Gerald Ernest Heal Abraham, (9 March 1904 – 18 March 1988) was an
English-Jewish musicologist, editor and music critic. He was particularly respected as an authority on Russian music.
Early career and author
Abraham was born at
Newport, Isle of Wight
Newport is the county town of the Isle of Wight, an island county off the south coast of England. The town is slightly north of the centre of the island, and is in the civil parish of Newport and Carisbrooke. It has a quay at the head of the na ...
, and initially trained for a naval career in nearby Portsmouth until ill-health forced a change of direction. He was largely self-taught in piano, music theory and history, aside for some practical orchestration experience with military bands and a year's study in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
, where he learned German and listened to much music.
In 1927, aged just 23 he published his first music book, a study of
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin ( rus, link=no, Александр Порфирьевич Бородин, Aleksandr Porfir’yevich Borodin , p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr pɐrˈfʲi rʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bərɐˈdʲin, a=RU-Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin.ogg, ...
, though he later disowned it.
[ David Lloyd Jones. 'Abraham, Gerald (Ernest Heal)' in ''Grove Music Online'' (2001)] There followed contributions to music periodicals and monographs on
Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...
(1933),
Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
(1935), and
Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
(1936). Abraham taught himself
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
and began a series of analytical articles on Russian music, collected in ''Studies in Russian Music'' (1935) and ''On Russian Music'' (1939). In collaboration with
M D Calvocoressi he also wrote ''Masters of Russian Music'' (1936).
[ Layton, Robert.]
Abraham, Gerald Ernest Heal
, in ''The Oxford History of National Biography'' (2004) Other works on Russian music include ''Eight Soviet Composers'' (1943), ''Tchaikovsky'' (a symposia, as editor, 1945), and his completion of both Calvocoressi's ''Mussorgsky'' (Master Musicians series, 1946) and his larger study ''Modest Mussorgsky: His Life and Works'' (1956).
But Abraham's interests ranged beyond the slavonic, as first shown in his introduction to contemporary music, ''This Modern Stuff'' (1933, later re-titled ''This Modern Music'') and in ''A Hundred Years of Music'' (1938) covering the broader history of music from the death of
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
.
[ He also edited collections of articles on Chopin (1939), ]Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
(1946), Sibelius
Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...
(1947), Grieg (1948), Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
(1952), and Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...
(1954). ''Slavonic and Romantic Music: Essays and Studies'' (1968) and ''Essays on Russian and East European Music'' (1985) collect some of his best work.[ J. Westrup, ed., ‘A birthday greeting to Gerald Abraham’, in ''Music and Letters'', 55 (1974), 131–5]
The BBC and academia
In 1935 Abraham was appointed by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'' (1939-1942, and subsequently as music editor until 1962). He was Gramophone Department Director from 1942 until 1947, an important post during wartime when the BBC's broadcasting of live music was severely restricted. This led to his participation in the founding of the
in 1946. Then he left the BBC for fifteen years to become the inaugural
. He returned to the BBC in 1962 to become Assistant Controller of Music, a post he held for five years. He moved to the USA in 1968 for a year as Ernest Bloch Professor of Music at the
. His lectures from this time were published as ''The Tradition of Western Music'' (1974).
'', for which Abraham acted as secretary to the editorial board.
He personally edited five of the ten volumes (see list below).