Virgil Thomson Composer, music critic Date of Birth: 25.11.1896 Country: USA

Biography of Virgil Thomson

Virgil Thomson was born on November 25, 1896, in Kansas City, Missouri. He began studying music at Harvard University and became an assistant professor at the music department before graduating in 1923. Thomson later took lessons from Nadia Boulanger in Paris, where he was greatly influenced by Gertrude Stein and Erik Satie.

Thomson's distinctive musical style was characterized by technical mastery, a conscious pursuit of simplicity, and a sensitivity to words. He drew much of his musical material from American history, including hymns and folk ballads of the Midwest. While experimenting with various compositional techniques, he favored collages in the style of Satie, combining incompatible elements. Unsurprisingly, Thomson's best works are closely associated with music-theatrical genres and film.

Among his most notable compositions are two operas with texts by Gertrude Stein: "Four Saints in Three Acts" (1928) and "The Mother of Us All" (1947). He also provided the music for the film "Louisiana Story" (1948). Thomson believed that the purpose of art was "not expression, but the intensification of perception," and his consciously simplified music, infused with local color and irony, reflects this conviction.

Thomson's other well-known works include film scores for "The Plow That Broke the Plains" (1936), "The River" (1937), and "Journey to America" (1964), as well as the ballet "Filling Station" (1937) and the opera "Lord Byron" (1968). From 1940 to 1955, Thomson served as a music critic for the "New York Herald Tribune." While his correspondents covered the usual repertoire, Thomson himself aimed to draw public attention to anything unusual, outstanding, and capable of opening new paths for music. He published his autobiography, "Virgil Thomson," in 1966.

In 1971, he released the book "American Music Since 1910" and in 1981 an anthology of his own works titled "A Virgil Thomson Reader." Thomson passed away in New York on September 30, 1989.