Frank Howes

Frank Stewart Howes (2 April 1891 – 28 September 1974) was an English music critic. From 1943 to 1960 he was chief music critic of The Times. From his student days Howes gravitated towards criticism as his musical specialism, guided by the advice of the conductor and professor Sir Hugh Allen and the critic H. C. Colles.

Howes was known for his affinity with English music in the tradition of the "English Musical Renaissance"; after 1945 he found the less nationalistic, more cosmopolitan nature of post-war composers uncongenial.

In addition to his work for The Times, Howes wrote fifteen books, and served on many musical committees for bodies including the BBC and the Arts Council.

Life and career Howes was born in Oxford, and was educated at Oxford High School and St John's College, where his love of music was developed under the tutelage of Sir Hugh Allen. After the First World War, in which he was conscripted into the Non-Combatant Corps, he was admitted to the Royal College of Music, where, guided by H. C. Colles, he specialised in musical criticism. His obituarist in The Times considered that of Howes's 15 books, it was the 1966 The English Musical Renaissance that meant most to him. Unpublished From Our Music Critic: an Autobiography (1972): manuscript, held by the British Library, MS Mus. 283