The
Composers
Virgil Thomson
(1896-1989)
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Classical
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TImes Archives
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Thomson was born in Kansas City, Missouri on November
25, 1896. He studied at Harvard and in Paris, where he lived from 1925-1932.
In Paris he studied composition under Nadia Boulanger. He served
as he was chief music critic for the New York Herald Tribune from 1940
to 1954. Works include the operas Four Saints in Three Acts (1934);
The
Mother of Us All, Opera in 2 Acts (1947) with text by Gertrude Stein.
Other works include: The Plow That Broke the Plains, for orchestra
(1936);
The
Seine at Night, for orchestra (1947); The Feast of Love, for
baritone and orchestra (1964) Missa Pro Defunctis (Requiem Mass,
1960); and Seventeen Portraits, for piano (1982-84). In 1949, his
musical score for the documentary film Louisiana Story in received
the only Pulitzer Prize ever awarded for a film score. He died in New York
on September 30, 1989. |
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