Stephen Samuel Stratton

English music critic, organist and author (1840–1906)

Stephen Samuel Stratton (19 December 1840 – 25 June 1906) was an English music critic, organist and author.

Life

He was born in London on 19 December 1840. He was a chorister at St. Mary's Church, Ealing and studied music under Charles Lucas.^[1]

He arrived in Birmingham in 1866 and became music critic to the Birmingham Post in 1877, holding the post until his death.^[2] He was also a frequent contributor to the London Musical Press. He was the joint author with James Duff Brown of British Musical Biography published in 1897.^[1]

Appointments

Organist of St. Mary the Virgin, Soho, London
Organist of St. James' Church, Friern Barnet
Organist of St Bartholomew's Church, Edgbaston, Birmingham 1867 - 1875
Organist of St. John's Church, Harborne 1875 - 1878
Organist of the Church of the Saviour, Birmingham 1878 - 1882

Publications

Stratton, Stephen S. (1882–1883). "Woman in Relation to Musical Art". Proceedings of the Musical Association. 9th Sess: 115–146. JSTOR 765220.
British Musical Biography, with James Duff Brown
The Life of Mendelssohn
Nicolo Paganini: His Life and Work

References

^ ^a ^b Who's who in music, Henry Saxe Wyndham, 1915
^ "Obituary: Stephen Samuel Stratton". The Musical Times. 47 (761): 482. 1 July 1906. JSTOR 904234.

External links

Works by Stephen Samuel Stratton at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Stephen Samuel Stratton at Internet Archive

Chief classical music critics

The Boston Globe

Michael Steinberg (1964–1976)
Richard Dyer (1976–2006)
Jeremy Eichler (since 2006)

The Daily Telegraph

Campbell Clarke (1855?–1870)
Joseph Bennett (1870–1906)
Robin Legge (1906–1931)
Herbert Hughes (1911–1932)
Richard Capell (1933–1954)
Martin Cooper (1954–1976)
Peter Stadlen (1976–1985)
Michael Kennedy (1986–2005)
Geoffrey Norris (1995–2009)
Ivan Hewett (since 2009)

The Guardian

George Fremantle (1867–1895)
Arthur Johnstone (1896–1904)
Ernest Newman (1905–1906)
Samuel Langford (1906–1927)
Neville Cardus (1927–1940)
Edward Greenfield (1977–1993)
Tom Service (1999–2003)
Andrew Clements (since 2003?)

Los Angeles Times

Isabel Morse Jones (1925–1947)
Albert Goldberg (1947–1965)
Martin Bernheimer (1965–1996)
Mark Swed (since 1996)

San Francisco Chronicle

Alfred Frankenstein (1934–1964)
Robert Commanday (1964–1993)
Joshua Kosman (since 1993)

The New Yorker

Robert A. Simon (1925–1948)
Winthrop Sargeant (1949–1972)
Andrew Porter (1972–1992)
Paul Griffiths (1992–1996)
Alex Ross (1996–present)

The New York Times

William James Henderson (1887–1902)
Richard Aldrich (1902–1923)
Olin Downes (1924–1955)
Howard Taubman (1955–1960)
Harold C. Schonberg (1960–1980)
Donal Henahan (1980–1991)
Edward Rothstein (1991–1995)
Bernard Holland (1995–2000)
Anthony Tommasini (2000–2021)
Zachary Woolfe (since 2022)

The Observer

Ernest Newman (1919)
Percy Scholes (1920–1925)
A. H. Fox Strangways (1925–1939)
William Glock (1939–1945)
Eric Blom (1949–1953)
Peter Heyworth (1955–1987)
Nicholas Kenyon (1986–1992)
Andrew Porter (1992–1996)
Anthony Holden (2000–2008)
Fiona Maddocks (since 2008)

The Times

James William Davison (1846–1879)
Francis Hueffer (1879–1889)
J A Fuller Maitland (1889–1911)
H. C. Colles (1911–1943)
A. H. Fox Strangways
Frank Howes (1943–1960)
William Mann (1960–1982)
Paul Griffiths (1982–1992)
Richard Morrison (since 1992)

The Washington Post

Paul Hume (1946–1982.)
Joseph McLellan (mid-1970s–1995)
Tim Page (1995–1999, 2001–2008)
Philip Kennicott (1999–2001)
Anne Midgette (2008–2019)
Michael Andor Brodeur (since 2020)

Others

Chicago Tribune
- George Putnam Upton (1861–1881)
- Frederick Grant Gleason (1884–1889)
Daily News
- George Hogarth (1846–1866)
Evening News
- Mosco Carner (1957–1961)
Evening Standard
- Percy Scholes (1913–1920)
- Barry Millington (2000s)
Financial Times
- Andrew Porter (1953–1972)
- Ronald Crichton (1972–1978)
Frankfurter Zeitung
- Paul Bekker
The Independent
- Bayan Northcott (1986–2009)
- Edward Seckerson (c. 2009–2012)
New York Daily News
- William Zakariasen (1976–1993)
New York Post
- Henry T Finck (1881–1924)
- Olga Samaroff (1926–1928)
San Francisco Examiner
- Michael Walsh (1977–1981)
Saturday Review
- William Barclay Squire (1888–1894)
The Scotsman
- Mary Miller (1992–1998)
Sunday Express
- Ralph Hill (1940s)
The Sunday Telegraph
- John Warrack (1961–1972)
- Michael Kennedy (1989–2005)
The Sydney Morning Herald
- Roger Covell (1960 – late 1990s)

Position abolished

Birmingham Post	Stephen Stratton (1877–1906) Ernest Newman (1906–1919) Eric Blom (1931–1946)

Daily Express	Francis Toye (1922–1925) Arthur Jacobs (1947–1952) Noël Goodwin (1965–1978)

Daily Mail	Richard Capell (1911–1933) Edwin Evans (1933–1945) Ralph Hill (1945–1948)

New Statesman	W. J. Turner (1915–1940) Desmond Shawe-Taylor (1945–1958) David Drew (1959–1967)

The Sunday Times	Joseph Bennett (1865–1870) Hermann Klein (1881–1901) Ernest Newman (1920–1959) Desmond Shawe-Taylor (1958–1983) David Cairns (1983–1992)

Discontinued

The Morning Chronicle	William Ayrton (1816–1826) George Hogarth (1834–1844) Charles Lewis Gruneisen (1845–1853)

The Morning Post	Howard Glover (1849–1865) Henry Sutherland Edwards Arthur Hervey (1892–1908) Francis Toye (1925–1937)

Neue Freie Presse	Eduard Hanslick (1864–1904) Julius Korngold (1904–1934)

New York Herald Tribune	Henry E Krehbiel (c. 1880–1923) Lawrence Gilman (1923-late 1930s) Virgil Thomson (1940–1954) Paul Lang (1954–1963) Alan Rich (1963–1968)