Basil Stephen Maine (4 March 1894 – 13 October 1972) was an English writer and critic on music. Among his publications isBehold These Daniels (1928), a stylistic survey on the approaches of his music critic contemporaries.
Maine was born inSheringham,Norfolk and educated at theCity of Norwich School.[1] At Cambridge he studied music withEdward Dent,Cyril Rootham andCharles Wood.[2] During the war he taught for a while atDurnford School in Dorset, where his pupils includedIan Fleming andPeter Fleming.[3] In the autumn of 1918 he was appointed assistant organist atDurham Cathedral, staying there until May 1919.[4] Maine was a life member of theRoyal College of Organists.[5]
After that he shifted his career towards journalism, becoming music critic for newspapers such asThe Spectator,The Daily Telegraph (from 1922), theMorning Post (1930) and theSunday Times (1935–40).[2] He was also an actor, public speaker and (from 1926) a broadcaster.[6][7] In 1930 he was the orator in the first performance ofMorning Heroes byArthur Bliss at the Norwich Festival,[8] and he also narrated in performances ofHonegger'sLe roi David andStravinsky'sThe Soldier's Tale. He wrote some choral works for the Norwich Festival, includingO Lord our Governor andPraise to God in 1936.[9] Maine was ordained as a priest in 1939.[2]
Maine wrote biography as well as music criticism. His early volumeBehold these Daniels consists of 12 character sketches of critics (including the author) that originally appeared inMusical Times columns in 1926–7. The sketches includeErnest Newman,Edwin Evans,Robin Legge andH.C.Colles.[10] The two-volumeElgar: his Life and Works, published a year before the subject's death, is his best-known work.[11]Our Ambassador King is now a curiosity - a biography ofKing Edward VIII written before the abdication, with no mention ofMrs Simpson.[12]The Best of Me, completed in 1937, is autobiographical andTwang with our Music (from 1957) is a collection of essays marking "the completion of 30 years' practice in the uncertain science of music criticism".[13]
In the 1930s Maine lived at Stone Roof, Drax Avenue inWimbledon. By 1950 his address was Warham Rectory,Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk.
