Clarke graduated from Harvard University in 1928, receiving a Master’s degree the following year and a doctorate in 1947. At Harvard he had been a pupil of Holst. From 1929 to 1931 he studied with Nadia Boulanger at the Ecole Normale in Paris. From 1932 to 1936 he was assistant librarian at the New York Public Library.
While teaching at Bennington College, Vermont (1936–38), he received lessons from Otto Luening. In 1938 he was appointed Chairman of the Graduate...