Randall Thompson(1899-1984): forgotten American composer?

[Dundonnell]

(I originally posted this in another place and I therefore apologise if you have seen it before but there might be more interest here):

Thompson was a distinguished academic who served as Director of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia from 1939-41 and was Professor at Princeton, 1946-48 and at Harvard from 1948 until 1965. His pupils at Harvard included Leonard Bernstein.

Thompson wrote a substantial body of choral music, with which I am not familiar. Nor do I know whether much or indeed any of it is still sung in the US.
He wrote almost entirely to commission, claiming that this provided both the incentive and the discipline best suited to his composition.

I do know Thompson's three symphonies however. The First was the final product of a Guggenheim Fellowship and was premiered in 1930 conducted by Howard Hanson. It is an interesting work with clean, lean textures influenced by the composer's three years in Italy as a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Thompson had frequently visited Malipiero during that period and there are certainly some resonance of Malipiero in the symphony. It is on a Koch cd coupled with some Morton Gould with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under James Sedares.

The Second and Third Symphonies were recorded on another Koch cd with the New Zealand SO under the late Andrew Schenck. The Second was also recorded by Neeme Jarvi with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for Chandos coupled with some music by George Chadwick.

The Second is probably Thompson's most popular symphony(or at least, best known!). Composed in Switzerland it too was first conducted by Howard Hanson in 1932. It is a delightful, tuneful, almost Schubertian piece in which Thompson used the symphony orchestra with a trademark discretion and good taste. I actually prefer the Third Symphony of 1949. It rather sank without much trace after its premiere and there is no doubt that, by the standards of the time, it is an old-fashioned composition but it does fizz along with an infectious energy which is never less than cheerful and uplifting.

I am certainly not going to claim that Thompson was a great American symphonist. He pales in comparison with people like William Schuman or Walter Piston and he is definitely no Roger Sessions   But if you like the symphonies of Roy Harris, Howard Hanson or Paul Creston Thompson might be worth a go.

[mbhaub]

I'm in rehearsals this week for an upcoming performance of Thompson's Testament of Freedom. 25 minutes of jingoistic tedium. Now I know how some people in England respond to Elgar at his worst. It's not exciting, not particularly attracrive, memorable or  challenging (at least in the orchestral parts). I've got the Jarvi recordings and maybe will try them out again and see if I hear more than I did before. But I have zero interest in any of his choral music based on Testament.

[chill319]

Thompson's 1940 Alleluia is a true warhorse of the American sacred repertory. Over the decades it has cheered hundreds of thousands who respond to long stretches of earnest diatonic legato. And after its reverberations have echoed down into hushed silence, if one puts on one of Thompson's symphonies, the instrumental piece sounds positively spicy, and more than a touch "American."

In the 2-color movie "The King of Jazz," bandleader Paul Whiteman stirs a huge cauldron, in which mingle various ethnic musics that, together, give rise to the uniquely American sounds heard in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Brewmeister Whiteman mixes many musics from all over the British Isles and the Continent. Not once is there the slightest hint that African or Jewish races have contributed anything of significance to the American mix.

That melting pot is a joke so far as Gershwin is concerned. It's a decent metaphor, though, for Thompson's kind of Americana (and not just Thompson's, of course) -- less relevant than it once was in our increasingly diverse world.

[eschiss1]

was thinking similarly about the development of Gershwin's style and other things when listening to selections from Porgy & Bess (which despite having heard it live ages back I still do not know as I could and should and more now would like to) two nights ago.

[semloh]

I must admit that I do enjoy the symphonies, and - much to my own surprise - his Frostiana. It inevitably sends me scurrying back to my Frost anthologies, and I wander with him in New England landscapes for an hour or two. Despite the apparent manipulativeness of Frost behind the public facade, his poetry is thoughtful and beautiful, and IMHO is sensitively set by Randall Thompson. But I speak as a listener not as a musician. Don't you have any time for this particular piece, mbhaub?

[mbhaub]

I've never heard it. There's so much choral music I am wild about - most of it new - that I've never looked into Thompson, and Testament of Freedom sure isn't too encouraging. When, IF, I get bored with Whitacre, Ferko, and some others maybe I'll try Frositana.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Now I know how some people in England respond to Elgar at his worst.

I don't know what you mean. Elgar is not jingoistic - though his music has been hi-jacked by those who are. You might just as well say Holst was a jingoist because his lovely tune from Jupiter in The Planets was used for a ghastly "patriotic" hymn, containing words that are not only cringeworthy but heretical.

[Latvian]

I don't believe it's fair to say that Thompson is "unsung." In a lifetime of choral activity, his music has appeared frequently. Perhaps not as prevalent now as twenty or thirty years ago (as a new generation of choral composers takes precedence with singers' and listeners' affections), it still shows up pretty regularly.

I don't hold Testament of Freedom in high  regard, either. However, other works of his such as Alleluia, The Peaceable Kingdom, and Frostiana are near the top of my choral "desert island" list. And Velvet Shoes, especially in the choral version, is achingly beautiful. I heard a superb children's choir sing it a few years ago and was almost in tears.

On the other hand, apart from the magnificent Second Symphony, I would certainly agree that his symphonic music is "unsung" (or more appropriately, unplayed), unjustifiably so. Even the Second could stand to be heard more often, too.

[semloh]

Latvian - I agree, and I'm pleased to find someone else who appreciates the beautiful Frostiana.

But, I do think he should count as 'unsung' - especially outside the US, where he's known - if at all - only for the 2nd Symphony, courtesy of Bernstein's CBS disc which gets an occasional enthusiastic airing on radio, at least in the UK and Australia. I've never actually seen a copy of the disc for sale, however, except on the internet and, until the last couple of years, never encountered another composition of his of any kind - either in performance or on disc. I think we are agreed, in any case, as to the quality of his music!

[semloh]

Now I know how some people in England respond to Elgar at his worst.

I don't know what you mean. Elgar is not jingoistic - though his music has been hi-jacked by those who are.

Sorry this is off-topic here, but I do want to add my support for Gareth's position, because this is a myth that gets repeated ad nauseam and should be consistently refuted. It is well-known that although Elgar was patriotic and expressed his love of country through his music, he wasn't jingoistic and was unhappy about the use of his music to promote foreign policy ends. Certainly, he was blind to what 'Empire' actually entailed, and in this he was among the great majority, but the belligerence entailed by jingoism was anathema to his gentle, life-loving nature.  If you want to know what Elgar thought of militarism - the corollary of jingoism - just listen to the cello concerto, written just after the Great War - it says it all!

[Latvian]

I do think he should count as 'unsung' - especially outside the US

semloh, I agree. Now that I think about it, his name has hardly ever come up on foreign concert programs or broadcasts that I've noticed. His reputation seems to be based in the US, with possibly some Canadian exposure as well.

[eschiss1]

There does seem to be a (widely?...) circulating 1940 recording of a Danish soprano singing one of his works, but I suspect the overall picture is very much as you say...

As to Elgar, the (quite amazing) "There is Sweet Music" and pessimistic "Owls" may say nothing about jingoism or militarism but they say a lot about Elgar to my ears (all of it positive...) (not to mention that beautiful string quartet.)

[mbhaub]

I didn't mean to disparage Elgar at all. I love a lot of Elgar: the 2nd symphony visits my cd player several times a month. The violin and cello concertos, the first and third symphonies -- couldn't be without them. Enigma is a masterwork as is the relatively unknown Falstaff. There are only a few composers I can say that I have everything the man wrote if it's been on cd. Franz Schmidt, Mahler, Korngold, Glazunov and...Elgar. I must have at least a dozen Elgar biographies. So, I love Elgar's music. Some of it is less than inspired, let's be honest. And others have used his music for their own intentions. And there's nothing wrong with anyone loving his country and wanting to pay homage in music. But honestly, is Banner of St George or Pageant of Empire not slightly over the top? And Crown of India? I love the orchestral music, but the words not so much. And yes, Clara Butt did Elgar great harm when she changed the words to Coronation Ode, and that's not Elgar's fault.

[chill319]

Anyone fond of choral music is likely to enjoy the ASV CD "Beach & Thompson: Choral Music," performed by the Harvard University Choir. These are loving performances that contrast the sound worlds of the two composers. Thompson's pieces sometimes end with a plagal cadence that includes the flatted seventh, a cadence also associated with the blues, as Thompson was surely aware.