Richard Aldrich (music critic)

File:Richard Aldrich (1863–1937) c. 1885.png

Richard Aldrich was born on July 31, 1863, in Providence, Rhode Island. His father was Elisha S. Aldrich and his mother, Anna E. Gladding. He attended Providence High School and graduated with an A.B. in 1885 from Harvard College, where he had studied music.

He began his journalistic career on the Providence Journal. From 1889 to 1891, he was private secretary to Senator Nathan F. Dixon III in Washington, D.C., writing criticisms for the Washington Evening Star. In 1891–92 he was with the New York Tribune in various editorial capacities, assisting Henry Edward Krehbiel with musical criticisms. He was associated with Krehbiel as an American contributor to the revised edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Arthur Eaglefield Hull, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924).

In 1906, he was married to Margaret Livingston Chanler, daughter of John Winthrop Chanler (1826–1877) of the Dudley–Winthrop family and Margaret Astor Ward (1838–1875) of the Astor family. Margaret Livingston Chanler served as a nurse with the American Red Cross during the Spanish–American War.{{cite journal|title=Margaret Astor Chanler, Heroine of Porto Rico|journal=Milwaukee Journal|date=September 8, 1898|page=5}}

They had two children, a daughter and a son:

• Margaret Aldrich (1911-2011), who married Christopher Rand in 1934.{{cite news|title=Aldrich -- Rand.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/02/13/archives/aldrich-rand.html|accessdate=13 October 2017|work=The New York Times|date=13 February 1934 |page=24 |url-access=subscription}} She later married Byron DeMott (d. 1963).{{cite news|title=Paid Notice: Deaths Demott, Margaret Aldrich|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803EEDB173AF93AA15757C0A9679D8B63|accessdate=2023-04-23|newspaper=The New York Times|date=29 April 2011}}
• Richard Chanler Aldrich (1909-1961),{{cite news |title=Aldrich-Chanler Baby Christened. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123429919/aldrich-chanler-baby-christened/ |accessdate=2023-04-23 |newspaper=The New York Times |place=Barrytown, New York |page=7 |date=1909-06-23 |publication-date=24 June 1909 |via=Newspapers.com}} who married Susan Cutler (d. 1998),{{cite news|title=Richard C. Aldrich |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E04EFDE143CEE32A25755C0A9679D946091D6CF&legacy=true|accessdate=13 October 2017|newspaper=The New York Times|date=6 November 1961 |page=37 |url-access=subscription}} the daughter of John Wilson Cutler and Rosalind (née Fish) Cutler, and the granddaughter of Hamilton Fish II.{{cite news|title=Paid Notice: Deaths Aldrich, Susan Cutler |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/13/classified/paid-notice-deaths-aldrich-susan-cutler.html|accessdate=2023-04-23|newspaper=The New York Times|date=13 September 1998}}

Aldrich died on June 2, 1937, in Rome, Italy.{{cite news|title=Richard Aldrich Dies in Rome at 73; Times Music Critic Emeritus, Retired in 1924, Is Stricken on Visit to Brother|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/06/03/archives/richard-aldrich-dies-in-rome-at-73-times-music-critic-emeritus.html|accessdate=13 October 2017|newspaper=The New York Times|date=3 June 1937 |page=25 |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news|title=Richard Aldrich|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/06/03/archives/richard-aldrich.html|accessdate=13 October 2017|newspaper=The New York Times|date=3 June 1937 |page=24 |url-access=subscription}}

• 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)

{{Reflist|refs=

{{Citation

| editor1-first = John William

| editor1-last = Leonard

| editor2-first = Albert Nelson

| editor2-last = Marquis

| title = Who's who in America

| publisher = Marquis Who's Who, Incorporated

| volume = 5

| page = 21

| year = 1908

| location = Chicago

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eX0QOpl7iBQC&pg=PA21

| postscript= .

}}

}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://hdl.handle.net/1802/3916 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
• [http://hdl.handle.net/1802/4267 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
• [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou01194 Guide to Richard Aldrich's collection of musical autographs] at [http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/ Houghton Library], Harvard University
• [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou01976 Guide to Richard Aldrich papers] at [http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/ Houghton Library], Harvard University
• [https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/27/resources/4721 Richard Aldrich family letters from colleagues, 1904-1937] at [https://library.harvard.edu/collections/isham-memorial-library Isham Memorial Library, Harvard University]
• {{Gutenberg author | id=8480| name=Richard Aldrich}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Richard Aldrich |birth=1863 |death=1937}}
• {{Librivox author |id=6774}}

{{Chief classical music critics}}

{{portal bar|Classical music|Biography|Music}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aldrich, Richard}}

Category:1863 births

Category:1937 deaths

Category:Writers from Providence, Rhode Island

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:American music critics

Category:Opera critics

Category:Pupils of John Knowles Paine

Category:Chanler family

Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

{{US-music-journalist-stub}}

{{Opera-bio-stub}}