A Successful Blend of Diverse Styles, Genres and Techniques in Andrew Thomas’ Orchestral Works from the End of the 20th Century

Anton A. Rovner

Abstract


Andrew Thomas is a distinguished American composer of considerable renown. He has written numerous compositions for solo piano, various chamber ensembles, solo voices, chorus, and orchestra. He is also a pianist, a conductor and a composition teacher, who taught for over fifty years at the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School in New York City. He has instructed composition already to several generations of composers, many of whom have since become prominent members of the American contemporary music scene. Among the most significant compositions Andrew Thomas has written are his works for orchestra. This article shall discuss the composer’s orchestral works — the Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra Loving Mad Tom (1990) and The Heroic Triad (2000). Analysis of these two works is provided, and the cultural context for their creation is given.

Keywords: Andrew Thomas, composer, American music, orchestral compositions, pianist, conductor, composition teacher, Concerto for Marimba, The Heroic Triad

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References


Rovner A. A. Interview with Composer, Pianist, Conductor and Composition Teacher Andrew Thomas. Problemy muzykal'noi nauki / Music Scholarship. 2016. No. 2, pp. 57–63.

Loving Mad Tom: Bedlamite verses of the XVI and XVII centuries; with five illustrations by Norman Lindsay; the texts edited with notes by Jack Lindsay; musical transcriptions by Peter Warlock. London: Fanfrolico Press, 1927. 110 p.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.56620/RM.2024.4.087-100

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