More than thirty years after his death, several of his choral works continue to be performed with regularity, most notably his Alleluia (1941), which at one point had more copies in print than any choral work in history. Thompson was part of a generation of American composers who sought to define a musical heritage distinct from Europe, each realizing it in their own way. Rather than relying on folk melodies or jazz idioms, Thompson forged his path primarily through the use of American texts, specifically in larger works like The Testament of Freedom (texts of Thomas Jefferson), Americana (from an American periodical), and his most popular Frostiana (poems of Robert Frost).