He attended Stanford University, and later the Eastman School of Music, where he studied under Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. He taught at the Juilliard School of Music from 1946 to 1963, after which he moved to Seattle, where he taught composition until 1971. He died there in 1994. His best known works are the opera The Wift of Martin Guerre, two symphonies, The Voice of the Coelacanth, variations on The Twelve Days of Christmas, and Chameleon Variations.