Frank Stewart Howes (2 April 1891 – 28 September 1974) was an English music critic. From 1943 to 1960 he waschief music critic ofThe Times. From his student days Howes gravitated towards criticism as his musical specialism, guided by the advice of the conductor and professorSir Hugh Allen and the criticH. C. Colles.
Howes was known for his affinity with English music in the tradition of the "English Musical Renaissance"; after 1945 he found the less nationalistic, more cosmopolitan nature of post-war composers uncongenial.
In addition to his work forThe Times, Howes wrote fifteen books, and served on many musical committees for bodies including theBBC and theArts Council.
Howes was born inOxford, and was educated at Oxford High School andSt John's College, where his love of music was developed under the tutelage ofSir Hugh Allen.[1] After the First World War, in which he was conscripted into theNon-Combatant Corps,[2] he was admitted to theRoyal College of Music, where, guided byH. C. Colles, he specialised in musical criticism.[1]
In 1925 Colles, who was chief music critic ofThe Times, recruited Howes to his staff. In 1938 Howes took on the additional duties of lecturer at the Royal College, and was later an extramural lecturer at Oxford andGlasgow Universities. When Colles died in 1943, Howes was appointed his successor.[1]
Among Howes's enthusiasms was English folk music and, from 1927 to 1945, he edited the journal of theEnglish Folk Dance and Song Society.[1] He supported the theory thatHubert Parry andCharles Villiers Stanford led an "English Musical Renaissance" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from which composers not from a Royal College elite were excluded.[3] His obituarist inThe Times considered that of Howes's 15 books, it was the 1966The English Musical Renaissance that meant most to him.[1] According to his fellow critic Martin Cooper, Howes's affinity with music in the "English Renaissance" tradition left him out of sympathy with the increasingly cosmopolitan outlook of those British composers who emerged only after the Second World War.[4]
Among Howes's other books were studies ofWilliam Byrd,Ralph Vaughan Williams andWilliam Walton. In addition to his writing, he was active in behind-the-scenes musical work, as president of theRoyal Musical Association (1947–58), chairman of theMusicians' Benevolent Fund (1936–55); and member of music advisory panels for theBBC, theArts Council and theBritish Council.[1][4]
Howes married Barbara Tidd Pratt in 1928; the couple had a son and three daughters.[1] He lived with his family at Newbridge Mill inStandlake, Oxfordshire, and died at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, at the age of 83. He was cremated at Oxford crematorium on 2 October 1974, and his ashes were interred at St Lawrence, Combe, Oxfordshire.[4]
