Alan Walker (musicologist)

Alan Walker
Born (1930-04-06) April 6, 1930
England
Genres Romantic
Occupation(s) musicologist, biographer, professor
Years active 1957-

Alan Walker, FRSC (born 6 April 1930[1]) is an English-Canadian musicologist and university professor best known as a biographer and scholar of composer Franz Liszt.

Biography

Walker was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.[1] He received an LGSM certificate in 1949,[1] ARCM in 1950,[1] a Bachelor of Music from University of Durham in 1956,[1] and a Doctor of Music in 1965.[1] Between 1957 and 1960 he studied privately with Hans Keller, an association which he has always acknowledged as formative. These lessons were resumed, albeit irregularly, once Walker joined Keller at the BBC in 1961.

From 1958-61 Walker lectured at the Guildhall School of Music,[1] having studied piano there with Alfred Nieman,[1] noted for teaching improvisational techniques.[2] He also taught at the University of London from 1954 to 1960.[3] Walker worked at the BBC Radio Music Division as a producer between 1961 and 1971.[1] Seeking to return to his "first love", teaching,[4] Walker gave up radio production and took an appointment as Professor of Music at McMaster University[1] in Hamilton, Ontario, where he chaired the Department of Music 1971-1980 and 1989-1995.[1] In 1981, he was responsible for the establishment at McMaster of the first graduate program in music criticism in Canada.[1] Since 1995, he has been Professor Emeritus at McMaster.[5] From 1984-87, he was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Music at City University in London.[3]

His three-volume biography of Franz Liszt, which took him 25 years to complete, has been very influential. Common adjectives attached to the work include "monumental"[6][7] and "magisterial",[8] and it is said to have "unearthed much new material and provided a strong stimulus for further research".[8] Walker himself says that when he found, as a BBC producer compiling notes for program announcers, that "there wasn't a decent book in English on Liszt", he eventually decided to write one himself, but was determined "not to make a major statement that couldn't be supported by documents ... and because Liszt himself was a traveller the archives were everywhere."[4]

The first volume won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in biography for 1983[9] and best book on music from the Yorkshire Post Newspapers in 1984.[1] The three-book series was given the Royal Philharmonic Society Book Award in 1998.[10]

TIME Magazine praised the biography as "a textured portrait of Liszt and his times without rival", saying that Walker's work was "equally strong on the music and the life", which discussed Liszt's corpus "with greater understanding and clarity than any previous biographer".[11] The New York Times, reviewing the second volume, tutted of Walker's passion for his subject, "Mr. Walker can see only the good, and will stand for no criticism of his hero", but still called Walker's extensive research "incredible.... Mr. Walker seems to know everything about Liszt, and anything connected with Liszt, during every single day of the long life of that genius."[12] The Washington Post music critic Tim Page, including the third volume in his best books of the year list, called it "unquestionably a landmark" and "meticulously detailed, passionately argued and sometimes wrenchingly moving".[13]

Walker has also written substantially about Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin, and continues to lecture in Canada, the US, and UK on all three musicians.

Walker lives in Ancaster, Ontario.[3] He is director of "The Great Romantics", an annual festival in Hamilton, Ontario.[14]

Honours

Books

Articles

Walker has written over 100 articles for scholarly music journals,[3] and provided the biographical entry on Liszt for Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001).[3] Journal articles include:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Walker, Alan". Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  2. ↑ Stige, Brynjulf (1999). "Healing Heritage: Exploring the Tonal Language of Paul Nordoff". Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 8 (2): 214–217. Retrieved 2006-12-07. Via Barcelona Publishers website.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Alan Walker: Finding Aids". The William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University. Archived from the original on 6 November 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  4. 1 2 "Dr. Alan Walker". McMaster University. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  5. ↑ "Four to receive honorary doctorates at Fall Convocation November 9". McMaster University. November 5, 2001. Archived from the original on 2006-06-28. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  6. ↑ Zimdars, Richard (2004). "Book Review The Death of Franz Liszt". American Music Teacher.
  7. ↑ Hamburger, Klára (2005). "Death in Bayreuth: An Unknown Document about the Death of Franz Liszt" (Winter). Hungarian Quarterly. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  8. 1 2 "The Cambridge Companion to Liszt". Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  9. ↑ "The Prize Winners". University of Edinburgh. Archived from the original on 15 January 2007. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  10. ↑ "RPS Music Awards". Royal Philharmonis Society.
  11. ↑ Ravetz, Elliot (September 2, 1996). "The Book of Liszts: Finally, a Biography that Does Justice to All Facets of Franz Liszt's Messy Life and Protean Work". Time Magazine. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  12. ↑ Schonberg, Harold C. (July 14, 1989). "Books of The Times; A Scholarly Crusader for Fran Liszt". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  13. ↑ Page, Tim (1996-12-08). "Informed Opinions: Experts Pick Their Favorites". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  14. ↑ "Roots & Legacy: Alan Walker". University of Georgia. Retrieved 2006-12-07. A Celebration of Liszt and Matthay, presented by the American Liszt Society and the American Matthay Association.
  15. ↑ http://www.mfa.gov.hu/kulkepviselet/CA/en/en_Hirek/20120123_alan_walker_kituntetes.htm

External links

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