Calvocoressi, Michel Dimitri
Calvocoressi, Michel Dimitri
Calvocoressi, Michel Dimitri, eminent Greek writer on music; b. Marseilles, Oct. 2, 1877; d. London, Feb. 1, 1944. He studied music in Paris, but was mostly autodidact; also pursued study in the social sciences. In 1914 he settled in London. He wrote music criticism and correspondences for French and other journals. He mastered the Russian language and became an ardent propagandist of Russian music; made excellent trs. into English and French of Russian and German songs. Among his books are La Musique russe (Paris, 1907); The Principles and Methods of Musical Criticism (London, 1923; rev. 1933); Musical Taste and How to Form It (London, 1925); Musicians’ Gallery: Music and Ballet in Paris and London (London, 1933); also monographs on Liszt (Paris, 1906), Mussorgsky (Paris, 1908), Glinka (Paris, 1911), Schumann (Paris, 1912), and Debussy (London, 1941); a new extensive biography of Mussorgsky was posth. publ. (London, 1946). With G. Abraham, he publ, the valuable Masters of Russian Music (London, 1936).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire