"There would be less profound cant and meaningless ceremony about the art of music if more musical critics wrote with the simplicity and directness of Carl Van Vechten.... His critical creed is nicely stated in the essay on 'Why Music is Unpopular.' No musical writer in America, save James Huneker, comes nearer to this ideal than Mr. Van Vechten himself. He says divertingly what he has to say; and, agree with him or not, you feel the mental stimulation which only a keen ardent intelligence can bring to a subject. Moreover, he is young and in sympathy with modern tendencies in music. He is not too prudish to say a good word for ragtime, nor to confess that one hearing a year of the Beethoven Fifth is enough for him. He is as unaffected in discovering the æsthetic virtues of a 'movie' concert as in painting those sympathetic portraits of Mary Garden, Nijinsky, Chaliapine, Erik Satie and other artists, celebrated or obscure."--"The Philadelphia Press." "Mr. Van Vechten has achieved that which, as a rule, appears to be past accomplishment. That is to say, he has proved himself able to be both simple and interesting upon a subject which, highly specialized in itself is held commonly by both artists and critics to the exclusions of an unknown tongue."--"Washington (D. C.) Evening Star." "Carl Van Vechten is temperamentally more of an interpretative artist than an analytical critic whose emotions are subservient to the reasoning faculties. He is subjective rather than objective in mind and method and consequently he must differ from the critics who can see and hear great operas without having their emotions stirred. His gibes at the professional critic spring therefore from the same sources as the melodies of a composer."--"The Musical Courier." "In his new book, 'Interpreters and Interpretations,' Mr. Van Vechten is off on another joust against the orthodox and the dull, and the reader who follows him will have an enlivening experience."--"The Louisville (Ky.) Courier Journal."