Nicolas Slonimsky

Nicolas Slonimsky shaped how generations of musicians studied and gossiped about their own field: his Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns became a standard composer's reference, his acid-tongued Lexicon of Musical Invective collected decades of critics' worst reviews of now-canonical composers, and he took over editing Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. He worked as a conductor and pianist as well as a writer, building a reputation as one of music's sharpest and most useful chroniclers.