biography
| name: |
Thomson, Virgil (Garnett)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1896–1989)
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| biography:
| Composer and music critic, born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He studied piano and organ as a youth, and grew up knowing the traditional Protestant hymns before going off to continue his music studies at Harvard, in Paris (1922), and at the Mannes Music School in New York City (1923–4). Returning to Paris in 1925, he lived there for the next 10 years and developed a style characterized by a sophisticated simplicity, often drawing on American folk themes. He composed symphonies, ballets, choral and chamber music, and over 100 musical ‘portraits’ of well-known individuals. Further works include two operas with librettos by Gertrude Stein, Four Saints in Three Acts (premiered 1934) and The Mother of Us All (1947), and several film scores, notably Louisiana Story (Pulitzer Prize, 1948). When he returned to the USA, he became the music critic of the New York Herald Tribune (1940–54) and continued to ‘hold court’ at his apartment in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City to the end. |
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