Terry, Charles Sanford

Terry, Charles Sanford, eminent English music scholar; b. Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, Oct. 24, 1864; d. Westerton of Pitfodels, near Aberdeen, Nov. 5, 1936. He studied history at Clare Coll., Cambridge (1883-86) and in 1890 became a lecturer in history at Durham Coll. of Science, Newcastle upon Tyne. He joined the faculty of the Univ. of Aberdeen in 1898, and from 1903 to 1930 held the Burnett-Fletcher chair of history there, occupying himself with historical research; at the same time, he devoted much of his energy to the study of Bach and his period. His biography of Bach (London, 1928; 2^nd ed., rev., 1933; 6th ed., 1967) places Bach’s life within historical perspective with a fine discernment; it has become a standard in the literature on Bach in English. Other books and eds. dealing with Bach include Bach’s Chorals (Cambridge, 1915-21), Joh. Seb. Bach: Cantata Texts, sacred and secular, with a Reconstruction of the Leipzig Liturgy of his Period (London, 1926), The Origin of the Family of Bach Musicians (London, 1929), Bach: The Historical Approach (1930), Bach’s Orchestra (1932; 4^th ed., 1966), and The Music of Bach: An Introduction (1933). To the Musical Pilgrim series he contributed analyses of the B-minor Mass (1924), the cantatas and oratorios (1925), the Passions (1926), and the Magnificat, Lutheran masses, and motets (1929). He also ed. Coffee and Cupid {The Coffee Cantata): An Operetta by Johann Sebastian Bach (London, 1924) and The Four-part Chorals of J.S. Bach (London, 1929; 2^nd ed., 1964). He also wrote a biography of Johann Christian Bach (1929; 2^nd ed., rev, 1967 by H.C. Robbins Landon).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire