Whittaker W(illiam) G(illies)
Whittaker W(illiam) G(illies)
Whittaker, W(illiam) G(illies), respected English choral conductor, pedagogue, and composer; b. Newcastle upon Tyne, July 23, 1876; d. Orkney Islands, July 5, 1944. He studied science at Armstrong Coll., Univ. of Durham, and also received training in organ and singing before joining its faculty in 1898. He was the 1st Gardiner Prof, of Music at the Univ. of Glasgow (1929-38) and was principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow (1929-41); he also was active as a choral conductor, and conducted various choral societies in Newcastle and London. He became well known as a Bach conductor and scholar, and ed. various instrumental works of the 17th and 18th centuries. He composed A Lykewake Dirge and The Celestial Sphere for Chorus and Orch., Psalm CXXXIX; Among the Northumbrian Hills, piano quintet, piano pieces, and songs. He also prepared folk-song arrangements.
Writings
Fugitive Notes on Certain Cantatas and the Motets of J.S. Bach (London, 1924); Class Singing (London, 1925; 2nd ed., 1930); Collected Essays (Oxford, 1940); The Cantatas ofJ.S. Bach, Sacred and Secular (London, 1959).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire