Down Among the Dead Men

Bernard van Dieren (1887 - 1936) was a Dutch composer
whose life was spent mostly in England. A respected but
controversial composer (his admirers included the Sitwell
brothers, Peter Warlock, Cecil Gray, Constant Lambert
and Kaikhosru Sorabji) his music was little performed in
his lifetime and after his death soon fell into obscurity.
He was a man of many intellectual gifts and an accomplished
writer.
This book, Down Among the Dead Men, consists of five
long essays: an explanatory introduction; two on composers
who were neglected at the time of the book's first
publication in 1933 - Busoni ("the best thing on Busoni in
the English language" according to the composer Ronald
Stevenson), and Meyerbeer; Music and Wit; and Sine
Nomine, a plea for a reform of the ways in which music is
written, written about, and programmed.
In his preface to the book van Dieren writes that "The
reader may often wonder where he will be dragged next.
One moment he will feel that he is being held up intolerably
long in obscure corners, the next that he is being
rushed past an imposing edifice which he would wish to
explore... I hope no more than that on the circuit I may be
able to show some unfamiliar mews, alleys, and subways... I
do not pretend to take the reader straight from the station
to the hotel; I have tried to be a companion, not a guide. I
believe I have shown him some queer customers in the bus
and the Underground, and loafing at odd corners. Principal
buildings and monuments are always in the same places
and may be inspected at any time."