Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassicist, and a composer of "an Olympian blend of humanity and detachment" whose "expressive voice was always carefully muted" until his late opera Lord Byron which, in contrast to all his previous work, exhibited an emotional content that rises to "moments of real passion".
Virgil Thomson | |
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Thomson in 1947, photographed by Carl Van Vechten | |
| Born | November 25, 1896 Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | September 30, 1989 (aged 92) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, critic |
| Years active | 1920–1989 |
| Partner | Maurice Grosser |
| Awards | National Medal of Arts Kennedy Center Honors Pulitzer Prize for Music |
| External audio | |
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| Performance of Virgil Thomson's The Plow That Broke the Plains – Suite, Leopold Stokowski conducting the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in 1946 |
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