Edwin Evans (1 September 18743 March 1945)Grove, 1980 was an English music critic. Evans was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. His father, of the same name, was a writer on music and an organist. Edwin's early education was at

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

from the age of nine until eleven, then at

Echternach Echternach ( lb, Iechternach or (locally) ) is a commune with town status in the canton of Echternach, which is part of the district of Grevenmacher, in eastern Luxembourg. Echternach lies near the border with Germany, and is the oldest town in L ...

in Luxembourg for another four years. On returning to England, he successively worked in cable telegraphy, the stock exchange and banking, and financial journalism. Then in 1901 he started his career in music criticism, first writing on French music, championing the music of

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

in particular but also of Henri Duparc,

Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( or ; 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His b ...

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers ...

and

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

. He went on to champion Russian composers, notably those associated with

Sergei Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pat ...

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. A ...

, and British composers: in 1919–20 he wrote a series of articles on British composers for ''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainze ...

''.Obituary
''The Musical Times'' Vol. 86, No. 1226
(April 1945), pp. 105-108 He was music critic of the ''

Pall Mall Gazette ''The Pall Mall Gazette'' was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood. In 1921, '' The Globe'' merged into ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', which itself was absorbed int ...

'' (1912–23), and from 1933 he was music critic for the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'', succeeding

Richard Capell Richard Capell (23 March 188521 June 1954) was a British journalist who was music critic for the ''Daily Mail'' (1911–1933) and thereafter at ''The Daily Telegraph''."Obituary in ''The Times'', ''Mr. Richard Capell'', 22 June 1954, p.10 Biogr ...

. In 1938 he was elected President of the

International Society for Contemporary Music The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music. The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the ...

. He died in London in 1945, aged 70. His private library would form the basis of the Central Music Library (now known as the Westminster Music Library) established in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

in the following year."The Central Music Library"
''

'', Vol. 92, No. 1304 (Oct., 1951), pp. 441-449. Retrieved 24 September 2020.

Notes and references

*Colles, H.C. & Frank Howes. "Edwin Evans", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan (1980). {{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Edwin 1874 births 1945 deaths English music critics Daily Mail journalists British music critics

Further reading

Notes and references