William Ennis Thomson


William Ennis Thomson was an American music educator at the collegiate level, music theorist, composer, former Music School Dean and professor at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California from 1980 to 1992. His interest in research centered around the cognitive and perceptual foundation of music, insight for which is found in his 2006 article, "Pitch Frames as Melodic Archetypes", Empirical Musicology Review, 1.2, 1–18.
Thomson has served the faculties of SUNY Buffalo ; University of Arizona ; Case Western Reserve University ; Indiana University School of Music ; University of Hawaii Scholar in Residence ; Sul Ross State University, and Ford Foundation composer in residence.
He chaired the ETS Advanced Placement in Music Test Committee ; served as music panel member and examiner for the National Endowment for the Arts ; fellow and policy committee member of the Ford Foundation; served as a key participant in the Contemporary Music Project ; Board member of the Buffalo Philharmonic ; taught and composed works for wind band, orchestra, chorus ; and various chamber music media. Thomson also served in the Armed Forces: U.S. Navy.

Collegiate education

Thomson was born in Fort Worth. He earned two degrees from the University of North Texas: Bachelor of Music, 1948, and a Master of Music 1949. He also earned a PhD in Music Theory and Philosophy in 1952 from Indiana University, Bloomington. While at North Texas, Thomson was a member of the inaugural Laboratory Dance Band - the forerunner of the One O'Clock Lab Band - during the launch year of the first college degree in jazz offered in the world. At North Texas, he crossed paths with:
  1. Wilfred Bain, who, as dean of the School of Music, collaborated with Gene Hall to create the country's first jazz degree program in his final year and Gene Hall's first year before moving on to Indiana University where he rapidly built another major school of music; Bain, essentially pioneered a new post-war large-scale model for higher music education by creating and integrating two comprehensive music schools within full liberal arts universities
  2. William F. Lee III, also a member of the first Lab Band at North Texas, who, later became a pioneering dean at a major music school, the University of Miami School of Music

Compositions

  • Viola Sonata
  • String Quartet Western Star, for 3 readers, chorus, piano †
  • Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, Alpine, Texas
  • Clarinet Sonata Permutations, for band Desert Seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter for mixed chorusTransformations, for orchestra
  1. Theme
  2. Dance
  3. Nocturne
  4. March
  5. Misterioso
  6. ScherzoVelvet Shoes, for women's chorus Desert Seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, for mixed chorusThe Two Marys, for mixed chorus Fantasia and Dance, for clarinet and piano Praise ye the Lord, vocal quartet for SATB, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Publications and presentations

1950 PhD dissertation
1960s booksMaterials and Structure of Music, Vols. I & II, William B. Christ, Richard Peter Delone, Vernon Lee Kliewer, Lewis Eugene Rowell, William Ennis Thomson, Prentice-Hall, 2nd ed., 3rd ed. Workbooks I and II, Materials and Structure of Music, William B. Christ, Richard Peter Delone, Vernon Lee Kliewer, Lewis Eugene Rowell, William Ennis Thomson, Prentice-Hall, 2nd ed., 3rd ed. Introduction to Music Reading, Wadsworth Publishing Co., Second Edition, The Hawaii Music Curriculum Project: The Project Design, College of Education, University of Hawaii
1960s articlesThe Total Theory Program, paper given at the conference on Curriculum and Supervision in Music Education, Indiana University The World of Sound and How We Hear It, TV presentation for Indiana University Television station, Bloomington Music Analysis as a Search for Universals, paper presented at the Conference, Ann Arbor Hindemith's Contribution to Music Theory, Journal of Music Theory Introduction to Music Reading: Concepts & Applications, Wadsworth Publishing Review of Bence Szabolcsi's "A History of Melody", ' New Math, New Science, New Music, Music Educators Journal, 53, Introduction to Ear Training, by William E. Thomson and Richard Peter Delone, Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont, California The Problem of Music Analysis and Universals, MENC Source Book III, 152–160 Teaching Musical Concepts in Ensemble Performance, Music Educators Journal Advanced Music Reading, Wadsworth Publishing, Music History and Music Theory Courses in the University, paper presented at the Music Teachers National Convention, Cincinnati
1970s booksIntroduction to Music as Structure – Composition. Elements and techniques of music, Addison-Wesley General Music: A Comprehensive Approach, Addison-Wesley Innovative Series Music For Listeners, Prentice-Hall, 1978.
1970s articlesReport from Ojinaga: the 1968 AIM Festival, Notes From Eastman Informal Comments on the Development of Aural Perception in a Comprehensive Music Program, paper presented at the MENC Pre-Conference Workshop Session, Chicago Music Rides a Wave of Reform in Hawaii, Music Educators Journal, 56
1980s articles
1990s booksSchoenberg's Error , University of Pennsylvania Press,
1990s articlesReview of Mary Lou Serafine's "Music as Cognition: the Development of Thought in Sound", Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 8–28
  1. Paul Desmond
  2. Vincent Anthony Guaraldi
  3. Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow
  4. James ("Jimmy") Andrew Rushing
  5. Elmer Snowden
  6. George WettlingEmergent Dissonance and the Resolution of a Paradox, Symposium,, 36, 114–137
  • "Response to Michael Buchler's review of Tonality in Music", In Theory Only, XIII Wilfred C. Bain: A Reminiscence In Memoriam, Symposium,, 38, 1–5 On Miles and the Modes, Symposium,, 38, 17–32 Response to Murray Dineen's Review of "Tonality in Music", Music Theory Spectrum 23.2
2000s articlesThose Strange Bedfellows, Politics and Music, Symposium, Deductions Concerning Inductions of Tonalty, Music Perception, Vol. 19, pp. 127–138, University of California Press, Berkeley, California Review of "The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching" and Learning by Richard Colwell & Carol Richardson, Music Perception, University of California Press, 20, No. 3, 341–350

Honors and awards

Military service

Thomson served as a Seaman in the U.S. Navy from 1945 to 1946. He was a musician in a Navy Band at Camp Elliott, California. Then he joined the Navy Band aboard the as it sailed from San Diego to Pearl Harbor. While at Camp Elliott, Thomson did freelance arranging for Gus Arnheim, who, in the 1940s, owned a nightclub in downtown San Diego where he kept a small band going. Thomson was not permitted to enter the club during performances ; but he listened to the band playing his arrangements over the radio. Arnheim paid Thomson $15 for each arrangement.

Growing up

In his younger days, Thomson learned to play french horn and trumpet, both in the classical and jazz idioms. When Thomson was five, his father bought him a cornet, hoping to stave off his interest in the piano that his sister was studying. And from that age, Thomson's mother began driving him to Texas Christian University on Saturdays for lessons with Don Gillis. When Thomson was eight, Don recommended that - since the highest paid member of any symphony in this country, was the principal French horn player - perhaps he should switch to horn. So he did.
The Gillis family lived in Polytechnic Heights, about four blocks from the Thomson family. The Gillis family attended Poly Baptist church, where the Thomson family were members. Don Gillis was very much involved in music at TCU.
Growing up, Thomson played French horn in Poly Baptist Church "orchestra", directed by Don Gillis. Don's sister, Eileen, played piano. The local postman, Mr. Snow, played baritone horn. A member of the Crystal Springs Ramblers, Kenneth Pitts, played violin. Thomson read the baritone part from the Broadman Hymnal, transposing it for horn.
Thomson attended Polytechnic High School, where he was involved in the band. Thomson became proficient at playing jazz solos on French horn with the Poly High School band. His high school band director was Perry Alton Sandifer, a trombonist, saxophonist, and clarinetist who, outside of school, performed in dance orchestras - one led by him bearing his name. Thomson graduated from Polytechnic High School in 1943.

Family

Thomson died in Ventura, California, on May 17, 2019, and was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery.