Godfrey Winham (11 December 1934 – 26 April 1975) was an English-born

music theorist Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the " rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (k ...

and composer of contemporary classical music who moved to the United States. While in the UK, Winham studied with

Hans Keller Hans (Heinrich) Keller (11 March 19196 November 1985) was an Austrian-born British musician and writer, who made significant contributions to musicology and music criticism, as well as being a commentator on such disparate fields as psychoana ...

, and contributed brief reviews and structural summaries of new works to ''

The Music Review ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. In 1956 he married the singer and contemporary music specialist

Bethany Beardslee Bethany Beardslee (born December 25, 1925) is an American soprano particularly noted for her collaborations with major 20th-century composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez, George Perle, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and her ...

. He received his B.A. (1956), M.F.A. (1958), and Ph.D. (1965) all at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

and remained there after his graduation as a lecturer and research associate in the field of computer-generated electronic sound.''Contemporary American Composers'' by E. Ruth Anderson (G.K. Hall and Company, Boston 1986)
/ref> During the 1960s he was an influential figure in American music theory circles, even though his list of publications was not extensive. His large collection of mostly unpublished documents and papers is held at Princeton University.

Music by Godfrey Winham

* ''Scherzo'' (for piano solo), Op. 3, 1953. * ''Composition for Orchestra'', 1963. * ''Sonata for Orchestra'' (unfinished), 1975.

Writings by Godfrey Winham

* "Composition with Arrays": '' Perspectives of New Music'' 9, no. 1 (Fall-Winter): 43–67.

Writings about Godfrey Winham

* Leslie David Blasius: ''The Music Theory of Godfrey Winham'', Princeton University Press, 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winham, Godfrey 1935 births 1974 deaths English music theorists 20th-century classical musicians 20th-century English composers 20th-century British musicologists