Jack Westrup (Musicologist, Arranger)

Born: July 26, 1904 - London, England
Died: April 21, 1975 - Headley, Hampshire, England

The eminent English musicologist, Jack (Allan) Westrup, received his education at Dulwich College, London from 1917 to 1922, and at Balliol College, Oxford (B.A. and B.Mus., 1926; M.A., 1929).

Jack Westrup was an assistant classics master at Dulwich College from 1928 to 1934. Then he was a music critic for the Daily Telegraph from 1934 to 1939, and from 1933 to 1945 also editor of the Monthly Musical Record. He gave classes at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1938-1940. Then he was lecturer in music at King's College, Newcastle upon Tyne (1941-1944), the University of Birmingham (1944-1947), and Wadham College, Oxford (1947-1971). In 1946 he received an honorary degree of D.Mus. at the University of Oxford. In 1947 he was named chairman of the editorial board of The New Oxford History of Music. In 1959 he succeeded Eric Blom as editor of Music & Letters. From 1958 to 1963 he was president of the Royal Musical Association. He was also active as a conductor; he conducted the Oxford Opera Club (1947-1962), the Oxford University Orchestra (1954-1963), and the Oxford Bach Choir and Oxford Orchestra Society (1970-1971). He was knighted in 1961.

Jack Westrup prepared major revisions of Walker's A History of Music in England (Oxford, 3^rd edition, 1952) and of Fellowes's English Cathedral Music (London, 5^th edition, 1969); he also supervised revised editions of Blom's Everyman's Dictionary of Music (4^th edition, 1962; 5^th edition, 1971). He was co-editor, with F. Harrison, of the Collins Music Encyclopedia (London, 1959; American edition as The New College Encyclopedia of Music, New York, 1960).

Writings

(all published in London unless otherwise given):
Purcell (1937; 4^th edition, revised, 1980)
HandeI (1938)
Liszt (1940)
Sharps and Flats (1940)
British Music (1943; 3^rd edition, 1949)
The Meaning of Musical History (1946)
An Introduction to Musical History (1955)
Music: Its Past and Its Present (Washington, D.C., 1964)
Bach Cantatas (1966)
Schubert Chamber Music (1969)
Musical Interpretation (1971)

Source: Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (August 2007)

Jack W. Westrup: Short Biography | Piano Transcriptions: Works | Recordings

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Jack A. Westrup

Conducror

BWV 245: Mvts. 26-31

Links to other Sites

Bibliography

F. Sternfeld et al., eds.: Essays on Opera and English Music in Honour of Sir Jack Westrup (Oxford, 1975).