Review

Virgil Thomson
The Plow that Broke the Plains:

Arranged by Jay Rozen

two trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba

New York, NY, United States
Publisher: G. Schirmer, Inc.
Date of Publication: 1993

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 5 brass

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) was born in Kansas City and educated at Harvard. He also spent time in Paris studying with Nadia Boulanger. His compositions encompass almost every musical genre in a style that is based on traditional forms and tonality all dressed in American idioms of his time. The music for the most part can be characterized as sparse, simple, unsentimental and direct. His most well known works are the operas Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All and the film scores to The Plow That Broke the Plains and Louisiana Story. The numerous awards and honors he received included the Pulitzer Prize, a Brandeis Award, the gold medal for music from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the National Book Circle Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, and 20 honorary doctorates. In addition to his activities as a composer, conductor, lecturer and critic, he also authored eight books.

The Plow that Broke the Plains was composed for a film by Pare Lorentz produced in 1936. It is basically a dramatization of what had happened to the grasslands of North America. Thomson set about composing the score to fit the movie’s six episodes: Prelude, Pastorale (Grass), Cattle, Blues (Speculation), Drought, and Devastation. As preparation, Thomson studied white spirituals, hoedowns, cowboy songs, blues, folk tunes, fiddle tunes, banjo music and ballads. These are all seamlessly blended into the score along with Thomson's original music. In 1942 Thomson published an orchestral suite with music from the six episodes of the film. That same year he also published a suite for solo piano that included four excerpts: Prelude, Cowboy Songs, Blues and Finale. Jay Rozen arranged these four excerpts for brass quintet. Mr. Rozen has had a distinguished career as a tuba performer and advocate for new music. He has been on the faculties of Southwest Texas State University, Austin Community College, Southwestern University and is currently Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Long Island University. Mr. Rozen has commissioned works by numerous composers, most notably by Virgil Thompson: JAY ROSEN: PORTRAIT AND FUGUE for tuba and piano. With the exception of some changed dynamics, articulations and octave displacements, Rozen stays fairly faithful to the piano version. However both the piano and brass quintet versions miss the colors contained in the original orchestral score. Without these colors this music loses much of its charm and vitality. The trombone and tuba serve mainly as accompanists in the first three movements. Only in the finale do they shed this role for a few brief episodes. The first trumpet has to have a secure high range and there is a section calling for e-flat trumpet. The music is simple and straightforward and there are no great technical demands. 

-Karl Hinterbichler
University of New Mexico