Picken, Laurence (Ernest Rowland)
Picken, Laurence (Ernest Rowland)
Picken, Laurence (Ernest Rowland), English zoologist, biologist, musicologist, and ethnomusicologist; b. Nottingham, July 16, 1909. He studied the natural sciences at Trinity Coll., Cambridge (B.A., 1931; M.A., 1935; Ph.D., 1935; D.Sc, 1952). In 1944 he became a Fellow at Jesus Coll., Cambridge. From 1946 to 1966 he was asst. director of research in zoology at Univ. of Cambridge, and from 1966 to 1976 he was engaged at the Faculty of Oriental Studies there. In 1944 he went to China as a member of the British Council Scientific Mission; studied the ch’in there with Hsu Yuan- Pai and Cha Fu-Hsi. In 1951 he took lessons in Turkish music from Nejdet Senvarol in Istanbul. In 1962 he became ed. of the Journal of the International Folk Music Council. He was ed. of Musica Asiatica (1977–84). He also ed. the series Music from the Tang Court (from 1981), and contributed articles to many learned journals. He publ. the comprehensive study Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey (London, 1975); also ed., with E. Dal, E. Stockmann, and K. Vetterl, A Select Bibliography of European Folk Music (Prague, 1966), and, with K. Pont, Ancient Chinese Tunes (London, 1973).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire