Amazon.com
Best known for an opera he set to Gertrude Stein's text, Four Saints in Three Acts (1934), and for the Pulitzer Prize-winning score of the documentary Louisiana Story (1948), composer Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) was also an unswerving champion of modern American classical music during his tenure as the powerful music critic of the New York Herald Tribune (1940-54). His works' tonality, stress on simplicity, and skillful use of traditional American tunes strongly influenced Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and many others. Lively prose evokes the crusty character of an American original in this enjoyably opinionated biography.
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From Library Journal
Thomson was a prominent musical figure who won a Pulitizer Prize for music, reigned as music critic of the New York Herald Tribune for 14 years, and wrote, with Gertrude Stein, Four Saints in Three Acts, which created a sensation and set a record for an opera by running for six weeks on Broadway. Yet Leonard Bernstein commented at Thomson's death in 1989 that "we all loved his music but seldom played it." This book, the first biography to appear since Kathleen Hoover's 1959 work and the composer's 1966 autobiography, should contribute significantly to his current rise from undeserved neglect. The author of Virgil Thomson's Musical Portraits (Pendragon, 1986), Tommasini is well suited to the task. He made the composer's acquaintance in his final years so that the closing chapters are in effect a memoir. Moreover, this is the first book to deal honestly with Thomson's closely guarded personal life. Like many of the other musical figures who appear in this book?Aaron Copland, Ned Rorem, John Cage, among others?Thomson was gay. This absorbing book is an essential purchase for collections of American and 20th-century music.?Michael Colby, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
