Virgil Thomson

Virgil Thomson ( born November 25, 1896 in Kansas City, Missouri, † September 30, 1989 in New York) was an American composer.

Life

Thomson studied at Harvard University from 1919 and 1921/22, with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. There he was, among others, the Groupe des Six, Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein in contact. 1925-1940 lived Thomson - previously returned temporarily to the United States - all in Paris. In 1940 he settled in New York. From 1940 to 1954 he wrote as a music critic for the New York Herald Tribune. He also wrote several books, including an autobiography.

Work

In the 1930s, Thomson worked as a theater and film composer. His first film was The Plow That Broke order the Plains ( funded by the United States Resettlement Administration). In 1949 he won the Pulitzer Prize for music with his score for Louisiana Story, which he also reworked to two concert suites.

His other works include orchestral compositions (among three symphonies, a concerto for flute, harp, strings and percussion, cello concerto ), piano and chamber music and vocal works (among three Masses and a Requiem ). As a composer, he influenced for example Aaron Copland.

Publications (selection)

• Virgil Thomson Reader. Houghton Mifflin, 1982, ISBN 0-395-31330-9
• Music, Right and Left. ( 1969); Greenwood Press Reprint, ISBN 0-8371-0685-0
• State of Music. (1939 ); New edition Greenwood Press, London, ISBN 0-8371-7258-6
• Music scene in America; together with Minna Retzer and Adalbert Brunner, Kasparek, 1948