Willard Huntington Wright

“ To be sure, these composers do not rank among the great world figures; but they do stand for the highest achievement in American music, and it is quite probable that many “intelligent” Americans would be interested in knowing about them. In fact, from the standpoint of intelligent interest, they are of far more importance than many lesser English composers who are given biographies. And although Sousa has had the greatest popular success of any composer since Johann Strauss, you will hunt the Britannica through in vain for even so much as a mention of him. ”

“ Among the important French composers who should have biographies, but who are omitted from the Encyclopædia Britannica, are Guilmant, perhaps the greatest modern organist and an important classico-modern composer; Charpentier, who with Puccini, stands at the head of the modern realistic opera, and whose Louise is to-day in every standard operatic repertoire; and Ravel, the elaborate harmonist of the moderns.
Even greater inadequacy — an inadequacy which could not be reconciled with an encyclopædia one-fourth the size of the Britannica — exists in the treatment of modern Russian music. ”

“ No great musical genius has come out of Great Britain; and in modern times she has not produced even a great second-rate composer. So evident is England's deficiency in this field, that any one insisting upon it runs the risk of being set down a platitudinarian. Even British critics of the better class have not been backward in admitting the musical poverty of their nation; and many good histories of music have come out of England: indeed, one of the very best encyclopædias on this subject was written by Sir George Grove. ”

“ He can, however, omit or neglect truly significant names of other nations while giving undue prominence to second- and third-rate English composers.
And this is exactly the method followed by the editors of the Britannica. But the disproportionments are so obvious, the omissions so glaring, and the biographies and articles so distorted, both as to space and comment, that almost any one with a knowledge of music will be immediately struck by their absurdity and injustice. Modern musical culture, as set forth in this encyclopædia, is more biased than any other branch of culture. ”

“ There is one field of culture — namely, music — in which Great Britain has played so small and negligible a part that it would seem impossible, even for the passionately patriotic editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica, to find any basis on which an impressive monument to England could be erected. ”

“ And it is full of effulgent praise and more than intimates that Mendelssohn's counterpoint was like Bach's, that his sonata-form resembled Beethoven's, and that he invented a new style no less original than Schubert's! ”

“ Americans (if the English will admit that such an adjective may occasionally be applied to us) — they are not only of importance but of significance. It is not as if second-rate and greatly inferior composers of Great Britain were omitted also; but when Ethelbert Nevin is given no biography while many lesser British composers are not only given biographies but praised as well, Americans have a complaint which the Britannica's exploiters (who chummily advertise themselves as “we Americans”) will find it difficult to meet. ”

“ And yet modern British music, which is of vastly lesser importance, is given thirty-five times as much space as modern German music, and ten times as much space as modern French music! In these figures we have an example of prejudice and discrimination which it would be hard to match in any other book or music in existence. ”

“ Among the German and Austrian composers who are without biographical mention in the Britannica, are several of the most significant musical creators of modern times — men who are world figures and whose music is known on every concert stage in the civilized world. ”

“ Despite the incomplete and unjust treatment accorded German and Austrian music in the Encyclopædia Britannica, modern French music receives scarcely better consideration. Chopin is given space only equal to that of Purcell. Berlioz and Gounod, who are allotted longer biographies than any other modern French composers, receive, nevertheless, considerably less space than Sir Arthur Sullivan. ”

“ Turning from Bennett, the absolute master of form, to William Thomas Best, the English organist, we find nearly a half-column biography of fulsome praise, in which Best is written down as an “all-round musician.” Henry Bishop receives two-thirds of a column. “His melodies are clear, flowing, appropriate and often charming; and his harmony is always pure, simple and sweet.”
Alfred Cellier is accorded nearly half a column, in which we are told that his music was “invariably distinguished by elegance and refinement.” Frederick Cowen also wrote music which was “refined” ”