(1944-2024)
Long-time Instrumentalist New Music Reviewer and Contributing Editor John Thomson has passed away. His words graced our pages frequently over the past four decades as a Contributing Editor and New Music Reviewer. He sometimes reminded us with pride that his work for The Instrumentalist actually began in the 1970s as a contributor to Accent, our publication for students.
His long teaching career included distinguished tenures at East Allegheny High School near Pittsburgh from 1967-1981 and New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois from 1982-2007. His groups at both schools earned countless prestigious invitations to perform including two appearances at the Midwest Clinic.
Thomson earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in trombone performance and music education at Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied with Richard Strange. While completing course work toward a PhD at Northwestern, he worked as a teaching assistant for two years and learned from John Paynter. After retiring from New Trier, he served as an adjunct professor in music education at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He was an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association and served as that organization’s Goldman Memorial Citation Committee Chair. He also served on the National Band Association’s Revelli Composition Award Committee. He conducted bands at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp for 23 summers.
John approached the work of his life with a commitment to excellence that never wavered. Whether leading a dress rehearsal or conducting an interview, he was always striving for the highest standards. We are grateful for his countless contributions to our pages and for his friendship over more than four decades.
In the November 1998 issue of The Instrumentalist, John shared his approach to selecting repertoire in an article called, The Repertoire Is The Curriculum.
I believe it is important to return to certain pieces periodically because a director knows more about how to conduct and interpret a work each time he returns to it. Every time I conduct Lincolnshire Posy, it is like visiting an old friend. I never come back to it without feeling that I have discovered something new and I have more to offer students. Some directors are critical of repeating pieces, but the educational benefits make it justifiable. Professional orchestras repeat masterworks and so should teachers provided that they do not teach the same music to the same students.
If music is repeated on a strict four-year cycle, though, a director will become bored to tears over a 30-year career. I have developed a mix-and-match rotation that is divided according to types of pieces. For example, I use the a four-year rotation of folk song suites with one of my ensembles. The rotation includes the First Suite in Eb by Gustav Holst, Second Suite in F by Holst, English Folk Song Suite by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Grainger.
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Not every piece has to be studied intensely, but all should stand up to the tests of having significant form, an important historical perspective, and a fresh approach in some way. Although such criteria make it a difficult task to find a mix of good repertoire, directors should remember that the compositions selected will constitute the curriculum for students, the music from which they will develop technique and learn about musical elements.
Some directors develop a set of concepts and select music that fits these concepts, but this is the opposite of what I do. My approach is to find an exciting piece of music and then determine which concepts to teach. This philosophical point of view reflects my belief that bands, orchestras, and jazz ensembles should be performance groups first although some educators would have us believe otherwise. Students walk in the rehearsal room door to play music, not to hear a lecture on music history or theory. Although students learn musical concepts and develop an historical perspective in the process of rehearsing pieces, the focus of my classes is performance, and I will not apologize for that.
I believe that all concepts should relate back to the ear and to performing. The ultimate goal is to go beyond just teaching the notes and to help players understand how their part fits within the full ensemble. In the end, musicians play better when they understand more about the music they rehearse and perform. The knowledge students gain from each new piece will inevitably carry over to the next piece they study. Common strands of knowledge are present and in each fine composition, and it is the process of introducing students to these wonderful complexities that makes teaching so exciting. (November 1998)
