Stevens, Denis (William)

Stevens, Denis (William), English musicologist and conductor; b. High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, March 2, 1922. He studied with Sir Thomas Armstrong and Egon Wellesz at the Univ. of Oxford (1940–42; 1947–49). From 1949 to 1954 he was head of pre-Classical music for the BBC in London. After serving as a visiting prof. at Cornell Univ. (1955) and Columbia Univ. (1956), he was active with the BBC (1957–87). In 1960 he introduced the first course in musicology at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He founded the Accademia Monteverdiana in 1961, and subsequently appeared with them on radio, television, and at the Bath, Bordeaux, Edinburgh, Gstaad, Lisbon, London, Lucerne, Salzburg, and Windsor festivals. His interest in developing unfamiliar but outstanding repertoire prompted him to premiere a new edition of Monteverdi’s Vespers at London’s Westminster Abbey in 1961. In 1962 he taught at the Univ. of Calif, at Berkeley, and then was a distinguished visiting prof. at Pa. State Univ. (1962–64), Columbia Univ. (1965–74), where he gave the first course on an English composer, Henry Purcell, and at the Univ. of Washington in Seattle (1976). He made over 75 recordings while still pursuing scholarly work. He inaugurated the Musica Britannica series with The Mulliner Book (1951), and also ed. Early Tudor Organ Music (1969), Monteverdi’s Selva morale e spirituale (1998), and many other editions. In 1984 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Writings

Thomas Tomkins (1957); A History of Song (1960); ed. with A. Robertson, The Pelican History of Music (1960–68); Monteverdi: Sacred, Secular and Occasional Music (1978); ed. and tr. The Letters of Claudio Monteverdi (1960; rev. ed., 1995); Musicology in Practice (1981); Early Music (1997); ed. and tr. Monteverdi: Songs and Madrigals (1999); Monteverdi in Venice (2000).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

Stevens, Denis (William) (b High Wycombe, 1922; d 2004). Eng. musicologist, critic, violinist, and conductor. Worked as mus. critic in Calcutta and Oxford. Played vn. and va. in Philharmonia Orch. 1946–9. On BBC mus. staff as producer specializing in Renaissance and Baroque mus. 1949–54. Cond., Ambrosian Singers 1956–60. Prof., RAM 1956–61, prof. of musicology, Columbia Univ., NY, 1964–74. Ed. of Monteverdi's Vespers (1961, rev. 1993) and Orfeo (1967). Salzburg Fest. 1967; cond. first Monteverdi at Proms, 1967. Author of books on Tudor church mus. and Thomas Tomkins, ed. of Eng. madrigals, Tudor org. mus., etc. Trans. letters of Monteverdi (1980). CBE 1984.