Abstract

Biography of Berlioz

The article provides information on the book "Berlioz," by J.H. Elliot, a biography of the French composer, Hector Berlioz . The Master Musicians Series has filled an obvious gap by adding a "Berlioz" to its list. Unfortunately the editor, Eric Blom, who is also the distinguished music critic of the Manchester Guardian, has assigned the task to his second-in-command on that paper, and in the absence of any special fitness the result is just another bad book on Berlioz. It is easy enough, once an artist or thinker has been ransomed from neglect or abuse, to expatiate on his merits and his faults with critical poise. Elliot confesses again and again that he is baffled; and by a not unnatural trick of self-deception he ascribes to his subject the contradictions and chaos which as a critic he has not been able to resolve.