Virgil Thomson, Music Chronicles 1940-1954: The Musical Scene, The Art of Judging Music, Music Right and Left, Music Reviewed 1940-1954, Other Writings, edited by Tim Page (New York: Library of America, 2014) (From "The Intellectual Audience (I)": "Anyone who attended musical and other artistic events eclectically must notice that certain of these bring out an audience thickly sprinkled with what are called 'intellectuals' and that others do not. It is management and box offices that call these people intellectuals; persons belonging to that group rarely use the term. They are a numerous body in New York, however, and can be counted on to patronize certain entertainments. Their word-of-mouth communication has an influence, moreover, on public opinion. Their favor does not necessarily provoke mass patronage, but it does bring to the box office a considerable number of their own kind, and it does give to any show or artist receiving it some free advertising. The intellectual audience in any large city is fairly numerous, well organized, and vocal." " This group, that grants or withholds its favor without respect to paid advertising and that launches its ukases with no apparent motivation, consists of people from may social conditions. Its binding force is the book. It is a reading audience. Its members may have a musical ear or an eye for the visual art, and they may have neither. What they all have is some acquaintance with ideas. The intellectual world does not judge a work of art from the talent and skill embodied in it; only professionals judge that way. It seeks in art a clear connection with contemporary aesthetic and philosophic trends, as these are known through books and magazines. The intellectual audience is not a professional body; it is not a professors' conspiracy, either, not a publishers' conspiracy. Neither is it quite a readers' anarchy. Though it has no visible organization, it forms its own opinions and awards its own prizes in the form of free advertising, It is a very difficult group to maneuver or to push around." Id. at 786, 786.)
Virgil Thomson, The State of Music and Other Writings: The State of Music; Virgil Thomson; American Music Since 1910; Music with Words; Other Writings, edited by Tim Page (New York: Library of America, 2016).
