This composer's third Symphony opens with an impressive array of gongs and cymbals into a staggered bass accompaniment.
This composer's third Symphony opens with an impressive array of gongs and cymbals into a staggered bass accompaniment. This composer of two String Quartets also created a piece for two pianos titled Synthetic Waltzes.  His critical writing was collected in such volumes as The Musical Scene and he composed film scores for such works as The River and The Plow that Broke the Plain.  He included a tango and recurring references to the Song "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" in the ballet Filling Station and spent more than 30 years composing his Portraits for piano.   Still another work by this composer of Symphony on a Hymn Tune opens at Avila Cathedral and includes the song "Pigeons on the Grass Alas," as sung by St. Ignatius of Loyola.  For 10 points, identify this American composer who collaborated with Gertrude Stein on The Mother of Us All and Four Saints in Three Acts.
This composer's third Symphony opens with an impressive array of gongs and cymbals into a staggered bass accompaniment.
Virgil Thomson