Music with Words

"This delightful and informative book is a triply harmonious meeting of Virgil Thomson’s celebrated words with the meeting of text and music. It is of great value to listeners and performers both, and if it represents a composer’s view, it also manifests the writer’s art."—John Hollander "Rare indeed are musicians who are equally capable of expressing their ideas in a cogent literary manner and to compose music in a distinctive personal style. Virgil Thomson is such a musician. In his Music with Words, he gives the reader an instructive view of the interdependence of music and words with ample illustrations from his own compositions."—Nicolas Slonimsky "Nothing quite like this have ever existed before. Succinct, authoritative, no-nonsense, yet endearing, Virgil Thomson could be talking straight to you in those novel and ordered phrases from his novel and ordered parlor at the Chelsea. How I envy such unflagging, intelligent energy. I mean it complimentarily when I say that some of Virgil Thomson’s opinions jar me. For there is no one with whom I take more pleasure in disagreeing."—Ned Rorem