Richard Alexander Streatfeild (22 June 1866 – 6 February 1919) was an English musicologist and critic. His career was spent at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, although not in its music department. His publications included books on opera,

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 ...

and modern music. He had literary interests and arranged for posthumous publication of his friend Samuel Butler's '' The Way of All Flesh''.

Life and career

Streatfeild was born in

Carshalton Carshalton () is a town, with a historic village centre, in south London, England, within the London Borough of Sutton. It is situated south-southwest of Charing Cross, in the valley of the River Wandle, one of the sources of which is Carshalto ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

,King, Alec Hyatt
"Streatfeild, Richard Alexander"
Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 5 March 2014 the son of Frank Newton Streatfeild, a diplomat in Southern Africa."Obituary, Mr R A Streatfeild", ''The Times'', 8 February 1919, p. 11 He was educated at

Oundle Oundle () is a market town on the left bank of the River Nene in North Northamptonshire, England, which had a population of 5,735 at the time of the 2011 census. It is north of London and south-west of Peterborough. The town is home to Ound ...

and

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

, where he graduated in

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

. From 1889 until his death he served in the Department of Printed Books at the

. From 1898 to 1902 he was also music critic of ''

The Daily Graphic ''The Daily Graphic: An Illustrated Evening Newspaper'' was the first American newspaper with daily illustrations. It was founded in New York City in 1873 by Canadian engravers George-Édouard Desbarats and William Leggo, and began publication ...

''. He was a frequent contributor to English and foreign journals. Although Streatfeild never worked in the musical department of the British Museum, music was his principal interest. He was an enthusiast for the modern music of his day, and also for the music of

. His first book, ''Masters of Italian Music'' (1895), was a study of

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the ...

, Boito and later composers including Puccini. In the ''

Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and th ...

'' (2014), Alec Hyatt-King commented, "Streatfeild’s book on Handel, though old-fashioned in some respects, is a balanced and penetrating study which is still valuable." Streatfeild's 1897 book ''Opera'' was reissued several times during his lifetime and afterwards, with revisions by J A Fuller Maitland and Edward J Dent. The 1907 edition was published online by

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

in 2005."The Project Gutenberg EBook of ''The Opera'', by R. A. Streatfeild"
Project Gutenberg, retrieved 5 March 2014 Streatfeild also had literary interests, and was the literary executor of Samuel Butler. Under Streatfeild's supervision Butler's novel '' The Way of All Flesh'' was published in altered form in 1903, the year after the death of its author. Streatfeild died in London at the age of 52.

Books by Streatfeild

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Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Streatfeild, R A 1866 births 1919 deaths English music critics English writers about music Handel scholars