Virgil Thomson
The exact date of this episode is unknown. We've filled in the date above with a placeholder. What we actually have on record is: 196u-uu-uu.
Thomson talks about how he came write Four Saints in Three Acts with Gertrude Stein. Stein and he were close friends and he had made a number of musical pieces from her works previously. They found a subject interesting to both of them and she wrote a libretto and he set the libretto to music. It is about the religious life and people learning to become saints.
He discusses working on movie scores as compared to operas. Opera you start from words and with movies you start with the visual. Thomson also defines the role of the music critic in journalism. He is not hired to be a public relations man for the writers and producers. The state of music criticism in the United States.
He discusses Southern Baptist roots in Missouri and having been a student at Harvard and Paris and a pupil of various people including Nadia Boulanger.
He never picks up paper until he is ready to write. No staring at a blank page for Thomson.
Returns to his work with Gertrude Stein. Won't discuss current work since it brings bad luck.
WNYC archives id: 909631
