Thomson 'The Plow That Broke the Plains' - Stokowski conducts

'The Plow That Broke the Plains' was a 25-minute documentary film, produced in 1936, that detailed the terrible over-farming of the Great Plains region of the USA and Canada where there were no rivers, little rain, just constant sun and wind, and a drought that led to the dreadful Dust Bowls which ruined so many settlers' lives.

Virgil Thomson composed a music score that is played continuously throughout the film and from it he selected a Suite of six short numbers for concert hall purposes. Leopold Stokowski made the Suite's first recording on 78s in 1946 with the Hollywood Bowl Symphony and re-recorded it in 1961 with the Symphony of the Air. It is that recording that is heard here, accompanied by 'stills' from the film itself. (From 'Vanguard Classics' OVC 8013.)