I seem to remember that Thomson was a little jealous of Copland's great successes, in not only movie music but also with those 3 great ballets, whereas Thomson's main claim -to -fame stage work was "4 Saints in 3 Acts"--opera, which has not exactly lasted ........or has it?

And Thomson was not only the accused one; AC had many sleepless nights waiting for the knock at the door, to be called for an unpleasant grilling with Sen. McCarthy. That he was comparitively quickly let off, despite the usual meticulous -but ultimately flimsy- case brought to bear, was really only because he was by then considered the most American of US composers.

His reputation slowly improved in Washington; so much so that in 1986, the House of Representatives finally awarded him the highest civilian honour, the congressional Gold Medal. Sanity at last had prevailed!

But that knock at the door.......in Moscow Prokofiev and Shostakovich expected it (and got it); but in retrospect, it seems like a very terrible atrocity in the Land of the Free's history.......