Music of David Diamond & Francis Thorne

David Diamond (1915-2005)

Music for Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" (1947)

Overture
Balcony Scene
Romeo and Friar Laurence
Juliet and her Nurse
Death of Romeo and Juliet

Polish National Radio Orchestra / Jan Krenz, conductor

Francis Thorne (1922-)

Burlesque Overture (1964)
Rhapsodic Variations for Piano and Orchestra (1965)

Francis Throne, piano / Polish National Radio Orchestra
William Strickland, conductor

(Composer's Recordings, Inc., c. late l960's)
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I first got to know this LP in 1970 from the University of Colorado music library in Boulder. During this time, I was an art student at CU, and I had managed - after some difficulty - to get into a music course dealing with "modern music." As a result, I also learned that the current Visiting Professor of Composition at the University of Colorado was David Diamond, whose music or person I was previously completely unfamiliar with. The latter fact, however, changed very quickly. One day I took it upon myself to introduce myself to Diamond - who hung out a lot in the CU library where I also happened to work - to express my interest in writing a paper on his ideas for my music course. The result was a friendship / acquaintance which ended up changing my life. Diamond and I soon learned that we both had quite a few things in common in spite of the differences in our ages, accomplishments, backgrounds and experiences. For example, Diamond began by complaining to me that no one in CU music department would talk to him. I answered that this reminded me of the fact that no one in the CU painting department would talk to me. "Maybe it has something to do with music / art politics", we speculated. And so it went from there...

I've mentioned above the differences between myself - an unknown art student in his 20's - and a celebrated composer in his 50's such as Diamond. As it turned out, Diamond would become, in retrospect, the only artist during my time in America who really treated me as an "equal" worthy of respect (which was quite something considering the number of people I encountered in America whose thinking went in the opposite direction). In a conversation with Diamond I once unthinkingly referred to myself as "just a student." Sharply but gently, Diamond fired back: "NO! You are an ARTIST. Don't ever forget that!" And, indeed, this piece of advice has remained with me ever since...

I don't have enough space here to write all of my thoughts about David Diamond and the exchanges we had during his stay in Boulder. The following 1988 interview with Diamond, however, provides countless clues to what I'm forced to leave out here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stVN81lmqFs

Francis Thorne, a pupil of Diamond in 1958, is quoted in the notes to this LP:

"Diamond was godsend ... He was not only a superb teacher, but he gave me enormous confidence in my talent."

With this short statement, Thorne sums up my own experience
with Diamond as well. Never in my life have I met someone outside David Diamond who possessed as much personal generosity coupled with an unfailing devotion to allowing the truth of art shine wherever - and in whoever - it is found.

An interview with Francis Thorne may be found here:

http://www.kcstudio.com/thorne.html

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LP transfer of above material. Includes cover, label and notes, etc.