Henry Edward Krehbiel

Henry Edward Krehbiel reviewed music for the New-York Tribune for more than forty years, from 1880 until his death in 1923, and did as much as anyone to build an American concert audience that knew what it was hearing. How to Listen to Music, first published in 1896, went through edition after edition doing what its title says. A Book of Operas and A Second Book of Operas take the standard repertory work by work and explain plot and music together. Afro-American Folksongs, from 1914, was among the earliest serious studies of Black American music by a white critic, and argued that it was the real basis for a national art music, which put him against most of his profession. He also finished and edited the English edition of Thayer's life of Beethoven, left incomplete at its author's death.