-
Eduard Hanslick
Hanslick got his start writing music reviews for small town newspapers. His taste in music was conservative for the times. He is best known for his critical advocacy of Brahms as opposed to the school of Wagner. Because of this Wagner disliked Hanslick and based one of his opera characters, a carping critic, on him. Hanslick is credited as being the first widely influential music critic and his book The Beautiful in Music is considered the foundation of modern musical aesthetics. -
George Bernard Shaw
Shaw hails from Ireland but his career as a critic began in London when he joined the reviewing staff of the Pall Mall Gaztte in 1885. His criticism ranged from short comments to bbok length essays. He is known for having held composer Wagner in the highest regards and showing extreme animosity towards Brahms. His writings on music gained great popularity because they were understanable to the average well-read audience member. -
Aaron Copland
In 1924, Copland begin his long career as a music critic, mostly of contemporary classical music. He wrote revies on specific works, trends, composers, festivals, books about music and recordings. He also worte several books about music that had critical undertones. -
Virgil Thomson
Thomson was a music critic for the New York Herald-Tribune from 1940-1954. His writings on music, and his reviews of performances are noted for their wit and independent judgements. His definition of music was famously "that which musicians do." His views were radical due to their insistence on reducing the rarified aesthetics of music to market activity. He went as far as to claim that the stly in which a piece was written could be ebst understood as a consequence of its income source. -
Robert Plamer
Palmers career exploded in the early 1970's when he became a contributing editor for Rolling Stone. In 1976 he became the first full-time rock writer for the New York Times, serving as chief pop music critic where he remained until 1988. Throughout his life he published scholarly linear notes on albums by dozens of top jazz, blues, rock, and world music artists. He taught music courses at the college level, wrote several books about music, worked on documentaries, and was a music producer.
