Wilfrid Mellers

The English music critic, musicologist, composer and M&V contributor Wilfrid Mellers was born on 26 April 1914 and died in North Yorkshire, UK, on 17 May 2008, aged ninety-four.

Mellers was educated at Cambridge University, where he read English, and then music. Composition, however, he learned mostly from Edmund Rubbra and Egon Wellesz.

After World War II he taught at the universities of Cambridge and Birmingham, and in the early sixties at Pittsburgh University. From 1964 until his retirement in 1981 he was founding Professor and head of the Music Department at York University, where he influenced several generations of British-trained musicians.

His composition mostly fuses the genres of 'classical', folk, jazz, and even pop musics. He published many books, including major studies of Couperin, J S Bach and Beethoven and others, together with an extensive corpus of journal articles.

WILFRID MELLERS AT MUSIC & VISION MAGAZINE

 

Articles by Wilfrid Mellers

The rough and the smooth

15. Magic and Innocence. A double bill at Opera North. 'This production, given its musical values, must on no account be missed.'

A wizard at the keyboard. 'Hamelin ... may perhaps come closest to the necromatic dazzle that the composer's own playing was said to display.' Marc-André Hamelin plays Alkan

Mimi's Fate. Opera North's 'La Bohème'. '... alarming topicality and truth.'





Civilisation and the Savage State. Janácek's 'Vixen' at Opera North. '... Annabelle Arden's magically imaginative production ...'

Touching Touch-pieces. 'We are grateful to the player for her skill and sensitivity ...' Bach's Seven Toccatas for Harpsichord

Time and Truth. 'The conductor, Rinaldo Alessandrini, handles the band with fierily precise discipline ...' A new recording of a Handel oratorio

Celestial Voices. An early songbook on CD

A Double Man's Last Harvest. Vaughan Williams' Symphonies 8 and 9

Wilfrid Mellers reports on Opera North's current production of 'Eugene Onegin'

Resuscitation. 'This tragic music, superbly sung by Dorothea Röschmann, pierces to the heart's core ...' Enthusing over an event in recorded opera

The Tyrant as Hero. Wilfrid Mellers, reflecting on a Handel opera

The tragic dimension. Debussy's 'Pelléas et Mélisande' as in Opera North's current production

Stylized subtleties - Campra emerges.

The Sun King - Lully's musical homage

Copland's centenary

Wilfrid Mellers discusses Opera North's production of 'Radamisto'

Beauty and Pleasure, Time and Disillusion - Wilfrid Mellers examines Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e della Verita

The dizzy sixties - Wilfrid Mellers listens again to George Crumb

Stringent economy. Satie's ballets discussed in the light of a new recording.

Wilfrid Mellers reviews a comprehensive new study of Satie

'Baroque Sound-Bites'

'The Gentleman' - Wilfrid Mellers considers the songs of Thomas Campion

'Nature and Nurture'

'Then and Now' - Villon to Rabelais

Wilfrid Mellers reviews a CD of Fibich symphonies

Wilfrid Mellers writes about Czech music, setting the scene for his CD review tomorrow

Wilfrid Mellers reviews a CD of Michael Finnissy playing his English Country Tunes

Articles about Wilfrid Mellers

CD Spotlight. Absolutely Wondrous - Steven Osborne plays Debussy piano music, greatly impressing Gerald Fenech. '... despatched with warmth and a great attention to detail ...'

120 Years Ago - A snapshot of the musical world at the turn of the twentieth century, by George Colerick

Amazingly Kind - Keith Bramich marks the passing of South African-born composer John Joubert, who died on 7 January

Museum not Morgue - 'Opera and the Morbidity of Music', read by Robert Anderson

Scrutiny - To begin a weekend of articles celebrating Wilfrid Mellers' ninetieth birthday, Gordon Rumson investigates Mellers' early writings, 1936-1949

Sundry talents, or the importance of laughter - Celebrating his ninetieth birthday today, Wilfrid Mellers talks to Keith Bramich

Seeing music whole - Wilfrid Mellers at ninety - an appreciation by Peter Dickinson

CD Spotlight. Musical riches - A new recording of François Couperin's complete works for harpsichord, appreciated by Rex Harley. '... formidable technique and the deftest of touches.'

Celestial music - Gordon Rumson explores sacred and secular in the writing of Wilfrid Mellers

Music matters - Gordon Rumson reads Wilfrid Mellers' book 'Singing in the Wilderness: Music and Ecology in the Twentieth Century'

From the heart - A tribute by Peter Dale to Wilfrid Mellers, for a unique life of music and letters

Second Sight - Music with Wilfrid Mellers - 15. Magic and Innocence. A double bill at Opera North. 'This production, given its musical values, must on no account be missed.'

Second Sight - Music with Wilfrid Mellers - A wizard at the keyboard. 'Hamelin ... may perhaps come closest to the necromatic dazzle that the composer's own playing was said to display.' Marc-André Hamelin plays Alkan

Second Sight. Music with Wilfrid Mellers - Mimi's Fate. Opera North's 'La Bohème'. '... alarming topicality and truth.'

Second Sight. Music with Wilfrid Mellers - Civilisation and the Savage State. Janácek's 'Vixen' at Opera North. Concluded from Saturday.

Second Sight. Music with Wilfrid Mellers - Civilisation and the Savage State. Janácek's 'Vixen' at Opera North. Continued from Thursday.

Second Sight. Music with Wilfrid Mellers - Civilisation and the Savage State. Janácek's 'Vixen' at Opera North. '... Annabelle Arden's magically imaginative production ...'

Second Sight. Music with Wilfrid Mellers - Celestial Voices. An early songbook on CD

Second sight. Music with Wilfrid Mellers. - A Double Man's Last Harvest. Vaughan Williams' Symphonies 8 and 9

Second sight. Music with Wilfrid Mellers. - Private passion and public hauteur. Reporting on Opera North's current production of 'Eugene Onegin'

Second sight: Music with Wilfrid Mellers - Resuscitation. 'This tragic music, superbly sung by Dorothea Röschmann, pierces to the heart's core ...' Enthusing over an event in recorded opera (concluded from last week)

Second sight: Music with Wilfrid Mellers - Resuscitation. 'This tragic music, superbly sung by Dorothea Röschmann, pierces to the heart's core ...' Enthusing over an event in recorded opera

Paying tribute - The Editor's Quarterly Surprise

Second sight - The Tyrant as Hero. Wilfrid Mellers, reflecting on a Handel opera (concluded from last week)

Second sight - The Tyrant as Hero. Wilfrid Mellers, reflecting on a Handel opera

Second Sight - Music with Wilfrid Mellers - The tragic dimension. Debussy's 'Pelléas et Mélisande' as in Opera North's current production

Second Sight - Music with Wilfrid Mellers - Stylized subtleties - Campra emerges.

Second sight - Music with Wilfrid Mellers - The Sun King - Lully's musical homage

Second Sight - Music with Wilfrid Mellers - Copland's centenary