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[Rudolph] (Pickett)

(b Guthrie, OK, Jan 21, 1899; d Gilmanton, NH, Aug 25, 1985). American writer on music. He attended Dartmouth College and earned the BS in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. In the 1940s he served as jazz critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Herald Tribune. He wrote a pioneering serious history of jazz, Shining Trumpets (1946), and with Harriet Janis was co-author of the first history of ragtime, They All Played Ragtime (1950). The latter work established him as the leading authority in this field, and eventually prompted a revival of the music. Also with Janis, he founded Circle Records, a small but significant jazz label which became the first to issue the Library of Congress recordings of Jelly Roll Morton. In 1953 they sold Circle Records – apart from the Morton recordings – to Jazzology Records. From 1947 to 1950...

(b Boston, May 13, 1813; d Boston, Sept 5, 1893). American writer on music. A graduate of Harvard College (1832) and Harvard Divinity School (1836), Dwight manifested an early affinity with the German idealist tradition in his annotated translations of poetry by Goethe and Schiller. As a leading contributor to the Associationist Harbinger (1845–9) and Dwight's Journal of Music (1852–81), which he founded and edited, he elevated criticism to a higher and more educational plane. After the death of his wife in 1860, he spent his last 20 years as resident librarian and permanent president of the Harvard Musical Association, which sponsored an annual series of concerts under his management (1865–82).

Dwight's writings of the 1840s reflect New England transcendentalist currents and a familiarity with such European thinkers as E.T.A. Hoffmann, A.B. Marx, Gottfried Fink, Charles Fourier, F.-J. Fétis, Frédéric Kalkbrenner, Thomas Carlyle and William Gardiner. Championing aesthetic education and informed listening, Dwight proposed that music – as art, science, and language of feeling ennobling and uniting people – be made widely accessible. In America he was a pioneer in describing the humanistic importance and large-scale structures of Beethoven's symphonies....

(b Würzburg, May 28, 1780; d Würzburg, Jan 5, 1862). German teacher, musical organizer, critic, theorist, conductor and composer. He studied music at the student institute of the Juliusspital in Würzburg, and studied law and philosophy at the university there. In 1801 he began his career as a violinist in the prince-bishop’s court orchestra. He also founded the Akademische Bande, a student choral and orchestral group, which in 1804 became the Akademisches Musikinstitut and was made part of the university, thus becoming the basis of the first state music school in Germany. His teaching and organizational work was of the highest importance and encompassed several disciplines and activities. He became reader in aesthetics in 1812, reader in pedagogical studies in 1819 and professor in 1821. In 1820 a singing school was established as part of the institute. He also conducted important historical concerts for King Ludwig I in ...

[Alexander] (Thomas Parke)

(b Southsea, June 3, 1892; d Midhurst, Jan 18, 1982). English writer on music. He was educated at Bradfield College and the RAM (1910–13), where he studied chiefly the organ, harmony and composition, and was organist and choirmaster at Frensham parish church and briefly at Farnham. During World War I he served in India, Egypt and Palestine. In 1919 he was appointed music lecturer to London County Council evening institutes. In 1920 he joined the Gramophone Company's educational staff, first as a lecturer and later as its head. In 1930 he entered the Collegio Beda, Rome; he was ordained priest in 1934 and held an appointment at Westminster Cathedral. Though he returned to professional life in 1938 his experiences of Catholic church music, particularly Gregorian plainchant, led him to write a number of books on the subject. In 1940 he joined the Gramophone Department of the BBC, and after the war was appointed chief producer of music talks on the Home and Third Programmes. He developed a highly individual manner as a broadcaster and gave many illustrated talks, which he continued even after his retirement from the BBC in ...

(Reginald )

(b Brighton, Oct 31, 1917; d Nashville, TN, Oct 8, 1982). English writer on church music. He read classics at Magdalen College, Oxford (1936–40, BA 1940), and theology at Mansfield College, Oxford (1940–43), and in 1943 became a minister in the Congregational Church of England and Wales. He took the Oxford BD in 1946 with a thesis on church music and theology (published as The Church and Music) and in 1948 joined the staff of Mansfield College as director of music; he took the Oxford DPhil in 1952 with a dissertation on the music of Christian hymnody. He served as a minister in Edinburgh (1959) and Newcastle upon Tyne (1967) before becoming professor of church music at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey (1975).

In addition to his pastoral work and writing Routley was active as an organist. He was the first president of the Guild of Congregational Organists (...

(b Muggendorf, Upper Franconia, bap. Dec 5, 1721; d Burgbernheim, Middle Franconia, Jan 10, 1788). German writer on music. He attended the Gymnasium Casimirianum Academicum in Coburg (but not until 1741–4), and studied philosophy, theology and oriental languages at Erlangen University until 1746. In 1747 he was appointed an adiutor at the Gymnasium in Bayreuth and received in 1748 the position of preacher in the suburb of St Georgen. On 22 January 1753 he was made an honorary member of the Lateinische Gesellschaft in Jena, and in April of that year became pastor in Lenkersheim. Finally in 1766 he moved to Burgbernheim as pastor and church superintendent. Among many publications, largely concerning church matters, his only musical work is Orgelhistorie (Nuremberg, 1771/R), a modest publication of 167 pages which originated as the sermon given for the dedication of the rebuilt organ in his church. In it Sponsel attempted to trace the history of the organ from ancient times, though he disclaimed any goal of completeness. His history is faulty and undependable, and heavily indebted to books on the organ by Praetorius, Printz, Werckmeister and Adlung. Most significant, however, and of continuing value, is a fairly detailed description of 26 important Franconian and Regensburg organs, with data compiled through correspondence....

(b Cambridge, MA, Oct 18, 1908; d Key West, FL, Dec 18, 1966). American writer. He learned to play drums before attending Harvard University as an undergraduate (BS 1931) and law student (1932–4), then studied medieval English literature at Yale University (PhD 1942); at graduate school he was a founder of the United Hot Clubs of America, a jazz appreciation society. While pursuing a career as a professor in English literature at several universities he served as a columnist on jazz for Variety and Saturday Review, contributed to Down Beat, Record Changer, Esquire, Harper’s, and Life, and edited articles on jazz for Musical America. In 1950 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to begin work on The Story of Jazz (1956), a historical survey that became widely used. He developed a course on jazz at New York University in 1950 and another at Hunter College, where he settled the following year. Stearns founded the ...

(b Tripolis, Arcadia, Greece, ?1880 (?1878/?1881); d Athens, Oct 13, 1959). Greek music historian, journalist, and director of Ethniki Lyriki Skini (‘National Opera’) (1946–53). He was a successful playwright and a man much more involved in the theatrical rather than the musical life of Athens. Nonetheless, his Istoria tis neoellinikis mousikis (‘History of Neohellenic Music’, Athens, 1919) marks a turning point in Greek music historiography, being the first to confine its narration to the Greek state’s time and space, attesting the repercussions of the modernisation of music education in the country. The history is divided into three periods, defined by the dates 1824, 1871, 1891, and 1919 (the two middle being the dates the Conservatory of Athens was founded and then reformed). He gives a lively description of the gradual introduction and assimilation of Western music into the Greek state. He starts with the first foreigners performing in Greece, continues with biographies of the first Greeks to be successful abroad (the composers Spyros Samaras and Napoleon Lambelet, the flutist Eurysthenes Gizas, and the pianist Timotheos Xanthopoulos), the first amateur Greek opera group, and its performances for the Greeks of the diaspora, and the first operas written by Greeks and on a Greek libretto (by Pavlos Carrer and Spyridon Xyndas)....

(Alfred )

(b Hull, August 14, 1922; d March 7, 2002). English physicist, writer and lecturer on the physics of music. He studied physics at Queen Mary College, London (BSc 1942), and at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (PhD 1951, DSc 1959), where he was a lecturer then a reader in physics (1948–85). As professor and head of department of physics at University College, Cardiff (1965–83), he established the first electronic music studio in a British university (1970); he was visiting professor of experimental physics at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (1976–88), and became emeritus professor of physics at the University of Wales in 1983. He was elected an honorary fellow of the Institute of Acoustics (1985).

Though his major research activity was in the study of X-ray and optical diffraction, the important musical acoustics research group which he founded at Cardiff carried out pioneering holographic studies of the vibrational modes of stringed instrument bodies. In ...

(b nr Heidelberg, 1577; d Amsterdam, March 19, 1649). Dutch polymath and writer on music of German birth . He received a master’s degree and a doctorate from the University of Leiden. He became rector of the grammar school at Dordrecht in 1600 and director of the theological college at Leiden in 1615 but in 1619 he was suspended as an Arminian. He held professorships at the University of Leiden and at the newly established Athenaeum Illustre, Amsterdam. When he was in England in 1629 Charles I granted him a private audience in recognition of his learning.

Vossius wrote many theological, philological and historical works, a complete edition of which was published in six volumes over 40 years after his death (Amsterdam, 1695–1701). Five of his works (all published at Amsterdam) contain observations on music: De theologia gentili (1642); De artis poeticae natura et constitutione (...

[Jobst ]

(b Resel, Värmland, c1486; d Frankfurt an der Oder, Nov 12, 1552). German humanist, physician, writer and musician . The generally accepted birthdate for him is about 1486, but according to Pietzsch it is 1501. In 1516 he entered the University of Frankfurt an der Oder, where he probably studied music under Johann Volckmar. After graduating he taught music from 1522 to 1539. In 1524 Willich became professor of Greek and in 1540 professor of medicine. Although he retained his connection with the university until his death, he was frequently called to other countries (such as Poland and Hungary) because of his renown as a physician. He corresponded with Erasmus and was personally acquainted with Luther, Melanchthon and Glarean. More than 60 writings on philology, antiquity, philosophy, theology, law, medicine, mathematics and music, some of which remained current into the 18th century, gave Willich a position as one of the outstanding German humanists of his time. An ardent lutenist, he founded about ...

(b Northwich, Cheshire, May 17, 1912; d York, May 9, 2004). English writer on music and music educationist . He was educated at Christ’s Hospital (1924–30) and read English, music and history as an organ scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge (1930–34; MusB 1933). He was director of music at Stranmillis Teachers Training College, Belfast, from 1934 until 1937, when he took the MusD at Trinity College, Dublin. From 1937 to 1944 he was music adviser to the city of Stoke on Trent. In 1944 he became director of music at Wolverhampton College of Technology; there he also formed a choir which gave many performances, particularly of lesser-known works by Handel. Since 1970 he has been a visiting scholar and lecturer at numerous colleges in the USA.

Young was an exceptionally fluent and prolific writer. His books include short popular biographies and several volumes for younger readers. Many of his more substantial writings are based on a lively, fresh and industrious, if not always highly discriminating, examination of source material; these include original research on Elgar and useful surveys of the British choral tradition and British music generally. As a composer Young was equally prolific: his works include a Fugal Concerto for two pianos and strings (...