He studied piano, music theory and music criticism in New York and Boston, and it was in those two cities that he made his career as a music critic--first with the Boston Post (1906–1924) and then with the New York Times (1924–1955). He was also famous for the intermission feature during the Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts "The Metropolitan Opera Quiz." Occasionally he appeared as a guest lecturer at universities and music conservatories.
While conservative in many regards, he was a champion of some new music in the first half of the 20th century before certain composers were famous, in particular Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Stravinsky. By far his favorite living composer was Jean Sibelius, whom he championed throughout his career, and he exchanged letters with the composer; in addition Finland awarded him honors and invited him to Finland to speak to honor Sibelius's 75th birthday. The addition of the music of Sibelius to the standard orchestral repertory in the United States is largely due to the championship of Downes.
He died in New York.
Examples
Occasionally his reviews could be blistering, especially regarding music of the Second Viennese School, and avant-garde music. Some examples:
"Varèse'sHyperprism reminded us of election night, a menagerie or two and a catastrophe in a boiler factory." (New York Times, 1924)
"Symphony for Chamber Orchestra of ... Anton Webern is one of those whispering, clucking, picking little pieces which Webern composes when he whittles away at small and futile ideas, until he has achieved the perfect fruition of futility and written precisely nothing." (New York Times, 1929)
(On Berg'sLulu): "Rapine, suicide, murder, the prevailing flower of a highly diseased eroticism are, perhaps, just so much promising material for a musical Freud or Krafft-Ebing to work upon." (New York Times, 1935)
Sources
Nicolas Slonimsky, The Lexicon of Musical Invective. Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1965. ISBN 0295785799
Article "Olin (Edwin) Downes," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742
OlinDownes, the fairÂ’s director of music, resigned, and the fair cancelled $51,000.00 in future performance contracts.
Todd announced that he set the ticket price range from 40 cents to $1.65 (they eventually ran from 40 cents for general admission to 75 cents and 99 cents for reserved seats) and added 14 performers to the cast to fulfill the terms of the fair contract.
Broadway director Hassard Short restaged the show down to an hourÂ’s performance, with the scenery built on platforms to facilitate the many rapid changes.
Then we strolled back across Central Park, dined at Kitchen 82, and went down to Broadway to catch the new revival of Sweeney Todd, she for the first time, I for the second.
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