Facts or Opinions

Extract

The Personal Column of The Times frequently offers employment to “Companions”. They are required to take a more or less obscure place in decent society without feeling awkward, to be gentle, amenable to the opinions of others and to make themselves useful and pleasant: they are also expected to be able to drive a car, for they are meant to cover the ground quickly. These were the ideals which those responsible for The Musical Companion set before themselves in 1934, and with such success that in twenty years their book ran through nineteen editions. Its major revision and expansion, containing 782 pages to its predecessor's 751, appeared in November, 1957. W. R. Anderson (The ABC of Music), Julius Harrison (The Orchestra), E. J. Dent (Opera), Dyneley Hussey and Francis Toye (The Human Voice), and Eric Blom (An Essay on Performance and Listening) have revised their contributions to the original volume. The essays by the late Edwin Evans and F. Bonavia (Chamber Music and The Solo Instrument) have been brought up-to-date and where possible revised by Colin Mason, who is twice left with the unenviable task of gathering up the fragments that remain, and provides the only reference in the book to some two dozen composers, among whom are Janáček, Seiber, Searle, Hartinann, Skalkottas and Dallapiccola. These composers are mentioned only by Mr. Mason. As it is in the nature of a book to have a hero, Mr. Mason is the hero of The New Musical Companion.