Caruso's Mustache Off: and Other Writings about Music and Musicians

Van Vechten wrote lively and often audacious essays on musical subjects. He was first to offer serious assessments of the music of Stravinsky, Erik Satie, Gershwin, and the operas of Richard Stauss. He wrote the earliest study in America of the music of Spain. He was first to advocate musical scores for movies. He contended that ragtime and jazz were the only uniquely American music.