This collection provides an in-depth look at musical criticism between the mid-nineteenth and the mid-twentieth century.

Introduction: Trends in British Musical Thought, 1850-1950 - Jeremy Dibble and Julian HortonAvoiding 'Coarse Invective' and 'Unseemly Vehemence': English Music Criticism, 1850-1870 - Peter HortonSpencer, Sympathy and the Oxford School of Music Criticism - Bennett ZonFree Thought and the Musician: Ernest Walker, the 'English Hanslick' - Jeremy DibbleErnest Newman and the Promise of Method in Biography, Criticism and History - Paul Watt'Making Symphony Articulate': Bernard Shaw's Sense of Music History - Harry WhiteAnalysis and Value Judgment: Schumann, Bruckner and Tovey's Essays in Musical Analysis - Julian HortonThe Scholar as Critic: Edward J. Dent - Karen ArrandaleRussia and Eastern Europe - Philip Ross BullockAnti-Intellectualism and the Rhetoric of 'National Character' in Music: The Vulgarity of Over-Refinement - Sarah CollinsChosen Causes: Writings on Music by Bernard van Dieren, Peter Warlock and Cecil Gray - Séamas de Barra'Es klang so alt und war doch so neu': Vaughan Williams, Aesthetics and History - Aidan J. ThomsonConstant Lambert: A Critic for Today? A Commentary on Music Ho! - Christopher MarkThe Challenge to Goodwill: Herbert Howells, Alban Berg and 'The Modern Problem' - Jonathan ClinchHans Keller: The Making of an 'Anti-Critic'Select Bibliography