I have three books that are part of John Thompson’s tutor book series, namely John Thompson’s Easiest Piano Course Parts One and Two as well as John Thompson’s Modern Course for the Piano First Grade. The Easiest Piano Course books I remember from my early learning days. It looks so familiar with the goblins on the front cover naming the notes of the musical alphabet. These goblins are present throughout the book being very helpful by pointing out time signatures, naming notes and reminding the player to count, for example. (Someone has been told in one of the books to not use the pedal as a footrest!)
These books encouraged me to investigate John Thompson and his teaching books as I knew nothing about him. He lived from 1889 until 1963. Apparently, he intended to be a preforming artist but his asthma affected his plans. After touring Europe for a few years, he returned to the States just before the start of WW1.
John Thompson was born in Williamstown, Pennsylvania on the 8th March 1889. His father, a former coal miner, ran a merchant store in the town which he opened in 1888. The store was called Thomspon’s Mercantile. In the 1900 United States Census, John is living with his parents James and Emma in Williamstown. He also has a sister named Alma who was born in 1894. His paternal grandparents were Scottish and his mother was from Wales. John’s maternal grandparents are living with his family. His father owns the property the family is living in and many other workers living nearby are coal miners.
John Thompson makes his concert pianist debut on January 8th 1902 in Harrisburg. All of the pieces he performed were played from memory and these incuded Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Chopin’s Etude in G flat and Berceuse and Weber’s Invitation a la Valse.
In the Harrisburg Daily Independent dated the 6th January 1903, John Sylvanus Thompson is hailed as a phenomenal pianist at 13 years. Apparently he ‘showed at the age of 4 years a most unusual genius for music, indeed his parents found it difficult to keep him away from the piano, even dire threatening of punishment failed to accomplish the result’. It goes on to say that ‘after receiving his first piano instruction in his home town of Williamsburg, PA, he was sent to the Harrisburg Conservatory of Music. Thompson has won many prizes and medals for his piano playing at a young age’.
The West Schuylkill Press dated 31st October 1903, John Sylvanus Thompson is known as the ‘gifted American Boy Pianist’. On the 3rd November he is giving a concert and states ‘this modest, unassuming boy of 13 years can recite from memory selections from Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Weber and other noted authors seems incredible. But the boy is a genius, and he commits different selections, and they come to him as natural as by inspiration. He needs no further introduction and we predict for him a crowded house’.
In the 1910 Census John is living with his family in Williamstown, his father is listed as a retail merchant, general store and working on his own account. His parents have four children, John aged 21, Alma aged 15, James C jnr aged 9 and Frank H aged 4.
In 1909, John Thompson applies for a passport on the 17th July. He states that he intends to be abroad for five years. I assume that he travelled overseas after the 1910 Census was taken.
The records show that John Thompson arrived back in the United States on the 6th April 1914, having left Southampton, UK on the 28th March 1914. His intended destination after arriving in the States, is his hometown, Williamstown.
A newspaper article dated the 30th July 1919 shows that he is working at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music. And, his registration information for WW1 signed on the 5th June 1917, states that he is married and is working at the Indianapolis Conservatory of Music.
The 1920 Census shows that John and his wife are living in Kansas City; he is working as a teacher at a music school and they have a son, John S. jnr aged 2.
The 1930 Census shows John Thompson living in Kansas City with his wife and two sons, one aged 12 and the other 6. The home, owned by John is worth $15,000 and the family owns a radio set. John is aged 41 years old and they were married when John was 25. Both of their sons were born in Missouri. John’s occupation is teacher and the industry is piano.
Both of John Thompson’s parents died in 1932. It seems by a few newspaper articles that I have read, that his father was an accomplished string player. In one article dated 19th October 1900, J. C. Thompson and son give two instrumental duets.
In later years, John Thompson and his son, John jnr ran many classes for piano teachers. John jnr studied at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, at the Kansas City Conservatory as well as with his father.
John Thompson’s first wife Loretta dies in 1951. The Sedalia Democrat newspaper dated the 19th June 1951 states that ‘Mrs Loretta F. Thompson, aged 58, wife of John S Thompson, Kansas City composer and publisher died at St Luke’s Hospital. She had been staying at the family home at Grand Lake, Colorado where she had suffered a stroke’. Her body was sent to Kansas City for the funeral service.
The Shamokin News-Dispatch newspaper gives an account of John Thompson and his second wife, Dora Biddle nee Morganroth. They were married on the 29th December 1953. The article that announces this news, states that Dr Thompson has made two European concert tours, numerous American tours and has appeared as a soloist with a number of leading orchestras in the United States.
In the Kansas City Times newspaper on the 2nd March 1963 there is an article concerning Dr Thompson’s new composition for piano, the ‘Arizona Suite’. It states that he and his second wife bought their Tuscan home about two years previously. It provides the background to John Thompson’s tutor books stating that ‘Dr Thompson became aware of the boredom and loneliness that surrounded the piano student’. His idea resulted in the Thompson books containing little melodies instead of the tedious exercises. It carries on about John Thompson being a native of Williamstown, Dauphin County and that he was taken out of high school by his parents and sent to Philadelphia to the Leefson-Hille Conservatory. He studied composition at the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded a doctor of music degree at Simmonds University in Abilene, Texas. According to the article, he toured Europe twice and came back to the States to become director of piano at the Kansas City Conservatory, a position he held for 25 years. It states that his instructions books are selling over a million copies annually in the United States alone and that they are also published in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and have translated into French and Spanish. At the time of the writing of this article, John Thompson was retired but still composing. He advised that all children should have at least one year of piano instruction no matter what musical instrument they decide to play.
John Thompson is buried with his wife at the Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City. He died in Tucson, Arizona.
The copies that I own of Easiest Piano Course Part One and Two were published in the UK, so terms such as crotchet and minim are used. A few terms present in the book would not be acceptable today, such as the use of the word ‘backward’ when describing a particular type of student. Also, a piece concerning a dancing bear would not be found today as well as an illustration of an African-American. There are accompaniment parts for the teacher or parent to play. There were some that I can remember being a little boring and repetitive. Even so, there are a number of tunes that are well-known such as Blow the Man Down, Old MacDonald, Mary had a Little Lamb, Yankee Doodle and the New World Symphony theme. The intervals of thirds and fourths are encountered quite early on. The use of quavers is introduced at the start of Part Two. And, not too long after that the hands are playing together, flats and sharps are being used, then key signatures are introduced and the hands are moved out of the middle C position. Not a lot of fingering is present in either of these books.
At the beginning of John Thompson’s Modern Piano Course First Grade, the author outlines his belief that students should master every single step in their learning. His book he states, should help them to think and feel musically. He stresses the importance of patterns - melodic, rhythmic, harmonic and fingering and in being exposed to these patterns, will become better sight readers. And, he adds that the exercises in the book can be transposed. He discusses the various touches that are required - finger legato, phrasing attack, wrist staccato, forearm legato and forearm staccato. And, he concludes with ‘he has learned to play his piano as a musical instrument and not as a typewriter’. This particular book does contain an excessive amount of fingering and as a teacher I would be concerned that the pupil was relying too much on this fingering rather than reading the music by intervals. The concepts covered are - thinking in phrases, melodic patterns, emphasising gently the first beat of the bar, dynamics, tones and semitones, accidentals, key signatures, transposition, anacrusis, drop-roll-lift, use of the pedal from beginning to end of a piece, the use of quavers, accents and staccatos, the dotted crotchet/quaver patterns, compound time, syncopation and cross hands.
There are debates going on today about John Thompson’s piano books. There is quite divided opinion to be found and one of the main criticisms does relate to the excessive use of fingering present in some of the books. At the time when these books were published, because they were novel they were extremely popular. Someone thought that possibly many of the teachers in the United States had used the Thompson books when they were learning. One teacher felt that those transfer students that she taught who had learned using the Thompson books were weak sight-readers. Another teacher felt that the supplementary books were well-graded in comparison with the tutor books which at times, she felt made ‘wild skips’. Others felt that the student stayed in the five-finger position for too long. Comments were made concerning the diagrams and instructions as well as the use of worksheets that reinforced concepts already introduced. One teacher stated that the books are not suitable for a slower learning student, they are better for students who are faster learners who absorb new material well. Many felt that the books are often well-paced though lacking at times in a range of musical genres and do require other books to supplement them.
References
Ancestry.com
