Percy Alfred Scholes
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Percy Alfred Scholes PhD OBE (24 July 1877 – 31 July 1958) (pronounced ''skolz'') was an English musician, journalist and prolific writer, whose best-known achievement was his compilation of the first edition of ''
The Oxford Companion to Music ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' is a music reference book in the Book series, series of Oxford Companions produced by the Oxford University Press. It was originally conceived and written by Percy Scholes and published in 1938. Since then, it ...
''. His 1948 biography ''The Great Dr Burney'' was awarded the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...
.


Career

He was born in Headingly,
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
in 1877, the third of six children of Thomas Scholes, a commercial agent and Katharine Elizabeth Pugh. He was educated privately, owing to his poor health as a child. He became an organist, schoolteacher, music journalist, lecturer, an Inspector of Music in Schools to London University and the Organist and Music Master of Kent College, Canterbury (1900), All Saints, Vevey, Switzerland (1902) as well as Kingswood College, Grahamstown, South Africa (1904). He was Registrar at the City of Leeds (Municipal) School of Music (1908–1912).John Owen Ward. 'Scholes, Percy A(lfred)' in ''Grove Music Online'' (2001) In 1908 he married Dora Wingate, a talented pianist. That year he founded the magazine ''The Music Student'' in 1908 (renamed ''The Music Teacher'' in 1921), and continued as its editor until 1920. During the First World War he directed the Music section of the
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...
for troops at home and abroad. At various times Scholes was music critic for the ''
Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...
'' (1913-1920), ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' (1920–1925) (immediately following
Ernest Newman Ernest Newman (30 November 1868 – 7 July 1959) was an English music critic and musicologist. ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' describes him as "the most celebrated British music critic in the first half of the 20th century." His ...
's departure) and the '' Radio Times'' (1923–1929). From 1923 up until 1928 (when he departed for Switzerland) he was making regular music appreciation broadcasts on
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. ...
...
radio. He was made an Officer of the Star of Rumania in 1930 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries in 1938. He was founder and general secretary of the Anglo-American Conference on Musical Education, Lausanne (1929 and 1931). Scholes and his wife came back to the UK in 1940, but with his health in decline they returned to Switzerland at the end of 1956. He ended his days in Cornaux, Chamby sur Montreux.


Work

Scholes wrote over 30 books, mainly concerning music appreciation. His best-known work is ''The Oxford Companion to Music'', which was first published in 1938. Like ''Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1878-89) the ''Companion'' sought to reach out beyond professional musicians to the amateur as well. This work took him six years to produce and consisted of over a million words (surpassing the length of the
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...
). Scholes was assisted by various clerical assistants, but wrote virtually all the text himself. The only exceptions were the article on tonic sol-fa (for which he was dissatisfied with his own article) and the synopses of the plots of operas (which he regarded as too boring). Although the ''Oxford Companion to Music'' was (and is) regarded as authoritative, the text of the first edition is enlivened by Scholes' own anecdotal and sometimes quirky style. He was also the author of ''Puritans and Music in England and New England: A Contribution to the Cultural History of Two Nations '' (1934). In 1947 he produced the two volume, 960 page ''The Mirror of Music'', compiling, enlarging and commenting on material published in ''The Musical Times'' between 1844 and 1944.Shenton, Kenneth.
Everyman and His Music: Percy Scholes (1877-1958)
' (2008) Scholes was deeply concerned with connecting music with a wider audience through musical appreciation in the tradition of Dr Burney, an influence he cited himself and the subject of his biography in 1948.
Frank Howes Frank Stewart Howes (2 April 1891 – 28 September 1974) was an English music critic. From 1943 to 1960 he was chief music critic of ''The Times''. From his student days Howes gravitated towards criticism as his musical specialism, guided by the a ...
(writing as 'Our Music Critic' in ''The Times'') called ''The Listener's Guide to Music'' (1919) "that masterpiece of simplification". He recognised very early the possibilities of the gramophone as an aid to knowledge and understanding of music. His ''First Book of the Gramophone Record'' (1924) lists fifty records of music from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, with a commentary on each; a ''Second Book'' followed in 1925. From 1930 onwards, Scholes collaborated with the
Columbia Graphophone Company Columbia Graphophone Co. Ltd. was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1917 as an offshoot of the American Columbia Phonograph Company, it became an independent British-owned company in 1922 in a managemen ...
in ''The Columbia History of Music by Ear and Eye''; this comprised five volumes, each containing an explanatory booklet and eight 78rpm records specially made for the series, including
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
vocal and instrumental items performed by Arnold Dolmetsch and his family. He also worked on the innovative 'AudioGraphic' project for the
Aeolian Company The Aeolian Company was a musical-instrument making firm whose products included player organs, pianos, sheet music, records and phonographs. Founded in 1887, it was at one point the world's largest such firm. During the mid 20th century, it surp ...
creating richly annotated player-piano (pianola) rolls, having joined as Secretary the ''Honorary Advisory Committee on the Use of Piano-Player Rolls in Education,'' chaired by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in 1925. The AudioGraphic rolls were printed with music biographical and analytical commentary material and illustrations including woodcuts, photographs of drama and opera productions, and paintings, which could occupy over two metres of the roll. These rolls were issued in England from around 1926 to 1929 and America from 1927 to 1930.


Style and temperament

"Nothing he put out was ever "ghosted"; all bore the individual stamp of the salty P.A.S style." wrote W.R Anderson in 1958. In his writing for this work, and elsewhere, Scholes never believed in holding back his personal views in favour of a neutral point of view. He is credited with the description of harpsichord music as sounding like "a
toasting fork A toasting fork is a long-handled fork used to brown and toast food such as bread, cheese, and apples by holding the pronged end in front of an open fire or other heat source. It can also be used to toast marshmallows, broil hot dogs, and he ...
on a birdcage"; when describing Handel and
Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...
, he said that "Handel was the more elegant composer, but Bach was the more thorough". Scholes led the public denunciations of
Arthur Eaglefield Hull Arthur Eaglefield Hull (10 March 1876 – 4 November 1928) was an English music critic, writer, composer and organist.
when it was found that his book ''Music: Classical, Romantic and Modern'' (1927) was found to have borrowed material from other writers. How much of this was plagiarism and how much a mere careless, hasty failure to cite sources is not known, but the scandal left Hull very upset. He took his own life by throwing himself under a train at Huddersfield station on 4 November, 1928. Scholes also made enemies amongst ''The'' ''Sackbut'' group which included Philip Heseltine and
Ursula Greville Ursula Greville (1894 – 1991) was a British soprano and folksong singer, songwriter, writer and editor of '' The Sackbut'' (a critical music magazine). She has been credited as the first woman recording engineer. Career Singer Greville was f ...
. Scholes' criticism of Hubert Foss' ''Song-cycle on Poems of Thomas Hardy'' infuriated Heseltine, who sent Scholes abusive letters, took to telephoning him late at night, and circulated a petition seeking his sacking from the ''
Observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Computer science and information theory * In information theory, any system which receives information from an object * State observer in co ...
''. Scholes sought legal advice on this matter but took no action.Prictor, Megan J. (2000)
Music and the ordinary listener: music appreciation and the media in England, 1918-1939
PhD thesis, Faculty of Music, The University of Melbourne. Reviews of Christian Darnton's ''You and Music'' (1940) were generally positive until Scholes catalogued so many serious and obvious errors (such as “Binary form may be represented by A.B.A.”) that he presented the work as an elaborate joke to trap unwary reviewers. In ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' some composers (
Berg Berg may refer to: People *Berg (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Berg Ng (born 1960), Hong Kong actor * Berg (footballer) (born 1989), Brazilian footballer Former states * Berg (state), county and duchy of the Hol ...
, Schönberg and
Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stead ...
, for example) were described in somewhat unsympathetic and dismissive terms. His article on Jazz states that "jazz is to serious music as daily journalism is to serious writing"; similarly, his article on the composer John Henry Maunder states that Maunder's "seemingly inexhaustible cantatas, ''Penitence, Pardon and Peace'' and ''From Olivet to Calvary'', long enjoyed popularity, and still aid the devotions of undemanding congregations in less sophisticated areas."


Death and legacy

Scholes died in 1958, aged eighty-one, in
Vevey Vevey (; frp, Vevê; german: label=former German, Vivis) is a town in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne. The German name Vivis is no longer commonly used. It was the seat of the district of ...
, Switzerland, where he had been living for many years. Shortly before his death, his "professional" library was acquired by the
National Library of Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is t ...
. This comprised approximately 50 linear metres of research files and correspondence. His former assistant John Owen Ward revised the Tenth Edition of the ''Companion'' in 1970. Ward considered it "inappropriate to change radically the characteristic rich anecdotal quality of Dr. Scholes' style." and left much of Scholes' distinctive work intact.John Owen Ward. Preface to the Tenth Edition (1969) In 1983
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
produced ''The New Oxford Companion to Music'', edited by
Denis Arnold Denis Midgley Arnold (Sheffield, 15 December 1926 – Budapest, 28 April 1986) was a British musicologist. Biography After being employed in the extramural department of Queen's University, Belfast, he became a Lecturer in Music at the Univ ...
, which consciously tried to overcome some of the perceived deficiencies of the Scholes' work. This included taking a more eclectic line on music to be included, and resulted in a two-volume work of some 2000 pages. The 2002 edition, edited by Alison Latham, reverted to the original title, and single-volume format.


Publications

* ''Candidates Self Examiner in Scales, etc.'' (1907) * ''The Music Student'' (ed). (1908 – 1921, later renamed ''The Music Teacher'') * ''Introduction to French Music'' (1917) * ''Everyman and his Music'' (1917) * ''An Introduction to British Music'' (1918) * ''Listener’s Guide to Music'' (1919) * ''Musical Appreciation in Schools'' (1920) * ''Learning to Listen by Means of the Gramophone'' (1921) * ''New works by modern British composers'', Carnegie UK Trust (Series 1 and 2, 1921, 1924) * ''Beginner’s Guide to Harmony'' (1922) * ''The Book of the Great Musicians'' (1923) * ''The First Book of the Gramophone Record'' (1924) * ''The Appreciation of Music by Means of the Pianola and Duo-Art'' (1925) * ''Everybody’s Guide to Broadcast Music'' (1925) * ''Miniature History of Music'' (1928) * ''Columbia History of Music Through Ear and Eye'' (1930, in five parts) * ''Miniature History of Opera'' (1931) * ''Some Aesthetic and Everyday Reflections on the Vegetarian System of Diet'' (1931) * ''Practical Lesson Plans in Musical Appreciation by Means of the Gramophone'' (1933) * ''Puritans and Music'' (1934) * ''Music: the Child and the Masterpiece'' (1935) * ''Radio Times Music Handbook'' (1935) * ''Oxford Companion to Music'' (1938) * ''God Save the King! Its History and Romance'' (1942) * ''The Mirror of Music'' (1947) * ''The Great Doctor Burney'' (1948) * ''Why I am a Vegetarian'' (1948) * ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music'' (1952) * ''The Life and Adventures of Sir John Hawkins'' (1953) * ''Oxford Junior Companion to Music'' (1954) * ''God Save the Queen! The History and Romance of the World's First National Anthem'' (1954)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scholes, Percy 1877 births 1958 deaths English male journalists English writers about music James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients British music critics English music critics Classical music critics Alumni of Kingswood College (South Africa)