(bLe Havre, 13 Aug 1882; d Paris, 14 Nov 1949). French writer on music. Educated in his home town, he soon developed an interest in contemporary music and arranged early performances of Debussy's music there (1908). In 1915 he moved to London, where he edited The Chesterian from 1919 and organized concerts of contemporary French music. In 1930 he returned to Paris, where he belonged to a circle of avant-garde musicians and littérateurs and was a frequent contributor to periodicals. Encouraged by his 20-year friendship with Debussy, he wrote enthusiastically in support of contemporary French composers, noting similarities between their music and that of the 18th century (Couperin, Rameau). He wrote perceptively in praise of Spanish composers (Falla, Granados, Albéniz), but rejected German Romanticism as expressed in the works of Wagner and Strauss.
