19 Facts About Virgil Thomson

Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic.

Virgil Thomson was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music.

At Harvard, Thomson focused his studies on the piano work of Erik Satie.

Virgil Thomson studied in Paris on fellowship for a year, and after graduating lived in Paris from 1925 until 1940.

Virgil Thomson eventually studied with Nadia Boulanger and became a fixture of "Paris in the twenties".

Virgil Thomson encouraged many younger composers and literary figures such as Ned Rorem, Lou Harrison, John Cage, Frank O'Hara, and Paul Bowles.

Virgil Thomson's most important friend from this period was Gertrude Stein, who was an artistic collaborator and mentor to him.

Virgil Thomson incorporated musical elements from Baptist hymns, Gregorian chants and popular songs into both scores while demonstrating a restrained use of dissonance.

Virgil Thomson incorporated folk melodies and religious musical themes into the film score and subsequently composed an orchestral suite of the same name which was recorded by Leopold Stokowski and the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra in 1946 for RCA Victor.

Virgil Thomson composed an orchestra suite based on the score; when it was published, the musical journal Notes commented: "Delightful as background music, the piece is an awful bore when you try to give it your full attention".

Virgil Thomson's suite based on the score was premiered by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1949 to widespread critical acclaim.

Virgil Thomson was a music critic for the New York Herald-Tribune from 1940 to 1954.

Miles records that Virgil Thomson agitated for more performances in New York of new music, including his own.

Virgil Thomson even went so far as to claim that the style a piece was written in could be most effectively understood as a consequence of its income source.

Virgil Thomson became a sort of mentor and father figure to a new generation of American tonal composers such as Ned Rorem, Paul Bowles and Leonard Bernstein, a circle united as much by their shared homosexuality as by their similar compositional sensibilities.

Virgil Thomson was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.

Virgil Thomson died on September 30,1989, in his suite at the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan, aged 92.

Virgil Thomson had lived at the Chelsea for close to 50 years.

Virgil Thomson orchestrated many and used several as part of larger works.