Lockspeiser, Edward
LOCKSPEISER, EDWARD
LOCKSPEISER, EDWARD (1905–1973), musicologist and critic. Lockspeiser studied at the Royal College of Music and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. After working as a composer and conductor, he began writing for the Yorkshire Post and the magazine, Musical America. In 1941, he joined the BBC, on whose music staff he remained until 1950. He was music editor for the Encyclopedia Britannica and wrote frequently for The Listener, Music and Letters, and The Times Literary Supplement. Lockspeiser was considered a leading authority on French music, especially Debussy: he wrote Debussy for the Master Musician series (1936; revised second edition, 1951), and later an aesthetic and psychological study in two volumes, Debussy: His Life and Mind (1962, 1965), his masterpiece. His other publications include Berlioz (1939), Bizet (1951), an adapted translation of A New History of Music by Henry Prunieres (4 vols., 1943), and Music and Painting (1972). In 1948, Lockspeiser was made an Officier d'Academie for services to French music.