MISSA PRO DEFUNCTIS - SECTION OF SCORE INSCRIBED BY VIRGIL THOMSON

Thomson, Virgil. MISSA PRO DEFUNCTIS - SECTION OF SCORE INSCRIBED BY VIRGIL THOMSON. The Preludium, Introitus and Kyrie Eleison from Thomson's Missa Pro Defunctis, 1960. 10 pages, musical score, duplicated from the original manuscript by Circle Blue Print Co., Inc., New York. Inscribed at the top of the first page "For Bill Jones/with many thanks/Virgil Thomson." (Bill Jones is likely the choreographer Bill T. Jones, who knew Thomson, and who, in 1986 worked with Louise Nevelson on a staging of Thomson's "Etudes." There are annotations in red crayon at various points in the score, but it is uncertain whether these are by Thomson. Laid in is a copy of "The Racquette," the newspaper of the State University College of Education, Potsdam, NY, for May 13, 1960, with an article announcing that Virgil Thomson would conduct the premiere of the Requiem at the college, with the Crane Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, which had commissioned the work. Slight age browning to the paper, else in Very Good condition. This work for orchestra and chorus is not frequently performed or recorded, and is therefore not so well known as some of Thomson's operas and film scores. Nice Association item.