Gray, Cecil

He studied art at the University of Edinburgh . He took private lessons from composer Healy Willan . In his autobiography, Gray writes that Willan was the only teacher from whom he learned at least something ^[2] .

Since 1915 he lived and worked in London . He acted as a music critic in various publications, including the newspaper Daily Telegraph ( 1928 - 1932 ). In 1917 he arranged a concert of the works of the then completely unknown composer Bernard van Dieren . He worked closely with composer and music critic Peter Heseltine , in 1926 he wrote and published the book “ Carlo Gesualdo , Musician and Murderer” ( Eng. Carlo Gesualdo, Musician and Murderer ), and in 1934 published the book “Peter Warlock” ( Heseltine's artistic pseudonym) about the musical creativity of his friend and colleague. The opera libretto for composer William Walton also wrote about the fate of Gesualdo, but the opera remained unwritten. In addition, Gray owns three own operas on his libretto: Deirdre, The Temptation of St. Anthony ( English The Temptation of St Anthony , according to Flaubert ) and The Trojans ( English The Trojan Women ).

Among Gray's books are A Survey of Contemporary Music ( 1924 ), the popular History of Music ( History of Music ; 1928 , several reprints), a book about Jan Sibelius ( 1931 ), and others.

In early 1918, Gray had a short-term affair with the American poetess Hilda Doolittle , who the next year, after their breakup, gave birth to a daughter, Frances Perdita, from him (Cecil did not recognize her daughter). In her autobiographical novel, “Tell Me to Live,” Doolittle portrayed Gray as Wayne ^[3] . Character Cyril Scott in Aaron's Flute by D.G. Lawrence , Gray's neighbor in Cornwall, is also written off from him. ^[3]

Cecil was married three times. In 1927, his first wife was Natalia Mamontova, daughter of Natalia Brasova . Their only daughter, Polina, was born in 1929 . This marriage did not last long, and Gray again married in 1936 to the Scottish ballerina Marie Nilson. The other daughter, Fabia, was born in 1938 . The third marriage in 1944 with Margery Livingston Herbig ended in her death in 1948 .

In 1947, Gray and his wife moved to Ischia , and then to Capri . After Margery's death, he became increasingly ill and, returning to the UK in 1951 , died of cirrhosis in Worthing's nursing home. In 1989, his daughter Pauline wrote his biography.

• Cecil Gray. Musical chairs; or, Between two stools / being the life and memoirs of Cecil Gray .. - London: Home & Van Thal, 1948.
• Pauline Gray. Cecil Gray: His Life and Notebooks. - Thames Publishing, 1989 .-- ISBN 9780903413336 .