Obituary: Professor Cyril Ehrlich ; Economic historian celebrated for his books on music First Edition

• Published in: Independent (London, England : 1986)
• Main Author: Foreman, Lewis
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Independent Digital News & Media 09.06.2004
• Subjects: Ehrlich, Cyril
• ISSN: 0951-9467

Demobbed, he entered the London School of Economics where he was one of many brilliant students that included Bernard Levin and [Cyril Ehrlich]'s lifelong friend Walter Elkan, later Professor of Economics at Brunel University. All came under the influence of F.J. Fisher and Karl Popper, who moderated their initial idealism. Ehrlich subsequently spent a couple of years as a research assistant at LSE, and taught evening classes. Studying and working in London in the post-war years allowed him to be a very active follower of concerts and opera. Talking to him one was always aware of his encyclopaedic first-hand knowledge of London music. An efficient but self-taught pianist, Ehrlich had been gripped by music from the first, and he brought a record collector's knowledge of repertoire and performances to his analysis of the history of the time through which he had lived. His book The Piano signalled a late change of intellectual direction not only in Ehrlich's personal career but also in the wider study of music. His use of economic indicators and company records to demonstrate social trends and changes in musical taste gave a new resilience to such studies. Yet his personal knowledge of music and the musical world also gave his writing authority with its wealth of contextual detail and first- hand knowledge of pianos and pianists. Cyril Ehrlich, social and economic historian: born London 13 September 1925; Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer in Economic History, Makerere College 1952-61; Lecturer in Economic History, Queen's University, Belfast 1961- 69, Reader 1969-74, Professor of Economic and Social History 1974-86 (Emeritus), Dean of the Economics Faculty 1979-81; Visiting Professor in Music, Royal Holloway, London University 1995-2004; Visiting Professor in Music, Goldsmiths College 1998-2004; married 1954 Felicity Bell-Bonnett (two sons, one daughter); died Oxford 29 May 2004.