1. Eric Walter Blom was a Swiss-born British-naturalised music lexicographer, music critic and writer.
16 Facts About Eric Blom
1. 2.
Eric Blom is best known as the editor of the 5th edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
3.
Eric Blom's father was of Danish and British descent, and his mother was Swiss.
4.
Eric Blom was educated in German-speaking Switzerland, and later in England.
5.
Eric Blom then went to the Birmingham Post, and returned to London in 1949, as music critic for The Observer.
6.
Eric Blom retired as chief music critic for The Observer in 1953, but still wrote weekly contributions right up till his death.
7.
Eric Blom withdrew in 1950 because of his preoccupation with the preparation of Grove's Dictionary.
8.
Eric Blom returned in 1954 only because the proprietor and then-editor, Richard Capell, died.
9.
Eric Blom discovered a number of young authors and gave them their first opportunities to write music biography.
10.
Eric Blom succeeded H C Colles as editor of Grove's Dictionary for the 5th edition.
11.
Eric Blom translated many entries by foreign contributors.
12.
Eric Blom could be almost gushing about his favourites, particularly Mozart, and most especially his operas.
13.
Eric Blom wrote that Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes was "so impressive and original that only the most absurd prejudice will keep it out of the great foreign opera houses".
14.
Eric Blom assisted Gervase Hughes in the writing of his book The Music of Arthur Sullivan.
15.
In 1941 Eric Blom wrote a detective novel, Death on the Down Beat, using the pseudonym Sebastian Farr.
16.
Once back in London at the end of the 1940s, Eric Blom's address was 10 Alma Terrace, Allen Street in Kensington.