Arnold Whittall (born 1935) is a British

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

and academic. Whittall's research areas have primarily been centred around the musical analysis of

20th-century music The following Wikipedia articles deal with 20th-century music. Western art music Main articles *20th-century classical music *Contemporary classical music, covering the period Sub-topics * Aleatoric music *Electronic music *Experimental music *E ...

and aspects of the nineteenth-century, such as the music of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

. He is Professor Emeritus of Musical Theory and Analysis at King's College London, having worked as Professor there between 1975 and 1996.

Life career

Prior to his King's College London position, Whittall lectured at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

(1964–1969), and

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

(1969–1975), and served as visiting professor at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. His students included Australian composer Norma Tyer. Since the 1960s, he has contributed extensively to musicology through the publication of books, articles and provided chapters to multi-authored books. Whittall's initial publications focussed on Benjamin Britten before shifting to 20th-century music more generally. Other publications have addressed key discussions within musicology such as

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

and modernisms; while others are focussed on the music of specific composers such as

Anton Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

Thomas Adès Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: ''The Tempest (opera), The T ...

, and Howard Skempton.

Selected writings

Books

* Whittall, Arnold. ''Schoenberg Chamber Music''. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972. * Whittall, Arnold. ''Music since the First World War''. London: Dent, 1977. * Whittall, Arnold. ''The Music of Britten and Tippett – Studies in Themes and Techniques''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. * Whittall, Arnold. ''Romantic Music: a concise history from Schubert to Sibelius''. London: Thames and Hudson, 1987. * Dunsby, Jonathan, and Arnold Whittall. ''Music Analysis: In Theory and Practice''. London: Faber, 1988. * Whittall, Arnold. ''Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. * Whittall, Arnold. ''Jonathan Harvey''. London: Faber, 1999. * Whittall, Arnold. ''Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. * Whittall, Arnold. ''The Cambridge introduction to serialism''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. * Whittall, Arnold. ''The Wagner Style: Close Readings and Critical Perspectives''. London: Plumbago Books, 2015. * Whittall, Arnold. ''British Music after Britten''. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2020. * Whittall, Arnold. ''Schoenberg: 'Night Music' - Verklärte Nacht and Erwartung''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Articles

* Whittall, Arnold. "Boulez at 80: The Path from the New Music". ''Tempo'' 59, Issue 233 (2005), 3-15. * Whittall, Arnold. "Metaphysical Materials: Schoenberg in Our Time". ''Musical Analysis'' 35, 3 (2016): 383-406. * Whittall, Arnold. "Music under the Sign of Modernism: From Wagner to Boulez, and Britten". In ''The Dawn of Music Semiology: Essays in Honor of Jean-Jacques Nattiez'', edited by Jonathan Dunsby, 97-116. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2017. * Whittall, Arnold. "'Subtle Shifts': Howard Skempton's Twenty-First-Century Modernism". ''Tempo'' 72, Issue 284 (2018): 7-19. * Whittall, Arnold. "Adès at 50: Precarious Poise". ''Tempo'' 75, Issue 298 (2021): 10-19.

References

External links

Emeritus staff and research fellows at King's College London
1935 births Living people Academics of King's College London British musicologists Berg scholars Britten scholars Debussy scholars Finnissy scholars Schoenberg scholars Stravinsky scholars Wagner scholars Webern scholars {{UK-music-bio-stub