Wednesday 13 July 2011

Cecil Gray Contingencies and Other Essays


Cecil Gray (1895–1951) was a Scottish music critic and composer. He published books on the composers Jean Sibelius, Peter Warlock and Carlo Gesualdo, the last of these co-authored by the same Warlock; also a history of music, collections of essays on music, a play about Gilles de Rais and an autobiography.

He also wrote three operas: Deirdre (performed in part on the BBC), The Temptation of St Anthony (after Flaubert) and The Trojan Women. Wikipedia

The book has the inscription: "For Malcolm Lowry from Cecil Gray Capri 7/V11/48"

Malc and Margerie had met Cecil Gray when they traveled to Capri in July 1948. Malc also mentions Gray in a letter dated 2 March 1950 to Downie Kirk in which he says that he has been reading Gray in a "Concert Companion" that he had borrowed from the Kirks. The companion must be The Concert Companion: a comprehensive guide to symphonic music, Volume 1947, Part 1 edited by Robert C. Bagar, Louis Leopold Biancolli containing essays by Cecil Gray

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