November 25 - Virgil Thomson; Franz Xaver Gruber (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for November 25th are here: Ethelbert Nevin; Franz Xaver Gruber (2019), Virgil Thomson (2020), and Arthur Schwartz; Johann Friedrich Reichardt (2021), Paul Desmond (2022), and Ethelbert Nevin; Amy Grant (2023)

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Virgil Thomson (25 November 1896 – 30 September 1989) was an American composer and music critic. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Eclogue of Virgil

He and his partner Maurice Grosser lived at the Hotel Chelsea, where he presided over a largely gay salon that attracted many of the leading figures in music and art and theater, – adapted from Wikipedia

In the days when these things were discreet,

Virgil Thomson held court in his suite

At the old Hotel Chelsea,

Where the rumor mill tells, he

Would meet with the town’s gay elite.

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Franz Xaver Gruber (25 November 1787 – 7 June 1863) was the composer of "Silent Night."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Yet...

Franz Xaver Gruber got it right

One Christmas, writing “Silent Night,

(You’d admit it at you peril

If you didn’t love this carol.)

Nothing Christmassy is sweeter

Than its lilting six-eight meter;

And yet, when candles light the service

It makes the fire marshal nervous.

 

 

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