<<  -- 3 --  Gordon Rumson    SCRUTINY

One of the fascinating features of Mellers' contribution to Scrutiny is that he commented upon the very newest productions of: T S Eliot, Ernest Hemingway and a number of others we take for granted as the established figures of a bygone generation. In one review of music Mellers remarks that he looks forward to further recordings of pieces by Debussy since they were not available on gramophone records yet! Mellers is a direct connection with an era we now accept somewhat dated, but which was only seventy years ago. For instance, he remarks on Fauré's death some fifteen years before!

The range of Mellers' contributions is truly startling. A list of most, though perhaps not all, of his contributions (since the index is faulty and I have not scanned every single page of the journals) is listed below.

There is much to investigate: the development of Mellers' thought, the influence of Leavis' literary ideals to Mellers' musical criticism and the relationship of music to culture implied by Scrutiny. Indeed, I rather think that a great deal could be made out of the Scrutiny years, but I must leave that to some resourceful student seeking an unusual topic for a dissertation.

For us we must look over the titles and wish that Wilfrid Mellers did not prefer to draw that curtain over the past. On the other hand we might slip to a well stocked library and browse the pages of Scrutiny some sixty years after.

Articles by Wilfrid Mellers for Scrutiny

A preliminary, and hence uneven, catch. I predict errors and anticipate changes. I beg your indulgence ... G R.

'Tight-ropes to Parnassus: A Note on Contemporary Music', Scrutiny, v/2 (September 1936), 150-7

'Bernard van Dieren (1884 [recte 1887] -1936): Musical Intelligence and 'The New Language'', Scrutiny, v/3 (December 1936), 263-276

'Delius and Peter Warlock', Scrutiny, v/4 (March 1937), 384-97

'Mrs Woolf and Life', Scrutiny, vi/1 (June 1937), 71-5

'A New Symphony [by E Rubbra]', Scrutiny, vi/1 (June 1937), 75-6

'Jean Wiéner and Music for Entertainment', Scrutiny, vi/3 (December 1937), 284-302

'Chinese Poets and Others', Scrutiny, vi/3 (December 1937), 306-309

Continue >>