The Heather Professor of Music is the title of an endowed chair at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. The post and the funding for it come from a bequest by William Heather (c. 1563 – 1627). Following the example of his friend

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ''Ann ...

who had left property to fund the establishment of a chair of history at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1622, Heather founded a music lecture at Oxford and proposed to present the

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

"with some instruments and music books to promote a weekly music practice". He included specific instructions for music practice on Thursday afternoons during term times (except during

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...

) and that there should be a ''Master of the Musicke''. This master was to look after the musical instruments and the music books and to undertake rehearsals and provide both a theoretical and practical training in music.Fauvel, John, Raymond Flood and Robin J. Wilson (2006) ''Music and Mathematics: From Pythagoras to Fractals'' Oxford University Press The chair is linked to a fellowship of

Wadham College Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

. The names of many of the Heather Professors have been memorialised in street names in the suburb of

New Marston New Marston is a suburb about northeast of the centre of Oxford, England. History New Marston is built on land that was originally part of the manor of Headington. It was rural until the 19th century, when housing began to develop along Marsto ...

, Oxford. These include

Nicholson Road Nicholson Road is a major north-south road in the southeastern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, connecting Albany Highway in Cannington with the large residential areas of Thornlie and Canning Vale, before leaving the Perth urban area a ...

, Goodson Walk, Hayes Close, Crotch Crescent, Ouseley Close, Stainer Place, Parry Close, Hugh Allen Crescent, Westrup Close. William Heather is himself remembered in Heather Place.

List of Heather Professors of Music

* Richard Nicholson (1626) * Arthur Phillips (1639) * John Wilson (1656) * Edward Lowe (1661) * Richard Goodson (1682) * Richard Goodson (1718) * William Hayes (1741) * Philip Hayes (1777) *

William Crotch William Crotch (5 July 177529 December 1847) was an English composer and organist. According to the American musicologist Nicholas Temperley, Crotchwas "a child prodigy without parallel in the history of music", and was certainly the most dist ...

(1797) * Henry Bishop (1848) *

Frederick Ouseley Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley, 2nd Baronet (12 August 18256 April 1889) was an English composer, organist, musicologist and priest. Biography Frederick Ouseley was born in London, the son of Sir Gore Ouseley, and manifested an extraordinar ...

(1855) *

John Stainer Sir John Stainer (6 June 1840 – 31 March 1901) was an English composer and organist whose music, though seldom performed today (with the exception of ''The Crucifixion'', still heard at Passiontide in some churches of the Anglican Communi ...

(1889) *

Hubert Parry Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 18487 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill in Bournemouth, Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is be ...

(1900) *

Walter Parratt Sir Walter Parratt (10 February 184127 March 1924) was an English organist and composer. Biography Born in Huddersfield, son of a parish organist, Parratt began to play the pipe organ from an early age, and held posts as an organist while sti ...

(1908) * Hugh Allen (1918) *

Jack Westrup Sir Jack Westrup (26 July 190421 April 1975) was an English Musicology, musicologist, writer, teacher and occasional conductor and composer. Biography Jack Allan Westrup was the second of the three sons of George Westrup, insurance clerk, of Dulw ...

(1947) *

Joseph Kerman Joseph Wilfred Kerman (3 April 1924 – 17 March 2014) was an American musicologist and music critic. Among the leading musicologists of his generation, his 1985 book ''Contemplating Music: Challenges to Musicology'' (published in the UK as ''Mu ...

(1971) *

Denis Arnold Denis Midgley Arnold (Sheffield, 15 December 1926 – Budapest, 28 April 1986) was a British musicologist. Biography After being employed in the extramural department of Queen's University, Belfast, he became a Lecturer in Music at the Univ ...

(1975) *

Brian Trowell Brian Lewis Trowell (21 February 1931 – 12 November 2015) was an English musicologist and the Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford. Prior to his post at Oxford, he was the King Edward Professor of Music at King's College L ...

(1986) *

Reinhard Strohm Professor Reinhard Strohm FBA (born 4 August 1942, Munich) is a German musicologist based largely in the United Kingdom, with an interest in 14th to 18th-century music. Strohm studied Musicology, Medieval Latin, and Romance Literatures, at the ...

(1996) * Eric Clarke (2007)

References

Other references

* 'The Heather Professor of Music, 1626-1976: Exhibition in the Divinity School, October 1976' (Bodleian Library pamphlet) {{Heather Professors of Music Professorships at the University of Oxford 1626 establishments in England