Francis Thorne
Francis Thorne (June 23, 1922 – March 7, 2017) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and grandson of the writer Gustav Kobbé.
Life
Francis Burritt Thorne, Jr. was born in Bay Shore, New York. His father was a ragtime pianist and his grandfather, Gustav Kobbé, author of The Complete Opera Book, was a musical critic, particularly of the Wagnerian canon. Thorne was a student of Paul Hindemith at Yale University,[1] before entering the U.S. Navy in 1942 where he served during World War II. After the war, he pursued a career on Wall Street and later, as a jazz pianist, after Duke Ellington heard him play the piano, and arranged an engagement for him at a New York jazz club.[citation needed]
From 1959 to 1961, he studied composition in Florence, Italy with David Diamond, who encouraged Thorne to incorporate his jazz sensitivities into his symphonic compositions. In December 1961, Thorne's first opera, Fortuna, premiered in New York City. In 1964 Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra premiered his Elegy for Orchestra. In 1968, he was inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He spent much of his career championing the works of emerging composers. He served as director of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation and the Thorne Music Foundation from 1965–1974, organizations which commission new works by young composers. In 1975, he founded the American Composers Orchestra with Dennis Russell Davies. The orchestra focuses on performing new compositions by American composers.[1]
Personal life
Francis Thorne married Ann Chauncey Cobb on December 9, 1942. Thorne died at Geer Nursing and Rehab in Canaan, Connecticut on March 7, 2017, aged 94. He was survived by his three daughters, four grandsons, five great-grandchildren, and a brother.[2]
Legacy
Many of his more than 100 compositions are characterized by a distinct jazz flavor. He was also one of the first classical composers to write for the electric guitar and electric bass guitar (Sonar plexus, 1968; Liebesrock, 1968–69). A discussion of his works appears in R. Tomaro: Contemporary Compositional Techniques for the Electric Guitar in United States Concert Music.[3] The Francis Thorne Papers (1956–2004) are held by the New York Public Library.[4]
Awards
- 1995 Rome Prize
References
- ^ a b "Program Notes". American Composers Orchestra. April 14, 2002. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
- ^ Obituary, legacy.com; accessed March 16, 2017.
- ^ Tomaro, Robert. 2001. "Thorne, Francis". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, 29 vols., edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, 25:[page needed]. London: Macmillan; New York: Grove's Dictionaries. ISBN 1-56159-239-0/ISBN 0-333-60800-3
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-12-15. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
Sources
- Tomaro, Robert. 1992. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, 4 vols., edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Press; New York: Grove's Dictionaries of Music, Inc.; ISBN 0-333-73432-7/ISBN 1-56159-228-5
External links
- Francis Thorne profile, Presser.com
- "Sigma Alpha Iota's Francis Thorne page". Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved May 17, 2008.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - Francis Thorne Papers in the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
- Francis Thorne interview, May 3, 1986
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- WGBH (FM) (1951)
- Maro and Anahid Ajemian (1952)
- Herman Neuman (1953)
- Green Bay Symphonietta (1954)
- George Szell (1955)
- Robert Whitney (1956)
- Howard Hanson / Juilliard String Quartet (1957)
- Thor Johnson (1958)
- Martha Graham / Jack Benny (1959)
- Howard Mitchell / Oliver Daniel (1960)
- Helen Thompson / William Strickland (1961)
- Bethany Beardslee / Hugh Ross / Samuel Rosenbaum (1962)
- Carl Haverlin / Claire Reis (1963)
- Walter Hinrichsen / Margaret L. Crofts / Max Pollikoff (1964)
- Henry Cowell / Avery Claflin / Elizabeth Ames (1965)
- Henry A. Moe / Lawrence Morton (1966)
- WBAI / Fromm Foundation (1967)
- Aaron Copland (1968)
- Group for Contemporary Music (1969)
- Otto Luening / Harris Danziger / Third Street Music Settlement School (1970)
- Alice M. Ditson Fund (1971)
- Leopold Stokowski (1972)
- MacDowell Colony (1973)
- Teresa Sterne (1974)
- Nelson Rockefeller (1975)
- Gunther Schuller (1976)
- Arthur Weisberg (1977)
- James Dixon (1978)
- Ralph Shapey (1979)
- John Duffy / Meet the Composer / Joseph Machlis (1980)
- Carter Harman (1981)
- Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music (1982)
- Lukas Foss (1983)
- Opus One / Max Schubel / Ernest S. Heller (1984)
- Nicolas Slonimsky (1985)
- Raymond Des Roches (1986)
- Francis Thorne (1987)
- American Music Center (1988)
- Betty Allen / The Harlem School of the Arts / Mimi Stern-Wolfe (1989)
- Center for New Music (1990)
- Boston Musica Viva (1991)
- Cleveland Chamber Symphony (1992)
- Leonard Slatkin (1993)
- Society for New Music (1994)
- Minnesota Composers Forum (1995)
- Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group (1996)
- Speculum Musicae (1997)
- David Alan Miller (1998)
- Lou Rodgers (1999)
- Gregg Smith Singers (2003)
- Fred Sherry (2007)
- Harold Rosenbaum (2008)
- Phyllis Bryn-Julson (2009)
- innova Recordings (2012)