William G. Whittaker
William Gillies Whittaker | |
---|---|
Born | Newcastle upon Tyne | 23 July 1876
Died | Orkney Islands | 5 July 1944 (aged 68)
William Gillies Whittaker (Newcastle upon Tyne, July 23, 1876 – Orkney Islands, July 5, 1944) was an English composer, pedagogue, conductor, musicologist, Bach scholar, publisher and writer. He spent his life promoting music.
Early life and education in Newcastle
Whittaker was born into a
After graduating he continued at Armstrong College; he had successive appointments as instructor, lecturer and reader in music; and he embarked on a doctorate in 1902, submitting a dissertation in 1909, although he had to wait until 1921 for the degree to be awarded. He also worked as a music master at two of the main girls' schools in Newcastle, teaching singing at the
Choir work on Tyneside
Whittaker conducted several choirs on
He founded the Newcastle Bach Choir in 1915, based in Newcastle Cathedral. One of the members of the choir, Basil Bunting, recalled that he was "not only learned but also showed [a] great sense of music and art in general".[5] With the Newcastle Bach Choir, he made a concert tour to London and participated in a three-day festival in 1922. He performed the first complete version of the Great English Service of William Byrd in Newcastle upon Tyne, and performed it again at St. Margaret's Church in Westminster in 1924. From 1925 onwards he served on three musical advisory committees of the BBC.[4][2]
Appointment in Glasgow
In 1929, finding musical opportunities in the North East of England too restrictive, Whittaker moved to
Tovey, a member of the governing board of the Academy, wrote to Whittaker that he hoped the award might be "of some slight value for strengthening your hand for a task that you cannot execute without overcoming some opposition." The task was to transform what had previously been the Athenaeum School into a musical academy similar to the colleges in London; but despite, grants from the local benefactor Daniel Macaulay Stevenson, there were insufficient funds to finance musical scholarships, attract teachers, build up a library and hold concerts. Whittaker was disappointed by musical life in Glasgow, which he later stated to be "even more provincial" than in Newcastle. He was frustrated that his attempts to improve matters were constantly opposed by governors during his tenure as Principal: it was "a heart-breaking struggle against impossible odds."[4][1]
Legacy in Glasgow
Despite the difficulties he encountered, Whittaker nevertheless found a kindred spirit and friend in the main professor of pianoforte Philip Halstead, whom he described as a "splendid all-round musician"; and was given unpaid support by Harold Thomson, a former student at the Academy who became a close friend. Assisted by them and others, he succeeded in setting up a three-year Diploma course. Somewhat unexpectedly he also discovered that the local Glasgow Bach Choir had performed very few of Bach's cantatas; they willingly agreed to become part of Whittaker's new Bach Cantata Choir which performed in Stevenson Hall, the newly built concert hall of the Academy. As a result, Whittaker was able to realise his lifelong ambition of performing all of Bach's cantatas: he performed one third of them in Newcastle and the remaining two thirds in Glasgow. He later described his activities with the Bach Cantata Choir as the "chief joy" of his period in Glasgow.
Other activities in the concert hall included "Opera Week" for operas, oratorios and incidental music, including works of Purcell, Handel, Bach, Gluck, Mozart and Schubert; some governors of the Academy attempted unsuccessfully to have these performances stopped as "profligate", their preference being for Gilbert and Sullivan and Offenbach. Whittaker succeeded in raising funds from the Carnegie Foundation for a library, now the Whittaker Library in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland; and also set up a museum of ancient instruments in the Academy and an archive of musical manuscripts, now the Whittaker Collection, in the university.[2][4][1]
Retirement and death
Whittaker had briefly resigned from the Academy in 1938, when, on returning from a trip to Sweden, he discovered that the governors had reversed some of his decisions during his absence. When it transpired that the Academy could not run smoothly without him, he acceded to a request from the Vice Chancellor of the University to return to his post. On his retirement in 1941, he was made an emeritus professor in the university. Despite ill health, he agreed to join
On a trip to act as judge at a Services Festival in the
Publications
Whittaker's main expertise as performer and scholar lay in the
Other works include The Celestial Sphere for chorus and orchestra, and Psalm CXXXIX.
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Kennedy, Rutherford-Johnson & Kennedy 2013, p. 918.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Borthwick, Mary Christine (2007). 'In the Swim': The life and musical achievements of William Gillies Whittaker 1876-1944 (Thesis). Durham University. Retrieved 17 April 2015. Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3
- ISBN 978-1-4094-6175-3.
- ^ a b c d e f "William Gillies Whittaker". Bach Cantatas. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
- ^ Burton 2013, p. 35.
- The Glasgow Herald. 31 March 1941.
- ^ Pollitzer, Jonathan and others. 'Whittaker Centenary Retrospect', in British Music (British Music Society), Volume 2 (1980)
References
- Burton, Richard (26 September 2013). A Strong Song Tows Us: The life of Basil Bunting, Britain's greatest modernist poet. Infinite Ideas. ISBN 978-1-909652-49-1.
- ISBN 978-0-19-957854-2.
External links
- Poster for Centenary Concert of Newcastle Bach Choir, founded by Whittaker. The concert was given in St George's Church, Jesmond. The poster shows the bust of Whittaker sculpted in 1942 by Jacob Epstein