William Somervell Mann (14 February 19245 September 1989) was an English music critic. Born in India, he was educated at Winchester and Cambridge, studying music with several prominent composers, before taking up a career as a critic.
For most of his career he was on the staff of The Times in London, where his radical views were in contrast with the paper's traditional outlook. He published many books and articles in musical journals.
After leaving The Times Mann was director of the Bath Festival for a year.
Life and career Mann was born in Madras, India,Sadie, Stanley. "Mann, William S.", Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, accessed 2 March 2012 the son of Gerald and Joyce Mann."Mann, William Somervell", Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 2 March 2012 He was educated at the Dragon School and Winchester,"William Mann – Obituary", The Times, 6 September 1989 after which he took lessons in London, studying the piano with Ilona Kabos and composition with Mátyás Seiber. He was at Magdalene College, Cambridge from 1946 to 1948, studying with the composers Patrick Hadley and Robin Orr and the organist Hubert Middleton.
On leaving Cambridge in 1948 Mann joined The Times in London. In the same year he married Erika Charlotte Emilie Sohler, with whom he had four daughters. He remained at The Times for 34 years, first as assistant music critic (1948–1960) and then as chief music critic (1960–1982). Although the paper in the post-war decades was generally conservative and traditional, Mann was, as a colleague described him, "markedly progressive, even iconoclastic, in outlook." In 1958 Mann contributed the libretto to Franz Reizenstein's Let's Fake an Opera, produced for the 1958 Hoffnung Music Festival. It consisted of "ridiculously juxtaposed excerpts from more than forty operas, which delighted both Reizenstein and the audience".Hoffnung, A. Gerard Hoffnung (Garden Press, 1988), p 156
Mann was one of the first music critics to see serious artistic value in rock music. He achieved some notoriety for his assertion that the Beatles were "the greatest songwriters since Schubert". Most unusually for a serious music critic, he appeared as a panellist on the television pop music programme "Juke Box Jury". As a broadcaster, however, he was better known as a regular contributor to the BBC Third Programme (later BBC Radio 3). He contributed reviews to The Gramophone for many years.
In 1985 Mann was director of the Bath Festival in succession to William Glock.
Mann died in Bath at the age of 65.
Publications Hermann Scherchen: The Nature of Music (Mann's translation of Vom Wesen der Musik), 1950 Introduction to the Music of J. S. Bach, 1950 Benjamin Britten (contributor to symposium), 1952 The Concerto (contributor), 1952 The Record Guide (contributor), 1955 Chamber Music, 1957 The Analytical Concert Guide (editor), 1957 Music and Western Man (contributor), 1958 Let's Fake an Opera (with Franz Reizenstein), 1958 Richard Strauss: A Critical Study of the Operas, 1964 Wagner's The Ring' Introduction and Translation, 1964 Michael Tippett (contributor), 1965 Wagner's Tristan, Introduction and Translation, 1968 The Operas of Mozart, 1977 Opera on Record (contributor), vol. 1 1979, vol. 2 1983, vol. 3 1984 Music in Time, 1982 The Book of the Violin (contributor), 1984
Articles:
"Feuersnot: a more positive view of Strauss", The Listener, 10 September 1964, p. 406
Notes