Arnold Whittall

Dr. Arnold Morgan Whittall
Born	(1935-11-11)11 November 1935 Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Nationality	United Kingdom
Occupation(s)	musicologist, academic
Academic work
Doctoral students	V. Kofi Agawu Jonathan Cross

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. He has also for over 60 years written extensively about new music in non-academic journals such as The Musical Times . ^[1]

Life and career

Arnold Whittall was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire on 11 November 1935. ^[2] He was educated at Priory Grammar School, Shrewsbury (1946–1954) and, after National Service, matriculated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1956. ^[3] There he read History and Music, and graduated B.A. in 1959. He received his PhD in 1964, for a dissertation on the Querelle des Bouffons . ^[4]

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). ^[5] As Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University (1969–1975), ^{[5] [6]} he founded the journal Soundings in 1970. ^[7]

At Nottingham in the late 1960s Whittall had pioneered an MA degree course in Contemporary Music (e.g. Lutyens, Messiaen) with emphasis on analysis, which he further developed at MA level at Cardiff. In 1975 he was appointed Reader in Music, ^[8] and from 1982 Professor of Musical Theory and Analysis, at King's College London. ^[9] He taught for the MMus degree in Music Analysis, ^[10] 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. ^{[11] [12]}

In 1985 Whittall was a Visiting Professor at Yale University. He retired from King’s College in 1996; ^[13] but continued part-time teaching there until 2012.

Works

Whittall has written 12 books on aspects of music, many articles for scholarly journals, numerous reviews of publications, performances and recordings. He has served for many years as music adviser to Cambridge University Press and as editor of two of its book series. ^[14]

Since the 1960s, he has contributed extensively to musicology through the publication of books, articles and provided chapters to multi-authored books. ^[15] 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 and modernisms; while others are focussed on the music of specific composers such as Anton Webern, Pierre Boulez, Thomas Adès, and Howard Skempton.

Among his contributions to public musicology were his many broadcasts for the BBC Radio 3"College Concerts" series (1977–1983), introducing contemporary Western art music to radio audiences, and he has continued his public advocacy for successive generations of contemporary classical composers into the 2020s. He also collaborated with his wife, the late Mary Whittall, in her translation of books on music from German. ^[16]

Books

• Schoenberg Chamber Music. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972. ^{[17] [18]}
• Music since the First World War. London: Dent, 1977. ^[18]
• The Music of Britten and Tippett – Studies in Themes and Techniques. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982 ^[19]
• Romantic Music: a concise history from Schubert to Sibelius. London: Thames and Hudson, 1987 ^{[18] [20]}
• Music Analysis: In Theory and Practice. London: Faber, 1988, with Jonathan Dunsby ^{[18] [21]}
• Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ^[22]
• Jonathan Harvey. London: Faber, 1999. ^[23]
• Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. ^[24]
• The Cambridge Introduction to Serialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. ^[25]
• The Wagner Style: Close Readings and Critical Perspectives. London: Plumbago Books, 2015. ^[26]
• British Music after Britten. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2020. ^[27]
• Schoenberg: 'Night Music' - Verklärte Nacht and Erwartung. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. ^[28]

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.

Awards and honours

In 2013 Whittall was awarded the Derek Allen Prize for musicology by the British Academy, ^[29] and in 2021 the Pascall Medal, named for Robert Pascall (1944–2018), by the Society for Music Analysis. ^[30] He was made an honorary member of the Royal Musical Association in 2014. ^[31]

Students

Many of the students that Whittall taught or advised during his career have since contributed to musical scholarship and practice, including: V. Kofi Agawu, Jonathan Cross, ^[32] Anthony Pople, ^{[33] [34]} Keith Potter, Jim Samson, Ruth Tatlow, and Adrian Thomas.

His students included Australian composer Norma Tyer.

References

1. "King's College London - Faculty of Arts & Humanities". Kcl.ac.uk. 23 February 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
2. Shrewsbury (Salop), Births registered Oct–Dec 1935, vol. 6a, p. 772
3. University of Cambridge (1958). Calendar. p. 406.
4. Randel, Don Michael (28 November 2003). The Harvard Dictionary of Music: Fourth Edition. Harvard University Press. p. 110. ISBN   978-0-674-01163-2.
5. "Arnold Whittall (b. 1935)". oxfordreference.com. OUP. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
6. University College of South Wales (1975). The Calendar 1975-76. Daniel Owen. p. A-58.
7. 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.
8. "King's Collections : Calendars : Page 61". kingscollections.org. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
9. King's College London: Professor Arnold Whittall, Emeritus Professor, Biography: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/arnold-whittall
10. King's College London, Music MMus: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/courses/music-mmus
11. Donn, Rebekah; Pace, Ian (24 July 2023). "The Representation of Music Analysis in UK Undergraduate Curricula". Society for Music Analysis.
12. "Dunsby, Jonathan". Eastman School of Music. 21 October 2025. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
13. Pople, Anthony (24 April 1997). The Cambridge Companion to Berg. Cambridge University Press. p. xv. ISBN   978-0-521-56489-2.
14. Music in the Twentieth Century: https://www.cambridge.org/core/series/music-in-the- twentieth-century/22ACC6876CD0177892844727A86EBBE5; Music since 1900: https://www.cambridge.org/core/series/music-since- 1900/05277790D27F1F698A574066ED4A9E96
15. Adlington, R. (October 1995). "Arnold Whittall: A Bibliography". Music Analysis. 14 (2/3): 141–160. doi:10.2307/854011. JSTOR   854011.
16. 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.
17. Whittall, Arnold (1972). Schoenberg Chamber Music. British Broadcasting Corporation. ISBN   978-0-563-10489-6.
18. Adlington, Robert (1995). "Arnold Whittall: A Bibliography". Music Analysis. 14 (2/3): 141–160. doi:10.2307/854011. ISSN   0262-5245.
19. Whittall, Arnold (July 1982). The Music of Britten and Tippett: Studies in Themes and Techniques. CUP Archive. ISBN   978-0-521-23523-5.
20. Whittall, Arnold (1987). Romantic Music: A Concise History from Schubert to Sibelius : with 51 Illustrations. Thames and Hudson. ISBN   978-0-500-20215-9.
21. Dunsby, Jonathan; Whittall, Arnold (1988). Music Analysis in Theory and Practice. Faber. ISBN   978-0-571-10069-9.
22. Whittall, Arnold (1999). Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press.
23. Whittall, Arnold (1999). Jonathan Harvey. Faber. ISBN   978-0-571-19581-7.
24. Whittall, Arnold (27 February 2003). Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-01668-1.
25. Whittall, Arnold (16 October 2008). Serialism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-68200-8.
26. Whittall, Arnold (2015). The Wagner Style: Close Readings and Critical Perspectives. Plumbago Books. ISBN   978-0-9931983-0-4.
27. Whittall, Arnold (2020). British Music After Britten. Boydell Press. ISBN   978-1-78327-497-0.
28. Whittall, Arnold (30 November 2023). Schoenberg: ‘Night Music' – Verklärte Nacht and Erwartung. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-009-08479-6.
29. "The British Academy Derek Allen Prize". The British Academy.
30. "SMA Pascall Medal". Society for Music Analysis. 11 February 2022.
31. "Honorary membership – Royal Musical Association" . Retrieved 27 October 2025.
32. Register of Music Research Students in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. The Network. 1995. p. 22.
33. "Anthony Pople". www.thetimes.com. 16 October 2003.
34. Whittall, Arnold (2003). "Anthony Pople Remembered". Music Analysis. 22 (3): 249. ISSN   0262-5245.

External links

• Emeritus staff and research fellows at King's College London