Terence White Gervais

Terence White Gervais
Undated photo of Gervais
Born(1913-05-22)22 May 1913
Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England
Died2 November 1968(1968-11-02) (aged 55)
Richmond, Surrey, England
Other namesTerence White

Terence White Gervais (22 May 1913 – 2 November 1968), also known as Terence White, was an English musician and writer. He was active as a polyglot poet, orientalist, musicologist, composer,[1] logician, film theorist, psychoanalyst, playwright, translator,[2] music critic, organist, and conductor.[3]

Gervais was born in Kingston upon Thames[4] on 22 May 1913, partially of Irish, French, and African descent.[3][a] He was educated at St Paul's School and later attended the Royal College of Music. By April 1936, he was described as practising four arts and having authored ballets and stage works.[5] He contributed to music periodicals, initially under the name Terence White, and then adding his mother's name Gervais from 1946 onward.[3]

Gervais contributed entries on Arturo Toscanini and Thomas Beecham to the fifth edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1954), which were well received by Irving Kolodin.[6] He also contributed an entry on Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji to Grove, and articles to The Chesterian, Music and Letters, the British Journal of Psychology, and The Hibbert Journal.[4] Also described as a "writer on flagellation"[7] and "Theosophist and flagellant",[2] his book Chastisement Across the Ages was published in 1956 by the Fortune Press[8] under the pseudonym "Gervas d'Olbert".[9] This book was described by Timothy D'Arch Smith as an "original, if discursive study"[10] and by Zachary Leader as a "soft-porn" title.[11]

Gervais is known to have visited James Joyce in 1938 to ask him if his book Finnegans Wake was a blending of literature and music, which Joyce denied, saying it was "pure music". In response, Gervais questioned "but are there not levels of meaning to be explored?", which Joyce also denied, saying that "it's meant to make you laugh".[12] Gervais is furthermore speculated to have authored a cryptic French sonnet about the wartorn city of Trieste after World War II, dedicated to Joyce's son Giorgio. The sonnet, credited to one "Terenzio", was found among Giorgio's personal belongings and was later delivered to the Zurich James Joyce Foundation. Owing to his divergent interests, Il Piccolo characterized Gervais as "a nomad in search of artificial paradises."[1] Gervais was mentioned as a close friend of Betty Heimann in the introductory note to her posthumously released Facets of Indian Thought (1964).[13] He died at Richmond, Surrey, on 2 November 1968.[14]

Notes

  1. ^ Il Piccolo records his birth year as 1905.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c Herzbruch, Marta (20 June 2022). "La Trieste del dopoguerra nel sonetto inedito dedicato a Giorgio Joyce". Il Piccolo (in Italian). Trieste: GEDI Gruppo Editoriale.
  2. ^ a b "T.S. Eliot Letters". tseliot.com. Archived from the original on 1 February 2026. Retrieved 2026-02-01.
  3. ^ a b c Blom, Eric; Westrup, J. A. (1974). "Gervais, Terence White (d'Olbert)". Everyman's dictionary of music. Aldine paperbacks (5th ed.). London: Dent. ISBN 978-0-460-02151-7.
  4. ^ a b Roberge, Marc-André (13 January 2026). "Biographical Notes". Sorabji Resource Site. Quebec City: Faculté de musique, Université Laval. Gervais, Terence White. Archived from the original on 1 February 2026. Retrieved 1 February 2026.
  5. ^ White, Terence (April 1936). "Relations between Film and Ballet". Film Art. 3 (8). London: Anglo-American Publishing and Distributing Company: 23.
  6. ^ Kolodin, Irving (25 December 1954). "The Fifth Edition of "Grove"". Saturday Review. Vol. 37, no. 52. New York: Saturday Review Associates. p. 43.
  7. ^ Gibson 1979, p. 352.
  8. ^ Gibson 1979, p. 335.
  9. ^ Carty, T.J. (2000). A dictionary of literary pseudonyms in the English language (2nd ed.). London, England; Chicago, Ill., USA: Mansell; Fitzroy Dearborn. p. 458. ISBN 978-0-7201-2382-1.
  10. ^ Smith, Timothy D'Arch (1987). The Books of the Beast: Essays on Aleister Crowley, Montague Summers, Francis Barrett and Others. Crucible. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-85030-542-5.
  11. ^ Leader, Zachary (2013-07-31). The Life of Kingsley Amis. Random House. p. 188. ISBN 978-1-4464-1816-1.
  12. ^ Ellmann, Richard (1983). James Joyce. Oxford paperbacks (New and rev. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 703. ISBN 978-0-19-503381-6.
  13. ^ Heimann, Betty (1964). "Introductory note by the executors". Facets of Indian thought. London: Allen & Unwin. p. 7. OL 5930739M – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Wadia, Sophia, ed. (January 1969). "Terence White Gervais: 1913-68". The Aryan Path. 40. Theosophy Company (India), Limited.

Bibliography

  • Gibson, Ian (1979). The English vice: beating, sex and shame in Victorian England and after (2. impr ed.). London: Duckworth. ISBN 978-0-7156-1390-0.
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