THOMSON, VIRGIL. (1896-1989). Influential American composer, conductor and music critic. Two TMssS. (“Virgil Thomson”). 9pp. each. 4to. N.p., N.d. Signed souvenir typescripts entitled “Atonality Today” and “The Intellectual Audience.”

After studying at Harvard, Thomson lived in Paris from 1925-1940, where he mixed with French composers known as Les Six and formed a close friendship with Gertrude Stein. Thomson’s best-known works are the operas Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All, inspired by suffragette Susan B. Anthony’s life, were composed to Stein’s librettos,. He also wrote film scores for The Plow That Broke the Plains, The River and Louisiana Story, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. After returning to the United States, Thomson moved into NYC’s famous Chelsea Hotel and cultivated a salon of gay artists frequented by the likes of Leonard Bernstein, Tennessee Williams, Ned Rorem, John Cage, and Paul Bowles. From 1940-1951, he was the influential music critic for the New York Herald Tribune, where he criticized Sibelius, Toscanini, Copland, Shostakovich, and Heifetz, challenged the idea of a fixed Euro-centric musical canon, and promoted new music and mentored tonal composers Rorem, Bernstein and Bowles.

His article “The Intellectual Audience” appeared in the January 15, 1950 issue of the New York Herald Tribune and “Atonality Today” in its February 5, 1950 issue.

In excellent condition.