Arnold Whittall

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Dr.
Arnold Morgan Whittall
ArnoldWhittall2.jpg
Born(1935-11-11)11 November 1935
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Occupation(s) musicologist, academic

Arnold Morgan Whittall (born 11 November 1935) is a British musicologist, Emeritus Professor of Musical Theory and Analysis at King's College London. His academic work, including books and articles in academic journals such as Music & Letters , focuses on the theory and analysis of music, modernism in music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and musical style and structure in the works of Richard Wagner.

Contents

Whittall is also a prolific author of non-academic articles on new music. [1] These include record reviews for Gramophone and the Western Mail . [2]

Life and career

Arnold Whittall was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire on 11 November 1935. [3] He was educated at Priory Grammar School, Shrewsbury (1946–1954) and, after National Service, matriculated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1956. [4] There he read for the Tripos History in Part I, and Music in Part II, and graduated BA in 1959, MA in 1963. [5] [6] He received his PhD in 1964, for a dissertation on the Querelle des Bouffons . [7]

Whittall began his teaching career as Assistant Lecturer at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (1962–1964), then as Lecturer at Nottingham University (1964–1969). [8] As Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University (1969–1975), [8] [9] he founded the journal Soundings in 1970. [10]

In 1975 Whittall was appointed Reader in Music, [11] and from 1982 Professor of Musical Theory and Analysis, at King's College London. [12] He taught for the MMus degree in Music Analysis, [13] and supervised PhD dissertations, as well as contributing to undergraduate courses. That year, Whittall and Jonathan Dunsby founded the journal Music Analysis , with Dunsby as the founding editor. [14] [15]

In 1985 Whittall was a Visiting Professor at Yale University. [16] He retired from King’s College in 1996. [17]

Teaching and students

At Nottingham in the late 1960s Whittall pioneered an MA degree course in Contemporary Music (e.g. Lutyens, Messiaen) with emphasis on analysis. Alan Bullard was a student there. He found both a "rigorous academic timetable" and an eclectic approach to composition. [18] Whittall further developed his teaching at MA level at Cardiff: Jim Samson graduated Cardiff (MMus; PhD 1972); [19] and Australian composer Norma Tyer took the MA (Wales) course there, graduating in 1973. [20]

Brenda Ravenscroft, who took a Master's course at King's College London in the 1980s, recalled that Whittall

[...] discussed the ways in which aspects of musical structure may offer insights into a composer's reaction to their society and its cultural climate. [21]

Other students that Whittall taught or advised include: V. Kofi Agawu, [22] Jonathan Cross, [23] Anthony Pople, [24] [25] Keith Potter, [26] Ruth Tatlow (with Ulrich Siegele  [ de ]), and Adrian Thomas. [27] Whittall continued part-time teaching there until 2012.

Works

Since the 1960s, Whittall has contributed to musicology through books and articles and provided chapters to multi-authored books. [2] Allen Forte has called him "the dean of British music analysis". [28]

Whittall's initial publications focussed on Benjamin Britten before shifting to 20th-century music more generally. Other publications have addressed discussions within musicology such as semiotics and modernisms. He found "early representations of urban environment" in works by Anton Webern and Arnold Schoenberg. [29] He wrote about Howard Skempton and Michael Finnissy. [30]

As music adviser to Cambridge University Press, Whittall was editor of two of its book series, "Music in the Twentieth Century" and "Music since 1900". [31] [32]

Whittall made many broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. [33] When the BBC innovated with its "College Concerts" series, initially free concerts of 20th century music in music colleges, Whittall made introductions to the broadcasts from 1979 to 1983. [34] [35]

Bibliography

Books

  • Schoenberg Chamber Music. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972. [36] [2]
  • Music since the First World War. London: Dent, 1977. [2]
  • The Music of Britten and Tippett – Studies in Themes and Techniques. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982 [37]
  • Romantic Music: a concise history from Schubert to Sibelius. London: Thames and Hudson, 1987 [2] [38]
  • Music Analysis: In Theory and Practice. London: Faber, 1988, with Jonathan Dunsby [2] [39]
  • Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. [40] A revision of Music since the First World War. [41]
  • Jonathan Harvey. London: Faber, 1999. [42]
  • Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. [43]
  • The Cambridge Introduction to Serialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. [44]
  • The Wagner Style: Close Readings and Critical Perspectives. London: Plumbago Books, 2015. [45] See below.
  • British Music after Britten. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2020. [46]
  • Schoenberg: 'Night Music' - Verklärte Nacht and Erwartung. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. [47]

Wagner studies

  • (1981). “The Music”. In Beckett, Lucy (ed.). Richard Wagner: “Parsifal”. Cambridge Opera Handbook on Parsifal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 61–86.'
  • (1983). “A Musical Commentary”. In John, Nicholas (ed.). The Mastersingers of Nuremberg: ENO/ROH Opera Guide. London: John Calder. pp. 15–26.
  • (1983) ‘“Wagner’s Great Transition? From Lohengrin to Das Rheingold”. Music Analysis, vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 269–80
  • (1987). “Liszt and Wagner”, chap. in Romantic Music: a Concise History from Schubert to Sibelius (see above). London: Thames and Hudson, 1987. pp. 81–109.
  • (1990). “Wagner’s Later Stage Works”. In Abraham, Gerald (ed.). New Oxford History of Music (vol. 9: Romanticism). London: Oxford University Press. pp. 257–321.
  • (1992). “Musical Language” and “The Birth of Modernism: Wagner's Impact on the History of Music”. In Millington, Barry (ed.). The Wagner Compendium: A Guide to Wagner’s Life and Music. London: Thames & Hudson. pp. 248–261 and 393–396.
  • (1992) “Analytic Voices: the Musical Narratives of Carolyn Abbate”. Music Analysis, vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 95–107*
  • (2008). “Criticism and Analysis: Current Perspectives”. In Grey, Thomas, (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Wagner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 276–289.
  • (2025). “‘Wo sind wir?’ Tristan Disorientations”. In Vande Moortele, Steven (ed.). Wagner Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 9–27.

Views on Wagner

Over a number of years Whittall wrote a series of substantial articles on each of Richard Wagner's music dramas from Der fliegende Holländer to Parsifal. Originally published in The Wagner Journal and Musical Times, these essays were gathered into The Wagner Style (2015) (see above). The essays concentrate on technical and stylistic qualities, rather than sources, sketches or historical aspects. [48]

Whittall's 2008 book chapter "Criticism and analysis: current perspectives" [49] has been called "a recent overview of the history of Wagner analysis". [50] He contributed articles on "Wagner's Later Stage Works" to the New Oxford History of Music (vol. 9: Romanticism) and on Wagner's musical language and modernistic tendencies to The Wagner Compendium. He contributed to the ENO/Royal Opera guide to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , and the Cambridge Opera Handbook on Parsifal and wrote entries on such terms as "leitmotif" and "music drama", for the New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia. There is a chapter on Liszt and Wagner in his own Romantic Music: A Concise History.

The concluding essay in The Wagner Style, "Wagner and 21st-century Opera", also originating in Musical Times, positioned Wagner as an "early modernist". Whittall has specified that he refers in this way to "balancing centripetal against centrifugal forces", in the music dramas, referencing the 1879 essay "Über die Anwendung der Musik auf das Drama". [51] Engaged with current scholarship, Whittall's analyses identify a principle of "rhetorical dialectics" in Wagner's works: a tension between continuities engendered by "the art of transition" (as Wagner styled it) and his through-composed forms on the one hand, and discontinuities and disintegration on the other. He has commented that it is only in "Über die Anwendung der Musik auf das Drama" that Wagner touched on those "dialectics", and "with tantalising brevity". [52] He has examined the disruptive tendencies of Wagner's works in relation to a contemporary composer: on Jonathan Harvey's opera Wagner Dream , he wrote "[...] though set in 1883, [it] might be thought of as the very contemporary site of a confrontation of late modernism and new classisicm [...]". [53]

Awards and honours

In 2013 Whittall was awarded the Derek Allen Prize for musicology by the British Academy, [54] and in 2021 the Pascall Medal, named for Robert Pascall (1944–2018), by the Society for Music Analysis. [55] He was made an honorary member of the Royal Musical Association in 2014. [56]

Personal life

Whittall married in 1964 Mary Pigg (1937–2005) of Puckeridge, then working in Cambridge University Library. [57] [58] She was educated at Bedford High School and Newnham College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1960. [59] [60] As Mary Whittall, she worked as a professional translator of many academic books from French and German. [61] [62] The couple collaborated on the English translation The Forging of the "Ring" of a book by Curt von Westernhagen. [63]

References

  1. ↑ "King's College London - Faculty of Arts & Humanities". Kcl.ac.uk. 23 February 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Adlington, Robert (1995). "Arnold Whittall: A Bibliography". Music Analysis. 14 (2/3): 141–160. doi:10.2307/854011. ISSN   0262-5245.
  3. ↑ Shrewsbury (Salop), Births registered Oct–Dec 1935, vol. 6a, p. 772
  4. ↑ University of Cambridge (1958). Calendar. p. 406.
  5. ↑ University of Cambridge (1962). Calendar. p. 518.
  6. ↑ University of Cambridge (1963). Cambridge University Reporter part 1. p. 73.
  7. ↑ Randel, Don Michael (28 November 2003). The Harvard Dictionary of Music: Fourth Edition. Harvard University Press. p. 110. ISBN   978-0-674-01163-2.
  8. 1 2 "Arnold Whittall (b. 1935)". oxfordreference.com. OUP. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  9. ↑ University College of South Wales (1975). The Calendar 1975-76. Daniel Owen. p. A-58.
  10. ↑ Forkert, Annika (19 October 2023). Elisabeth Lutyens and Edward Clark: The Orchestration of Progress in British Twentieth-Century Music. Cambridge University Press. p. 58. ISBN   978-1-009-33733-5.
  11. ↑ "King's Collections : Calendars : Page 61". kingscollections.org. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  12. ↑ King's College London. "Arnold Whittall". King's College London.
  13. ↑ King's College London. "Music". King's College London.
  14. ↑ Donn, Rebekah; Pace, Ian (24 July 2023). "The Representation of Music Analysis in UK Undergraduate Curricula". Society for Music Analysis.
  15. ↑ "Dunsby, Jonathan". Eastman School of Music. 21 October 2025. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  16. ↑ Europa Publications (31 March 2008). International Who's Who in Classical Music 2008. Taylor & Francis Group. p. 873. ISBN   978-1-85743-455-2.
  17. ↑ Pople, Anthony (24 April 1997). The Cambridge Companion to Berg. Cambridge University Press. p. xv. ISBN   978-0-521-56489-2.
  18. ↑ Clarinet and Saxophone. Clarinet and Saxophone Society of Great Britain. 1993. p. 15.
  19. ↑ "Samson, Prof. Thomas James, (Jim)" . Who's Who . A & C Black.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  20. ↑ Royal Musical Association (1986). Research Chronicle. Royal Musical Association. p. 72.
  21. ↑ Ravenscroft, Brenda (2003). "Arnold Whittall. Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. xi, 238 pp. ISBN 0-521-81642-4 (hardcover)" (PDF). Canadian University Music Review. 23 (1–2): 224. doi:10.7202/1014528ar.
  22. ↑ Agawu, V. Kofi (25 March 2025). Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music. Princeton University Press. p. 11. ISBN   978-0-691-27363-1.
  23. ↑ Register of Music Research Students in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. The Network. 1995. p. 22.
  24. ↑ "Anthony Pople". www.thetimes.com. 16 October 2003.
  25. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (2003). "Anthony Pople Remembered". Music Analysis. 22 (3): 249. ISSN   0262-5245.
  26. ↑ Potter, Keith (25 April 2002). Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass. Cambridge University Press. p. xii. ISBN   978-0-521-01501-1.
  27. ↑ "Professor Adrian Thomas, Gresham College". www.gresham.ac.uk.
  28. ↑ Schweiger, Dominik (2009). Webern_21 (in German). Böhlau Verlag Wien. p. 282. ISBN   978-3-205-77165-4.
  29. ↑ Sheinberg, Esti (5 July 2017). Music Semiotics: A Network of Significations: In Honour and Memory of Raymond Monelle. Routledge. p. 276. ISBN   978-1-351-55720-7.
  30. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (2018). "Recession, reflation: Skempton, Finnissy and musical modernism's classical roots". The Musical Times. 159 (1943): 11–24. ISSN   0027-4666.
  31. ↑ "Music in the Twentieth Century". Cambridge Core.
  32. ↑ "Music since 1900". Cambridge Core.
  33. ↑ "Programme Index: Arnold Whittall". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  34. ↑ Seaton, Jean (26 February 2015). Pinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the nation, 1974–1987. Profile Books. p. 90. ISBN   978-1-84765-916-3.
  35. ↑ "Whittall College Concerts". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  36. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (1972). Schoenberg Chamber Music. British Broadcasting Corporation. ISBN   978-0-563-10489-6.
  37. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (July 1982). The Music of Britten and Tippett: Studies in Themes and Techniques. CUP Archive. ISBN   978-0-521-23523-5.
  38. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (1987). Romantic Music: A Concise History from Schubert to Sibelius : with 51 Illustrations. Thames and Hudson. ISBN   978-0-500-20215-9.
  39. ↑ Dunsby, Jonathan; Whittall, Arnold (1988). Music Analysis in Theory and Practice. Faber. ISBN   978-0-571-10069-9.
  40. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (1999). Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press.
  41. ↑ MacGregor, Emily (26 January 2023). Interwar Symphonies and the Imagination: Politics, Identity, and the Sound of 1933. Cambridge University Press. p. 32 note 89. ISBN   978-1-009-18756-5.
  42. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (1999). Jonathan Harvey. Faber. ISBN   978-0-571-19581-7.
  43. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (27 February 2003). Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-01668-1.
  44. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (16 October 2008). Serialism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-68200-8.
  45. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (2015). The Wagner Style: Close Readings and Critical Perspectives. Plumbago Books. ISBN   978-0-9931983-0-4.
  46. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (2020). British Music After Britten. Boydell Press. ISBN   978-1-78327-497-0.
  47. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (30 November 2023). Schoenberg: ‘Night Music' – Verklärte Nacht and Erwartung. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-009-08479-6.
  48. ↑ Walton, Chris (2016). "Look & Learn". The Musical Times. 157 (1935): 112–113. ISSN   0027-4666.
  49. ↑ "Criticism and analysis: current perspectives". The Cambridge Companion to Wagner. Cambridge University Press. September 2008. pp. 276–289.
  50. ↑ Tusa, Michael C., ed. (2 March 2017). National Traditions in Nineteenth-Century Opera, Volume II: Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge. p. 14. ISBN   978-1-351-91582-3.
  51. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (30 November 2023). Schoenberg: ‘Night Music' – Verklärte Nacht and Erwartung. Cambridge University Press. p. 26. ISBN   978-1-316-51409-2.
  52. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (2022). "Frisch weht der Wind". The Musical Times. 163 (1961): 113–115. ISSN   0027-4666.
  53. ↑ Downes, Michael (24 February 2017). Jonathan Harvey: Song Offerings and White as Jasmine. Routledge. p. 130. ISBN   978-1-351-63080-1.
  54. ↑ "The British Academy Derek Allen Prize". The British Academy.
  55. ↑ "SMA Pascall Medal". Society for Music Analysis. 11 February 2022.
  56. ↑ "Honorary membership – Royal Musical Association" . Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  57. ↑ "Wedding of graduates". Hertford Mercury and Reformer. 7 August 1964. p. 3.
  58. ↑ Marriages registered July–Sept 1964, vol. 4B, p. 739; Hertfordshire Mercury Series, 7 August 1964, p. 8; Ware (Herts); Births registered in Jan–March 1938, vol. 3A, p. 1441; Deaths, District Brent 22113, reg. C29E, entry 191.
  59. ↑ "High School Speech Day Addresses". Bedfordshire Times and Independent. 6 December 1957. p. 18.
  60. ↑ University of Cambridge (1960). Cambridge University Reporter, part 2. p. 1864.
  61. ↑ Recht, Roland (15 October 2008). Believing and Seeing: The Art of Gothic Cathedrals. University of Chicago Press. p. iv. ISBN   978-0-226-70606-1.
  62. ↑ Gamboni, Dario (2011). The Brush and the Pen: Odilon Redon and Literature. University of Chicago Press. p. iv. ISBN   978-0-226-28055-4.
  63. ↑ Deathridge, John (14 July 2008). Wagner Beyond Good and Evil. University of California Press. p. 250 note 20. ISBN   978-0-520-93461-0.
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