Never-ending? by KevGar

Puzzle explanation

The extra letters in wordplay spelt out “Music is life and like it [inextinguishable]”, which Carl Nielsen wrote (in Danish) on the score of his 4th Symphony, The Inextinguishable. A curve tracing the letters of INEXTINGUISHABLE in the grid formed the infinity symbol, ∞. The ten modified answers were “never-ending”, in the sense of losing their last letters. Of the extra words in clues, “referee” provided R and E to change 7dn and 28dn to TERMS and QUERN respectively, completing the name CARL NIELSEN in the diagonal. The other extra words’ first or last letters formed The Four Temperaments, Nielsen’s 2nd Symphony.

The editors apologise for the error in the printed version of 15dn, where the extra word “port” failed to give one of the Ms needed for THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS. An attempt to get a correction printed in The Times on the following Saturday was unsuccessful.

Clue explanations

Conventions: * = anagram, < = reversal

No Extra word (modified entry) Answer Explanation
Across
1   SURREALISTIC (R(achmaninov) + [M]USIC IS LATER) *
10 marijuana (32dn POT) HEMP HEM + P(lant)
12   HEART EARTH with H moved
13   RIOT IO in RT
14   SEGUE S[U]E + GUE
16 Female (6dn SHE) ISOBAR I + SO + BAR
17   OILMEN [S]OIL + MEN
19 sister (23ac CLARE) PHYSICS SIC in PHYS(alis)
20   TAHOE HOE after TA[I]
22   TAXUS (AXIS [C]UT − I) *
23   CLARET CARET around L
26   AFTERS FASTER *
29   MANILLA (ILL + A) after MA[I]N
30   POUSSE [S]POUSE around S(oup)
31   MANULS NUL[L] in MAS
32   PERISH PE + RISHI − I
33   PESO PIES − I + O
34   INRO (pla)IN [I]RO(n)
35 urine (33dn PEE) NOSE homophone of KNOWS
36 later (26ac AFTER) SYNTHESISERS (SENSE HISTORY − O) *
Down
1 elves (32ac PERIS) SCRIPT CONSCRIPT − CON
2   RHO R + HO[F]
3   REABSORBS SORB in (AS BE[E]R) *
4   APERÇU A + CU after PE[A]R
5   LUGOSI (USI[N]G OLD) * − D
6   SHEA HE in SA
7   TEAMS TAN[D]EMS * − N
8   CRANES CR + [L]ANES
9 referee (12ac HEAR) DISHALLOW DISH + ALLOW
11   QUINTAN QUINTAIN − I
15 metropolis (13ac RIO) REFUELLED (t)RE(e) + FELLED around U
18 house (11dn QUINTA) LEAFINESS (A + FINE) in LESS
21   EEL-SET (TEE L[I]ES) *
23   CYPRIS (Y + PR) in SIC[K] <
24 foot (33ac PES) EMERGE (h)EE(l) around GERM *
25   GAMINS GAM[E] around INS(ane)
27   RASSES [I]R + ASSES
28   QUORN QU + [T]ORN
32   POTE P + TOE *
33   PEEP EP < + EP
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