The Unknown Randall Thompson: "Honkeytonk Tunesmith, Broadway Ivory-Tickler"

Abstract

While a few readers of this journal may have known Randall Thompson personally, many more have sung or heard something he penned: his austere a cappella The Peaceable Kingdom (1935), his serenely beautiful Al leluia (1940), The Testament of Freedom (1943), which he called his celebra tion of the idea of freedom as a God-given blessing,1 his stunning The Last Words of David (1949), his cherished Frostiana (1959), or his vigorous Symphony no. 2 (1930-31), which performed numerous times during Thompson's lifetime by conductors from Howard Hanson to Leonard Bernstein?just to name two. Thompson's career also included distin guished academic accompUshments as teacher, choral conductor, director or department chair with appointments at Wellesley College (1927-29 and 1936), the University of California at Berkeley (1937-39), the Curtis Institute (1939^1), the University of Virginia (1941^=5), Princeton Uni versity (1945-48), and Harvard University (1948-65). He guest-conducted the Dessoff Choirs and the Juilliard School Madrigal Choir (1931-32) and wrote the 1935 groundbreaking Carnegie Commission report published as College Music: An Investigation for the Association of American Colleges, from research that began in 1932.2 His long-time colleague Elliot Forbes noted that this study was widely influential in strengthening music as