| Percy M. Young | |
|---|---|
| Born | Percy Marshall Young 17 May 1912 |
| Died | 9 May 2004 (aged 91) |
| Nationality | British |
Percy Marshall Young (17 May 1912 - 9 May 2004) was a British musicologist, editor, organist, composer, conductor and teacher.
Young was born in Northwich, Cheshire. From 1934 to 1937 he was a Director of Music at Stranmillis Teacher Training College in Belfast. From 1937 to 1944, Young was a Musical Adviser to Stoke-on-Trent Local Education Authority. After that, he became Director of Music at Wolverhampton College of Technology, a position he would occupy from 1944 to 1966. From 1998 until his death in 2004, Young was an Honorary Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge.
Young published more than 50 books. Among those are biographies of musicians such as Georg Friedrich Händel (1947), Vaughan Williams (1953), Sir Edward Elgar (1955), Robert Schumann (1957), Zoltán Kodály (1964), Sir Arthur Sullivan (1971) and Sir George Grove (1980). He also wrote a series on composers such as George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Benjamin Britten for younger readers.
Young published a suite from an unfinished opera by Elgar, The Spanish Lady. A chapter of his book Elgar, O. M. includes letters and a synopsis of the play, with the characters and musical sketches described.[1]
Young was also an avid football fan and historian, writing several histories of league clubs, including Wolverhampton Wanderers, Centenary Wolves 1877-1977 and "Manchester United" (Heinemann 1960.) Young was also briefly a Labour councillor in Wolverhampton.