Griffiths, Paul (1947– )

English critic and writer on music. He studied at Oxford and was the critic for various journals from 1971. He was chief music critic of The Times 1982–92 and of the New Yorker from 1992. A specialist in 20th-century music, he had responsibility for this area in the New Grove Dictionary of Music (1980), and the New Oxford Companion to Music (1983). His own books include studies of Boulez, Davies, Ligeti, Bartók, and Messiaen; he also wrote A Concise History of Modern Music (1978), A Guide to Electronic Music (1979), Modern Music: the Avant Garde since 1945 (1981), The String Quartet (1983), An Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Music (1986) and Stravinsky (1992).