Original photograph signed "Cordially, Virgil Thomson" with autograph note to verso
The composer is depicted half length, his left hand at his waist, his right raised above his head. in what appears to be a conducting attitude. Inscribed at upper right. Image size 174 x 124 mm., overall size 249 x 198 mm. Framed and glazed.
With autograph note to verso: "Photo by Maurice Grosser taken about the time of the Pulitzer Aware for score of Flaherty's Louisiana Story."
An American composer and critic, "[Thomson] produced a sizeable catalog of stylistically diverse compositions characterized by expressive directness and textural transparency, written in a language that drew from hymnbook harmony, popular song, and dance idioms of the late 19th century, and utilizing plain-spoken tonal procedures but also diatonic dissonance and polytonal elements. In his many vocal works, and his two path-breaking operatic collaborations with Gertrude Stein, Thomson demonstrated a mastery of prosody. His settings of English convey American speech patterns with naturalness and clarity. He brought strong predilections for living composers and American music to his criticism. The wit, vitality, and descriptive precision of his writing, which demystified the complexities of music for lay readers, made him among the most influential and lasting critics of the 20th century.
Thomson also won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize in Music while a critic at the Herald Tribune. The award went to his music for the Robert Flaherty film Louisiana Story. That this was (and at this writing remains) the only time the Pulitzer in music had been given to film music was a point of pride for Thomson." Anthony Tommasini and Richard Jackson in Grove Music Online.
Item #39057
Price: $250.00 other currencies