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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
The years 1856–1950 represent the life span of George Bernard Shaw, one of the most pungent, witty, and versatile geniuses to be absorbed into the mind of the thinking world. The years 1888–94 represent the six years which he devoted to the concentrated effort of writing music criticism, first for the Star (1888–89) and then for the World (1890–94). Yet, despite their value as important contributions to critical literature, and notwithstanding their worth as patently clear statements and applications of Shaw's theories of art and criticism, these works have received little more than routine treatment from even the best of Shavian scholars.
1 Shaw's production as a writer on music was not limited to the years he was employed as a professional music critic. Besides commenting on music in his prefaces, plays, and early novels, Shaw contributed articles on music to Our Corner, Fortnightly Rev., and the Illustrated Mag. between 1885 and 1894. In 1898 he published The Perfect Wagnerite (London) and in 1908 The Sanity of Art (New York). In 1935 he wrote an account of the musical side of his boyhood as preface to London Music in 1888–1889 as Heard by Corno di Bassetto (London, 1937)—a collection of his early music criticisms written for the Star.
2 For a serious, thorough, and significant handling of Shaw as a music critic, the reader is referred to William S. Irvine's The Universe of G.B.S. (New York, 1949). Irvine does not emphasize—as I do—Shaw's work as an outstanding contribution to critical literature or as an unusually clear statement and application of his theories of art and criticism.
3 “Shaw Scolds the Writing Craft,” xviii (March 1923), 87.
4 The Real Bernard Shaw (New York, 1940), p. 30.
5 Music in London 1890–94 (London, 1932), ii, 129–130—collected articles which Shaw wrote for the World. Hereafter all volume and page references in the text, without other identification, are to Music in London.
6 Shaw, “Religion of the Pianoforte,” Fortnightly Rev., iv (Feb. 1894), 265–266.
7 “Religion of the Pianoforte,” p. 265.