Lichtenwanger, William (John)

Lichtenwanger, William (John), learned American librarian; b. Asheville, N.C., Feb. 28, 1915. He studied at the Univ. of Mich, at Ann Arbor (B.Mus., 1937; M.Mus., 1940), and played double bass, oboe, and other instruments in the band and orch. He wrote pieces with whimsical titles, e.g., Phrygidair(in Phrygian mode, naturally). He served as asst. reference librarian of the Music Division at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. (1940–53, except for service in the U.S. Army, 1941–45), then asst. head (1953–60) and head (1960–74) of the music reference section there. He was assoc. ed. of Notes of the Music Library Assn. (1946–60), then its ed. (1960–63); in 1975 he was made a member emeritus. In addition, he was music ed. of Collier’s Encyclopedia(1947–50), consultant for the biographical dictionary Notable American Women(1971), and a contributor to supplements II and III of the Dictionary of American Biography.He was chairman and compiler of A Survey of Musical Instrument Collections in the U.S. and Canada (1974). A polyglot and a polymath, Lichtenwanger is fluent in German, French, and Turkish, nearly fluent in Japanese, and fairly fluent in personalized Russian. With his wife, Carolyn, he ed. an analytic index to Modern Music(N.Y., 1976). Among his scholarly achievements, perhaps the highest is his incandescent essay “The Music of The Star-Spangled Banner—From Ludgate Hill to Capitol Hill,” in the Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress(July 1977), in which he furnishes documentary proof that the tune of the American national anthem was indeed composed by John Stafford Smith, all demurrings by various estimable historians to the contrary notwithstanding. To the 6^th ed. of Baker’sBiographical Dictionary of Musicians he contributed incalculably precious verifications, clarifications, rectifications, and refutations of previous inadvertent and/or ignorant fabrications and unintentional prevarications; he also ed. Oscar Sonneck and American Music(Urbana, 111., 1984) and compiled The Music of Henry Cornell: A Descriptive Catalog(Brooklyn, 1986).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire