Sir Donald Francis Tovey

Sir Donald Francis Tovey , 1875-1940, English pianist and musicologist, grad. Oxford, 1898. As a pianist he appeared in England and on the Continent after 1900 and in the United States in 1925 and 1927. He was professor of music (1914-40) at the Univ. of Edinburgh. Although he was an accomplished composer, he is best remembered for his analytical writings on music, which include Essays in Musical Analysis (7 vol., 1935-45), a collection of his program annotations; Musical Form and Matter (1934); A Companion to Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonatas (1931); and Beethoven (1944). He was adviser on music for the 14th edition of The Encyclopaedia Britannica; many of his articles for this and previous editions were collected and published in 1945. Tovey edited Bach's Art of the Fugue and wrote (1932) a companion essay to it. He was knighted in 1935.

Tovey, (Sir) Donald (Francis) (b Eton, 1875; d Edinburgh, 1940). Eng. pianist, composer, conductor, teacher, and writer. Began to compose at 8. Pianist with Joachim 1894. Played own works at London chamber concerts 1900–1. Prof. of Mus., Edinburgh Univ. from 1914. Est. Reid orch. concerts 1917, for which he wrote celebrated programme-notes (pubd. in 6 vols. as Essays in Musical Analysis, 1935–8). Amer. début as pianist 1925. Wrote opera The Bride of Dionysus (1918), pf. conc. (1903), sym. (1913), vc. conc. (for Casals, 1934), much chamber mus. Made conjectural completion of unfinished fugue in Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge. Many books and articles on mus. subjects. Knighted 1935.