Sadie, Stanley (John)

Sadie, Stanley (John) , eminent English musicologist and lexicographer; b. London, Oct. 30, 1930. He studied music privately with Bernard Stevens (1947–50) and then with Dart, Hadley, and Cudworth at Cambridge (B.A. and Mus.B., 1953; M.A., 1957; Ph.D., 1958, with the diss. British Chamber Music, 1720–1790). He was on the staff of Trinity Coll. of Music in London from 1957 to 1965. From 1964 to 1981 he was a music critic on the staff of the Times of London. In 1967 he became the ed. of the Musical Times, which position he retained until 1987. A distinguished scholar, he wrote the following monographs (all publ. in London): Handel (1962), Mozart (1966), Beethoven (1967; second ed., 1974), Handel (1968), Handel Concertos (1972), and Mozart Symphonies (1986). He also publ. numerous articles in British and American music journals. With Arthur Jacobs, he ed. The Pan Book of Opera (London, 1964; rev. ed. as Opera: A Modern Guide, N.Y., 1972; new ed., 1984). In 1969 Sadie was entrusted with the formidable task of preparing for publication, as ed.-in-chief, a completely new ed. of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians; after 11 years of labor, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians was publ. in London in 1980; this sixth ed., in 20 vols., reflected the contributions of more than 2, 400 scholars throughout the world, and was accorded a premier place of honor among the major reference sources of its kind. He also supervised the planning and the early stages of editing of the rev., 28-vol. edition (2000–01). He likewise ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (1984) and was co-ed., with H. Wiley Hitchcock, of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (4 vols., 1986). With A. Hicks, he ed. the vol. Handel Tercentenary Collection (Ann Arbor, 1988). He also ed. The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music (1988; U.S. ed., 1988, as The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music) and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (4 vols., 1992). He likewise ed. Wolfgang Amadè Mozart: Essays on His Life and His Music (Oxford, 1995). He served as ed. of the Master Musicians series from 1976. In 1981 he received the honorary degree of D.Litt. from the Univ. of Leicester and was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in 1997 an honorary Fellow of the Royal Coll. of Music in London. In 1982 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 1978 he married Julie Anne Sadie , with whom he is writing a guide to European composer museums to be publ. in 2001.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire