Mellers, Wilfrid Howard

▪ 2009

      English musicologist, critic, composer, and professor

born April 26, 1914, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Eng.

died May 16, 2008, Scrayingham, North Yorkshire, Eng.

advocated the importance of understanding society through all of its musical genres. Many of Mellers's compositions reflect this determination, including Rose of May (1964), a musical theatre piece based on the Ophelia texts of Hamlet, and Yeibichai (1969), a Navajo night chant with solos by a coloratura soprano and a scat singer. Mellers wrote more than 30 books, most notably François Couperin and the French Classical Tradition (1950; rev. ed., 1987), Twilight of the Gods: The Music of the Beatles (1973), and A Darker Shade of Pale: A Backdrop to Bob Dylan (1984). His Music in a New Found Land: Themes and Developments in the History of American Music (1964) was the first scholarly work to accept and appreciate American music. Mellers held a variety of teaching positions throughout his career and founded (1964) the music department at the University of York. He was appointed OBE in 1982.

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