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Lawrence Gilman

Flushing, New York, 1878 - 1939, Franconia, New Hampshire

BiographyGilman, Lawrence (5 July 1878-8 Sept. 1939), music critic and scholar, was born in the Flushing section of Queens, New York, the son of Arthur Coit Gilman, a tea and coffee broker, and Bessie Lawrence. Gilman was educated in the New York public schools. As a boy he learned to play piano and organ. His formal training was not in music but rather in art at the Collins Street Classical School in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1896 Gilman launched a journalistic career, working as an illustrator for the New York Herald. During his free time he taught himself music theory, composition, and orchestration. In 1901 Gilman joined the staff of Harper's Weekly. Here he began writing music criticism and also served from 1903 to 1911 as the assistant editor and from 1911 to 1913 as managing editor. In 1915 Gilman moved on to the North American Review, where he wrote drama, literary, and music criticism.

Between 1904 and 1915 Gilman wrote several influential books on contemporary music. The new and dramatic innovations in form and harmony exhibited by such composers as Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky seemed to bifurcate the music world. Many critics reflected the conservative tastes of their readers. This hardened lines between composers and audiences; the majority rejected the moderns and turned almost exclusively to the past. Never before had this been the case in the world of concert music. Gilman sought to bridge this gap of sensibility and tried to explain contemporary music to audiences he knew to be apprehensive. In Phases of Modern Music (1904) and The Music of Tomorrow (1907), Gilman extolled the virtues of many innovators, demonstrating how their breakthroughs were achieved by building on the treasures of the past rather than by discarding them. As one who came to music via training in other arts, Gilman valued music that expressed extramusical ideas and philosophies. This was evidenced by his enthusiasm for the music of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and Claude Debussy. Gilman was particularly lucid in three explications and analyses of new operas: Debussy's "Pelléas and Mélisande" (1907), Strauss's Salome (1907), and Aspects of Modern Opera (1909). Later he wrote a highly regarded study of Wagner entitled Wagner's Operas (1937).

Gilman also wrote Edward MacDowell: A Study (1908), the first work to promote the neglected American master, a man Gilman knew and greatly admired. A striking feature of Gilman's writings on his contemporaries is that virtually all of the composers he championed have come to be regarded as giants. Very few he praised have turned out to be lesser figures; his instincts were remarkable.

Gilman wrote some music himself, but it was not of the highest quality, as he readily admitted. However, his piano pieces and songs, notably several settings of the new poetry of William Butler Yeats (another artist whose greatness Gilman anticipated), underscored his efforts at promoting the modern artistic styles, which he felt the public need neither fear nor disdain. Through his music Gilman also promoted art that grappled with the complexities of modern life rather than merely seeking escape through superficial beauty or the indulgence of ego. Gilman's quest to render art an interpretation of modern life came forth in his other musical analysis and criticism. He wrote the program notes for the concerts of the New York Philharmonic from 1921 to 1939. During the 1930s he broadcast several important radio programs, thus becoming one of the first regular commentators of musical performances and recordings.

Gilman's importance lies chiefly in his position as one of the leading music critics of his day. In addition to writing for the North American Review, Gilman was the chief music critic for the New York Herald Tribune, a post he held from 1923 to 1939. He scrutinized both the moderns and the classics, with his ear always attuned to the composers' and performers' ability to communicate and not merely express. This emphasis on communication over expression was critical in Gilman's desire to ensure that modern artists and audiences did not ignore one another. To that end in music the performer was crucial. Here Gilman's praise of Arturo Toscanini was effusive. He wrote of the maestro's "mysterious and inexplicable power of communication." Some felt this was a reflection of Gilman's own strength as a critic. His prose always revealed great care. His interpretations were sensitive to history as well as to music itself. Many contemporary composers gained greater popularity through Gilman's efforts to push the public ever forward aesthetically, efforts that he continued until his death at his summer home in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire.

Bibliography

There is no biography of Gilman. Gilman, Toscanini and Great Music (1938), is a collection of some of his best music reviews. His monographic works are valuable explications of early twentieth-century music. More broadly chronological in scope are three works by Gilman intended for the general symphony listener, Nature in Music and Other Studies (1914), Orchestral Music: An Armchair Guide (1951), and Stories of Symphonic Music (1907).

Alan Levy

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Citation:
Alan Levy. "Gilman, Lawrence";
http://www.anb.org/articles/18/18-00460.html;
American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.
Access Date: Fri Aug 09 2013 15:05:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Standard Time)
Copyright © 2000 American Council of Learned Societies.

Gilman, Lawrence
(b Flushing, NY, 5 July 1878; d Franconia, NH, 8 Sept 1939). American music critic. He was self-taught in music, and by 1907 was proficient enough to prepare thematic guides to Richard Strauss’s Salome and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. After serving as music critic (1901), assistant editor (1903) and managing editor (1911) of Harper’s Weekly he joined the staff of Harper’s Magazine (1913) and then became music, drama and literary critic for the North American Review. In 1923 he was appointed music critic for the New York Tribune (later Herald-Tribune), a post he held until his death. From 1919 to 1939 he was programme annotator for the New York National SO (after 1928 the Philharmonic SO) and from 1921 to 1939 for the Philadelphia Orchestra; he was also radio commentator for the broadcasts conducted by Toscanini (1933–5).

Gilman’s criticism was rooted in the tradition that holds that music is ideally a vehicle for the expression of philosophical ideas: he was a champion of Wagner, the impressionists (especially Debussy and Loeffler) and MacDowell. Although he published no essays on the course of music after 1914 he remained a sympathetic and intelligent critic of later musical developments. Devotees of opera considered him to be particularly gifted in describing the individual styles of singers.
Writings

Phases of Modern Music (New York, 1904/R)

Edward MacDowell (London, 1906, enlarged 2/1909/R, with introduction by M.L. Morgan)

Debussy’s ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’ (New York, 1907)

Stories of Symphonic Music: a Guide to the Meaning of Important Symphonies, Overtures and Tone-Poems from Beethoven to the Present Day (New York, 1907/R)

Strauss’ ‘Salome’ (London and New York, 1907)

The Music of To-morrow and Other Studies (London, 1907/R)

Aspects of Modern Opera (New York, 1909/R)

Nature in Music and Other Studies in the Tone-Poetry of Today (New York, 1914/R)

‘Taste in Music’, MQ, iii (1917), 1–8

Foreword to C. Debussy: Monsieur Croche, the Dilettante Hater (Eng. trans., 1927/R)

Wagner’s Operas (New York, 1937)

Toscanini and Great Music (New York, 1938)

ed. E. Cushing: Orchestral Music: an Armchair Guide (New York, 1951) [collection of programme notes]
Bibliography

C. Engel: ‘Views and Reviews’, MQ, xxvi (1940), 113–21

B. Mueser: The Criticism of New Music in New York, 1919–1929 (diss., CUNY, 1975)

J. Horowitz: Understanding Toscanini (New York, 1987)

Wayne D. Shirley, Grove Music Online, accessed 10/18/2017

Gilman, Lawrence
(b Flushing, NY, 1878 ; d Franconia, New Hampshire, 1939 ).
Amer. critic, author, and journalist. Mus. critic Harper's Weekly 1901 – 13 , NY Herald Tribune 1923 – 39 . Programme?annotator NY Phil. Soc. and Philadelphia Orch. 1921 – 39 . Author of books on MacDowell , Strauss's Salome, Wagner , and Toscanini. Oxford Music Online accessed 10/18/2017

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