author
Lawrence Gilman
1878–1939
Best known as a sharp-tongued American music critic, he wrote vividly about opera, orchestral music, and the changing sound of the early 20th century. His reviews could be famously severe, but his books helped many readers find their way into serious music.
4 Audiobooks
Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande A Guide to the Opera with Musical Examples from the Score
by Lawrence Gilman
Aspects of Modern Opera: Estimates and Inquiries
by Lawrence Gilman
Edward MacDowell: A Study
by Lawrence Gilman
About the author
Born in Flushing, New York, in 1878, Lawrence Gilman grew into one of the best-known American music critics of his era. He studied art in Hartford under William Merritt Chase and also taught himself music theory and practice on several instruments, a background that fed both his criticism and his books.
Gilman worked for the New York Herald in the 1890s, then became a music critic for Harper’s Weekly, later wrote on music, drama, and literature for the North American Review, and from 1923 until his death served at the New York Herald Tribune. Archival records also describe him as an annotator for orchestral programs for the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
He wrote a steady stream of books on modern music and opera, including Phases of Modern Music, The Music of Tomorrow, Stories of Symphonic Music, Nature in Music, and later Wagner’s Operas and Toscanini and Great Music. Today he is remembered both for the range of his musical writing and for some famously harsh judgments on works that later became classics.