Richard Aldrich (music critic)

For the U.S. Representative from Rhode Island, see Richard S. Aldrich.

Richard Aldrich (31 July 1863 Providence, Rhode Island - 2 June 1937, Rome) was an American music critic. From 1902 to 1923 he was music critic for the New York Times.

Aldrich graduated A.B. in 1885 at Harvard College, where he had studied music under Paine. He began his journalistic career on the Providence Journal. From 1889-1891 he was private secretary to Senator Dixon in Washington, and also wrote criticisms for the Washington Evening Star. In 1891-2 he was with the New York Tribune in various editorial capacities, assisting Henry Edward Krehbiel with musical criticisms. He was also associated with Krehbiel as an American contributor to the revised edition of Grove's Dictionary.

Publications

• Guide to Parsifal (Ditson, 1904)
• Guide to the Ring of the Nibelung (Ditson, 1905)
• Translator of Lilli Lehmann's How to Sing (Macmillan 1912)
• Musical Discourse (1928)
• Concert Life in New York 1902–1923 (1941)

External links

• A biographical sketch of composer Jan Albert van Eyken written by Aldrich in a score of van Eyken's Three Sonatas for Organ; from Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
• A biographical sketch of Paganini written by Aldrich in a score of Paganini's Le streghe (the witches’ dance) for violin and orchestra (or piano); from Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection