Apthorp, William Foster

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Apthorp, William Foster

Apthorp, William Foster, American music critic; b. Boston, Mass., Oct. 24, 1848; d. Vevey, Switzerland, Feb. 19, 1913. A graduate of Harvard Univ. (1869), he studied music with Paine. He taught music at the New England Cons. of Music in Boston and lectured on music history at Boston Univ. He wrote music criticism for the Atlantic Monthly (1872–77) and was music and drama critic on the Boston Evening Transcript (1881–1903). In his criticisms Apthorp violently opposed new Russian, French, and German music (his intemperate attacks on Tchaikovsky elicited protests from his readers). Apthorp was also the annotator of the Boston Sym. Orch. programs (1892–1901).

Writings

Musicians and Music Lovers (N.Y., 1894); By the Way (essay collection in 2 vols.: “About Music” and “About Musicians”; Boston, 1898); The Opera, Past and Present (N.Y., 1901); co-ed. Scribner’s Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians (N.Y., 1888-90).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire