Thomson Virgil H. Garnett (Thomson Virgil Garnett)

Born in Kansas City (pc. Missouri), November 25, 1896. He returned to Harvard, and even before graduating from university (in 1923) became assistant music faculty. Later he took lessons with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, there is at its creative formation had a decisive impact Gertrude Stein and Erik Satie.
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. Characteristic features of Thomson's works - technical skill, a conscious desire for simplicity and sensitivity to the word
. The musical material of the composer is largely taken from the American past - the hymns and folk ballads of the Midwest. Experimenting with different compositional techniques, he preferred to collages in the spirit of Sati (ie. combination of incompatible elements), of course, the best works of Thomson associated with musical theater genres and cinema

. Among the most characteristic works of the composer - two operas on texts by G. Stein - "Four saints in three acts" (Four Saints in Three Acts, . 1928) and "Our common mother" (The Mother of Us All, . 1947), . as well as the design of the film "Louisiana Story" (1948),
. Deliberately simplified music - permeated with local color and very ironic - corresponds to the opinion of the composer: the purpose of art - "not an expression, and increased perception"

. Among other well-known works of Thomson - music for the films "Plow, . lifting the steppe "(The Plow That Broke the Plains, . 1936), . "The River" (The River, . 1937), . "Journey to America" (Journey to America, . 1964), . as well as the ballet "Filling Station" (Filling Station, . 1937) and the opera "Lord Byron" (Lord Byron, . 1968),
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From 1940 to 1955, Thomson was music critic of The New York Herald Tribune. The usual repertoire covered his correspondents, and he sought to draw public attention to everything unusual, outstanding, and can open up new avenues for music. His autobiography, Virgil H. Thomson "(Virgil Thomson) appeared in 1966. In 1971 he published the book "American music after 1910" (American Misic Since 1910) and in 1981 avtohrestomatiyu "A Virgil Thomson Reader" - selected excerpts from his own works. Thomson died in New York on 30 September 1989.