Arnold Whittall (born 1935) is a British musicologist and academic. Whittall's research areas have primarily been centred around the musical analysis of 20th-century music and aspects of the nineteenth-century, such as the music of Richard Wagner. He is Professor Emeritus of Musical Theory and Analysis at King's College London, having worked as Professor there between 1975 and 1996.[1]
Life career
Prior to his King's College London position, Whittall lectured at Cambridge, Nottingham (1964–1969), and Cardiff (1969–1975), and served as visiting professor at Yale University. His students included Australian composer Norma Tyer.[2]
Since the 1960s, he has contributed extensively to musicology through the publication of books, articles and provided chapters to multi-authored books.[3] Whittall's initial publications focussed on Benjamin Britten before shifting to 20th-century music more generally. Other publications have addressed key discussions within musicology such as semiotics and modernisms; while others are focussed on the music of specific composers such as Anton Webern, Pierre Boulez, Thomas Adès, and Howard Skempton.
Selected writings
Books
Whittall, Arnold. Schoenberg Chamber Music. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972.
Whittall, Arnold. Music since the First World War. London: Dent, 1977.
Whittall, Arnold. The Music of Britten and Tippett – Studies in Themes and Techniques. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Whittall, Arnold. Romantic Music: a concise history from Schubert to Sibelius. London: Thames and Hudson, 1987.
Dunsby, Jonathan, and Arnold Whittall. Music Analysis: In Theory and Practice. London: Faber, 1988.
Whittall, Arnold. Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Whittall, Arnold. Jonathan Harvey. London: Faber, 1999.
Whittall, Arnold. Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Whittall, Arnold. The Cambridge introduction to serialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Whittall, Arnold. The Wagner Style: Close Readings and Critical Perspectives. London: Plumbago Books, 2015.
Whittall, Arnold. British Music after Britten. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2020.
Whittall, Arnold. Schoenberg: 'Night Music' - Verklärte Nacht and Erwartung. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Articles
Whittall, Arnold. "Boulez at 80: The Path from the New Music". Tempo 59, Issue 233 (2005), 3-15.
Whittall, Arnold. "Music under the Sign of Modernism: From Wagner to Boulez, and Britten". In The Dawn of Music Semiology: Essays in Honor of Jean-Jacques Nattiez, edited by Jonathan Dunsby, 97-116. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2017.
Whittall, Arnold. "'Subtle Shifts': Howard Skempton's Twenty-First-Century Modernism". Tempo 72, Issue 284 (2018): 7-19.
Whittall, Arnold. "Adès at 50: Precarious Poise". Tempo 75, Issue 298 (2021): 10-19.
