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Virgil Thomson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the American author with a similar name, see Virgil Thompson (author)
Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 - September 30, 1989) was an American composer from Missouri, whose rural background gave a sense of place in his compositions. He studied with Nadia Boulanger, and later established himself in New York City, as a peer of Aaron Copland and was also a music critic for the New York Herald-Tribune from 1940 through 1954. His writings on music are noted for their wit and their independent judgments.
In the 1930s, he worked as a theatre and film composer. His first film commission was The Plow That Broke the Plains, sponsored by the United States Resettlement Administration, which also sponsored the film The River with music also by Thomson. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1949 with his film score for Louisiana Story.
He worked with Gertrude Stein on the operas Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All.
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Categories: 20th century classical composers | American composers | Film score composers | Opera composers | American music critics | Pulitzer Prize for Music winners | United States National Medal of Arts recipients | LGBT musicians from the United States | Gay musicians | 1896 births | 1989 deaths | United States composer stubs