Cyril Ehrlich

Cyril Ehrlich (London, 1925) is a social historian and writer on British music, best known for his studies of the economic and social life of music in Britain since the eighteenth century. His work lies at the intersection of economic history, musicology and the history of cultural institutions, a field in which he appears to have been the first scholar to write at length.

Self-taught at the piano, Ehrlich combined his musical training with a late and unconventional academic career. He served in the RAF and the Army between 1943 and 1947, during which time he gave lectures on musical appreciation at various locations in India. He studied economic history at the London School of Economics, where he graduated in 1950, earned his doctorate in 1958 and worked as a research assistant from 1950 to 1952. He then taught at Makerere College in Uganda from 1952 to 1961, and in 1961 joined Queen's University Belfast, where he was promoted to reader in 1969, professor in 1974 and professor emeritus in 1986. From 1995 to 1997 he was visiting professor of music at Royal Holloway, University of London.

His method rests on patient archival research and statistical analysis, and his prose is notable for its clarity and wit. A large part of his work considers the piano as a social and economic indicator. His monographs on the PRS and the Royal Philharmonic Society are official histories, though critical ones. Ehrlich has frankly denounced the harmful effects of commercialism and cultural paternalism on the professional practice of music. His titles include The Piano: a History, The Music Profession in Britain since the 18th Century and First Philharmonic, the last devoted to the Royal Philharmonic Society.