King, Alec (actually, Alexander) Hyatt

King, Alec(actually, Alexander) Hyatt, esteemed English bibliographer and musicologist; b. Beckenham, Kent, July 18, 1911. He was educated at Dulwich Coll. and King’s Coll., Cambridge (B.A., 1933). In 1934 he joined the Dept. of Printed Books of the British Museum; became superintendent of its music room in 1944, retiring in 1976. He publ. a number of valuable textual and bibliographical studies.

Writings

(all publ. in London unless otherwise given): Chamber Music (1948); Handel’s Messiah (exhibition catalog of the British Museum; 1951); Mozart in Retrospect: Studies in Criticism and Bibliography (1955; 3rd ed., 1970); Mozart in the British Museum (1956; 2nd ed., 1966); Henry Purcell 16597-1695; George Frideric Handel 1685-1759 (exhibition catalog of the British Museum; 1959); Some British Collectors of Music c. 1600-1960 (Cambridge, 1963); Four Hundred Years of Music Printing (1964; 2nd ed., 1968); Handel and His Autographs (1967); Mozart Chamber Music (1968; 2nd ed., 1969); Mozart: A Biography, with a Survey of Books, Editions and Recordings (1970); Mozart Wind and String Concertos (1978); Printed Music in the British Museum: An Account of the Collections, the Catalogues, and Their Formation, up to 1920 (1979); A Wealth of Music in the Collection of the British Library (Reference Section) and the British Museum (1983); A Mozart Legacy: Aspects of the British Library Collections (1984); Musical Pursuits: Selected Essays (1987).

Bibliography

O. Neighbour, ed., Music and Bibliography: Essays in Honour of AH. K. (London, 1980).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire