Eric Blom

Eric Walter Blom (20 August 188811 April 1959) was a British and later in England. He was largely self-taught in music. He started in music journalism by assisting Rosa Newmarch in writing program notes for Sir Henry J. Wood's Prom Concerts, which were notable for their abundance of accurate information. He withdrew in 1950 because of his preoccupation with the preparation of Grove's Dictionary. He returned in 1954 only because the proprietor and then-editor, Richard Capell, died. which went through several editions (it was revised in 1988 by D. Cummings as The New Everyman Dictionary of Music).

He succeeded H. C. Colles as editor of Grove's Dictionary for the 5th edition (usually referred to as "Grove V"). Colles had confined the dictionary to five and six volumes for Grove III and IV respectively (1927, 1940). Blom expanded it to nine volumes for Grove V (1954). As well his overall editing responsibilities, Blom personally wrote hundreds of entries, including Arthur Sullivan. He also translated many entries by foreign contributors (he was fluent in German, Danish, Italian and French as well as English). A Supplementary Volume was published in 1961, after Blom's death, but he had done most of the work on it. His introduction and acknowledgments were included, and he is credited as editor, with Denis Stevens as associate editor. His own biography, written by Frank Howes (the chief music critic of The Times ), appeared in the Supplementary Volume. Grove V was reprinted in 1966, 1968, 1970, 1973 and 1975, and remained the standard edition of Grove until the New Grove was released in 1980.

Opinions Blom was forthright in his opinions. He could be almost gushing about his favourites, particularly Mozart, and most especially his operas. He wrote that Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes was "so impressive and original that only the most absurd prejudice will keep it out of the great foreign opera houses". He assisted Gervase Hughes in the writing of his book The Music of Arthur Sullivan.

Personal life Blom married Marjory Spencer in 1923. She died in 1952. There was one son Michael Blom who designed many of Massey Ferguson’s best selling post war tractors, and one daughter, Celia, who married the author Paul Jennings and illustrated some of his books. He died on 11 April 1959. He had requested that at his funeral, the organist play J.S. Bach's final chorale prelude Vor Deinen Thron tret' ich zu Dir (I step before Thy throne, O Lord). Unfortunately, 'Bach chorale' was misunderstood, and the laughably incongruous "Barcarolle" from Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann was played instead.

Writings His other books include: Stepchildren of Music (1923) The Romance of the Piano (1927) A General Index to Modern Musical Literature in the English Language (1927; this indexes periodicals for the years 1915–26) The Limitations of Music (1928) Mozart (1935; part of the Master Musicians series) Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonatas Discussed (1938) A Musical Postbag (1941; collected essays) Music in England (1942; rev. 1947) Some Great Composers (1944) Classics, Major and Minor, with Some Other Musical Ruminations (London, 1958) Translated Richard Specht's Johannes Brahms: Leben und Werk eines deutschen Meisters Translated Weissman's Music Come to Earth The Trouble Factory "Delius and America", in The Musical Quarterly Blom contributed the article on Arthur Sullivan in the International Cyclopaedia of Music and Musicians (New York, 1939)