Music Professor Emeritus Dies At Age 85

Rosen Professor of Music, Emeritus, Randall Thompson '20 died yesterday at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He was 85.

Thompson, one of the nation's preeminent composers, was best known for his choral compositions, but he also achieved great success in orchestral and chamber music.

"Choruses all over the country, and indeed the world, sing his inspired songs," said Elliot Forbes, Peabody Professor of Music Emeritus, and a friend of the composer since 1928. "The performing of his music will be an ongoing living testamony to the beauty of his creative spirit."

Thompson was at Harvard from 1948 to 1965, and he assumed the Rosen chair in 1952. From the '20s to the late '40s, he taught at Wellesley, the University of California and Princeton.

His first major compositional success came in 1931 with his symphony No 2 and was followed in 1936 by The Peaceable Kingdom, both of which won widespread critical acclaim.

His cataloge also includes works such as Americana, a five-part choral work, and Allcuia for a cappella chorus, which was labeled by critics as one of the most celebrated works in American choral literature.

Among his 40-odd compositions are three symphonies, two string quartets, a mass, a requiem, two operas and a St. Lukers Passion.