Hugh Ottaway

Hugh Ottaway (27 July 1925 – 6 November 1979) was a prominent British writer and lecturer on classical music.[1]

Ottaway studied history at Exeter University (then the University of the South-West) from 1944. His career began as a teacher, freelance writer and from the 1950s as a presenter of musical talks on BBC Radio.[2] His most significant contributions to music criticism were as a commentator on that portion of twentieth-century music which retained an allegiance to tonality; thus Nielsen, Shostakovich, Sibelius and William Walton featured largely in his output.

Ottaway was especially associated with British composers such as Edmund Rubbra and Robert Simpson, and a staunch supporter of the politically active Alan Bush.[3] But David Scott has pointed out that he "was not limited by a nationalist outlook. His ability to view English composition in a broader context also made his reviews valuable".[1]

He died in Malvern, aged 54.[4] An archive of his papers is held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.[5]

Books

[edit]
  • Vaughan Williams (Novello Short Biographies; 1966)[6]
  • ‘Carl Nielsen’, ‘Prospect and Perspective’, chapter in Robert Simpson (ed). The Symphony, Vol.2 (1967, rev. 1972), pp. 268–77
  • ‘The Enlightenment and the Revolution’, chapter in A. Robertson, D Stevens (ed.) The Pelican History of Music, 1968), pp. 11–96
  • Sibelius (Novello Short Biographies; 1968)
  • Vaughan Williams Symphonies (BBC Music Guides series; 1972 [reprinted 1977, 1980 and 1987]) ISBN 0-563-12242-0.
  • William Walton (Novello Short Biographies; 1972, revised 1977)
  • Shostakovich Symphonies (BBC Music Guides, No 39; 1978)
  • Mozart (1979)
  • Edmund Rubbra, an appreciation: Together with a complete catalogue of compositions to May 1981 (Lengnick; 1981)

Articles

[edit]
  • ‘The Piano Music of John Ireland’, Monthly Musical Record 84 (1954), pp. 258–66
  • 'Nielsen's Sixth Symphony'; The Musical Times, Vol. 95, No. 1337 (Jul., 1954), pp. 362–363
  • —— (July 1957). "Vaughan Williams's Eighth Symphony". Music & Letters. 38 (3): 213–225. doi:10.1093/ml/xxxviii.3.213. JSTOR 730270. (subscription required)
  • 'Clues and Keys' - Hugh Ottaway on the music of Robert Simpson'; The Listener, 21 May 1970
  • ‘Rubbra’s Symphonies’, Musical Times 112 (1971), pp. 430–32, 549–52
  • Review: 'Simpson's New Symphonies'; Tempo (New Ser.), No. 105 (Jun., 1973), pp. 53–54

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Scott, David. 'Ottaway, Hugh', in Grove Music Online (2001)
  2. ^ For instance: 'Rubbra' Symphonies', BBC Third Programme, 7 October 1955
  3. ^ Joanna Bullivant. 'Bush as Stalinist: The Year 1948', in Alan Bush, Modern Music, and the Cold War The Cultural Left in Britain and the Communist Bloc (2107), pp. 139 - 176
  4. ^ 'Hugh Ottaway', obituary, The Musical Times, Vol. 121, No. 1643 (Jan., 1980), p. 48
  5. ^ Archive of Hugh Ottaway, Bodleian Library
  6. ^ McVeigh, Diana. The Musical Times, Vol. 107, No. 1476, February, 1966, p. 104
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