Crossley-Holland, Peter

Crossley-Holland, Peter , English ethnomusicologist and composer; b. London, Jan. 28, 1916. He studied physiology (B.A., 1936; M.A., 1941) and music(B.Mus., 1943) at the Univ. of Oxford. He also studied at the Royal Coll. of Music in London (1937–39), where he worked under John Ireland and gained a Foli Scholarship (1938). Following guidance from Matyas Seiber, Julius Harrison, and Edmund Rubbra, he pursued post-graduate work at the Univ. of London School of Oriental and African Studies. From 1948 to 1963 he was a member of the music production staff of the BBC in London. A growing interest in the music of the East and a Rockefeller Grant took him to the Himalayan border-lands of Tibet, where he studied Buddhist liturgical music in various monasteries. His field recordings won a Golden Disc Award from the Japanese Ministry of Education (1966), and a Gold Medal (Preis der Deutsche Schallplatten Kritik), and were retained by the International Inst. of Comparative Music Studies and Documentation in West Berlin. In 1966 he taught at the Univ. of 111. and in 1968–69 he was a visiting prof, at the Univ. of Hawaii. In 1969 he joined the faculty of the Univ. of Calif, at Los Angeles, where he became a prof, in 1972 and chairman of the Council of Ethnomusicology in 1976. After his retirement in 1983, he was briefly recalled in 1984 and then settled in Wales, where he served as an external examiner for the Univ. of Wales at Aberystwyth (1989–93), and at Bangor. He also continued to make field recordings in Celtic-speaking countries, and in Japan, India, and Iran. He contributed numerous articles to scholarly journals, including valuable ones on traditional Celtic music, Tibetan music, and musical instruments of pre-Hispanic Mexico. Crossley-Holland was honored on his 65th birthday with a vol. of essays (Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology, IV, 1983). The Univ. of Wales at Aberystwyth conferred upon him two honorary fellowships (Lampeter, 1986; Bangor, 1992) and an honorary professorship (of philosophy, Lam-peter, 1987). His music is deeply rooted in European tradition, and many works have been enriched by his love of Celtic and Oriental music.

Works

DRAMATIC Incidental music for five radio plays (1951–59). ORCH.: Suite for Strings (1939); Maguire’s Lamentation for Strings (1944); Suite, Ulick, and Soracha for Chamber Orch. (1956); The Land Beyond for Small Orch. (1988); Symphonic Adventure (1989); Pilgrimage (1989); The Golden Pathway (1990); Sym. (1994). CHAMBER : Romance for Cello and Piano (1937); Violin Sonata (1938); Trio for two Violins and Violas (1939); Trio for Flute, Oboe, and Viola (1940); A Little Suite for Descant Recorder and Piano (1957; also for Descant and two Trebles [1 Alto Tenor] with or without Piano); Irish Tunes for Descant and two Trebles (1957); Albion for Descant, Treble, Tenor (Alto Bass), and Harpsichord (1959); Breton Tunes for Descant and Piano (1960; also for Descant and Treble Recorders with or without Piano); Invocation at Midsummer for Tenor Recorder (1993); Tribute to Manannan for Treble Recorder (Alto Bass) and Piano (1999). KEYBOARD : Piano : Sonata (1940); The Distant Isle (1946). Organ : Introit (1996). VOCAL: 2 Mystical Songs for Baritone and Orch. (1945); The Sacred Dance, cantata for Baritone, Chorus, and Orch. (1952); 6 Carols for Sundry Seasons for Soloists and Chorus (1952); Des Puys d’Amors, song-cycle for Baritone and String Orch. (1956); The Visions of Saint Godric, cantata for Soprano, Alto, Baritone, Chorus, and Orch. (1959); Ubi caritas, anthem for Chorus and Organ (1995); Missa Brevis for Chorus and Organ (1997); Collected Songs (1998).

Writings

Ed. Music in Wales (London, 1948); Secular Medieval Music in Wales (Cardiff, 1962); ed. Artistic Values in Traditional Music (Berlin, 1966); ed. Proceedings of the Centennial Workshop on Ethnomusicology (2 vols., Victoria, 1968, 1978); Musical Artifacts from Pre-Hispanic West Mexico (Los Angeles, 1980); Musical Instruments in Tibetan Legend and Folklore (Los Angeles, 1982); Some Musical Traditions of the Celtic-Speaking Peoples (Bangor, 1996); Musical Learning and Creativity: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Bangor, 1997); Telyn Teirtu: Myth and Magic in Medieval Wales (Bangor, 1997); The Composers in the Robert ap Huw Manuscript (Bangor, 1998).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire