randall Thompson composed in many media, it is Although most of Thompson's compositions are lacking in his choral music which towers above all the rest, and for which extreme dissonance, such as found in much of the music of he is most noted. As Alfred Mann observes: '~t every turn, his many of his contemporaries, his style remains fairly conservative music has its true roots in the great vocal polyphony of the in light of the changes that composers such as Ives, Schoenberg past."9 Mann's observation supports the earlier stated premise and Stravinsky (to cite a few) would initiate. His compositions that his study with Bloch was an important factor in Randall have amalgamated nonetheless a unique blend of music of the past with the modern influences in Ameri writing could also be said of his instru Odes of Horace (1924) he can music. Some of his compositions have mental: "harmonically both his instru established the qualities of vocal shown the influence of composers such as mental and choral music are prevailingly writing which distinguish all his Palestrina and Bach. Other compositions diatonic." 13 music written for this medium: lines have used fuguing-tunes reminiscent of As Forbes observes, Randall Thomp which by their shape are grateful Billings, while others have used jazz influ son is more widely known as a choral and rewarding to sing, individual ences. (Thompson was a great admirer of composer. choral colours to serve the successive jazz, and particularly the music of Duke word sound, care for the natural Ellington, as his Second Symphony so viv Thompson is best known for his rhythm of the spoken word, and an idly shows.) Yet, within this apparent di choral music, almost all of which exquisite sensitivity to literary chotomy, his individual uniqueness is has been written for a commission organization reflected in his musical evident.

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