I said to my friends that if I was going to starve, I might as well starve where the food is good.

His writings on music and his reviews of performances in particular are noted for their wit and their independent judgments. In the 1930s he worked as a theater and film composer. His tours of Europe with the Harvard Glee Club helped nurture his desire to return there.

He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. Virgil Thomson (November 25 1896 – September 30 1989) was an American composer and critic.