H.P. Lovecraft did regard The music of Erich Zann to have been his more elegant work; although he goes on to explain that, in his view, the story is better than the rest of his works merely due to not including as many faults. The reader, not hindered by the writer’s self-reproaches or perfectionism, and able to freely comment on positive elements in the work, might still arrive to the same conclusion regarding the worth of this short story.

It is often noted – and not without reason – that Lovecraft’s style of writing incorporates a few problematic elements. In his older works he did persistently make use of terms which can only be described as archaic. Reading words such as “gibbous”, or “eldritch”, or even “batrachian”, can create the impression that the text is needlessly cryptic, or that – even worse – the author is either unaware of the disobliging effect or is indifferent to the reader – who could well identify such terms as severely grating. In contrast to some other works of his, the language in The music of Erich Zann is easy to follow, and flows naturally. That said, it is perhaps poignant to argue that this difference in language was brought about by the very idea in this story: Erich Zann is himself a sentinel of cryptic realms, so, in a way, his figure elegantly plays the role formerly – and problematically – assigned to Lovecraft’s old and rigid vocabulary.