Francis Thorne (June 23, 1922 – March 7, 2017) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and grandson of the writer Gustav Kobbé.
His father was a ragtime pianist and his grandfather, Gustav Kobbé, author of The Complete Opera Book, was a musical critic, particularly of the Wagnerian canon.
Thorne was a student of Paul Hindemith at Yale University,[1] before entering the U.S. Navy in 1942 where he served during World War II.
Thorne died at Geer Nursing and Rehab in Canaan, Connecticut on March 7, 2017, aged 94.
A discussion of his works appears in R. Tomaro: Contemporary Compositional Techniques for the Electric Guitar in United States Concert Music.