THOMPSON, Randall
b New York, 21 April 1899
d Boston, 9 July 1984, aged eighty-five

He graduated in 1920 from Harvard and received Guggenheim Fellowships in 1929 and 1930. From 1937 to 1939 he was professor of music at the University of California at Berkeley; and from then until 1941 he was director of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Between 1941 and his retirement in 1965 he held positions at the universities of Virginia, Princeton and Harvard. He has gained many degrees and honours.

1922 (23)

Pierrot and Cathurnis, orchestral prelude

1924 (25)

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, orchestral prelude

The Wind in the Willows, for string quartet

1928 (29)

Jazz Poem, for piano and orchestra

1929 (30)

Symphony No 1

1931 (32)

Symphony No 2

1940 (41)

Suite for oboe, violin and viola

1941 (42)

String Quartet No 1

1942 (43)

Solomon and Balkis, opera

1947-9 (48-50)

Symphony No 3

1953-4 (54-5)

A Trip to Nahant, symphonic fantasy

1961 (62)

The Nativity, church opera

1967 (68)

String Quartet No 2

1971 (72)

Wedding Music, for string quartet

Thompson has also written twenty chorale preludes, four inventions and fugues for keyboard, and many sacred and secular vocal and choral works.