Arthur Jacobs

Arthur David Jacobs (14 June 1922 – 13 December 1996) was an English musicologist, music critic, teacher, librettist and translator. Among his many books, two of the best known are his Penguin Dictionary of Music, which was reprinted in several editions between 1958 and 1996, and his biography of Arthur Sullivan, which was praised by critics in Britain and America. As an academic, Jacobs taught at the Royal Academy of Music, at Huddersfield Polytechnic, and at universities in the US, Canada, and Australia.

Jacobs was born in Manchester, England, the son of Alexander Susman Jacobs and his wife Estelle (née Isaacs). He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Merton College, Oxford, taking an honours degree in 1946. In World War II he served in India and Burma with the British Army, reaching the rank of lieutenant. In 1953 he married the writer Betty Upton Hughes. They had two sons, Michael Jacobs and Julian Jacobs.

Jacobs was music critic of The Daily Express from 1947 to 1952, of The Sunday Citizen from 1959 to 1965, and of The Jewish Chronicle from 1963 to 1975. He reviewed records for Hi-Fi News and Record Review and The Sunday Times and wrote for the arts section of The Financial Times. He was deputy editor of Opera magazine from 1961 to 1971 and served on its editorial board from 1971 until his death.

For The Musical Times, between 1949 and 1996, Jacobs wrote on a wide variety of musical topics, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Three Choirs Festival, Russian song, The Gypsy Baron, Thespis, the Metropolitan Opera, Leonard Bernstein, Così fan tutte, Trial by Jury, Glyndebourne, Otto Klemperer, and composers from Handel to César Franck to Elgar to Janáček.

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