19th Century Music Critics

Music critics of the 19th Century ranged from professional to amateur. Many liked to write for non-musical periodicals as concert reviewers because they enjoyed the routine and schedule of established newspapers. Many played music non-professionally and established a connection with their audiences with layman's terms of performances and simple emotional explanations.  Although some were unethical in their critiques by accepting bribes from musicians, many took passion in their work, regardless of their backgrounds.

Here are a few such music critics:

Richard Mackenzie Bacon

(1776-1844)

•  Founded the Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review 

       and Norwich Mercury
•  Established the Norwich Musical Festival
•  Had visions of redefining the musician in the Royal
       Academy of Music
•  Expert on comparing English and Italian singing styles

•  For information on his contributions music, click here

James Henry Leigh Hunt
(1784-1859)

•  Had a speech impediment, later cured, but it prevented a university education

•  Influenced by Thomas Gray and William Collins

•  Editor of the Examiner and Reflector

•  Sardonic and witty in his attacks on performances and
  nobility

•  Hit absolute poverty in mid 1800s

•  Produced animated symmetry and metrical harmony in
  bright poetry

•  For more information, click here or here

•  For poetry by Hunt, click here

Thomas Love Peacock

(1785-1866)

•  Wrote a set of novels with identical settings and
  characters at a table discussing and criticizing
  philosophical opinions of the day

•  Worked as Chief Examiner of Indian Correspondence
  of the East India Company

•  Studied Italian, French, Latin and Greek by reading
  books in the reading room of the British Museum

•  Wrote for the Examiner as an opera critic 

•  For more information on his life and works, click here

Information provided by Mike