The Plow That Broke the Plains

The Plow That Broke the Plains, film score by American composer Virgil Thomson for the 1936 Pare Lorentz documentary film of the same name, a project of the United States Resettlement Administration (later called the Farm Security Administration, or FSA). The film, which examined the causes behind the Dust Bowl, was intended to encourage a sustainable use of natural resources. Thomson’s music draws upon rhythms and moods of folk songs and hymns to capture the spirit of the High Plains.

After the release of the film, Thomson crafted from his score an orchestral suite to broaden the audience for his music. It is in this form that Thomson’s work is most frequently heard today. Even in the abbreviated orchestral suite, Thomson retained the elements essential to a portrait of wide-open spaces in distress. In “Pastorale (Grass),” for example, Thomson crafted a calm and peaceful scene of the untroubled grasslands before the arrival of the farmer. The next section, “Cattle,” has the distinct feel of the American West, due to Thomson’s inclusion of a guitar in the orchestra and his use of the cowboy songs “I Ride an Old Paint” and “The Streets of Laredo.” Later Thomson used spare melodic lines and despairing harmonies to evoke “Drought.” For the final scene, “Devastation,” Thomson suggests displaced farm families on the move, while giving a hint of succour by incorporating some old American hymn tunes.