Frederic Basil Rowley Smallman (30 June 1921 – 8 December 2001), commonly known as Basil Smallman, was an English music scholar.
Born in Croydon on 30 June 1921,[1] Smallman was educated at Cranleigh School, New College, Oxford, and the Royal College of Music.[2] After war service, he completed the Bachelor of Music degree at Oxford in 1946–47,[3] and then completed a Diploma in Education in 1947.[4] He was then the music master at Malvern College between 1947 and 1949,[2] before he was appointed to a lectureship in music at the University of Nottingham in 1950; for a time after 1955 he also worked as an accompanist with the BBC. Promotion to a senior lectureship at Nottingham in 1961 was followed in 1964 by his appointment to the James and Constance Alsop Chair of Music at the University of Liverpool.[1][2][4] He was Dean of the Faculty of Arts there between 1969 and 1971, Public Orator between 1972 and 1973, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor between 1973 and 1976; on retirement in 1985, he was appointed an emeritus professor.[1][5] Smallman was especially interested in the German Baroque Passion and Heinrich Schütz; in retirement, he expanded his academic output, and published three monographs. He died on 8 December 2001, and was survived by his three children and his wife Ann,[3] née Hesketh-Williams.[2]
Selected publications
[edit]- The Background of Passion Music (SCM Press, 1957; 2nd ed. 1970).
- The Music of Heinrich Schütz (Mayflower Enterprises, 1985).
- The Piano Trio: History, Technique, and Repertoire (Clarendon Press, 1990).
- The Piano Quartet and Quintet: Style, Structure, and Scoring (Clarendon Press, 1994).
- Schütz, Master Musicians Series (Oxford University Press, 2000).
References
[edit]- ^ a b c International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory (1977), p. 783.
- ^ a b c d Who's Who in Music (1962), p. 195.
- ^ a b Robert Orledge, "Basil Smallman", Thurlestone, Bantham and Buckland Village Voice, no. 117 (October–November 2002), p. 15.
- ^ a b The Academic Who's Who (Adam and Charles Black, 1973), p. 426.
- ^ For his term as Pro-Vice-Chancellor, see also "University news", The Times, 28 July 1973, p. 14.
